Chapter One: Class Chosen.

My Little Tactics

“Come on man, I just-I just want to check some things out and buy some cool souv-souv-trinkets. Besides its my fuckin’ money why can’t I spend it?” The skinny shirtless man said to his shorter companion. Said shirtless one was wearing only a red cape with gold thread and black emblem on the back, bandages around his middle as well as wearing loose black pants held up by a white belt. All this was combined with an Eastern style bokken, blue hair, and a pair of angular red glasses that anyone who watches anime would recognize from a hundred feet away. This man was dressed as Kamina from Gurren Lagann.

Shaking his head and trying to drag him away from the stands that were closing up for the night was a shorter, though only compared to his friend who was six foot two inches while he himself was only five eleven, friend who was sighing and doing his best to pull him towards an elevator. “Look, the rest of the guys already went up to the rooms so I don’t have to worry about them, but Pat you are wasted. You guys made me and I quote ‘The Sober Guy’ so I can drag all your collective asses back up to our rooms.”

Patrick glared down at his friend as he wobbled to and fro before pulling his arm away and continuing towards the stands. “Don’t give me that good guy shit, I paid for you to be here like a good friend would Dusty. You should be grateful I even brought you to the con.”

Dusty, or Dustan as his name was, simply sighed and nodded. “Dude I know and you have no clue how much I appreciate it. It’s been a blast so far; I sat in on some card games, a game of Werewolf, hell even a live action Town of Salem game, not to mention cards against humanity and more. Saw all kinds of anime and gaming related stuff that I honestly will remember for years to come. I am just happy to be here.”

The Kamina look-a-like once more glared at his friend who took off his fedora with a feather in it to scratch at his shaggy brown hair. “Dude you couldn’t even make decent cost-cost-cost-get up.” Again Patrick had forgotten some of his vocabulary in his inebriated state as he poked fun of his friend’s lack of funds and time to put together something worthwhile. “What are you even supposed to be.”

Dustan himself had no money nor resources to make a good costume and ended up having to cobble together a decent looking costume made up an old renaissance fair of a leather breastplate with male blouse that he had from a few years ago during better times, two leather bracers also from the fair, some loose fitting pants, a home-made carved and painted wooden sword and his shoes along with a fedora with a feather in it.

Sighing once more, which seemed to be common for Dustan at this point, merely stated simple to Patrick. “Look I have been over this before and I doubt you will even remember this tomorrow so I am not going to explain it a-”

“Something about that lame Final Fuckacy right?” Patrick taunted wobbling towards one of the open stalls that seemed to house a myriad of souv, ahem, trinkets for sale. “The one that you can change your class or something right?”

Face palming Dustan just nodded and spoke to his friend in a calm voice, something he did when his friend was getting on his nerves even if he couldn’t blame him for it cause of him being drunk. “Final Fantasy and yes. Specifically: Final Fantasy Tactics. Figured I could dress up in what would closely be a Squire’s attire. Feathered cape, Leather plate, even got a sword. It’s all I could manage to get on such short notice since you called me three days ago saying ‘Pack your shit your coming to the con with us.’ That and I am broke so…yeah there is that as well.”

“Yeah yeah, job downsizing and all that. Just admit you were fired.” Taunted his costume friend once again. “Artist my ass, you were just drawing up posters and what not for advertisers.”

“Technically I am a freelancer so I was never hired by the place that was giving me work.” Dustan spoke a bit bitterly remembering the call from the small business that he helped design more than a few posters and graphics for that told him they were taking the company in a different direction and wouldn’t require him anymore. In truth they found someone to work on things cheaper who was quicker as well. That was life though; there was always someone with more talent then you or someone quicker. He just got done in by someone with both was all.

“So you weren’t even fired since you were just scrounging on their crumbs.” Dustan loved his friend dearly, they had been best friends for so long but Pat had a really bad habit of being a nasty drunk. However considering that if push came to shove there was no one more reliable to have in your corner then Pat by a long shot. Pat had put him up for a year at his place before when they had got out of college, then another three months when Dustan’s girlfriend kicked him out. They had been friends since high school. There were many types of friendships, conditional ones where you were friends once you saw the person, friends of mutual interest where you enjoyed a game or two in common or an anime or show. There were friendships that were based on give and take where it was only by what you could give or take they stood by.

Then there was this type of friendship that Dustan had with Patrick, the type that if either one of them said: “I need to hide a dead body.” The other would grab tools and a map without question besides the question of “How badly did you fuck up?”. This was a bond that was as strong as family and unshakeable, even if one was a belligerent drunk.

Speaking of, because of his lack of coordination Patrick ended up bumping into the stall they were heading towards. The man who was running the stand just watched passively and with no reaction, even though he himself was wearing a costume that covered his face making it hard to tell. There was to be an expected shattering of the glass bauble to be heard as it hit the ground only none came.

“Oomph!” What was heard was the leather wearing Dustan hitting the ground and just barely managing to catch the item in question. “Gotcha!”

“Right catch there.” The costumed stall owner said with a thick accent that could be mistaken for none other than Cockney.

Grunting a bit as he got up, the wooden swordsman placed the item back on its stand. “Thanks.” Though, he said that with a bit of a wince. He had dived to catch the item and his sword wasn’t in a proper holster so it ended up catching him across the gut. “Didn’t want anything to happen to this…snow globe?”

“Cheap tourist trap trash if you ask me.” Kamina slurred as he leaned down slightly to look at the globe. “Doesn’t even look like this area.”

The man behind the counter spoke up at that. “That is because it ain’t this area. It is from a scene in a video game.”

Kamina looked up staring at the man for a moment before his eyes widen. “I know that costume. Come on say the line.”

The costumed owner just rolled his eyes at that. “Everybody wants me ter say that line, it’s gotten right ole at this point.”

“What line?” Confusion must have shown plainly enough on his face where even in his drunken state Patrick face palmed…or tried to if his hand didn’t miss his forehead and hit his cheek.

Giving a growl of frustration his friend spoke up. “Right I forgot your pansy ass hasn’t played any of the Resident Evil games.”

With a shrug of his shoulders Dustan just stated. “Not everyone can play every game Pat. I have played some games I know you haven’t played just like you have played some I haven’t.”

“Hey hey hey, I am THE best gamer around an there aint a damn game I don’t know of.” Pat boasted though that meant his was gradually getting more sober, or was about to pass out. “Anyways, say it come on!”

“Ok, right, but only if yer buy sumfink.” Dustan wasn’t sure if the accent was spot on or not but it was definitely something.

There was just one problem with all that. “Sorry, sir, but he can’t.” Came the patch work con goer’s voice.

“And why not?” Pat said at the same time as the man spoke. “And w not, isit?”

He was just going to assume the stand owner meant the same thing as Pat did. “Because before he got drunk he and his other friends made me the ‘Sober Guy’ the one to see them to their beds when they got drunk and make sure they don’t cause trouble or break anything. That and not to drunkenly spend money while wasted. I really do apologize for the racket he caused; if you want I will come by help you set up in the morning as long you don’t report him or anything.”

The cloak wearing gentleman rubbed at his chin as if thinking about the offer before asking. “W would yer be willin’ ter do that for ‘im, then, squire?”

It took him a second to realize what the man was saying as he was starting to pull a drowsy Patrick towards the elevator hall. “Because we are friends and if he was sober he would do it for me. So see you in the morning?”

The man nodded but Patrick still had a bit of fight left in him. “Say it.” Though it was so groaned out not many people would even understand it.

Hearing the drunk request the man hunched over slightly and looked shifty, no doubt getting into character as he tugged open his coat revealing all kinds of goods. “Whaddaya buyin’?”

Patrick promptly let out a holler of triumph before promptly passing out. “See you in the morning.”

“Bright and early.” The Merchant said back.

Rising out of bed early Dustan got through his daily routine of shower, shave, teeth care and such before dressing up in his con gear once more. Well maybe after a quick spray to take some of the musk off the armor since it did cause him to sweat a bit. In the hallway he noticed his friend’s doors still held the ‘Do not disturb’ signs that were on them last night meaning no one had gotten up yet.

The con was still asleep, well those that didn’t have people to go round the clock that was, with only a few stands still open. The others were in the process of either setting up or still closed down. When he got to where he remembered the man’s stand it was gone and for a moment he thought he might have taken a wrong turn.

“Over here stranger.” The voice called to him making the final fantasy enthusiast turn to see the stand and the man behind it just opening up his shop.

Heading over to him quickly he gave a friendly smile and chuckled. “For a moment I thought I came to the wrong place but you moved your stand over here. Wait is that even allowed?”

The sense of a smile came from behind that purple scarf…mask thing that he wore. “Oh, don’t yer worry about that. I got it all squared up.” Moving behind the counter he then brought out a few boxes. “Right, now that I yor good ter yor word, start openin’ up these boxes and puttin’ the items on the shelf ter me left.”

Just like that Dustan went to work putting the various knickknacks on the shelves without so much as a word, though he did start humming various tunes he enjoyed. It wasn’t till about the second box being finished that words even came from either of them.

“I won’t lie, right, I ‘alf expected yer not ter show up and I would ‘ave ter make a report.” Came the costume conveyer of good’s voice. “It is actually rare that I meet any sort o’ decent folk in me line o’ work.”

His visible wince must have shown as the Merchant looked on a bit amused. “Sorry to hear that. My friends always get on to me for being the stick in the mud or being too straight-laced but I believe there is just too much of people looking out for themselves. ‘Nice guys always finish last’ they say, but I say ‘Nice guys always finish last in other people’s eyes but not their own.’”

The man in costume brought out what looked to be a simple trinket and tossed it in his hands a few times as he spoke. “Well, yor mate didn’t seem ter appreciate yer last night if ‘is words were any indication. Especially, because they say ‘the bloody drink brings out who yer right are’, I’n it?”

Grabbing a few more items Dustan turned his back and reached up to place them on the top shelf one by one, not even realizing the Merchant was coming up behind him the item he was holding seemed to be a pin stylized to look like a feather of some type. Said item was also starting to glow.

“Well that maybe true but I personally think it only brings down the walls of things such as the part of us that wants to curse, rage, and scream at things for not being the way we want them, but that doesn’t mean that is who we are.” He said putting another item on the shelf. “I mean I want to curse and yell at my friends as well for when they are stupid idiots but in the end we are friends and we know that something said in haste or anger isn’t what we truly feel. I have no doubt that Pat will apologize or something later, usually with the attitude of he didn’t have to do it and making it seem like a favor to me but he is good guy.”

“Sure ‘e is.” The man opened the pin up and seemed to about to stick the unaware helper.

“Kinda like you.” What Dustan said cause the man to stop in his tracks inches away from pressing the glowing pin into the small of the con goer’s back.

He only was able to get a simple word out in response. “Wot?”

The trinkets in Dustan’s arm were slowly becoming lighter as he placed more and more on the high shelf. “Yeah, like you. I mean you could have called security on us last night or even this morning if I didn’t show up when you thought it was early enough. Instead you waited which shows you were willing to give me a chance. Nasty people don’t give chances they give warnings. You gave me a chance so that must mean that you are a decent sort of person right?”

There was a moment of silence in the air, heavy and almost stifling. The merchant looked down at his hand to the glowing pin and quickly closed it making it loose its glow before he wrapped his fingers around it and put it away in a pocket.

“Yeah.” He spoke simply. “I s’pose I am.” Looking around and bringing out a few more boxes he said. “I got a few more yer can shelf over ‘ere, stick’em on the uvver side wen yor done there. I’ll make us a nice cup a’ tea.”

“Sure.” Dustan called over his shoulder seeing the man vanish in the back of the stand where he couldn’t see him.

When they took a break to drink the tea the merchant couldn’t help but ask. “W’ are yer a good bloke, isit?”

He didn’t understand the question at first and simply asked. “Why am I a good person?” Getting confirmation of a nod from the man Dustan rubbed his chin and said. “Honestly it’s just who I am. I mean a few years back in high school I tried being a dick; I tried to be an asshole to someone that used to bully me in middle school. He was lost and I told him the wrong directions on purpose so he would be late to class. He only got to turn around before I stopped him and told him the right way saying that I was thinking of the wrong way.” Sipping the tea and while it not being the greatest, it wasn’t the worst in the world either. “He thanked me, even stopped me later on and said sorry he was such a prick to me in middle school. Turns out his family was getting a divorce at the time and he was taking it hard and ended up taking it out on me.”

“Did yer ever spot ‘im again, then, eh, guv?” The merchant had been genuinely curious it seemed.

Dustan merely nodded and chuckled. “Yep, he became my best friend and is the one responsible for bringing me here.”

“There you are.” A voice called out. As Dustan and The Merchant turned they saw it was Patrick in his Kamina costume carrying a bag in one hand.

“Speak of the devil.” He said rising up to meet his friend who held out his fist and then proceeded to fist bump. “Hope you aren’t too hung over.”

The man in the trench coat just sipped his tea through his mask, something that no one seemed to notice at all as he watched the two talk and interact. “Oh I am. I am just used to dealing with it.”

Dustan almost seemed to gag as he heard that. “A Prairie Oyster?” Pat just grinned and chuckled. “I don’t care if it does work for you, that thing is nasty and I don’t see how you can stomach it.”

The tall blue haired man just laughed at that before his chuckling died down and he tossed the bag at his friend. “Anyways here. Found this out while I was wondering this morning.” Dustan was pulling the item out of the bag as Pat said that only to find a long and well made brown cloak inside. “The person said it was highly durable, water proof as we as ornamental. They made it to look like-.”

But Patrick was cut off as Dustain recognized what it was. “T.G.Cid’s cloak! See it even has the x pattern thread right here at the neck.”

“Ha figures a fanboy like you would know. Yeah I just happen to see it with a bunch of other stuff from those games and figured ‘hey Dusty could use that to hide his shitty costume and spare the rest of us from looking at it’.” Putting it on and pulling the hood up Dustan smiled brightly as Pat rubbed the back of his head. “Anyways I am going to check out some of the stuff early see if I can get a good price on things and such that and to get the stink of the My Little Pony booth they had next to the stand with your cloak on it, I never understood how you could enjoy that show. Meet up with you later, peace.”

“Peace man.” As his friend left he took a moment to feel the quality in the cloak and it was superbly made for sure.

“Seems yer were right about ‘im.” The accented stall owner said calling Dustan’s attention back over to him.

Nodding and heading back over he just shrugged and said. “Maybe, but he really must have went out of his way for this.” The only got an inquisitive ‘oh’ from the Merchant prompting Dustan to explain. “Before we met up for drinks last night I saw several stands that sold things like this, nice to look at for sure when you are broke and they all cost a pretty penny for things that were half as good as this.”

“That right?” Dustan gave a nod. “So yer like Final Fantasy Tactics a bit ‘uh, eh? Yor mate called yer a fanboy after all.”

Nodding and chuckling. “Yeah, I like all Final Fantasy games that I could play which include one through twelve as well as the tactics games. Sadly never got to beat Tactics A2 cause my Game Boy burnt out. Those were the last ones I got to play before I couldn’t afford to anymore.”

The man ducked down and pulled out another box, this one a lot smaller and more ornate looking. “Fen ‘ow about takin’ a look at these and tellin’ me wot yer think, I’n it?”

Opening up the case Dustan could only widen his eyes as he looked at the thirteen items held within. “Those are the ‘Zodiac Stones’ or the ‘Auracite’ if you liked the War of the Lions version better. Even Serpentarius is in there and they all look so well made.”

The merchant motioned with his hands towards them. “W’ don’t yer pick one up and ‘ave a look at it.”

“Really?” The man nodded and Dustan turned away so he didn’t see the man make a gesture towards the stones. Dustan picked up the tear drop sapphire looking stone that had the carving for the symbol of Virgo inside of it. “Wow they are even slightly see through. I figured from them being stones they would be more opaque. A nice touch for sure.”

The man in costume simply asked him. “Wich one is yor favorite, isit?”

“Has to be this one.” Came Dustan’s quick reply. “I am a Virgo myself and though I hate the idea they can bring about demons and what not, the idea the final and most powerful stone bringing about the final boss in the story is neat. It is also a good commentary on how anyone can be good or evil but it’s our actions that define us, so are the stones good or evil depending on the actions of the person using them.”

“S’pose they are.” The man said simply as Dustan put the stone back. “I ‘ave ter say, yer ‘ave been a right treat ter ‘ave ‘ere. But I think I can cop the rest on me own, right, w don’t yer go out and enjoy the rest o’ the bleedin’ con, then?”

Looking up at the man Dustan’s face wasn’t sure what to make of it. “You sure, I don’t mind staying here to make sure everything is out.”

“I am sure. Now go on then, don’t make a geezer regret ‘is choice now.” The Merchant told him with a genuine smile on his face.

“Thanks, I will see if any of my friends want to come by and check your stuff later if they aren’t too drunk.” Dustan said making sure his new cloak was secured.

The trench coat wearing man just chuckled as Dustan started to make his way out of the booth before something happened. Dustan could feel the sense of…right, about the area change, suddenly there seemed to be no one in the con anymore, no sounds, empty booths, everything. All was dead silent except for the sound of boots on the linoleum flooring.

Looking forward to where the sounds were coming from he saw…the Merchant? Looking back to the stand he saw the man had not moved from his spot except to stand up looking slightly…scared?

“Everything alright?” He questioned though obviously it wasn’t if the world had gone dead like that but it was the only thing he could think to ask.

The man shook his head. “No, no its not.”

Turning back the other merchant was a lot closer then Dustan expected him to be. “Excuse me sir but-”

Whatever it was that he was going to say was cut off as the man simply waved his hand and he found himself unable to move in any except his eyes and his breathing. “’ow come yer haven’t met yer quota, then, eh Merchant Twelve-Twenty?”

The first Merchant simply seemed to be grinding his teeth behind his mask for a moment before he calmed himself down enough to speak. “I ‘aven’t found the right one ter give it ter yet Ten-Twenty-one.”

The second one merely turn his head and jerked his thumb towards Dustan who seemed to be trying to struggle in his bonds. “Wot about that one?”

“’e ain’t a good one ter choose.” Came Twelve-Twenty’s voice.

Ten-Twenty-one moved over to Dustan and grabbed him by the neck and slammed him on the display table of the booth and asked the first one. “Good or not yor are behind schedule. This one will ‘ave ter do.”

Mobility seemed to have come back to Dustan once he sucked in a breath from having the air pushed from him when he got slammed and his first reaction was to fight back. Managing to get a hold of his wooden sword he started to swing at the head of Ten-Twenty-One seemed to get annoyed by the attack more than anything.

“Oi, quit that.” Said the one gripping his throat as his eyes narrowed.

Twelve-Twenty moved to go beside the other. “Come on Ten-Twenty-One. Surely we can find aunuvver and not this one, then?”

Ten-Twenty-One seemed to want to say something but a particularly good swing from Dustan caught him partially over the eye. “Ok, that tears it. Yer want to use that little sword so much yer wee annoyance. ‘ere let me show yer wot yer do wiv it.” He simply grabbed the sword from Dustan like taking a toy from a toddler and with a flick of his wrist Dustan swore the blunt wood gain a glint that only sharpened weapons had.

He was only proven right when The Merchant pinned him to the table by stabbing the sword through his chest. Dustan’s immediate reaction, besides shock to being impaled, was to immediately realize his lung had been pierced as he coughed up blood.

Grinning a bit evilly behind his mask the new Merchant just gave a smug self answer to his own question. “See, that is wot yer can do.”

Scrambling over to him the other Merchant pulled the sword out from the con goer’s chest with a sickening suction sound. “Shit, w’ did yer go and do that for?” Dustan dimly noted in his mind that it seemed the silver of the blade had turned red, then again it might have just been where it had stabbed him. It was hard to tell with his vision dimming.

The other merchant said nothing for a moment before turning to walk away except one thing. “’e annoyed me. Now yer better tidy that up and find some bloke soon or I will ‘ave ter bring yer back.”

With the other merchant gone the first one quickly started to move. “Fuck, yor bleedin' out too much for me ter fix normally. Sorry kid but looks like I 'ave ter choose yer after all. Its eever that or die 'ere and no one ever find yor body. Right. 'opefully yer will forgive me in time. I'll make us all a nice cup a' tea then.” Reaching over Dustan saw him grab something that right away started to glow, but things were too dark to tell. Whatever it was the Merchant forced Dustan’s fingers around them. “Good luck.”

With that the sensation of falling came right before he blacked out.

When next Dustan woke up it was with a gasp. “Fuck!” He shouted loudly startling some nearby birds. Hearing their flaps of retreat brought about some confusion with the young man as he stood up for a moment only to hear a couple of things hitting the ground. Looking down he saw that it was his sword…or at least it was at one point. Now the blade of the sword was dyed red and seemed to be part of the metal itself, as well to have been looking really well made in general for what was once a wooden sword. It had come with a sheath and a belt for it which was the second thing that had hit the ground.

Something else was off as well though Dustan was still trying to peace things together. In his hand he found he was clutching something dearly and opening up his fingers he found the clear sapphire of the Virgo Auracite he had examined back at the Merchant’s booth.

THE MERCHANT! Looking around quickly he looked for the booth but saw nothing, in fact he wasn’t even inside anymore which now explained the feeling of something being off as well as the sounds of birds. He was in some kind of forest. It was actually kind of peaceful, trees not too clustered, sunlight shining through the leaves even some animals skittered by as if no care in the world. Overall, very nice. The peace of that was ruined for Dustan as the glint of sunlight was reflected with a red tint into his eyes making him once more examine the sword. Eyes going wide his hand went to his chest only to find no hole and no dried blood.

Quickly stripping from his armored showed the same result nothing at all wrong with him. “I couldn’t have dreamed that. I have the bauble from the stand. Am I in a coma or something then?” Looking around the woods he frowned. “Maybe I died, I mean kinda would explain why I am in such a lovely place. Especially because I don’t think there are many wooded areas like this around the city.”

He realized he was talking to no one at this point and sighed wondering if he had hit his head as well sometimes during all of that. Moving the stone around in his fingers he decided to put it in his pants pocket for now before grabbing the sheath and belt putting it on. Next he gingerly took hold of the sword and lifted it; it was metal alright if its weight told the story. Sliding it into the scabbard he found it was a perfect fit. Last he put his armor back on, unknown territory meant not to take any chances.

“Alright first things first.” He lifted his head to the sky seeing it was either early morning or about to be night. “I will wait about thirty minutes or so and see if it’s gone up or down. Then I can find my way around. The nearest set of woods is to the North-West so if I travel South-East then I should come to town. Let’s hope I am not in a coma or that at least logic applies in them. If not, I am going to be lost really quick.”

After some time he did indeed find it was sun up and proceeded to make his way South-East. It only took an hour and a half travel before he started to be able to see things in the distance. To the South-West a bit away seemed to be a much thicker set of woods with much less of a friendly tone then before. Somewhat east of that seemed to be an orchard filled with some kind of trees, hard to say what it was from the distance but it was a huge orchard which worried Dustan. There were no orchards anywhere NEAR his town.

Following what looked to be a road from said orchard his eyes spotted a town that had a very rustic feel to it as well as a familiar one. ‘Why do I feel like I should know that place and why does that scare me?’ He asked rubbing the back of his head through the cloak. ‘Oh shit I am armed, if they see that they may arrest me when I get into town.’ Pulling his cloak around him and lifting the hood he decided best to make him seem like a cosplayer, which wasn’t wrong, and if he wasn’t openly brandishing his sword and found out later he can just remark it’s a costume piece even though he knew it clearly wasn’t.

It took him a bit more to get to town and more and more was it starting to bring about a horrible feeling in the pit of his gut. As he got closer and closer to town he could make out people wearing colorful clothing quickly dashing towards their homes though judging by the distance he was still a ways away. Except that he wasn’t.

The homes were just small, really small. ‘Huh it’s like a stumbled into homes made a couple of centuries ago. And made for hobbits. And the windows being closed. Oh…this isn’t good.’ Passing a rather nice clock tower and a bit further did Dustan see something that shook him to his core. ‘No…nonono.’

Quickly he ran towards the front of the giant tree in the middle of town where a sign was. It read: Golden Oak’s Library is currently closed due to lack of Librarian position being filled.

‘Let’s see. Merchant…check. Treebary…check. Dense scary woods…check. What is likely an Apple orchard…check. Colorful pony currently looking at me like I am a monster…che-wait.’ Sadly Dustan couldn’t continue his check list as the pony gawking at him was a familiar off white with two toned rose colored hair. “I don’t suppose you won’t scream if I ask nic-” The pony screamed loudly. “Yeah I didn’t think so.”

She left so quickly that it left a dust cloud behind in her wake. Dustan looked around seeing windows open slightly large colorful eyes glance out at him and then the shutters quickly closing again. Sighing at his luck, or rather Roseluck, said pun making him chuckle a bit, he went off to explore the town. He knew the ponies with how skittish they were would likely leave him alone till one of the more brash or stubborn ones appeared. Hopefully then he would be able to explain himself and how he was lost.

Problem was no one seemed to come and was about to give up hope on finding a pony to talk to when he noticed in the middle of the street a pony in a brown cloak. “Excuse me, can you help me out, I seem to be lost.”

The hooded pony looked over to him and gave a slight start before looking up. “What is it that I see here? Some kind of creature to fear?”

With the, decidedly female speaker judging by the voice, looking up at him he could see her blue eyes as well as various gray colors in patterns of stripes staring back at him. ‘Oh crap its Zecora, I like her character but that has some connotations there if she is still not trusted by the people here…ponies here, whatever.’ “I seem to be-”

“The Witch has summoned a monster!” There was various screams after words as well as hooves hitting the ground in a run.

Dustan’s eye twitched a bit as he face palmed. “Ok so that is how it’s going to be.” ‘That and I could have sworn that was Pinkie Pie’s voice.’ Honestly he loved the show of My Little Pony and got made fun of it a lot by his friends, but he supported the message completely. Except when it came to things like this and the inconstancies that led the fan base to create some really wild, though interesting, theories. Pinkie Pie, someone willing to throw a party and welcome anyone, anypony rather, to the town ostracizing Zecora based on looks always bugged him.

Feeling a tug on his cloak he looked down at the outcast Zebra who looked up at him. “I am sorry my presence has caused you to be labeled with jeers. It may be best if we were to move out of sight from their leers.”

“Sure, I don’t think anyone here will offer me help finding my way back anyways.” Dustan said with genuine sadness in his voice. Sure he had read about fanfics where people appeared in Equestria and were out casted by the beloved ponies found there, but considering he loved and accepted the message of the show it still hurt to feel it firsthand.

Making their way towards the thick woods that he likely guessed to be the Everfree, of which he was glad he didn’t appear there, not only did that feel like he read that too many times in other fics, but he honestly didn’t want to come across something that could eat him…or turn him to stone, or was made of wood and hunted in packs, or anything ELSE that was a mythical monstrosity that could be found within.

When they were out of earshot the Zebra mare decided to speak up to break the silence. “I am sorry if this question will cause the silence to mar. However I find myself still wondering what it is you are.”

There was a question for sure and how to answer that without giving the obvious one of ‘I am a human, surely you have heard of me.’ Sadly there was no good answer for this so he had no choice but to give the one that would cause more questions. “I am human.” To his surprise Zecora just gave a hum and nodded before looking forward.

When it finally came time for them to stop he found himself standing before the shaman’s hut built inside the living tree just like in the show outside of which hang potion bottles from vines as well as a mask leaning up against a visible root.

“Come inside and let me make you something to drink. Hopefully it will help our mood to rise and not sink.” The rhythmic homeowner said heading inside.

It was at this moment that he realized how much taller he was then the ponies, likely if they stood on their back legs they would be quite nearly as tall as him but as it stood he was a good two feet taller than them and it showed with him having to duck down to get inside. Good news was that once inside there was plenty of space around for him to stretch if he chose to.

More masks and bottles were to be found inside, as well as a cauldron for which the bottles brews were, well, brewed. “Nice home you have and thank you for inviting me in.” He told her looking around and seeing there was more to the home then normal as there was a dining area as well as a bedding area that was separate from the main area.

She called out from another area he had not see and found it to be a rather quaint kitchen area secluded near the back. “I thank you for your kind analysis. I just wished the ponies would get over their callousness.”

“Yeah that does kinda suck a lot for sure.” Sitting down on the floor at the table nearby, with a bit of difficulty thanks to the sword at his hip, though not in a seat as he wasn’t sure if it would fit him he continued to look around as he spoke. “I heard so much about the kind acceptance of ponies and how just generally nice they are. Sad to see that wasn’t true.”

Eventually Zecora came over with a tray in her mouth which she set down on the table. “Permit this question if you may, but you sound as if you come from far away?”

He watched her pour two cups full of tea which she then offered one to him. “Yeah, very far.” Dustan said quietly realizing slowly what that meant.

“I, too, know what it is like to be far from one’s home. That is sadly the price you pay for when you roam.” The shaman of the Everfree told him in her lyrical tones.

He found his cup shaking a bit, the more he thought of things the more he realized that he was in another world having a cup of tea with a talking Zebra, something that was impossible and meant he was so far away from home that there was no measure of even how far away he was. “I-I..ahem.” he was having trouble speaking now as he found a lump growing in his throat. “Sorry to ask, but is it possible for me to stay here tonight. I have no bits but I can do something, chores or something to make up for it.”

He wasn’t good at woodlands stuff at all he had no clue what he was doing in the woods and didn’t know how to survive at all. He realized if he had to camp out he was more than screwed in a variety of ways. ESPECIALLY, so close to the forest of every mythical monster possible.

Zecora for her part seemed to sense something about him was off if nothing else. “Thanks to me you were chased off and forced to come to my nest. It is the least I can do to offer you a place to rest.”

“T-thank you Zecora. It means a lot to me. Also I hope I am not being rude but I think I may call it a bit early. I have had a long day.” Dustan said putting the tea that he barely even drank down.

Nodding she got up as she told him. “The couch over there should do. The window also provides a view too.”

He thanked her and went to remove his armor and sword wanting to rest finding himself just wanting to sleep and hopefully find out this was a dream. This left Zecora to find a blanket for her guest only to stop rummaging to ask a simple question: How did he know her name?

Chapter Two: I Have Abilities?

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My Little Tactics

Chapter Two: I Have Abilities?

“You need anything while I head out?” Dustan called towards the kitchen of the tree hut. It had been nearly two weeks since his arrival in Equestria and so far so good, not counting the Ponyville run in that is. Sure the first couple of days were the roughest, realizing that likely there was no feasible way home as of right now and dealing with the crushing sadness of realizing that no one knew what had happened to him.

The lyrical voice of the home owner called out to him in answer. “The herbs of the normal affair. Though be warned the animals seem restless so take care.”

“Will do.” He called back before grabbing his fishing pole and bait and heading to the stream. Food in Equestria bothered him, not in the fact there was lack of plant dishes, though he had to stay away from things like hay and flowers, it was the fact that nearly EVERY animal was sapient to some degree. When he had told Zecora of his omnivorous nature she right away had the solution of fishing as it seems that most fish were just like back home. Any fish that was sapient was likely one you would never catch either.

So he had a habit of going fishing once every three days to catch a couple of fish for a meal or two. The only reason he had to catch so many was cause he wasn’t a cook and wasn’t sure where to cut and not but he was learning. He was wasting less and less each time though he was told to always cook them out of the home as Zecora didn’t appreciate the smell of meat.

One his trips he made it a habit to look for various herbs and flowers that his host needed as it was a way of repaying her for eating and sleeping in her home. The herbs were very valuable it seemed as they were rare and helped make brews that she sometimes sold in other towns besides Ponyville when times became desperate enough. Trips like that, she told him, usually took a few days if she couldn’t manage to time her visit with the train.

Speaking of Ponyville he had tried once more to enter the town though with no luck. Word had spread that he was the ‘Witch’s Creature’ and so when his cloaked self appeared to anyone they fled and screamed. It was during his last visit that he sadly met one of the Mane Six, one he was hoping not to meet like that but such is life. Rainbow Dash promptly came to the rescue of the fleeing mare and ended up trying to buck Dustan in the gut which she partially did. It was only thanks to a quick head and realizing what the speedster would do that Dustan even managed to dodge backwards in time only catching part of the blow in his ribs.

Wincing at the memory Dustan touched the tender spot, while nothing was broken or cracked the bruise was still nasty and tender even a week later. Quickly bending down he would gather up a few plants, having seen one of the flowers described to him by the Shaman. They resembled four-leaf clovers but not only were the stems blue, but the flowers were a blushing pink color.

When asked what they were for Zecora chuckled and responded with. “Often times newlyweds wish to make their first night one to remember. That blank will turn their passion into a flame from an ember.”

Quickly he put the bouquet he gathered away into a pouch and sealed it off. He remembered the first time he encountered them, they looked nice and he took a sniff. Zecora couldn’t stop laughing at him for the rest of the day as he had an erection that wouldn’t go away. He had told her that it had been over four hours and other humans have problems with their ‘junk’ if something like that happened. She assured him that nothing negative would happen as the potion that she made from them usually made a stallion never go limp for a day with just a dose, of which the potion she made for ponies had seven.

‘Stupid flowers.’ The human thought as he double tied the pouch just in case.

As he walked he kept up looking around because though the zebra may have given him an herb to keep in his pocket that would make him have a scent other animals would recognize as belonging, if they spotted him it was another story. He had tried to make a wooden shield before but when he went to use it he felt completely wrong and off like a forced feeling almost. It stopped as soon as he put the shield down and he realized what it meant or at least had a clue. He carved a helmet out of wood next only to be given the same results.

He was really a Squire class. He had dressed up as one for the con, or at least in his mind that is what he was, but now he really was one. It was during the second day, well third since the second was his sad day as he thought of it, that he discovered that his armor wasn’t EXACTLY the same as what he wore when he put together the costume.

The blouse he wore was pretty much the same, but the leather armor was of MUCH higher quality and fit differently, it was real armor. His fedora and feather combo had turned into a wide brimmed hat with a large feather in it reminiscent of the feathered cap equipment from his beloved series. His pants were the same thankfully but not his shoes. His shoes had turned from his sneakers to proper boots, ones that gave him a feeling of traction and ease of movement that he was frankly surprised about.

Finally there came his cloak. The last thing he got from anyone while on Earth, the last time he saw his best friend. It had changed as well, it was already well made before, but it was a well made piece for costume with slight utility. Now though he wasn’t sure why he could tell but it was just better. The feeling of it being better, the helm and the shield, this world, all of it was wrong or off and honestly Dustan relished the time he could spend fishing as it meant he could just clear his mind and watch the sky, or what he could see of it through the canopy.

However one item was on his mind, it was what Zecora had said about his sword.

Dustan was wrapping his fresh bruise after applying the paste that Zecora had given him and was putting his armor back on. Honestly the thought of punching the prismatic Pegasus did cross his mind for bringing him this pain but he quickly shook the dark thoughts away.

‘Then again maybe I should learn to protect myself.’ He looked down to his sheath and pulled his sword out. The home was large enough where he could take some practice swings and not hit anything so he may have gotten one or two off before his bruise protested to much causing him to give a yelp of pain. Zecora quickly ran out of her bedroom and was about to ask what was wrong when her eyes went wide.

“Where did you happen to come by such a sword. Surely it must have been protected by some kind of ward.” Coming closer she held a hoof towards his blade but never touched it. “A blade covered in one’s life. Surely this blade causes strife.”

‘No kidding, stabbed through the chest then brought here, it has done its job well. Not to mention I think I technically made it…I mean the original. Whatever that asshole did to it is altering it but not creating it right?’ Of course he couldn’t really say any of that to his host so while he didn’t lie he didn’t explain it all. “I suppose you can say it’s tied to me and that we have been through a lot.”

Again not wrong but not entirely right, but it sufficed enough that Zecora made no mention of it from then on except to tell him to go outside her home when practicing from now on. Just like with the meat rule he obliged.

[hr.]

Picking his line up out of the water he sighed at his lack of a catch. ‘Guess they can learn. They aren’t coming to this spot anymore it seems.’ Wrapping the line up around his pole he would have to learn a new spot where they gathered. Luckily his last meat meal wasn’t too long ago so he still should be good for a while.

Looking up Dustan noticed the sun was getting low now and he should probably head back. The animals got more aggressive as night came as that is when more predators came out to hunt. Sliding the pole home over his shoulder he started the walk back.

That was of course when a scream broke out, one frightened and moving quickly. The scream was quickly followed by a howl, then another, and then another: Timberwolves. Dustan had heard them more than a few times hunting around and even managed to watch them on occasion when he had to hide and the herbal scent managed to keep him from being found He found them quite lovely in their own spooky way with their haunting green eyes that glowed with an almost sinister force behind them. Bodies made up of various pieces of wood, twigs and even vines.

Unlike all those other times though, he found his feet moving towards the sounds rather than away. The scream sounded female and if he could tell its gender chances are it wasn’t an animal that belonged in the forest. Either Zecora had really fucked up, or a pony had wondered into the forest.

He wasn’t cruel, he wasn’t about to leave someone, or in this case somepony, to their fate. Then again he only rationalized his reason to himself after a good solid thirty seconds of running had passed.

As he was running a memory came to the front of his mind, one that happened back when Pat was still his bully or rather just before he became his bully.

Dustan was outside eating lunch, his middle school gave students the option of eating inside or outside, and with it being so nice he chose outside. He wasn’t alone in this choice either as many students were out and about laughing joking and just having fun. Dustan was happy for them, having friends was nice…not that he knew what that was like as he was sitting alone.

The sound of a tray hitting the ground caused everyone to look over to two kids, one on the ground rubbing his rear where he landed to hard and another tougher looking kid standing over him.

“So where is my lunch huh?” The standing one said, clearly having been graced with extra height thanks to genetics and thus towered over many other kids at the time. “I said that if you didn’t bring me lunch tomorrow that you would be getting it didn’t I? Well you only got your lunch so where is mine?”

The fallen boy was clearly frightened and clearly was about to cry. “I-I-”

Being lifted quickly to his feet by his shirt the taller boy cocked his hand back and made a fist ready to give the other his promised consequences. “You made me do this, remember that.”

Dustan wasn’t sure when he had started moving; in fact his thoughts were to go find a teacher to stop this. Except as he had finished that thought he was already tackling the taller boy to the ground. This was a mistake as the other boy used that chance to run as did many others as the known bully of the school got pissed. What proceeded was a beating that left Dustan with a bloody nose and many bruises, of which all were his fault.

“Ma’am your boy was seen tackling the other to the ground. While both boys will be suspended yours will be suspended for two weeks rather than one for starting it.” His mother was appalled though his father just seemed to stay silent.

Walking out his ear was being tugged hard as his mother gave him an earful. “What possessed you to attack another kid like that Dustan? I thought we thought you better than that?” He tried for his part to speak but his mother kept ranting. “We thought we told you that violence is never the answer and its best to try to talk things out or make friends with others.” Again he tried to talk to her only to be cut off. “When we get home your TV will remain off, your game system will be unplugged and-”

“Hun you should let him talk.” His father said in a calm voice while pushing his glasses over his eyes. Dustan always loved and hated that gesture because one it made him look like a cool anime character as his glasses would glare so no one could see his eyes. However he hated it because it means his Dad was in serious mode, meaning you DID NOT mess around. “I want to hear his reason for doing what he did.”

Letting go of his ear after a moment, as she considered things, she crossed her arms and looked down at him. “Alright then, what could possibly be your reason for doing what you did?”

Dustan had to take a moment to rub his ear trying to get the pain to fade before he spoke. “He was bully another kid and about to hit him. I wanted to go tell a teacher but then I found myself already moving and I don’t know why.”

He was looking down at the ground, afraid he had disappointed his family, only to hear his father speak. “Shi-” a quick glare from his mother changed his words right away. “-Take mushrooms son. Sorry we jumped to conclusions, but no matter what you did right.”

Quickly looking up he seen both of his parents smiling down at him. “Yes sweetie, sorry I hurt your ear. It is never wrong to stand up to someone when you are defending another especially if the other person has done nothing wrong.”

Not able to stop himself he threw himself at his parents and hugged them. He got no punishment for his actions from his parents, but he would get punishment for the rest of middle school as he was now the exclusive target of that bully.

The echo of his boots came fast and strong as he ran to where he heard the growling. A splash was heard as something fell into something, judging by the terrain and its mushy state likely into mud. His suspicions were confirmed as he came to find three Timberwolves advancing on a pony covered head to toe, head to hoof as it were, in mud. So caked on was it that he couldn’t even tell what her cutie mark was.

A brief thought came to him as he seen her and noticed the wings and that was: Why didn’t she fly away? Of course he had seen other pegasus run off instead of fly when he was last at Ponyville but that was neither here nor there. What was here was a frightened mare and three wolves.

Quickly drawing his sword he slid to a stop between the wolves and their prey. “Look here, I am not here to hurt you or anything. However if you want to get out of this I want you to run when I run forward. Go back home, run there and never look back.”

From the corner of his he could see her blue eyes staring at him, still frightened but with a nod of her head.

Yelling loudly he charged forward quickly and took a swipe at the wooden constructs only for them to jump back out of the way as the sound of hooves came and went. “Well, she got away…hope I can do the same.”

As he was standing there facing the wolves…something strange happened. As he looked at them one by one he noticed he could read information about each of them. Their gender, Hit points, Magic points, their level and their experience, even their charge time and their zodiac sign. There was one other thing he noticed, something that he felt he could recognize but couldn’t place at the moment. There was a symbol of a cherub with a halo.

Before he had a chance to determine what it was that was one of the wolves lunged at him. He barely managed to get out of the way in time as the creature skidded to a halt growling.

‘It’s CT is gone, in the game that meant a unit couldn’t do anything till it filled up again and OH ITS CHARGING FAST!’ Dustan thought only to be caught off guard as his thoughts distracted him from the fact there was THREE wolves.

Feeling something pounce on him from behind he got a good taste of mud in his mouth as he hit the ground and sank in a little. He grit his teeth a bit as the wolf on his back was biting at his armor and scratching at it, but luckily had not yet found a soft spot to latch into. Using the chance he had, he quickly turned his body as much as he could elbowed the faux wolf in the head and as chance would have it, that worked in getting him off of his back. Standing up quickly the lupines started to try to surround him but Dustan quickly put his back to a tree trunk to negate that advantage as much as possible.

Now is where the problem came in, there was a wolf to his left, his front, and to his right. The left and front would be easiest to counter but not the right. After all he was left handed so he held his sword in his main hand that way. Meaning he would have to turn his body to react to that wolf more than the others giving a nice delay for any and all kinds of bad things to happen.

Luck was on his side as the one that attacked first was the one from the front. Rolling to the right Dustan gave his sword an upwards swing catching the wolf in the midsection and to his surprise dealing a surprising amount of force as he noticed the damage number appear from the attack: forty. That was double the Timberwolf’s health as its glowing green eyes dimmed until they faded. The body then crumbled into pieces as it lay on the forest floor unmoving.

Seems the wolves had no problems with their dead companion though as the one that was originally on his left pounced at him only to meet similar results. ‘Guess they are used to getting their way if they don’t learn to avoid that mistake.’

Well they did learn in a way, or rather had maneuvered him so that he wouldn’t be able to do that again as the next wolf’s wooden fangs managed to sink into his arm above the leather bracer. This forced Dustan to drop his sword onto the ground as he yelled out in pain. He had to act quickly, so he braced himself against the tree once more and jumped. In the middle of his jump he planted both feet to the wolf’s barrel and shoved hard.

The wolf was quickly pushed a good bit away as Dustan landed on the ground from his jump. Timberwolves were persistent he would give them that as it quickly recovered and charged at him. His hands searched for his sword but couldn’t find it in the mud. However his fingers did curl around something else.

That something met the charging canines head making it yelp in pain as it took a solid five damage to its head as the stone cracked the wood slightly there. This bought Dustan enough time as his hands did eventually discover his sword, though by that time the wolf was mid pounce. Dustan felt himself falling backwards as the wolf managed to leap upon him its jaws snapping at him as one hand held it back at its chest.

“You lose mutt.” Was the only thing he said to it. He then twisted his hand that was holding his sword, the same sword that the dog impaled itself on as it had leapt at him. With the twist the final Timberwolf gave a shutter as its eyes faded to black and it started to fall apart.

Sighing and standing up he went to look at his arm where he had been bitten only to discover something. A ripped sleeve but no wounds?

“Ok I would really like a play by play but I am tired and in need of a shower. So long mut-” Looking at the canines his body went stiff and his eyes widened. The cherub, he remembered what it was. “Oh hell no!” Quickly reversing his sword he went to drive it into the first Timberwolf he had killed as it was starting to put itself back together. It quickly crumbled again as well as there was a chime sound, though he ignored that before running off before the second one could come back.

‘Fucking reraise. I hardly ever got to use that status effect in the game cause it was so impractical in its wait time.’ He was running with his sword out just in case they managed to follow his scent. He spent nearly an hour running and hiding when he remembered that the herb would mask his scent and cursed at himself for keeping himself worked up all that time. That and cursing himself for not remembering that Timberwolves could pull themselves back together.

When he got back to the hut he leaned against the door and sighed. “I am back.” It wasn’t much of a yell as he didn’t have the energy to do so.

“Welcome back from your daily fair-” Zecora came out from the back and quickly her eyes widened. “Why is it that you look worse for wear?”

Chuckling a bit now that the adrenaline was wearing off he found himself just wanting a shower in the too small for him bathroom and to sleep. “Pony wondered in, got caught by some Timberwolves, I fought them off as she escaped. I think I would like to get a shower now.”

Nodding Zecora quickly looked him over before speaking. “I imagine so considering your plight. Now go into the shower and wash off from your fight.”

He barely managed a nod before dragging his feet to the shower. Taking off his armor and clothing, he made a note to scrub it all down tomorrow morning even if getting the mud off would be easier now then later when it crusted, but that was a problem and he honestly couldn’t be bothered with it right now.

With no clothing for him he just kept himself wrapped up in a towel till he could go to the couch where he slept and get under the blanket where he promptly fell asleep.

He dreamed no dreams that night, or at least no dream in the normal sense. Instead he felt like he had simply awoken in another place. This place was dark with the only source of light being from the sky. Said sky was black as well where it wasn’t light up with the shaft of light pouring on him. Likewise in the distance it became so black that he couldn’t make out anything. There was only him, the light and what looked to be cobblestone flooring.

“Ok this is new.” He said only to have an immense echo be heard suggesting this place was vast. As he started to look around something happened, he noticed that there were three more shafts of light that grew brighter as did his own for just a moment blinding him. When his sight came back he turned to find a mannequin.

Luckily there was no one around to hear his absolutely manly scream of not being scared. The mannequin stood there looking very familiar. It only took Dustan a few seconds before he realized what the brown-red leather wearing mannequin represented.

“Oh it looks like the basic Squire picture from the game.” Looking over to the other shafts of light he noticed the others, the blue cloth of the Chemist, the bow for the light armored wearing Archer, the heavy white cloak over the even heavier armor of the Knight.

He was amazed and he wouldn’t lie in that he geeked out a bit as he ran over to each and examined them. Or he would have if not for the moment he ran over to the next stand did he notice a list pop up. Said list had the name of the class he was standing before as well as several tabs: Abilities, Reaction, Support, and Movement.

“THE JOB SYSTEM!” He called out into the echoing cavern. “Does that mean I can change my job?” He ran over to the Knight and seen that he did meet the requirements for sure. He almost quickly switched but stopped himself. “This isn’t a game. Those Timberwolves could have killed me. I need to do this right cause there will not be a second chance.”

It killed him not to be able to explore the other classes but for now he just looked at what he could and couldn’t learn from them. For Knight, sadly there was nothing for him to learn as he didn’t have enough JP, or Job points to learn any of their skills. There was time for that later he supposed as he moved on to the next stand. For Archer he found he did have enough points to learn only one ability: Aim+1. This were skills that let the Archer class, or anyone with their ability, focus on an attack and delay it slightly, or significantly depending on the level, and then deal extra damage. Normally he would hold out and go right for Aim+2 in the game since it was basically the same in all ways only a bit more powerful with almost the same delay but he didn’t know if he would have time to wait in this world.

When he touched the displayed name it glowed brightly for a moment before another window popped up asking if he wanted to learn the skill Aim+1. He clicked yes and the sensation he then got was…disturbing. It was as if something reached into his brain and placed something inside. With that though he KNEW he knew Aim+1.

Chemist was a good find, early game support with only the cost of a bit of money which can be ground out. Sadly he had no money which complicated things. The good news was he had enough points for the movement skill ‘Treasure Hunter’. Treasure Hunter let those equipped with it find hidden treasure on the panel they were standing on and retrieve it. Right away he tapped it and got the same prompt. After feeling violated once again he went to the support skill of Reequip and selected it. Reequip was a skill that cost nothing and was always free. Reequip let the user change equipment in the middle of battle, useful if you found yourself picking up an item from a fallen enemy early game which was better than yours.

Last but not least, the trusty starter, the one he was currently equipped as: Squire. Looking into its menu he found he had a good few points stored up though not as many as he had hoped considering he had been in Equestria for two weeks. He found he already knew ‘Throw Stone’, likely what he had unknowingly used against the Timberwolf to save himself, as well as a good bit of points.

“Not enough for JP Boost sadly, meaning no extra gain for me. However I rather be safe than sorry.” Instead of going for the move he made everyone learn at the start, one to increase their yield of Job points to learn faster, he chose to learn ‘Salve’ a skill to remove blind, silence, and poison status, as well as ‘Defend’ for obvious reasons.

As he was double checking to make sure there was nothing else he could get, he found something in the support tab of Squire that was already unlocked. “What’s this?” It read: Tactical Eye. Pressing it again to learn more info he found that it was a skill used to read various info about enemies and allies though had several tiers to it enhancing its abilities. Tier one, which was already unlocked, displayed the Hp, MP and the other things he had observed during the fight with the Timberwolves. When he went to look at the other tiers to see what each gained he found they were locked and he couldn’t view them. Giving up on that as he didn’t have the points for the next tier he sighed and closed the menu.

With all that done came the obvious question. How did one equip their skills here? The answer never came and he spent time trying to figure it out to no avail. Sleep was done, morning has come.

The next morning by itself was rather uneventful, the only things of note was one instance: A conversation with Zecora. It happened during breakfast when he was feeling much better, better than before in fact. Maybe that had to do with his level up? Regardless on if that had played a fact because of him missing dinner and his workout had found himself digging in with little abandoned.

“Seems you are feeling quite a bit better today.” Zecora spoke from her own breakfast, what looked to be some cereal and toast, to which Dustan nodded. “If then I may ask, what happened that caused you to get into a fray?”

Though he had told her he guessed that he was a bit skimp on the details so he told her everything. How he was coming back from fishing after having no luck and on the way back he heard a scream and the bays of the wolves. He was running towards the sounds before he even thought about it and defending the pony when they had it cornered. He even explained that at one point he thought he was bit pretty badly but found no wounds on his arm even if there was blood on the ripped sleeve.

As he finished up explaining in almost childish detail his grand battle with the creatures Zecora chuckled a bit and smiled. “I am just glad you are alright my friend. I am also glad you were not put on the mend.”

Rubbing his arm where he thought he had been wounded Dustan replayed similarly. “Yeah, so am I. I imagine their mouths aren’t the cleanest either.” Looking to his roommate he found her giving a nod of confirmation. “Yeah likely that might have done me in as I am not sure what kind of remedies would solve that.” Remedy, he wished he had some of them for sure as well as how to make them. Wait he learned how to make something last night. “Zecora?”

“Yes Dustan?” She asked in response. “If you have a question I will answer as best I can.”

Nods and moved around to head outside. “I need to grab a few things but I want you to test something for me. Also I will need a mortar and pestle if you can.” Without waiting for her to answer he went out to find what he needed.

It took him about an hour before he came back with more than a handful of plants. “That is quite an array of plants you hold. My question is what is it that am supposed to behold?”

Not answering her though he did lay a few samples of the individual plants in front of her. “Tell me do any of these plants serve a medicinal purpose that you know of?”

While he was busy grinding the plants he got into a paste and mixing them up in a certain amount Zecora pondered his question. “I can honestly say that there is nothing in my knowledge that says they do. However that doesn’t mean that they can’t aren’t used in lieu.”

“But together in any mixture are they used for something with just themselves?” Dustan was putting the final touches on the green paste.

Shaking her head Zecora told him her thoughts. “I cannot say for sure. Though in my experience, I can say that the mixture cannot be a cure.”

When he was done he went to find some bandages that he used for his ribs and cut off a piece to smear the mixture on. “Well where I am from this mixture is said to cure: Blindness, Silence, and Poison. All of those are temporary though so it merely hastens the recovery, but can you check to see if that is accurate?”

Taking hold of the sample Zecora nodded. “To my private room I will go and see. Checking on if you have made such a remedy.” As she was going she stopped to look back at him. “When I get back I have some more questions of my own. I would appreciate it if you answered them when I come back with answers known.”

“Sure whatever you want to ask I will answer to the best of my abilities Zecora.” He seen her leave and headed outside to work on his equipment. Cleaning it all up and making sure it was in as best shape as possible.

Several hours came in went and in that time Dustan had time to survey the damage. His armor would still hold up but the claw marks and such were now obvious. His blouse had to have its sleeves shortened for sure as well. Other than that though, his equipment was pretty up to shape.

He was in the middle of his sword exercises since he finished when Zecora came out looking…upset? Curious? It was honestly hard to say as she was a mixed bag it seemed.

“I would like to tell you the results.” Giving a nod and sheathing his sword he joined her back inside. “Your mixture looks to be the results of children instead of adults.” He sighed a bit and wondered if he had made a mistake somewhere but before he could think about it Zecora continued. “However I must say that shouldn’t work. It does and that is quite a quirk.”

Feeling proud of himself he smiled and nodded. “Glad it did, that was actually my first time making it.”

Nodding to his accomplishment Zecora continued though without smiling. “Problem is, even when I followed your steps which I watched you take. I found that your concoction is a mystery I couldn’t break.” Ok that was curious to him but at the same time it could be said it only worked because his class was a squire. As she said that he found she had also started to serve some tea. “It was only when I looked deeper did I find what I sought.” He waited for an answer before she smiled. “It is through magic that this was made, yours, otherwise any who try will go for naught.”

“Magic? But I didn’t apply any magic…I don’t think.” Dustan was trying to think of how it could be since Squire’s didn’t use magic normally.

Shaking her head she touched his hand with her hoof. “Sometimes magic always there and in our work it does inject. Sometimes that alone can give something an effect.”

“So a passive type of influence?” When he sought confirmation for that thought, she nodded and smiled. “So no matter what till someone figures out how to affect those herbs like I do, only I can make that?”

“That is correct.” The zebra told him sipping some tea. “What is more anypony can benefit from its affect.” Setting her cup down, she looked at him seriously. “If at all possible, besides making some for around here for some medical kits, I would like some that I can sell for when we need bits.”

Nodding he gave her a thumbs up, something she just tilted her head at in confusion. “Sure I have no problem making more, though we may need a jar or few.”

Leaving for only a moment the mare came back with more than a few. “The ingredients I seen were incredibly ordinary. So with of their frequency we can easily pick what is necessary.”

“Nice.” He said feeling relieved. Now he could help bring some income in meaning he felt less like a freeloader then he did before. “Though now that is out of the way you said you had some questions?”

She gave a nod and said nothing for a good minute or two seeming to compose herself. “You said your species was called a hu-mans. Of this race I have never heard. No mention what so ever even among hybrids or clans.” She continued on to say. “I even looked through my books figuring your race was a hybrid of Minotaur and Diamond Dog. However when no answers came it left me in a fog.”

Dustan was in a dilemma, the merchant who had sent him here wasn’t bad. However his twin was. It seemed like he and his twin, from the sounds of their conversation, did this a lot with even more of their numbers, like some kind of crazed cult with actual powers. How does he even try to explain that, as well as if he did would that put her in danger if the evil one came after him?

Resolving on his course of action he smiled and chuckled. “Sadly not many of us are known Equestria or if it at all it seems and we tend to keep to ourselves from the other races.” While he said that Dustan could only think to himself. ‘Not entirely wrong and humans do tend to keep to themselves so it’s not a lie.’

“I see, of that it is a shame. For your race seems to have a drive almost akin to a flame.” She must have been referring to how he was always up in the morning doing his exercises seeing if she needed any help and always seemed to be active. Truth was he was really, really bored. Without TV, the internet, or games he found himself antsy to do anything to get his mind off of it.

“You could say that. That and it helps keep my mind off things.” He answered truthfully.

Hearing that she moved on to her next question. “How is it you have come to be here, seemingly lost? With no bits to your name I wonder how you coped with the cost.”

This he could give a bit more truth on as it was in its own way what happened. “Magic put me here. I have no clue what happened, how it was done, or even how far away from home I am. I have no clue how to get back home either. When I realized that you kinda seen what happened the first day couple of days I was here.” She nodded remembering his downtrodden attitude. “I am just trying to make the best of things now.”

As he said that he found himself looking at the cup of tea she had given him his hands slightly shaking. He then felt a peculiar sensation, fur covered legs wrapped around him. He had not even seen Zecora come over to hug him as he became lost in his thoughts but he gladly accepted and hugged her back.

“Well even if you never find your home. As long as you are around here never feel like you have to roam.” The gesture and meaning behind her words got to Dustan more then he would like to admit. So much so that he found himself burying his head into her fur as both his face and her fur started to become wet with his tears. “Thank you.”

After a few minutes the embrace was removed and things got a bit awkward. No one was sure how to proceed with talking till Zecora made him an offer. “I find myself often with a lack of assistance. Perhaps providing a bit of help in my brews will offer more in the way of subsistence?”

“Are you asking me to be your assistant?” Dustan asked just to make sure he got the meaning of her rhyming correct. Something, of which, he did occasionally seem to mess up often to embarrassing results. It took a couple of days to be able to look Zecora in the eye when he thought she once asked for a sperm sample.

The shaman gave a simple nod and a smile to confirm his question. “That is right my bipedal aide. For this if your results are sufficient, you will even be paid.”

This would definitely give him something more to do, plus it may even work towards earning job points for Chemist since he would be working with medicines. “Sure, when do I start?”

Chapter Three: Monsters and Duty.

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My Little Tactics

Chapter Three: Monsters and Duty.

The sound of bubbling and the crackling of the fire was heard as Dustan stood outside of the hut a good bit away from where he stayed with the shaman that had become his friend and teacher. His job was to watch the cauldron as it produced a new brew which, both of them had nearly found out almost too late, needed a lot of ventilation, more so then was already present in the hut. With her rhyming ways Zecora had posed this as a challenge for her week long apprentice. This was good as the last week had brought up many mysteries and some thinking time was what the human had wanted so he took up the challenge in stride.

Wrapping the cloak his friend had given him he looked up into the sky where the moon rested. “I wonder how far before season one I am?” The reason for this question was the many craters dotting the surface of the moon in the shape of a mares head. “For that matter am I even in the canon universe. Multiverse theory is always a popular subject when it comes to ideas like this. Am I even in the world the T.V. show portrays or am I in some weird world where everything is not even close?”

He had only recently found out that it was even spring at all from his teacher. When he was asked how he could not know what season it was all he could respond with was: Ponies control the weather so absolutely that sometimes it’s hard to tell. Zecora bought it but only because she explained that there were not enough pegasi from her homeland to control the weather like in Equestria. It made Dustan feel horrible for having to lie to her like that but what was he to say?

Making and learning potions was actually fun as well, which he found out did count for the Chemist job class but with a REALLY slow income. So far since that night he had only been to the ‘Class Room’ as he called it twice and was still unsure of what triggered him being pulled there. The first time back he really took the time to roam around the dark and surprisingly he did bump into statues now and then but could neither see nor could he remember how they felt. The only thing he could recall about them is the sense of not being ready for them.

Skills were another story as well, he had no way of knowing how to equip them or execute them. He was still unsure even if the Throw Stone skill was activating when he threw a stone or not. There were also the inconsistencies with his own job class: Squire. The first time he thought it was odd but skills were darkened out or removed completely sometimes and he could neither make out the names of what skills there were, or even comprehend what it was they were supposed to be from his memories. Then there were the ones that appeared randomly that one spooked him the most.

It was during the second trip that he was in the Class Room when he looked at his Squire job listing. He was in the middle of trying to remember the skills of the squire and as he did so he couldn’t help but chuckle remarking that while Tactics wasn’t the first Final Fantasy game that came up with the system it for sure felt like one of the best. He remembered Five’s system, even the other Tactics games. Forgotten in his memories he had turned away from looking at the chart in front of him so the screen flickering and turning to static briefly scared him. It was that scare that woke him up quickly, but in that moment his skills were gone, blacked out or removed he couldn’t remember which, all he could remember was that the list was completely different.

That was only one of the mysteries about himself that he wondered about, the other two he was currently polishing: His sword and Virgo. The sword, Zecora was uneasy around it every time often asking him if he was ok every time she saw him with it out. He asked her about it once in she explained that she felt like it had a hunger as well as a need. The problem was it was a good and bad thing but teetered on the realm of the dangerous. Well she didn’t say all that as she had made it rhyme but that was the overall message. His crimson saber, the bloody blade, it was a wooden sword originally and then became real at the hands of the Merchant that had stabbed him. Was it because it was wood originally that it soaked up his blood or was it something that man did to it to make it do so?

While his sword frightened him because it had become real, the next possibility scared him even more. The sapphire stone that had the symbol of the virgin born into it: Virgo. The holy stone, the Auracite, the Zodiac Stone, the crystals of the Zodiac Braves as well as the harbingers of the Lucavi all of those and more were the name for what was in his hand. If the Merchant had turned his sword real, what did that mean of this stone? Sure the other Merchant the friendly one had given it to him, but did he have the same powers as the other to change things? If that was the case in his hand was either the single most powerful thing in this world, or the most deadly. He thought about burying it somewhere safe but he knew that if that crystal was the real deal it would call out to someone or something to unearth it.

‘A strong will can use this stone for good or evil.’ Dustan thought while holding up the stone towards the moonlight making sure he didn’t miss a spot on it as the rag in his other hand could attest to finding each and every so far by the dirt spots on it already. ‘Marach was story dead, not just battle dead. That means that his death should have been final yet he was perfectly revived thanks to the stone. Even worse while I could have chosen any other stone, I pick the one that can call the big bad of the game down: Ultima. Yes in the game she…or was it a he I could never tell, regardless he was a chump compared to other enemies. Hell even end game Mindflayers killed me more times than him-her screw it I am calling Ultima a her. Ultima was designed in the game as a being of supreme power…how would that translate if somehow Ultima came out here in Equestria?’

Dustan knew he was no Ramza; he didn’t have a single ounce of training, any comrades, nor any good equipment or even spells which to use. Dustan was just…a Squire for now. Could he change class, likely, did he know how? About as much as he did for using skills. If it came down to what would happen in the future, he hoped Celestia, Luna when she returned…IF she returned, Cadence, and the Mane Six could handle it. Till then he swore to himself he wouldn’t let this stone fall into the wrong hands…hooves…appendages.

The pop from the fire under the cauldron brought him back from his thoughts as he gave a sigh and stuffed the stone back into his pocket. “Time to get some more firewood.” Luckily he had the foresight to have brought some around earlier when he got called for the duty. “Hehe proper planning and all that.” He chuckled to himself while moving the wood around with a poker before stuffing a few more pieces under the giant metal pot.

After putting the last piece under the pot he was about to go sit down when a rustling in the distance got him scrambling to find a tree. Said tree turned out to be the hut itself as it quickly moved to hid in the branches pulling his cloak around him for camo. The noises had caught his attention as they were not the shuffling of wood from Timberwolves, or the soft light steps of a Cockatrice, and if it was the heavy steps of a Manticore he would have ran inside. No, these steps were cautious, deliberate, and not made with hooves.

What came into the firelight of the made his eyes go wide and his blood turn cold. The creatures were small and had brown fur, they were hunched over and sniffing around with almost pig like noses. Long pointed ears came out of the sides of their head and were marked even more striking against the red cone like cloth hats they wore. Undershirts of an undyed variety left them with a light tan coloration that was a stark contrast to the heavy brown of their fur. More so they wore bright red that doubled also as shorts for the creatures. Feet covered in large socks and leather shoes was what he heard as they marched a moment ago.

‘Goblins!’ Thought Dustan as he spotted the three. What surprised him even more was that among the three one was armed with a yellow gold looking dagger. ‘Goblins DEFINITELY do not belong in MLP. Did I bring them here somehow? Or were they always something here in this particular universe. Shit this brings up way more questions then I really want right now. Wait shit they are saying something, I missed it.’

Listening closely they were indeed saying something. “Me though you said you smell good eats. Me smell sick foods.”

The one who said that was the same one who had the dagger and was obviously the leader of the three with how the other two shrunk away at his voice. “Me sorry, me thought me smell eats we look for.”

“Bah, you know nothing.” Said the leader to his shirking comrade. “We find promise field and eat fill. Me report back to big caps for bit reward. You small caps get small reward.”

That seemed to get the third member going as he, least Dustan thought it was a he since there has never been a female goblin the games that he could tell visibly, jumped up and down excited. “Yes, me eat good, me eat lots, me eat red like caps.”

For a moment Dustan thought the goblins might set up camp around the cauldron but it seems the smell urked them more than a little as they soon made off singing of red caps eating red. It seems stealth was not their strong suit as he could hear them leaving for quite a was just by the noise they made, he must have been lost in thought more then he could imagine if they had gotten as close as they had before and him not to notice. He climbed down, quickly stoked the fire under the cauldron, then he made a quick lap around the area just to make sure they were truly well and gone.

He had kept his sword out just in case they came back around or more showed up. ‘Ok, Goblins are a thing, are they new, have they always been here? Is it just them or are there more. REALLY hope there are no Ahriman those things were always creepy, or Malboros. I really really wish I could get to a library, from the scrolls and books that Zecora has English is a thing in this world it seems, or Common Equish as she called it.’

“Lost in thought?” Zecora found out what happened when startling the Squire as did the Squire himself as his sword stopped just an inch from her face causing her to drop the drink she had in her hoof causing the mug to shatter on the ground with the liquid it held spreading out and soaking into the ground. “Well that was your drink that I had brought.”

“Sorry sorry, just a bit high strung. Got a visit from something nasty last night and it has me on edge.” Pulling the sword away from her he gave the back of his head a rub. “Sorry about that.”

Hearing about the visit though had the Zebra looking curious. “Pray tell what is it that has given you a scare. Is it bad enough where I or others should care?”

“Do you know of any creatures that can speak in this area, about yay tall, brown fur, wears clothing typically in red, possibly in black or even green?” Dustan really really hoped that she would say yes and that they had been here before.

“Of this I can say yes I have heard of such a creature.” Dustan gave a sigh of relief. “However all that any pony knows is they only recently became a feature.”

‘Shit!’ Dustan thought suddenly hoping that it was really just a coincidence.

“Why do you use a curse that loud?” The shaman asked looking at him only for him to tilt his head slightly before she continued. “Ahh you didn’t realize you said it with how deeply your head was in the cloud.”

“Sorry its just…they are called Goblins where I am from and they can be very nasty.” He told her hand on his chin as he put his sword away trying to think now what they want.

Seeing him start to pace had the shaman slightly worried even though he missed the look on her face. “They are known to be hostile yes. Though hopefully they will stay in the forest and not cause a mess.” Putting a hoof on his hips to stop him from moving she looked up at him. “In the mean time you should head to bed. If I am gone when you awaken it is because I have gone to town to buy some apples of delicious red.”

“That sounds good actually, staying up all night isn’t good and will likely mess up my sleep schedule.” He said with a chuckle.

Nodding and giving him a smile she patted him gently. “Rest well friend. I hope that rest will give your nerves time to mend.” Stretching out her legs she looked around and spoke to her. “I just wish my presence had not been given a ban. Otherwise I could buy the apples I need from the Apple clan.”

Chuckles and waves to her good night, or rather good morning as when he got inside he could see that it was approaching five in the morning. He threw his cloak off first the coloring reminding him of the Goblins.

‘We find promise field and eat fill.’ The voice of the Goblin leader came back to Dustan only for it to be followed by the excitable underling. ‘Yes, me eat good, me eat lots, me eat red like caps.’

In a way he couldn’t help but find the Goblins adorable in a way how simple they were. ‘If they want red things to eat so bad they should just head to…oh fuck.’

As he thought of that he grabbed his cloak and put it back on and ran out the door towards the orchard that one of the Future Elements of Harmony: Applejack. With the Everfree bordering the ponies land it meant he could make good time without anypony seeing him. What was more was that he had to be quick but not heard either.

‘Shit, shit, shit.’ Dustan thought the entire time while getting closer to the field. ‘If those Goblins are really after the apples on the farm then that could pose a problem not just now for Applejack and her family, but in the future as well as that much food could literally feed an army of Goblins for a good bit.’ All the while he was hoping beyond hope that his hunch was wrong and that they were looking for mushrooms or something along those lines. Hell he would take meat as an answer as long as it wasn’t pony meat.

Sadly after nearly an hour of patrolling the border to the farm his fears were confirmed as he could hear the source of his trepidation come to fruition in the noisy source of grammar wincing sentences. “Look, look. Me see field of red!”

A string of curse words raced through the Squire’s mind as he heard that. Luckily with how loud these creatures were none of them heard him as moved looking to get behind them in a more favorable position.

“See Me did it.” The leader spoke to them waving his knife around. “Wait, Me see something else.” The small blade pointed in the direction where he spied what it was. “What be that?”

The scolded Goblin looked as did the excitable one before the one who was reprimanded early spat in the direction of the structure. “Pony home.”

All three started to give a growl before the enthusiastic one started to pounce. “Maybe we kill ponies. Get nice bloody red meat to go with nice reds sweets?”

The Goblin leader gripped his knife hard as his off color teeth gleamed in the moonlight. “Yes, good idea. Me glad me think of it. We kill ponies in sleep, eat meat, and then eat red sweets.”

“NO!” right away the monsters turned and took up combat stances as Dustan gave himself away with that exclamation. ‘Well that was not what I meant to do. Too late now.’

“What be that?” The Leader asked the other two.

The bouncing enthusiast of the group just shrugged and smiled. “Me no know, but me think it may taste yummy.”

Sensing that there was no talking to the three, that and details of their HP and MP popping up meant that talking wouldn’t happen either making Dustan draw his sword from its sheath. However it seems the overly enthusiast of the monster group couldn’t take it and rushed at Dustan. Said squire couldn’t believe it, yes the red cap’s CT meter was half way when he looked at him, but it charged so quickly that he knew there would be no time to avoid the heavy fist.

Dropping low into his fighting stance as quick as he could he knew that he wouldn’t be able to take the Goblin in one strike nor would he be able to dodge from the speed the Goblin was coming so he had to focus. That was the moment he felt something happen power surged through him and down to his sword making the outline of the red blade glow faintly. Dustan didn’t question what was happening nor why, instead he slashed upwards with his sword making contact with the Goblin’s chest just as its fist connected with his own.

A ripping sound came from flesh and cloth as the sword did as it was designed to do as did an echoing thud that sent Dustan skidding in the grass barely keeping from falling over. For a moment the pain in his chest left him without breath but seemed to ease off a tad almost right away almost like his body changed its mind on how much pain it should be sending to his brain. His opponent couldn’t say the same though as he too was flung back as his howl of pain quickly died down when he landed on his back, the gash in his chest bleeding profusely for a moment or do then slowing considerably as Dustan seen the HP of the Goblin read as zero. The next thing that popped up was a timer that the Squire recognized as being the death timer for the amount of time it was still possible to use a reviving item or skill to bring someone back.

He took too long recalling the timer fact that he almost got himself killed as the leader of the three managed to get up close to him and slash him along his right arm tearing a big gash into him. The scream that he let out from the gash was so loud that it scattered every bird in the area…if it existed that was. Instead when he went to let loose the scream no noise would leave his throat. There was a good long moment as Dustan tried to gain distance from the leader that he tried to speak again maybe to taunt the enemy but found his voice was completely gone.

‘Silence, that is why I know that knife, it’s a Mage Masher. A decent type of knife early game that can give the silence status effect.’ The human found himself too lost in this thoughts though as the other Goblin had come around and flanked him and tackled him to the ground.

Before he could even react he felt blows start to rain down on his chest barely managing to cover his face in time. Then the blows and the feeling of hands picking him up made him look. The one pummeling him was doing the lifting as the leader came over and started to make Dustan his punching bag. Blow after blow came showing that this Goblin got his status justly as they were quite a bit stronger than his underling. There was even a point where on the second to last blow that it felt like something gave just a big in his chest and he started to taste blood.

“Me think this one has learned how strong me is. Apologize to lesser Goblin before me kill.” The leader told him before grabbing hold of him by his leather armor and tossing him over to where the dead one lay.

Dustan wouldn’t lie, this was the worst pain he had felt in his life, compound that with the ever growing taste of blood on his tongue and his trouble breathing made him realize that something was very wrong in the inside of his body. He was having trouble even moving at this point his eyes slightly unfocused and staring the dead body of the orange capped goblin.

‘Wait orange?’ Forcing himself to rise and focus a bit more, a feat that felt more than a bit miraculous at the moment he realized that the cap wasn’t orange, it was still red just bathed in yellow light. ‘That can’t be what I think it is, can it?’

“Say bye bye now Me tired of waiting.” The leader said fingering the knife. “Oh wait, Me forget strange thing can’t speak cause Me magic sword.” Obviously the creature thought greatly of his knife referring to it as a sword.

‘Well if they aren’t going to stop me, best for me I suppose.’ Reaching over he plucked the crystal from the air, the same crystal that was emitting the yellow light.

The hiss of both of the brown furry creatures caught his attention as the leader held out his knife waggling it accusingly at him. “Where you get shiny?”

However before anything else would be able to speak or act the crystal shattered swirling around Dustan. When the light and dust vanished he emerged without a trace of harm on him looking refreshed. Testing his arm that was cut earlier he found no trace of a wound though his sleeve was still torn and stained with fresh blood.

“Huh that is neat.” The Goblins looked shocked to hear his voice as he smirked using this to his advantage. “Oh don’t you know about crystals. Neat things they are, heals up all wounds and makes someone stronger with the right conditions.”

The formerly excited one started to resemble his dead friend as he stuttered over his next words. “W-why tell, w-why let us know?”

“Because I know you won’t be telling anyone.” He then looked at the murderous creatures with a gaze that frightened them. “That and cause you threatened to kill an innocent family and eat them.”

Both of the Goblins roared out as they charged at Dustan now. The leader though reeled back yelling as a rock hit him between his eyes thanks to the stone the Squire launched at him. This left the excitable one charging at him in a one on one situation. A wild charge that was ill planned and reckless as it was predictable.

The charge didn’t end well for the Goblin who grew stiff after his charge was dodge and the crimson sword bit into his back and dealing enough damage to him to cause him to fall in battle. With the leader getting his sight back he was able to witness the fall of his comrade making him just as wild as his follower. He charged swinging his ‘sword’ around wildly marking up a few trees in the process before even getting close to the Squire.

Sword vs knife, both of which the users of barely knew how to use. The winner proved to be reach as the length of the sword was once more bathed bloody as the knife found itself dropped to the forest floor. The other hand of the trio’s leader was grasping at the blade embedded in his throat as the light was leaving his eyes. He tried to say something, what it was Dustan would never know, as all he could manage was gargling noises and coughs before the Squire’s boot hit his chest launching him off the blade and on his back dying seconds after he landed.

“HAHA I won, I did it, I…I…” The joyous feeling of victory quickly was pulled away and snuffed out as Dustan looked upon the battlefield. Three slain by his blade. Three INTELLEGENT and aware creatures lives snuffed out by his hands.

He wasn’t sure how long he was there for but he knew that once he was done giving the Goblin trio a shallow burial with his bare hands and no tools fit for the job, he had no more tears for today.

The next few days saw Dustan go back into a slump once more, this one worrying to his Zebra hostess for she saw him come back, bloodied, tired, and with the dagger of his fallen foe clutched in his free hand. It was hours before he even found the strength to ask for something to help with his parched throat and wasn’t till the next day that he told Zecora that he was now a murderer.

She tried her best to comfort him as after he explained the situation she said he was defending others and not out to kill for pleasure. That seemed to only intensify the feeling of self hatred though as he told her he had felt pleasure from killing them of being the ‘Hero’ even if no one would ever know about it. He still took life, something irreplaceable and horrific in that life could never be replaced.

Zecora would try for the next few days to console him but he seemed to only be on autopilot for the next week or so. It wasn’t for a random conversation about what the Zebra would be doing that brought him out of his pit.

“I will be gone for a week or so my house guest, I need to gather the ingredients for my next brew so I will leave you here to rest.” The striped shaman told him as she got her cloak and saddlebags prepped. “I must go to another town to gather ingredients before the celebration of the summer sun. With that going on nothing in Ponyville will be getting done.” It really startled her to hear the door to her hut slam open as Dustan came out looking wide eyed.

He could see her startled her and gave an apologetic look but merely asked. “The Summer Sun Celebration is soon? How soon?”

She smiled a bit happy to see him up and about even if it was about something as random as this. “The celebration for the sun is in but a week. With that I am off to gather what I seek.”

As Zecora was leaving she faintly thought she heard him speak about needing to explore ‘that place’. What ‘that place’ was not on her mind at the moment as she was going over the mental checklist she memorized as she headed towards the train station from a roundabout route.

Dustan had spent his time keeping busy for nearly a week after he got out of his funk thanks to the message of his teacher. He went about his work quickly brewing up as much of a certain concoction as possible as well as scouting the forest as best he could. There were even a few days where he gathered up vines upon vines and made sure to double secure a rickety bridge that looked close to collapsing. He found his time spent on the final day setting out small clumps of moss that smelled of the herbal stuff Zecora had used to keep away most Everfree creatures from her hut.

He knew this wouldn’t be totally foolproof as anything bigger then a Timberwolf would ignore the scent as he had to distill it down even further to make enough to line the trails that he guessed the Mane Six would go down. The only one he was totally sure of that they would go down was the one leading to the bridge which sadly had more than one path leading to it. The concoction SHOULD last for a day or so even in its weakened state. He had guessed from the show that what would happen would come to pass in the morning when the sun was to rise and last for a good bit but the show had never given a definite time frame of how long.

“Well that is literally everything I can do, aside from escort them myself. But just interacting with Zecora might have put a damper on things as it is. I REALLY don’t want to mess with the story too much as it is.” Looking at the sun then wiping some of the sweat from his eyes he headed back to the hut to gather up some supplies for fishing as it HAD been a while since he had any real meat thanks to his moping.

Yawning a bit as he marched onwards he figured all his hard work would earn him a nice nap as well once he got there if nothing proved to be biting. The river was heard long before it was spotted trickling rather rapidly it seemed as he took a seat by the bank. He briefly wondered if this river ran into the one that the girls would travel across. Yawning again he struggled with setting his line into the river as well as to recall how it was the girls got past it.

“I will remember after a nap. Been a busy week and I need the extra sleep anyways if I am going to stay up tonight to make sure it’s THE night.” He said to himself showing just how exhausted he was by not keeping his thoughts in his head this time.

He wasn’t sure how long he slept for but he could feel by the creaking of his body that it was longer then he should have done while wearing his leather armor. While wearing the leather armor wasn’t the most restricting of cumbersome of armor types it still made for poor comfort, that and sleeping on the hard ground didn’t do him any favors either.

“Note to self, if tired find bed.” He chuckled to himself at the poor excuse for a joke giving one more stretch before going to the spot where he lodged his pole. As he came to retrieve it he found the line pulled taunt. “Oh come on, a snag? I honestly shouldn’t be surprised considering its night already.” Looking up he could see the moon with the mare silhouette in all its glory still up there. “OH crap its night already. Better reel this in and get to the edge of the Everfree. Just because I can’t do anything to help them doesn’t mean I can’t watch over them to be extra safe.”

As he went to pull the line hard either looking to tear the line or pull the hook from the snag, it had other plans as the pole was jerked from his hands and the scaly form of a giant purple serpent with orange hair and mustache appeared. Dustan didn’t even have time to exclaim a curse or any noise of surprise before one of the serpent’s arms grabbed him and held him tight, REALLY tight.

“Here I was getting my beauty rest when SUDDENLY I feel something tugging at my glorious mustache.” The way he pronounced the word mustache put way more emphasis on the first syllable as well as with an effeminate air to it. “Only to find the one doing it to be a gross and ugly…I am not even sure WHAT you are but you are hideous.”

Not able to stop himself he gave the purple serpent an unamused look. “Thanks a lot I love being insulted about how I look.” He even gave an eye roll for added effect though cause of it his eyes landed on the moon. Watching as the silhouette vanished from the pale surface when four stars moved behind it. “Well shit.”

“Oh how crass. I simply cannot believe I am even holding one such as you. Just hurry up and remove your stupid hook from my fabulous follicles and be gone with you.” The serpent whose name he couldn’t recall from the show, eased up his grip allowing Dustan to free his arms to remove the hook from it, or at least try.

“Give me a moment, line is really tangled up in it. I will be quick and not a hair will be out of place when I am done.” It really was tangled up good, likely from Dustan sleeping so long and letting the line free float.

The sea, or rather river, dragon like creature crossed his remaining arm over his chest and gave a hurrumph. “Just hurry, my mustache is my pride and joy. It pulls my look together so well. I mean just look at me, I am fantastic.”

The squire could only roll his eyes again thinking of at least they got his character right in the show with how flamboyant he is. “There all out.” He said after a good solid five minutes or so of untangling it. “Anyways mind setting me down on the bank I need to get back to-”

“Muhuhahahaha.” Came a voice from the woods and before either human or serpent could even question what it was there was a snipping sound followed quickly by a splash as a purple cloud raced by.

“GASP!” Dustan had to look at the sea dragon as if to say ‘really’ with just his eyes as the dragon said that as well as gasped at the same time. “My mustache!”

The air whipped by the sword carrying human as he was thrown like a ragdoll catching just a glimpse of the serpent chasing after his severed ‘stache as the river carried it away. That was before pain and the air leaving him as his back slammed against a tree. He tried to struggle for breath but it came to slow and too shallow causing him to pass out.

He wasn’t sure how long he had been out for but as he came to the river was a rapid with how turbulent it was. Information came slow to him as his body ached all over from the impact he received before. Slowly he came to remember why he was out here as well as the purple cloud that had cause Steven Magnet to-

“That was his name! Steven Magnet. FUCK that means the girls are already on their way.” Quickly he ran along the bank looking to find the path he had put the moss along. The more he ran the more he remembered certain landmarks, such being more like a wetlands with its damp ground and mud, on the way quickly leading him to realize he was no longer on the side of the bank he was fishing on before. “Damn it. That means that I won’t have time to cross the river and spy along the way.”

The sounds of the rapids slowly started die off and return the river to its calm state. This only lead to Dustan grinding his teeth more and more as that only meant one thing. The girls were crossing the river at that exact moment. He rushed towards the nearest pathway and he got lucky, catching glimpses of color in the every growing green that the path became as it became once more like a forest. He knew the bridge was up ahead and smiled knowing that it would be sturdier and not out of order this time.

“What is that thing?” That raspy but feminine voice was one that he recognized, the same one that had made his ribs sore for a good while as well as a line that he didn’t remember her saying. Looking out onto the path he spotted why the prismatic mare had asked that question too.

On the path blocking them from their destination was a creature that all Final Fantasy players hated. Its glowing bright blue eyes shown with hatred for all living things as its bright orange body flickered and pulsed as it floated there. Its round body easily the size of one of the ponies as the light it gave off darkened the path even further. A volatile creature of flames and hate: A Bomb.

Its body was dripping small embers that hissed on the wet grass below it, still too damp in the area to catch alight thankfully. “Twilight any clue what that darn thing is?”

The mare who asked with a Southern accent wore a beige Stetson with blond mane coming out from under it and tied into a pony tail. The apple trio on her orange flanks marked her as the one and only Applejack.

“I have never seen anything like it but I heard the guards up in Canterlot saying they were dangerous.” Tisking lightly he moved as Twilight continued to speak, the lavender colored mare with the six star cutie mark looking scared at the horrifying creature. “They never said how they defended against it and they made it sound like.” There was an audible gulp as Dustan pulled his hood up. “It was deadly.”

The girls were about to panic and panicked ponies were dead ponies as far as he was considered when up against something like this. “Alright you hot head, over here!” He exclaimed loudly as he pulled out a candle and lit it. “I know what you like, you like what makes things burn don’t you?”

He was hoping that it wasn’t just oil Bombs liked but anything combustible. He was rewarded as the monstrosity turned from the six mares and looked right at his candle before shaking its body and making a hissing sound. A hissing sound that he thought sounded strangely too much like a lit fuse for his liking.

“Yeah you want this huh, come on then! COME GET IT!” He shouted at the Bomb as the candle burned, barely showing any of his hooded self except a minor outline as he hoped to provoke it. It worked, oh boy did it work.

The creature was fast, likely because it didn’t have to deal with terrain as Dustan quickly started to move, steering it away from the path and the mares destined for what was to come. The sound of hooves quickly moving made Dustan smile though as that meant the girls continued what they were doing and were on their way to the repaired bridge.

Grinning, he couldn’t help but taunt the creature any time it seemed to start losing interest. “Come on, look at this nice flame, this wax candle must have a good wick to make the flame so nice and bright.” The splash at his feet said he had run long and hard enough as he quickly turned around. “So why don’t you TAKE IT!” Yelling that out he tossed the candle up into the air which of course the Bomb’s eyes followed hungrily as it bounced trying to get higher up off the ground to reach for it.

As the candle came within range the burning creature caught it only for a loud hissing sound to come from below it not of its own doing. Dustan had used the distraction and had managed to ram his blade nearly up to the cross-guard in the round blazing body that the Bomb possessed.

“Yeah how do you like that?” Rather than looking surprised the creature merely took on an angrier visage as the flames coating its body seemed to spark and flame even hotter forcing Dustan to let go with a yelp as his hands heated up from contact on the metal. As he backed up though the flames being bolstered had not stopped and the Bomb seemed to be inflating. “Oh no you aren’t doing what I think you are doing are you?” Was all he managed to ask before cracks started forming in the body of the ignited monstrosity. “Oh shit you are!” turning around as quickly as he could the Squire managed about five steps before the Bomb used its most famous move, the one that gave it the name that it possessed. It self-destructed.

Laying in the sand and mud of the river bank one of his hands was wet and that was the feeling that he woke up to, that and pain, lots of pain. Slowly he would stand up and just as lucky he found his sword had been thrown into a nearby tree where the Bomb had sent it when it detonated. Looking down at himself as he walked over to it, slivers of wood were all sticking out of him aplenty. Nothing fatal it seemed but it would no doubt be a time and a half to remove every single splinter of wood that had managed to complete the cactus of wooden needles he currently was.

As he removed his sword from its wooden sheath the light reflected back into his eyes for a moment blinding him though at the same time making him smile. “Welp, happy endings for the start of the series so far I hope.” Taking his first step towards the water he winced. “Well happy in that hopefully Luna was rescued successfully and that I don’t get an infection from all this.”

For some reason he smiled, happy about how things turned out, even starting to whistle the opening prologue of most final fantasy games.

Chapter Four: Off Schedule.

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My Little Tactics

Chapter Four: Off Schedule.

“I’m back!” He called out, not sure if anyone was home or not but either way before an answer even came back he was already trying to peel off his armor. His yelp of pain, both cause he was no longer producing adrenaline from his encounter with the Bomb and the fact as he went to peel off his armor and clothing did he find that there was more than a few splinters that now called his back, the back of his arms, and his legs their new home very likely from the detonation the flaming sphere put off when it came to critical condition.

His yelp caused the sound of hooves on wood as Zecora came out from the back room. “I heard your call but didn’t think to reply. Myself and many other ponies at the train station were more focused on the sky.”

He gave a nod and gritted his teeth as he found that his voice wouldn’t come out now with how much pain his body was in. The sound of water splattering against the wood of the floor caught his attention and looking down he saw that it was sweat dripping off his body. He tossed was tossed to the ground only to be followed by his shirt that is when he heard his teacher gasp. He could only give her a questioning look before he followed her eyes down to his shirt. The back of it was completely bloody.

“Quickly you must lay down.” He briefly gave her a questioning look before she just urged him down. “I am not making a joke as if I was a clown.” He did as she asked though with how his body was yelling at him, getting down was likely the easiest part of this, getting up would be a different matter. “Whatever caused this must have caused quite an uproar; especially with how deep this wood has in your skin bore.”

He wanted to answer her honestly but still couldn’t find his voice, well including minor hints of pain to out in whimpers whenever she pulled out a stubborn splinter. He was pretty sure that he had gone in and out of consciousness a few times as he remembered a few times when he caught the clock out of the corner of his eyes and watched it sometimes miraculously skip ahead between what felt like blinks. A few times he caught sight of other things, specifically small wash basin that the Zebra was using explaining the occasional cool feeling on his heated body. When the rag was removed he caught sight of how red it was making him briefly wonder if it was as bad as it looked or if it was just a lot of shallow cuts and holes making a lot of mess.

His answer never came as time once more skipped between the blinks of his consciousness as he came to with something more than cool being applied to his back that was both soothing and slimy. “Hush my friend and stay calm. This is a type of healing balm.” He wasn’t frightened at all but Zecora’s tone left no room for argument at all. “When you can find your voice I would like an explanation on how this came to occur. For now though I need you to help me remove your cloths so I can find if you have any more of this type of spur.”

They had discussed before his want of clothing and why he always tended to wear it while doing everything. He had explained it was a combination of his species view on sexuality, the need for warmth and comfort with the lack of fur, as well as time playing a factor in enforcing it in the minds of his people. She understood and left it the subject alone after that point but with his injuries and the fact more pain was coming from his waist down meant he had to get her help for this.

Mustering up as much strength as he could he undid his belt, removed it and started to tug down everything all while muttering a single thing. “Sorry.”

He said it not because of him feeling shame for his body or anything, but for two reasons. The first being Zecora having to work so hard to help him out like this when he was the guest and shouldn’t be causing her this much trouble. The second reason is his strength gave out and he couldn’t get his clothing any lower than his knees forcing the shaman to remove them the rest of the way. He remembered only one more thing from him lying there, him going to say sorry once more as he could see by the red face of the Zebra that he had clearly embarrassed her.

Dustan barely heard he reply before he passed out completely this time. “Sleep my friend so that your energy will no longer drain. While you rest you will also be free of pain.”

The next couple of days found the Squire struggle to move to anyplace but the floor with bandages covering his entire back as well as the back portion of his arms and legs. Zecora had stated that he would heal quicker if the wounds weren’t exposed and covered with that healing balm she had placed there. It also got really awkward as he had to use her support to make it to the restroom to relieve himself or when he couldn’t manage to move his arms enough to eat anything she prepared. Needless to say he couldn’t manage to hide his ‘dignity’ from her eyes in that state and she got more than an eyeful of it as she helped out.

It wasn’t even till the third day that he could manage to even drag himself to the restroom by himself though luckily by this time he managed to get a towel to cover himself though from the looks of things while his armor had protected him somewhat along his back, mainly his upper back, his sides and lower back had taken the full brunt since that type of armor focused mostly on the chest than anything else.

It was on the fourth day that something happened and honestly it started in such a way that Dustan didn’t even realize what was happening. Zecora promptly announced that she would be heading out to search for more of the herbs she needed for the healing balm she had been using on him. He told her promptly that he would be alright that he could move around a bit without being in pain. That got a smile from his zebra friend who told him that there were leftovers in the kitchen if he got hungry of if she stayed out late.

Honestly Dustan was happy she was away, it was just last night that he had once more visited the classroom.This time he found that he had enough points for a few skills if he wanted to get them, as well as something having unlocked: A second level to the skill Tactical Eye. Considering what the first level could do he was considering getting it but that meant he would have no points for anything else this time around. His choice made he ended up going with the upgrade, now finding that its descriptor allowed him to see not only the HP, MP, and CT of his enemies, but now their Names, Genders, Class, and Zodiac sign. He was still missing things like bravery, faith and such but he could live without those things for now. That and he had no clue how to unlock anything further on that. There was also the warning of those with abilities to hide their stats, those that were more than a few levels higher, and those with certain items could fool or hide their information from this ability.

Having down time was both good and bad in that there was nothing to do but think while he was healing up. He thought back to his fight with the goblins, something he was loathed to do but then again his mind gave him no choice in that he couldn’t help BUT think of them. It was during that time he remembered the red glow of his sword and the surge of power he felt, he remembered that clearly once he forced himself to go over the scene once more. He remember in sharp clarity the feeling, how he felt like his blow came off quite a good bit stronger than it should have. The Goblin should not have been one-shot when it was clearly in the advantage like that.

Lying on the couch like he was he noticed a couple of small slivers of wood that had fallen on it, likely from the fact not every single bit of wood was able to be pulled from his back when it had swollen up from the wounds. Flicking one away he suddenly had a though and noted where it landed. Locking on to another piece of wood he looked at it and breathed in slowly and exhaled. Part of him thought what he was doing was stupid for sure as he just concentrated on the wood before him; part of him wanted to stop and give up and find something better to do. Another part of him told that part to shut up because they had nothing better to do.

It seemed that his persistence paid off as well as he felt power surge to his fingers making them glow just like his sword had and as he went to flick the splinter away it went further than the other. “That’s it! It’s so simple!” He had gotten so excited that he jumped up right away though that caused more than a small bit of pain as he groaned at that.“I am so stupid! Of course I can’t activate skills from commands because this isn’t a game. It’s real. If Ivalice was real then how would Ramza and the rest activate their skills?” His grin came more and more easily to his face as he ranted to himself. “They wouldn’t. Those would be skills that are natural to them, turn based combat would be laughable to them as that is just a mechanic for the player. Everything would be from experience and would be done in real time.” Looking at his arm his face took a small look of concentration before his whole arm started to glow red before he let it go. “Aim+1 is a skill that makes the person concentrate on what they want to hit to hit it harder or more effectively. The Archer’s ability, which means I guess I have that equipped to my second ability slot. So if that means all my abilities are done by my knowledge and actions not by command. When I throw those rock, that was the skill; me making the salve is the same way. That wasn’t done instantly or by a command but by knowledge.”

Wouldn’t believe how plainly the answer was staring into his face the whole time and he was just too dumb to see it. Feeling the need for something specific he headed towards the restroom, specifically the mirror over the skin. Breathing out slowly he had to look at it and concentrate with only one thought in his mind.

I want to know

He was rewarded for his effort as a window popped up in his vision just like it had for the goblins. Sure this wasn’t something that likely could be done for Ramza and his crew in real time, but it meant that skills weren’t exclusive to battle for specific things like reading levels and such.

Speaking of he looked upon his plate and seen what it said. “Name: Dustan, Level: Five, Hp: Unknown, MP: Unknown, Gender: Male, Zodiac Sign: Virgo, Class: Squire.” Looking at his stats he couldn’t help but wonder a simple question: why the hell couldn’t he read his HP and MP? The best guess he had was that it was tied to more realism in how things worked. Sometimes you had to judge your own state because you couldn’t see how exhausted you were? He wasn’t sure what it was honestly and just chalked it up to the weirdness surrounding him.

Deciding to have some of those leftovers mentioned, he went and warmed them up. Turned out to be a rather tasty stew, though of what he never did know since Zecora was the one to always cook. That and he couldn’t watch her this time to even guess what it was to be. After eating he went on to just think, think about how to change classes mostly. Was it something you just thought and happened? Did there need to be a specific trigger? Was it as simply as just saying ‘job change’ or ‘class change’ then what you wanted to be? He didn’t know.

His mind then wondered to other things, specifically his last moments on his own world. Touching his bare chest there was not even a scar to show he had been stabbed but he knew he had been. His sword was a constant reminder every time it was drawn. Was anyone even wondering where he was? Did his interactions with the Merchants get caught on camera or something? Hell was time even relative to where he was now?

He wracked his brain for the answers to those questions and more but nothing came forth and he knew they wouldn’t, luckily he was saved with the door opening around noon. “I have returned quicker then I had assumed.” She then took note of the empty bowl in front of Dustan and chuckled. “I can assume that the rest of the soup has been consumed?” The Squire would have answered her normally except the gurgling in his stomach followed by a rather loud belch answered for him. “I will take that to mean you had enjoyed your lunch though I myself had something happen that was strange.” He waited for the other rhyme he knew was coming that would finish her speech but was unprepared for what she said. “As I was leaving Ponyville I had met with seven other ponies and had a bit of an exchange.”

The instant she said that his blood went cold and his face forgot to ask for extra blood to be pumped to it. “Shit.” He spoke softly, so much so Zecora never heard it.

“I had warned them of the flowers of blue. However a fog came from the Everfree before I could see if they walked through.” Dustan’s brain kept screaming at him hoping that it wasn’t true. “I can only hope that it is true that they didn’t touch the Poison Joke. Otherwise tomorrow will be a bad day for those pony folk.”

“I see.” He told his host out loud but in his mind only one word was being said. 'Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu-'

Dustan didn’t sleep at all that night and was left along with his thoughts once more. ‘Ok, so it’s only been a couple of days. I mean a few episodes can happen in that amount of time right? Let’s see there should have been Ticket Master, Applebuck Season and…oh…that one happens over the course of a while. FUCK, the show is off schedule.’ He assumed it was because of the balm used on him, likely using up the supply of ingredients far sooner than they should have been forcing Zecora to go look for the herbs she needed in town like in the show. ‘Ok ok, this isn’t entirely bad. This could be good right? Tomorrow they will show up ask Zecora for the cure and will become friends and learn an important lesson. Unless they see me.’

He knew he was the weak link here. The girls might have listened to Zecora on their own as she was a pony and they didn’t out right fight her like he had been. That meant if he was around they might fight her and never get cured. All through the night he tried to think of things to fix this problem but in the end, the sun rose and he was left with only one option.

When Zecora woke up he was already dressed in his tattered clothing and prepping to head out as well as with a sack full of supplies just in case he needed to be gone longer than a day. “Where are you off to so early in the morn. Are you also sure you should wear clothing so worn?”

“I am off to go fish Zecora, I haven’t had any meat and a while and rather keep myself topped up on the healthy meter so not to risk falling ill from my wounds. Plus I am ok to move and the cloths are fine. Luckily my cloak was not in the way of the explosion.”

Dustan knew the shaman had been surprised to hear about the Bomb for sure and how close he came to being splattered all over the place and though she had questioned him he said he did it to save travelers in the Everfree. Nodding and smiling to her as she nodded in return she told him to be careful and not to over exert himself.

“Sure sure you know me.” Her only response to that was ‘That is exactly why I worry. If you see something dangerous do not feel ashamed to scurry.’ With that he left with his fishing pole. Once he was out of view of the hut he let loose a groan he was holding in. He knew he honestly shouldn’t have been moving this actively like this but he felt like he had no choice. “A chance for Zecora to have a more normal life with friends vs being attacked and hurt cause of me. It’s a no brainer.”

Dustan wondered the Everfree for a while knowing he would have no strength to reel in any fish if they even got on his hook today. Overall his wondering found him deep in the forest at the familiar ruins that only a few days ago hosted an ancient evil as well as the Elements of Harmony. Not able to resist his curiosity he crossed the threshold and proceeded to the interior. Overall while the castle was incredibly dilapidated parts of it held the test of time. He discovered more of the castle to be explored then the show ever showed as well as more than a couple of rooms that just needed some simple repairs to make them livable again. Problem was no one, pony or not, would ever likely want to live here again.

His last stops on his tour were the places the battle had begun and ended: The Elements room and the observatory. The first one he discovered was more ornate then first realized or maybe never shown on the show. There were broken windows that were once likely stained glass but with so little remaining it wouldn’t be possible to even tell what it was they showed. That and they were so covered in dust he didn’t even know they WERE stained glass till he ran a finger over to get some of the dust off.

The last place, the observatory he discovered something interesting: On the ground was the intact armor of Nightmare Moon herself. “Guess Luna and Celestia didn’t want to keep this around, I can understand why though, bad memories attached to it.” Taking the armor and putting it into his bag he remarked. “Its lighter than it looks, then again to fly quickly I suppose it would need to be. No sense leaving it here for scavengers, I might as well take it and who knows, might be able to repurpose it later.” The irony of this of course was lost on him as he was basically scavenging the armor so scavengers wouldn’t get it.

Around this time it was getting close to evening so he decided to head back knowing, or rather hoping, Bridle Gossip was over. Pulling his cloak around him closer to keep the air off his bare chest he really wished his shirt was unusable but it was completely ruined. His pants were ok as they didn’t have as many holes and were made of tougher material, of which he gave a silent thank you to the inventor of denim. Zecora had managed to get all the blood off of them which he was very thankful for as well.

When he finally got back to the hut he saw that no one was home and that the hut was trashed. Hopefully a good sign as he remembered why in the episode it was trashed but a note quickly caught his attention. It still amazed him he could even read the Equestrian or even understand it, but to him everything looked as if it was in English. The note read: I will be back soon. Some ponies need an herbal remedy bath so I hope they do not prune.

Smiling and sighing out in relief he went to the restroom to do his business though while in there he heard the hut’s owner call out. “I am home.” He knew she wouldn’t hear him from the restroom as it was well insulated, though he did find it weird that he could hear her but not the other way around whenever he was in here. “I suppose he is still out going about his roam.”

He was just finishing up and coming out as she said that. “I am here Zecora, no luck today sorry to say.” Moving to put a towel around on his back as he expected Zecora would want to change the balm since he didn’t get a new coat this morning.

“Oh I didn’t know somepony besides you lived here.” Came a voice that made the hair on the back of his neck stand up. It was a voice he knew, even if it was just one he heard from the speakers of his TV, headphones or the speakers of his computer. Twilight Sparkle. He quickly moved to put his cloak back on just in case.

He stood in the hallway not daring to move as more voices were heard. “Ah reckon if another pony lives here we should apologize to them too for going at the home like a bull seein’ red.” The southern accented voice was none other than Applejack.

“Oh that means we can have a party for them and Zecora at the same time, a two-for!” The exuberant voice that sounded as if on a sugar high had to belong to none other than Pinkie Pie of which he still wondered if it was her that labeled him a monster when he first was spotted in Ponyville those weeks ago.

“Oh I hope they are a nice pony.” Least that is what he thought the quiet voice said which meant it belonged to the most timid of the bunch Fluttershy.

The sound of hair swishing was heard for a second before another voice called out. “Well darling I just hope they didn’t design the home. No offense Zecora but while you do have a lovely theme it could do with some flair of which I can help if needed.” A posh and noble sounding voice said while offering to do something for no other reason than to help especially if it was about fashion. Yep that was Rarity.

“I am just wondering if it was her or the other pony that has the pet monster.” He had already encountered that pony before and quickly had phantom pains in his chest from it. Her raspy voice was likely one of his favorite even if other fans found it annoying. To hear Rainbow Dash call him a monster did hurt a bit.

He was trying to decide if he should jump out a window quickly to avoid them or walk in nonchalantly as if nothing was wrong, except the choice was taken away from him thanks to a much closer, younger sounding voice. “Oh wow Mister, you sure are a big one.”

Looking down at the distinctly southern accented voice he found a very small pony. Now since ponies normally only came the start of his ribcage, if he was judging them all based on Zecora, then this pony only came to his thigh. Said pony was an earth pony based on the lack of horn and wings, with a yellow coat and red hair. That and a large red bow tied to her mane.

“Hello there.” ‘Welp I am screwed’ He thought while looking at the filly Apple Bloom.

The girls must have all heard the small pony talk as well as his answer as they came around the corner and spotted him giving off a large group gasp all at once. “I see you have met Dustan here. Why don’t we head to the living area before your questions start to disappear?”

All the girls kept their eyes on him, especially Rainbow Dash since they had met before. Strangely enough though he didn’t really see any tells that they were angry or anything at him; scared, slightly upset, and curious sure but not angry. Ponies were really easy to read all things said and done.

“Hello, I am Dustan, though I think we all met once before.” Most of them shifted their heads curiously as if trying to think of when that happened except for two of them: Rainbow and strangely enough Fluttershy.

“Oh yeah we met.” The chromatic mare said narrowing her eyes at him. “You were coming up to Ponyville when somepony spotted you and ran off. I gave you a good bucking so you wouldn’t come back to try to hurt anypony else.”

Though he put on a smile for all the mares he could feel his eyebrow tick slightly at the accusation. “I have never hurt anypony in the first place.”

The pegasus’ wings flared up and spread out as she tried to look bigger likely her trying to appear frightening though Dustan just found it adorable in actuality. “Sure, then what were you doing at Ponyville the first time huh?”

“I was lost and trying to figure out where I was.” He said though he was starting to grit his teeth as he was losing patience with the pony that seemed intent on making him out to be a bad guy.

“Yeah yeah likely story, I am watching you.” Her wings moved in front of her and two of her primary feathers then pointed to her eyes then back at him. Damn that was some impressive control; he had forgotten how prehensile their wings were on the show.

He wasn’t able to stop from rolling his eyes at that making the pegasus growl though she was interrupted by the Element of Generosity as she suddenly gasped. “You’re the creature that pulled that flaming orb of a monstrosity away when we were on the path to the castle of the two sisters.”

Giving a nod he chuckled. “Yeah, Bombs are no joke, especially if you don’t know what they can do.”

A quick flash produced a quill and paper for the scholar of the group as she quickly started to write something down. “So they are called Bombs. I heard some guards back in Canterlot speak of things like them but they didn’t have much information, not even their names. What do they do? How are they formed? Are they friendly?”

“How do we know it didn’t put that fireball there huh?” Face palming at the pegasus continued suspicions Dustan just explained the basics.

“I do not know how they are formed but they are not friendly. They seek to consume to keep their fires going and do not care what they eat though prefer combustibles.” Looking at them all they seemed to hang on his every word especially Twilight as she wrote what he said down word for word. “They can produce and absorb fire, doing the later usually heals them. If they are critically hurt they tend to live up to their name and as such explode wanting to take down what hurt them with them.”

“So that was the boom I heard!” Pinkie shouted as she stood up with a gasp. The others just looked at her like she was crazy, though being that it was Pinkie well… “When we took down Nightmare Moon right as we fired that rainbow the woosh of it was drowning out my hearing but I thought I heard an explosion that didn’t sound fun like my party cannon in the distance.”

Zecora suddenly looked at Dustan with a wide eyed glance; she knew what had caused it now. “Yeah, that might have been it wanting to take me with it.”

“Yeah and I am an tortoise. Come on what are you really after here huh?” Rainbow Dash saw fit to fly up and look him the eye and poke her hoof at his chest accusingly as said that and honestly Dustan had enough of it.

“Believe me or not, it’s your choice. You want to think I am some monster, go ahead. Your mind is set in stone and is harder than your hooves when you bucked me in the chest, Rainbow Dash.” Standing up he started to head towards the back only to find his cloak being pulled by the Pegasus.

Seems she wasn’t going to let him go easily. “Hey now, I am not done talking to you.”

The tug on his cloak was causing the cloak to pull hard against his windpipe threatening to cut off his air way as such he quickly unclasped it and walked away as the girls gasped. He didn’t care if they thought he was rude for walking away, he just had enough of the most stubborn pegasus in Equestria for the day.

Rainbow Dash, self proclaimed fastest flier in Equestria, the prismatic pony, and overall twenty percent cooler than any other pegasus dropped the cloak she was holding in her hoof as her flanks hit the ground. Her eyes were wide and a hoof went to her mouth as she looked from the retreating, she wasn’t sure what it was but its back, it was something that would likely be visiting her dreams for sure.

“What happened to him?” Fluttershy asked simply with a worried quiver to her voice. “What could have caused those kinds of wounds?”

Dash also wanted to know but at the same time a part of her knew but she was secretly hoping it wasn’t what she thought. “He spoke to me and said some helped some travelers in the every free by being brave. From what he told me no pony likely would know how to handle it so those in need he did indeed come to save.”

“When?” Dash was surprised by the quiver in her own voice almost as bad as her friends timid voice. Gulping down she repeated her question with more clarity “I mean, when did he get hurt?”

“It was during the night that didn’t seem to want to end.” Zecora confirmed causing a churning to start in the pegasus’ stomach. “Since then he has been on the mend.”

The world started swimming as Dash found herself rushing out of the door of the hut and to the nearest bush she could before empting her stomach. The reason for this was simple, besides the fact the wounds were awful to see on any creature was the fact that she had enough sense in her mind to know she was trying to pick on the creature that had saved them. Celestia had called a chariot for them all to head back to Ponyville during that night and they had all seen the small charred area that looked like it had been blown apart. They had all assumed that Nightmare Moon had done it but now they knew better.

“That could have been us, even worse cause we didn’t know that thing could do that.” The speedster had said it to herself but seems somepony else heard it.

“Yeah Ah agree with ya there sugarcube.” The blonde mane of the earth pony briefly came to the edge of her vision before her stomach started another lurch and she hung her head back into the bush. “Let it all out, Ah am sure you will feel better after your stomach stops acting like a buckin’ bull.”

It was another minute before she was done but when she felt her insides settle she gave a nod. “I think I am good now.”

“Alright if you say you are ok then ya are.” Applejack patted her withers and helped her back inside as it seems conversation had continued without them.

“I see, so he is the one that has been making those. I have been wondering what pony has been making them and how they work. I am still working on the how but at least now I know the who.” Twilight was still filling page after page of notes it seemed.

“Oh those salves have been wonderful for treating some of my little animal friends; I just wished I could have bought more then what I got.” Fluttershy nearly gushed as she said all this then looked back down and sighed. “And I still haven’t gotten to thank him for saving me in the woods either.”

“I am sure we will all get the chance to give our gratitude towards him for how he saved us from that thing in the woods Fluttershy.” Rarity told her and tried to give her a comforting pat.

Instead the shy mare just shook her head. “N-no that isn’t what I mean.”

“What do you mean then you silly filly?” Pinkie asked smiling all the while but tilting her head back and forth.

“W-well.” The caretaker of the animals just touched her hooves together. “A few weeks ago I was looking for a lost animal that had wondered off from my cottage. It had gone in the Everfree and I was hoping to find them quickly before anything happened.”

‘Wait what? Why didn’t I hear about this?’ Dash was Fluttershy’s best friend, she normally told her everything right?

“Eventually I realized I had gone deeper then I meant to and was about to head back when something found me.” Fluttershy was about to continue when Zecora cut her off.

“I see, so you were the one he spoke of. The one whom he heard in plea.” Zecora had made herself a cup of tea by this time, how she had made it so quickly wasn’t even thought of for now though likely would drive Twilight crazy for some time after.

Nodding once more the butter yellow mare continued. “That’s right. I had seen that Timberwolves were surrounding me but had not gotten around me completely. I managed to run away but eventually I slipped in some mud and had it gotten all over me. I thought I would never see my little animals again when he showed up and drew a sword on the wolves. Normally I wouldn’t condone violence against animals but I was so scared that when he told me to run that was the only thing I could think of.”

She was suddenly hugged nearly on all sides by her friends which just made her smile. “Fluttershy anytime something like that happens again you let one of us know ok darling? We will show any kind of ruffian that it doesn’t pay to attack our friends.”

For a bit all of her friends save one was hugging her, it wasn’t until silence reigned that the final friend said something. “Why didn’t you say anything before? To any of us, to me.”

Rainbow Dash knew she was making a seriously uncool face as she asked that but she couldn’t help herself. “Well you see.” For a second the butterfly cutie marked pony hesitated as if thinking carefully about her words before continuing. “I remember how you said you beat the monster of the Everfree back making it run with its tail between its legs, you sounded so proud of it I didn’t have the heart to tell you that the same creature saved me.”

Dash was slightly shaking, she hurt and accused an innocent creature of being evil, went so far as to attack it, saw the wounds it suffered on their behalf defending them, and that same creature had saved her best friend. The sick feeling in her stomach had come back but there was nothing for it to remove now leaving her just feeling very ill in general.

“As much as I would like to continue to answer your questions about myself and Dustan. I am afraid that to treat his wounds is the plan.”

The mention of the squire’s wounds brought all of the mares to silence during all this time even little Apple Bloom had been quiet and on the verge of tears pressed up against her older sisters side. Likely Rainbow Dash wasn’t the only one to be the one to dream of his wounds.

As they were heading out Zecora bid them safe travels giving them a small herb bundle to help ward off the noses of predators. Twilight was examining the bundle trying to determine what they were made of before she looked up towards her friend.

“How did he know your name Rainbow Dash?” A valid question indeed but it seemed fate had a way of covering for others at time.

That way being boasting. “Pfft, who hasn’t heard of me? I am the fastest pegasus in all of Equestria after all.”

Zecora would have loved to ask them to help clean up, that much he could tell. Problem was he also could tell that she wanted them to leave based on how they had looked at him. How did Dustan know this? The apologetic look she gave him when he was called back into the living room.

“I wish to give me apologies to you.” She told him gently while she started to spread the balm onto his back. “Had I known that was how some of them would react I would have never allowed you to even come into view.”

His wounds were healing up quite nicely it seemed, though likely going to leave him with many divots where he was wounded. “Its fine, I honestly was thinking of jumping out a window but was caught by the little one. At that point I couldn’t exactly leave.”

“They seemed like very nice ponies, a bit excitable but of the decent sort.” The feeling of her hooves moving on to his arms was soothing and he found himself dozing lightly from the long day it had been. “Next time a pony acts that way I will make sure to give them quite the retort.”

Chuckling at this he said nothing as more and more he dozed off. When he woke up she was handing him the rest of the balm so that he could put the rest on himself since he was well enough to do so now. A quick trip to the bathroom to rub the rest on and he made sure to wrap things like before.

“I know my wounds won’t heal to be the nicest to look at but they are a badge of honor for me Zecora. Proof I helped others.” He told her before smiling. “Seems like ponies from Ponyville accept you now. Maybe you will be able to find herbs and such easier there, maybe even sell things easier.”

Her smile was very wide indeed and that made his smile brighter as well. “Indeed that is the way it is now. Shopping and selling should be something that they allow.”

“Good, maybe I will pay a visit and see if I can get some clothing made sometime. I kind of don’t have anything else to wear with my own being shredded like it was.” A finger poked his bare skin through his jeans as he said this. “A few pairs of pants, same with shirts, some socks, and some boxers for sure.”

“Of this you should have no worry.” The hostess of the hut said as she was moving to the kitchen to prep for dinner. “The one known as Rarity is quote the seamstress and should have clothing of that nature done in a flurry.”

Giving a grin as he already knew that Dustan nodded to her. “Good to hear. I know you have been keeping the bits you make from selling my salve but I hope you don’t mind me getting some to pay for them do you?”

The zebra’s voice called from the kitchen as she asked that barely seen from the from the living room area. “I have been only taking what is considered decent for food and rent. The rest is up to you to determine on how it is spent.”

His grin vanished as he honestly didn’t consider that she was saving up the bits from the sales like that. “Are you sure, those belong to you after all.”

She started to boil the water on her stove, somehow the stove being automatically heated thanks to magic and crystals arranged in a way he didn’t understand. “You have earned those bits yourself with your hard work. To take more than needed for what was agreed on would make me quite a jerk.”

“Thanks Zecora, you are the best.” Dustan said moving to start cleaning up the mess that the Mane Six had caused during their accusations earlier. Besides being wounded a few times, the depression, and the mysteries surrounding him and his new abilities, he honestly thought that this not a bad life.

Chapter Five: A Walk Through The Town.

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My Little Tactics

Chapter Five: A Walk Through The Town.

It had been almost a week since the off schedule event as Dustan had thought of it and since then things have calmed down quite a bit. The forest had calmed down along with the animals in it, he had walked into town once with no pony screaming at him or calling him a monster…beside Roseluck. He had even got measured and paid for clothing to be made for him by Rarity, of which she wasn’t happy when he still paid her when she wanted to give the first outfit to him for free, well that and that he wanted ‘plain clothing’ as she put it.

Yep all was right in the hut for sure as a crashing sound was heard inside the hut causing Dustan to sigh as a youthful apology was given. “Ah sure am sorry Zecora, I didn’t mean to drop it.”

The little filly that was Apple Bloom had paid a visit once more to the hut, her second in the span of a week. She had been interested in learning about Zecora’s culture and potion making from when she had helped out with the brew to cure Poison Joke the first time around. It was during that first time around that he had discovered how uncomfortable he had made the filly, or rather how his bare back made her uncomfortable. It was because of this fact that he waited outside during her lessons, which explained why he was currently sitting on the ground by the door cross-legged.

He had been trying to see if he could access the Class Room more easily via meditation, having even checked out a book from Twilight’s Treebary on the subject but was finding more than a bit of trouble as he worried about what was going on inside. The squire found he couldn’t help but chuckle at the antics as well as Zecora calmly and patiently explained mixtures and techniques to the girl similarly to how she had with him when he asked the same questions a few weeks ago. That being said if meditation was a no go he would at least get something out of the day as he took up his sword and started giving practice swings with it.

When the filly had finally come out of the hut he was pouring sweat. This time not only had he been swinging his sword but he had been mixing in the Aim+1 skill trying to get it to flow more naturally as well as easily just in case he needed it quickly. That was easier said than done and while the skill may not have cost any kind of MP or anything, he did find that it cost stamina and effort. Zecora handed him, or rather hoofed him, a towel to wipe down as Apple Bloom tried not to look at him. To make her feel better he quickly put back on his cloak.

“So how did the lessons go?” The question was better received now that he was covered somewhat as Bloom lit up and was happy.

She practically bounced around before answering him. “It went great. Ah learned how to make a simple balm to put on the pigs if they get hurt.”

Reaching down he ruffled her mane with a smile. “That is good to hear, but remember never to go look for the herbs in the Everfree. That is a off limit zone for you.”

“Ah know that. Ah ain’t a foal after all.” The young apple puffed out her cheeks at the perceived slight which just made her look adorable and caused Dustan to chuckle.

“I didn’t say you were.” He said sheathing his sword finally and looking up to the sun. “Let’s see, it’s been a while, I should see Rarity while I am in town.” Looking down at the filly as she got her saddlebags ready he asked. “Ready to head back?”

“Sure am.” She smiled back at him. This had been the routine for them since the first time she had come over. She would get her lesson and he would walk her back to her home on the orchard though he couldn’t get too close as Granny Smith had thought he was trying to kidnap the filly and had swung her cane at him. Old or not the mare still had a good bit of energy to put behind each swing to where he did not want a repeat beating from her.

Overall besides the Mane Six most of Ponyville was content to leave him be, but not in a hurry to interact with him. Dustan had overheard some ponies talking one time about the very subject and found that they were wary cause of just how alien he looked from a pony to which he could understand and figured they would get used to him in time. As they were hiking back to the orchard and its home he counted the seconds as he knew the questions were coming they always did whenever he and Apple Bloom were alone.

“So Mister.” Three minutes and forty seconds, a new record. “How is it that you make your salve but Miss Zecora can’t?”

“That is simple Apple Bloom. Magic.” ‘Ahh magic, the coverall of answers.’ He thought to himself after answering her. ‘Don’t know how something works? Fuck it, its magic. Best excuse ever.’

“Aww shucks. That means Ah will never be able to make it.” The ribbon wearing filly had her head drooping after saying that.

That had him curious. “What makes you say that?”

“Because Ah’m an earth pony. Earth ponies don’t have magic.” Was her answer though her head did come up when she heard his hand hit his head. “Why did you hit yourself like that?”

“Just, nevermind.” The Squire said before trying to remember things from the show. “Bloom, you have magic. Everything has magic. Unicorns have magic but it’s more directly seen, making it active magic. Pegasus and Earth Ponies have more passive magic. Your magic is more natural and is always active in your body. It’s how your family can farm so well, be incredibly strong and how Pegasus can touch clouds and fly even though the wings of a pegasus shouldn’t physically allow for them to fly.”

She just looked up at him as if he was giving off some great truth. “R-really? So Ah do have magic, it’s just passim.”

“Passive.” He corrected her gently with a smile before nodding. “But yes, you have magic. All ponies do so don’t worry about something like that.”

She started to prance again and bounce sometimes as he said that. “Alright! Ah was worried that Ah wouldn’t be able to put to use anythin’ Miss Zecora taught me but now that Ah know that Ah know Ah can.”

Reaching down he once again ruffled and gave her mane a good petting which she seemed to enjoy judging from her happy smile. “Well I am glad you are happy about that. However seems like our time is up today.”

So engrossed in this particular conversation that Bloom didn’t even seem to have noticed they had already arrived. “Aww shucks Ah had more questions.”

“Next time.” He assured her as he started to turn around.

Dustan was stopped however when he felt two hooves wrap around him in a hug. “Thank you Mister Dustan.”

If someone were to ask him he would absolutely deny the hug felt really good, nor would he admit to any unshed tears in his eyes for any reason. “No problem, now head off before your sister gets upset.”

Prancing off the Squire made sure that he spotted the two siblings giving a loving nuzzle to each other before heading off to town. As he got closer and closer he pulled the hood of his cloak over his head as well as wrapped the covering around his body further than before in an effort to call less attention to how different he was compared to ponies to make them at least a bit more comfortable. His destination was the Carousel Boutique and his goal, besides getting his new clothing, was to make sure not to get too caught up in stares and disrupting the daily lives of ponies.

“There’s that thing again Mother.” The small whisper of a filly said to her parent.

There was the sound of a dismissive ‘tisk’ before a haughty voice spoke up. “Come Diamond Tiara, it’s just a simple beast it can’t hurt you. Though do not worry, I am sure that the petition I put in with the Mayor will get through to make sure the next time it comes here that it will be tracked down by the Royal Guard for being a public menace.”

‘Spoiled Rich you fucked up mare you. Even now you are teaching your daughter right from wrong, or at least your version.’ Glancing out of the corner of his eyes he could see the pair moving on with a rather timid filly following after her mother. What surprised him the most was that Diamond Tiara’s flank was bare. ‘This must be before she got her cutie mark and before she turns into a little copy of her mother thanks to the superiority complex her mark gives her.’ Dustan sighed quietly wishing he could take her aside and possibly guide the filly to a better future but if he did that means her purpose would be left unfulfilled when the future CMC needed her.

So many pratfalls lay ahead of him and so many times he had to squash his instincts to help others lay ahead of him but in order for the happy ending that was coming he needed to stop himself and be in the background. So lost in his thoughts that he arrived to the boutique rather quickly and this is where a new problem hit him.

‘This is her shop AND home. Am I supposed to knock or just come in?’ He had lucked out last time as Rarity was seeing a customer out when he came around and invited him in so the problem had not come up last time. Deciding on the side of caution over being rude he knocked politely.

“One second, I will be right there.” Came the voice of the posh unicorn making him feel a bit better about knocking. As she opened the door though there was an interaction that made Dustan chuckle. Flipping her mane she had her eyes closed as she started her speech. “Welcome to the Carousel Boutique, where every garment is chic, unique, and magni-OH!”

Her exclamation came when she realized she was staring at his stomach making her look up. “Sorry about that. Didn’t know whether to knock or just come in since it’s both a store and your home.”

Him apologizing gave her enough time to calm her breathing from what he could see before she put on her smile and nodded. “Well thank you for your consideration darling, it is much appreciated. What brings you to me today?”

She also offered him the hospitality of her home by letting him inside as he started to speak. “I was hoping to hear about the status of the clothing I ordered.”

Rarity smiled about that. “One second dear. While I do not have all the clothing you have ordered I do have some pieces ready and done along with a surprise.”

“Rarity I said I didn’t and she is gone.” The Squire said out loud though the last part was more to himself. Moving to sit down on the nearby couch, of which he recognized from the show as the infamous ‘fainting couch’ Dustan waited and braced himself for something with lots of jewels and sparkles if the surprise was anything like he thought it might be.

The hum of magic drew closer and soon Rarity stepped around the corner her horn glowing with her blue magical aura as several sleeves no doubt containing outfits came out with her all surrounded by that aura. “Here we are Darling, five of the outfits you asked for from the dozen. I would have had more done by now but I am just absolutely swamped with orders.”

“It’s no trouble at all Rarity, take your time with them.” He assured her as he took the first of the offered sleeves and looked for the zipper holding it closed. “Remember I want quality, durability, and longevity in these clothing since I will be wearing them every day.” Unzipping the sleeve finally revealed an exact copy of the outfit he appeared in, though of much higher quality and durability just like he had hoped along with a pair of socks and boxers. “Very nice.”

“Thank you, I do strive for perfection after all. I must admit though that your outfits challenged me in a way I would have never thought.” The unicorn told him floating over the next sleeve. “And, no it wasn’t cause of your unique proportions.”

Raising an eyebrow at that he simply asked her. “Oh? How did it challenge you then?”

This suit was more along the lines of something he would wear at home more jeans this time blue instead of the black of his costume as well as a long sleeved button up shirt in a dark forest green. This outfit also came with more boxers and socks thankfully.

The next sleeve came over as Rarity kept speaking. “Because, I make outfits to highlight a ponies coat or mane, their passion or even what they aspire to be often times with designs that unique to each of them. For you though, you wanted none of that. Simple colors, simple design, functionality, and comfort were your top priorities. It was something I had forgotten to do as ponies tend not to wear for comfort so in a way it made it that much more of an exotic design then I had even thought of before.”

For some reason he couldn’t help but remember a line from one of his favorite movies. “When everything is special, nothing is.”

“That is a bleak way to look at it I suppose but that is correct.” Rarity told him. “I was locked into thinking in ONLY that way, so it is refreshing to shatter that illusion so that I may strive for excellence that is even greater than before.”

The next suit was another button up shirt with an inner shirt being black and white respectively. The pants were unsurprisingly another pair of jeans but were wide and would end around the middle of his shins as well as a beige color. This outfit was designed for hotter days to come. Again he got a pair of boxers and socks with this outfit.

“Thanks Rarity, so far these are exactly as I asked for.” The complement made her giggle and wave her hoof as if to dismiss the complement.

Getting her composure she brought the last two over now. “These last two are copies of the last two though they are in different colors so you have a bit of variety in your choices.”

Unzipping them they were indeed as the designer had said. “Thanks. Mind if I get changed right now?”

Giving a nod the purple maned fashionista smiled at the suggestion. “No problem Darling, I was actually going to ask you to put one on so that we can see if I got everything correct.”

There was then an awkward moment of no one moving before Dustan realized the issue. “Mind turning around my species tends to be very shy about our bodies for a multitude of reasons that would take too long to explain fully.”

Smiling she turned her back but would talk as he got dressed in the first outfit that wasn’t a copy of his costume. “Of course Darling. If all ponies, or in your case Humans, were alike then there would be no variety in life.”

It took a moment but finally it was done. “It’s a great fit Rarity, really good job. Not too tight or too loose.”

Turning around the white unicorn gave a girly squeal as she seen her work displayed. “Oh good it lays on your form just as I imagined. Nothing too tight or uncomfortable?”

Shaking his head he even went to stretch in his new outfits showing they would move with him nicely. “Nope, even the boxers are a good fit.”

Normally saying this to a female would have him blushing up a storm but the ponies were so adorable he had a hard time seeing them the same as women from his world removing a good bit of the embarrassment. Plus he was talking to a professional and he knew that telling them everything was important for solving potential issues. He learned that the hard way via a plumber that came to his house one time when he was the only one there and was too embarrassed about discussing bodily functions to properly say everything. The plumber was needed two hours later for overflow and more.

While he would have loved to test how the copy of his costume would work with his armor he had not worn it cause of the chaffing and such it would cause without some kind of buffer between it and his skin. “Good, now for the surprise.”

‘Here it comes.’ He thought to himself briefly not looking forward to the gaudy thing that was likely made against the taste of any male that disliked such things.

However that isn’t what she pulled out. “Tada!” Instead it was a backpack made in the same black as his costume jeans. “I made this as I seen you had no saddle bags. I then realize of course you don’t have a saddle bag as there would be no place to put it so it took me a bit to come up with this design but I believe it should work. I call it-”

“It’s a backpack.” He finished the statement for her only for her to nervously chuckle.

“I was actually going to call it back bags but your name rolls off the tongue so much better. I take it Humans have these already?” With a nod she sighed before smiling again and using her magic to fold and put the clothing into the pack. “Of course, but hopefully you don’t mind this token of gratitude from me since you refused my first suit for free offer.”

He saw her doing the same for the few pouches he wore at his belt taking out the contents to place them in the pack or one of its many pockets. “You know normally yeah I would refuse but a backpack is something I really, really needed.” He told her clasping his cloak back on around his neck and shoulders.

“Oh what a lovely crystal.” The instant he heard Rarity say that is the same instant all the blood in his body froze. Turning to look at the unicorn he saw that in her magical grip rested the sapphire stone of Virgo. “I have never seen such a stone ever, what is it made of Darling?”

Rarity then gave out a gasp as his hand grasped the stone and pulled it out of her magical grip before stuffing it deeply into one of the pockets of the backpack. “Please don’t touch that.”

“I-I am sorry Dustan, I didn’t mean to offend.” She had backed up from him a bit as it seemed his actions had scared her.

Shaking his head he sighed. “You didn’t do anything wrong or know what it was so its fine. Just, please don’t ever ask to see it again.” Seeing her stare at him he supposed he had a dark look to his face making him want to fix things. Giving a couple of slaps to his cheeks he smiled and chuckle. “Besides, you can make any stone shine, no need to get all wide eyed at my old thing.”

That seemed to do the trick as the unicorn relaxed and smiled. “Well thank you. I won’t ask for your reasons as it seemed that crystal was important to you. Anyways I am very happy that you enjoyed what I have created and will make sure to get the others made as quickly as possible.”

“Again take your time. I paid for quality and I will be miffed if I don’t find perfection from the best fashionista in Equestria.” He gave a bow at that causing her to once again giggle and wave off his complement. “Anyways I don’t have anything to do today so I am going to go around and take in the sights of Ponyville. Have a good day miss Rarity.” With that he put his pack on his back smiling as it too fit perfectly and comfortable against him.

“I do hope you have a good time Darling and come back anytime.” She responded with a wave. As he was leaving her face had the smile removed and a worried look come over her face as she said something he couldn’t hear. “Why did you look more frightened for me than anything else when I held that crystal?”

Dustan only got about a dozen steps before he found himself levitated up into the air by a magenta aura. He had half reached for his sword in fright before a voice called out to him causing him to stop his reaction.

“Ahh Dustan!” It was the voice of the scholar of Ponyville herself. “I was actually thinking of coming to visit to talk to you some more.”

Twilight as was one of the regular visitors to Zecora’s hut as was Fluttershy even though he had only saw each of them once. “Twilight, please don’t randomly levitate me like that, I tend to get jumpy at surprises like this.”

“Oh sorry, it’s just I was so excited to see you again.” Though as Twilight said that she still had not put him down and was in fact carrying him towards the treebary.

‘Oh…it’s that Twilight…great…fantastic.’ Dustan thought as he was brought in to the home just barely managing to duck out of the way so as not to hit his head as he was levitated.

“There is so much I want to ask you about.” This was not a surprise to the Squire at all. “You see I have been looking through books upon books and have found NOTHING on your species. Meaning you are completely new to Equestria as a species.”

He didn’t like where this was going but felt like he could dodge most of the questions with a lie or two or a half truth, he was prepared for any question she had to ask of him. “Ok but mind if I can sit down, I mean hovering is nice but a good cushion might be in order so as not to break anything that might not support my weight.” He had lucked out for the most part as the type of wood for the furniture in Zecora’s hut was very hearty and could support his weight. He wasn’t sure about this place though.

“Oh right sorry.” She quickly let him down much to the complaints of his rear before quickly getting him a couple of pillows to rest on. “Ok first question.” She said before quills and ink popped into existence from somewhere else.

Nodding with a smile he leaned back on one of his hands as he got comfortable. “Go for it.”

“How did you arrive in Equestria and what made you decide to come?” It should have been an expected, one of the first he thought would be asked but as Twilight asked that he found himself strangely surprised by it.

Reaching up to touch his chest, the place where he had felt the sword slide into him the events leading up to his arrival played back in his mind. He must have been out of it for a bit and worried the unicorn as he came back to her shaking his shoulder asking if he was alright. Rubbing his hands over his face for a moment he came back with a smile hoping to put her off of her worry.

“Sorry about that, lost in some memories. Truth is that I was brought here by someone else; a spell or something used by someone else is what caused it. I am not even sure where in relation to the human lands I am anymore.” Not entirely false, he had assumed it was some kind of magic, or force the Merchant used to send him here but wasn’t sure. That and again he wasn’t lying when he said he wasn’t sure where humans were in relation to Equestria, the Universe is a huge place after all.

Dustan was slightly surprised by the look of utter sadness on Twilight’s face as well as a tissue popping out of nowhere to wipe her tears away with. “Sorry I didn’t mean to make you recall that. I never knew that you are displaced from your home as you were. Also with you not knowing where your lands are that means you have no way of returning till you do.”

“Y-yeah.” Dustan still wasn’t over this fact either and had still been trying not to think of it. So a subject change was in order. “Oh by the way, thanks for letting me check out a book. So far so good, though no success on achieving a meditative state as of yet but I will keep trying.”

Seems the lavender pony also appreciated the change in subject as her face visibly reflected that, ponies were so easy to read. “Oh I am glad you are enjoying it. Meditation is a very complex subject and simple all at the same time. The simple thing is clearing your mind, but with how often you think thoughts it is very difficult to do. I know I myself have trouble with it on occasions.”

‘You don’t say Ms. Analyze everything.’ His inner thoughts were on sarcasm level ten though he didn’t show it at all. “Well least you can do it. For me it’s just…I THINK I clear my thoughts, I focus on my breathing and find time just passes but at the same time I am aware of it. Which the book says is not the state I want but half way there. I have rid myself of thoughts but I must now rid myself of distraction and if I am aware of the world I am distracted.”

A giggle escaped the mare as she brushed the pink stripped mane from her eyes. “I have the opposite problem, as I said my thoughts tend to run with me but the world interrupting me has never been a problem as I am good at tuning it out.”

“Hey you two.” The boyish voice of the resident purple and green dragon called out.

Waving when he seen the baby dragon he smiled. “Sup Spike.”

The dragon was carrying a tray with tea and small sandwiches setting it down on the nearby table for the two. “Figured you two could use this when I seen Twilight dragging you in here like a cat who caught a mouse.”

For her part Twilight did manage an adorable blush. “I did no such thing, you take that back Spike.”

“Actually Twilight.” Dustan commented while pouring his cup of tea. “You kind of did. You levitated me against my will when I could have walked.”

The falling ears of the pony as well as the down turned face looking at the floor already was tugging at his heartstrings let alone when she started to speak. “I-I’m sorry. I just was so excited to talk with you. I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.”

‘Diabetes please, I give up I swear!’ “It’s alright Twilight. I am happy to talk with you honest. Just don’t take it the wrong way in the future if I walk out if you do something like this again.” Taking a sip of the tea he smiled at the taste and gave Spike a thumbs up which was returned.

“Alright.” She was still looking upset but was recovering. “I suppose if you want is it alright if we continue with the questions?”

“Sure, fire away.” Twilight once more in her element with his answer opened her mouth and Dustan knew it would be a bit before he was freed.

“Alright Twilight, have a good day.” He waved to the librarian as he made sure the books he had checked out were nice and secure in his backpack. The Squire watched as she waved back to him as he turned to leave.

It had been almost two hours as Dustan was asked question after question with a few of his own thrown in. They had went over the basics of human anatomy which he was surprised that she didn’t ask for him to strip down. He had read about fanfics doing that before but was glad this Twilight didn’t. That or maybe she was considerate seeing as he they had just gone over some boundaries with the levitation. Turned out humans had better eyesight then ponies by about three times, with the reverse being true with a pony having much greater sense of smell though by how much was unknown as it was hard to quantify, neat with what you could find out with just simple questions and tests. They had gone over that Humans were more inclined to technology though have been known to use magic in all sorts of ways. This wasn’t a lie as he was going over what he knew of in Tactics as well as other Final Fantasy games, after all if he told her that magic didn’t exist in his world then how was it he could produce the salve with hints of magic.

That was a landmine he was doing his best to avoid. Speaking of landmines when he checked out books on both offensive and defensive magic he had to fall back on the excuse of living in the Everfree and that he himself was not a big caster at the moment. In truth he was hoping to get a bonus like he had when learning about potions from Zecora but for White and Black Mages. There was also the fact that since magic WAS possible in Equestria and spells did exist, would it be possible for him to learn them in any class? Ramza and Summoners did learn things when exposed to certain skills, maybe it worked kind of like that or the systems from the tactics games after that where you learned by equipping items.

In the end it didn’t matter as he would find out one way or the other and was just plain excited to be studying magic.

“Oh hi Dustan.” The soft voice of the quiet pegasus brought him out of his musing as he seen Fluttershy outside of a shop.

The butter cream winged pony was standing next to a bag as he waved to her. “Hey there, what are you up to?”

She looked down towards the bag and then stepped in front of it as if trying to hide it. “Oh nothing, just doing some shopping for my little animal friends.”

Looking up in the sky he noticed it was about noon now which was strange. “Weird, I remember Zecora saying you head into town to do your shopping after you feed your animals.”

Apparently Fluttershy and Zecora got along well, not only for the fact of their respect for nature both fauna and flora as well as the knowledge they could share, but because Zecora could give Fluttershy things to help keep her animals healthy and Zecora could get animal products. Hearing Dustan say this though the mare hide behind her mane a sure sign that something was up.

Sighing she barely was able to be heard as she spoke up next. “I have been trying to get back home with this bag of feed but I can’t carry it myself.”

Moving over to the bag he lifted it up and put it over one of his shoulders. “Need some help then?” He wasn’t the most athletic back home, but here he had put on some decent muscle so far for sure. Though he suspected that half or more was from his cheating aspect of being a class rather than his own hard work.

“Oh, no-no, you don’t have to I can-” The words started to come out but Dustan cut her off already marching down the road.

He knew that she would try to shoulder this problem herself so as not to cause anyone else any problems and he wouldn’t have that. “It’s no problem; I was heading back to Zecora’s anyways so this is on the way. I even have time to spare so if you need any more help feel free to let me know.”

Hearing the clip clop of hooves next to him the corner of his eye caught sight of the pink mane of the pegasus pony who preferred the land. “W-well if you are sure I wouldn’t mind some company today.”

“Good to hear.” For a moment there was some hesitation in his step as he looked to her. “You are going to make sure to keep Angel from me right? I haven’t forgotten what happened with him when he was with you during your last visit to Zecora’s.” There were just some things males do not do to each other unless they are good friends or doing dares and that was a nut check.

“I made sure to lecture him lots after that happened. He was also plenty scared after what you threaten to do to him.” She shivered a bit remembering but that just made Dustan grin. The little bunny could kick hard but he when he told Angel that he would do the same to him, well the little monster quickly realized it wasn’t an idle threat nor was it something to laugh off considering the size and power difference.

Their talk continued in silence after that with the Squire looking forward to enacting his revenge while the pegasus was thinking about how to stop her pet from getting neutered. Eventually though the critter house that was Fluttershy’s home came into view, instantly giving anyone the impression that the owner of the home was one with nature. Its roof a combination of moss, grass, and leaves gave it a lovely green coloration that was the dominate feature of the home from the outside. The inside was cozier, fitting the domestic nature of the pony in question as well as the fact there were small stairs everywhere for critters to move about when not on the ground.

Ducking down to get inside after Fluttershy welcomed him in, he looked around before asking. “Where do you want the bag?” He said it loud enough so that the pet of the home would make himself scarce…or show up Dustan wasn’t sure which he wanted more.

Right away the host of the home brought out a dozen small animal dishes as she asked. “Mind pouring some in the bowls please. I ran out after breakfast and don’t want my little animals to go hungry.”

“No problem.” It took him a second to figure out where to open the bag up, but once he had he was pouring steady amounts into each bowl. “How do you get them not to attack each other?”

She had come back with a few more bowls to be filled as well as take those that had been filled to various corners or open cages. “Well I told them nicely, if they couldn’t get along then they would have to find other places to visit and stay. After all I do not want my little animal friends to try eating each other.” She seemed to remember something as she gave a small ‘oh’ and looked back to him. “I know I don’t need to ask, but can you not eat any of my animal friends either with you being a carnivore and all?”

That was one thing that he didn’t tell any of the girls not even to Twilight during the interview so that did make him wonder. “I am an omnivore actually and how did you know I eat meat?”

“Oh that is wonderful to hear. Not the eating meat part but knowing you have all kinds of options to stay healthy.” She went to the kitchen before coming back to grab the last bowls as she finished explaining. “It’s your teeth. I noticed it when you first smiled.”

He made a mental note on not smiling so wide in the future if he could help it but knew that it would happen regardless. “Also I don’t eat anything that can reason. All your animal friends are safe and I tend to fish for my meat. I need it to stay healthy along with fruits, veggies, and grains among things. Speaking of, I can’t eat hay or flowers. Just letting you know in case you were wondering.”

“Thank you for letting me know, that is very kind of you.” She said that from the kitchen though he could then hear her speaking softly to something. “Come on little one, eat up. You just hatched not too long ago and need to eat.”

Rolling up the empty part of the bag he came into the kitchen to put the seeds away, well ask where to put them at least when he seen the caretaker talking to a very white fluffy looking chick, except the chick was about the size of a normal chicken. “Oh that is who you are talking to. Also where do you want the bag?”

“In the cupboard please.” She nosed the bowl of seed towards the little chick that just fluffed up adorably but didn’t eat. “Oh this little one just hatched from an abandoned egg I found in the forest. She has refused to eat anything and I am worried as I don’t even know what species she is.”

Putting the seed in the cupboard on the bottom he chuckled and smiled. “I am sure you will figure it out, you are the best caretaker in Ponyville after a-”

“Kweh”

Hearing the noise Dustan’s eyes widened as big as they could go as he watched the both of them but especially the chick. “Please little one, if you don’t eat you will get sick.” The chick merely gave another distinctive ‘Kweh’ noise.

Swallowing hard Dustan right away moved towards the fridge of Fluttershy of which turned to him and gave a bashful. “Sorry, you must be hungry too, if you find something to eat let me know.”

He was praying VERY hard his knowledge was intact about many translations and such as he had found the item he was looking for and quickly hid it behind his back as he moved to sit down on the floor next to the chick and Fluttershy. “Hey there little one, you must be very hungry right?” The chick gave another of its cry’s that practically made Dustan shiver with happiness. “I-I think this more along the lines you are looking for right?”

Bringing his hand around he showed the small chick what he had found: A carrot. Carrots were what the items were also known as so he was hoping this would work. Breaking off the tip and quickly mashing it up some he held the past in his other hand towards the chicken sized hatchling. She quickly stood up and hopped over towards the extended palm and pecked at the mush for a moment before giving a happy ‘Kweh’ noise and going to town on the carrot mash.

“Oh how wonderful, I am soooo happy to see her eating. I just wish I knew now what species she was.” Fluttershy said happily mostly to herself only to tilt her ear in Dustan’s direction when he spoke very softly.

“-bo” was all she heard.

Looking up to him though he was only staring at the chick she could see pure happiness on his face along with a few unshed tears. “Bo?”

Swallowing for a moment he nodded and smiled as he quickly broke off another piece of the carrot and mashed it up for the white bundle of fluff. “Mhm, Chocobo. That is the name of her species. Specifically unless all chicks are like this, she is a White Chocobo. Those types of Chocobo are VERY magical.”

“Oh I never heard of those types of animals before.” She was watching Dustan interact with the chick with a smile on her face. “Maybe you should adopt her as your pet?”

His eyes once again widened as he turned to her. “Really, I would love to!” The Squire saw the happiness on her face before a thought occurred to him that instantly brought his joy down. “But I can’t.”

Seems the pegasus also seen the vanishing joy bringing hers down as well. “W-why not?”

Seemed the little Chocobo chick had her fill and instead insisted on laying on his palm, fluff up, and fall asleep. “Cause of where I live. Not only do I live by the Everfree, a very dangerous place. But the place I live is not my own home. I live with someone else and to adopt a pet into someone else’s home is not only rude, but irresponsible towards pet and the one who adopts them.”

Hearing that, he couldn’t see it on her face as he was still looking only at the chick once more but she understood. “Alright, but if you ever do find yourself in a safer home would you want to adopt her?”

There was no hesitation as his other hand had started to pet the sleeping chick. “In a heartbeat.” Finding a nice place to set the chick he looked back towards Fluttershy and asked. “If you find anything that looks like a carrot but is kind of a golden color, that is a Chocobo favorite meal. They are called Gysahl Greens.”

Lighting up with a smile she went to one of her pantries and pulled out more than a dozen of the carrot looking greens. “These? I found them before the little Chocobo there hatched and tried to give them to Angel-bunny but he didn’t like them.”

Nodding once more he smiled. “That should be them. Anyways now that she is nice and fed is there anything else you need help with?”

Most of the things that the animal caretaker of Ponyville needed help with was feeding and cleaning after many of her animal friends. Nothing really strenuous, it just him helping to herd animals around while she either placed bowls down or cleaned an area. The Chickobo had woken up in the middle of the chores and right away Kweh’ed when she found the pair moving around the home or just outside of it. She had followed Dustan where ever he went and often fluffed up adorably. More than a few times did he find himself reaching down to pick the small Chocobo up and give her loving hugs and nuzzles.

Sadly the time had come and gone for him to head off back to Zecora’s to both which he himself and the Chocobo were sad about if the sound of the kweh’s the chick gave off were any indication. He promised to come back soon to see her and soon started to head down the road.

He was thinking about the small chick the entire time on his way back no matter how many times he tried to think about or get excited about the books on magic he had or his new clothes. Chocobos along with Moogles made his manly heart just squeal like a little girl with her favorite plushy any time he saw one in the games or when they gave their signature cries. He loved it every time one of them said Kupo or-

“Kweh!” The cry was too real to be in his head as he looked behind him and saw nothing at first.

Then the feeling of something rubbing up against his leg called his attention down, specifically to the white bundle of fluff. “Hey there. Did you follow me?” he asked the chick as he bent down only to get an affirmative Kweh from her. “You can’t come with me.” However as he told her that Dustan just heard the most heartbreaking Kweh possible from the chick. It hurt his heart to say the least and he could swear he saw tears in her eyes, bringing matching ones to his own.

Dustan looked towards the road, both first back towards Fluttershy’s home, then back to the hut he lived in thanks to Zecora’s kindness. He had a choice to make: Do the right thing and walk the chick back to Fluttershy’s hoping she could keep the chick from getting out again OR give in to the most adorable pile of fluff in existence.

On the way home he playfully glared up at the chick who made its home on his head and under his hood. “Boko, if Zecora kicks me out, I blame you.”

Dustan had made his choice and he honestly didn’t regret it one bit.

Chapter Six: Griffon Me A Headache.

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My Little Tactics

Chapter Six: Griffon Me A Headache.

It had been a peaceful two weeks, no sightings of monsters, no emergencies, and no issues with any of the Mane Six. Mostly because when he went to town on two separate occasions and found the episodes, The Ticket Master and Applebuck Season, going on. He made it a point to stay away from that as much as he could. That and he had gotten an earful from Fluttershy for now letting her know about Boko right away. She had been absolutely worried, his only consolation was the fact she was ecstatic about Boko being named and adopted properly.

That had been another potential fight as at first Zecora was upset but had grown close to the ball of fuss rather quickly. With them knowing what to look for in Greens and Carrots, the little bird was growing happily. With some of his funds he had bought her a food and water bowl, a bed, and some toys. Really only the things used was the water bowl though as he still fed her from his hand, she preferred to roost on his head or on his chest while sleeping and she seemed to enjoy chasing or being chased more than the toys all while flapping her little wings in mock fright or in an adorable, and unsuccessful attempt at intimidation.

Needless to say he loved the little chick.

Between playing and caring for the chick and helping out Zecora, he would head out to the Everfree castle and worked on a secret project there. He had a plan, but it was all in case things ever turned bad for him in the short run, or if it worked out would be a great boon in the long run. Needless to say he was banking on the long run scenario and hoped to never have to use the short option. During each time he went off, either to gather herbs, or to the castle, he made sure to leave Boko behind and to instill in her the great sense of importance that she not follow him. Both him and Zecora had made mentions of how quiet the forest had been and that was unusual. No sightings of Timberwolves, Cockatrices, no Goblins, Bombs, or any other manner of creature. This included signs like tracks and droppings. It was as if the creatures had just up and vanished or had been scared off by something. Both possibilities were scary and it was worrying to say the least.

When a knock came to the door, Zecora was the first to answer as Dustan was finishing up breakfast for the day; Boko was sleeping on a nearby windowsill catching some sun as the shaman of the household came back and hoofed over a letter. “For you it seems. However giggling is what I hear so it might be of somepony’s schemes.”

As he opened it up though a powder exploded on his face and neck making him cough for a moment before he could even read the letter. “Heard those hands are good for scratching, here is to hoping it’s true.” He started scratching at the growth of his face, something he needed to trim soon. Only the need to scratch never stopped, in fact it was getting worse. Dropping the letter he started to scratch all over with both hands now starting to growl in frustration as a duo set of laughter was heard.

“Look at him go!” The first one said between gaps in their laughter. It was a voice he recognized and one he had come to forgive for being so rude when she had finally come around to give him an apology, which given her nature, made him think highly of her.

“I know right, he is just going and going and going and going and going.” The other voice was the dreaded mind anomaly that was the Ponyville pink party pony of pastries.

“SO ITCHY!!!!!” Yelling out didn’t make him feel any better but it was literally all he could think of. Well at least till something splashed against his face instantly removing the need for itching.

Zecora was setting down the empty glass she had just used as she chuckled. “Seems we have found our plotters. Good thing that mixture finds relief with soothing waters.”

“Don’t care, too busy in not scratching.” Dustan said resting his head on the table. He was so busy resting in comfort for a moment he only caught a few words from the pair as they were heading off, something about ‘paint’ and ‘apples’. It took him a good few minutes before he was even able to move standing up slowly and looking around. “Thanks for the help Zecora. Seems like Boko is taking a nap, so I am going to go help Applejack like I promised her I would.”

“Yes, she has learned that even if you go into such a task being iron-willed, that such tasks are beyond her no matter how skilled.” Commented Zecora as she started to head to the backroom. She had planned to mix up some ingredients today for some kind of experiment of hers to further her studies.

Of course they were both referring to the results of Applejack taking on the task of trying to buck the whole orchard clean cause of her stubbornness only to realize that it was too much for even her. “See you later and if I am not back by noon I have some greens mashed up in the fridge for Boko.”

The Zebra gave a nod before vanishing into the other room as he himself left for the day. Along the way to the farm Dustan started to muse about things. Once more he had visited the Class Room and had even managed to learn a skill or two. Problem was unlike other skills these involved magic, and while the books on magic he borrow from the treebary were helpful, he didn’t know how to call upon the magic of needed to activate them. There was also the problem of still not knowing how to switch class skills so he was still stuck with his Archer subclass skill.

Once he figured out how to switch subclass abilities he knew he would be switching his Archer Aim skill for White Magic. ‘Cure will be helpful if I get hurt again and depending on if there are any unforeseen drawbacks or not might prove to be really good.’

So lost in his in his thoughts that he was surprised as Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie came flying by, well one was flying and the other running, all while giggling and laughing like mad. Merely raising an eyebrow at that, he continued on and found Applejack wiping off an apple.

“Sooo, what was with Pinkie and Dash?” The question must have surprised her as the orange pony jumped a bit.

Gaining some of her breath back she looked up at him and chuckled. “Oh it’s just those two pullin’ a prank on me. Though Ah reckon its goin’ to be quite troublesome to clean up after the pair of them.”

“Clean up after wha-” as he was saying that she picked up another apple and dunked it in water. Problem was that apple was painted up like an Easter egg. “Never mind I see.” Thinking of a way for this to become easier for the both of them, sadly he couldn’t think of one. “Well I was coming to help you pick apples since I can’t buck them like you. However looks like I am on clean up duty huh?”

“Darn tootin’.” Was her response making him sigh softly. He hated dishwashing jobs and this was basically the same thing.

Throughout the workday one thought came to mind and it came to him once again when he was walking home that evening after a hard day’s work. What episode was this? He remembered there being something about Dash and Pinkie pranking people but he honestly couldn’t remember which it was. Maybe it was the fact he had not seen the episode in what felt like forever, his tired state or the fact that so far events seemed to be slight altered.

A bomb appeared on the way to free Luna and Bridle Gossip happened much too soon. Ticket Master, from what he heard in bits and pieces from the others, had Twilight tearing up the tickets before sending them back. That was also something he forgot was he was sent a ticket along with Zecora. Apparently Twilight had mentioned them and Celestia wanted to meet him as an unknown species and Zecora since Shaman’s were so rare. He honestly considered out right declining knowing what he knew about the event to come but the looks on the ponies face made him cave.

Then there was Applebuck season. In this case Mac had not hurt himself, it was the fact that Apple Bloom was really sick and he had to look after her. Shuddering a bit as he thought of the changes so far, everything still aligned with what would happen but it seemed like slowly they were shifting and unraveling. He only hoped that despite what has happened that the end results will be the same.

As he walked in an adorable Kweh noise met him and he felt a few bounces touch his body before something fluffy settle on his head. “You are getting good at that Boko.” He told the chick as he reached up to pet her making her fluff up in happiness. “Is dinner ready yet or is Zecora still fixing it all up?” Boko’s response was to burp lightly making him smile. “Guess I will see if it is still warm then.”

True Applejack had invited him to dinner but he declined reminding her of her grandmother’s reaction to him. In the end dinner was still warm enough where he didn’t have to heat it up and he fell into an exhausted sleep still not recalling what episode was happening.

‘Likely it has something to do with the farm. So as long as I stick with Applejack it should be fine.’ He assumed and settled on the couch that served as his bed with Boko claiming a spot on his chest to sleep.

The next day breakfast went as it normally did Boko catching her nap on the windowsill leaving him to head out for work. This time he was dressed in more casual clothing, though he still wore his sword at his hip, because today Applejack was heading into town to sell her apples.

So far it was a lovely day, nice puffy clouds in the blue sky, birds chirping, Pinkie Pie falling rapidly in some kind of flying machine that was heading right for him.

“Oh shit!” Now the normal reaction for people and likely ponies seeing something like this happen would be to dodge and get out of the way. Dustan’s instincts were slightly different however in that he stood his ground and got ready to try to catch it. Looking at how fast she was dive bombing the crash looked to be beyond dangerous and his body had gotten a lot hardier since arriving in Equestria. Hell He was level seven just from a bit of training. Not the most exciting way to gain EXP but it worked.

The whirligig was making spirals as it headed for him, bracing himself one last time he held out his arms to try to grab any part of it, or Pinkie he could. When it did make contact it and the pink pony inside were sideways. Indeed he was hardier then before, however that was still a lot of weight coming at him with momentum behind it. That said he would be sore when he woke up.

“ar-ou-kay?” Mind was stuttering to piece together things as well as what he was hearing as he slowly woke up. “Oh thank goodness!”

Then the feeling of unbridled laughter hugged him so much he swore he felt some of his bones flex almost cartoonishly in his body. “Pinkie Pie, I need AIR!”

Feeling her release him Dustan was finally able to take stock of things as well as slowly start remembering what happened. “I was so worried when my whirligig landed on you, though if you hadn’t stood there that crash might have been really really bad for me.”

‘Oh right falling Pinkie.’ Sitting up slowly the Squire’s body protested against that action as much as it could. ‘REALLY wish I knew how to cast Cure properly now.’ Looking over to the bungle of raw unstable energy he simply asked. “So, care to explain?” He regretted that action as soon as he said that as there came out a string of words from the ponies mouth that would need a computer to digitally slow down for him to understand anything.

The only words he could understand where the final ones. “And then I came crashing down and you caught me.”

Likely the only reason he even understood those was cause she ran out of breath judging from how she was sucking in air again. “Riiiight. I didn’t understand any of that Pinkie. However I do have to get to Sweet Apple Acres for some work today. I am sorry your device crashed though.” Standing up he flinched and looked to his right arm finding a handkerchief on it slightly stained red. “From the crash?”

His question must have caught Pinkie’s attention as well as she solemnly nodded. “Yeah, one of the blades of the whirligig caught you on your arm as you caught me. It didn’t look to deep but it was bleeding so I used one of my hoofkerchiefs on it.”

Seeing how sad she was he put on a smile and rubbed her fluffy mane. “Then its fine. I helped you not to get hurt so I consider it a badge of honor. Anyways I got to go, see you later.”

“You too!” she called out as he started to walk. Dustan took a moment just to make sure she was ok before continuing to the farm.

When he got there Dustan was actually surprised when Applejack showed as much concern as she did. “What in blazes happened to ya?”

Waving it off he smiled trying to show that it was nothing. “Just a little incident on the way here, it’s nothing.”

“Hmm that hoofkerchief looks familiar.” Not wanting her to worry he again waved it off heading towards the cart that was already packed with many treats from actual apples to fritters and more.

“Its fine I promise.” He was fine and he would heal so it wasn’t a lie. He honestly didn’t trust much of his words around the Element of Honesty for fear that she was a living lie detector like many believed.

The feeling of her stare on him was intense for a moment as he made sure everything was secure, which it was. When it left the sound of a harness could be heard as the farm pony hooked herself up to pull the cart.

Looking back at him she spoke. “Fine. You weren’t here to help pack up the cart so Ah suppose Ah will let you off the hook for bein’ late.”

Giving a sigh they traveled to the town proper, but along the way he couldn’t help but ask. “So how has Bloom been? I know she recovered but I am guessing she hates all the makeup work that piled up from school huh?”

That got a chuckle out of her as she nodded. “Sure has. That is the way ain’t it though?” Her muzzle crinkled up for a moment before she looked back at him. “Wait, do Humans even have school?”

Nodding he smiled and told her the truth. “Thirteen years of it, more depending on circumstances. We have kindergarten then first through twelfth grades. If you do badly enough during some of the grades they may keep you there to redo the year. That is not to mention collage and such after you graduate so that you can find a specialization lasting anywhere from four to ten years.”

“Tarnation!” He heard her exclaim. “Ah don’t know if Ah could handle that many years, heck Ah doubt many ponies can.”

That brought a simple question to mind. “Ok then how many years do ponies normally have school for?”

“We just have seven years.” Jeeze, that was nearly half of his own education, which seemed to explain things in this world quite a bit in his mind. She must have seen the surprise on his face as she followed that up with. “Well once a pony gets their cutie mark they usually go to apprentice under somepony or they figure things out for themselves. Why what happens when Humans get their cutie marks?”

Of all the ponies he thought might ask this question, Applejack was not the one he had anticipated. “Humans don’t get cutie marks.”

His earlier look of shock found its way onto the Element of Honesty’s face as she simply asked. “Then how do y’all know what y’all are supposed to do?”

The answer was simple. “We don’t.” The look of shock grew as he chuckled. “We go through life trying to find a passion. Some of us never find it, or if we do never find a place for us to use that passion properly. There are some who are lucky enough to do both, but more often than not we learn something so that we may pay the bills and such. Learning to tolerate what life we have found ourselves in and make due.”

“Make due till what?” If it had been one of the CMC that had asked him this question he would have sugarcoated it, however it wasn’t, it was a grown mare that would handle it.

“Till one of two things happens.” Seeing Ponyville come into view he made his answer quick and simple. “We either find something to balance us out and make us happy or try a profession that does make us happy. If not well, the second option comes down to living through your life till there is no more life left to live.”

When he gave the second half of his answer he felt the cart stumble for a second forcing him to hold on to it and make sure nothing fell off. He didn’t want to look at the expression on Applejack’s face but the corner of his eye caught it anyways. It was one of horror and concern.

Concern must have won out as she asked a question. “Which one did you fall in?”

He was happy his hood hid his expression as he straightened up the products that had slide a bit as he spoke. “Looks like we are here AJ.”

Looking back they were in their proper place indeed for selling. “Lookie here Ah ain’t gonna back down from the question.”

Her words were ignored as he looked up at the streets of Ponyville and loudly proclaimed. “Come one, come all. The delicious apple treats you want are here, get them before they are all gone so you won’t have to wait till next time. Cause let’s face it, if you don’t get one now you know one of your friends are going to mention how tasty the treat they got was.”

The farm mare wanted to chastise him for how loud he was being as well as for not answering, except she didn’t have time, ponies came crowding around to buy treat after treat. This wasn’t something Applejack would likely forget anytime soon even if the subject never came up again properly.

In almost record time did they finish up selling nearly every single thing in the cart. Both he and Applejack were watching the last customer go away with an Apple pie did he smile and stretch. He was worried that the ponies might run away at the sight of him or the fact he was wearing a sword, but so engrossed in the act of shopping for apple treats as they were they never noticed him.

“Welp that is all of it. I knew that would work.” Ponies were so gullible at times. A simple sales pitch and they came flocking in.

Giving him a chuckle she looked at him a smile back on her face that mirrored his own. “Darn right. Ah ain’t ever seen them sell out so quickly before. Maybe Ah should hire you as mah spokes pony.”

“Na, but I will settle for being a spokesman instead.” Grinning at the joke but of them started to laugh out loud.

It was AJ who settled down first as she started to get hitched back in the cart before looking up at him. “Why don’t you take the rest of the day off?” Dustan simply said ‘oh’. “Yeah Ah think you earned it with that little call you did there.”

Giving a simple shrug he accepted the offer. “That actually fits into my plans somewhat. I was going to go to town hall tomorrow to check on something but no reason not to do it today if I have time.”

“Sounds like a plan then. See you later partner.” With that she was off, trotting back to S.A.A.

With that he headed into town hall seeing a secretary pony at the desk he simply asked. “Where can I find out where the records for plots of land are?”

It was about one when he came out his stomach grumbling at him for lunch the last hour and finally winning brought him out into the light of day. He had found the target he was looking for finally and saw that it was indeed in the town’s possession which made his future plans so much easier. That and the circumstances surrounding it made it even more possible then he previously thought.

Honestly today was a good day, barring some few questions and the crash from earlier this morning. The Squire was willing to take the bad with the good on this one in favor of the good considering what the good consisted of. Speaking of good there was a pony that brought a smile to his face every time with how adorable she was: Fluttershy.

The butter yellow pegasus was currently leading a family of ducks through town, an adorable sight for sure. So focused on the adorable sight that he never saw what was about to happen.

“HEY!” The caretaker of animals had bumped into somepony. Said somepony was in fact a brown and white griffon that was a good bit bigger than her. The end of her white feathers often had purple colorations, as well as around her eyes were large softer purple patches that covered each of them.

The instant he saw this he immediately knew what episode he was forgetting and instantly regretted not remembering it. “Oh please excuse me”

The griffon was having no part of the polite town Fluttershy used though. “I’m walking here!”

Dustan had to remind himself that this was part of an episode; it NEEDED to happen as he just barely kept himself from running over to the timid pegasus. “Oh, I-I’m sorry, I-I was just trying to-”

Once again the griffon known as Gilda was not having it as she responded with a mocking tone of voice. “I’m sorry I’m sorry.” All the while making poor Fluttershy backpedal away in fear. “Why don’t you just watch where you are going Doofus?!” as well as making the family of ducks scatter.

“B-b-b-b-but I-I.” Here is where the similarities of the episode ended however because in the show Gilda was supposed to give off a roar and make the mare run away in tears.

Not this time as Gilda reached over grabbed Fluttershy by the head held her up and roared in her face. It was this sight, along with the butterfly marked mare’s face showing both fear and pain that signaled that something had changed. The pain was from the fact that the sharp claw of the predatory hybrid had cut along Fluttershy’s cheek.

The rivulet of crimson running into her fur is what prompted what happened next. “Now why don’t you leave and get out of my sights!”

The ring of steel echoed in Ponyville at that moment, making the griffon’s eyes go wide as the tip of a bloody red sword was now on her beak. “Put her down, apologize, and no one will have to see what a beakless griffon looks like.”

Gilda held on to her captive as her eyes moved to the creature that was almost twice as tall as her. “And what are you supposed to be? Also why should I?”

The sound of steel against Keratin grated out some as the tip of the sword created a light scratch along her beak. “I am her friend and if you don’t you will find yourself looking for a prosthetic beak to replace what I remove from you.”

If the griffon was frightened in any way she hid it well as she dropped Fluttershy who immediately ran off crying before flying away. “There, I let her go, now get your stupid self out of my way.”

“One moment.” Was all the warning she got before she reeled back giving an eagle cry of pain. “There, had to make sure you were even for harming my friend.”

Holding up a talon to her face she found it came back red as she now sported a cut on her cheek. “Why you!” There was a tense moment where Gilda was poised to attack him with her wings stretched out wide to look as big and as intimidating as possible. Staring into his eyes as his own bored into hers waiting. “Fine!” Whatever caused her to back off he didn’t know but she turned around and lifted her wings. “Whatever all these lame ponies are driving me buggy anyways. I gotta bail.”

With that she took flight and headed off to who knows where. Dustan after sheathing his sword took off in the direction of the woods, specifically the home of his friend. He got there at a pretty good time as only months ago he would have long run out of breath and would have been hunched over hassling for breath. The Squire was still panting hard for sure but he knocked on the door though when no answer came he opened it up. Ponies were so trusting in that they rarely ever locked their doors which made him feel bad for coming in like this.

Searching the house he found a distinct lack of animals on the lower floor and it was only when he came upstairs did he understand why. Lining up out of the bedroom door of the pegasus were all her friends there to give her comfort.

“Fluttershy!” He called out, startling some of the animals and the pegasus inside no doubt. As he got closer, thankfully the animals parting to make way for him, he could hear her crying more and more as he got close. She was under her covers shivering like a leaf as well as crying which wouldn’t be stood for. Pulling the covers off Dustan picked up the mare and gave her a giant hug. “There there, it’s ok.”

Almost right away the pegasus wrapped her hooves around him in a desperate attempt to hold onto something in her sorrow. “W-why d-did she have to b-be so mean?”

Giving her comforting pets along her head and mane the answer that came up was one Dustan himself had learned when trying to make friends so many times or when he was dumped on a date. “You can never know someone’s thoughts completely without getting to know them. Some don’t give you the time to know them which is a shame, but at the same time that means they never truly wanted to be friends with you if that was the case. Friendship is about give and take both in earning it and in maintaining it. Meaning if someone isn’t willing to give at all, they will just take and take.”

“O-oh kay.” The caretaker of animals said in response before he slowly felt the weight balance change.

Giving a soft chuckle he looked at her sleeping face only to see the cut from earlier. “Hey some of you with decent dexterity mind raiding Fluttershy’s medical supplies for a bandage while getting a washcloth with some warm water on it?”

Some of the animals quickly ran off, surprisingly Angel being the first off to go do things and the first one to return carrying a Band-Aid. After giving taking it Dustan noted that the bunny held a concerned look on his face and his ears hanging low showing that a soft bit was hidden under it all.

“I am sure she will be fine after a nap.” That seemed to comfort the bunny even as Harry the bear came in with a warm sponge giving a questioning growl. “That will do thanks.”

Cleaning up the mare’s cheek he put the bandage on afterwards. Though when he tried to remove the mare the human found she was way stronger than any gave credit for as he couldn’t make her forelegs let go. Rolling his eyes he decided to continue petting her as long as she needed it.

Eventually she did wake up, about an hour or so later, it was really hard to tell with no clock on the wall that he could see. “Huh what?”

Seems she had forgotten where she was so he booped her nose and chuckled. “Sleep well?”

“Yes, yes I did, but why are you here? Last I remember seeing you was when I was leading the ducks and-oh…right sorry if I caused you any trouble.” Her ears flopped down as it seemed to come back to her.

Once more petting her head he chuckled. “Its fine. I mean it. I am more worried about you; you were really upset when you fell asleep. So much so that you wouldn’t let go of me after, so I had to make sure you slept well.”

Seems she finally realized she was still holding him as she gave a small ‘eep’ her wings flapping open as she was startled at the discovery before she quickly tried to get off him. “I’m so sorry.”

Standing up and rubbing his legs some to get the feeling back in them he gave her a big smile. “Again it’s no problem. You are my friend Fluttershy, I defend my friends and comfort them when needed.”

She winced a bit at the word ‘defend’. “Oh I see, but did you have to point your sword at her, oh and why is it red?”

“Why it is red is a bit of a story, so I will save that for another time.” Was the answer he gave so to avoid that conversation. “As to why I did what I did. She hurt you, she was mean, she was being a bully when there was honestly no need to be. She was new here, she could have chosen to be nice to others, and no one knows her here so no one would judge her. She chose to be as she was, thus I responded in a way to let her know that I wasn’t someone she could do those things to. Was it a bit overboard. Maybe. Do I regret it? No.”

“Oh um…just…try to be nicer next time and don’t resort to violence the first chance you get ok?” She was asking him to make a promise one that honestly didn’t surprise him in the least as it was just how she was.

“Shy, I make it a point not to do anything like that without knowing that there is no chance for talking. If I even suspect there is a chance of talking it out, I will try.” Making a move to the stairs he did stop to add one other thing. “That being said, if one of my friends are hurt then all bets are off. My friends are my treasure.”

Was it sappy? Absolutely. Did that get him picked on a lot during his time on Earth? Also Absolutely. Did that mean he meant it any less? Nope. There were instances he remembered running in to back up Pat but ended up being more than a bit thrashed for it.Always in the end his friend would make a point of telling him what an idiot he was for jumping in like that and every time would Dustan smile at him and laugh saying it was worth it.

A knock came at the front door which pulled both of their attentions. “Fluttershy are you in here and are you ok?”

Both of them knew the voice but it wasn’t his place to answer the door to someone else’s home. “One moment Pinkie.” After opening the door the pronking pink pony smiled and hoofed over a square slip of paper. “Oh my, what is this?”

“It’s a party invitation.” Seeing him looming not too far away she zipped over and smiled. “Oh hi Dusty, here is one for you as well.”

Knowing what he knew it was obvious who the invitation was for, sadly he did have to feign ignorance. “Oh, whose it for?”

“Gilda the Griffon.” The reaction from Fluttershy was instant as in the face of the beaming party pony her ears drooped and she became more than a bit timid.

“I-I don’t think it’s a good idea for me to go.” The pink maned pegasus spoke quietly.

“Fluttershy, please.” The pony party planner asked gently. “I am hoping it will improve her attitude.”

Shaking her head this caused Pinkie’s mane to deflate some. “No, I don’t want to.”

“O-oh ok.” With that Pinkie Pie left sadly, but that meant Fluttershy wasn’t going to go even though in the episode she was present.

That had to change. “Fluttershy I think you should go.”

Even though he placed his hand on her withers to help give her some comfort he still felt her shirk away some. “But she was so mean and what you said-”

“I know I know.” He told her closing his eyes so that he wouldn’t have to look at her while he told his next lie. “But we don’t know her, we don’t know if she was having a really bad day or anything. For all we know she might have been scared being in a new place and reacted VERY poorly.”

“I-I suppose.” He couldn’t see her reaction but felt her come back into his touch some so he assumed that meant a positive response.

Opening his eyes he seen he was right as her ears had gained some altitude but not fully. “You know what? Why don’t you get some birds together for a bird choir? You told me you got some for the Summer even you all had some time ago, though I forget the name right now.”

He didn’t forget he just wanted to keep playing along. “Oh right…if you think it will help.”

Smiling and giving her a hug Dustan told her. “Who knows, maybe you will see something fun and have fun yourself if nothing else. So go have fun ok?”

Giving a large smile, well large for Fluttershy when not talking about animals, she nodded. “Alright, I’ll do it.”

Petting her mane he simply said. “That’a girl. I will get out of your hair-err mane so you can prep then.”

“Ok, and Dustan thank you.” She gave him one last hug that made him glad in of itself of having numb legs just before.

“Anytime.” Giving a wave he started to head out the door but stopped. “Oh and I doubt I will be dropping by so let Pinkie know. I am sure seeing the person that held a sword to your beak won’t put her in a good mood so I will skip out on things so to not cause more trouble.”

There was a sad look that passed over her face for a moment before she sighed and must have accepted it. “Sorry, you haven’t even had a party yet yourself because you technically haven’t moved to Ponyville. I am sorry you have to miss another one.”

Shrugging he waved and smiled. “It’s fine Fluttershy, as long as I know my friends are having a good time, that’s enough for me.”

“O-oh ok then. I will see you soon I hope.” She gave a wave of her hoof as he left.

When he was out of sight he sighed a bit, did he want to join the party, or rather any party? Absolutely, but he was used to never going to parties. He was never a social person or one of the people that got invited to parties ever. So the first party he gets invited to in forever outside of Pat inviting him he had to decline did bother him.

‘At least everything is as it should be, well except for me being here.’ Dustan thought to himself. So lost in his thoughts that he didn’t hear someone shouting for them till the cyan coated pegasus blocked his way. “Oh hey Dash what brings you-”

The polychromatic pony just glared at him and asked a simple question. “Did you seriously attack my friend and didn’t think we wouldn’t have words.”

Honestly he had not even thought about the connection of Gilda and Dash till just then but it made sense. “Not like I didn’t have a good reason.”

“BEING A GRIFFON ISN’T A REASON TO ATTACK!” Rainbow Dash’s fur at her face mixed with the rush of blood in her anger making a light purple coloration. “That is just racism!”

“Is that what she told you?” Honestly he could feel his own face starting to get red. Dustan was never the type of person to judge people on superficial reasons such as where they are from, what clothing they wore, or even their race or ethnicity. The human always tried to get to know people before making judgments and the implications that he was a racist ticked a nerve in him that he wasn’t aware of. “Cause if it is, that is a crock of shit that she is feeding you.”

“HORSE APPLES! I have known Gilda since flight school and I believe her over someone that hides out in the Everfree.” Even as she was angry at him he had to admit he admired her loyalty.

Too bad he was angry. “Well then, feel free to talk to ANYPONY that was there, hell even Fluttershy. She will tell you what went on.”

“I don’t need to hear it from others when I have my friend’s word.” The pegasus became a blur then and Dustan felt himself hitting the ground quickly as she continued to speak. “Don’t even think about coming around me or my friends again or I will do more than pay you back for what you did to Gilda. In fact why don’t you get lost!”

With that she flew off in a blur leaving Dustan to sit up and touch the left side of his face tenderly wincing. Pulling his hand back he saw that her hoof must have bit into his face quite hard as there was crimson there. Quickly pulling out a handkerchief he held it to his face while heading back to the hut. Zecora wasn’t there, or at least she didn’t answer when he called out so he headed right to the bathroom.

Looking at the mirror there after cleaning up the cut he found a good semi-circle cut just below his eye with the open end pointing down. “That is going to leave a mark.” Was all he said in a soft tone as he quickly got some medicine out to apply to the cut. Though looking at where she hit and how hard he knew bruising all along his face was going to happen.

As he was washing out his ‘kerchief he spied the blood running down the drain before throwing the wet cloth hard against an unoffending wall. Nice guys finish last was the phrase that kept running through his head. A phrase that was repeated to him over and over by all aspects of his life from family to friends, even strangers reminding him that his nature being what it was would always lead him to last place.

“Seems I am there again.” The words were spat out like bitter food as he bent down to retrieve the cloth and ring it out in the sink. “Dash will forever see me as someone who attacks her friends and wants me to stay away from her friends. That means that from now on she would likely look to make sure I can’t even befriend them.” Slapping his face and right away regretting the action thanks to his left side he sighed. “Let’s try to look at the bright side. Maybe after the Gilda thing she will start to question things and look to find the truth? Maybe she didn’t mean what she said and just needs a few days to cool down? Maybe I was always meant to be alone.”

“It is good to once more be home.” Came the voice from the living area as the front door opened. “Though at least this time I had some company as I roam.”

The soft sound of a Kweh showed why he had not found Boko waiting for him when he had came back. Speaking of Boko she suddenly gave off rapid Kwehs and the sound of soft wing beats could be heard, meaning she smelled him. The instant she found him in the restroom she rubbed herself against him.

There was a moment when he felt tears in his eyes in the thought that he wasn’t alone. “Hey there, miss me?” The happy noises of the chick were all the answer he needed as he picked her up and nuzzled against her soft down.

So lost in the comfort of the Chocobo that he never seen Zecora come in to check on him. “Are you in so much pain that it brings you to tears? Or did whatever harm you come directly from your fears?”

Feeling confused for a moment he reached up and found his cheeks lined with wetness, specifically tears. “Sorry, just…never mind it’s not important.”

“Of that I have a hard time to believe.” The shaman said in a rather unusual soft spoken voice. “For obviously tears means your heart must have felt a cleave.”

There was a moment when he froze for an answer before feeling his heart wrench once more for a different reason. “Yeah. I was thinking of going out into the Everfree for a few days, explore a bit deeper you know, maybe get an idea on how to go forward in life from there. So the thought of leaving Boko here was troubling me.”

The lie was not bought if he had to judge the face of the shaman correctly, but she never spoke up about it. “Make sure you prepare well. That way, when you return you have a tale to tell.”

“Yeah, I should be gone in about an hour. Boko should have enough carrots and greens for a week in the fridge so if for some reason I am gone any longer then that…well I might be in trouble.”

His chuckle was not returned as Zecora turned away from him. “Let us hope it doesn’t come to that. Nor that you come back wounded as that is old hat.”

“Right.” Was all he said before he started to pack. He had four days of supplies but told Zecora he would only be gone for three. As he was walking towards his destination, the ruins of the castle, he looked back at the hut and sighed. “I need to find my own place soon so any blow back from my actions don’t fall on Zecora. Hopefully this will be all solved in three days and it won’t matter when I get back.”

Dustan would remember those words as they would be true, but not for the reasons he would care for.

Chapter Seven: Going, Going, Gob.

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My Little Tactics

Chapter Seven: Going, Going, Gob.

Wiping the sweat off his brow Dustan looked at how things were coming. THIS was his plan and the reason he had gone to the mayor’s office to look at documents. He was in the ruins of the Everfree, the dilapidated remains of the Castle of the Two Sisters. Turns out no one owned it. Celestia had forgone renewing the land in her name, likely from what he suspected was grief or remorse at the time, and the deed fell into public hands.

Problem was with the Everfree being what it was, a wild untapped land of monsters and misfits, no one wanted to do anything with it. Except Dustan it seemed. Whenever he had free time he would explore the ruins and found that because of it being so well built, there were still MANY places that were close to being habitable with just a bit of elbow grease. Bits he had made while Zecora sold his salve helped buy the supplies needed and while it may not look nice, the first room had been repurposed finally.

He wasn’t sure what room it was before, though he suspected maybe a barracks but the rest of the building was in much worse shape so it was hard to tell. This room though, with a bit of wood, nails, and a good sweeping turned out nicely. Whatever window was there was boarded up; a makeshift door made out of miscellaneous materials was put up on hinges he scavenged from the ruins, and though he couldn’t use the bed frames found he did find some beds that must have been enchanted or something as the only thing that was needed for them was a good beating.

Overall his new room came out to look nice. The OTHER good news is that during research he found out why monsters tended to stay away from the ruins. It was the lingering effect previously from when Celestia used the Elements to banish Nightmare Moon and some magicians think the purifying effect keeps malicious monsters away. That meant that with the use of them again monsters would stay away even more than before. While he didn’t think he could confirm it seeing as how the Everfree had been quiet lately, it was at least a comforting thought.

The other good thing was the bed he found was large enough to hold him comfortably. Lying down on the bed he needed to relax for sure. Thinking back on the three days he had been there along with many of his past explorations he knew some of what the castle had to offer. If he had to guess at present there were about maybe a dozen or a dozen and a half rooms that would be easy to repurpose. He would likely need to make a couple of guest rooms for sure, a storage area, living area, kitchen and hope to hire somepony or anyone really to install whatever it is that makes electricity and running water possible. No way in hell was he going to use an outhouse.

This trip also had proved to be very fortunate as he had found either a tool shed or what was left of an armory. The reason he thought this was he found a few axes and other various tools and even a spear inside but all covered in dust or rust, many of which he THOUGHT were unusable. The first day back when he was taking a break from nailing up a few board he took one of the axes and started to use his own rust removal tools he had bought for his tools on this and at first he thought it was an effort of futility. In fact he had completely given up and thrown the axe to the ground in misplaced anger when he see it hit the ground and rust pop off leaving a slight gleam underneath.

Like the castle, the tool or weapon, he wasn’t sure which as it was pony sized and could be a hatchet or an actual axe for combat, was well made and possibly enchanted. After all a thousand years of rust should have left really nothing of the axe left, he had only given it a shot cause magic pony land rules. It took the better part of a day to clean up the axe and to replace the handle not because it couldn’t be used, but because there was no handle. Likely having rotted away long before Dustan himself showed up.

With the new handle, though the axe head looked small, he found it worked well for chopping wood as well as breaking up loose mortar from the walls that were in the process of crumbling as it were. He found that it rarely lost its edge too either attributing it to enchantments once again or whatever it was made of since it clearly wasn’t steel. Whatever metal it was made of was a bit more blue tented and looked as if it were covered in oil as whenever the sun hit it the axe head had a rainbow sheen covering it at times seemed to shift but he attributed it to the angle he was looking at it. He wanted to check to see if other of the tools or weapons down there were the same but between cleaning up the axe, finishing up the first room finally, and exploring, time was up.

However he had one last thing he wanted to do before heading back to the hut in the morning and that was chop some wood. Fall was on its way and winter behind it meaning that if by some miracle he was able to live here during those seasons that meant he needed some kind of heat source. So stashing his pack away as well as his sword in a little hidden area of his new room he took the axe and prepped for going to some nearby growth to start building up his wood supply. With all the work he had put in finally seeing to pay off he was in a good mood and started to whistle one of his favorite tunes from a game that wasn’t Final Fantasy.

Sadly that feel good feeling of that game and its soundtrack is what led them straight to him. So focused on chopping up a fallen log the ‘thunk’ that came from his head meeting a log was only appreciated by the Goblins.

The next time he woke up he found himself hating all life in existence for the pounding of his head. Reaching back he winced and pulled his fingers back from the pain only to find they came back wet and gooey. Blood that was mostly dried on his fingers said he had been out for a while, the breeze on his body said he was nude, and the clinking around his wrist said he had chains on shackling him on his right wrist.

Slowly as he struggled to make his eyes focus properly in the dark, he found he was in a barred cell with a few other figures, two ponies and a griffon surprisingly. Him slowly getting up made the ponies flee against the natural stone walls of the cell and the griffon to take a more aggressive stance. Leaning up he tried to get comfortable but no such luck when he was nude like he was.

Looking at all of the fellow cellmates he simply asked. “Soooo, how’s it going?”

The ponies were surprised it seems by him able to speak but it was the griffon who recovered first. “First thing you do when you wake up tossed into a prison is ask others ‘how’s it going’?” The griffoness had the white feathers and brown fur expected of griffons though her fur was a bit darker then what Gilda seemed to have for her fur. Her feathers had sky blue tips and the same blue marking just under her eyes and along her cheeks sweeping back giving her the look more akin to a falcon then an eagle.

The voice was clearly female as Dustan looked to the griffon first. “Figure that would break the ice and make me seem not as frightening.” He gestured his head over towards the ponies whom indeed seemed less frightened though still very defensive. “Names Dustan, so, someone wish to fill me in on where I found myself?”

Next one to speak was one of the ponies, a pegasus judging by the wings on his side, whose coloration was a deep blue with a main and tail the color of wheat or possibly the yellow tape that police use to cordon off areas. “Well, you got unlucky and got captured by monsters just like the rest of us and more.” His wing pointed out into the cavern as a few ponies were walking along towing a cart behind them full of rocks. “We are slaves that are going to be worked till we drop with little food or water.”

The other pony next to the pegasus, a female judging from her shape, was still hiding in the corner. Her deep brown dirty from work no doubt, making it hard to tell what color it really was, same with the white spots on her sides and belly. The mane on the pony, a unicorn if the horn on her head wasn’t just for show, had alternating locks of light blue and dark blue with stripes in her tail to match.

The thing to note was because of how dirty both ponies were their cutie marks were obscured so much he couldn’t make them out. “What kind of monsters are we talking about?”

As if answering his question the sound of steel ringing against the bars drew his attention to a familiar looking creature. “Quiet scum. Me no want to hear words come out no more.”

The brown furred creature moved away from the cage before Dustan couldn’t help but sneer. “Goblin.”

The others must have heard him as the griffon merely looked at him surprised. “You know what these things are?”

Giving a nod he looked at the others and simply said. “Yeah, nasty pieces of work they are, but I am sure you can see that for yourselves. So what are they having everyone drag around?”

This time it was the unicorn that was hiding that spoke first. “They are mining out ore, to forge weapons. It seems they aren’t too good at it though.”

He watched a Goblin or two come around the corner marveling at the swords they had in their grubby hands and even he could tell how poorly they were made. The goblins though must have thought them as masterpieces judging by how they were fawning over them.

Wincing again he touched the back of his head really wishing he knew how to use magic to heal the pain he was feeling. “Right now you are lucky.” He turned his head towards the pegasus with his gruff sounding voice and just raised an eyebrow. “You came as the word day was ending so you won’t be put to work till tomorrow.”

“Great, so lucky.” The sarcasm was palpable for sure.

The stallion just gave a snort and laid his head down on the ground. “Go ahead and think that with that kind of snarky attitude, but tomorrow you will realize I wasn’t lying.”

It seems it was some unspoken agreement came about as all the others laid down. “Well as I said my name is Dustan what are all of yours?”

The griffon was the first to respond once more. “Like it matters, we aren’t going anywhere.” Seems the others agreed with her as they said nothing.

Doing his best to get some sleep and hopefully get rid of a headache for tomorrow he settled down. Sadly since he was nude, on the rough stone ground he already knew what would happen and indeed sleep eluded him.

“MOVE CREATURE!” The Goblin shouted cracking a crude whip near him. He was pushing a large cart with the two ponies hauling it from the front and the griffon in back with him.

Each time the whip cracked he gritted his teeth not only out of him restraining himself but because of his head still throbbing in pain from where he had been knocked out though it was much less since he had been here for a few days already. He still had not learned the name of his cellmates even though repeated times he tried to strike up conversation they denied the act with silence.

His fellow captives were holding up better than him though as they had natural padding to help mitigate the discomfort of sleeping on stone leaving him with very little sleep at all as well as pains in places he didn’t think were possible. The most peaceful nights were when they overworked him and he passed out right away in the cell. It was only after the first day of work did he understand the reason why the prisoners were so silent about everything.

It was the look in their eyes, which he understood after the backbreaking work, little food and water, and terrible conditions overall. It was the look of those that had been broken. It was why every day he tried to get them to talk, to come out of their shell but no matter what he couldn’t seem to get a spark to come back to them. Seems ponies weren’t the only things captured either by the goblins as they had Timberwolves leashed up around certain points, a Manticore in a cage though for what he didn’t know, and some kind of crocodile looking creature he recognized from the show but couldn’t remember the name of.

However of all the slaves there were only ponies, the griffon, and himself for species. He had asked a few other slaves about where they were taken from and of those that answered it seemed like the Goblins were poaching any being that came near the Everfree. However it was easy to see why many of the prisoners never wished to speak.

In charge of the slaves was an armored Goblin, complete with metal cap, breastplate, and what looked to be a chain skirt wielding two whips, one in each hand. He stood a good head taller than other goblins and he wasn’t any other cap type that Dustan recognized. When the Squire used his Tactical Eye on the Goblin he found out why. It was a Hobgoblin, something that never appeared in the original tactics game.

The sound of something falling with a muffled cry caught his attention as it caused the cart to stop. Standing up to look he seen the spotted unicorn from his cell on the ground crying softly with the other pony nudging her with his nose telling her to stand quickly.

“I can’t, my legs wont anymore.” She cried to the stallion softly.

Sadly though the stop was noticed after a few moments and the Hobgoblin came over and cracked his whip near her. “Stand pony. Stand or me whip.”

Even with the help of the stallion at her side she couldn’t manage to get up, Dustan thought for sure she would get another warning but no. The crack of a whip and a loud cry proved that idea wrong.

“What you doing creature?” What the cries also proved was that once again that his legs moved before he thought standing between the ugly creature who stood only a head shorter then himself and the pony. “You wish be whipped too?”

“I am not going to let you whip her again period.” His fierce determination must have come off as challenging though as the air left his lungs before too long.

Doubling over from the gut punch he felt the whip crack across his body a few times. “Me whip you, then me whip pony, maybe feed her to cragadile.”

His body cried at him not to cause more trouble cause of the pain he was feeling, it’s a shame his spirit said otherwise as he looked up at the slave driver and spit at his face. The results were him getting hit across his face, the same side that Dash had marked just about a week ago.

Moving to his knees again the Hobgoblin chuckled while sneering down at him. “What you pretend you be knight in shining armor? Me armor is much more shiny than your flesh but me might still wear it. Face it creature, you pathetic. Me Strong. You no knight, you no can protect self.”

Balling up his fist he glared up at the malicious creature as time and time again he remembered friends and family saying similar things, if at least in a more kind tone or manner. Protecting others it had always been in his nature and it had always been something he did.

‘Dude I swear sometimes you are more of a knight then in the movies.’ The memory flashed quickly as Pat was patting him on the back.

They were just outside a dark alleyway heading back home just chatting and enjoying the night air. They had gone out to eat and had a few drinks in them each but not enough to be even tipsy, just to enjoy the evening. While he himself wasn’t a sports person the reason for the celebration was that one of Pat’s teams had won a huge upset over another team one whom they had not beat in almost a decade. The night was looking to be great, they would head back to his place, play games, eat snacks, watch terrible but funny movies.

The muffled scream from a nearby alleyway changed those plans. Pat tried to pull out his phone once another scream came out, one that shouted help but he was far behind Dustan who had already started running towards the call from the first one. He found a few individuals with a woman, in what looked to about to be a rape if nothing happened.

Naturally Dustan tackled one of the guys holding the woman whom started fighting back with her free hand. Pat followed in not to long after and together, mostly Pat, managed to fight and keep them there long enough for the police to come in and arrest everyone involved including Pat and himself till things were cleared. In the cell they were thrown in Patrick himself started to laugh as he looked at his friend rubbing his bruising and soon to be black eye.

“Dude I swear sometimes you are more of a knight then in the movies.” Pat told him trying to adjust his ripped shirt to better cover his torso in vain. He must have had a confused look on his face as his best friend just continued. “You ran in there at the first sign of someone in trouble. If you had super powers you would be a super hero. If this was medieval times you would be a knight.”

“As if, the nice guy always finish last remember?” he remembered telling his friend bitterly.

Chuckling and patting him on the back his friend for many years just told him simply. “Better to look at all the people you help from the back then the front. No one left behind and no one missing out right? You may not be a super hero or a knight in this day and age, but I bet in a past life you were one. Only way to explain your reflexes for jumping in like that.”

“As if.” He said it the same way as before but this time with a smile on his face.

“Your right. I am not a knight because I can’t protect myself.” Feeling his hand clench further Dustan gritted his teeth as he continued to speak. “I am a knight because I protect others!”

Dustan felt his fist swinging for the armored head of the Hobgoblin quickly so much so that the creature itself wasn’t expecting it. Just before his fist connected something caught his eyes though, light blue light was being reflected off of the helmet. When his fist connected not only did it make the goblin subtype jerk his head back but his cap fragmented in the same light blue light that was reflected.

Looking down at his fist quickly he realized that it was glowing the same color for a moment before it faded. His surprise cost him though as he was quickly and without remorse stomped into the ground by not only the slave driver himself a few guards that had seen the attack.

The last thought before he was beaten unconscious was merely a question in amazement. ‘Was that an Art of War skill?’

Rainbow Dash thought of herself as the fastest pegasus in Equestria without a doubt. She thought of herself as the most loyal pony in Equestria as well further cemented by the fact that she was the Element of Loyalty. However something she wasn’t was good at giving apologizes.

Over a week ago was the party for her former friend Gilda, where she was going to prank her and show her a good time. What she didn’t expect was how Gilda exploded on Pinkie Pie like she did, nor did she expect to learn about how Gilda had treated her best friend Fluttershy. Dash simply thought the cut on her cheek was something that happened from treating one of her animal friends.

When she had finally heard the story of how the human had come in to stop Gilda did the feelings of loathing hit her like a ton of bricks. She had hit somepony that had stood up for one of her friends and defended them from harm. She had promised herself that next time she saw him that she would apologize for how she acted and show him some of her cool moves as payment for how much of a jerk she was. Though as to why she had not gone to him before today, well she had been away for a bit for weathermare stuff over in Cloudsdale not to mention the problem with Trixie showing up a few days ago before that.

Nodding to herself once more she decided to head over first to Fluttershy’s mostly cause the speedster herself couldn’t remember exactly where Zecora’s hut was. A hop, skip, and wing beat later she was knocking on the shy pegasus’ door.

As the butter cream colored mare opened the door an inner part of Dash was set off saying something was wrong. “Oh hey Rainbow Dash. What brings you here?”

There was some slight redness to her friend’s eyes and some bags as well. “Are you ok Fluttershy? You look like you haven’t slept in a few days.”

“Oh I’m alright. I am just a bit worried is all.” The way she adverted her eyes though Dash knew her friend well enough to know it was an understatement.

Putting on her confident stance, patent pending, she looked down at her oldest friend and simply said. “Well you don’t have to be worried anymore, Rainbow Dash is here and can have this problem licked in no time, so why don’t you tell me what it is.”

The pink maned pony just tilted her head slightly and asked. “You haven’t heard?”

Shaking her head throwing the locks of polychromatic locks around she simply said. “Been in Cloudsdale remember?”

“Oh right.” Rubbing her hoof against the ground for a moment the animal handler decided to just say it for once. “Dustan has been missing for a few days now. He was supposed to be back about four days ago from what Zecora has said. Twilight has even sent a letter to Celestia asking for some help or advice but no response has come yet.”

‘…In fact why don’t you get lost!’ The words that she tossed at the human just a week back now came flooding to her mind and she could feel the blood leaving her face. This was her fault! This was all cause she didn’t even ask others and see if he was even telling the truth. She had run off an innocent pony, person, whatever.

“I-I need to go!” She didn’t even hear Fluttershy’s response as she quickly took to the air. The air felt wet on her cheeks for many reasons but not for rain.

Spotlights, they were once again shining down upon sets of armor, the checkerboard pattern, the calm sense in the air. It was the classroom. Dustan looked around, here he felt no wounds, no exhaustion, and instead he felt this place was more welcoming then last time he had visited.

Looking at all the stands he could now sense how strong each of his job classes were with Squire taking the forefront with how strong it was. However there was a different pulling sensation this time towards another stand. This one displayed the armor and crest that he recognized from tactics, for those who were sworn to knighthood or walked its path wore this type of clothing. Well minus the special units. Placing his hand on the armor he somehow could tell he was currently equipped with this job class now.

“How the hell did I become a knight?” Was the first thing that popped into his mind. Almost as if in response the armor stand started to glow and project an image into his mind.

It was him on his knees before the Hobgoblin. He was wounded but standing between him and the female unicorn. It was then that he watched the scene play out as before but from another angle.

“I am a knight because I protect others!” As his fist started swinging at the hobgob’s helm, two words rang out as if from the armor stand itself. “Rend Helm.” As the soundless words reverberated from the stand the same instant his fist started to glow blue.

“Holy shit, so I have to be worthy to be a class? Well that’s some limitations I never thought I would get.” He heard his voice echo as he said that. That wasn’t all he heard though.

“Worthy/Worthy/Worthy.” Looking around he felt the words coming from various armor stands. First were the robes of the White Mage. The sense of calm and peace radiated from it. Next came the long pointed hat and robes of the Black Mage giving off a sense of destructive force yet controlled at the same time. Last came from the lightly armored and quick footed armor stand from a new beam of light, the Thief was now available as well.

Dustan was about to question what this all meant but it seemed information just rushed into his head from too many sources at once, it was hard to sort everything out and was honestly too much. He passed out in the classroom because of that.

When he next woke up he wasn’t as sore as he thought he would be. He found a comforting wet rag atop of his head and he wasn’t in his cell. Well he was still in a cell from the looks of it, solitary too since it was a solid looking door he was hold up behind with barely any room. He still hurt in places but it felt like he had either healed or was healed in some way as just the other day his pains were much more than they were and couldn’t have possibly eased that much.

However that was not what he should be worried about as the door opened and two ponies and a goblin came in. “Out, time to die.”

Dustan wasn’t a coward, or one prone to cry but he honestly felt his heart jump up into his throat as he heard that. No doubt fighting against the slave driver was what caused him to be signed up for an execution. The two ponies that came with the guard quickly put manacles on his arms and legs before urging him out into the hallway.

On the way out he was purposefully led in the most roundabout way possible all while the goblins taunted loudly about dead creature walking. All the ponies were brought out it seems to watch his execution as he was led to a cell that had an open grate. Below he could see more than a couple of cragadiles all moving rapidly as they had already gotten used to this method of meat delivery.

As he took one last look towards the group of ponies one thought came to mind: Don’t leave on a bad note.

“I have no regrets on protecting another.” As he said that his eyes met with his former cellmates, one of whom was crying, burying her head in the shoulder of the stallion. While he was comforting her, his eyes shown with something, with what though, it was hard to say as he wasn’t looking at Dustan at the moment. The griffon was another matter as her eyes locked with his own and before he saw someone who had lost the will to live, a broken bird. Now he saw one with fire in their eyes. That fire was the last thing Dustan seen as the gate snapped open below him.

Another day had passed and it was another lack luster day of work. Dash seemed to have just lost all spirit and motivation for work at all. Not even her numerous naps during the day were a comfort anymore. So much so they were doing the opposite so she was now skipping them. Her friends had begun to notice as well as more often than not one would check up on her during her day, even her co-workers like Cloud Kicker and Thunderlane had noticed and was asking if she should take a few days off.

She declined the offer as soon as it was made as cloud busting and weather wrangling was just about all she could do to keep her mind off things. Well it was till Twilight had informed her that Celestia was sending a platoon of guards to Ponyville. When she had asked why, Twilight had stated that numerous missing pony reports have been made around the vicinity of the Everfree and that strange creatures with brown fur and clothing have been spotted in the area.

Right away Dash asked if it was possible that she could join the guard for the mission to which Twilight said yes and that all of the Element bearers and Zecora would be joining. The Element bearers would be coming for obvious reasons and Zecora as she was the most knowledgeable about the Everfree. This brought about why Rainbow Dash was currently waiting not so patiently at the train station. Today was the day they were supposed to arrive. She was going to find the human and any ponies that might have been abducted.

‘You know he wasn’t abducted right? He left cause of how much of bucking jerk you have been. After all you told him to get lost after hitting him and berating him.’ Shaking her head as she heard the voice of doubt in her mind once again she gritted her teeth and chose not to listen. She knew that if she listened to that voice she would break down and wouldn’t be fit to come along. ‘You have hated him since you first saw him. Thinking him a monster to be gotten rid of. Even when he helped out Fluttershy and in the forest for your entire group you mistrusted him. Not to mention that when he showed up at Zecora’s you were ready to buck him into next week.’

“SHUT UP!” Dash shouted at herself. It was a good thing she was early to the station making it so no pony else was there or that would have been both embarrassing and serve to make her look crazy. Sighing to herself she spoke to that doubt in her mind and heart. ‘I am going to make it right. I have not been a good friend at all and I will make sure he knows that. From now on I will have his back even if no pony else does.’

Feeling better for her silent vow the impatient speedster settled her haunches on the ground to wait.

There was currently a debate going on in Dustan’s mind. Should he be thankful about the multicolored aura surrounding him keeping him from being eaten by the cragadiles or should he be angry at them as the reptiles were still trying to reach him by jumping up out of the water only being stopped with a kick here and there. Thankfully the debate was over as he was slowly raised up and pulled to hidden tunnel that closed up after he was through with the light from the levitation fading as well.

“The guards don’t look to see what happens to ponies they throw in here.” The first voice said to him in the dark. “So they will think you are dead and making it so you can come with us undisturbed.”

“Ok mind telling me who rescued me, not that I am complaining mind.” Standing up he right away winced when his head hit the top of the tunnel. “Though I will complain about how small this tunnel is.”

There was a light of a unicorn horn before he could just barely make out the silhouette of the unicorn providing the light. “I suppose you can call us the resistance. Not an original name I know but it fits.” Dustan was forced to duck down and crawl in some parts of the tunnel as he followed. “We are members of those that were captured who decided to fight back. We haven’t gotten any new members lately but we saw what you did and knew we couldn’t let you die. So we have been prepping for you to join us since then. We have eyes and ears everywhere there are ponies.”

“I am guessing you want my help in fighting?” That just got him a barely seen nod in the dark from the unicorn. “Do you know how many goblins there are and how many strong is this Resistance?”

At first he didn’t think he would get an answer, but as light slowly started to come into view he didn’t think he needed one regardless on him getting one. “We are fifty strong against an enemy that is twice as many strong.”

Here he was in a large cavern, big enough for him to stand up in finally and then some. The crystals were giving off faint light for everyone to see just enough to go about daily life. Off in the corner though came a stronger light and the ringing of a hammer: A smithy.

“Damn you really got your shit together if you have all this.” Dustan said rubbing his arms as it was cooler down here then it was up in the cells.

The distinctive hum of magic and a touch on his shoulder called his attention. “I believe these are yours? Though if they are I have a few questions for you.”

In the glow of the male unicorn’s magic was his clothes and armor that were taken from him, as well as cloth wrapped around something large. “Holy shit my stuff! I am not even going to ask how you got it, I just want to put it on now please.” The newly made knight wasted no time grabbing his gear and putting it on feeling whole once the final piece was on, in this case was his cloak. As he finished he looked towards the final item that was wrapped up. Unwrapping it showed it to be his axe. “Oh right I was out to chop wood.”

Picking it up he heard a few gasps come from some of the ponies watching him as well as whispers of it being true. “I see, that does help things along quite a bit.”

“Ok, mind explaining things a bit more clearly for some who don’t know what it is you are talking about?” Dustan was a bit miffed about not knowing about something big enough for ponies to whisper about like some great event like this apparently was.

Giving a cough before the unicorn stated. “I see you don’t even know what you hold.”

“And I assume you are going to tell me it isn’t just some axe huh?” The amount of sarcasm was strong in this one.

“Come let us eat and talk then. Be warned it’s not the best food, but at least it’s something.” Variety was the spice of life, but hunger made even the most poorly prepped foods taste divine. The rumble in the human’s belly told him that this meal would be one remembered for good or bad.

He had gone through his third bowl of…oatmeal…before the unicorn started to talk once more except Dustan ignored him for a moment. “Let me finish eating first.” All that was given was a chuckle and a patient unicorn.

When he was done eating the cloaked human gave a nod towards the unicorn. “Magisters, those that study magic for a living in case you don’t know, have found sources of a metal that is very rare.” Already Dustan could see where this was going but let him continue. “The metals are not natural but created.”

“So what, I am holding a Vibranium axe?” With the comic reference thrown out there the nerdy male just grinned.

“I don’t know what that is. What you hold is called Harmonium.” Dustan couldn’t help but raise his eyebrows as he was kidding when he said Vibranium but Harmonium was giving off warning bells that he didn’t like. “When normal metal or metal ore is exposed to the light given off when the Elements of Harmony they sometimes absorb some of the power from them. This gives the metal some new properties.”

“If you come off with some bullshit like I am a chosen one I am going to be pissed.” Frowning as he said that, Dustan continued. “That never ends up well for said chosen one.”

“Sort of. Not so much chosen but in tune with harmony or acts on its behalf.” As the unicorn said that it confirmed a lot of fanfic writer’s theories that harmony was aware to some degree in the My Little Pony world. “It still has all the properties of the metal it was before, in this case steel for your axe. However it also gains an enchantment that unicorns and magisters all around Equus have been wanting for untold ages and still haven’t managed to create: The Everlasting Enchantment.”

“Ok so what does that mean?” it was a simple question, though Dustan had a few ideas on what it meant already just from the name and the fact that it wasn’t dust when he found it.

“What it means is that it will stay sharp and will not succumb to rust.” In the light it was easy to see that the stallion was rust colored himself which was half why he was laughing now. “What’s so funny?”

“Well then I guess this isn’t Harmonium then since it was covered in a LOT of rust when I found it.” That was a lot off his mind for sure.

“That is impossible, I mean it would have had to been abandoned in a damp area for centuries if not a millennia for rust to even generate on it.” Well shit was all Dustan could think of. “Regardless we already know its Harmonium for the simple fact of how it looks. Look at it in the light, when it catches light it has a shifting rainbow hue that only Harmonium has.” Double shit.

Giving a sigh and giving up on getting out of half chosen one status Dustan spoke up. “Yeah I noticed that myself after I finished cleaning it up and yeah it was abandoned for about a thousand years from what I could tell.” He was wishing he brought his sword with him now instead of leaving it behind hidden.

“Well that would explain it for sure.” The unicorn stood up and smiled. “I haven’t introduced myself. I am Logistics Trail.” With there being more light it was easy to see why Dustan had a hard time seeing him before, with his dark rust colored coat and black mane and tail he easily blended in with the shadows. The only thing to break up the pattern was his grey cutie mark that was a model of the globe surrounded by three rings making it look like an atom. The other difference between an atom symbol and his mark was that instead of balls for the electrons there were wings.

“Dustan Warner but just call me Dustan.” Reaching out he met the pony’s hoof with his first in a hoof bump. “I hope you don’t think I am some deciding factor here cause even with what we have here, they have numbers on their side for sure.” All that the stallion gave was a cocky grin. “Oh you have to be shitting me.”

The train whistled calling an end to its trip. Not only was the sound of many hooves heard, but the clanking of steel, bronze, and gold from the various battalions. Iron and steel were rare in Equestria, as was Copper, tin, and aluminum so gold and silver were often the go to for equipment. The good thing about gold and silver that made up for their cousins metals outperforming them was that enchantments were easier to inlay in them making it so they could be more versatile depending on what they were enchanted with.

Rainbow Dash took to a stance and saluted the guards that marched out of the train as soon it would be time to make up for her mistakes.

Chapter Eight: Viva La Resistance.

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My Little Tactics

Chapter Eight: Viva La Resistance.

It had been a day since he was rescued and in that time he got to meet all of those in the resistance, from the team of unicorns, including Logistics, that had rescued him, to the blacksmith who was busy forging something for him that was supposedly almost done. The reason for that meeting came when the smith called him in to take measurements and that was awkward for a pony to be touching him like that.

However the most interesting pony by far was one called Mystic Quandary. He was an earth pony through in through but he was a magister in training. His goal in life was to find none passive magicks useable by all races and species. A noble goal for sure, but one that left him ostracized more than a little bit by not only unicorns but earth ponies as well seeing as they saw his pursuit as a pipe dream. Which was why he was sticking so heavily next to Dustan now as when Dustan found out about his dream and told him that it was a good goal to have he found himself being hugged and cried on.

It seems the earth pony, whose cutie mark was a question mark with the dot being replaced by a six pointed star was not only sensitive but had been without words of encouragement for a very long time. He was also a very awkward color pattern. His hooves complete with unshorn fetlocks, nose, and the tips of his ears were solid black, the same color as the many dots covering his body. His mane and tail were brick red in coloration with a single lock being green. With himself now being followed by a pony who really needed the confidence and assurance that could only come from another Dustan was not as bothered by it as one would think.

“So yes it’s a combination of both the thaumic field and one’s own mana reserves that fuel magic. Problem is expressing it properly without a conductor like a horn.” Mystic was busy explaining how magic was generated in Equestria which Dustan himself had read in much greater detail that went over his head half the time from a book. “Since the horn is an extension of bone with many nerves in it, it connects deeply inside to the very core of unicorns. There were some theory’s that magic could be used by anypony if they had no skin, but some tests were made in the dark era right after Nightmare Moon’s banishment that both disproved that and made experimenting on ponies or other species strictly outlawed.”

“Jeeze.” Dustan was honestly sickened by the fact that it was a theory and that someone actually went through the process of testing on subjects. “Hopefully the ones who did that experiment were locked up, killed, or both.”

Giving a nod to his question Mystic answered. “They were. Sentence and tried about nine hundred and fifty years ago. They served twenty years in the most secure prison at the time before executed for crimes against ponykind among other numerous acts.”

“Good.” His voice said he agreed with this decision and he meant it.

Their little discussion though went no further then that as Logistics came forward and stated. “We are about to have the meeting on our final operation, the one that will set all of the prisoners free and turn the slavers on their heads once and for all. Many of those in command, myself included want you to be there. Mystic the invitation doesn’t extend to you.”

The earth pony had gotten his hopes up and had them dashed from just that. “I understand.”

“Good, we need those who will be useful in this venture to be in on the plan.” The way Logistics said that set the human’s teeth on edge.

“Well Mystic, I will extend the invitation to you then.” The leader of the Resistance’s jaw became set as Dustan knew that this was something he didn’t want. “Honestly so far as I know, you know the most about magic so your insight might prove to be more valuable than anyone else’s for the unicorns.”

For a moment Mystic looked more than happy but the sad look that returned on his face a second later said otherwise. “I don’t know, Logistics said he didn’t want me there and I don’t know how much help I will actually be and-”

“None sense.” The Squire turned Knight told him standing up. “Come on. So far you have helped me understand a few things about magic and I have read books as well though not as many as yourself it seems. If nothing else you can be there to help me understand any plans involving magic.”

Logistics must have seen that the human wasn’t backing down so he gave a smile that told volumes of how he felt. “Indeed, as Dustan said, you can be there to inform him on what some of the magicks we will be using and their nature.”

After the leader of the group left Dustan tisked while the magister in training just sighed. “He’s right; I have no business being there Dustan.”

“None sense.” The biped told the quadruped. “I meant what I said back there, I barely know jack all about magic and I have been trying. Having someone who knows this stuff will help a lot, so come as a favor to me and know that you deserve to be there cause of your heard work.”

The smile on the pony’s face showed how much those words meant to him before Mystic got a serious look on his face. “Sure, I won’t let you down. I will explain everything I can during or after as well as take notes in case you need to go back and review something. Just give me a minute to go grab something to write with.”

Watching the pony leave Dustan’s smile vanished as he thought something not so kind. ‘Please don’t let his excitement get him or anyone else killed coming up.’

“Alright troops.” The commander in purple armor spoke up to those there. Rainbow Dash wasn’t sure who he was but it was obvious he gave off an air of someone who could lead that much the speedster was sure of. “We are gathered here today because reports have come in that ponies have been taken from various routes near the Everfree and abducted. For what purpose we do not know, nor do we even know if they are alive.” That part had Dash chocked up as she had not even considered that the one she drove off might have just been murdered. “However we are assuming they are alive and until otherwise stated this is a rescue mission. We will be deploying as soon as our scouts come back with confirmation on suspicious activity. Our scouts are using standard search techniques, a team of pegasi pulling chariots with unicorns whose spells are specifically designed to search for the resonance patterns of ponies.”

Seems somepony beat Dash to the punch as one of the guards, likely somepony new, raised their hoof and was called on. “What is a resonance pattern?”

That is when Twilight made her appearance, standing next to the lead stallion whom Rainbow made a note later to tease her on with how she had seen her chatting him up in private. “Every pony has an abundance of magic and among the pony race each one gives off its own resonance pattern, as such the teams are searching using their own protecting spells for anything that bounces back and gives off that signature.”

“Oh kind of like how bats use echolocation.” Surprisingly Fluttershy was the one who spoke up and said that only to eep and hide behind her mane when she attracted attention.

“Actually that is really very close to what is happening.” Celestia’s prized student stated. “The only difference is that the spells the unicorns are using won’t respond to anything but pony resonance so no false images or anything.”

Stepping forward once more the commander spoke up. “Twilight is right.” Rainbow snickered in her head as she caught the casual use of first name there. “Once they have a positive handle on ponies location or have swept the entire forest to confirm if there are survivors, we won’t move out. Till then, check your equipment, check to make sure you are fed courtesy of the local bakers in Ponyville the Cakes, and make sure you are ready and prepared to fight for your fellow pony.”

There was a massive cheer though Dash did feel somepony walk up to her. “You ok there sugarcube?” ‘Of course it had to be AJ’ Was what the pegasus thought to herself. “You haven’t been yourself lately and if you’re not up to it there is no problem backin’ down to let other ponies do what they do best.”

“I’m sure, after all I have a promise to keep.” Sticking out her chest to put on bravado the pegasus wasn’t expecting the question that her friend responded with.

“What promise?” For a moment the earth pony seemed like she wanted to stare into her soul.

Dash however quickly looked away towards the prepping troops. “To myself.”

“Are ya sure that a promise is worth putting your life on the line like this?” Logically she knew Applejack wasn’t questioning her loyalty but she felt herself puff up in slight anger anyways.

“Yes.” She spoke quickly and harshly. A part of her noted the hurt look in her friend’s eyes before she simply said. “Sorry, just a little wound up is all.”

“So is everypony Dash. Just take it easy out there ok?” As Applejack left the pegasus sighed and started to head over to where she seen there were sets of pegasus armor.

She knew that she was best left lightly armored at best thanks to her martial arts training so when the officer in charge asked what she needed, she stated her measurements and what she was looking for. What was given to her was a set of heavy cloth armor that was enchanted with a few durability and defensive enchantments but not overly heavy on the magical side that it wouldn’t interfere with her ability to fly or other natural pegasus abilities.

Next came weapons, to this she got some heavy duty horseshoes which luckily for her were not the ones that needed to be nailed in but the ones that could be slipped on and off. The other thing was some wing blades but she declined those as she stated she rather is mobile and the blades would weigh her wings down.

Soon after all that was settled she met up with her friends to check out what they themselves wore. Fluttershy was dressed rather daintily in loose flowing thin robes with almost a nature aesthetic to it while she wore nothing on her hooves at all except bracelets made of vines. Rarity was similarly dressed in loose fitting robes but of a sheer satin rather than regular cloth. On her back was two saddle bags that when asked the seamstress showed that they were packed full of sowing supplies and way too many needles for anything to be properly done to which the unicorn scoffed at such a notion.

Pinkie Pie was dressed, almost fittingly enough, as a jester of some type though when asked about it Pinkie said simply. “I am the pink party planner of Ponyville. I need to be able to move around, thus the loose fitting outfit which makes nearly no noise, I need my party supplies and other things, thus so many pockets, and I have my party cannons with me.”

As she stated that, while Twilight’s eye twitched no pony questioned her. Speaking of Twilight, she was dressed in the robes of a high ranking magister and when questioned about it blushed. The robes were all dark blue dotted with stars and constellations as well as her cutie mark emboldened on the outside.

“It wasn’t my idea. Princess Celestia sent it along with the troops stating that if I was sure I wanted to go into combat with them that I should dress up to my station.” Her hoof was rubbing around in the ground. “Plus I didn’t even know I was a registered magister till the Princess sent this along with a note explaining how she gave me the exam a year and a half ago saying it was a different test.” The same hoof that had once been rubbing the ground went to rub her chin. “Though it would explain why my stipend is so high every month.”

This just left Applejack, who was wearing a mix of leather and gold armor but on top of her helmet she still wore her trusty Stetson. The mix of armor was meant for movement as well as defense all in all quite practical. Spike had said he wanted to go but was strictly forbidden from doing so. There was also some surprising volunteers from Ponyville, the candy making mare Bonbon was part of the operation as was Lyra Heartstrings, Berry Punch, and a few others.

The patrols of scouts went on and on, with no sign of anything. So much so that her friends as well as the captain all suggested that ponies sleep till reports came back. As much as Dash didn’t want to, she had to remind herself that if she wasn’t in top shape not only might it cost her own life, but others as well. So reluctantly she fell asleep.

Dustan was woken up in the middle of the night or what he assumed was the middle as it didn’t feel like he got a full amount of sleep. The one waking him up was Logistics. Said point gave him a shush quickly as the human almost asked him what was up.

The reason for the shush was that there was not enough bedrooms for everyone so he shared with others. “Look I am going to be brief, we went out and talked to some ponies as planned and none really wanted to join. We got a few takers sure but nothing good.” The look on Dustan’s face said it all as Logistics just nodded with him. “Agree it’s not looking good. However there is an alternate plan. Some royal guard scouts were seen near here. They will be over our area around sunrise as such we need to start before then and cause something to alert them on the surface we are here. That is why we need you.”

“Your suggesting I become a distraction or do something to alert them aren’t you?” That only got him a nod making him roll his eyes. “So which one?”

“Both.” Again Dustan’s look must have said it all as Logistics started to explain. “What is going to happen is your party is going to cause a distraction, but at the same time if you get to the point where we plan to cause the alert then you will do that as well. We are not sure how things will go so we are going to be cutting up the large teams we originally planned into smaller groups. This will either force the goblins into smaller groups as well, or leave openings for others.”

“Some groups are going to die you know that right? Especially if the groups get collapsed on by more than they can handle.” Seeing the pony’s nod Dustan swore under his breath and started to get up. “Well so much for trying to sleep now, might as well get up and see where we need to go for the alert you have planned.”

“Good.” Was the only response that the leader of the resistance gave though once they were outside he continued to speak. “However before that go to the smith, he has your equipment ready.”

Sighing at this he did as he was told as this wasn’t his show to run and if the smith had some extra equipment he needed for the operation then he might as well grab it before being told what to do. When he got closer and closer the sound of ringing was no longer heard and the forge heat was dying down.

Inside the smith was a huge burly pony, likely the size of Trouble Shoes so it was easy to see how well he was up to the task of smithing. “Ahh there you are colt, come in come in.”

“You realize I am an adult where I come from for more than a handful of years now.” He said to the smith, though it was hard to read the smith as his entire body was blackened from the soot of the forge. So he looked solid black and cause of the soot his cutie mark was obscured as well.

Shrugging he chuckled. “Be that as it may, when you get to be my age all you young ones are colts and fillies to me. So indulge an old stallion for a bit, besides your armor is done.”

“Armor?” Seems his expression was incredibly easy to read today as once more surprise shown on his face.

Nodding to him the smith went to the back while grunting a bit. “Yep, you were a challenge alright, in the end. In the end we didn’t have enough steel to make you anything your size, the gold has already gone to the unicorns to enchant as it was the first resource to go, same with silver just being second. The iron and steel went to weapons and as such I was left with mostly scrap. But that is where the challenge came in. I decided to take up all the leftovers I had of one metal to see if I had enough to forge for you and bronze was the lucky winner.”

As the burly pony came out a large piece of armor came out with him, burnished to perfection. “I have never put on armor before, mind helping me out?” Honestly he was saying this not only cause it was true, but to hide the emotion from his voice as much as he could as he always dreamed of owning a real set of armor back on Earth.

“That I can do, but you may have to bend down for me there colt.” He did so gladly and overall the way the smith had put it together fit him nicely no chafing at all thanks to bits of cloth and leather in various spots. The straps also to tighten it were rather intuitive so much so that he got complemented on it. “It’s like you have been wearing armor your entire life colt, sure you’re not just pulling an old stallion’s leg when you said you never wore any?”

“Thanks but I say it’s the wisdom of the elderly there that helped me out.” As he picked up his axe, he stood in front of a crude mirror they had and hefted the axe in both hands. ‘Good thing I bought the skill Equip Axes while I could when I first cleaned up this thing. Otherwise I would be hard pressed to explain why it was I couldn’t wield this thing.’ For a moment that thought stood in his mind before he realized something. ‘Wait did I ever equip that skill, I thought I had something else there from another class.’

That thought went no were as the old smith chuckled. “Lookin’ good there colt. I don’t know what your species is supposed to look like in armor but you look natural that much I can tell. I even put a custom loop there on the end of your armor so you can stow away your special axe you got there.”

Looking to his side he did indeed find a loop so that he could slide the handle through leaving only the head of the axe left. This meant with a quick pull and adjustment of his hold he had easy access to his weapon now.

“Thanks old man, I will be sure to do your armor proud for sure.” That put a smile on both of their faces and soon shared laughter.

The smith patted him on his back. “Be sure to crack a few heads for me. I am a builder not a fighter sadly and in my old age my bones just can’t move as swift as you youngsters can.”

Dustan gave a thumbs up though it seemed the gesture went over the stallions head so instead he said. “Will do.”

Heading over to the meeting area he soon found Logistics. “Good you are here. I was about to explain this again to a few other team leaders, of which you are one.” He heard a couple ponies mumble something but out of his hearing, though it sounded either racist or along the lines of about time. He chose to believe the latter. “Ok so here we are, there are several exit tunnels here, here and along here. A few teams will exit each one and then split up. Our goal is to take all the spidery tunnels along this side of the cavern and make our way towards this area.” The stallion used his magic to highlight a room. “This area was boarded off as it killed ponies who entered.”

“Monsters?” One of the pony team leaders spoke up.

“Worse.” Logistics said. “Gas. Flammable gas at that. The reason for the boarding up was twofold. One so no goblins would go there to die and two they dug a hole up top to vent the gases hoping to eventually mine things out.”

“No way.” One of the team leaders spoke echoed by a couple of others. Dustan had an idea what was going on and he didn’t like it.

“Right, we are going there to light it up with the shaft to the surface opened up, it should create a nice vent for the flames to travel up and light a beacon to where the search teams should go.” Many ponies were excited by this plan but not Dustan.

He needed to say something. “But the team who lights it up is likely to be crispy from this. Not to mention that we don’t know if the scouts have any kind of decent back up to support us.”

Seems that Logistics didn’t like that once again as his jaw set for a moment before relaxing. “These are Royal Guard Scouts. That means this is an official operation they are conducting. Likely in response to missing ponies or even a threat up above. Either way once they spot this they will come in to rescue us.”

The next hour was Dustan then telling Logistics on how insane that plan was. Not only was the team to win the race to light the beacon going to likely be fried, but it might take the royal guards too long to find them leaving the entire resistance to be crushed. More and more as they argued the more and more Logistics was letting some…rather unpony like views come forth about non-unicorns and other races completely.

In the end Logistics simply said. “Well then if you are that worried about others you will be the vanguard of the assault and that is that. Dismissed. When the time comes, be ready.”

“Fine, I will be ready alright.” Dustan said leaving with a very angry scowl on his face.

Dustan went to wake up the members of his team, specifically four members as it seemed all teams were about five members give or take. The first member was an earth pony named Jump Stamp who was an actual pony fighter or at least that is what he claimed. Really all his boasted and posturing reminded Dustan of pro wrestlers back on earth. The second pony was a unicorn pony this time named Yodel Echo. He was a unicorn whose magic was tied to his singing and said to produce effects to enhance allies or debilitate enemies which reminded Dustan this time of final fantasy tactics bards and dancers. Third member came in the form a pegasus who refused to give his name to anyone.

“Me?” said the forth member of the team as he woke him up. “But why me?”

Dustan had argued that same point when he heard who his team was to be, but got no answer. “Logistics set it up to be this way Mystic.”

“But but…why me?” Mystic looked absolutely frightened and no matter what Dustan said no matter how much he tried, those words and light sniffles were all the pony responded with.

Soon it came down to the hour or prep where all ponies were outfitted with armor or weapons. Dustan had asked the smith to see if there was a shield or buckler, anything left over for him to use but seems like he got the luck of the draw in that nothing was available. All of the members of the teams came out before the other members of the resistance as Logistics took center stage.

The rust colored pony looked around before speaking up. “You all stand here today because somepony rescued you from the fate of being a slave up above us by the creatures we came to know as goblins. You wanted to help make sure no pony was treated like you and so you could free others from their tyranny so let me tell you, your chance has finally come.” There were many stamps of approval and cheers from many around. “Now we go into battle not only to save those still captured, but show the way to the royal guard who seem to be searching for us. Our bravery will win this day. The goblins don’t know what race they were dealing with when they decided to capture us. Long Live Pony’s, Long Live Celestia!”

The cheer was repeated three times before groups started to say their final goodbyes to those that were staying behind. Thus began the march towards the exit tunnels. The tunnel that Dustan’s squad was going towards, along with one other squad was near the main chambers of the goblins and the slaves.

“Now we just wait for the signal to start.” The signal was straight forward and easy to see. It came after fifteen minutes it was a light spell eventually ran down the tunnel and hit against the wall where the door was popping into sparks. “There it is!”

Setting his shoulder to the hidden wall he pushed it open and came out quickly. It was bad timing as well as a goblin had just turned the corner and had spotted them. Too late as the Harmonium Axe buried itself in the unprotected cap and forehead of the goblin who slumped to the ground a timer appearing over him to indicate his countdown.

“Move, move, move! My team with me, secondary team you go to the left. We are to go to the slave chambers to see if we can open up the slaves to help out.” Dustan called out quick. His team moved with him quickly heading to the slave chambers now only they were met with quite a few goblins including the slave driver himself. “Well you all know what to do, GO!”

Rainbow Dash had enough of sleep and couldn’t sleep no more. Though in the camp of guards she wasn’t alone, as some chose to spend time checking on equipment, some joked around and played cards, others socialized or ate. Dash wasn’t any of them.

Rainbow Dash felt the feathers and fur on her body stand up as if a storm was coming but no clouds in sight. She wasn’t the only one though as Pinkie Pie soon showed up shaking from head to toe. It only took Dash’s sleep addled mind a moment to realize something big was about to happen. Right away she started waking up her friends and those who knew about Pinkie’s sense.

Seems Twilights new colt toy took her seriously though Twilight herself seemed to doubt things. “Whatever is coming. I’ll be ready.”

Dustan kicked the goblin off his blade as his new shield deflected another blow. Say what you wanted about goblins and how much they sucked at making swords, but trust them to forge a slab of metal into a semi-decent shield to be looted. He wanted to look to see how his team was coming along but only caught a glimpse of Mystic running around trying to test a set of keys he had picked up from one of the dead slavers.

“RAWRG!” was the battle cry of the hobgoblin from before as he marched his way towards Dustan. Problem was there was a goblin in the way that he was trying to get to back off.

The slave driver didn’t see that as a problem as he reached over to the goblin and with a twist of his hand made the goblin’s head turn around to see who had killed him. “Well shit.”

Dustan barely had time to block the next attack as well as a mighty booted foot came at him colliding with the shield and throwing him back against a wall. “ME KILL YOU!”

“FUCK YOU TOO HULK!” He wasn’t sure if the hobgoblin understood any of those words but the tone he must have understood as he uncoiled both whips from his sides. “Fucking dual-wielder.”

The first crack of the whip Dustan manage to dodge to the left of the second though he felt reverberate through his armor making him remember one very important thing. He was wearing armor now.

This drove him to rush at the slave driver shield forward and axe at the ready. ‘Hulk’ wasn’t as dumb as he looked however using one of his whips to hit at the feet of the human with the other one grabbing onto the ankle of one as well and tugging hard. This sent the Knight tumbling to the ground on his back like a turtle.

The hobgoblin ran over and lifted his foot as if to crush him now. “ME SMASH!”

“You serious?!” He barely had time to comprehend the similarities at the moment as he raised his shield and brace both hands behind it only to feel like the stone underneath him cracked a little from the force of the stomp. Dustan knew that he would be paste if not for the annoying yodeling he heard going on in the background. He wasn’t sure if Echo was buffing his allies or debilitating his enemies, but either way he KNEW that it was working.

Between the next stomp the hobgoblin tried for Dustan quickly moved his axe hand from the brace and used the open end to hook Hulk’s ankle and pull causing the huge goblinoid to fall back. This opening gave him time to get up though it did the same for his enemy as well. With both of them back up the goblinoid quickly started to try to trip Dustan up again.

In the matter of fighting experience the human quickly realized he was lacking and needed something to make up for it. “Me eat you for breaking shiny cap!”

That was it; that was his opening. “Oh really, you are mad cause I broke your shiny cap? It must have not been too good if my fist shattered it like that. Maybe it was meant for a lowly redcap, oh wait I think I see that redcap now.”

Dustan’s axe pointed at the Hobgoblin which only took about five seconds before it must have put it together as the roar of anger quickly showed. The goblin subtype dropped his whips and ran at Dustan arms raised looking to swing them down hammer fist style on him.

For some reason the knight felt himself smile despite the situation. “Nut check!” With those words he brought his foot up towards the Hulk’s charging body right between his legs. A surprisingly high pitched squeak came from the slave driver as both hands went down to hold his aching privates as his legs failed and he was on his knees before the knight. “Cap check.”

The calm way he said it made Hulk look up only to have his eyes crossed when the axe crunched between them as blood ran over his vision. “Red…cap?”

“Yeah.” The body of the huge hobgoblin came crashing down causing the fighting goblins in the area to gasp before running off.

The coast was clear and Dustan could now take stock of what happened to his team. Yodel was fine, if a bit mussed up. Mystic was completely unharmed as he had ran for the most part doing other jobs. Jump Stamp wore his bleeding wounds with pride but didn’t look to be in good shape. The mystery pegasus however had faired the worse as he lay on the ground staring in the distance, his chest not moving showing he no longer drew breath.

Dustan felt his body want to break down for a moment, to give in and shed tears but seeing the three others look to him for leadership forced him to hold back. “Mystic!”

His call startled the earth pony who quickly ran over. “Yes?”

“Check Hulk’s body, see if he has the keys to the cells and manacles.” Nodding quickly it didn’t take long to find that the slave driver did indeed have a pair of keys. Luck was on their side as the instant Mystic tried it in the first lock it swung open.

As each cell opened Dustan was witness to the only two reactions that the ponies inside had, either abject fright at the fighting and stayed in their cells, or anger and fire in their eyes coming out and picking up various tools and weapons to fight back with.

“How are you alive?” The voice was familiar and when he went to look at the source, the only griffon in the facility was standing there looking awestruck as was two others, his cellmates.

He was happy to see them ok but couldn’t stand around for much longer. “Live to see this through and I will tell you. For now though either pick up some gear to fight back with or hide in a cell.” Looking around he looked at the majority of ponies hiding and spoke loudly. “This is likely your only chance. Royal guards are looking for us now but with us being underground and in a forest I am not sure they can spot whatever signs the goblins left for them up there. We either fight now to win our freedom back, or die as workhorses.” He chose the words deliberately as he knew they would impact more than slaves would. “I myself am not wearing a yoke for any reason and choose freedom. You are free to do the same or wait till things settle down and hope beyond hope, others fight and die for you to win your freedom. I myself rather take my destiny in my own hands. Will you take it in your own hooves?”

Dustan waited around for no one as he took stock of those picking up weapons already. “For those of you to fight, follow me, we need to signal the guard. So let’s go!”

His call got more cheers then he thought as looking around every single pony was now out of their cells picking up what they could. “Where to boss?”

He noticed it was his stallion cellmate who asked that. “Well first off we are heading to a sealed off section of the mines where there is gas and we are going to burn it.” Speaking of burning he went to collect the items from the mystery pegasus’ body finding not only the supplies but a piece of paper as well.

As he opened it up he swore silently to himself. “What is it?”

“Seems like my team was made for true decoys as the leader didn’t expect us to live and that we were meant to by his teams time as he sent all other teams out early. The pegasus here was one of his trusted and said at the first sign of things getting terrible to leave us. Welp too bad now, and sadly our best bet is still the gas room. So everyone let’s go!”

Except the chamber they were in suddenly rumbled fiercely as many screamed. Seems like another team had managed to get the job done while they were busy freeing the slaves.

“Here’s hoping they seen it.” The knight spoke softly as goblins started to flood out armed and looking for trouble. “And here’s hoping they get here soon!”

Seems Pinkie had been right as before the scouts had even come back there was a booming rumble that spread throughout Ponyville. Right away after that teams were scrambled as Scouts were sending up flares showing they had found something. As soon as that happened the troops started to gather around.

“Alright everypony. The scouts will set down some spells circles for us which the teams here will match. That will let a few unicorns on both sides create a teleport bridge allowing us to just walk in one circle and out the other, quick and easy access to the enemy.” The commander shouted out as she indeed did see many ponies working on drawing circles on the ground now. “When the bridge is active we will march two by two through them so pair up now with your designated Squads. V.I.P.’s go with your escorts now.”

The girls and herself all went together with Zecora, whom she had not seen till now but was wearing what looked to be faux-leather as well as various potion belts and a necklace made out of bones. The trip through the portal was quick and not as disorienting as she thought it would be. Instead taking them to a tree that had a hole among its roots.

As they came through a pony on the other side saluted the purple armor pony. “Commander, we believe the perps are underground fighting what sounds like ponies, we believe this is also one of many entrances.”

“Good work soldier.” The commander stated. “Vanguard formation let’s move down!”

As Rainbow proceeded down with her friends into the darkness lit only by magelight she hoped that Dustan was down here and alive.

“FUCK!” Cried out Dustan as he felt the edge of a blade finally get through his shield hitting his armor and biting into it a bit. Bronze armor was nice and all but this goblin was wielding steel. The blade rent deeply into the shield making it quickly useless.

Except as a Frisbee, which proved really effective once it dinged off the nose of the goblin that Dustan threw it at. The goblin merely let out a wheezing ‘oomph’ as the axe sank between his ribs dropping him dead.

Another goblin dead another timer exposed. Problem was he was feeling the ache of extended battle now. Easily solved it seems as he went to the corpse of the hobgoblin and took his floating crystal crushing it and restoring his vitality.

“Say what you want but Tactics logic rules.” He spoke that quietly to himself as he heard more fighting as well as a cry of pain.

Jump Stamp finally went down, fighting bravely as two goblins were now on him jabbing their daggers into his body with sickly sounding results. A battle cry was then heard only slightly before one goblin’s head rolled to the ground from Dustan’s axe. The other found themselves staring at three claws poking from their chest as the female griffon claimed another target.

“They just keep coming!” Mystic called out as he was tending to the wounds of Yodel who had taken a really bad hit before. “Also we are going to lose Yodel soon if we don’t move.”

“Boss we are losing the corridor behind us; we are not strong enough to hold.” The griffon called out quickly.

Too much was happening all at once; it all seemed to be going bad at once. They were holding up fine when they had someone buffing them. Echo was now down and looked to be on death’s door as cry’s for leadership and help came more and more.

They needed their support!

A calm filled Dustan as he turned towards the injured unicorn on their team. A power, calm and soothing rose from his core rushing to meet his will to fuse into something greater.

His voice rang out soothing but powerful as the words flowed without thought. “Life’s refreshing breeze, blow in energy. Cure!”

Blue light started to flow around Yodel as he barely clung to consciousness. The bleeding slowed to a stop though the wound was still bad but now manageable. Many there gasped at what they just seen: Magic from a non-unicorn.

“How did you do that?” Mystic’s speckled form looked towards him full of questions, questions that Dustan had no answer for.

“Answers later, Yodel can you sing?” It was a hope beyond hope but the unicorn nodded. “Then let your pipes sing our way to victory!”

As soon as he started the flood gates opened and in charged four goblins only to stop as they saw the huge group of ponies. The four looked at each other and right away turned and ran.

“Charge!” Dustan’s voice called out as he rushed forward trying to capitalize on the retreat of the enemy.

They came to a intersection of tunnels as goblins stood with their backs together as Dustan’s group filled one tunnel. The other tunnels were similarly filled with more ponies one of which was the resistance. The other two however were ponies in gold armor or black armor.

“The Royal Guard.” He heard one of the captive ponies say behind him.

Looking towards the goblins, he pointed his axe at them. “Surrender, you have lost this fight. Surrender and there is a chance you will live.”

“Like hell they will, do it Logistics!” One of the teams called out as Logistics came forward, his horn alight with power before a glow surrounded each and every goblin’s head and collapsed on itself in an implosion. The goblin’s bodies all stood there for a moment before the nerves in them realized their heads had been rapidly compressed and in no way to command them anymore. When they crumpled to the ground many ponies on all sides cheers though he was not among them.

“They were going to surrender!” Dustan called out starting to march forward only to be held back by the griffon and his two former cellmates. “There was no need to kill them.”

“No need?” Logistics said moving to the bodies giving them a kick. “Maybe, maybe not. We can’t trust these things would surrender. Plus reparations needed to be made for what they did to ponykind. With this their debt has somewhat been paid.”

“You murdered them!” More and more he felt himself being held back by not only one set of hooves or claws, but more.

The rust colored unicorn gave a tisk. “It doesn’t matter, at the end of the day I am a hero who lit the beacon and killed goblins before leading his kind out of slavery. That is what history will say. Meanwhile these goblins will be written as barbaric monsters like they should be. You are lucky you were at least useful or you might have ended up as a body among them when the Resistance finally made its move.”

A rage burned inside him like none other, not only had this selfish prick of a pony staged things to make sure he was in least danger, but he orchestrated it so that he came out smelling of roses when he committed murder and advocated possible genocide. Just like before he felt power rise up to meet his will, only now instead of a calm tone he felt it become erratic needing direction and control.

“Destruction of nature, gather in flame! Fire!” Dustan thrust his hand forward shooting a ball of fire at the pony catching him off guard hitting him right in the flank making him yelp as the mark on his side vanished in the flaming destruction of the black magic spell.

He heard ponies gasp once more like they had not too long ago and again Mystic was looking at him in amazement. However just as quickly Logistics lashed out with a lose bolt of force hitting him a glancing blow across his head. It was enough though as blood quickly flowed over his eyes and he felt the world tumble and turn and he knew that darkness would soon follow.

His last aware thoughts were a simple question. “Did I just cast both white and black magic today if so how did I switch my subclass skill?”

The question went without an answer for now as he faded from the world into the unconscious.

Chapter Nine: A Knight’s Return.

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My Little Tactics

Chapter Nine: A Knight’s Return.

The too familiar feeling of waking up after passing out unnaturally permeated his mind and his body moments before the slight throb of his head followed suit. Dustan silently made a mental note to have a MRI the moment he had one available for possible brain damage that he has suffered so far. The worst part was always trying to piece together the moments leading up to when one was knocked out.

‘Ok let’s take it one step at a time.’ He prepped himself as he slowly opened his eyes finding them on a white ceiling along with a nice bit of cool air blowing in. The smell of disinfectant also told him where he was. ‘I was captured by goblins; bastards snuck up behind me and clubbed me or something. Then I was a slave for a while though how long I honestly couldn’t tell as with no light to tell me the days it all blurred together.’ He then ran over in his head the moments leading up to his ‘execution’ before being saved.

After that the rest of the memories flowed out quickly filling in the gaps before finally ending on how he was KO’ed. “Oh that sonva bitch is going to get it.” However as he started to rise up he winced and quickly lay back down. While his captivity left him with minor wounds, none of which would leave anything lasting upon his body, the struggles of the mines and slavery combined with the overall effort his body put into the ending fight really had taken its toll on him.

Admitting defeat for now he lifted up the sheet of the bed he was in. Spying no catheters or anything meant he had not been in the hospital for long. Seeing as he was going nowhere he decided to look around the hospital room. Equestria had no source of electrical power, but used the thaumic fields of the world to generate power. As such anything that ran on energy was given a rechargeable crystal or had a large thaumic generator that pulled in and stored power very efficiently.

Amazing what a basic magic book would teach someone. That had been most of what the book was about sadly the practical usage and application of magic as well as some basic tips one could use for casting. That being said he had magic now himself. He had felt it twice, once when healing Yodel, the calm peaceful feeling inside of him, and the second when his rage overfilled him at the murder of the goblins.

Question is could he do it on will now that his body had experienced magic? He started to calm himself mustering up his will or at least trying. He had never done this before knowingly and he spent over an hour before he felt something responding inside of him. He started to draw it forth and was about to mutter the words of the spell when the door opened causing his concentration to be broken.

As he felt the spell fleeing him he looked to see who it was that was coming in and spied more than a handful of ponies. The ones he recognized off the bat was Zecora first and foremost who full out galloped when she seen he was awake and gave him a surprising hug. He hesitated to return it at first as he was caught off guard but quickly did so. The others he recognized were the mane six though Twilight and Fluttershy came out quickly from the group to check to see how he was.

Both of them were throwing questions left and right at him while Zecora was muttering something in her native language that he couldn’t for the life of him interpret as the final two ponies came in to see him. Only one of the two he recognized which was Nurse Redheart a pure white earth pony with a very light pink mane and tail that was wrapped up with her red cross cutie mark that had four heart interlaced between the lines making up the cross. The other pony was a unicorn of a beige color with dark brown mane and tail complete with an ECG machine mark on his flanks.

It felt he should know this pony but he couldn’t place it. “Ah I see you are awake, good. This makes the check up that much simpler.” As the doctor came closer he spied the mares and coughed gently to make most of them move, though it took a polite poke to Zecora to get her out of the way. “There we go, now tell me young human, how do you feel?”

For now he would let the young part slide as the doc was no doubt trying to do his best and use his normal speech patterns on an unknown. “Well honestly like I have been trampled. Though with how often I keep getting hit in the head I am worried about the brain damage I might get cause of it. Oh let’s not forget the possible dain bramage I got from being knocked out again.” He knew he spoke wrong on purpose and said that twice to be funny but it seemed the doc wasn’t up for jokes even if the laughter of Pinkie Pie in the background showed that his joke was obvious.

“Well it’s good that you have your humor with you, shows that there are good signs to the road of recovery for you.” The doc came up and touched his cheek with a glowing quill making him wince at the touch and realize something was covering his cheek. “Ok then, there was a hoof mark here and a sign of a small crack to your bone, not sure what you humans call it though but it seems to be healing fine though it will likely leave a scar.” Dustan saw something move in the corner of his eye but couldn’t tell what it was before his attention was called back to the doc. “Your head injuries also seem to be healing ok as well.” The doc then started to lift up his bed sheet to start inspecting him further.

“WHOA THERE!” The knight called out quickly pulling the sheet down. “Not sure if you know this doc, but my people preferred to be clothed and not nude around others. You are an exception since you are a doctor and doing your job same with the nurse pony there, but there are others in the room.”

“Oh stop being a silly filly Dusty.” The suddenly to his right pink pony said startling him. “All stallions are nude in front of each other so we don’t care if we see your dingle dangle.”

“Ok one: never call it a dingle dangle ever again.” Dustan said quickly to the party pony slowly moving her from being in his personal bubble. “Two: I am a human not a pony, there are a few things that are different about me from ponies. Three: please respect my privacy on some subjects please. Especially, if you want me to answer your questions later Twilight.”

There was the sound of magic and a light popping of teleportation before she answered quickly. “I didn’t have anything to take notes with anyways.” The nervous laughter told him all he needed to know about what was poofed away even if he was currently looking at Pinkie and had no way to prove her words.

“Okie Dokie Loki.” Pinkie pronked away slowly towards the door. Leaving Dustan to agonize on how easy that was.

After she vanished his feelings of being watched quickly rose up and he looked out the window only to see the party pony there being held up with balloons and having binoculars out. “Pinkie!”

“Oh alright fine.” She rolled her eyes and tugged on what looked to be a draw cord before she slowly lowered.

‘Yeah, not going to talk about that one.’ Turning to the others he saw them filtering out though two ponies lingered longer than normal, Rainbow Dash and Zecora.

One was obvious on why she lingered as Zecora was his friend and roommate and likely was worried judging by the hug he received earlier. Rainbow Dash however, the echo’s of their last conversation came back making him even wonder why she was here at all. He thought he saw her wince for a moment before leaving.

“Ok then, they are gone now, let us proceed unless there is anything else we should know of about humans and their customs.” The doc sounded impatient for sure and if it wasn’t just him from the slave colony here then he likely was very busy.

“Good to go doc.” With that his exam began.

All her friends were talking amongst themselves or two each other about how good it was to see their friend was recovering though as she heard the doc talking about some of his visible wounds though she knew about the hoof mark. The fact it would leave a scar on his face meant every time she talked to him, the mark of her betrayal would be visible and that fact alone kept pushing the aerial ace deeper and deeper into her own depression.

“-alright, Rainbow Dash?” The voice called to the mare gently and soothingly though with a hint of worry as her oldest friend gently shook her from her thoughts. As she gave a questioning hmm Fluttershy repeated herself. “I was asking if you are alright. You seemed to be lost in thought and about to cry.”

Rainbow Dash swallowed hard before looking at her friend feeling tears well up in her eyes again. _{“I did it.”} She must have surprised her friend who leaned in closer.

“I am sorry Rainbow Dash, but I couldn’t hear that. You were quieter than me normally.” Fluttershy seemed to think that was an insult as she quickly followed up her statement. “Oh not that it’s a bad thing, it’s just usual for you to be so quiet.”

Gritting her teeth together she closed her eyes and told her. “I am the one who hit him on his face!”

There she told somepony, no pony would ever know now. “You did what?” Zecora spoke as the echo of Dash’s not so quiet declaration rang out in the halls. “I had seen he had come home with a hoof mark but the owner was not so clear-cut.”

“Sugarcube that can’t be right.” Applejack also said as Dash was looking at each of her friends now in turn as she slowly realized how loud she actually said that. “What would make you go and do that for anyways?”

All eyes were on her now, she couldn’t fly from this, and she couldn’t hide it anymore as she felt her eyes misting up. “It was cause of Gilda; she came back to my place before the party was announced, her beak scratched deeply and a cut across her cheek.” From the looks of everypony they all knew what she was talking about. “Apparently Dustan did that to her to defend Fluttershy. However what Gilda told me happened was that he attacked her for no reason except she was a griffon. At the time Dustan and me weren’t exactly the closest of friends and when one of my oldest friends came back with blood on their cheek and a was telling of a hairless diamond dog looking thing attacking her for just being the race she was born…I lost it.”

She thought her friends would berate her for what she told them, she thought for sure they would all tell her that she was in the wrong. However she never expected a physical confrontation from one. That is what she got however in the form of a stripped blur tackling her to the ground speaking in a language no pony there understood aside from her.

“Whoa there girl!” The voice of the farm pony called out before a rope started pulling the zebra back away from her friend. “Ah am as miffed as you but at the same time Ah can't blame Dash for acting like she did. If Ah heard about somepony attacking one of my friends cause of the reasons RD gave then Ah would be more then nettled myself Ah reckon.”

Zecora was the calm zebra from a nation that was unknown to the pegasus was red faced as she spoke swiftly. “You didn’t see what I saw upon a face streaked with more than one tear. So much did he not enjoy what happened to him was that he went to the Everfree as a willing volunteer.”

Confirmation upon that he was trying to flee her, hearing it said out loud brought more and more tears to her own face. “I’m sorry. I would take it back in a heartbeat if it could. Once I found out the truth I wanted to apologize right away but then got cold hooves then got called away to Cloudsdale and couldn’t. By that point he was missing and I thought I caused it. I thought I made him run away.”

Rainbow Dash couldn’t see it but the mare’s face visibly calmed as she watched her. What she didn’t know was that each one of her friends had come by Zecora’s at some point seeking something that would help the mare sleep. At the time Zecora thought it was simply pride that kept the pegasus from seeking her before and her friends taking matters into their own hooves but seeing the guilt ridden face she herself couldn’t help but feel as if the mare had made her own punishment and suffered through it.

That being said though Zecora couldn’t let this go. “For a while, if you wish to visitation. One of your friends should come with you in case damage needs to have mitigation.” As she turned to see the doctor telling them to stop causing noise and that the patent was ready to see visitors again she started to head to the room but not before one last thing. “If it is forgiveness you wish to seek. Then you have to talk to the one whom you hurt and not be lurking out of his vision by being a sneak.”

She felt the comforting hooves of all her friends helping her up but she knew the shaman was right. This wouldn’t be over till she sought forgiveness for what she did. Looking at her friends she nodded as they all slowly went back inside the room.

“So overall beyond a bit of wounds here and there, most of my problem stems from fatigue and a bad case of exhaustion.” He told his roommate as he spied the others coming in. “Oh hey, long story short, I got a clean bill of health, just have to take it easy for a while.”

Zecora gave off a smile though it was the animal caretaker who spoke first. “That is great news.”

“Indeed it is, though I suspect that the one who will be most happy for your return is your ward.” It only took him a moment to realize who she was talking about before chuckling. “I myself would have brought her, but the hospital says no pets, so for now it’s something for you to look towards as you take your time to be restored.”

One by one all the mares came up to him to tell him how great it was that he was back, and it was honestly a joy to hear and see that they meant that. However the line of mares slowly retreated one by one till the one to face him was the cyan mare who had clocked him one good one across the face.

For a moment it seemed like she was going to back out but she slowly opened her mouth to speak. “I’m s-”

“Dustan!” Whatever it was she was going to say was cut off by a familiar voice. Soon a black spotted yellow earth pony ran in. “I heard you were brought to Ponyville hospital as well so I have been looking from room to room looking for you.” As soon as Mystic stepped in the doorway and seen all the ponies though he quickly became embarrassed. “Is this a bad time?”

“Na, it’s never a bad time for more friends.” Because he was looking at Mystic he missed the wince of a certain pegasus. “How have you been?”

“Great actually.” He had a smile on his face that confirmed his statement as the pony continued. “Well in a way it’s great. Before I really wasn’t sure where to go with my thesis and my research but now I have talked to a few ponies and I know what to do. I even got some grant money from the Princesses themselves.”

Hearing that, Twilight couldn’t keep her excitement to herself. “Oh what is it you are studying and what made the Princesses interested enough to give you a grant?”

Suddenly he became self conscious about things as the speckled pony rubbed his other foreleg. “Well I am a Magister in training.”

“Well good luck then, it will be tough work since you aren’t a unicorn though.” The most faithful student of Celestia’s support must have meant the world to him, even if it was obvious that he wasn’t aware of said status, as that brought a smile, a blush, and a chuckle to the fore.

Rubbing the back of his brick red mane he continued to chuckle. “Well my goal is to find a way or a type of active magic that anypony and any race can use freely without the need for a horn.”

Rarity brightened at the idea and smiled. “That is quite a tall order but a noble one nonetheless for sure. If you do indeed make a breakthrough you must let us know darling.”

The wording got to the earth pony however as his yellow coat became orange with a blush. “D-Darling?”

“Just an endearing term I assure you.” Mystic’s blush calmed at the fashionista’s claim.

He did take a second to calm his breathing before continuing. “W-well yes as a matter of fact I do have a breakthrough, or at least I have a lead that I believe could lead up to one.”

The fine hairs on the back of Dustan’s neck stood up but he wasn’t sure why, he only knew a can of worms was about to open up that would affect him. “Oh what is it? This could revolutionize not just Equestria but the world.”

Mystic simply pointed to Dustan. “Him.”

A mixture of ‘him’s’ were all exclaimed in some shape or form from every pony in the room in confusion. “Wait, me?”

To the Knight’s question Mystic just nodded. “Yes. You have no horn and no training in our spell casting arts. That much I could deduce from our interactions together. So when you cast those spells in the mines I was beyond surprised.”

Just like the ‘him’s’ of before now every pony exclaimed a massive. “WHAT?!”

Sheepishly rubbing the back of his head he chuckled and looked at them all. “I suppose that did happen didn’t it?”

Before he could even say much of anything else the same magical popping sound came as a floating ink well, a quill, and a stack of papers appeared. “You, magic, now, explain.” Was all Twilight could say before Applejack chuckled.

“Ah think y’all done broke her with your prank there sugarcube.” For a moment they all looked to the farm mare before she chuckled. “What, y’all think that he isn’t pulling a prank. Ah mean magic without a horn? It’s a nice dream and all but let’s be practical y’all.”

Dustan could feel the air stir, this was his chance. Twilight was looking disappointed everyone was starting to chuckle thinking that she was right. He could play it off and agree and keep his abilities secret. He could hone is craft in peace with maybe Mystic being the only one to know here.

Sighing though he knew what his only true choice was. “It’s not a prank Applejack.”

Everypony whom was chuckling including the earth mare herself slowly stopped their amusement as she looked at him in disbelief. “You must be pullin’ my leg there partner.”

Just looking around the room he could tell they were all siding with the Element of Honesty thinking he was pulling a prank. He needed to show them. He wanted to show them, to show that Mystic’s goal wasn’t a pipe dream. If that meant more focus on him to make someone he considered a friend complete their dream goal, then so be it.

“Everyone quiet please.” Dustan told them simply as they all looked at him seeing he was serious. For now they complied but it was obvious they were waiting for the punch line.

Slowly just like before he searched for that calm feeling, this time though it seemed more readily available, as if touching it once before made it recognize the one calling upon it. That said, it still took a good minute or two before it joined with his will like it had before.

As he opened his eyes he could see things in stark clarity. Mystic was waiting with anticipation written on his face, Zecora and Fluttershy with concern, Rainbow Dash was looking at him with a bit of anxiety for some reason. There was also Twilight looking at him with both curiosity and amusement as she was no doubt waiting for said punch line and how it would come about. Rarity had a calculating look to her as if judging things to see how they would play out, while Applejack was looking on slightly unamused as in a small way she had been slighted at what she claimed was a joke. Then there was Pinkie who seemed to be having a full body shake as his power rose to the forefront.

Feeling the magic take shape, he KNEW the words both mentally from the game, and in a way that almost was frightening to him. “Life’s refreshing breeze, blow in energy. Cure.”

He held out his hand palm up and for a moment no pony said anything. They did however make a noise when a glowing blue orb started to appear from his hand and circle around him. The noises ranged from an excited horse noise from Mystic that couldn’t be explained in words, many gasps of disbelief, as well as the errant ‘whoa’ from Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie.

Some of his wounds shrank before their eyes and some vanished completely. When it was over and done, the light vanishing, virtually all of those in the room had their mouths hanging open.

Giving a smile he chuckled and asked. “So yeah, I can apparently do magic.”

Thud.

The sound came from the body of one overloaded mind of Twilight Sparkle as she fainted cold away from what she had just seen. “Too much?” Dustan asked simply.

“Oh so that was what the doozy was.” Pinkie said without regard to anyone seeming to care at the moment about her Pinkie Sense as they went to fetch a doctor.

They didn’t get a doctor but they did get a nurse who confirmed that she had just fainted likely due to a shock and that she should get some rest as should the patients.

With that they all headed out after saying their goodbyes and giving promises to visit. The last ones left were Mystic and Dash, the former whom stated that he was going to be put up in a room at an inn run by a pony nearby and that he should visit once he gets out.

The other one though. “What were you going to say earlier Rainbow Dash, before you were interrupted?”

For a moment the pony opened and closed her mouth a few times each time starting to say something but nothing coming out. “Just that I am glad you are ok.”

The way her body held itself he knew that it was a lie in some ways, but the ears of the pony he could tell by how they were canted that she was sincere about that. “Thanks, you should get some rest as well.”

“Y-yeah, thanks.” The clip clopping of hooves on tile slowly faded away.

Soon it was Dustan left with only his thoughts of which he wondered what she was going to say originally now. “Oh well.”

Stretching his limbs they had finally let him go after three days of being cooped up for tests. He had repeatedly told them he felt fine but they were not taking chances and were taking things slow because of how different his body was then what they were used to. It had finally come down to him telling them the longer that they kept him there the more he would suffer as he was an omnivore and needed some protein in his diet to stay healthy.

The word of the tall creature that ate meat must have put the paperwork into high gear as he was promptly released just an hour and a half later. That being said it took another hour and a half to get his gear back not only from the doctors but the guard who wanted to keep his axe and his armor for themselves.

That being said he simply smiled and asked them. “Fine then. If you can pick it up with your bare hooves then do so. Otherwise it was useless to them. As for my armor…one of you try to put it on and stay comfortable, I will wait till you are begging not to wear it for much longer if needed.”

The armor wasn’t much of a problem as they could all see how much trouble that would be, both the leather and the bronze. The axe though, that became almost an Excalibur type of event. It was brought out in cloth where he took it in possession and sank it deep into a stump of a felled tree. What proceeded from there was guardspony after guardspony trying their luck on pulling the weapon from its hold.

What it came down to was a purple armored stallion coming to the event, one whom he knew from the show. “What’s going on here?”

“Captain Armor, we are trying to take back possession of the confiscated Harmonium axe.” One of the guards said to him as he saluted while looking sweaty and out of breath from his own turn.

Shining Armor looked at him with his light blue eyes. The white stallion unicorn was wearing a stripped down version of his battle armor that consisted only of the breastplate. His two toned electric blue mane looking to be too long for his station but then again his station likely could afford things like that.

“Is that so?” The guard nodded to him as Shining Armor turned towards Dustan. “Tell me, was this axe yours before or after coming to be a prisoner?”

“Before. It was long since abandoned and rusted from misuse likely after many generations.” The calculating look on the unicorn’s face said something was up as Dustan explained himself. “I managed to get it all cleaned up and crafted the handle myself. Your officers want to keep it but honestly it’s useless for most from what I have come to understand.”

For a moment he thought Shining was going to say something negative about what he said but ended up just smiling. “Ahh I see, well then.” Striding over to the axe the stallion promptly pulled it from the stomp and hoofed it over to Dustan. “Here you go, use it well.”

Dustan took it with a smile on his face but inwardly his mind was cursing the stallion. ‘Oh of course you can fucking lift them you show off prick.’ “Thanks, good to see someone understands the problems with this kind of thing.”

There was a moment when he took the axe that Shining stared hard at him for a moment before smiling. “Good to see you aren’t lying, but then again my lie detecting spell would have gone off if you had.”

‘Shifty bastard.’ Still smiling all the while Dustan just said. “Well again, thanks for helping me out here.”

“No problem.” Dustan put the axe in its loop before a glow came into his vision. “However that isn’t the only reason I have come here. The other is to give you this invitation from the Princesses themselves to come to Canterlot for a variety of reasons, all of which are explained in the letter. The date for this is a week from now. They were going to reschedule with you if you weren’t out of the hospital by then, but when I heard you were released I came here knowing you would want your effects.”

‘Well at least you aren’t as dopey as the show made you out to be and are actually competent so far from what I can tell.’ “Thanks Captain. I will do my best to show up, but I have to ask, does this cover train fare to get there?”

Armor just laughed and nodded. “There should be a slip in there that is a pass. That should cover it.”

“Thanks again Captain, I will be on my way now.” As Dustan started to leave he could hear Shining start to call out to the troops saying that if they were lazy enough to try their hooves at the sword in the stone gag then they had enough free time for PT.

Dustan just grinned at the groans of those who tried to keep his axe and armor. Honestly he was looking forward to getting back to the hut. He had missed the privacy that it afforded him, and there was also the fact of the letter and his missing equipment. Well not so much missing as hidden, thankfully he had did so or the goblins would have had the Zodiac Stone. The Knight shivered for a moment at the thought and made it a point to remember to go get his belongings today.

As he got into the hut he called out to Zecora. “I’m back!” However as he turned to looking into the room he saw there was no need for him to call out as there sat Zecora, Twilight, and Rainbow Dash.

Before he could even be welcomed back to the hut the purple pony stood up and pointed a hoof at him while smiling with glee. “Dustan I need your body.”

Every single being just stood there and looked at Twilight. Dustan’s own mind was busy shutting down to devote full processing power to comprehend the statement that the unicorn just gave. Well not all of it, as there was one part of his mind that was still very much active.

That part was the anime enthusiast in him so it took control of his body, specifically his mouth, to respond to the statement. “Nani?”

Seems no one in the hut knew what it meant as they all cocked their heads only for the scene to be broken up when a bundle of fluff came in kweh’ing her heart out. “Oh and I would like to talk about that.”

Dustan leaned down to pick Boko up with a smile on his face as he noticed she had a bit of a growth spurt since he was gone. “Looks like you might be too heavy to ride on my head anymore Boko, instead I have to carry you.” The chick had a way around that though as she bounded up his body expertly only giving a terrified flap every other jump to try to keep her balance before landing on his shoulder and snuggling up to his neck. “Guess that works too.” Looking over to Twilight now he finally had enough brain power to respond properly. “Ok, so…want to run that by me again on what you need from me?”

“I said I need to examine your body.” She said it as if it was a matter of fact and not a request, something that bothered Dustan just as much as her previous wording bothered him.

“Ok, so you might want to word things better in the future as you said something TOTALLY different a second ago.” The pony in question looked to the others only for them to nod as well.

For a moment her head tilted to the side and her eyes went upwards as she thought about it, her mouth slightly open before her ears canted forward. “Oh. O-oh. Oh!” each time she repeated that word the scarlet of her face took dominance more and more till it looked as if her natural coat coloration was pure red along her face and well down her neck.

Nodding a bit he started to chuckle as he spoke. “Yeah, please think about what you say before you-”

He didn’t get to finish what he was going to said as the purple and red pony cut him off. “I mean how would that even work, you are a lot taller than me so would you have to bend down or would I have to be propped up while you insert your-”

“TWILIGHT!” Every person and pony in the room shouted, even Zecora who didn’t even rhyme.

Again realizing what she was saying her blush took over her whole body that time. “O-oh sorry. I’ll…I’ll just shut up now.”

Rubbing the bridging of his nose with one hand Dustan sighed. “Twilight’s powerful need of my body aside.” The statement caused the purple unicorn to groan and try to hide her face behind her forelegs as well as causing the pegasus in the room to snicker. “Why do you need to examine me purple smart?”

The magister just groaned again for a moment taking a moment to collect herself even if she didn’t move out from behind her legs. “Mystic Quandary’s discovery as well as your magic has left some questions that need to be answered. When I watched you perform magic I could feel that magic you did but I couldn’t at the same time.”

“Come again?” Dustan asked innocently though Rainbow Dash just started to laugh.

“We all know that is what Twilight wants you to do.” Zecora managed to chuckle at Rainbow Dash’s statement as Dustan groaned along with the embarrassed unicorn who seemed to mutter about moving back to Canterlot to avoid this embarrassment.

Joking aside Twilight did lift up her head still red but not as badly now as she continued. “When a unicorn performs magic we use a bit of energy inside of ourselves projecting it out and mixing with the thaumic field of the world combining our magic with its. It is why when two or more unicorns perform magic in the same area, if they aren’t on the same wavelength or make attempts to synergize with each other, their spells will go into conflict and often either one will take dominance canceling the other out or they both will back fire.”

“Ok that makes sense.” Dustan could see that in his mind now. “So unicorn magic is a mix of your magic and the worlds to suspend the laws of physics.”

Nodding and getting into her element the purple pony smiled. “Exactly, it is also the planet's thaumic field that has caused many things to be changed that normally wouldn’t be because of the tampering of a chaotic spirit called Discord in ages past.” Her horn lit up and a chalk board appeared as she moved over to it. “His magic changed the signature of the planets thaumic field in many places and its why weather needs to be manipulated to some degree. True it could be left on its own to do as it pleases.” Said thought left the pegasus in the room to shudder. “Problem is that we don’t know what would happen. Studies have been conducted that say the weather would all converge into various locations making only the weather of that type there, others say that the world will be like places where the field has been left intact like the Everfree and then there are theories that mix the two saying that the weather would flow free again, but because it was messed with natural disasters would destroy the world.”

That didn’t make sense to Dustan at all mostly cause of one reason. “What about the weather in other parts of the world, parts that are not Equestria?”

Rainbow Dash seemed to pick up the talk from here as she got up. “Griffonstone reports show that they managed their weather just like we do, but we get no reports from the parrot lands, the cat lands, Zebrica, and the Dragon lands so it’s kinda hard to say.”

Zecora who had been listening idly while sipping her tea put her cup down as she spoke up. “The noble land of my birth, has found little in the way of weather manipulations worth.”

“So Zebrica is a natural weather area.” Dustan couldn’t see dragons manipulating weather nor did he remember any examples of that from the show. He had seen the My Little Pony movie and he guessed Capper and Celaeno were part of the cat and parrot race respectively. If the parrots were like griffons then it was possible they did weather manipulation and the fact they did have airships, though the cats he was skeptical on. He shook the thoughts from his mind as Dustan realized he was speculating on things he had little knowledge of.

“Regardless.” Twilight said as she teleported the chalk board back. “Equestria has become so used to manipulated weather that it is very doubtful we could turn back to a country of natural weather if we tried.”

“While talk of the weather is all good and fine.” Zecora spoke again this time for a good reason. “But wasn’t there a reason you were explaining this or was it all benign?”

Trust the shaman to see to the heart of rambling and get them back on track. “Oh right.” Teleporting the chalk board back in Twilight cleaned it and drew a crude unicorn and human on it. “We already explained unicorn magic and it being a process of inner magic and the world’s magic.” Twilight added an addition sign beside the unicorn and another crude drawing of the world then made an equals sign before another drawing of the unicorn with their horn glowing. “However when you used magic all I felt from you was your magic. You were not interacting with the world at all.” Twilight drew the same drawing for the human except where the world figure was there was a question mark. “I don’t know what you are doing to make it possible.”

“Oh, that’s easy.” While it was true Dustan had just discovered magic, he knew what his skills told him as well as what he felt and he knew what Twilight was missing.

“Oh yes please tell!” The unicorn practically skipped over to him as papers and quills were brought out. “Tell me the secret on what you are doing with the world to make it hidden like that.”

“The answer is.” Dustan left it hanging there loving the look on the purple pony’s eager face. “Nothing.”

“Huh?” The confused and almost disappointed look on Twilight’s face was worth it, not only as it was adorable but because it was as if she had been counting from one to ten only to realize she missed a number along the way but not sure which one she missed. “But that makes no sense. What do you mean nothing?”

“I mean I am not interacting with the world at all.” His armor creaked as he sat down reaching up to make sure Boko didn’t become dislodged while he did so.

“That still doesn’t make sense!” Twilight exclaimed as her horn lit up to levitate her quill over to him. “All magic comes from within and then goes to mix in with the world to create an effect. You can’t perform magic without the world’s help unless it’s passive magic.”

“You’re wrong.” Dustan could see that his wording had the wrong effect as she looked angry now. “Sorry not wrong, misinformed I suppose is the better word.”

“Ok then if you are such an expert on magic, explain what you are doing.” The words were laced with a bit of heat to them showing that she still had not gotten over the wrong comment.

Sighing and looking to her he spoke. “I never claimed to be an expert Twilight, I can only tell you what I experience and do.” Touching his chest he felt for his magic. “I look inside of me depending on what type of magic I want to use, find the feeling I remember associating with it, and just…will it to happen. My will plus my magic mixing allows me to do the things I need. That and maybe faith.”

The student of Celestia had tilted her head at the last bit. “Faith? What does that have to do with it?”

He wasn’t sure if it was his knowledge of the game that led him to what he was talking about, or some inner knowledge he gained from coming to Equestria with the abilities but he knew the thought he was about to share was real. “You have to combine your magic, along with an unshakable will together then have absolute faith that what magic you are about to perform will actually work. If you think it will fail it will. Then again it might be part of your will to make it happen but it’s hard to say.”

Sighing and rubbing the bridge of her nose, similarly to how he did earlier, Twilight spoke without looking. “You realize that makes no sense. You can’t just WILL something to happen.”

“Well I do.” Dustan told her just stating it like a fact.

“And I say you just don’t know what it is you are doing enough to make that judgment call. That is why I want to study your body while you perform magic.” While he could admire the studious nature of Twilight he didn’t like her assured attitude in the matter. At the same time he couldn’t blame her though as it was possible he was wrong.

“You know what, ok.” Twilight’s face lit up as he said that before holding out a hand with a single finger. “On one condition.”

“Name it, anything at all!” The need to learn was strong with the unicorn as anyone could read just by looking at her.

“Someone else is already researching me, Mystic remember?” When reminded of the earth pony Twilight nodded. “Well consider him lead researcher, anything you want to do has to be agreed to and or supervised by him.”

“B-but he is working to BE a magister. I am already one.” Twilight whined. “Surely I would be a much better choice to lead the research on you right?” However the look on his face remained adamant and the unicorn sighed in defeat. “Fine.”

“Good.” Dustan smiled as he felt Boko lean into an affectionate scratch before looking over towards Rainbow Dash. “Now that Twilight is done, what brought you here Rainbow Dash?”

Having attention called to her the pegasus fluffed up a bit and looked around nervously. “I…well I… um that is to say.” She started to cough for a moment before closing her eyes tightly and shouting. “Icametoaskyoutoforgiveme!”

Hearing that, the knight had only one thing to say. “I see.”

Author's Notes:

"Hello everyone and how are you all doing today, good, good." *Looks left and right.* "Ha they aren't here, so how did you like the cliff han-"
*Sounds of teleporting were heard*
"-gliding. Its such a rush to go to a cliff and hang-glide right everyone?"
*The mysterious figure pulled up his hand stuck out two fingers to their eyes then pointed them at him before vanishing in a teleport.*
"Anyone else think that is creepy?"

For those wondering what 'Nani?' means. It is Japanese for 'What?'.

On a separate note: I would like to thank Finalmagnus for all the help they have given me, helping me to fix mistakes and make you all have a better read of my work. If you see them in the comments section, which is very likely, be sure to give them lots of positive words for their help.

Chapter Ten: A Hero’s Reward.

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My Little Tactics

Chapter Ten: A Hero’s Reward.

Rainbow Dash looked up at him as he said that and it seems she slightly expected more to be said so when he said nothing more her lip started to quiver. “I-I know I have been a horrible friend, and with how I acted and what I said, I should have taken time like you said to look for the truth. That is why I will do whatever it takes for you to forgive me.”

Dustan looked over to the pegasus as it seemed she put everything on the line, her pride most of all as well as her loyalty. “No.”

Dash seemed to accept the answer but her friend did not. “Why? Rainbow Dash is sincere about wanting your forgiveness.”

“Please Dustan, there has to be something I can do to make us even.” Though she said it the pegasus’ image was temporarily replaced by another, a human figure

“That’s a lie.” The knight said it through clenched teeth and was barely able to look at the speedster. Not because of her actions but because of how she was now. “What she is looking for isn’t forgiveness but punishment.”

Dustan rubbed the bridge of his nose once more as Patrick stood before him. It was only a week to high school graduation and Pat was pulling a stunt like this. Seems he had been talking with his family, talking with other friends and had some kind of epiphany and while it was good as he was starting to take lessons to control his anger problems even more then he had been, but he was now seeking forgiveness for all the things he had did wrong by lashing out.

“Come on man, there has to be something to make us even.” His friend had told him again for the umpteenth time.

He had already forgiven him so many times now that it should have been disregarded. “Dude, I have told you, I have already forgiven you. What do you want from me?”

They were sitting in the living room of Pat’s house and had been watching TV but it was a commercial though soon the movie would be coming back on. “I don’t know man, but you just saying you forgive me…it doesn’t feel right to me. I bullied you and made your life a living hell for a good few years. Do something, anything I just need to feel like we are even is all and I am not going to let this go till we are.”

The movie that they were watching came back on and the action seen started. “Fine, you want me to do something to make us even huh?” Seeing his friends short sandy blonde hair bob around a bit he sighed. “Fine, name a few things that come to mind to make us even.”

“Um let’s see.” The tall teen seemed to take the matter seriously as he thought. “Well you could break some of my stuff. My computer is new so that would hurt a lot.” He couldn’t be serious about that; it was a custom rig after all. “It would mean we couldn’t chat online for a while but my job is going well enough that I could get a new one in a couple of months.” Holy shit he was serious. “If not that then I would say…”

Dustan stopped listening for a bit, he was not someone who could just trash his friends belongings. It had to be something that wouldn’t cost money, something more meaningful then just random property damage. It had to be-

“Stop trying to hit me and hit me!” A character from the movie told the protagonist giving him the idea for what to do.

“Fine I have decided. It will be something you can remember for as long as I remember your time kicking my ass.” The shorter of the two said standing up.

Grinning Pat looked at his friend and nodded. “That’s more like it, so what is it?”

“I’m going to hit you in the face.” It seemed his friend was confused or disappointed he wasn’t sure which but Dustan continued. “You can’t guard or toughen up for it, you are going to let me hit you. Because of that you are going to have a nice shiner for your graduation pics.”

Pat frowned for a bit and sighed. “That is cruel man.” Before looking up and again grinning. “Sounds good to me. So when do you want to do thi-”

The swing came out of nowhere laying his friend out cold. Patrick’s mother made him leave after that though it was fixed when Pat told his mother why. As such when graduation came by they had a nice picture together with Pat sporting his blackened eye like a prize to be shown.

“Rainbow Dash. Let me ask you something. Even if I said I forgive you right now and meant it, would that stop you from trying to make us square?” The pegasus bit her lip and looked away making the knight sigh once more. “That is what I thought, so here is what is going to happen. Stand in front of me and I will decide your punishment to make us even.”

Dustan set Boko to sit next to Zecora as the pegasus did as was asked. “Ok so what kind of punishment are we talking about here? Running a few laps around Ponyville not using my wings in anyways? Showing you a dozen exclusive tricks? Giving you my hidden candy stash that I keep hidden from Pinkie for obvious reasons? Or what about-”

The ponies jumped at the loud crack of Dustan’s fist against the side of Dash’s face. “Fuck your head is hard!” He exclaimed rubbing his knuckles afterwards. “With that we are even for you hitting me. However we are not friends, but we aren’t enemies either. We are neutral and as such we will start over again.”

Though the prismatic pony was dazed she nodded in understanding sitting back up as her eyes rolled a bit in their sockets. “S-sure. Though to be fair, you really need to throw your weight behind your punch; if you had you would have knocked me out.”

Hearing her say that reminded him that in an episode he had seen her using Karate so it was possible she knew what she was talking about. Boko however didn’t like what she had seen and scrambled over back to Dustan making sad and worried Chocobo noises. He leaned down to pet her gently to assure her he was alright.

Looking up to the mare he struck he told her. “Hello I am Dustan, I heard you are Rainbow Dash. I hope we can be friends in the future.”

Was it corny? Yes. Did it get the results he wanted? Well the tears welling up in Dash’s eyes seem to say so before she flew over and gave him a big hug.

“Thank you.” Her chocked voice came out and he simply patted her back gently.

“KWEH!” With that loud exclamation the small chick’s body glowed and white mist spread off her as she flapped her wings covering the human and the pony. As that happened he could feel his hand stop throbbing when it settled on it. Seems Dash had the same realization as everyone looked down at the suddenly tired chick.

“There there Boko, that is a good girl and thank you for that. I am very proud of you.” The chick snuggled into his hands as he picked her up going right to sleep then and there to his petting. Looking to the others, mostly Twilight as questions seemed to just bubble on the surface of her tongue he went ahead and cut some off speaking gently so as not to wake up the chick. “Boko is a sub species of Chocobo called a White Chocobo. This subspecies can heal and cast magic that helps refresh and protect others. Seems she really didn’t want me hurt or Dash so she tapped into that power to heal us. Being so young it must have drained her.”

Thankfully the girls took this as a hint to cut their visit off for today giving quiet farewells though the cyan pegasus gave one last hug before leaving. Dustan move to put Boko to her little nest that she had, though rarely slept in, more often than not preferring to lay on him before moving to sit on the couch. Zecora as well took the moment to enjoy the peace and quiet pouring herself another cup of tea.

Stripping out of his armor he set it down as quiet as possible before taking out the letter he was given by Captain Shining Armor himself. Unfolding it he grabbed the falling seal of authority that held the slip that would cover expenses to travel before going about reading the letter itself.

‘Dear Dustan.

I have heard about you from my student: Twilight Sparkle. I was most interested in meeting with you sooner as from her description you are not a minotaur or diamond dog at all or any type of hybrid at all. You seem to be a completely unheard of species here in Equestria and that alone sparked my interest. Moreover she has told me some of what you have told her, about how you have knowledge of some of Equestria’s newest problematic species. Those two things would have gotten you a quick appointment with myself in of itself. However with news of you helping to lead a force to free imprisoned ponies, it just means the meeting can no longer wait. I have a slot opened to meet you upon the thirty first.’

As he seen the date he realized that was three days from now meaning he would have to get ready for the meeting tomorrow and leave as well. However there was more to the letter so he continued on.

‘There are many more things I wish to discuss with you, but to put them all in the letter would both diminish the surprise as well as take up too much time reading. So it is my hope that we will see you on that day. –Princess Celestia.’

Looking outside it was too late to be going to get his stuff, no matter how much he wanted to. He just hoped with more hope than he has ever dared to hope before that nothing found the stone. It was because of that worry that he didn’t get as much rest as he wanted to that night.

When it came to the next morning Boko practically never left his shoulder as he dressed back in his leather armor rather than the bronze the resistance gave him finding it a lot easier to move in it as well as smell better too. Thankfully the smell was mostly gone after a good morning shower. Zecora also had become a bit worried about him when he told her of his plans to go back into the woods to retrieve some items. She immediately insisted that she go with him to which he didn’t object.

“The more the merrier.” He told her aloud as a popping sound was heard and a purple face was staring at his own.

“Good, then you won’t mind if we go with you and talk along the way.” Said purple face belonged to Twilight but with her, or rather behind her was the yellow coat littered with spots that signified another distinct pony. “After all you said if I got Mystic’s permission I could do so right?”

Looking over to said earth pony he merely chuckled bashfully. “I couldn’t say no to somepony who wants knowledge about this subject just as much as I do.”

“You know what, fuck it. Fine you two can come.” Shaking his head he lamented out loud to the world. “Is there anyone else that is going to be coming with us?”

The sound of a crashing body the door caving in to reveal the spectacular debacle of a landing that Dash had created as well as a pink maned pony pronking through the front. “Dusty you should know better than to call the world’s bluff like that.”

No amount of cupcakes fixed how much he hated Murphy and his law right then and there. So the total party consisted of himself, Boko who wouldn’t leave his shoulder and always quickly got back up when put down, Zecora, Mystic Quandary, Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie. Before they started Zecora gave them some tips on how to avoid things in the Everfree as well as a small bundle of herbs for each of them so that the noses of the creatures in the Everfree would smell nothing out of the ordinary.

The girls were nervous of course, their trips to the Everfree so far not exactly the safest by far. The only ones not affected were Zecora and Pinkie, the first walking normally though keeping a wary eye out and the other pronking along without a care in the world. Rainbow Dash was hovering off the ground but was more than a bit jittery except when she thought someone was looking at her then she put on a brave face. Twilight was apprehensive and kept a paranoid eye out and often squeaking at the sound of branch breaking or more even if it they were the ones to make it.

Over all though they all did stick close, if that was from fright or herd instinct for their species it was hard to tell for Dustan. Boko was cuddled up to his neck and seemed as frightened as the rest though would calm down for a bit when he gave her an affectionate pat. For Dustan himself he was calm, he had stalked the Everfree enough to be comfortable there. Even though he did keep an eye out like Zecora did his body remained loose and calm, ready to spring into action if needed, but not too tight where it would cause strain.

It didn’t take them too long though before it was Twilight who recognized the path they were on and had to say something. “Wait a moment, isn’t this the path to the Castle of The Two Sisters?”

The Knight simply smiled and nodded. “No one was using it so I thought I would start redecorating it. I don’t really have much in the way of bits so been slowly making it habitable for myself in some areas. No one really comes into the Everfree so it’s peaceful enough. I have also learned how to survive pretty well thanks to Zecora.”

“Oh does that mean you are going to make the castle your home? Does that mean you will move away soon?” Pinkie was the first one to pick up on his plans for what he had in store.

Giving a nod everypony there seemed to be a little sad about that so he assured them of something. “Girls don’t worry, I don’t have the bits or the items I need to make it a home. Plus humans need warmth for the fall and winter seasons depending on how cold it gets. I am not exactly a master carpenter so the shack I have right now won’t do me for those seasons. As such it will be a long while before I can do so, unless something comes up and I am forced to live here or something.”

That seemed to trigger something for Pinkie though as she suddenly gasped and appeared before him taking hold of his face. “I just realized I never gave you a welcome to Ponyville party. Or Zecora. My Pinkie Sense must be off or something.”

“Pinkie Sense?” Twilight asked though before anything more could be explained Dustan cut off that episode before it happened early.

“Well technically Pinkie you aren’t wrong for not giving us a party as we technically never moved to Ponyville, only next to it.” He hoped that would quell the waters that was the rapidly running river that was Pinkie for now.

Thinking on that for a moment Pinkie seemed consider what he said before nodding . “Okie Dokie Loki. That just means I have to figure out another reason to throw you two a proper party.”

“Sure, just let me know first before alright. I like surprise parties as much as the next person but with me often being in the Everfree and coming back from the goblin camp, my nerves are a bit shot right now so something jumping at me might make me react in a…well less then friendly manner just by instinct.” It had been a problem he had been having since he first woke up in the hospital, like a delayed reaction to his imprisonment. When he got startled awake when sleeping off his exhaustion he found himself reaching for weapons or anything in the half second of instinct and awareness that happened when he was startled.

It was getting better, but he still rather not risk attacking someone innocently again, even though Nurse Redheart forgave him for grabbing a bedpan and swinging it at her considering what he had been through. Thankfully the party mare seemed to get the hint and nodded silently before smiling and going back to her pronking.

Zecora seemed distracted for a moment before going off the beaten path as they were making their way closer to the castle. “Excuse for just a moment or two. I seem to have found something that is askew.” The group waited just like she had asked Dustan growing a bit worried but when she came back he smiled seeing she was ok. “I have found what I sought, but it is not exactly what I thought. For now let us let the matter rest. For now I will keep the matter close to my metaphorical vest.”

Not understanding what was going on he just shrugged and continued on across the bridge. “You know.” Twilight said with a curious tone as they crossed it. “Even though Nightmare Moon broke the bridge, what makes me curious is to why it looked recently repaired in the first place.”

Luckily it was summer and it was hot otherwise the girls might have thought him sweating might be a dead giveaway on his thoughts. “You know I wondered about that too. But if the goblins were in the Everfree, they might have done it since it did look kinda shabby to me.”

“I suppose your right Rainbow.” Giving out a bit of a sigh of relief he smiled seeing the building come into question. The work was new so it stuck out like a sore thumb to anyone looking at it.

Pointing to the distance he told them. “There it is.”

“Where?” Was all Twilight said before they got closer to it.

Dash however seen it and smiled. “Oh I see it, good eyes big guy.”

Nodding the purple unicorn chuckled and smiled. “Right I had forgotten your eyesight is much better than ours. Though your other senses not so much.”

“What can I say?” Said the human with a smile. “Humans are very visual based, we are what we are.”

“Is it cause you humans are hunter types?” Dash’s comment caused the other ponies to freeze slightly as she made it. “What, you girls didn’t know? I mean if you hang around Fluttershy long enough even somepony like me picks up on some things, so seeing his teeth I realized he ate meat.” Looking over to him sheepishly. “Kinda one of the reasons I attacked you when you first came to Ponyville, you smelled of fish that was eaten recently so I thought you might be coming for more food.”

Seeing the nervous looks on Pinkie and Twilight he decided to get this conversation over with. “Yes I eat meat, but I am an omnivore like the rest of my species. We need meat to stay healthy, and I don’t get anything that is aware, so all of Fluttershy’s little friends are safe. It’s one of the first things I went to find out about when I found myself here.”

More and more he smiled as he got to the building he was using as a home. It would keep the rain off of someone…mostly. But really considering that all the walls were mostly intact was a boon and only the roof needed tending too as well as the windows. Twilight and the others seemed more curious about the ruins then his potential home which was just as well as he could move a few loose stones in the floor under the mat of the bed so that he could get to his items.

The first item that he looked for was not his sword, not his pack, not his clothing in it. It was the stone contained within and once found he breathed a sigh of relief. Putting the stone away in the secure pocket of the pack he then brought his items out and went about checking them.

He could hear the ponies finally coming into his room and checking it out. “Considering you worked on this alone, not bad.”

Rainbow Dash was seemingly a bit impressed as was Twilight. “I agree, you used some limited funds and have made the area somewhat habitable.”

Pulling out his sword he checked the sheath first. “Thanks, like I said I worked hard on it. Got to always have back up plans in case the worst comes to pass especially when you are in an unknown land where ponies tend to be more than a bit skittish around the unknown.”

“True, ponies do tend to fear the unknown, but that is only because most don’t know enough about it to-.” As he unsheathed his sword to check on it, Twilight gasped hard. “Why do you have something like that?”

Turning to the unicorn he saw her looking frightened which did confuse him as well as the others, even Boko who gave a curious noise. “Ok you are going to have to be a bit more specific.”

“That!” Pointing to his unsheathed blade almost frantically.

“What Twilight?” Her fellow element of harmony asked as she was hovering in the air. “It’s just a neat looking sword, though I suppose red is a pretty cool color for a sword though.”

“None of you understand.” She pointed towards the sword. “I can ‘feel’ the enchantment on that; it’s a dark magical enchantment.”

“O…K…it hasn’t done anything bad to me yet Twilight, are you sure it’s-” Dustan was cut off though as when he took a step towards her she backed up.

“Don’t bring that closer to me. I don’t even know how you are not dead from it right now.” Her concern was honestly starting to make him grow concerned as well.

“Twilight, you are going to have to calm down, I honestly don’t know what you are talking about. So please explain it to me.” The others agreed on that as well wanting to be filled in.

Seeing him not doing anything horrible she did calm down a bit but kept her distance. “That is an enchanted sword, though it likely could be classified as a curse.” Some of Zecora’s warnings came back to mind about the sword wanting something, he forgot her exact wording though. “I can tell that it’s an enchantment that feasts on vitality.”

It clicked for him, the first fight against the goblins being the one that came most to mind as well as the Timberwolf pack that he first fought to save Fluttershy before he knew it was her. “OH that explains so much.”

“I see you must have noticed something. Whatever pony or human created that sword likely sacrificed a living being to make that sword as that is how the curse comes about.” Hearing her say that his hand went to his chest rubbing where he felt it pierce him before. “That is why the blade is stained red like it is.”

“Well the good news is you finally helped me figure what it is, it’s a Blood Sword by the way, and further good news is that no one was sacrificed for it and it doesn’t harm its owner.” He started to sheath his sword as he said that as well as putting his pack on his back.

“How?” Twilight said at first not completing her thought. “How do you know those things?”

Strapping on the sword to his side like before he started to move towards the makeshift door of the room before simply saying. “Cause I was the sacrifice for that blade.”

Dustan heard the shocked gasps from the ponies around him but none dared to question him neither at that moment nor for most of the walk. It would only be when they got back to the hut and were standing at the front door did somepony finally ask for them all and it was the one he least expected to ask it.

“Dusty, if you were the sacrifice, then…why are you here?” turning around to look at his companion ponies for the first time, he noticed how each of them looked.

Twilight looked pale and visibly shaken while Rainbow Dash look strangely angry but the anger was not directed towards him. Zecora had a thousand yard stare but Pinkie had nearly a flat mane and looked on the verge of tears. He felt himself moving to scoop her up in a hug quickly and gave her a pat on her head before feeling tears land on his shoulder where her head rested.

The human let her cry on his shoulder silently for a bit and only spoke up when he felt her calm some. “I was saved and sent to Equestria. It’s why I am lost. It’s why I will never find my old home again, and it’s why I can’t be sad because I am still alive. As long as you are alive there is always a chance for you to make your circumstances better.” Setting the pink pony down, he chuckled and told her. “How about this, why don’t you get me a party going. Not tomorrow though, or the next day, mostly cause tomorrow I have to go up to Canterlot and see the Princesses.”

The unicorn gave out a gasp of surprise as she went over and looked up at him with a questioning look and curious gaze. “Why are you going to see the Princess, did something happen?”

Shaking his head he patted the studious pony on the head and told her the truth. “I don’t think so, Celestia just sent me a letter stating that she wanted to meet with me and talk based on the letters you sent her.”

Giving a blush she pawed at the ground. “Oh yeah, I may have mentioned you as a new species and a few other things that we talked about. I didn’t mean to gossip or anything if that is what you are thinking.”

“Its fine Twilight. I knew I would be eventually meeting her at some point or another, best to get it out of the way earlier then later.” Though did that mean he was looking forward to it? Nope, he was not looking forward to it at all.

Smiling as she accepted that she turned to start leaving as Pinkie came up and gave a hug. “I will start planning your party now and like you asked I will let you know ahead of time and no surprise party.”

“Thanks Pink Stuff. I will look forward to it.” Pinkie giggled at the nickname as slowly she and the others left letting Zecora and him came inside. “Welp glad that is out of the way, I should start pack-”

He felt himself wrapped in a stripped hug suddenly and gave the mare a confused looked as he looked down at her. Except all he seen was the mare crying with her eyes squeezed shut. It was surprising to see how emotional she got over this as he just kept petting her and petting her. Eventually she shaman fell asleep, exhausted from her emotional release with Dustan putting her to bed early. Leaving the room the Knight started to pack his supplies in his backpack for what he would need going to the city of Canterlot.

Strangely enough he slept soundly that night, even visiting the Classroom, though he did once feel…off when there. He couldn’t explain it and shrugged it off to nerves about tomorrow. When he woke up he found Zecora with him her head resting on his chest.

Getting out of bed and placing the blanket around her he chuckled to himself and thought. ‘That explains the funny feeling, must have felt her on me when in the Classroom.’

As he got dressed and ate a light breakfast Dustan made his way towards the train station. A storm must have been planned as he seen dark clouds on the horizon and it was likely the reason he seen no ponies in the street. They all must have been prepping for the storm is what he assumed. The train came on time and thought the conductor was a bid dubious at first that he meant no harm, even if he was armed with a sword, he was let on.

Sadly the train was for ponies so all the seats were not something he could fit into comfortably and instead choosing to sit on the floor. The train was busy for sure and he had saw multiple ponies in one booth or another meaning they shared, but no one dared come to his booth it seemed. Those that came to the booth seen him, stared for a second, then closed the door and left.

Honestly it amused Dustan a bit to see the reactions of ponies for this. He was instantly reminded of a meme from the human world of a criminal going to a room with Batman, seeing Batman, closing the door and then having another criminal ask him if he seen anything. He wisely said nope and walked away. It didn’t help that one time he heard a pony ask another that just came form that booth if it was full and the pony answered yes.

Amusement aside the trip was rather boring and what one would expect of a train ride. It took about two and a half hours to reach Canterlot but that was a bit of a direct route it seemed as he had gotten lucky. From the bit of gossip he heard when getting off the train depending on the day it could take four or even eight hours to get to Canterlot depending on the route and the other stops.

Counting his lucky stars he started to march towards the castle. The attention he drew was quite, well the word would be unnerving, something. The nobles of Canterlot all looked at him with curiosity, disgust, or wonder. Curiosity in that he was unusual looking and wondered why he was here. Disgust because of the fact a being such as him thought he was worthy to be in the city of the elite. Finally wonder in that he moved on two legs, was not a minotaur, and seemed to possess no hooves. Problem was the first looks were the medium with the last being very minor, leaving disgust as the major sight on most ponies faces in this city.

Even more so when he finally got to the castle entrance only for two guards to hold out spears baring his entrance. “Leave creature, this is not a place for the likes of you.”

Raising an eyebrow he couldn’t help but let a snarky comment come out. “Wow racist much?”

The white guards pony in gold armor just growled at him. “We are the royal guard and you will pay us respect monster.”

“Earn it first then I will pay it. Till then you are just a little pony who thinks he is the greatest.” As he said that the tabs of the two guards came up and he seen their CT gauge was full. ‘Oh, ok this is happening.’

As the first guard thrust his spear, the leather armor wearing Knight found himself moving out of the way rather easily. It was same with the second spear wielding pony backing up his friend, a thrust and a miss.

‘They’re…slow?’ Dustan thought as he dodged. He then glanced at them and saw something that made him understand. ‘Oh, they are level one. Wait the guard here is level one? That can’t be. Even at level one they should be able to hit me statistically. Well if this was the game that is.’

The fight must have caught the attention of higher ranked guards as some with golden armor that had stripes on them came out. “Halt!” The two guards did as the ranked one commanded though kept their spears leveled. “What is going on here?”

“Sir.” The racist one among the two spoke up. “We caught this monster trying to gain access to the castle, likely to harm the Princesses if I had to guess.”

The older pony groaned and facehooved. “Rookies, we gave you one job, to guard the entrance and to look out for not only ponies coming to see the Princesses but of the invited guests as well. This ‘monster’ as you call him was invited; you were even given the description, remember? Unless of course you two were sleeping during the briefing.” The embarrassed and ashamed looks of the two just made the commander sigh. “I will deal with you two later, among helping the maids with washing the toilets we will have to drill more combat training into you if this Human was able to dodge you both so easily.”

Both of them groaned loudly before giving a weak salute. “Thanks for that. It would have been awkward dodging them all the way to the Princesses.”

Shaking his head the pony looked at him before waving a hoof. “It is our duty, now follow me to the meeting room. The Princesses have been waiting for this meeting for some time it seems.”

The walk towards room was quiet for a bit with Dustan just taking in the sights and smiling at the familiar setting playing out in front of him. His smile must have caught the guard pony’s attention who started pointing out things to him along the way, of what the statue before them, or what that painting was from.

However during the walk there came a question from the guard himself. “I overheard something from the Princesses. It seems you have knowledge of some of the new creatures that have been appearing in Equestria. Goblins for example, and also Bombs is that correct?”

Nodding Dustan looked to the pony questioning him. “That is correct. I have a bit of knowledge about them and more.”

The pony stopped before a set of doors likely the meeting room they were heading to. “If possible, other officers like myself would like to pick your brain, help us devise strategies to deal with the new threats. So if possible would you kindly stay even after your meeting so that we can talk?”

Dustan wanted to say yes but there was one glaring issue. “I would love to but, I kinda don’t have a place to stay, so if the Princesses take up too much time I will have to catch the train ride back and won’t be able to help.”

“That won’t be an issue I assure you.” The guard said and it caught Dustan’s attention quickly. “A room had been assigned to you it seems, so if the questioning does last a while you have been welcomed to stay here for the night.”

“Convenient, I will gladly take up that offer if it happens.” The knight’s grin spoke volumes about his thoughts of a proper bed.

A hoof knocked hard on the door before the officer spoke up. “The Human Dustan has arrived.” A golden glow overtook the doors and they opened. The guard bowed and looked to Dustan. “The Princesses will see you now.”

Heading in, he found the room to be rather tall; stained glass windows covered both walls and the back one as well showing that this was an offshoot room. The room seemed to be made of a white type of stone, Dustan’s guess was marble, letting the colored lights change the room to a mosaic of color as the sun moved. Overall the effect was very lovely and soothing.

“Welcome Dustan the Human to Canterlot Castle.” The warm almost motherly voice spoke out to him calling his attention to his hosts.

At a table in front of him he found the Princess of the Sun herself. Looking at her even his Tactical Eye agreed showing her Job as ‘Solar Princess’. Her ethereal mane was made up of pastel pink, blue and green as it waved in the air complementing her pure white coat and gold accessories. Sitting directly to her right was Princess Luna, who seems to have recovered a good deal if her sparkling star filled mane was anything to go by. Her job was set to ‘Lunar Princess’ which was fitting considering who she was. Her midnight blue coat was honestly lovely and soft looking; making him want to cuddle up to her for being ‘best princess’, but that was his personal opinion. There was also the unique splotch on her hindquarters that revealed her moon cutie mark as well which he found to be one of the most unique ways of one appearing in the show.

Her look at him was calculating, no doubt still getting used to the world as it was, while her sister kept a friendly and calm mask about her. They were not alone as two fully armored ponies were in the room at each of their sides. The pony to Celestia’s left was wearing a near white suit of armor with gold highlights on it, with its form leaving no room to even guess which gender the pony under it was. To Luna’s right was a pony in black armor with blue highlights upon it, similarly designed to the other pony, Dustan couldn’t guess the gender of this one either. On their hips they both had swords in sheaths with simple hilts on them.

The most astonishing thing was while he could read some details about the princesses, their job and name for example, he couldn’t see the levels of the princesses or other details he should have been able to. For the armored ponies he sees nothing at all, the pop up that showed him things was blank. To say this unnerved him a bit was an understatement.

“Thank you Princess Celestia, it is an honor to be here before you and your sister, Princess Luna.” He gave a bow making his sword rustle a bit catching all the ponies’ attention. Seeing them shift and look to it he spoke again. “For safety, I assure you.”

As he stood up they motioned for him to take a seat, luckily it seemed as if one that was made for a minotaur or some such as he could sit in it rather fine. “We have many things to talk about today questions to be asked, answers hoping to be found, goals, thoughts and some news of which some is good and some is bad. However we assure you that you are in no such trouble and that it is our honor to have you here.” That was a slightly offsetting sign, good AND bad news. Unbuckling his sword and sliding his axe out of a sling he made to hold it when he wasn’t wearing his armor he set them next to his chair within reach.

Luna chose that moment to speak up. “The first order of business is with thou’s role in the recent resistance and thine fight for freedom.” Hearing that he wondered what was going on. “From many ponies We hear of thy bravery and leadership during the assault that lead to the prisoners being freed. We also heard of how thou defended not only thineself but others, as well as wielding magic that healed another of which We will discuss later.”

Celestia took over the speaking role at that time. “Your actions were admirable and worthy of reward more then we can say for saving my little ponies from such a fate. If it were wholly up to us your name and actions would be written in history as an example of leadership and bravery under a trying time. However.” Well shit, however were never a good sign. “Your actions against a fellow leader, the one known as Logistics Trail, has caused him to take action in an effort to stop this.”

“What sort of actions are we talking about here?” Dustan knew he interrupted the Princesses but he had to say this. “I would say my attack was justified because he EXECUTED the goblins without seeing if they would surrender or not, how is that not a crime?”

The sisters looked at each other before Celestia closed her eyes and sighed. “You are correct, in a normal situation that would be a crime worthy of being sent to Tartarus. However he had been captured for quite some time and a hundred or so years ago a law was passed stating: During times of capture if one is imprisoned against their will for more than one hundred and sixty eight hours, a week’s time, then their actions against their oppressors will suffer no legal action cause of the emotional distress that those who are captured are under.”

Growling a bit at that, he rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Meaning he literally gets off scott free with several murders.”

“Thou are correct.” The ancient formal speak showed that Luna took up the mantle once more. “Mine sister had forgotten such a law existed till the lawyers of said pony brought it up. It is his goal to have thou stricken from the record books of history, or be imprisoned for your attack, though thou are given the choice of which to choose.”

Leaning back in the chair now Dustan looked at the walls, the sun was hitting the red parts of the stained glass just right to bathe the room in red. “Not really much of a choice, I will take the removal of my actions then.”

“I am very sorry Dustan.” The Princess of the Sun told him giving a small bow of her head. “Your actions are beyond commendable and many ponies spoke of you so highly when we talked to them. However with the actions of Logistics Trail, he will be the one who solely engineered the escape for the ponies and no pony will know what you have done.”

Chapter Eleven: Consolation Prize.

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My Little Tactics

Chapter Eleven: Consolation Prize.

Celestia had called in a scribe to take notes now and a messenger to deliver a message to those documenting the events in the history books. He was now officially removed from the books. Dustan wouldn’t lie in that it stung just a little bit, but what choice did he have? The douche had moved too well to make sure that there was even a possibility of retaliation, and all for what? A small scorch mark that likely got healed the moment they got out.

With that out of the way the Princess of the Sun smiled to him. “That has now been taken care of but it’s time to talk about your reward.”

For a moment Dustan just blinked dumbly as his brain pieced her statement together. “Wait what? I thought my deeds were erased from history.”

“They have been indeed.” The white Alicorn told him as she swept her wing before her to touch the front of her chest. “However your deeds will live on in the hearts of those you rescued. As such you are entitled so some type of reward.”

One of the scribes moved over to him sliding a piece of parchment to him as he spoke. “That really isn’t necessary Princesses I am sure that-” He stopped what he was saying right away when he seen the number on the parchment. “Well if you are sure, I mean I really could use the money.”

Luna took over speaking once more. “Thou needs not worry about thine compensation and how to carry it either. We will see to it that thou obtains an account for banking over at humble Ponyville.”

“Nice, thank you.” He gave a bow as he said that and a tray of foods and drinks were rolled in.

“Refreshments, just in case we are here for a while.” The sun raiser told him.Some drinks were given out thanks to the server’s levitation. “Next, we have granted a scholar, one Mystic Quandary Magister-In-Training, a sum of bits to explore your magic. Since you are here I would consider it a personal favor if you could demonstrate it in pony or rather person if you could.”

He scratched his head at that considering how to go about it. “Well Princesses, right now I only know two spells. One that can heal wounds to a certain extent and the other can cause a bit of damage using fire.” Looking around he cringed at only seeing what looked like expensive items. “Seeing as I rather not destroy anything and nothing is harmed at the moment I can demonstrate neither.”

The pony in the white armor casually pulled out a dagger and moved over towards Dustan. He wouldn’t lie in that he wanted to go for his sword seeing that but stopped knowing that if either of the princesses wanted to this to happen, then not a force in the world could stop it. The pony merely took off the hoof guard of their left foreleg and ran the dagger across their frog making him wince.

“Thank you my knight.” Celestia said casually before taking a sip of tea. “Dustan would you mind showing us now?”

Giving a nod Dustan looked at the bleeding frog of the pony and admit that must suck as horribly as having a cut on the bottom of his foot would. Taking a moment he pulled at that calm power he felt from before and as such it took a good minute or two for it to respond but he seemed like it was coming easier. If that was truly the case or not he couldn’t tell.

“Life’s refreshing breeze, blow in energy. Cure.” His magic sprang out and started circling the pony who watched the ball of energy leave a trail around them then looked down to watch their cut heal up. “Was that good enough?”

The armored pony nodded and put the hoof guard back on and walked over to their place where Celestia leaned down to listen to their words, words that were too low for Dustan to hear. “Thank you for your report.” Sitting back up, she looked over to him and smiled. “Well Dustan, you have managed to unlock some very old magic, older then even myself or my sister.”

“Ok?” He was honestly confused. Equestria shouldn’t have seen this type of magic ever.

“This type of magic is from one of three old schools of magic, or at least uses the same system as one of them.” As she explained that she lifted her head and lit her horn before an image appeared between them on the table. “Of the three schools two are the most commonly known. Harmonic magic: of which all ponies use and derive their abilities from, even Pegasi and Earth Ponies.” An image of three ponies one each representing the tribes appeared. “This magic revolves around the inner power of ponies working together with the world to achieve feats beyond them.”

“I have already heard that explanation of how harmonic magic works your majesties.” The human knight told them only making the Solar Princess smile.

“That is very good to hear.” Far to the right of the three pony images another image came forth, a chimera like being made up of different parts though stylized to look like the ponies, he knew who this was from the show but said nothing. “The next source of magic is known as Chaotic Magic. This type of magic subverts the will of the world and reality itself by using the owner’s magic to break apart the thaumic field of the world then rearrange it to how they wish. This type of magic always leaves a type of residue that can linger for ages if left alone and tends to drive those that use it mad save for a few instances.”

He took the knowledge in and when the time came he hoped it would provide some helpful insight if Discord managed to find him when he escaped. Dustan also made a mental note to see if there were ways to neutralize the pollution that Discord would make.

His thoughts were interrupted as Celestia continued. “Last of the three is Neutral magic, one that doesn’t work with the thaumic field and one that doesn’t use it either. One that instead creates magic whole cloth from ones inner strength and will to make what they wish happen. That being said because of the ease of use of the other two fields this one has vanished from the knowledge of all that exists currently.”

“The only reason that We know of it is because our teacher Starswirl had an ancestor who was one of the last practitioners of the Neutral way.” The princess of the Night informed.

The light from Celestia’s horn vanished as she looked over to him. “It is true, while spontaneous users of the magic do appear from time to time, rarely has one ever shown the ability to control their power and even rarer are those that understand it.”

It started to make sense now as to why they were excited. “Which makes the reason for you sponsoring Mystic all the more valuable as it is a means to rediscover a lost branch of magic.”

“That is correct.” The pastel princess told him after she sipped her tea. “If we could study your magic and start to understand the process for which it is used, we can even start to branch out and have the other tribes with their own usable magic that can affect the world much like a unicorn can. My hope is that it will bring the tribes closer together as magic has been a source of boons as well as a curse.”

He could honestly see that, unicorns being what they are many might become jealous or lose hope from rising above their station; he had seen it a bit in the hopelessness when Applejack thought he was joking at the hospital. If that is common and ponies believe they are bound to what they are birthed, then that was a shame.

“Speaking of curse.” The Alicorn of the bright burning star in the sky said. “I have been informed via my most prized student that you carry a blade that is considered a cursed weapon in many lands including Equestria. Normally what it is she described would lead to many a being to be banished out right from our lands if not imprisoned, so we wish to hear the full truth from you as well as see the weapon in question.”

Giving a sigh, he had hoped Twilight had not right away blabbed about this to her teacher but better to say it now then hide it and look worse later. Slowly he took the sheathed blade from the side of the chair where he sat it and pulled it from its scabbard. The instant he had done so both knights tensed up and both Princesses looked at the scarlet sword with distain on their faces.

“Back in my lands, we are a people that value our minds and ingenuity along with personal freedom with utmost respect. You know beyond the normal bits that society has, like money and what is owned.” The joke while he thought was well timed didn’t make the situation any less tense. “As such magic is all but unheard of except in stories where I am from to the point where any human today, barring some strange exceptions, will say without a doubt magic doesn’t exist.” Pointing to the sword in question he continued. “That right there, used to be a wooden sword made as a prop.”

“We fail to see the joke of this line unlike thou’s last attempt.” Luna spoke rigidly.

“Oh it’s not a joke Princess.” He picked up the blade and examined it. “I carved it myself. Problem was I met someone who showed me magic was indeed still around and real when he froze me, then manhandled me to a table, took my sword from me and changed it before my eyes.” Running a finger along the edge carefully Dustan took note that its edge still held true. “What was wood became steel, or at least I assume its steel. It sure felt like it when he plunged it into my chest.”

The two knights became even more ridged as both princesses gasped. “But how-”

He cut Celestia off before she could continue and instead finished her thought for her. “Am I still alive?” He shrugged and set the sword down. “Honestly I was going to say more magic. There was another there, dressed similarly to the one who stabbed me. I can only guess that he was the one to save me somehow. Last I seen of him, I was bleeding out as he was asking me to forgive him for what he was about to do even as the blade in my chest was turning red. I am still not sure if it was from where it had stabbed me or if it was actually drinking my blood, but when I woke up it was entirely red and my wound was gone with no scar to even show for it.”

Both of the princesses looked towards one another before Celestia spoke. “We will have to discuss this in private Dustan, meanwhile please enjoy the snacks that have been provided.” Before he could even nod in response or anything, there was a glow from both princesses’ horns and they popped from existence in a teleport.

“I don’t suppose either of you know any good stories while I wait?” Neither knight bothered to move or even speak. “Right, terrific story, glad to hear it.”

Lunch came and went in silence as he had more than a handful of the sandwiches provided as well as a good bit of tea. Dustan was also lucky the private meeting room had a restroom adjacent to it or the maids would likely be rather upset with him when they found the plants already ‘watered’. Overall he was starting to doze off in his seat when the sound of a dual teleport appearing in front of the table startled him awake.

“Sonva-” The sound of a body hitting the ground and a chair clattering not long after rang through the room. “Warn a guy next time alright, or wear bells or something.”

As the human went to pick up the chair his eyes caught the glow of princessey magic surrounding his sword as it was levitated over to them. Both Princesses were silent though the occasional intensifying of their horn glows said something was happening. Dustan knew enough about high company to know when someone was busy intently thinking or examining something you risk yourself if you attempt to bother them. Seeing as these were the most powerful beings in Equestria, he wisely choose to take a seat.

Soon enough the sword was levitated back over to him and set down in front. “It is a rather unique blade indeed.” The guide of the sun told him. “It is indeed cursed sword bent on absorbing vitality, but the curse was twisted in such a way to only act on forces that aren’t its owner and then direct the stolen vitality back to the owner healing him. Such an attempt at twisting is not unheard of but rarely is it ever successfully done.”

“Glad to hear it isn’t a danger.” Dustan told them only to have them look at him curiously.

“Thou art misinformed if thou thinks thine weapon is not a danger.” The former mare on the moon told him. “Should thy choose leave thine sword sheathed in a pony, twould drain them dry.” The night sister looked to her older family and they exchanged a quick look before Luna’s head returned to look at him. “However, mine own sister thinks that thou art responsible enough where thou wouldn’t do such an act and We are inclined to believe her as We also came to the same conclusion.”

Picking up the stained weapon he sheathed it and bowed. “I thank you both for your trust then.”

There was a pop and a stack of papers then appeared in front of both sisters as well as a folder. They opened up the folder first and smiled. “Now then, my student has mentioned your species and has taken some…extensive notes about you.” The Alicorn teacher told him as she patted the stack. “I have gone through it and managed to create a brief summary of what it all says and will soon be submitting it to the Equestrian Biology Branch of studies to have your species officially added to our codex and have it publish the findings of Twilight. Would you mind looking over this folder and seeing if anything is out of place?”

The folder soon floated over to him and he opened up. “Lets see. Human, species classification homo sapiens, yadda, yadda, yadda.” Dustan kept reading finding notes about eating habits, bits of biology, even his senses before he found a note that made him laugh. “Claims that species is technologically superior but has found little in the way of evidence?”

Celestia nodded before chuckling. “That is what Twilight has claimed and I am inclined to agree with her. Your claim that your species has no magic leads me to believe that you are not as ahead as you might think.”

“Very possible, in some ways you likely have us beat since some things that stump us are solved with magic. I am just stating on a purely technological level if you compared one to the other Equestria would be in Human’s dark ages or middle age.”The knight told them only to see a look on their faces that spoke of a lack of understanding. “Around fifteen hundred years ago or so.”

Luna frowned as Celestia look intrigued. “Oh. I had a feeling you might say something like that, I would have let it go and would ask you later to show us some examples however when I was talking with my sister, she used a phrase she had learned recently. ‘Put your bits where your mouth is’ is basically what she wants you to do. These are some equations that came from our neighbors, the Minotaurs, who are more inclined towards building and technology as you say your people are. If you are as advanced as you say you are it should be a simple matter of solving them right? The Minotaur nation has proven our better in many things when it comes to this sort of thing and they say that this is one of their latest equations.”

With that the shorter of the two magicked up some documents in front of Dustan along with a quill and inkwell. “I will do my best.” Looking down at the problems he thought he would have a tough time of this, math was never his personal strong suit in school though he didn’t do bad in it either. The thing was as he was looking at the problem and simply asked. “How is this possible?”

“Ahh We see that thou art stumped.” Luna cried out victoriously.

“No no no I don’t mean that.” Dustan said finding a headache wanting to come to him now as he contemplated what he just discovered. “You have machines that are the equal to appliances from my lands, ones that take a good bit of engineering, you use magic for electricity generation yet you don’t know algebra?”

“Algebra?” Celestia said giving a similar tilt to her head that her sister was currently giving.

“Holy crap you’re not joking!” Dustan held his hands up to cradle his head. “How does your society function, you have all kinds of different things cobbled together. I mean how did you make a batter mixer when you don’t know this?”

“Our Tinkers do the work individually for such inventions.” When the human heard that his eyes bugged out and only one thought came to mind. ‘Oh my god, ponies are gnomes.’

Giving a heavy sigh he slid the paper to them after writing down the answers. “Answers to the three problems on there are X equals twenty three, A squared plus B Squared equals C Squared, and finally the last one is Z equals zero. I literally can do all those in my head princesses.”

The papers were levitated over to the two, he had drawn out his process like he was always told to do in classes so that no teacher thought that he was slacking or cheating. As such he could see both princesses following his process before first Celestia’s eyes widened then Luna’s a minute after hers.

“And you say you can do these problems in your head?” He gave a nod at this. “I take it you were a scholar from your homeland?”

He couldn’t help but laugh at that and shook his head. “No they teach this to everyone where I am from. It’s part of basic education.”

Every pony in the room looked astonished at that, even the two mystery guards shuffled a bit. “Basic…education…this is basic to your people?”

Nodding and chuckling he took a piece of left over paper they had given him if he needed the work room and wrote something on it. “Take a look at this, it’s a calculus problem. That is about as high in math as I got and there are plenty of people that can go above and beyond that. Don’t even get me started on physics or theoretical physics.”

After they took the paper they started looking over it before comically he watched as Luna’s eyes swirled a bit before she shook her head. “Take it away from Our sight sister, surely that type of gibberish is magic meant to inflict Us with head pain.”

There was a pop and the paper and equations vanished before two glasses of water and some pills were brought back and floated both in front of Luna and herself. “You have convinced us Dustan. You managed to supposedly solve problems that are some of the more advanced equations that the Minotaurs have given us, then presented something that is possibly an even greater problem. We will be sending that equation back to our neighbors to see what they make of it.” With that said and done the sisters spoke to each other for a moment in a hushed tone before Celestia spoke again. “Tell us how you arrived in Equestria exactly. You briefly mentioned it when you talked of your sword.”

Sighing and nodding he spoke. He told them of the convention though didn’t say exactly anime or tv instead referring to them as stories. He had been dressed up in armor from one of the ‘stories’ and had carved the sword himself as he went to this gathering with his friend. He mentioned his run in with the merchant as well the double of the merchant. Dustan went on to re-describe the events he told when his carved blade became a Blood Sword.

“Next thing I know I woke up in the White Tail Woods. From there you can hear about how I appeared in Ponyville likely from your students notes if she researched when it was I first appeared.” Was the last thing he said before they nodded.

“Thank you Dustan for both your time and energy. However our time is up and we have duties to get back to. If possible though, we have one last request of you.” Celestia said as it seemed their meeting was coming to a close. “Would you head to the guards post, we were told you have valuable information on the various new monsters that have been appearing in our lands and instruction on such creatures will help save many lives.”

“Sure no problem. Honestly I already got requested to do that from one of the guards. I heard that I will be given room and board for my time here as well that correct?” He asked before seeing Celestia rub her temples with two of her wing feathers.

“It seems we will have to look into having our conversations out of the earshot of some guards from now on or we might have a leak on our hooves. Either way that information is true, we are prepared to house you for as long as you are instructing the guards.” Dustan inwardly winced, he might have just gotten someone in some big trouble it seems.

“Anyways I suppose I will be off, there should be guards outside that can point me the way right?” With a nod he went outside though stopped and looked towards the Alicorn of the night. “Luna.” The addressed princess looked towards him. “Work on your speaking, and possible volume when speaking to normal ponies. The old speaking pattern you are using makes you seem too formal and hard to approach, you may get better personal interactions with ponies if you work on it. Just food for thought.” With that he left the room.

The door to the meeting room closed and then shimmered as the entire room was now under the solar princess’ spell of soundproofing. “See Lulu, I told you that you might wish to look into those instructions sooner or later. Even our none-pony guest there noticed.”

‘Lulu’ gave a harrumph and crossed her forelegs. “We speak just fine sister.”

Giving a giggle she looked towards the two knights at their sides. “Tell us Noble Aurora, what is it you thought of him?”

The white knight to Celestia’s side ‘hmm’ed for a moment before a feminine voice spoke up out of the armor. “Well he is certainly unique. If those equations are correct then he wasn’t lying about how smart he is, though he might be fibbing on how smart his people are.”

“What about thou Regal Gloom? Tell Us what is it thou makes of him.” Luna asked her dark armored knight to her side.

Unlike the other one a masculine voice spoke up from this armor and right away. “He walks with the stance of somepony who has seen combat but has not had any formal training, he is self taught and undisciplined. Those cons out of the way though, his stride is also of a warrior not to be taken lightly regardless of lack of proper training or not. His words and hold on his sword were true; of this I sense no lie both about his tale about the creation of the blade and of his arrival in our lands.”

“Thank you knights, you are free to go back to your respective units now.” Celestia told them seeing them salute before exiting the room. A second shimmer reinforced the first one Celestia put on the room before.

The only difference was it was a darker glow then the solar Alicorn’s magic gave off. “We find the actions of Logistics Trail synonymous with a pile of manure sister!”

She had known this was coming though the volume it came out at made her secretly glad her sister had the foresight to reinforce the soundproofing spell. “I know and I agree sister.”

“Then why has it been allowed to stand?” Luna was fuming as her stance told plenty with her ears back and her wings splayed out.

“Because, as it stands now, the nobles of Canterlot are making him out to be a huge hero. If it was just one or two nobles then this wouldn’t be an issue. However the majority of the more selfish nobility have rallied behind him and are using him as spokespony for their own agendas both good and bad.” The princess got out some more of the medication for a headache and swallowed it. “What is more they are spreading the word to lesser nobility and commoners about his deed making him out to be what looks to be a up and coming national hero. If we were to repeal the act now and have him tried, it would be looked at poorly by our ponies. What is more is we would have the nobility stirred up even worse than when you returned to the throne.”

She saw her sister wince at that. It had been a bit of a struggle to gain the ponies trust in her and she had nearly been overruled in her placement if not for the fact that Celestia had brought up that she herself had never been removed from the roster of ruling parties. It was that legal loop hole that let Luna keep her crown though each and turn some pony was calling for an act that would remove that status or have Luna stand trial to see if she was fit to rule with her current knowledge. It was why her sister had been doing her best to read up on modern laws, practices, and more forgoing her lessons in speech and other areas to compensate for it, driving her to become a recluse for the sake of keeping her title and ruling jointly with her sister.

“This is not a battle we can win Lulu, not by ourselves at least.” Her sister looked intrigued by the words Celestia had used. “Right now, our ponies are only getting the word of those loyal to the defamer. I know of some ponies we can speak to and have them slowly start trickling out the real facts and tidbits. It will be in that way we can subvert what this pony has wrought.”

Giving a satisfied nod Luna smile though it was short lived as a frown quickly returned. “Our question sister, is how such a law came to pass. We remember nothing of it before Our banishment nor have We read up on anything like it since Our return.”

It was the older sisters turn to wince at the question now as she laid her head on the desk in front of her. “That is because it came soon after your banishment.”

The dark blue pony looked almost upset, or was it disappointed, it was hard to tell. “How could thou let such a law pass?”

“You have to understand my sister.” Celestia reached out with her wing and pulled the younger of the two towards her in a hug. “After I was forced to banish you, I was an emotional wreck. During the next hundred years I admit I made questionable choices and mistakes as I fumbled day to day just to function. It wasn’t until later when I heard reports about some of the laws I mindlessly signed into function did I do my best to repeal or amend what I could find. However even to this day I still find some that I have missed or some that are taken advantage of. Again I repeal them when I can, but sometimes it is too late, as in this case when the hornet’s nest has already been stirred up.”

“We art sorry mine sister. We didn’t know what it was thou went through during Our absence.” Celestia could feel tears staining her coat as her little sister snuggled deeply into her fur.

“It is fine Lulu. I know of my failings more than anypony even if others do not see it.” Deciding a change of subject was in order she visibly perked up and smiled. “Tell me, you visited him in his dreams last night did you not? What is it you discovered? We weren’t able to talk about it this morning while planning out the meeting so now is the best time as any while we have a bit of time before I must meet with petitioners for Solar Court.”

While there was no more tears there was a confused look on her sisters face. “The dream of Dustan was…abnormal. We think that he was aware of Our presence but because he was unable to perceive us dismissed it. Such a thing only usually happens with those that have dreams of abnormal lucidity.”

“That in of itself is not an uncommon thing from what I remember you telling us long ago.” Spoke the taller pony.

Shaking her head. “No it normally wouldn’t be except for what the dream itself entailed.” A curious eyebrow was raised despite Celestia’s attempt to resist raising it. “There were suits of armor and robes, ones We assume are of warriors, scholars, and mages of his people. Problem is We recall what he said today about his people not being magically inclined. What is more We perceived that those statues had some kind of importance to him as well as gave off a strange feeling. We can’t be for certain as we have never encountered the like before, but We felt as if those armor stands held…power.”

“Interesting.” There was not really much to add to that as anything she could say would just be empty reassurances. “Well then, make it a point to check in on our guest a bit more often. If that dream comes up again maybe you can deduce the dream and those stands purpose. For now though we must depart, I will see you at dinner sister.”

“Farewell sister, till supper.” With that both Alicorns vanished in their individual magical teleportations.

Sighing as he got back to the room provided for him he laid on the large plush bed after taking a much needed shower. Not that Zecora’s shower was lacking but he always had to crouch in it. With this one, since it was designed for minotaurs, he had no need to do that. He was currently going through his bag and double checking to make sure the contents were undisturbed. Finding everything where it should be he laid down and reflected on what he spent the entire day discussing.

He had been talking to Captain Shining Armor himself, who had come back to Canterlot and was more than happy to hear all about tactics for the new monsters. It seems that many more had shown up then he had assumed in the fact that they had described not only Bombs and Goblins, but various Panther types, Skeletons, Aevis, and Treant. He suspected more as he caught wind of them discussing other things at times when the other tacticians in the room weren’t trying to push an outsider out of the conversation and if what they were whispering was right, he could add Dragons, Hydras, and Minotaurs to the list as well. He sighed and knew that more was around for sure. Hobgoblin being one meaning there was sure to be more and who was to say they were all tactics based.

He shuddered to think about the Weapons from Final Fantasy 7 running around. The other thing that made him shudder was that if his stone was real, were the others in this world as well? It was questions like that one that made sleep hard. Though thanks to the combination of a well made meal, with meat thanks to the chef’s at the castle, a warm shower, a soft bed, and only a bit of tossing and turning, Dustan would find his sweet spot and fall into a dreamless slumber.

The next day saw him answering a few questions from the assembled soldiers about some of the tactics he discussed the other day but except for the few who were older and knew to take advice from one who has fought the battles there we heading into, he could tell most ignored him thinking that he wasn’t qualified to teach a pony anything. He learned later through Shining Armor when the captain heard him sputtering about fools that most of the recruits came from nobility or were commoners who wanted to obtain nobility through noble deeds and that only the vocal and foolish ones wouldn’t listen to him. Dustan hoped he was right otherwise more pony blood would be shed.

The train right at noon back to Ponyville was nothing special, he was once more on the floor as the seats and space available to him were not enough. When he stretched and exited the loading and unloading platform he was strangely happy to be back.

“Oh the horror!” A pony shouted and he just rolled his eyes.

“Hi Roseluck.” He spoke to the fainted pony who rose up rather quickly with a smile.

“Welcome back Dustan.” Honestly her recovery surprised him as did her prank…joke…jank?

“Thanks?” He knew it came out as a question though it didn’t seem to bother the pony at all who giggled and walked away. “Huh…well how about that.” Dustan muttered to himself.

As much as he would LOVE to head back to the hut and just kick back and relax, he had something to take care of. He had been in Ponyville often enough that he knew his way around now and he quickly came to the building he wanted. The thing about the show versus his new reality was that Ponyville was quite a bit bigger then shown. Thus the bank being here when there was none that he was aware of before.

Stepping inside he found his day heading into rough territory as there stood the snooty piece of shit that was Spoiled Rich herself. The pink pony with purple mane was standing in line behind others complaining on how slow the bank of Ponyville was. Seems it was payday around the town and many were coming to deposit their checks or cash them. It took nearly an hour and the whole time Spoiled Rich was berating everypony around that she could see, which thankfully wasn’t him as she never turned around to see who was behind her.

That changed after she was served and started to head out. “Hmm seems they will let any animal into buildings these days.”

For a moment Dustan had to suppress himself as he felt the rise of his destructive magic come out wanting to seek his target and it was only through some calming breathing did he refrain from roasting that upstart arrogant bitch.

“Next please.” Dustan opened his eyes to head towards the bank telling pony, a beige pony with beige mane that had a droning voice that spoke of all business. “I do not believe we have ever served you here before. Are you here to open a bank account?”

“No, I was told one would have been opened for me courtesy of the princesses.” Dustan watched the pony pull out what looked to be a rolladex then found something and went to a filing cabinet. “Everything ok?”

His question fell on deaf ears as the pony continued to search till she came back. “Fill these out please. We do indeed have your new account here as well as a deposit but these forms will make the exchange official.”

Overall the forms weren’t that bad, most could be answered with relative ease, others he had to be cheeky about and fudge some data. Not like they could check back with his homeland to find out if it was true or not.

“Ok with that the exchange has been completed. Would you like to deposit or withdraw.” She asked still in the same monotone that would make Maud Pie proud.

“Withdraw please.” He was given another form and he had to specify the amount, but when done the clerk handed it to another pony who left.

When the pony came back they carried several bags full of bits and the clerk counted them in front of him. “That is all of them, will you be needing anything else sir.”

Looking at how many bags there was he simply said. “Yeah, can someone help me carry them to city hall?”

Ringing a bell turns out there was a pony for that sort of work, a burly stallion bringing a wheel burrow around deposited the bags in it before he bowed. “After you sir.”

The trip to city hall was met with curious ponies watching the bits being moved from one place to the next each wanting to ask a question but was too polite to do so…except for one.

“HEYA DUSTY! What are you doing with all those bits?” The voice and nickname came from only one pony he knew of whom didn’t even give him a chance to answer him before asking more questions. “How was your trip to Canterlot, did you have fun? Me and the girls had fun, we fought a mean scary dragon who Fluttershy scared away by scolding it.”

“I am- wait Fluttershy did what?” Pinkie pronked along side of him as she told him the events that he recognized as Dragonshy. Which now explained the clouds he seen when he left Ponyville. They weren’t clouds but the smoke from the dragon. “I see, sounds like you girls had a time of it.”

“We sure did, you should have seen it Dusty, first the dragon was all big and rawr and Rainbow Dash was all woosh woosh wam, and Fluttershy was all grrr with how she was acting.” The pink party pony did her best to act out everything using every part of her body.

He found himself chuckling at that admittedly adorable antics of the unpredictable pony however it soon came to an end when they found themselves at City Hall. “Alright pinkie I got to go in, so unless you want to join us here is were we split up.”

Pinkie looked like she was about to say something then shook and her eyes went wide. “Oh I am not missing this, I am so going in.”

‘Did…she just have a Pinkie Sense moment?’ It was all he could think as he watched her pronk inside and make him rethink his choice of actions. ‘Well in for a penny in for a pound.’

Heading inside he went to the back room to double check the numbers of the lots he wanted before he came back out and checked the mayor’s door. Seems it was her business hours, perfect. Knocking he heard that mare call out to him to enter.

“Ahh Dustan it is good to see you again. How can I help you?” She went wide eyed however when he simply placed bag after bag of bits on her desk. “What is this?”

“I want to purchase complete land rights and properly of lots EF-Zero One through EF-Twenty Seven. I know they are very low in price cause of what they contain and I know no one owns the rights to them. I checked.”

Mayor Mare looked from the bags up to him, then back down and up again before asking. “Are you insane? You know what that place is, you know why it is vacant why would you want it.”

“Simple, potential. Plus someone might as well make use of it, why not me?” The smile he gave must have convenience her as she went and got some papers for him to sign.

“You are crazy you know that?” She stated as she put her stamp on the approval papers. “This also makes you the largest land owner in history that isn’t a noble. Then again that is a feat that isn’t hard considering what you just bought.”

“Cool, that is neat to know.” Dustan said leaving the bags with her. “Oh I know there is more there then I used, keep the hundred and fifty bits for the town to help any damages that come around, and considering this town, they will.”

Her eyes went wide at that and pulled the bags closer. “Are you sure?” when he nodded she smiled and took them and put them away. “That is very generous of you.”

“I know.” He said but considering what he knew, the funds were more needed there then resting in the bank gathering dust.

As he came out with Pinkie bouncing beside him she had finally had enough and asked. “What property did you buy and why so many of them?”

“Oh not much Pinkie.” The knight told his friend before he grinned. “Just the entirety of the Everfree Forest is all.”

Chapter Twelve: Construction and Contracts.

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My Little Tactics

Chapter Twelve: Construction and Contracts.

“KWEH!” The sound heard in the kitchen as was the growing Chocobo as she waited for her breakfast to be set in front of her.

“Here it is, don’t have to be impatient now.” Dustan told her with a chuckle only to have her immediately start munching down on the cut up carrots and greens. He had found out from Zecora that she had switched her over with no problems while he was gone. It did him good to see the puffball growing up. One day soon she would be old enough for him to ride, but that day was far off. There was also the fact that he saw her more as a pet then as a mount.

“Good morning Landlord.” Zecora said with a yawn as she came into the kitchen. “What is on your schedule today for you and your sword?”

Dustan groaned as her heard that. “You don’t have to call me that Zecora. I pay you rent after all.”

“While this is true, it doesn’t mean I can’t joke around with you.” The shaman broke out in a smile as he groaned again and got some items from her fridge to start making her own breakfast. “Tell me my landholder, what kind of breakfast would you like to shoulder?”

Giving a shake of his head the human stood up. “None for me thanks. I already ate a bowl of cereal and I have some work to do. Got to go first to Twilight and ask her a few questions, then I have to go see if I can get workers from the construction guild to help me with the project I want to work on. You ponies like to haggle so I might be there for a bit, same with Twilight cause…well Twilight.” The zebra nodded as he grabbed his pack. “After that hopefully I will grab a bite to eat out somewhere. Nothing against your cooking but with how much I always saved up, I have never been out to eat, so kinda want to try my luck.”

“Alright and I hope your day is fun.” She started as he headed out only to finish her rhyme when he was gone before she continued to work on her breakfast looking a bit sad. “Just know that even with all your new money that you still have a home here when all is said and done.”

Dustan sighed as he watched Twilight bring out stack after stack of books after he had just said the simple statement of: Now I own some land, what is it I need to know. He should have realized he set himself up with a loaded question when it came to the bookworm. With the latest stack of books he actually lost sight of Twilight and for a brief moment Dustan thought to escape, but he needed this knowledge.

“Twilight, stop.” Standing up he looked to see where she went and found her bringing out other materials and face-palmed.“TWILIGHT STOP!”

“Huh?” She set down the scrolls in her magic as she finally looked over to him. “What is it?”

“Twilight.” He simply stated before motioning to the books and such. “I like reading, I really do. Fantasy is my preferred subject though and even for me THIS much reading is well beyond me. I was asking you for advice. You have likely read all these books and more so I was hoping you could give me a summary of the need to know points.”

“Oh alright, though you should have said so in the first place Dustan.” Groaning it took a few minutes to magic all the books back to their places as well as the back rooms where some were stored. “Ok let’s start with any questions you might have first then I will go back and fill in anything you didn’t ask.”

Dustan was about to ask her his first question when the words of Zecora rang in his head about being a landlord. “Am I technically nobility now?”

The purple unicorn shook her head. “I would see where you would think that but no. Otherwise Applejack and her family would all be nobility as well.”

“Makes sense.” Muttered the human as he scratched at his chin noticing he needed a shave soon. “I am now curious what does one need to be noble. Not that I want to be one, but I am curious.”

“Hmm that can be a slightly difficult question as there are many routes to go towards to become one.” She told him though pulled out her chalk board and started with her summery. “I suppose it can be boiled down to three points. The amount of land you hold the rights to, and seeing as you own well over the minimum amount I say you pass that requirement with ease. How much land does the Everfree cover?”

“A lot, let’s leave it at that.” The curiosity was written so plainly on her face he followed up his answer with. “Twilight, Ponyville could fit in the Everfree and still leave extra room so think about that.”

“Oh…that is a lot of land. Normally that amount of land wouldn’t be cheap either but considering it’s a taboo property it’s not a surprise really.” He knew what she was talking about. Because of the nature of the Everfree, all the beasts in it and its wild weather, there had been no offers on it as all that alone would have made the property a huge hassle. There is also the fact its taboo because not only do ponies go missing and assume to die in there, but Nightmare Moon had last been seen there a thousand years ago, and recently making the price plummet once again. Going with that and the rumors all surrounding it, the market had literally placed it at the cheapest it could without giving it away.

Nodding and chuckling Dustan smiled and asked. “So I pass the minimum for land, what about the other things?”

Her magic drew up a clock at this point on the chalk board. “Next would be the amount of time in service of Equestria. Usually those would be taken as military service and other such helpful roles but it’s not exclusively to be taken as such as many have done so just by being helpful and kind around their area, volunteering for example. However the amount of time one would normally need to be raised to nobility in the normal service, would be about three thousand hours of work or a little over a year straight with no days off and on an average of an eight hour work day.”

“Wow, I can’t see why anyone would ever want a title then, sounds like more work than the pay off so far. Unless there is something I am not aware of that nobility get.” Dustan mused to himself as his thoughts were interrupted.

“Yeah no kidding.” The voice belonged to the resident dragon of the library who had been in the back organizing things when Twilight burst in and started grabbing things with magic. “Twilight’s family is lucky as their nobility was inherited from a long time ago.”

“Oh really? What for?” Again his curious nature was showing and getting him more and more off track.

Luckily Twilight was there to rein him in. “We don’t know as the records were lost some time ago Dustan, we should also get back to what we were talking about.” She cleared her throat and pointed to a new drawing one of the Princess of the sun herself. “Last critical point is you need to be recognized by Princess Celestia for something, usually a deed that proves your intent to better Equestria. When one meets all those requirements only then can one apply to the Princess for nobility. Also before you ask, no I will not tell you what it is that makes it worth it, if you wish to know then you will have to try to become a noble yourself.”

Dustan snapped his fingers as that was his next question. “Ok then so I meet one of three points.” He sighed a bit as technically he would have met two of the three but then again his place in history was taken away by a loophole. Better then jail time he supposed. “What can I do then with land rights?”

“Well that depends on what you wish to do with them.” The unicorn floated the eraser for the chalk board and wiped it before drawing a crude design for the Everfree. “One thing you should know, since you own the rights completely towards the Everfree, that land is yours and you will not have to pay taxes on it should you choose to declare yourself neutral territory.” He mentally thought ‘sweet’ for a moment before the magister continued. “However if that is the case you will not be able to receive help from any of Equestria’s forces should something happened. It would be up to you to police your territory. With how large the Everfree is, I would suggest against it.”

“I can understand that.” One man against an entire forest that would take forever to walk from one end to the other alone, no thanks.

“However if you did go the neutral route you would be able to make and enforce your own laws.” Was she trying to make it appealing on purpose, because that was tempting. “Again that would take a lot of work and legislation on your part so I am not sure if it is for you. Going with Equestria means taxes though, which you pay yearly of course at the top of the year. It means you are able to request assistance in problems from the Guard and you are subject to Equestrian law.”

‘So long story short, use existing system and resources at a price or try to do it all myself. Fuck.’ Though his thoughts differed from what he said. “Got it.”

“Needless to say, as landowner you can lease the rights to do various activities within your boundaries for any sort of activity you wish as long as you abide by Equestrian law.” She went on to continue while drawing up a mining pick, saw, and a house. “You can lease out space for living as well collecting upon bits that way should you want, but with how untamed the forest is, I do not think you will find many ponies who would want to…besides Zecora that is. Also maybe Fluttershy, though you might have to check your property lines to see if she falls within it since she is on the edge of the Everfree and not within it like Zecora.”

The knight had not even thought about that at all. Would the skittish animal mare be within his territory now? That was all questions for later for now he would have to focus on some simple things, like how much were taxes going to cost, would he need to charge Zecora, he had not planned on that at all, and he would need to check on the other requirements for his plan today.

“Ok, so how much would the taxes on my property be?” He asked plainly knowing now what he knew he hoped it wouldn’t be too much.

“Well considering the nature of the Everfree and the fact that towns already guard against it, it shouldn’t be all that much. Really it’s only when ponies start coming in that you will need to pay for anything beyond the set price.” She drew a number on the board and honestly it wasn’t that bad, still a good bit but not bad. “Factoring in all the land, of which this would be a closer estimate if I knew exact numbers, the fact you and Zecora are the only ones to live in the Everfree, and that security is taken over by individual towns, then the price should be very low. Only around five hundred bits a year, which again for the amount of land you own is very cheap Dustan.” Twilight wasn’t done though as she put up a slash through the price. “However you should know that devoting portions of your property to charities or specific endeavors can cut this price of even make it so that Equestria pays you.”

“I will try to find someone to give me exact numbers and details on this later Twilight that way we can get a more accurate number, but thank you for giving me the general idea.” She beamed at that and he wondered why all ponies had to be adorable, though if he had to guess marketing would be the main reason. Standing up he stretched and gave a bit of a bow. “I think that is all for now, if I need to know more I will ask next time I am around for a visit. Now I believe I have to go talk to some of the guild workers have a good day Twilight.”

“You too Dustan.” Twilight said though looked curious as to what he had planned.

Dustan was thinking about his plans while walking along the streets of Ponyville. He had been to a lot of places in the town while visiting so he knew the vague area he needed to go on instinct now which was good since he was lost in thoughts. So lost in his thoughts was he that he didn’t even hear someone calling out his name till they tapped at his hips startling him.

“Sonva-give a person some warning next time!” Dustan shouted down to the pony who looked at him with a look of curiosity and confusion.

Said pony was Mystic Quandary, Dustan did remember him stating that he was going to be setting up shop nearby so that he could conduct studies on him more so he shouldn’t have been surprised. “Well, I did try to get your attention but you ignored me or maybe ignore isn’t the best term, you looked like you were thinking about something deeply so didn’t hear me maybe?”

Looking to the spotted earth pony he sighed. “My bad then. Yeah that was my fault as I am on the way to the guild square in Ponyville to see about hiring some construction workers to help fix up a place as well as get a price estimate for it.”

“Oh can I come along then? I would really like to ask you a few questions along the way. If it’s not too much trouble that is.” The way his eyes sparkled at the thought of his questions being answered honestly reminded Dustan too much of the library mare he just left.

“Sure, but again I can’t explain more about my magic specifically as I am as about clueless as you on it.” However a flash to his meeting changed that answer. “Actually I do have some new info and that came from the princesses themselves. Apparently what I can do is called Neutral Magic.”

“AHH, OF COURSE!”Mystic exclaimed loudly causing some ponies to turn and look at him as he pulled out some parchment and something to write with. “That makes things more clear. It would also mean that if it’s true and we can study this some more a lost branch of magic can be revived.”

His enthusiasm was infectious for sure as Dustan found himself smiling as they continued to walk. They would occasionally have to stop so that Mystic would be able to write his findings down but overall the questions so far were simple. What were humans like, his personal preferences for food, what he was currently eating, his hobbies and general information such as weight height and more. When the knight asked why was he asking this, the answer came in the form of the magister in training simply saying it was for a baseline.

So enthralled was he in the questions that when he got to the guild square he barely noticed till somepony nearby asked him if he needed help setting up a rain gutter for a house. “Ahh Mystic I need to talk to some ponies about some business so won’t be able to answer any more questions you are free to tag along if you want till after but I am not sure how long it will be.”

Seeing him nod made the human smile as he started to talk to several ponies. Each one gave him similar answers as it seemed the ones he wanted to talk to were the stonemason guild and they were located to the north of the square. He honestly didn’t need to ask which building it was as it was a completely stone structure with a symbol of a chisel and hammer on the outside with giant letters stating it to be a branch of the Manehatten Stonemasonry guild.

What came next was not what Dustan had expected at all. He had expected a bit of a higher price, some doubts about working in the Everfree, and over all, and a lack of willing workers. What he got was much worse.

“Look if you don’t like our prices you can always look somewhere else you rancid sack of horseapples.” The pony wearing a vest said almost dismissively. “Our prices are set for PONY customers, those of you that want to build on pony land like this might as well be better off trying to build yourself, or maybe try the Misfit guild haha.”

It was outrageous, not only was this pony charging well beyond the price, thanks to Mystic letting him know that it was over ten times the price of what he wanted, but he tried to include overpriced hazard pay, over priced building materials and more. It Dustan had even tried to accept he would have estimated he would have been charged about twenty five times the price of normal all together. He would have gladly accepted even up to five times the cost considering it was the Everfree, but THAT MUCH! No that wasn’t even close. Plus the entire time the solid brown earth pony in charge of that branch of the guild was beyond racist having made open remarks about him, about Mystic trying to be a mage when he should have been working the land like an honest earth pony, and he heard comments towards the other pony races as well including feather duster for pegasi and horn heads for unicorns to name some of the cleaner of the remarks.

Overall Dustan very close to punching the pony out and had to storm out in a rage at how such a person could exist in the land of harmony. Being outside of that place did little good, he wanted to shout to rage, even throw something but he knew he couldn’t as ponies were to easily startled. In the end he settled for a bit of self destruction as he knelled down and punched the ground causing pain to jolt up from his fist. The only pony he did cause to jump was Mystic who looked at him in concern.

“They seriously piss me off. How can that type of thing pass around here, and who else are they increasing their prices on?” Growled out the biped as he rubbed his fist trying to nurse the pain away. “Elitist assholes.”

“The Manehatten guilds tend to be the best at what they do though, so it’s understandable for them to be a bit of a showboat or have an ego, but I agree in that it’s a bit much.” Brushing a lock of his mane from his eyes he looked back at the building and spoke again. “Even still, I think that place is bad news for sure. They did give us a second chance as they mentioned the Misfit guild. I didn’t think Ponyville had a branch.”

“Wait, that misfit bit he said is actually a thing?” Seeing the earth pony nod brought only one statement to mind. “Explain.”

Standing up he would listen to the explanation with his full attention. “The Misfit guild is a guild made up of well misfits. Those that don’t fit in with other guilds, outliers, or even those that were banned from their guild will often find themselves becoming a part of it. As such the Misfit guild is a rather hit or miss type of guild. You can find really talented ponies there that you would not expect to have a specific talent, or those of questionable nature with nowhere else to go. I myself am a part of that guild, but only because the Mage guild of Canterlot won’t take me.”

“Let me guess, cause you aren’t a unicorn?” Seeing him nod frustrated Dustan only for him to sigh and start looking around. “Well nothing we can do about it at the moment, so let’s find the Misfit guild and see if they will be willing to work on things.”

It took only a few questions and a friendly face to point them in the direction they needed. “It’s over that way Dusty, here follow me I can show you the way.”

As always Pinkie Pie surprised him, both in her knowledge and in the fact she could pop up like that. “Thanks Pinks. Do you know if anyone would be willing to build for me with stone?”

“Hmmm there might be a few ponies, why? Are you building a castle or something?” Pinkie asked all hyper.

Seems Mystic was also curious as to what he wanted. “What are you building Dustan?”

So far Dustan had only told him he wanted to build a bigger building then most and not what was needed. It also never approached that level in the discussions with the masons so no one but him still knew anything. He didn’t get to answer either as they soon stood before a larger building of various colorations. There was one prominent symbol above the main door and it was of some kind of blue blob with stars inside of it.

“Here we are, the Misfit guild. Come on in I can introduce you.” Pinkie opened the door and right away the sound of fighting was heard as well as grunts. “Oh looks like Lift and Breaker are at it again.”

Coming in he saw two ponies roughing it out, tumbling on the ground with one another and doing their best to knock the other one out. “I take it you are here often?”

“Mhm.” Was all she said as she pronked towards an office at the side of the building with no one even batting an eye. The moment she opened the door though she saw something and ran over. “ALLURE!”

The sound of grunting came from inside as a smooth and warm voice chuckled. “Alright alright Pinkie good to see you again too.”

As Mystic and Dustan came in the human was honestly surprised with what he saw. Pinkie was hugging a pony with scales. The pony had a mane that was the same color as snow but on her main body she had a pink face that gave way to red along her body as well as splotches of black and white reminding him similar to how a Koi fish had their own patterns. On her flank was the same splotch as on the door above the entrance.

“Oh, hello guild leader,” Spoke the magister in training as he dipped his head in greeting. “I didn’t even know there was a guild branch here and then finding you here, must be a stroke of luck.”

The pony saw the yellow and black spotted pony and smiled. “Actually the reason I am here is cause of that recent attack. I heard you and others were involved and came to see if I could contact anyone to get the full story. Which I did from a few new recruits to the guild.”

‘Anyone she said. Whatever she is, she wasn’t raised as a pony since it would have been anypony.’ The thought got no further then that as at last he was noticed.

“Well, well, well, seems we have the hero I have heard of. Then again given your description it isn’t hard to know it’s you.” She rose up and gave him a hug, and though he hesitated he did return it.

He found the scaled pony to be strangely soft, even her scales. “Umm thanks?”

“Yeah, you did good work helping ponies out. It does this Kirin proud to know other races won’t leave someone behind.” The Kirin said as she proclaimed her species name before holding out a hoof. “The name is Scale Allure. Pleased to meet you.”

“Wait a Kirin? Isn’t that a pony and dragon hybrid?” He took the offered hoof and smiled. “Also the name is Dustan.”

“Good to finally meet you Dustan. Also to answer your question yeah, a Kirin comes from a dragon and pony mating. It’s very rare for sure considering the size differences of the two races.” Allure told him as she moved back behind her desk. “So what is the hero of the Everfree doing in my office with two of my guild members?”

“I was going to ask-wait two?” Looking to Pinkie she just nodded and giggled. “Well I suppose that makes sense why no one batted an eye as you marched in and how you knew names.”

“Yepperoni.” She smiled and stood on her hind legs as she started gesturing widely. “You see, after I left the farm I had a hard time finding work. For a while I tried everything, party planning, comedy, and more to make ends meet. I even learned to be a one pony band all in the hopes of earning my way around. When I couldn’t do that and couldn’t find a guild to take me, Allure took me in at the Misfits guild and helped me get jobs. While I am not an active member anymore, thanks to being employed by the cakes, I still like to come around and pick up an odd job every now and then when I can.”

This was rather interesting for sure and it made sense. He had always wondered about things like this back in his normal life on earth. Twilight could be explained as she always had funding from Celestia for stuff, Rainbow Dash had her job as a weather pony after graduation. Applejack had always worked on the farm and that gave her income. Fluttershy was the same way in that she had a job after flight academy. Rarity might be an outlier in that she likely didn’t always have the boutique…might be something to look into there.

It was Pinkie Pie though that always had his interest for back stories in this particular area. The pink party pony of Ponyville was shown in a flashback by Cheese sandwich that she visited other places before settling in Ponyville and surely planning and throwing parties couldn’t have been THAT profitable right? Well now he knew that it wasn’t and that things didn’t become stable till after her job at Sugarcube corner. It was moments like this he felt the show could really do with, but for the most part it never went into the lives of the cast beyond what was happening at the time, a shame really but oh well.

“So what was it you came here for again?” Allure asked of him bringing him out of his musings, a habit he noticed happened all too much.

“Oh right.” Dustan spoke as he looked at the guild leader. “Well you see-”

Meanwhile outside Heavy Lifter and Back Breaker were still tumbling over one another in their wrestling match till a shout brought a stop to their fun. “You want to WHAT?!” All ponies that were in the guild were now interested in what was happening behind those doors

The ringing in his ears took a moment to stop before the human even thought to continue. “I want to restore the Everfree castle to its former glory while modernizing it making it fit for anyone to reside in. I don’t expect to do it all at once, but a project that is piecemeal, a bit here and a bit there.”

There were many reasons he wanted this to happen, the main reasons being that the tree of harmony was under the castle or at least near it and thus he wanted a secure place to watch over it. Second as seen in a few episodes, the castle was home to many artifacts of power as well as historical relics that should be restored and guarded. Restoring the castle and getting it habitable would draw in some to live there which would make things easier than if it was just himself doing the job.

The kirin was rubbing her temples with hooves as she heard this before sighing. “Ok, so let’s say my guild takes the job, what is it you are looking for? Stonemasons are an obviously call cause of it being a castle, but what else?”

“Anyone who knows how electricity and lights work, as well as possible defensive enchantments and such to protect any who live inside from the creatures there.” Allure was busy writing all that down as he continued. “In the long run I hope to see if it’s possible to get the valuable and unique plants of the Everfree to grow in controlled conditions, I know there are many in the forest just from my handfuls of experience in brewing and potion making. I am sure there are ones beyond useful that are unknown still in there.”

“Ok so someone useful in herbology and herbalism, gardening, as well as alchemy.” As she wrote that down Dustan was curious about something.

“Um why do you need to know that?” He could get those later as he doubted he had the funds for them at the moment.

“Cause, while this project of yours sounds impossible, my instincts tell me that if you can make it work and my guild is in on the ground floor then it will be profitable for everyone involved. As such, expect a bit of a discount as long as you are willing to populate this new castle of yours with some of my guild members.” Well he had not expected that but it made sense. “While we are discounting things, you should become a member; I can make it so that there is a further discount as well since it’s for guild related activities. Plus it would bring in some work if it was known the hero of the Everfree was part of the guild.”

He winced again at that and sighed. “My being part of the guild won’t bring in anyone cause there is no Hero of the Everfree except Logistics Trail.”

“Ha like he could steal all of the credit himself. He was a paper pushing jackass that manipulated others to make him look good.” The smile vanished from her face as well as all those there as he quickly told her of what went down in Canterlot. “Seriously…buck that is a grade A asshole there.” She quickly pulled out a black book and a weird glowing quill and inkwell. “Well honestly was willing to not put him on there before because he did help out, but hearing that, he just officially makes the blacklist for the guild.” She then pulled out another scroll and marked on it with the glowing quill and slid it over to him. “If you want to sign up with the guild sign your name there after reading it.”

Dustan was really unsure of if he should or not but as he was reading it, the only things he saw was that if he didn’t regularly take missions he would have to pay guild dues to the guild though if he did take missions the guild earned a percentage of the profits, otherwise hiring guild workers from the guild earned him a fifteen percent discount, even more of a discount if he himself was part of the work. As he read that he had an idea.

“So if I sign this right now before our deal is done and help out with the work I am hiring you for…” He trailed off seeing if she would follow and indeed she did.

With a grin and a chuckle she leaned back and nodded. “Your fee is drastically reduced likely up to about three forth’s of what it would be normally. A twenty five percent discount. You are free to refuse any mission we have for you as long as you give a somewhat reasonable excuse.”

So it came down to this, a way to earn reasonable money and a good discount for his project, or take it on full price and hope that in a few years he would have a portion of the castle done at all. He would like to say it was a no brainer but it wasn’t as it meant signing on to a place he had no clue about. His only assurance that this place was a good one came via the two ponies at his side, Pinkie and Mystic. If not for them he would likely have refused the invitation.

“Alright then.” Dustan told her as he signed his name. “I am on board.”

“Excellent. Now I know a few ponies to help get things started that are already here, otherwise I am going to have to call some in from other branches. Stay here for a moment.” As she headed outside he wanted to think he would have some peace and quiet to think about the decision he had just made.

Nope. “YAY!” Instead a pink battering ram plowed into him knocking him to the floor. “Welcome to the guild Dusty.”

Never in his life did he think he would need air as much as he did at the moment, but the fluff of the pony covering him as well as the squeezing hug had his lungs burning before with the sound of a door opening he was released to wheeze in air as best as he could.

“I see Pinkie is giving you the guild welcome…I say guild welcome but really it’s just that she does that for every new member to the guild she meets, even if they have been part of the guild for years and she just met them.” She must have found his gasping for the sweet, sweet air of life amusing as she chuckled when he didn’t answer. “I have three members I want you to meet, well two, but the last insisted she show up and all things considered I decided to indulge her.”

Dustan managed to get into his chair just as the three arrived. Two ponies, a unicorn and pegasus, and a griffon. The unicorn had an interesting pattern on her coat: light brown with white spots with a bit of black along her back, the pattern reminded him of Bambi or at least a fawn of a deer making her look rather adorable. Her mane and tail were colored vastly different alternating blue and teal locks making it stand against the brown coat so much more. However with her soothing chocolate brown eyes, eyes that almost seemed familiar, brought him back to being reminded of a doe so much. He got a glimpse of her cutie mark and it was one he expected on a certain earth pony family but not on a unicorn: An apple tree surrounded by thick billowy grass.

The next was the pegasus and their coat was even more striking then the fawn looking unicorn’s was. A dark blue that was almost purple was the main coloration but a series of white dots in a string littered his body making him look like a pattern in the night sky. His sky blue eyes were a nice comparison to his coat and the wild streak of blonde that was his mane and tail reminded him of a sunrise coming up from the night. The cutie mark of the pegasus was a stone arch with a hammer in the opening.

Last was a griffin he recognized, she was from the mines, now that she was properly cleaned up he could see how regal she looked. The white of her feathers was of clouds and the brown was rich in her fur looking of fresh dug up earth. All her feathers were tipped in sky blue as if she each one was individually dipped in paint as was the markings that were under her eyes that swooped back giving her a fierce looking appearance.

“These ponies are going to be in charge of the ground and stone work.” She pointed to the unicorn first. “This is Still Eden, she is a plant specialist with her magic so she will be able to manage the grounds and keep vines and plants at bay while you all work.”

“Pleased to meet you.” The friendly smile she gave him with her greeting was almost too kind.

“Next is our stonemason Sturdy Structure.” She pointed to the pegasus and it was a bit curious that he was a stonemason of all things. She might have seen that on his face as she spoke up further. “Don’t let him being a pegasus fool you, he is likely one of the best Stonemasons I have known even though he is a recent addition just like Eden is.”

“I look forward to working with you.” The voice was gruff and very familiar. It was tickling the back of his mind as if the answer was just out of reach.

Allure sighed and looked to the last. “Last we have the one who wanted to speak with you so I will let them introduce themselves and what they wished to talk to you about.”

Stepping forward the griffon bowed before him deeply. “I am Merlene of Talonholm.”

“Nice to meet you Merlene. I am Dustan, but we met in the mines while captured right?” When the question was asked she nodded and gestured her wing towards the others as well.

With the gesture she continued speaking while bowed. “We were all in the same cell.” OH that was the unicorn and pegasus in the cell with him? They were absolutely filthy and looked more brown then anything before so it was no wonder he didn’t recognize them before. “Dustan, I am here to pledge myself to you and your service.”

‘Come again?’ Was what the knight thought at that moment, however what he said was. “Come again?”

Seems as if everyone there also wanted to know the answer as they stared at the griffon who stood back up proudly. “I am a former retainer of the lord of Talonholm. They were a noble sort who wished to help anygriffon in need. They were loved by all except his children who felt he was wasting his money serving the public griffon like he was. Last year when he gave a large sum of money away towards various charities, his oldest children had enough and started a rather nasty coup. It was blood and ended up with none of the lords relatives living, not even himself, though he was the last to succumb to his injuries.”

“Geez.” Was the only thing he could say in response so far to her story.

The blue tipped female got misty eyed and seemed to lose some focus. “He had taken me in when I was an orphan and gave me a home; I joined his routine to help him in his noble cause. When he died he told me to find somegriffon worth serving even if it wasn’t a griffon. I came to the pony lands to find one who would be worthy of my service as none of the griffons I met were worthy. I had met some nobles in Canterlot and while there were some that were nice, most were not acceptable in the least. When I asked to join the ones that were acceptable they declined saying they didn’t need a warrior.” Wiping her eyes she looked up at him. “I was then captured by those things and forced to work for them. I fought back fiercely and stayed willful as long as I could, but I was down there for months till I admit, I broke and lost hope.”

He remembered that look on her face, one that said of a spirit that had lost its fire; however he also remembered that changing at some point but couldn’t remember when. “Ok so why pledge yourself to me? I mean yeah I fought to help everyone in the mine sure, but that isn’t reason enough to follow me.”

“You are right; it wouldn’t have been enough to make me follow you.” She told him honestly but he could hear that upcoming but in her statement. “But-” haha he was right. “Every other bit of your actions down there was. You tried to engage in talk with your cellmates to lift our spirits, defended Eden when she couldn’t go on. When you looked like you were going to be executed you said ‘I have no regrets on protecting another’ those same words were said time and time again by my former lord. What is more you offered enemies a chance to give up arms peacefully and keep their lives, only to be upset when that choice was taken from them as they were executed by that one unicorn pony. You got upset at it, a sentiment Lord Talonholm would have agreed with.” Bowing once more she placed her head on the ground before him. “That is why it is all those things and more that I pledge myself to you and your cause. Take up my talons how you wish for I am your retainer now to follow you and your cause. You lit my soul back up when I thought it was crushed and I can think of no one, no pony, no griffon, no dragon, no anything more fitting and worthy to serve then yourself.”

Her loyalty to both her old lord and to him was a bit frightening to him, he honestly felt like he had not earned it at all. “Ok I am kind and looked on the bright side, but honestly, I am not a noble or a lord that you need to pledge yourself to.” Dustan could practically feel her desire to help him though as if it were tangible, so much so he couldn’t deny her service at the least, just not him being her lord. “Tell you what, I am restoring a castle, I could use someone to at least help guard those working there. I mean I am not a lord so I can’t honestly tell you that I accept you as my retainer, as I am not even sure I can have those, but you can at least help out how is that?”

“That is acceptable my lord.” Merlene stood as she said that though Dustan still noticed she addressed him with the title. “I will do my best to serve you and guard those working for you.”

“Not for me, with me. I am going to be down there working as well.” The human told her only for the clap of hooves to be heard.

This called attention to Allure who smiled. “Well then, as nice as all this turned out, we have work to do. Sturdy, gather a team that you know is good at building as well as start talking to the quarry team about getting fresh stone. Eden, gather up any supplies you will need to work in the forest. We will all meet at the south gate to follow Dustan to his destination after breakfast.” The two went off quickly with a salute.

“I will leave as well Lord Warner. I must prepare myself to be vigil in my watch as well as to sharpen my talons.” With that Merlene left as well leaving the four of them alone.

“Whelp that will be all, Dustan show up tomorrow and lead them where you need to go so they can take measurements and you can tell them what section you want to be done first. Now if you all will excuse me, I have a lot of paper work to file for all this.” With that they were shooed out of the office with the promise for some of a full day ahead of them.

Chapter Thirteen: Bridging the Gaps.

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My Little Tactics

Chapter Thirteen: Bridging the Gaps.

“Uhhh this is killer.” The human complained as he set down a large stone block in the enchanted mortar before him.

“What is wrong my human friend.” Zecora called over to him and handed over a glass of water. “Be careful or your stamina you will over spend.”

He didn’t respond right away, instead having to take a moment to guzzle down the refreshing liquid. “I am fine Zecora. I am just not used to this type of work. Plus, though I have the word of not only Sturdy but those weird mages that came in, the guild leader herself said that everything is being built with more than state of the art magical reinforcements. Which is good, cause if this place is to EVER be a hub again for anyone to visit, they need to feel safe.”

Seems the zebra understood where he was going with this. “Ahh though it said to be tougher then a hoof, you are afraid the one layer thick of brick will go poof.”

“Yeah.” They had assured him that with the bricks they mined up from Ghastly Gorge, the mages enchanting certain KEYSTONES in the brickwork and the use of enchanted mortar, it was all more secure then Canterlot from the ground. He had it tested too to prove itself by having both Big Mac’ and AJ come to give it a good buck. Whelp, at least he knew WHY it was as expensive as it was.

The thing was, this was the first proper building they had started to do and they couldn’t do any before cause of a simple reason. There were no bridges to the Everfree castle that were any good. When Sturdy seen that he told Dustan in no simple terms that no pony, no griffon, no ONE, would feel safe coming to a place that had such a rickety bridge. To which the knight agreed with whole heartedly. Thus the first month and a half had been spent gathering materials for building as well as making the bridges.

It was only the last two weeks they had started on the outer wall of the castle proper. During that time because he had been so busy with things he had missed several important events. He learned from Rarity, while discussing his upcoming fall and winter weather clothing, that she recently had gotten over a bit of a rift with Applejack thanks to a sleep over they had with Twilight: Look before you sleep. Zecora had been the one to inform him of the Parasprite invasion when he got back from mining stone with the others: Swarm of the century. Finally the last event he had missed he was only alerted to as a net dropped on him and three fillies came to check to see if they caught a goblin only to be disappointed that they failed. The Cutie Mark Crusaders had arrived meaning: Call of the cutie.

Now he knew that Winter Wrap up was supposed to happen before ONE of those episodes, but he didn’t remember which one. The only reason he remembered that it was supposed to happen at all was that he found it odd that winter wrap up, something that happened at the end of winter and two episodes later the episode with the ‘Running of the Leaves’ happened. Dustan always hated it, feeling as if they were out of order in production, or maybe the timeline for the first season skipped around, or Discord for all he knew. Either way he was happy that his personal theory was right and that Winter Wrap Up would happen later in the proper season.

Dustan had also dodged another bullet in the fact that he missed Estrus Week in Ponyville of which he was glad one hundred percent about. He wanted nothing to do with the breeding instincts of the herding females at all during that time and had been more than happy to stay and camp out in the castle ruins. During that time normally all stallions and colts would be sent away to camp out in the White Tail Woods. Whelp Ponyville had voted at some point and forgot to tell him as some wanted to stay at the castle ruins when SOMEONE had let it slip what he was doing.

‘You will pay for this Pinkie, of this I swear!’ Yes the bundle of energy and pep had let it slip that he was now the largest land owner in the area by no small degree, and though it had caused a certain mare with an upturned nose to promptly faint, and a certain construction guild to promptly investigate the Ponyville branch of the Manehatten construction guild, it wasn’t worth the week of children running around the ruins playing and making him worry since he barely felt safe enough by himself let alone with a bunch of kids around.

Dustan had asked his friends a week after Estrus Week about how that came about and it turned out it was because of Bitch Horse Mc’Gee herself complaining to some of her Canterlot elite ‘friends’. Word of mouth had traveled from one to another and that reached the main branch to let them know they just lost out on a VERY lucrative job thanks to what happened. Never had he thought he would come as close as he came to giving Spoiled Rich a hug till then. Dustan required a shower after the thought of hugging that mare came to mind.

Since then everyone of the mane six and then some had come by to check on the progress. How was that possible when the sight of ponies would attract the monsters? Well thanks to Still Eden the gardening unicorn and Zecora, the plant that Zecora used to forage for to make the bundle was now growing happily in potters around the wall and in various planters along the maim path to the castle. With such a strong fragrance the monsters stayed clear of the roads now. This included the Manticore as with nearly all of its prey staying away from the roads, it too stayed away as that isn’t where its food was anymore. Nature had a lovely chaining effect like that sometimes.

It was during that time that the wall was being built that he had found out a nice little tidbit from the apples in that Still Eden was an apple herself. However there was a small tradition in the Apple clan that if a pony wasn’t happy with their name when they reached maturity they could change, thus Orchard Eden became Still Eden. The reason for this change was because she preferred peace and quiet and to be allowed to do her own thing, which was gardening for the sheer pleasure of it. That and most Apple homes refused the use of magic in a lot of their daily lives so that didn’t fly so well with the unicorn either.

Sturdy Structure was all the construction pony that was claimed of him and more. Not only had he given Dustan daily updates on the progress they were making as well as a planned outline of the project, but he always brought about blueprints and such to him ahead of schedule for approval. However the reason that the pegasus was working so hard came from one of the interactions they had when the blueprints for the bridge was shown.

“Alright Dustan, if we are going to get this bridge down pat I need to confirm the architectural style you want to go with.” The pony had proceeded to start muttering off about styles from years and years ago to modern day ones asking for approval. Needless to say it all went over the human’s head.

“Sturdy.” Dustan started only to throw the pegasus into a panic.

“Shit right only three plans what was I thinking. I will go draw up some more, it’s just been a while since I had a big job like this so-” He was stopped mid turn and pulled back around by the biped.

“Sturdy.” The knight said calmly with his eyes closed taking a deep breath. “I know SHIT about what you are saying. Honestly I have no clue.” The chuckle seemed to confuse the pegasus. “Look You have told me these things but I honestly haven’t been paying too much attention cause you know most of the details in this work. Like the type of stone we are going to use from Ghastly Gorge.”

“Norite yes.” The constructor replied seemingly confused where this was going.

“Right and you know the properties of that stone right?” Dustan asked and again the pony nodded.

“Comparable to Granite in basically everyway except it is limited in the colorations it is found but it is acid resistant, along with water, wind, scratch, and stain res-” Dustan shushed him at this point shaking his head.

Nodding his head the knight smiled. “Exactly YOU know what it is good for and what it can be used for. I don’t. I also don’t know crap about design; I just go with what is comfortable. I also know that there are those better suited for things then me, Mystic knows more about magic then me, Merlene knows more about tactics then I do, and you know more about construction then me. So you take the reins and use your best judgment.”

“W-wait, you mean to say I have creative freedom?” The quiver in that voice was missed by Dustan sadly.

He stretched and looked towards the team wheeling in a wagon of cut stone to be used. “That’s right, all yours buddy. Now let’s get to unloading those-um what are you doing?”

The reason he was asking this was because he found himself wrapped up in a pair of forelegs and wings as the pegasus repeated thank you over and over again. “Everypony thinks they know better than me when building, even when I warn them something won’t last or that it will look tacky with that type of stone. I have never had creative freedom before. I won’t let you down.”

“O-okay so can you let me go now.” It’s not that he minded hugs and such from the cuddly and cute ponies of the world, but of all the interactions he had with the pony so far was nothing but professional if a bit with the pegasus being a bit skittish. It changed after that though, the pegasus becoming confident and smiling constantly. He was in his element.

Merlene was another story. Constantly she shadowed him making sure he was safe all the while rarely saying anything. When it was too oppressive of a presence for he asked her to scout around the area to make sure the potters were doing their job. For a good while he failed to understand her at all, and to this day he still didn’t fully understand her. However at least he knew the reason for her obsession on keeping him safe.

He had found that pride was valued highly among griffons, of which he wasn’t shocked at the least from what he remembered in the show. The fact she was a retainer and had failed in her duty to protect her last lord, then being captured and defeated before losing her pride struck at the very nature of the cat-bird so much so that when she had the chance to redeem herself, she went in beyond headfirst. The only reason he had come to find this out was cause of a surprise visit from the sisters that once lived in the castle he was rebuilding. That was its own issue right there.

When they had showed up he had been prepared, he was going to greet them with a smile and welcome them to the new Everfree castle project he was working on thanks to the money they had given him. “Welcome Celestia, Luna, I would like to present to you the site of the-ack!”

His throat was being constricted as he was lifted up and hauled to the chariot the sisters resided in thanks to a magical force shock that would make Darth Vader proud. “Thou WILT explain thy trespass of our ancient home!”

The ringing in his ears didn’t leave till he assumed Celestia healed him, which did bring some worry to him as his hearing only came back as the taller sister’s words faded in. “-time to explain himself sister. Also watch your volume.”

“Oomph.” The navy magic around his throat vanished planting him on his ass on the Norite bridge as he reached up and found fresh blood around his ears. “Oh, that’s going to suck to clean out.” However his mood had went from a happy one of joy and friendship to one of someone pissed in his cup and told him it was apple juice. “So PRINCESSES, what can I do for you?”

“Cur, Thou art to answer for thine transgression on Our property.” The princess of the night growled out at him.

“Excuse me?” Dustan was already losing his patience with this and that wasn’t a good thing as he tried to rein himself in as his focus slowly started to draw in on the two princesses and himself, forgetting the craftsponies, mages, and others who were working for him as well as the royal guard that came with the princesses. “I have it on record as my property now as it was for sell. No one wanted it and it has been abandoned for a long time.”

The sting to his cheek as well as the ringing in his ear just told him he just got magically bitch slapped as the glow from Luna’s horn faded. “Lies! Our sister would never allow Our ancient home to be bought up by anypony. So tell the truth how is it thou manage to usurp Our-”

“Luna, I think you need to calm down and let me explain about-” However her interruption of Luna was interrupted by a now upset knight.

“Usurp my ass!” Growling in fury his hands were balled up tightly by his sides as he shouted. “The lots were left alone and fell into Ponyville registration a long long time ago cause the previous owner didn’t renew their rights to it when the bills for land registration came into effect for ALL nobility. Whoever owned it before was a dumbass for not doing so in the first place.”

The princess of the sun made a sour face at that and opened her mouth to try to get a word in edgewise. “Well you see Dustan, about that-”

Seems Celestia however was not going to have that talk as Luna cut her off this time. “Slander, twus Ourselves and Our Sister who owned the rights before. With the displacement of One’s self that rights would have fallen to her.” The magical pop of teleportation came into play as two weapons appeared now, a short sword and a long sword. The short sword was as black as moonless night in a cave with blue glowing dots littering it as if it held stars with an ivory handle that was being held in a glowing navy magic. The long sword was the opposite with a pure white blade that was almost blinding to look at and the dark star field of a handle instead. “We demand recompense for thine slight. What doth thou have to say about this?”

Dustan would love to say he handled himself well. He would love to say that he wasn’t already high strung because it was during this time the Estrus Week in Ponyville was going on. He wanted to say that Merlene wasn’t irritating him and making him a bit snippy at times. He wanted to say that he was still ok for finances but like the other things he was wrong. Dustan didn’t handle himself well. Dustan was high strung from the visitors, whom luckily were at that moment at the river enjoying the day. Dustan was a bit snappy cause of Merlene constantly shadowing him when not patrolling him and him not knowing why she was so clingy.

His response? “Let me put this in a way you can understand Princess.” The sound of his Blood Sword being drawn caused the guards to grow very weary as well as the fire that erupted in the palm of the other hand that he held out. “Advance towards me brethren.”

“ENOUGH!” Twin golden glows smacked the back of the princess and the human’s head as Celestia had it at this point. “Both of you shut your bucking mouths!”

The sound of clattering blades came loud as not only did every guard drop their spear, sword, or what not, but so did Luna and Dustan as the fire in his other hand sputtered out. “Did…did thou just curse sister?”

“YES! Because that is how stupid both of you are being at this moment.” Celestia brought both of her front hooves to her temples to massage them as she gave a frustrated sigh. “Sister, we discussed beforehoof that we would calmly talk to Dustan and inquire on what his intentions were for our former home.”

“But our home should not have even been sold in the first place; We wish to know how this came to happen.” Luna said whining and obviously upset about either not being able to fight or about losing her old home, it was hard to tell at this point.

“Luna, sister. I had let our land go.” To say Luna was shocked was an understatement, Dustan however was still on guard hoping he wouldn’t have to fight though his headache was still present. “After your banishment, the castle was in a sorry state. Ponies thought our home was now haunted and tainted and so I moved them to where Canterlot is now. As the years passed and my depression descended fully, I couldn’t bare to look upon our home anymore. So I put the property into circulation. The fact that our ponies thought it was haunted kept it from being bought for years, then the overgrowth of the Everfree and finally the monsters. I had forgotten admitted this had happened as well till it was mentioned that Dustan had bought it and for that I apologize to both him and to you.” She then nodded towards both of them and gave her sister a loving hug as the weapons vanished in light.

Dustan put away his weapon at that and sighed. “I should apologize as well.” He remarked as he closed his eyes rubbing at the side of his head. “Lots of things have been piling up lately for stress and Luna, you doing what you did there set me off. Between helping work on the castle, the fact that the foals and males of Ponyville decided to head here and camp out for Estrus week, dealing with everyone and dealing with a griffon that doesn’t seem to wish to leave my side has me a bit high strung.”

“We see. We are sorry as well human.” The pony of the night told him simply. “We thought thou had somehow absconded with Our home in a mockery of the money we gave thee for thine reward. It was petty of Us but-”

“Its fine Luna. You thought someone stole your home and acted upon that thought. I wouldn’t lie in that I would likely be as upset as you so I can’t blame you for that.” Chuckles a bit as a stray thought came out of his mouth at the moment. “Not going to lie as I was kinda looking forward to fighting you and using that as an excuse to unwind.”

It seems his thought met with a giggle and a nod from the Alicorn. “We admit that stress from Our return as well as being cooped up in the castle had Us wound taunt as well and We too were looking forward to the altercation.”

Out of curiosity Dustan activated his Tactical Eye wondering what they had been listed as. Unsurprisingly they could hide their info either actively or were unaware they were, but all he could get was their names and their classes. The classes they were registered as were unsurprisingly unique classes of ‘Solar Princess’ and ‘Lunar Princess’ making him wonder just what it did, beyond the obvious of course.

“Well then.” The Solar Princess broke his inner musing up with her voice as she spoke up. “Now that we are all on friendlier terms and less aggressive, Dustan would you mind telling us what it is you have planned for this place?”

Turning around and looking to the castle grounds then back to them he spoke the truth. “I want to not only make this my home, but others homes. To return this place to an active mark on the map instead of an inhospitable forest meant for no one. I want ponies, griffons, dragons, any race really to be able to come here and say they can fit in. Unfortunately it’s looking to be years upon years before that will come forward.”

“I am sure we can find some investors for you to help speed up that process.” The white furred Alicorn told him only to be shocked when he shook his head.

“Unless they want nothing out of it then I will have to decline. No offense to you or anyone else that makes the laws, but I honestly wish to make this a sovereign province eventually. I have managed to look at some laws and other things in place Celestia and again no offense but your wordings on some really suck. Most of them state EVERYPONY. Meaning only ponies could take advantage of them and even if courts won’t use them actively like that, lawyers will.” The knight told her candidly. “They will look for every loophole and every get out of jail free card they can get if it means they are allowed to do what they want.” Truth was he wasn’t sure if there was an amendment to this anywhere but considering some fanfics he read in his old life, he wouldn’t put it past some ponies to do.

“Hmm you might be right, and any investor that comes around will want some say in what goes on. Meaning if they have the kind of funds that they can dispense with to help you, then it is likely that they have an agenda to push or are looking for some kind of special treatment.” When Celestia said that he nodded as it was also true and what he feared might come to pass.

“Right.” Nodding he looked to the people or rather ponies working on the wall. “Right now I think I am fine, the Misfit’s Guild is helping out a lot and though I am helping and getting a discount pulling up funding myself or those looking to make a nice home will be sweeter than a noble wanting a cushy place where their word is law.”

“That is a nice sentiment to have though I worry it may not be enough.” The worried tone of her voice was inwardly matched by his own as he turned back to face her. “That being said I will keep an eye on investors with the types of personalities and backgrounds you will agree with and if you find you do not like them, it is within your right to kick many off your land.”

Would give a shrug at that and stretch. “I will come to that bridge when I cross it. Till then I will focusing on doing what I can.”

“I suppose that takes care of our official visit. Though I am curious to how it is you are doing. You said you were stressed by many things, and while I can understand some, you spoke of a griffon?” By now the guards at her side had relaxed enough to maintain their neutral expressions as had Celestia and Luna regained their regal ones.

“Yeah.” He said sighing. “Merlene. She was apparently someone I met while captured and she stated she once served another lord, though he was killed, and have been looking to find another worth serving. She apparently has it in her head that I am that person and has been overly attached.”

The Lunar Princess smiled and gave a nod. “Ahh most understandable of the young wren. She is likely from a clan that holds honor above pride, of which We hear is dwindling more and more as the latter becomes more prominent. If she is determined to serve in thine interests then thou will find no recourse but to accept the wren’s intentions.”

Great that is just what he wanted to hear. “Thanks I suppose.”

“It may help if you gave her a talk about boundaries Dustan. Especially if she is stressing you with what she is doing.” The advice was sound and appreciated from Celestia and he might take her up on it but not at the moment.

Seems Luna agreed with her adding in her own two bits. “Most agreed sister. If this wren is so inclined she will take Dustan’s orders and wishes to heart. Though Dustan thou shalt have to be kind as it seems like the young wren is worried for thine safety. We wonder what has caused her to become so attached.”

“Something to do with giving her back her spirit or something when we were in the caves.” That got a worried look from both of the Alicorns and in turn made him worried. “What?”

Celestia and Luna looked at each other for a good moment before the elder spoke up. “If she had her spirit broken and you have restored it well, she is likely using serving you as an excuse to repay her debt. For Griffons Hawk or Wren, if their spirit has been fully broken, it is the same as losing the will to live. If you gave it back to them then they literally owe their life to you and will look to repay that even if it means serving you for the rest of their natural born ones. After all their life essentially belongs to the one that restored it. ESPECIALLY so for ones who are about honor and if she served a lord before you, then it seems you are stuck with her.”

‘Ok so that means bumping up that talk with her to a higher priority for sure.’ “Right, so I am really going to have to make an effort to spare some time to get that talk going with her.” His mind wondered to something and looked to the two. “How did you hear about me owning the land?”

“Oh that is simple.” The smile said it all and he almost instinctively knew how before she even said it. “My most faithful student sent me a letter one evening though I couldn’t read it till the next morning. She almost threw it in there as an afterthought in the letter it seemed, so I had to have her clarify on it further until I felt the need to tell Luna and well, now we are here.”

‘Of course it was Twilight, could have been any other source in the world but somehow I knew it was her.’ Scratching at his head for a moment he heard a call in the distance for him and sighed knowing it was from someone on the other side of the wall who couldn’t see who the guests were. “Well Princesses, if that is all then sadly I have to get back to work. I am sorry I couldn’t be more hospitable but who knows about next time. We might even have a proper sparing match between Luna and I next time.”

“I will look forward to it.” The motherly Alicorn smiled.

Her sister however grinned and nodded. “As will I.”

As he seen the grin he knew what that meant as well. ‘Oh shit I think she took the offer of a spar seriously…hmm I think that might register as an eight out of ten on the how fucked am I meter.’

The Princesses soon got back into their chariots and were off; meanwhile Dustan had gotten back to work as much as he hated the backbreaking work.

He would admit it was doing some good for his physic. He had even gotten proper abs and was lean. It was as if all his failed New Year’s resolutions had come back with a vengeance. The knight was brought out of his musings of the past for now as two large arguments were heard coming from the courtyard area. As he got there he found two headstrong mares complaining loudly with Sturdy about something.

When he got there he found it was none other than Rainbow Dash and Applejack and it seemed he was in one of those unseen parts of an episode as they were trying to talk Sturdy into letting them help lay bricks as part of the competition with each other to see who was the Iron Pony of Ponyville. Sturdy for all his efforts was looking to be on the back end of losing when he spied Dustan.

He told them to hold on a minute before rushing up over to him. “Ahh Dustan there you are. Help me settle a dispute, will you?”

“Sure, though I already overheard what the problem was.” Looking at the two he walked over to them and pointed at Sturdy. “If you can follow his instructions then I say you can help. HOWEVER if you mess up my wall for your competition on trying to best the other then it will come out of your pockets got it?”

The two of them looked unsure after he said that. It was one thing to compete for the best at something but to mess up another pony’s, or rather person’s, property was another thing.

“On second thought, I am sure we can find other activities to do down at Sweet Apple Acres. Besides, AJ here claims she is better in a lot of that farm work she does, so might be a good chance for me to show her up.” The cocky grin that the speedster wore must have gotten on the nerves of the other as she growled a bit.

Pulling her hat down lower giving her an aggressive look she looked towards Dash. “You’re on. In fact let’s have a race to see who can get back the fastest.”

There was no need for a countdown they both took off like bullets towards their destination. “Whelp looks like the running of the leaves is soon to happen.” It also meant he had to pick up his winter wardrobe from Rarity.

“What makes you say that?” He will admit he jumped a bit as Pinkie appeared behind him.

After calming down and knowing he would likely never get used to that he looked to her. “Well the air is kinda getting the chill to it you know and the leaves are turning the proper colors. Plus I think I heard something about it last time I was down in Ponyville.”

Dustan was sweating as he hoped that Pinkie would buy the answer, it was just lucky the hard work also covered up the sweating or it might not have. “Okie Dokie Loki. I thought perhaps you were using some of that strange magic Mystic and Twilight are studying you for to find out. Oh or maybe you are an alien from another world sent here to spy on us for your home world.”

At the words alien and another world the sweat on his body turned cold as if it was anyone who would find out it was this pony right there. “Do I look like what you imagined an alien would be?”

“Hmm I suppose not.” With that she set down a tray of cupcakes. “Anyways I brought these for everypony and figured you would all enjoy, so enjoy.” With that she pronked away and he waved to her.

When she was out of sight he collapsed onto the ground and held his head in his hands shaking a bit. ‘Thank the fates that she realized I didn’t actually answer her and instead threw out a question.’

It was during the next day that he got a sure answer on to what was happening. “And so those two ended up agreeing to compete tomorrow at the Running of The Leaves can you believe that darling?”

The posh unicorn asked of him as she was retaking his measurements. “It certainly is something that is for sure.” Cause of his recent activities helping to build the wall and the bridges he had gained a good bit of muscle and as such the measurements she used to make his clothing needed to be updated and his Winter Clothing would need minor adjustments. He was told the same would be needed of his other clothes but for now they could wait till closer to spring since they would soon be packed away. “I mean if it causes them to stop arguing then it will be good for both them, everyone around them and for a good cause right?”

“I suppose so, it certainly would do me good not to hear them going at it constantly.” Though Rarity had said that, part of Dustan inwardly chuckled at the innuendo since that was a popular ship. “Alright, thank you dear. With that your measurements are done. I must say though the hard work has been good to you.”

He went to get the heavier shirt for the fall weather back on as well as his pants, having only been in his boxers. The first few times this had happened he admitted he was embarrassed but actually talking with Rarity while she was doing things helped to take his mind off it. Even now Dustan blushed a bit as he seen the unicorn motion to his more defined musculature.

“I suppose so. I am for sure more fit then I have ever been in my entire life.” Idly he wondered what the people back home would say if they could see him now. He knew his parents would be glad to see him so healthy, Pat would be ecstatic as he always went to the gym and had on more than one occasion asked him to come along. His thoughts briefly went back to his last girlfriend and winced at that painful memory of what he had found before shaking them from his thoughts. “Yeah I think living around here has done me a lot of good in body.” ‘Maybe not mind though, still have nightmares about killing a living thinking creature.’

Even after many months from when it happened he still dreamed of the first exciting battle with the goblins and how much he had enjoyed living out his fantasies by doing battle with the mystical creatures only for the dream to change as he watched idly from the sidelines as the carnage that took place from the warrior that was blood thirsty and creatures that were able to feel and think. Every time that nightmare came he had to remind himself of what it was they had planned and that it was for the good of others that he did what he did, just as it had been for the good of others when he killed during his time in the work camp for others to escape.

As he got the last bits of his clothes on the bell for the boutique rang and in came a really sorry looking Sweetie Belle. “Rarity, a little help please.”

“Oh my, what happened to you? You are absolutely filthy.” While big sister mode was activated it wasn’t a far off stretch.

Sweetie Belle was covered in mud, leaves, sap, had cuts and bruises all over her and more than a few burrs in her mane and fur. “Scootaloo was driving our cart around and we hit a bump in the road and managed to be flung out of the cart. Apple Bloom is ok as she landed in a bush but I got unlucky in that mine was one of Roseluck’s rose bushes.”

Both he and the fashionista winced at hearing that as the unicorn used a spell to quickly get most of the gunk and thorns out of her sister as possible though she would still need a bath. “We will have to get some ointment for those cuts so that they will heal ok.”

“Aww I hate that stuff it smells awful, can’t we forget about it just this one time?” The cute eyes, while making his heart melt, proved to be impervious to a big sister looking out for the greater good of their little sister.

Shaking her head the pure white marshmallow pony was already pulling out medical supplies. “I am afraid not Sweetie, I am not versed in healing magic and we shouldn’t bother the doctors or nurses at Ponyville hospital for some cuts and scrapes.”

“Actually I can help.” Dustan said cinching up his belt. “I have the ability to heal wounds remember?”

For a moment Rarity looked dumbfounded then her eyes brightened. “Ahh yeah I had forgotten that you can do some magic Dustan. If you would be so kind.”

In his experiments with Mystic and Twilight he had found out more about this magic, where as normally he said the words that came unbidden to his mouth out of habit now he didn’t need to. Though it seemed saying the words strengthened the spell, whether that was true or if it was just a result of the words helping to focus his mind of the effect was unknown at this time.

Gathering up the feeling inside him he released it and spoke the spell’s name. “Cure.” The glowing light whirled around the filly who seemed amazed as this was her first sighting of his magic.

Both she and her sister marveled at how the small cuts vanished as did the bruises before her wonder turned to anguish. “Ahh somepony else that can do magic better than me and he doesn’t even have a horn.”

Chuckling not at her problem but at the innocence of youth he patted her on the head. “I am sure when you grow up a bit more and with practice you will get a lot better at using magic Sweetie Belle. Just got to believe and keep at it.”

That only got her to grumble out a sure before her the marshmallow pony spoke up. “Oh thank you Dustan it means so much to me to have your help healing my sister. I will give you a nice discount on your next order of clothing for this.”

Part of him wanted to wave off the concern, but the look in her eye said that saying no to this was not an option. “Thanks Rarity, your clothing is always what I want so I will take you up on that offer when it comes.”

“No need to thank me darling it is no less then you deserve for the help.” Changing her targets, now that Sweetie was mostly taken care of, caring sister turned to stern sister. “Now young filly, what caused the crash in the first place, usually Scootaloo is known for how well she keeps an eye on where she is going.”

“It wasn’t my fault I swear.” Rarity just gave that knowing look adults gave children. “I mean it. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo over heard ponies taking bets on who would win the Running of the Leaves even going so far as to put bits on it. So they were arguing on if Applejack or Rainbow Dash would be the one to win and-”

The rest was cut off as they ascended the stairs for what he assumed as a needed bath. However the betting caught his interest and he chuckled, after all he knew what was going to happen more or less. With that decided he decided to go by the bank to grab some bits and find the betting ponies.

Honestly it wasn’t too hard to find them since they were not really doing much and being loud about it. “So you are the one taking bets?”

“You bet your bottom bit I am. With the two most athletic mares competing ponies are betting on various placements. So I decided to make it official and have them all put their bits with the mouths are. Why are you interested in joining?”

Giving a grin he nodded and placed down a small sack of bits. “Yes, in fact I have a feeling just where some mares will end up knowing their personalities.”

“Oh?” The one in charge of the bets slide a paper over and an ink well with quill. “Write down your name, the amount of bits you are betting and the names and places of ponies. Also write down their positions that you think they will end up. If you turn out to be right you can make a mighty fine bit of coin doing this.” When he wrote down his bet the ponies that were there suddenly started to laugh at what he wrote. “Son, if you wanted to throw away bits like this you could just buy us all some drinks.”

He left with a grin on his face with those ponies laughing.

The next day found them eating their words as the two main ponies thought to get first place came tumbling together over the finish line tied…for last place. He had caught the entire race from one of the rooftops sturdy enough to hold him munching down on a few snacks that was bought before the race started. When Celestia had come and all ponies bowed she spied him up on the roof munching on an apple as before he would give her a nod and smile.

When the lecture was done and both racers took off Dustan hoped down to visit the betting pony. “Hello there, how did you make out?”

The pony spied him and sighed before pushing a couple large sacks that jingled with bits at him. “Overall I did well, came out above average since most had bet on those two mares finishing first or second. However with you being a long shot bet and winning that bet, not just on the two tying for last place, but Twilight, bookworm, Sparkle finishing in the top five, well let’s say you hit my pockets hard there.”

“Well at least you came out ahead.” Dustan said picking up his bits and heading to the bank. “Nice doing business with you though.” Was this fair at all? Not likely since he used information about the future, but he honestly wondered how long this information would stay viable. He might as well use it while he had it if it didn’t hurt anyone.

Chapter Fourteen: Not My Brand of Smokes.

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My Little Tactics

Chapter Fourteen: Not My Brand of Smokes.

The rumble of the train tracks was both soothing and upsetting towards the human in his bronze armor. His overly prepared pack rested nearby on the seat normally meant for ponies though too small for him and it contained everything from a bedroll and tent, though the bedroll was currently under his backside to cushion it, to even chalk and a small mirror. His cabin was small and private just the way he wanted it to be as he started to remove his armor. It would be a bit of a trip to Manehattan after all.

“I knew it was a matter of time, but still, didn’t think I would be called for something like this so soon.” Stripping out of his armor finally he set it down and locked the door then unrolled his bedroll. “I might as well get a few hours of sleep before I arrive and have to start working.”

As he lay down and started to doze off he quickly thought back to how it started.

“How big is that chicken going to get?” Spike asked as Boko nuzzled at Dustan’s side as he was sitting down. “I mean it’s as big as me now.”

Chuckling at the question as he rubbed the downy soft feathers on top of the Chocobo’s head, some of the last down that was still on the bird, he looked to the dragon and grinned. “Well the same could be said of you Spike, how tall will you get when you are grown?” Scratching under Boko’s chin earned him a rewarding kweh that helped to melt his cares. “To answer you though, she will be bigger than me by a good bit.”

“Oh wow.” The tiny dragon said as the Chocobo flopped down on Dustan’s lap to enjoy the attention.

If it wasn’t for Boko he likely would not have been able to keep pace with the ponies helping to build the wall at all. He had come home one day the first week and collapse nearly passing out. Sensing his distress and hurt body Boko had used her ability to heal him making him realize something. When you build muscles it’s the act of ripping them apart and them healing up stronger than before, well it was an oversimplification but it would do. Since then whenever he was feeling sore he would heal himself. That didn’t take care of his fatigue but it allowed him to keep up and build up muscles that much quicker.

There was also the practice with Twilight and Mystic when he wasn’t working, so he had been training both his body and magic to do more than they ever had each and every day. It was because of this that not only had he gotten a few levels, but also job levels as well. Monk, Mystic, and Time Mage had all unlocked and since his first time being found worthy, he honestly had not had the issue of gaining the power of the others at all.

His white magic had increased so much that he had an excess amount of points and had not yet decided what to buy outside of Protect and Shell. Black magic was easy, having brought the other two elements, Thunder and Blizzard, and moved on to Thundara. From Monk, he was currently saving points as he had not yet decided at all what to spend it on, Mystic was easy in that he bought Hesitation, a spell meant to disable to foe and prevent them from taking action, useful if he ever needed it. For Time Mage there was no question that he bought Haste straight out, it was too useful not to have in the game so why not here as well.

Whelp, his first interaction with it had left him feeling severally motion sensitive and caused him to hurl when he tried it by himself. It was a good thing too, as while Mystic and Twilight were still studying Cure and Fire, he had not yet let them know he had moved on, after all got to keep it a surprise if he needed it. Besides best to completely figure one thing out before moving on to another right?

However it was on a particularly lazy Friday, the crew was coming in a bit later than normal giving everyone time to sleep in a bit longer to feel better about the day. By then the crew knew where he lived with Zecora and he had been sleeping with Boko on his chest, though it wouldn’t be that much longer before she would be too big for that, when it was surprisingly Spike who knocked on the door first.

“Anyways thanks for the bits, it was thanks to those I got both you and I a copy of the latest comics this week.” Reading was fine and all but when comics were a thing and he had the money, he would always try to find a good issue to read. With his money being augmented by that nice little win he got last week during the Running of the leaves he was able to splurge a bit and get some comics and treated Spike as well.

“No problem, bros got to look out for one another right?” Dustan preceded to fist bump the dragon while yawning. “Did you wait in line or anything?”

“Nah nothing like that.” The dragon said puffing up his chest. “I just waited for the comic store to open up and went in and grabbed the new issues as they were brought out. Since I was there before anypony else there was no line.”

He had been very curious what comics were like in pony world so much and now was his chance to see. “Well I have time before I have to work want to read some?”

Spike’s face brightened up. “Sure, I am glad I could find somepony who appreciate comics like me. I mean Big Mac likes them too I think since I saw him come into the store right as I was leaving.”

With a knock on the door Dustan had to put the comic down before even opening it. “I’ll get it!” He called out to Zecora.

“I wonder if he would like to play Ogres and Oubliettes?” Though it was meant to be said only in his mind, Spike had not thought he would hear it judging by how low the dragon said it. Inwardly Dustan smiled at that as he opened the door.

“Hello and good morning Dusty!” The Pink pony was as hyper as normal as she pronked at the front door, though this time she was wearing what looked to be a mailman outfit.

“I thought Derpy was the mailpony around here.” He looked outside first down then up as with the loveable muffin loving pony it was hard to tell where she would be.

However it seemed as if it was just Pinkie. “Oh she is, this is from the guild though so I am delivering it to you.”

She hoofed over a letter to him as it appeared out of her mane before pronking off to who knows where because the moment he looked down to the letter and back up towards her, Pinkie had vanished. ‘I honestly can’t wait till Twilight tries to figure her out.’

Opening up the letter with the official seal of the guild he read it and sighed. What it all summed up to be was: Report for duty.

Allure had left about a month ago to visit another branch office but had promised to be back as Ponyville was fun and exciting. That left another in charge, a bland pony that would give Maud a run for her money for sure. The pony in charge simply stated an order had come from Allure herself for him stating that with his skills and talents as a leader and soldier that this would be perfect for him not only to show what he could do in front of high ranking individuals and make a name for himself, but to show off the guild as well. He was given three days to prepare before he had to be off on a train to Manehattan.

The details of his mission were sparse in that the individual he was supposed to guard was not named directly in that should the message be intercepted that they wouldn’t be compromised. Instead another copy of another letter was sent to the VIP to name them when they saw them. It was cryptic and roundabout and made him a tad worried to be honest. Enough so that he took the rest of the three days to pack a variety of things as well as set his affairs in order. The crew at the ruins had stated it was fine and that they should be able to start on the first building soon.

With all things taken care of he soon found himself buying a ticket to the big city itself.

The sound of knocking on his door woke him up with a start. “Yes?” He called out rapidly wiping the drool from his face.

“Sir we have made our stop and you had not come out of your room, we just wished to make sure that you were ok.” The attendant told him through the door.

‘You likely have a key if you are with the train so you knocked so as you wouldn’t have to invite trouble from the creature.’ The human thought before he started packing his things quickly and getting his armor back on. “Don’t worry I will be out in a few minutes.”

In truth it took him about fifteen minutes as getting armor on wasn’t the easiest of feats to accomplish when the rustling of the train had loosened some straps and tightened others. When he came out he spied some of the staff of the train looking at him nervously as some things never changed. He had grown too used to how Ponyville was used to him now that he forgot how others would view him. Such is life though and such a life was full of burdens of which this was one for him to bare.

Speaking of baring there was a pony in a suit that he would swear was secret service holding a sign with his name spelled incorrectly with an ‘i’ instead of an ‘a’ but that was fine. Moving up over to the pony wearing a pair of dark sunglasses the pony touched his ear piece, no doubt magical to compensate for the lack of technology here.

“Are you Dustin?” The pony asked of him, a stallion judging by the voice.

“I am Dustan yes.” Stressing the A in his name. “I was told to find someone waiting for me, but I expected a raspberry shake to come with it.”

“My client prefers blueberry.” The pony would fold up the sign at that and hold out a hoof. “Code phrases exchanged. My name is Secret Service.”

‘Seriously?’ He thought that with heavy sarcasm he smiled and fist bumped the hoof. “Dustan Warner. So mind telling me what all this is about, the secrecy, the hoops I have to jump through, or anything about who I am guarding?”

“In time, for now follow me.” The pony in the suit told him as the slick back mane turned and walked forward. “I am to escort you to the VIP and there you will meet with them so they can determine your value and if you are acceptable.”

“Right.” Dustan shifted his pack and walked behind the pony guiding him.

“I will be frank, while others may find it unneeded, I myself am happy to see you bringing various items to bare here. Chalk, a spare canteen, bedroll tent, even a small mirror and rope all in that pack just to name a few of what I can see.” He was about to ask him how but Secret cut him off. “My glasses are enchanted with a slight X-Ray spell so I can do checks on all those who come close to the VIP.”

‘Huh, neat, wonder where he got them. Also not for pervy eyes likely, bet there is a waiting period while someone runs a background check on you for things like that.’ Feeling the weight on his back he shifted his shoulder some out of habit. “It’s all good. I didn’t know who I was protecting or many details so I tried to pack with some variety in mind. Glad to know that, whoever I am here to guard, has guards like you to help ease my mind about possible gaps in protection.”

“Indeed, get in.” Dustan had been into talking to the stallion so much he had not realized they had come up to a black carriage that just screamed subtle if you spelled subtle with many exclamation points and bold font. As he got inside he found it to be taller than normal, a nice surprise, same with the seats, being wider than average.

“Finally something that fits me.” Dustan sighed relaxing in the seat after putting his pack on the floor.

“Yes, this carriage is meant for those whom are taller than the average pony.” Secret looked a bit out of place that was for sure seeing as he was so small in the seat he was in.

“Honestly it doesn’t matter at this point, considering train seats can’t fit me, and having to ride all the way over here with a bedroll under me isn’t exactly the most comfortable.” He had to cast Cure on himself before even attempting to get his armor on in the train, which every time it came in handy like that he thanked magic itself for being able to use it.

The windows of the carriage were tinted so it meant that no one in the big city could see the oddity that was riding in it, though the more and more he thought about it the more he thought it odd. Was the person he was sent to protect a Minotaur? The size of the carriage’s interior said that to be the case as it was too big for ponies. Maybe a griffon but still he wasn’t sold on that idea either.

Shaking the thoughts from his mind, he found his brain going to another place. ‘How long have I been in Equestria? I showed up in Spring and now it is late fall. Over half a year already huh, I can barely believe it. Would anyone back home even recognize me at this point? Question is do they even care if I am gone. Pat might, same with my parents, but…I don’t think anyone else would. Oh wait, its late fall…FUCK I am going to miss my first Nightmare Night. Well at least it’s not the one Luna shows up in. Hmm maybe I should consider not showing up for the next one either, if Luna still wants that match with me then her being angry at the time might not be good for my health.’

“We are here.” Secret said making him jump slightly and rattle his armor.

“Ahh sorry lost in my thoughts there.” Dustan chuckled sheepishly. ‘That has been happening too much lately. I really need to get that under control.’

As they headed inside the pony at the desk spoke up to Secret ignoring Dustan’s presence completely. “I am sorry sir you can’t bring pets in here.”

Honestly it caught Dustan off guard so much that he instantly reacted poorly by flicking the pony off. “Shut up asshole I am here on business.”

The gesture was lost on the pony for sure but not the words as the suited pony gave a huff and looked as offended as possible, not that it mattered to him in the slightest. They got into the elevator and the pony working the controls just gawked at him having seen the entire thing and it was obvious she couldn’t believe her eyes.

However Secret took control of the situation. “Penthouse floor.” That snapped the operator out of her stupor easily though she said nothing as the elevator rose higher and higher. Then the door dinged and they stepped off, he heard the metal box close and right away head down.

Shrugging at that, he looked around at the hallway leading towards the door. “Swanky.” At the end was two guards that were in Royal guard clothing, one from each, Day and Night, guard. More and more his previous thoughts on the matter vanished as new speculations came to him. The door opened up for him and Secret as they stepped in.

He turned to Secret to ask. “So now that we are here, care to fill me in on some of the details. Like who we are protecting and why?”

Instead of answering the earpiece wearing pony instead bowed as a voice answered Dustan instead. “That would be me, and because there has been a series of mysterious vanishes in the area.”

‘That voice!’ His MLP senses were set ablaze as he turned to look ahead. The sight before him made the carriage and all its oddities make so much sense now. The fact it was taller and more spacious, the tinted windows so no one could see inside, the penthouse, the secrets, and the royal guards. Giving his own bow he looked up to address the VIP herself. “Princess Mi Amore Cadenza it is an honor.”

The pink pony giggled with a hoof to her mouth as her three hued mane bounced especially at the end with the curls showing she took very good care of it. She wore a simple gold tiara with what looked to be an amethyst in it, a gold necklace and gold horseshoes or slippers, he never knew how classify the things he saw on ponies hooves at times. The cutie mark on her flanks was of the crystal heart, the artifact that wouldn’t be made known for quite some time to come.

She put her hoof down as she got her giggling under control. “Rise my pony and umm human was it?” Giving her a nod she smiled and let out a breath. “Oh good, my aunt has wrote about you but I didn’t think you were a part of the Misfit Guild, so it came as a large surprise when Allure wrote to me you were on your way.”

The knight was a bit surprised to find he was mentioned at all by Celestia, but found it flattering all the same. “Thank you Princess. I was told my skills would be needed here.”

“Indeed, I was told you were an accomplished swordsman by my fiancé as you reportedly managed to skillfully dodge two fresh guards at the castle rather easily.” That confirmed one thing he wanted to know about the foalsitter but not all of it. “My Aunts also tell of your strange magic both of which can be used offensively and as a restorative.”

“That is correct. I have the power to heal or harm with my magic at my choosing.” Now he was wondering what else was told about him.

Never did the smile leave her face and honestly he could see why she was very well liked, meaning the switch had not happened as of yet. “Very rare indeed as most Mages are known to polarize towards restorative, support, or offensive classes of magic. Also please, call me Cadance, while Princess is my title my full name is meant for strangers, and considering all I have read about you Dustan I feel as if we already know each other.”

‘That goes both ways I suppose considering all what I know about you.’ “Of course Cadance, that would make me feel better as well.” But while the interaction was great and all, someone or somepony had to spoil it.

“Princess, we need your judgment.” Secret spoke from the side of him.

Sighing at hearing that she lit up her horn. “Of course, thank you for reminding me Secret.” Turning towards the taller creature, though not too much taller as not counting her horn she was only a head shorter then himself, with her horn she was the same size. “Dustan, I am one a mage that is better at support then either of the other two, but I can do them. As such I would like to use my specialty to read your heart if possible.”

That gave him a bit of a worry as while he knew of her specialty for love magic and such hearing this made him think it was something different in this world and that bothered him. “What exactly is your specialty, and how intrusive will this be?”

“My specialty is of the heart. Reading love, affection, kindness and more and with it I can see what lies in yours.” The glow intensified for a moment before starting to wash over him with the light blue coloration. “Also its not intrusive at all, I don’t get thoughts or read your mind so much as images and feelings connected to them. I will start with the most recent and work back.”

He wasn’t sure how good of an idea this was and was a bit worried, he wasn’t sure how much she would see and feel. It was a moot point though as it had begun and the princess made various facial expressions throughout, a giggle here, and a snort of laughter there before she paled and gasped holding a hoof to her mouth as her tears leaked from her closed eyes. It vanished though and went in a cycle again happiness, laughter, sadness, before a pleased look came to her face.

Wiping her eyes and only a little bit of ruined make up away as well she smiled at him. “You have been through a lot. I didn’t go too far back only about five or six months I believe.”

‘Oh thank goodness. Oh wait, that means she felt what happened at the slave camp.’ Seeing her look at him he went over and gave her a hug which surprised both himself and her. “Sorry you had to see my pain.”

Dustan could feel her tremble as she hugged him back. “You accepted death at one point, you have done things for others knowing they wouldn’t be known, all to make things better. You feel so very alone at times and try so hard to make sure others are ok. You feel like your life is less than theirs, but I don’t know why.”

“I thought you said you couldn’t hear thoughts.” He asked suddenly wary of her again.

“I can’t.” She spoke holding him tighter and trembling more. “I am not sure who all you did those things for, but you feel so very alone that it's heartbreaking. You also didn’t answer my question, why do you feel your life is less important than others.”

Dustan was going to lie to her, he was going to tell her what she needed to hear in order to get herself back together, but the moment she pulled back and looked into his eyes, his will to fib vanished. “It's cause it’s the truth. Others lives are more valuable than mine. I have no skills to be of use, I do chores just to call things even when what I do is of far less value then what I provide dictates. Those I do the things I do for are meant for better things, especially when it comes at the price of them or someone who isn’t even supposed to be here.”

He realized what he said at the end there only after he had said it but luckily it seems as if fate gave him an out. “I was told by my Aunt you had been transported here against your will. Be that as it may, that doesn’t mean you don’t belong here.”

While the human was glad that she didn’t question what he said more that didn’t make things better for him. “I don’t Cadance, I never did and honestly, me being here might ruin so many things.”

“Don’t be silly, it’s not like you can know the future. You don’t know if you will ruin anything.” Cadance had put on a more happy face though she had no clue what she was talking about in this case if she knew what Dustan did. “Anyways, I approve of your guardianship and am in your care from now on.”

With that settled it seemed Secret was more at peace with things, or at least that is what Dustan assumed since the facial expression of the pony didn’t change at all. The only difference now was that the agent pony would leave the room occasionally leaving the two of them alone as Dustan was to be her personal guard while Secret was to oversee the others.

“Mind if I ask what it is you are doing here? It might make my job a bit easier.” Seems the princess had already anticipated that as she smiled and pointed to a nearby couch.

Once he was seated, thankfully seems the room was built for larger individuals to bunk down in, did she speak. “I am usually a peacekeeper between bickering tribes or diplomatic problems as you may or may not know, so that right there should give you a clue as to what I am about to say.” She sighed and looked upwards towards the ceiling before speaking. “Someone has been kidnapping ponies and murdering them.”

Suddenly a shiver went down his back. “You said someone, not somepony, meaning it isn’t a pony.”

Giving a nod she sighed and looked at him. “We aren’t sure what it is or if it is a pony or not. All we know is that from the very few survivors of the attacks there have been so many conflicting reports, some say it’s a unicorn, some say it’s a pegasus or earth pony. There have been some victims saying they think it’s a group as they could only see the eyes of many watching them. All we know is that the survivors of the attacks all are in a state of delirium for about seventy two hours before the effects wear off. Whomever or whatever is doing this has the three tribes at war with one another and with any other species in the city to the point where anything could set it off.”

“Fuck it’s a powder keg.” It seems his term missed the mark again as the confused look on her face said it all. ‘Guess that means gunpowder isn’t invented yet or isn’t common.’ “Umm it’s a dam that is about to burst.”

“Ahh of course.” With the second expression sticking Cadance continued. “My job here is twofold; to constantly reassure the citizens that everything is under control while keeping aggression down to a minimum, as well as to lead the investigation.”

“I take it you have something to go on then, or at least evidence?” When he asked she left the room to come back with a briefcase. What was inside was a ton of pictures that made his stomach turn. Most of them were the leftovers of victims though honestly it was hard to tell. It was mostly bones and everything looked like it was made of wax and left out in the sun too long. Whatever was attacking them was using some kind of acid to make sure no one could find evidence, and a strong type of acid as well as the pictures were in indents, sometimes in brick, sometimes in concrete where the acid had melted it as well.

Overall something nagged at him, a sense of unease that he attributed to the heinous crimes he was looking at. “It’s disturbing what kind of pony or creature could do this. I want it to be stopped, it NEEDS to be stopped.”

“I couldn’t agree more.” Dustan told her as he looked over the map. “Can I get a copy of this map? I might run out into the city to check some things out.”

She looked a bit uneasy at that but got a copy and started to note down various places. “I wouldn’t recommend this for a few reasons. The biggest ones being the citizens of the city are high strung and very aggressive right now. They might look to pick a fight. Second is you are supposed to be here to guard me. There are some…unsavory rumors going around that I am the cause and that I am covering up Alicorn eating habits.”

“What seriously?” That made Cadance nod and Dustan face palm. “Sometimes you ponies hurt my brain in the things you think.” Thinking for a moment he had to find a way to get to those places. For some reason the nagging unease still bothered him. “You are in charge of investigating right? Why can’t you go to the scene of the crimes and look, since I am your bodyguard I can go with you right?”

“Hmm that might work.” Cadance shook her head. “No that will work. Plus it will actively show the ponies of the city I am out there looking at things, even if I do not wish to see the gruesome scenes that will be there.”

Pacing back and forth, itching to get started the knight then asked. “When can we work to see the scenes?”

The Princess of love responded with. “Not till tomorrow sadly, I have to put in a request with the local authorities to let them know that I will be visiting the scene of the crimes.”

“Damn.” He was not that big into mystery novels or the like, but he remembered being younger his parents often watching crime shows and that the longer the trail runs cold the harder it was to catch a criminal. “Well what else can you tell me?”

Cadance would then pull out some other notes. “Well from what the coroners have figured out there is a regular pattern to the attacks. It happens every three days. There is at least one attack or one report of a missing pony that corresponds with this. So whoever the serial killer is, they are habitual from what the others say.”

“So we know when to start keeping our guard up.” Dustan smiled at that but saw Cadance frown. “There is more isn’t there?”

She gave a grave nod. “They tend to happen at night and today is the third day since the last attack.”

“Shit.” Was his only response.

The clip clop of hooves down the long narrow alleyway would be heard for quite some distance as well as the clinking of metallic jewelry of all kinds. “Piece of shit whorse. I swear she is holdin’ out on me.”

The pony in question wore a purple wide brimmed hat with a striking white feather and golden band on it. The same as the mark on their flank showing that it was either custom made or that they had it before the mark appeared. They wore rows upon rows of bracelets and necklaces along their legs and neck ranging from tasteful to outright gaudy.

The fog in the alleyway started to increase as the stallion continued to complain. “I let her off easy this time, only giving her the back of my hoof once, but next time, OH boy next time. That whorse better-” Suddenly a coughing fit took the stallion. “Celestia’s teet what is that reek.”

The fog intensified around the stallion as did the stink before the stallions eyes widened. He could no longer move for some reason and he could only look ahead of him. There was then the sound of something slimy moving around, something big, or perhaps it was multiple somethings, it was very hard to tell which it was. The sound of something breathing was heard, whatever it was, it was big!

The only thing for sure was that the stallions last thoughts were before his vision also started to fade were. ‘That is stranger then what my whorses come down with, why is that wall moving and why does it look like it has so many orange eyes?’

Dustan was stone faced this morning; they had been called to the scene of another crime this one fresh from last night. The killer had struck again apparently as there was another indent of fluids as well as a smell to the area that was attributed to the decayed remains of the pony. The only way investigators were able to tell that it was a pony was that the tail had escaped being destroyed by the acid the killer used and the partially melted jewelry was pony sized. The last notable artifact was a half melted purple felt, wide brimmed, hat with a feather in it belonging to a notable pimp in the area noted for mistreating his ‘whorses’.

“This is despicable.” He heard one of the guard ponies call out. “How does the killer keep getting away? There are Witnesses that say they saw the pimp head into the alleyway and nothing came out. Same with the other side as nothing had come into the alleyway.”

“Well there was no pony watching the skies and it has been too long to try to detect residual magic for teleportation or cloaking so we can’t rule out pegasi or unicorns in this.” The lead investigator told him while patting the other guard officer who was shaking with rage. “We also can’t rule out patience for an earth pony. Coming into the alleyway possibly hours before and leaving after the work was done would make it hard to know what times were supposed to be glimpsed to catch the scoundrel.”

While they were talking though Dustan, having permission to be there and interact as part of the Princess’ investigation crew started to move around, the puddle was no longer interesting him, instead it was the wall. “What is this stuff?”

One of the deputies had heard him and came over before shrugging. “Oh that slime, it appears on places that aren’t cleaned as regularly though it is curious that its purple. Maybe it has mold under it as well.”

The deputy’s words provided no solace of mind for the knight at all. In fact it called for the opposite, making the hairs on the back of his neck stand up for some reason. The guard officer left him alone as his mind wondered now, thinking of plenty of scenarios from MLP that could possibly be the result of this. His eyes were wondering around the scene to take in everything, but his concentration was broken when the raging officer slipped in fell.

“BUCKING SLUMS!” He called out and got back up trying to wipe the grime off him. “Slimy walls get hit with rain and run into the sewers constantly.” The pony spat towards the closed manhole cover as the hairs on the back of Dustan’s neck started to vibrate almost as he was now realizing something.

Going over to the officer in question to help him he asked. “When was the last time it rained around here?”

“Two weeks ago why?” Dustan had his answer, he now knew what he was looking at.

Quickly he pointed to the slime and down to the sewers. “I think whatever is killing ponies is making that slime. Purple isn’t the normal color for it right?”

His voice now was catching other investigators attention with how loud it was being, so much so the lead investigator himself came around. “True, but that can be explained with mold interactions, even if it is rare for such a color to come out.”

“What about the trail to the manhole cover?” For a moment the investigator didn’t seem to know what he was talking about.

Till the human pointed and went. “Oh you mean the ponyhole cover. That happens when there is a good bit of rain making the slime…run.” The lead investigator suddenly held a hoof to his chin. “Due Process, Civic Rights, teleport to the last three sites of the crimes and look for ponyhole covers and purple slime, if you find some and it connects teleport back and let us know right away.” The two ponies in question that the investigator called over saluted and popped away in a teleport. “How is it we never noticed this?”

Dustan chuckled at that and smiled. “You are used to seeing slime and such around this area right?” To his nod the human continued. “I am not, I have not lived here nor do I know the norms. To me this stuck out as strange cause slime doesn’t usually stick to walls like this and when I asked when the last time it rained the answer was-”

“Two weeks. Meaning since this slime is fresh, well as slime can be, it means that it shouldn’t have run to the sewers.” The investigator face hoofed hard enough to make Dustan wince as he heard it. “If you want to hide a tree put it in the forest. It was such a common sight we never gave two thoughts to it.”

At that moment there was a twin popping sound as the two unicorns came back. “Sir! We report that indeed there is purple slime heading to a ponyhole cover not only at the last three sites but the last five.”

“EVERYPONY this is the break we have been looking for!” He called out to the men around the area. “Put in an immediate request to investigate the sewer system below the city.” The detective turned towards Dustan with a hopeful look on his face. “You will join us right? We could use an untainted eye to look for anything out of the ordinary or to ask the right questions.”

He was going to agree to the request for sure but Cadance did so for him. “He will accompany you for sure, even if your higher ups won’t allow it, I will overturn that decision. In fact you have my permission to gather up able body ponies right now and gear up.”

The pony bowed and looked towards his scout ponies. “Civic, put out a broadband magical message to all officers and have it read: We have a lead, gather up and gear up at our position, we have the permission of the princess on this. Let us end this once and for all!”

“That goes for you as well Dustan.” Cadance told him beaming with pride. “Gather up anything you need. The ponies here have been investigating for so long and you gave them the break we needed.”

Chuckling the knight rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. “No problem, like I said it just seemed strange to me.” He then patted the belt pouch he had gotten and smiled. “I already brought everything I need for emergencies…I hope. If I brought my pack it would weigh me down too much.”

“Right.” The princess was looking overjoyed as Secret came up and whispered to her. “Right, I have a meeting to go to today, I had forgotten in all the commotion. Secret will protect me while you help the guard.”

“Ok, see you later then.” Problem was while she was leaving he could still feel that unease that had been plaguing him before growing worse and worse.

Two hours passed before there were several squads in place now, each one at a sewer entrance on one of the past crime scenes. The ponies who had gathered at the current one with Dustan were a little apprehensive about having him there but calmed down once the detective told them of his part in things giving them a sense of relief, or maybe they just trusted the detective that much. Either way with everyone and everypony now ready, the manhole cover was lifted and the soon all descended to the spacious sewers below.

As one could expect from this type of system it was fragrant to put it politely. “This smell is the worst!”

A pony called out from behind him and honestly he couldn’t argue with it. Dustan had once helped one of Pat’s friends empty a septic tank, as he was short on help on his job that day, and even that wasn’t as bad as the smell he was inhaling at this point. Tiny horses reek.

Once they were all down right away the purple slime was noticed as one of the unicorns was using their horn as a light looking around. However a gleam of white caught the attention of the detective having lit up his own horn and shown it towards the spot. What it was revealed were bones, a few of them all clumped up and half melted together.

“Looks like you were right. The killer uses the sewers to get around. Everypony on your frogs, we are in enemy territory now.” The trench coat wearing pony said as he started to lightly move forward.

Behind he could hear the raging pony before now suddenly very eager. “Let’s get this bucking horseapple and show him what happens when you kill innocent ponies and terrorize our streets.”

Dustan noted that there were more than a few agreeing with him and he thought that as a bad sign, and he wasn’t alone. “Cool your tails, we will handle this like normal. We will give them time to surrender before we resort to other methods.”

“Well I hope they don’t surrender then, cause I want to-what is that sound?” Pony ears were so much better than his hearing was, but with the echoing tunnels amplifying sound he too could hear it. It was deep, rhythmic, and an almost sighing or wheezing sound.

The detective stepped forward as a light mist started to rise up around them. “I am detective Book ‘em if the Manehattan Guard Department. Come out with your horn or wings unlit and at your side respectively.”

The mist in the area thickened to fog now making it hard to see, as well as causing the foul smell in the air to intensify. It was now making more than a few ponies start to cough as a squirming sound was coming closer to them.

A pain in Dustan’s lungs warned him too late though as it right away spread a burning sensation through his body and he fell to the ground as his muscles seemed to lose strength. Around him he could see other ponies having various experiences; one ran around in circles starting to jabber about nonsensical things, another seemed frozen in place, while another even turned to stone in front of him. There was even one pony whom turned into a frog.

That was what triggered a memory from Dustan’s mind, one that had been clawing at him to get him to realize it but only now could stare in horror. The massive body was now coming from the darkness ahead of them, multiple orange eyes on wiggly like tentacle stalks, all connected to the main body as was various tentacles. A black fog coming out of the mouth that made up most of his main body that was lined with rows upon rows of sharp teeth.

This was a nightmare made real, one that could end many games causing the user to reload a previous save. This creature was one of the most feared to run into when you weren’t prepared, and oh boy were they not prepared.

“We need to run, it’s a-” however his voice cut out as the silence status took him as did the blind status. Poisoned, blinded, and now mute, he could only think the name of the creature desperately. ‘Malboro!’

Chapter Fifteen: Lingering Aftertaste.

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My Little Tactics

Chapter Fifteen: Lingering Aftertaste.

“Ring around the rosey, pocket full of posies, ashes, ashes, we all fall down.” That single verse kept repeating itself as the stallion that sang it kept running in circles cheerily with the clip clop of his hooves echoing off the dull and worn stone of the sewer ways.

Or at least that is what Dustan would assume as he was still blinded at the moment and in the midst’s of a panic attack himself. His voice was gone just like his vision and his lungs felt as if someone had poured hot soup into them. Just hot enough where it gave that slow burn but that also made it so hard to breath as well. What was more, he wasn’t sure what else was affecting him but whatever it was it made his body feel so heavy, making his armor keep him to the ground for the most part.

“Ring around the rosey-” the stallion went on again and Dustan wanted to smack him, least then the status might wear off but he couldn’t even move at the moment, all he could do was mentally curse not only his situation but for not seeing all the clues and putting them together properly. “-pocket full of posies-”

‘Fucking shut up. How do you even know that song, did the ponies have a plague here as well, wouldn’t surprise me.’ Dustan thought bitterly as he couldn’t think of any way to help himself or others. ‘I mean knowing magic it was likely a plague that was cured by posies being kept in pockets, likely why clothing was popular by nobles and such.’ He could feel his body sinking down more and more as the poison running through his body was wearing him down. ‘Hell if I had a pocket full of something to cure me right now I would-’

Unseeing eyes widened at that moment. This wasn’t over, there was a chance. Mentally mumbling to himself as he forced his body to move, mostly his arms, down to his waist. He fumbled around with the pouches on his belt for the longest time; the first one that popped open was the wrong pouch feeling chalk touch his fingers before clicking to the ground signaling that it fell out. The next pouch was where he kept small round orbs though he had asked Zecora to make them, the touch of them made him nauseous meaning his idea for using them couldn’t be put into action cause he didn’t know the skill. Well better to have them and not need them then to need them and not have them.

It was the next pouch that was the jackpot. Feeling the vegetation at his fingertips he pulled it up to his other hand using both to unfold the large leaf that he had squared up. His fingertips felt the substance smeared on it and he smiled in satisfaction. Time to hope this worked like he wanted. Slapping the leaf to a bare part of his arm he felt a wave of relief come straight from his Salve as it washed away some of the status effect plaguing him. Specifically: Poison, Blind, and Silence.

Gasping as his body felt a lot better but not completely fine he looked around him to see various ponies all being in similar positions as himself. With the burning in his lungs gone and him able to get proper air, he managed to raise himself up off the ground and looked at his hand to see his status.

“Power Break, that is…not normal for them to bring about, I am not sure if any have ever done that before.” First things first though, the sound of a fist smacking cheek came about and the singing stallion was brought to his senses. “Take these and apply them to anyone having trouble breathing, who can’t speak, or are blind. Tell them to gather up everyone and retreat, as well as gather the statue and any frogs in the area.”

Looking around he could see the Malboro had escaped, it had just fed, was satisfied and wasn’t looking to fight it seemed, a blessing in disguise for sure. The stallion nodded and took a couple of the leaf bundles from the knight as he went about helping as well. While he couldn’t help everyone, not having the supplies to make sure everyone was cured, he did make sure those with poison were cured first.

“What was that thing, and where is the Detective?” He heard one of them call out. “We have never seen anything like that creature before, what was it.”

“A Malboro.” Dustan called out trying his best to get out of his armor as it was causing him pain now to wear it with it being so heavy, or rather with him being so weak. “An apex predator that is VERY good at what it does. It ambushes others for a meal after debilitating them with its breath that can cause a variety of status effects like poison, blind, silence, petrifaction, toad, and more.” The loud clang of his bronze armor rang in the tunnel as he finally got it off with a grunt. “We are beyond lucky. If it had not fed before we followed it down here, chances are some of us would be in its gut at the very least.”

“So what do we do?” It wasn’t the stallion who asked the question this time, but a mare, the second in command as he recalled of the little operation. She was looking for leadership now that much was plain in her eyes as they were frightened. It wasn’t only her either he realized but all the ponies were looking at him.

“We retreat and tend to our wounds. We know where it lives now, our job is now to make sure everyone gets back home safely. As I told him over there.” pointing to the stallion he freed from confusion. “Gather up any toads and statues, those are our teammates being affected by the worst of that status effects. Also if someone isn’t troubled, get my armor, one of the status effects on me right now is it weakens my strength and I can barely move with it on.”

Seems the troops were more than happy to comply as some even went to help him up the latter to the surface when they got there. One of the unicorns used a spell to call in for help. While they waited the second in command came and asked him. “How long will some of us be affected by this?”

He shrugged as he honestly didn’t know. “No clue, could be hours, days, weeks or months. I have never personally run into one of those things myself, I only know of others who have run into them. The petrification and toad status…those are permanent though till I can get some supplies and remember how to return them to normal.” ‘Aka figure out how to get toad back to normal, Petrification, should be easy, in fact.’ He looked up to the guard and asked. “Can you get me some golden needles? I should be able to work a bit of magic to restore anyone who has become petrified.”

Right away the pony sent someone off to do so and Dustan chuckled a bit. Because of his constant help with Zecora and his own making of Salves and other things, he had gotten a good bit of job points for both Squire and Chemist, but especially the latter. In fact it was his highest job class with Squire being right behind it followed by Knight, White Mage, and Black mage tied for the last three. Though he personally felt Knight and White mage were on the cusp of the next level for them.

Speaking of White Mage, he currently hated himself for not spending the points in that to grab anything, but at the same time if he could get to the Classroom tonight he knew just what to spend his saved up points for. Just a matter of time he supposed then he could help out anyone afflicted by the Bad Breath.

“Sir!” The pony came back and in the aura of her telekinesis were a few golden needles, just like he had asked for. “Will these do?”

Standing up Dustan carefully picked them out of the magic holding them one at a time. With that done he put them into the now empty pouch that formerly held his Salves.

“We will see.” He told her as he kept one in his hands and moved over to the pony that was petrified.

They had a look of horror on their face, or at least that is what he seen when he pulled the sheet off. Either someone thought he was done for, or they just didn’t want to see that look, both of which were understandable. The weakened knight hoped this would work, but if not, there was anti-petrification methods available as was shown when Twilight herself was turned to stone.

‘Whelp here goes everything.’ His thoughts were hopefully but at the same time he wasn’t sure if this would work since it wasn’t a Final Fantasy item he was holding. Pressing the needle to the stone he saw a reaction right away as the needle shattered and where it had pricked the stone said stone broke off and floated away before completely disintegrating into the air.

The pony underneath gasped before collapsing. Medics came over and assured those watching that the guard had just passed out which put everyone’s mind at ease for sure. Now all that was left was the frog, which there was only one of, to take care of but no one there could do anything. Instead they were going to send him to the hospital and have trained Magisters and doctors both take a look at him.

The able bodied of the guard helped him get back to Cadance’s penthouse since that was where he was staying at the moment while guarding her. To say he felt like shit was an understatement, the horror and panic, the adrenaline, the poison, and finally the break status he had on him was too much, he was ready to pass out, but first he needed a shower. His comrades in arms helped him to the elevator of the hotel and the guards outside the room let them in without much of a glance though he could feel their eyes on them after they passed.

Cadance just happened to be coming out of the sitting room when she spied them. “Ahh Dustan welcome-oh my Celestia are you alright?!”

One of the ponies helping him laid his armor down in the corner before asking him if he would be ok on his own now. “Yeah thanks.” The two would leave before he looked to the Princess of Love. “Yeah, we just ran into something beyond nasty, though we know the source of the murders now. For now though I am going to need a shower. Mind if I use the one in here?”

The worried look on her face never left as she gave him a nod. “Of course, it’s down the hall to the left; it is rather spacious so you don’t have to worry about ducking or anything.”

“Thanks, can’t tell you how much this is appreciated.” The tired knight said walking to the desired area. “I am going to leave my clothing outside the bathroom. I will send it to the wash after I am done.”

“Alright. Let me know if you need anything.” The Princess called out as he left the room. The shower was as spacious as she had claimed it to be and more. For ponies this would be beyond a luxury, for Minotaur’s it would normal size to a bit larger than they are used to. For Dustan, he didn’t care, it was large enough and he could wash away the tension of his muscles.

With a quick turn of the knobs and a quick yelp as a result of cold water hitting him suddenly he quickly found a good balance to sigh in relief in.

‘He looked so haggard. Dustan and the others must have gone through so much in such a small amount of time.’ Cadance mused to herself worriedly as she paced outside. ‘I hope no pony was hurt. I mean he himself was practically dragged in, what is more he didn’t say they had captured or stopped the killer at all. Did they get away? Were the guard forces stopped? Did any of them die as a result?’

Honestly Cadance was starting to worry herself ragged with the line of thoughts and was about to go and ask Dustan about the details even if it would interrupt his shower. However as her legs carried her to the appropriate room she found a basket outside with his clothing. While she did reports from her aunts about the human, the fact he wore clothing at all only came up briefly and mostly as a foot note, as such she couldn’t help but wonder why he wore them.

‘THAT’S IT!’ The idea had struck her so quickly that she was surprised she had not thought of it before. ‘We have a machine here for washing clothing and drying them, true I could room service to help out but this is something I can do.’ Using her magic she levitated the basket and started to trot happily towards the room with the magical machines. Musing to herself that this would be good training for bridal duties even if they might have servants eventually taking care of things, she might sometimes want to do them herself.

With that though she wondered how much detergent she should use or how little, after all humans might smell differently, lighter or stronger right? Bringing the basket to her nose she took a whiff, meaning only for it to be a quick one but the stench on them quickly caused her to gasp out and then breath in quickly trying to get air.

‘Gah that reeks, what sort of creature can make that type of smell from…their…body.’ Cadance’s mind started grinding to a halt as a sort of pinkish red haze filtered over her eyes but all she could tell was something was missing. Something seemed to have taken a hold of her keeping her locked in place as the thought of something missing kept seeming to repeat in her head.

So lost in that repeating thought she never heard the shower stop nor the human coming out. “Cadance have you seen my clothes? They aren’t in front of the door where I left them.”

Her gaze right away snapped over towards the human and suddenly she knew, THAT was what she was missing, what she needed. “Oh I have them right here honey, I was planning on taking care of them while you were in the shower, but you had a quick one didn’t you?”

Confusion seemed to be the primary look on his face, of which Cadance suddenly found very cute. “Not really. I spent I think a good half hour or forty five minutes in there I think. Not very quick if you ask me, also did you call me honey?”

The hazy eyed princess just sauntered over to him with more than an exaggerated shake of her hind quarters. “Mhm, what else am I supposed to call my beloved?”

Cutting the shower off Dustan stepped out and stretched. ‘Let’s see here.’

Looking into a nearby mirror he quickly looked up his status and seen that he was still under the Power break status a status not in Final Fantasy Tactics at all but he recognized the emblem from another game, Final Fantasy Brave Exvius. It was a symbol of a sword with a bright red arrow pointing down next to it.

‘Damn, still broken. Hopefully debuffs aren’t permanent around here. If so life will absolutely suck from now on till I get to the classroom again.’ Looking around he found a few nearby towels to start drying himself off with. He had to only use one on account pony towels were smaller then he was used to though much more absorbent thanks to them having to draw moisture out of fur.

Taking two of the other towels and tiring them together he managed to put a makeshift towel skirt on himself to hide his sensitive information from the world. “Alright time to take care of the fun part, cleaning and sanitizing not only my clothes but my armor too. That shit smells…well like shit.”

Stepping outside he found the basket that he had laid his clothes in missing and that slightly made him worry. Dustan had extra in his pack just in case but still. Looking around and back inside to double check but nothing was to be found. He started on down the hall looking to see if maybe he kicked it down the hall some but nothing. Scratching his head and feeling a slight bit paranoid he turned the corner only to see the rear of the princess herself.

“Cadance have you seen my clothes? They aren’t in front of the door where I left them.” He asked with the hope she had somehow seen them.

The knight found himself surprised with how quickly the crystal heart marked pony could turn around to face him. “Oh I have them right here honey, I was planning on taking care of them while you were in the shower, but you had a quick one didn’t you?”

‘Ok that look is a bit unsettling.’ She was wearing a very wide smile as if seeing him was a pleasure all its own, combined with her slightly lidded eyes that seemed to roam along his form was bringing out alarm bells galore. “Not really. I spent I think a good half hour or forty five minutes in there I think. Not very quick if you ask me, also did you call me honey?” Dustan was really hoping he had misheard, it wouldn’t be a problem as he knew how messed up he got today and how exhausted he was to hear something that normally wouldn’t be said.

“Mhm, what else am I supposed to call my beloved?” Cadance told him causing his eyes to widen.

‘Nope, abort!’ “Go home Cadance, you’re drunk.” Sadly he didn’t get the reaction he was hoping for from her.

Her horn lit up as she smiled, with him giving an ‘oomph’ as she found himself on his back on the ground with the princess crawling over him. “Oh I am drunk alright, drunk on you.”

“Cadance not only was that corny but you have a fiancé.” Dustan tried to pick himself up only to be pressed down and felt the towels he used to cover himself up removed.

“Oh my, I do so love unwrapping presents, and yours is such a nice one.” The situation, as inappropriate as it was, still made him blush with the words being said as he wasn’t one to get to hear things like that often back in his own world. Neither was the buzzing of magic that was now stroking him in a place that a soon to be married mare should NOT be touching. “Why don’t you lay there still and let me get to work.”

‘Something is wrong, this isn’t Cadance, it must be Chrysalis! This must be when the switched out! I can detect that shit in a heartbeat.’ Using his Tactical Eye he pulled up the status of the princess only to be startled at what he found. ‘The fuck? How is she inflicted with charm status?’

However a groan escaped his mouth as the princess dragged her tongue all along forcefully aroused member. “It tastes as wonderful as I hoped.”

“Cadance st-awawawp.” His voice could only warble as his member vanished from sight down a muzzle that was currently humming a pleased sound that he could feel travel up through the connected piece of flesh that Cadance currently was sucking on.

Held down by Princess level magic, weakened by the Power break, exhausted and tired from the search and rescue, there was nothing that Dustan could do to stop her. Hell before this if someone had asked him in his own world what he would give to have a member of royalty suck him off, he would have laughed it off and said that no one would want to drop so low as to do that to him. Then again his ex had pretty much stopped his self esteem into the ground at that point in his life, especially about his body and the prospect of him getting a job.

If questioned he would have loved to say he resisted the efforts of the Alicorn of Love, to say that she couldn’t get him to pop that he had been able to keep her from completing the act she was currently doing. Sadly if he had said that it would have been a lie. Panting and exhausted he watched the royal throat gulp down its hard earned reward before she smiled and gave a satisfied ahh sound.

“Thank you my beloved, but now it is time we sealed the deal.” As she mentioned that she was slowly move over him making his eyes widen. “Oh I feel it.” she seemed to whisper to herself as she shuddered having found his still stiff saliva coated spire now able to touch her folds with a bit of adjusting on behalf of her hips to match him. “It feels so wonderful.”

So lost in her teasing that she didn’t notice the magic of her horn vanishing, but Dustan had. Mustering up as much strength as he could, he did the only thing he could think of to stop this. Not many can say they punched a member of Royalty, but the human could now say he could as Cadance gave a yelp and flew off of him being caught by surprise.

Sadly that was about all of his strength period, he was hoping that the hit would have knocked her out, but her groaning and moving around dashed his hopes. “What was that for?” Ok so it wasn’t all of his strength as at the mention of that he mustered up the strength to glare at her. “Wait, why are you…oh…OH I r-remember. Why…I don’t understand, why did I- I mean I.”

The knight wanted to be furious at her, to be angry, to hate and despise her for basically forcing herself on him, but he couldn’t. “It wasn’t your fault Cadance.” His voice sounded exhausting even to his own ears. He knew that she wasn’t in control of her own actions and he NEEDED to solve that problem before anything more happened. “What was the last thing you remember? You know, before…this.”

The tears in her eyes showed the princess truly didn’t mean what had happened between them, luckily for her that only ruined make-up was showing on her face as the punch Dustan gave her was too weak to actually do much else. “I was, I was going to do your laundry as a way to thank you for your help and so I can practice for Shiny.”

‘Oh, right…show off.’ “Cadance, this wasn’t your fault.” ‘But whose was it?’ He thought to himself for a spare moment. “You said you were doing my laundry then what else?”

She shook her head pointing to the basket nearby behind a couch where its contents had been spilled. “I didn’t know how much detergent I was supposed to use for you because you are a different species, so I took a sniff to gauge things but the smell caught me off guard and next thing I knew I am seeing you like I see Shiny.”

‘Why would sniffing my clothing cause her to-’ “Fuck!” The realization smacked him in the head, though it was one he never considered ever but would make sense when all was said and done. “Cadance this is my fault. My clothing was covered in a smell that gives status effects. I honestly didn’t even know the effect could transfer like that.”

“But-but why wasn’t the ponies who brought you in affected?” Her tears were still there but thankfully no longer flowing as hard.

“Near as I can guess they were already affected by it cause they were from the unit that I was with that got gassed. Maybe it can only affect someone so many times in a period of time? I honestly don’t know but it’s my only guess.” His strength was fading fast now as he could feel his eyelids grow heavy. The second dose of adrenaline to fight off Cadance was the last straw. “Cadance, I am about to pass out, I normally wouldn’t ask this, but mind helping me to get comfortable somewhere or covering me up. I honestly don’t care which.”

Before he could even see her reaction or hear her answer he passed out then and there.

Thankfully balance was in order today as with the events that played out before being marked under unwanted, awkward, and outright not wanted, the universe decided to tip the scales back in balance as he found himself in the classroom, no feeling the wariness that his body was suffering from in here. Strangely though the classroom felt slightly different, nothing tangible but off. It as if the armor stands were watching him today, or at least one of them.

Moving towards the stand that he wanted, the one that had a large white robe with red lining along the sleeves and neckline he touched it and pulled up the menu. Clicking the skill he wanted it took up most of his points to obtain but it was worth it. Come tomorrow he could save those still affected by the status effects that lingered.

Feeling happy about that and off his guard, he jumped slightly when he heard a clanking of armor off to the side in the darkness. “Ok that is weird.” Sighing to himself he looked back at the stands. “That Malboro really must have done a number on my nerves.” Laying down on the ground he sighed loudly as he started to try to think up ways to off it.

What was more there was a single detail that was bugging him. The Malboro was purple normally they are green. What did that mean? He knew there was so much to Final Fantasy that he felt overwhelmed at times, especially when that knowledge seemed to be spilling out from fantasy to reality in this world.

‘There was a reason it was purple, I am sure it is some kind of breed of one but I honestly can’t remember. They never did any type break status before, Hobgoblins, skills that are hidden or those that can’t be accessed. There is so much going on with this that I feel like I am drowning sometimes.’ Problem was as much as he was stressed his mind replayed the events of what happened not to long before he passed out, blushing at the replay his mind gave him as well as the words that were said to him. Remembering those words had him blushing only for a moment before it faded and a look of sadness replaced it. ‘She was under the charm status, not like she meant it towards me. I am a pathetic nerd and would still be if I wasn’t forced to do other things here.’

Even though he was lying on the hard floor of the classroom he never seemed to feel its hardness when he was lying down, so soon he was drifting off towards true sleep. Though his dreams would remain empty this night he did have a haunting picture of his ex-girlfriend ridiculing face come to mind.

The next morning found him in his bed covered in a blanket. Getting up he quickly got a spare set of clothing out and headed right outside to gather his rotten smelling clothing. It was left right where it had been dropped before letting him gather it up quickly while holding his breath and keeping it all at arm’s length. He suspected that he might be in the time range to be affected again and he wasn’t taking chances on if the smell had diffused enough to be safe. After that was done he stripped down and took another shower mostly because while the smell didn’t cover him from his other clothing, he still stunk of a certain type of act and he wanted that gone.

With that done and his clothes back on he came out to find Cadance at the breakfast table. “We need to talk about yesterday.”

Shaking his head he cut her off. “Cadance, there is nothing to talk about honestly. My clothes had the monsters residual smell on it which does a variety of things to those that breath it in. It blinded, muted, and poisoned me when it did it, for you it just charmed you. Though if I had to guess since you didn’t see the original monster you had no clue what charmed you so latched on to the first thing you saw, which was me.” She opened her mouth to say something but he cut her off. “It’s ok, I know you aren’t attracted to me and I won’t say a word of anything that happened cause of this. In a way it was mind control and people under those effects can’t be held responsible for what they do.” Chuckling he sat down at the wide expanse of breakfast that she had set up for the two, or maybe called up in room service. “Besides not like I am the best to look at. I am pretty sure most ponies or even other races look at me as nothing more than an oddity.”

“That isn’t true.” She mumbled it but spoke it again louder to get his attention. “You need to look around you. Yes a lot of ponies think you are strange, maybe because you are so strange that you don’t notice what we do, or we don’t communicate it well to you, but you are attractive to more mares then you think.” He was dumbfounded by that. “I am physically attracted to you as well, though I also think of you as a good friend. You remind me a lot of Shiny to be honest.” Dustan wasn’t sure he liked that comparison. “I may have done things I wouldn’t have but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t a thought. I remember what I seen yesterday when you weren’t dressed and well, I will admit that your body is something to be cherished. I can also tell you that it’s not just me that thinks so. During the investigation when you were talking to the ponies to help them with your ideas. There were a few mares there that were giving you signals but you seemed to not notice them at all.”

“Really?” His voice was soft as he said it, not sure if he questioned it that it would be pulled out from under the rug on him.

“Yes really.” The Alicorn chuckled. “You strike an imposing figure that exudes strength, you showed you are intelligent and observant in your deductions, you gave out orders even if you don’t think they are orders making you a leader. That strikes the instincts of a lot of mares you know that right?” Shaking his head she smiled at him. “It comes from our older instincts to look for stronger males that can be leaders, who are protective, and observant as well as intelligent so the next generation can be more so. While stallions are a little more subservient now in attitude thanks to mare culture being so dominant and seeping into the subconscious it doesn’t mean mares don’t still look for those signs. Plus I touched your heart so I know what a caring individual you are which is one of the most important things to find and one that attracts many mares to a stallion once they get to know them better.”

“Oh…” He honestly wasn’t sure what else to say. If what she was saying was true how many mares were looking at him that way, was it just those here or were there ones in Ponyville as well? Though he was certain none were in Canterlot that was for sure.

The clinking of his fork and knife against his plate caught his attention as it came with a giggle. “Seems you were hungry.”

She was right, the food was gone and he was feeling quite full. “Oh, guess so.”

“Yep you cleaned it out.” A light dinged in his head.

“You just gave me an idea Cadance.” Moving over to the set of armor in the corner he smiled, he wasn’t weak today so the break status was gone; however he knew his armor still smelled. “Time to test an idea.” Gathering up his magic took a bit longer than normal as the spell was more MP intensive then his normal set of spells that he often casted. His body was unused to pulling this much of it at once and he broke into a bit of a sweat as he did so. “Heavenly wind, carry us to a fountain of power! Esuna!”

A ball of blue light appeared and circled over the armor before vanishing then a corresponding light rose up from the floor like a curtain and traced a path following where the light had circled before vanishing as well. Moving over to the armor now he braced himself and leaned in to take a deep breath.

It seems Cadance caught on and reached out a hoof to stop him. “What are you doing?!”

“Weird.” He simply said. “Smells like mint now.”

“W-wait what?” Seems his statement caused Cadance.exe to stop working. He chuckled at that as he started to put on his armor and groaned under the familiar weight.

Looking at her he spoke simply hoping that would reboot her brain. “I have work to do. Can you call up the guard forces and arrange a meeting, as well as see if they can bring in the one pony still being examined? I have a plan to lure out the Malboro.”

She gave a nod as he headed out and asked for one of the guards to see if room service would bring him a plethora of specific items, specifically chalk and a chalkboard. He had lost his stash of chalk in the sewers and need that replaced but he also needed something to draw on.

Slowly one by one about an hour later many guards came in, some in armor, some not, but last of all came two medical ponies, a doctor and nurse with a tank that held a frog in it. Specifically it was a toad.

“Welcome everyone.” Dustan called out from the living area where he was making the last adjustments to one of the three chalkboards that were brought in. “I have a plan on how to get rid of the menace that we found yesterday.”

“You mentioned its traits yesterday, are you sure that is something we can handle? Wouldn’t calling in the royal guard be more effective?” one of the ponies told him but he shook his head.

“What about us, why did you ask us to come?” It was the doctor. “I have been working on this case for a while now and I was pulled away from discussing a possible cure with the magister assigned to us. We so far are positive that we have a thirty three percent chance of curing him now. It’s only a matter of time to refine that percentage up higher and higher.”

“Right about that-” Reaching into the tank he held out his hand for the toad to hop in, and he did so. “It won’t be needed.”

“Preposterous. So far the magister is convinced the only sure fire way to cure him, and cure is a stretch of the word, is to polymorph him to resemble the pony he once was.” The doctor was somepony who had obviously went to school for many years and had grown assured he knew what was proper and what was known.

Except in this case he had no clue. “Hop down please.” The toad did so getting to the center of the crowd that he had not realized had gathered around the spectacle. “Stay there one moment please.”

As Dustan started to pull his magic out to bare he was interrupted by the doctor who got up in his face, no doubt hating to be ignored. “Now see here. This patient was admitted by the guard and while I admit I have no clue what it is you are doing here or why you have called us all, I won’t allow you to-”

“Would someone mind getting him out of my face so I can concentrate?” Surprisingly, to both Dustan and the doctor, a few guards came over to pull him away from the human.

“Now see here I won’t allow it, I am a licensed medical professional and I will not stand for some half baked idea or prayer to-” however, Dustan was already tuning him out so he could concentrate.

Like the other times he had pulled magic up it always seemed like the second and third times it was used always got significantly easier, while it was true that this spell got easier as well, it didn’t do so by the same margin as the others. Still, it came quicker as his body got used to pulling that kind of power out of him and this time making it so he didn’t burst out in a sweat once again.

“Heavenly wind, carry us to a fountain of power! Esuna!” Everyone in the room, sans Cadance, gasped at the sight of the ball of light followed by the curtain of blue light. Whereas before when he and Cadance saw no change in the armor physically this time was a huge difference as it seemed like the curtain of light conveniently was glowing brighter this time causing no one to be able to see the results till it was done.

When it was completed, there stood, both to everyone’s amazement and the pony’s own who it worked on, the missing lead detective. “I can’t believe it!”

“I can’t either.” The doctor said in amazement. “Why didn’t you say you knew such a powerful polymorphic spell?”

“It’s not a polymorphing spell at all.” Dustan told them after finishing off a bottle of water that he had placed nearby. “It’s a spell that reverses unnatural status effects, like blindness, poison, petrification, and yes even polymorphing.”

“Why didn’t you use it on him yesterday then?” One of the guard ponies in the crowd asked only to be echoed by some of the others.

“Did you see how exhausted I was yesterday? Do any of you think I was in any shape to cast a spell like that?” That linguistic dodge roll worked as it seemed to satisfy and seemingly answer the ponies question before they all looked to him.

Even the detective was now looking at him with something of a reverence. “So about this plan you had?”

Nodding he went over to the chalkboards and flipped the first one. “As you see here, I have pinned to it a map of Manehattan well not all of Manehattan but specifically this area. On it I have marked using a marker all the sewer drainage lines in red and exits in blue.” He then flipped it over again and showed them something else. “Thanks to the princess I was able to procure a map of the sewer tunnels as well so we will be flipping back and forth mainly between them.”

So far everypony followed him except the pony who had asked him the question of the cure. “Ok so how does that help us?”

“Simple.” He slapped the board and smiled. “Battle ground and tactical knowledge. We know the routes the Malboro could be in, and thus we know the lay of the land.”

The detective seemed to catch on quickly like he had before. “I get it. So with this we know where to go and can plan to fight on our own terms.”

Nodding Dustan clapped once then pointed to him. “Bingo!” moving over to the next chalkboard he flipped it over showing off a list. “I asked Cadance to ask about inventory of guard equipment, turns out you all have full body armor and gas masks, both will be of use. She also got to inform me that you have defensive specialist who can produce barriers at your disposal.”

The detective was grinning now. “Alright I see now. You want us to split up into groups geared up and to wall off any point of retreat from, the creature.”

“Give him a gold star.” Spinning the board around it was again a map of the sewers but with a jagged edge on some of the tunnels. “We go about sealing off its escapes and then harass it to get it to move. If it chooses to fight, leave the barrier till it can’t take anymore while you retreat then move to set up another and lure it, if not herd it, either way get it to go down this tunnel to get it here.” Slapping the chalk map he pointed to a large room. “This is an unused drainage pool and again thanks to Cadance handling the calls, I found its empty as it is undergoing repairs, a perfect staging for a monster culling.”

Murmers were going around now as ponies eyes lit up one by one realized that this plan accounted for the safety of all members involved. “Good good, but what about the ladders?”

“We will seal the ponyhole covers from above with any who cannot participate, either due to lack of armor and supplies, or due to other issues.” He went to the last chalkboard. “I assume most if not all of you will be participating in this, but if not feel free to leave or contact those that need to see what is next. Cause now I am going to go over possible weaknesses of the Malboro so we can beat this fucker’s ass.”

No pony left the room though more were called in. It did however, get rather crowded really quickly.

Chapter Sixteen: Malboro Menace.

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My Little Tactics

Chapter Sixteen: Malboro Menace.

The command center was abuzz with activity. It had taken a day to get everything prepared but they had to move today or another victim would be had. The command center was currently a series of tents above ground on a street that the guard had closed access to so that they could use it. The reason for this is the street they were on was directly in the middle of the mission zone and as it turns out the magic the unicorns used for wireless communications wasn’t instant it always took a few seconds to bounce to the target. Ensuring clear lines of communication was the key in this endeavor both to ensure the best of safety for all involved and to relay any details and progress as quick as possible back to the command center.

There were also unicorns on loan from nearby precincts of the city all to help with the mission that was to go on today. These unicorns were either specialized in the communication spell or teleportation. The first was obvious but the second was for quick mobilization of back up or to retrieve injured. The third detail that was part of the plan was the barrier mages that were setting up in the tunnels now, each able to deploy a shield that was impressive in its own right and the fact all this had been set up and organized by only a few individuals was amazing to Cadance.

What more was that it had been the brain child of only one individual, the one who knew most about the creature involved and the one currently walking around checking on all the things. ‘He is very much like Shiny in so many ways, but at the same time they are opposites. Shiny is a stallion of action true, but he is cold and commanding when leading his troops. Dustan I suppose would be passionate in this regards as he is flittering around everywhere smiling giving complements and more. Shiny is a leader who brings ponies together for his silent strength and stalwartness as well as his professionalism. Dustan is a po-human, is a human that draws ponies in with his charisma something he doesn’t even seem aware of.’

The incident of the other day had already been forgotten, mostly, though Cadance knew she would have to tell her fiancé at some point as there would be no secrets kept from either of them. The human wiped the sweat off his brow as he smiled looking around before finding the map of the sewers and next to it a map of above ground. On said map were many figurines, judging from the models Cadance would guess O and O figures thanks to having seen her husband to be painting some.

“That is the last team calling in everyone. We are set up.” Her bodyguard called out. She knew he would rather be down there with the teams but the detective and herself had convinced him to stay above ground to help give aid to any afflicted by that devastating attack the team had come under last time and to give knowledge and advice quickly to all teams when needed. “Alright everyone, you all know what to do.” A quick check to make sure all unicorns were broadcasting to their respective teams and he continued. “Barrier users place them in front of the team, anchor them if needed but otherwise march forward. Offensive mages speak up when you need to release a spell so the mages can let it through. Most of those barriers are two ways but can become one ways if asked, it just weakens the spell. Ice magic is your best bet against this foe, it hates the cold. Remember to harass it only till we reach the closed off and unused drainage pool. There we will have the advantage as it will be in a depression while our forces can stand on the rim of the bowl and rain down spells or arrows into it. If it tries to climb up the bowl barrier mages are to erect walls to stop it while teams focus it from behind. It will either keep going at the wall or it will turn around to the threat in which case it will chase towards it and we repeat.”

Overall the plan was fool proof or at least many there thought so. Cadance herself couldn’t see through any flaws in the plan. ‘The only thing that could possibly go wrong is a failure on one of the teams part.’ Everypony was now suddenly looking at her, she knew what they wanted, she knew what they needed. “The operation is good to go, commence!”

Her call was echoed through the ponies communicating to the others, the mission had officially started. It was a tense start for sure as a few minutes went by, then ten, twenty, and thirty with no contact or word from the teams other than check in times scheduled for every five minutes for precautions sake. The princess wouldn’t lie in that she checked the clock at least five times before each check in wishing time would move faster instead of crawling as slow as it was.

“CONTACT!” Came the call of one of the unicorns acting as a radio. “Second twenty one dash three, Team Twelve has contact. Initiating phase one!”

“Your good to go Team Twelve.” Dustan called back with a grin. “Do your thing!”

“Roger!” Called the unicorn in response as the magic pony’s horn glowed in pulses. “Target is attempting attack, barrier has been deployed. Guard magic has been deployed, Glacial’s Ice Ray spell launched…target is…retreating. I REPEAT TARGET IS RETREATING!”

The call got everyone in the command center fired up. “Good going Twelve, stay far enough back where it doesn’t feel cornered yet while keeping the pressure on.”

“Twelve is reporting that it is quite fast and they're losing sight.” The pony waited a moment before relaying another message. “They are slowing down so as not to fall into a trap as it is ambush predator like you mentioned.”

Nodding to that the human raised his head. “Good call, everyone relay that to your teams, If you lose sight of it, disengage and proceed slowly again. We don’t want to risk an ambush.”

A general call of ‘Aye, Aye’ came all around before it was quiet once more. However the wait this time was only four minutes before another call came out of engagement. Cadance wouldn’t lie in that she knew she was tense as more often than not her wings felt like they had a cramp in them every now and then from the waiting. Once more the creature attacked and a barrier was set down before ice magic repelled it. As such once again after losing sight the team broke contact and formed up taking things slow.

Things looked to be gearing up to be a sure success, except till the third and fourth contacts. “Team Five has contact, engaging.”

The first pony’s call was mimicked only seconds later as another voice called up. “Team Thirteen has contact, engaging.”

“Wait what?” Dustan called out before scratching his chin. “Are you sure, get a second confirmation. They both can’t be engaging unless one of the teams has gone off route.”

“Team Five reports they are still in the tunnel assigned.” The radio pony called only to be mimicked again by the other.

“This doesn’t make any sense.” It was true how could there be double contacts. “Well regardless have them push the targets back, this just means we may have found a second trouble maker while we are at i-”

Except, it wasn’t just two, as three more ponies called contact worriedly. Rightfully so as it seemed they were all astonished by this news. “This can’t be.” The detective called. “There can’t be that many. A creature like that likely needs a mate or something to breed with. It can’t just multiply by itself right?”

Cadance’s blood ran cold as she watched Dustan stop his pacing and pale looking horrified suddenly. “It can.” Everypony was shocked at the information. “HOLY SHIT IT CAN; THAT IS WHY IT’S PURPLE!” There was a thud as Dustan hit the ground in frustration. “I fucking forgot about that breed. It’s a Great Malboro. They can coat other species in spores to turn them into the regular Malboro breed. Tell me, has there been other missing pony reports, but with no sign of bones or remains?”

The feeling of one’s heart rapidly wanting to stop and speed up at the same time in fright is a horrible one for sure as she watched the detective eyes widen at a sudden realization. “Dustan give the teams orders to retreat!”

He had heard the princess’ cry to save her ponies and he really wanted to obey it. He had forgotten such a crucial piece of information such as that. True for some reason Malboro was one of those monsters that its main ability dominated the minds of players when thinking of the creature, and he rarely used the Beast Master skill himself that most hidden abilities of creatures was something he wasn’t the utmost familiar with. Still this was no excuse, they were tackling one of the most vicious creatures in the whole franchise save for a select few. No they couldn’t run from this.

“No we stay the course.” Dustan opened his eyes to see stunned looks on many ponies. “If the Great Malboro is allowed to run free, then the numbers down there will just continue. We need to do this while its numbers are small. If it goes on it will be a plague and likely Manehattan won’t survive.”

Seems the detective would side with Cadance as he walked over to her. “Princess, I am sorry, but he is right.” Or not, which came as a surprise to him. “I know how bad that creature is, I saw what it did to my ponies down there. If all of its offspring are as bad as it, then we can’t allow it to propagate at all.” Turning around he looked to all the ponies. “The mission is still on, continue!”

With that it was still all set to go down. Except now reports were coming in from all teams, some now frightened as the tunnels were getting closer and closer together and some teams were converging. More sightings occurred and numbers started to roll in. There were seven in total.

“The drainage pool is just up ahead.” A unicorn called out as Dustan was leaving the room.

He heard Cadance call out to him as he sought out a unicorn that was on standby. “Dustan where are you going?”

Pulling out his sword he double checked his pouches as he answered her. “I fucked up Cadance, fucked up bad. I was only accounting for one Malboro, seven though…that might be too much. So I am going in as back up.”

“Are you crazy, that thing almost killed you once before.” Though she had said that and he knew it was true he looked to the female unicorn who was looking back and forth between them.

“Soldier, teleport me to the battlefield.” Seeing the unicorn nod and charge up their horn he turned around towards Cadance and spoke. “I know, I am not looking forward to it either. However when you fuck up, you step up to your mistakes and make them right. I am doing just that.”

With that there was the sound of a pop and a feeling of becoming salt water taffy that made him almost sure he left his stomach behind before he was suddenly behind a team. “We have arrived sir. I will take my leave to wait further commands.”

With a pop the mare was gone as he joined the team. “Keep pushing, we are almost there.” It seemed he didn’t join the main team as he was looking at two smaller green Malboro, a common type for sure. The mages were tough enough to handle one, but two or more, no. He saw cracks forming in the barrier and was already pulling power from inside him. It only took two more solid blows from each creature before the pony in the lead cried out a sound more horrifying then the sound of their barrier breaking. “Scatter your chilly sharp blades! Blizzard!” Hazy clouds of mist formed by him and out came two razor sharp looking spears of ice.

The ice was hurled at the twin abominations that screeched as they shattered against them. His lead was taken and soon the offensive mages of the team were sending out beams of blue energy that crackled and froze the air as it passed. The tentacle terrors ran away from the beings that inflicted damage to them with their weakness and kept running towards the planned meet up.

“Transmission, call in for evac of our point guard having gone down with backlash.” Seems the mage was down and out thanks to his spells energy rebounding when it was destroyed. Dustan had been told that by Mystic when some ponies became too invested or were too careless in their spells they poured more energy into it then the spell could use, which wasn’t always a good thing and as such if the spell matrix couldn’t use the energy it was surplus that would rebound back if not used.

He wasn’t sure how bad that was but it sounded like it hurt like hell from what he had been told and there was now a problem with this. “But without them we have no barrier.”

‘Shit.’ Moving up to the front he told them. “Just to it, I will guard point.” ‘This is my fault there is no one else better suited besides me for this job anyways.’ Looking back he told them in a hurry. “Just do it!” Pulling at the calm feeling of magic he spoke his words. “Precious light, be our armor to protect us! Protect!”

He was soon surrounded by four diamonds that appeared one after the other, and it seems like so were a couple of ponies behind him experiencing the same thing thanks to the radius of the spell. One by one the crystals shattered before one giant one encompassed the human and the ponies that were behind him one by one.

“What was that?” One of the guards asked.

That spell along with Cure, Shell, and now Esuna were the only white magic spells he knew. “That was Protect. A magic spell meant to help mitigate some physical damage but not all of it.”

The knight could feel the pony’s eye borrowing into the back of his head as he didn’t look back. “But won’t that mean you are going to get hurt if that thing comes after you sir?”

“Let’s keep moving team.” Gritting his teeth he kept moving forward. ‘We can’t let them go. They aren’t of this world and thus even if there was something that killed them in the Final Fantasy worlds I am not sure such things exist here or will matter thanks to environmental changes. This needs to stop now!’

The slimy creatures trail ended as the team soon came to a brightly lit area, thanks to a manhole cover from above. “Sir we are at the drainage pool!”

“We aren’t the only ones.” As he pointed it out there were teams now surrounding the rim as Malboro after Malboro came in, all seven including the big mama or papa themselves. “Teams set up perimeter!” That got all the teams attention as either they didn’t know he was down here or were so focused on their task that it startled them. Either way they quickly started to form up as the Malboro’s now realized they had nowhere to go.

Each one let out a gurgling roar but the loudest by far was the purple one. The eyestalks of that one went all around looking at all the teams one by one till it seemed to lock on to the human. Dustan could see its eyes narrow slightly before it sent out a gurgling sound.

‘Well fuck I think it recognizes me from our last encounter.’ The purple one came rushing up as the babies all spread out randomly to attack all sides. With this no side would be really free to attack except the one where he was cause there was no barrier to stop them. “Mages at my back fire and provide damage to the other teams I will distract the big bad!”

Dustan knew he couldn’t let the boss of this little encounter reach his team because if it used bad breath with no barrier to stop it, that might spell disastrous results if Confuse or Berserk status kicked in, he knew, he couldn’t count how many times a Berserk unit fucked it for his entire team.

As he was getting closer and closer he saw the Great Malboro’s bar was charged fully meaning it was ready to attack the instant it was close enough and with its tentacles it could reach him before he could reach it. The sudden wish that this was real tactics came to mind as likely it wouldn’t be able to reach because the range would be only one square. This wasn’t tactics though. What was more was that one tentacle wasn’t the only thing sent out, but many of them.

The blood sword flashed as quick as he could swing it, trying to use his attack to defend and harm at the same time by cutting off some tentacles and to make it recoil. This creature wasn’t used to things fighting back it seemed as when one of its appendages got severed it screamed and recoiled. This was a spoiled Malboro who was used to getting its food without much problem it seems.

That worked for Dustan just fine as this gave him an opening. “Rend Power!” His sword turned semi translucent at that moment right before he brought it to bare hitting the purple monstrosity dead on only to seemingly no effect. At least to anyone’s eyes but his own.

With no damage done it seems as if the creature got its confidence back as it looked to strike out at him again. This caught him square in the armored chest surprising him with the speed it unleashed this time, as well as how much power it still had. Such was the power that he felt himself being lifted off his feet and slung backwards onto his back more than a few feet away, towards the bottom of the pool.

“Shit!” This was said not only cause of the pain of the attack but because the Malboro was also rushing at him now with its massive maw open now. “Fuck that, breath somewhere else asshole. Scatter your chilly sharp-AHHH!”

Dustan had once more underestimated the creature, he had watched the speed it climbed up the drainage pool wall and thought that was its top speed, forgetting that now that they are on the flat bottom of the pool it didn’t have an incline to run up. Dustan also didn’t think of the possibility of it using attacks that weren’t listed from Tactics, like a bite. The creatures tentacles were now beating on his back as it didn’t bite to take his arm off, even if he was sure his arm was bleeding, but it was using the bite to hold him while its appendages wore him down.

“FUCK YOU!” Quickly he pulled his most common offensive spell out of his back of tricks. “FIRE!”

Light exploded behind the creatures teeth as it illuminated Dustan’s arm for a brief moment before he was released from the grip with the thing screaming. While they were weak to ice seems that nothing was truly immune to swallowing pure fire down their gullets.

‘Nows my chance.’ The creature was no longer paying him mind as it was focusing on trying to get rid of the flames and pain that it had swallowed. “Rend Power!” Once again with no damage the attack called no attention to him as the creature continued its efforts, hacking up fluids trying to sooth its throat. “Rend Power! Rend Power! Rend P-”

Three was the limit it seemed as the creature turned and unleashed its tentacles at him once more. The difference now was clear, instead of throwing him back he only slide a couple of feet and stayed upright. The Great Malboro, menace of Manehattan, plague to players, terror to all, knew now something was up, it could sense its own weakness and with it, the need to end this fight now rather than later.

Black billowing smoke started to waft off its teeth and that could only mean one thing. “Bad Breath INCOMING!” He called out seeing ponies all around put on gas masks. He himself though was not so fortunate.

Black smoke billowed from the creatures lungs, no longer a mist or fog like before but a stream directly at the human facing it. Fate once more toyed around with him as the pain of Poison seared through his lungs, lungs that could produce no sound when the air passed his vocal cords thanks to the Silent status. Though fate did seem to spare him the Blind and break status this time around.

That didn’t comfort him all that much as the creature ran towards him in a rush. This was now a brawl. Diving right into things he pressed forward slashing at any tentacle that came his way, severing it and, hopefully, restoring more damage then was being dealt to him by both the monster and his status. He had no way or removing the status as his only way now, thanks to using all the Salve he had yesterday, was Esuna, which wouldn’t help if he was muted.

One particularly hard hit dented his armor further then it already was now causing him to have a bit of trouble breathing, well more then he already was. ‘Ok air is starting to become a problem here.’

However with a beast looking to kill bearing down on you, there is no time to stop, it was time to kill or be killed. Dustan was looking to be the former. Dustan looked to swing his sword to cut off another tentacle except he was faked out, the Malboro pulling its tentacles back and instead ramming him with its entire body flinging him back an causing him to cry out.

‘My voice!’ The Silence had faded quickly this time, though the poison had not as it was still burning up his veins. What was more was that as he was trying to get up he gave a mighty cough and witnessed flakes of red splattering the ground where he was looking. ‘That isn’t good.’ The squirming and slimy sound of a Malboro rushing at him brought the same thought to him again as he watched it coming to finish him off while he was weak.

Instead it got a few bolts of ice magic to the back. It seems the teams were whittling away their targets and now some were going on the offensive, at just the right time too. “We got you sir!”

“CURE!” He called out, not bothering wasting time on the words to power it up, he needed health and fast. The circling blue light did indeed provide comfort to him but no more so then the poison seemed to want to sap away from him.

His call garnered the attention of the beast again, who now sensed that its time was coming, both in the fact that it was being hit with its weakness and being hit from more than one angle as its children breathed their last all around it. It seemed determined for one last thing though, to take Dustan with it.

A barrier sprang forth in front of it, but instead of staying stationary it moved forward colliding into the beast sending it flying back, but also shattering the shield causing one of the mages to cry out though with no echoing thud Dustan assumed they had stayed away.

He didn’t have much time, he called to the power inside of him willing whatever was left to quickly gather. The Great Malboro got up quickly and started to rush forward, determined to not stop, even though bolts of arctic energy were now raining down on it from all mages of the party, it wouldn’t stop. It was determined.

However so was Dustan. “Heavenly bolts, bring down God’s Judgement. Thundara!” Thick yellow bolts streamed from the right hand of the knight as he called his most powerful spell as of yet. Though the creature didn’t have an elemental weakness to this particular ability, it was still doing damage to it. More damage than normal in fact as the ice on its body that had started to melt made a nice conductive sheen of water on its body allowing the electricity to better guide over the creature and thus into it.

Dustan however couldn’t keep that up. The spell, like all his spells, was not for sustained effort but to give off a burst then stop. That is what the upgraded Thunder spell had done before it had stopped. The steaming Malboro didn’t stop however, but it was slowing. Dustan couldn’t feel much magic in him anymore and the burning in his lungs was making him light headed, he couldn’t dodge anymore not with his armor weighing him down in his exhausted state.

This was it, this was the end, this was…the Malboro face planting into the concrete of the pool’s bottom and sliding to him. “Oh shit!”

The Malboro knocked him off his feet and he hitched a ride with it for a few feet before he realized something as they both came to a stop: It had died mid charge. This thought on that was simply awesome. Looking around them suddenly he took to his feet and saw that six regular Malboro lay dead at various points where the barriers had stood and one Great Malboro lay dead at his feet thanks to the combined efforts of everyone.

“Victory is ours!” He called out loudly to a great cheer both down in the sewers and up top as no doubt. Or at least he thought there was cheering as a coughing fit drowned out the noise as he collapsed to his knees. Red was now flaking the ground more than it had before and the dizziness from lack of air was a problem.

Dustan could have sworn he heard worried voices but couldn’t for the life of him tell where they were coming from, nor did he understand why the flakes of blood were growing closer to his face.

It had been a week since Dustan had been admitted to the Manehattan Specialized Hospital for Extra Species Care. His collapse in the aftermath of the battle had came as a shock to all involved but it had seemed he was the only one that had gotten affected by the creatures attacks both in its strange breath and physical attacks. When examined at the hospital it seemed whatever the creature had done, had poisoned him rather badly. Not only from what he had inhaled but also its saliva from where it had bitten him.

As such he had been quickly put on as much antibiotics as possible while healing mages were called in to cast cleansing spells on him and his body. Whatever poison had gotten into him, it seems he himself had wiped it away from those infected the previous time they had encountered it, but the mages were having a much more difficult time with curing him. Was it because he was more knowledgeable about the poison or the fact his biology was different and the mages weren’t used to it. Perhaps it was a combination of both.

Either way, it had taken over twenty four hours alone to cleanse the poison but not the damage. For that, it took the rest of the week and though the doctors now say he is in a clean bill of health, he had not yet woken up. Cadance had been visiting him every day at his bedside thanks to her princess privilege and getting past red tape, but nothing. Given she couldn’t be there for long most days as she was now busy running damage control and assuring her ponies in Manehattan that the threat had been dealt with.

She had also made sure that the record of those who participated and what roles they had played were public knowledge. Her ponies were not stupid either, many had picked up right away that ‘Dustan Warner’ wasn’t a pony name. At first they had thought it a griffon but when she had told them the truth, suddenly there were demands to meet the strange individual for an interview. That was when she broke the news that the leader of the operation was also the only one to suffer major injuries and now was in a coma.

Everywhere she went it seems the name Dustan was being muttered and tossed around left and right. This made her smile as she knew it wasn’t just because she was a princess and ponies were throwing it around because she was there, as she had often snuck away from her current set of guards, except Secret Service, in a disguise that resembled her pre-ascended form of a pegasus.

A letter had arrived the previous day from her aunts asking them for an update, as they had every day since she had first sent them the news. Her aunt Celestia was up to something as she let it slip that others seemed to want to know his status and the way she wrote it didn’t seem to just indicate her and Luna. It made her wonder what game her adoptive aunt was playing this time. It didn’t matter though as she had sent word that the mages specialized in treating and repairing exotic poisons had returned from Las Pegasus from vacation and would be arriving the next day, today in other words.

“Oi there miss, yor lookin' a bit dahn. Care ter browse me wares and find sumfink ter cheer yer up, then, eh, luv?” The call broke her out of her thoughts as she looked towards a street peddler in a small booth.

From what she had seen they had become more common as of late in this part of town as it was a popular tourist section of town. “I don’t think so, I am on my way to see my friend at the hospital.”

She looked at the pony running the booth and was amused to find him, judging by the voice, covered nearly from head to hoof in clothing; specifically it looked like a trench coat. “Ahh is that so, maybe then I can interest yer in sumfink in the way o' a gift for yor mate ter make them feel better, then?”

Luckily she had spent some time around Great Bitain and its neighboring countries or she would have blushed at the ‘mate’ remark as she recognized the accent and what some of the terms meant for them. However the stallion made a good point, maybe she should get something for Dustan even if he couldn’t enjoy it now, doesn’t mean he wouldn’t enjoy it later.

“Alright, show me what you got.” She wasn’t sure why but she felt like the pony was smiling under his mask.

With a practiced hoof the pony opened up their coat to display their wares. “Whaddaya buyin’?”

The merchant watched the princess in disguise trot away happily with her purchase before he sighed before ditching the accent. “Good to know you are keeping at it kid and making this world a good home for you. Who knows maybe I can bring you something useful next time instead of a normal trinket like what she bought.” His booth vanished as he started moving into the space between worlds. “But I can’t right now, they are keeping me on a short leash cause of my hesitation before. Just keep it up.”

The Merchant would vanish and no pony would know he was even there, nor that a pegasus had talked to him.

The door creaked open as Cadance looked inside and saw the human with all kinds of tubes sticking out of him. Some for blood, some for food, and others she could only guess at thanks to her having seen his body before. Closing it behind her she sighed and took her typical place by his bed in a seat that was left for her. There was a tray next to his bed that had food on it, but meant for her as she always kept to a schedule when meeting him for her visit.

She was exhausted today and wasn’t even hungry. The specialists had arrived and told everypony involved that there were trace amounts of poison in his blood, but not enough to keep him unconscious. They removed them and corrected all the damage done to him, which wasn’t much left thanks to the doctors there and congratulated them on such good work. What good it actually did as Dustan was still asleep.

“Today was a pain you know? It was one of my last meetings while here. Ponies everywhere want to meet you did you know that?” She giggled a bit before sighing. “They want to meet the Hero that solved the killer case and fought so valiantly for them. It’s not far you know that?” The only answer she got was the heart monitor beeping steadily along. “With how fast life moves in this city, when I leave it will only be a matter of time before they move on from these events, except for the pony’s family whom had lost loved ones.”

Yawning a bit and looking to see the time was so late she realized that even if she tried to touch her food now it was long cold. Sighing and resting her head on the bed near his hand she tried to think of anything to say, but nothing seemed to come to mind. Her mind and body were just too tired to try.

At least till her mind nudged her towards her saddle bags. “Oh, I got you something.” Using her magic to rifle through her belongings she pulled out the small wooden box and smiled setting it down near her food. “I got this from a street shop and when I found it, I thought of you right away. I am not sure why but it just seemed to fit.” Yawning again she opened up the box after winding it up letting it start to play a familiar tune. “Hopefully wherever you are, you enjoy it.”

Darkness was his only companion, his only friend in this world. It comforted him and chilled him to the bone all the same. He could neither see himself or anything around him as if he was some formless entity spawned of nothing. His mind was frozen, stuck in this ideal state both existing and not, between reality and a dreamless oblivion. In a way, it was what he wanted some time ago.

The thoughts of his depression, his time when he thought nothing in the world mattered, the time when his girlfriend had left him. He had been without nothing, in between jobs, no money, his family had moved too far away to help him and to be honest he never informed them of the problem so as not to burden them or anyone with his problems. He had been living on the street for a month, growing more and more desperate each day when he could garner no work. No one was hiring, let along hiring a bum like himself.

He remembered eating from a dumpster and being run off more than a couple of times. More than a few times he was caught using a public restroom to do the best job of giving him a bath with a sink as possible as well as water to drink. They ran him off during those times as well not wanting him to cause them issues. Dustan had not blamed them at all; he was a burden to them and their business when he showed up.

When he realized that he stopped going to the dumpsters and restrooms of those places. There was a spiral that he seemed to be sinking more and more into each and every day, more so now that he had stopped eating and drinking. He had taken to living in an alleyway known to house more than a few like himself, most of which had taken up begging as a source of income. Dustan had tried that, but with how young he was, people thought him just lazy and not wanting to work.

So with that method dried up he had stopped trying to beg as well since there was no results. Meaning there was no way to earn anything, no jobs, no begging, dumpster diving was no longer an option in his eyes, same with restrooms. He had developed a rather nasty cough in those final days in the alleyway. Was he too stubborn to save face, too proud to burden others? No, he just honestly thought he wasn’t worth the trouble, his ex had shoved that down his throat plenty enough where it had sunk in at that point.

The young man was never sure when he had gotten a hold of it, or why he kept the item had was now looking at but he remembered what occurred to place it in his care. There was a fight that broke out between other homeless men which he tried to split up. One had been a major drug addict and the other was a man whom wasn’t exactly right in the head it seemed. However he knew one of them couldn’t help themselves and the other had a problem with an addictive substance, so he helped to kick the latter out of the alleyway. As he was cleaning up the site where the man had camped out, he found it, the item he was now holding and contemplating the worst with: A single razor blade.

At his wits end, he had no more tears to shed, or maybe he was too dehydrated to do so, either way he was mentally prepping himself for the only action he thought he could take. It would send him where he was right now, that peaceful oblivion that welcomed all.

Except something had stopped him back then right before he could commit the act. Something powerful, yet simple. A voice called out to him back then, reminding him of something and making him quickly put the razor away.

“Hey Dustan is that you?” The voice called out to him and though his vision was hazy with his weakness he knew who it was. “Dude, what are you doing here?”

“I’m-” Was all the homeless man could get out before a coughing fit overtook him.

“Holy shit dude!” Patrick was patting him on the back and handing him a soda that he had been drinking during his walk. “Go on man, you need it more than me.”

“I can’t. It’s yours; it’s not mine to ask for.” Honestly he was never sure how his friend had heard him at all with how softly he spoke that but it didn’t matter as he had.

“Fuck that man, you are my friend, now shut the fuck up and drink it before I make you drink it!” His best friend was shouting at him getting upset because of him. He now felt like he had to drink it but after one sip he found he couldn’t stop and ended up chugging it all down. “Dude.” The voice called out almost softly. “What happened?”

Dustan wasn’t sure why, but it was as if he couldn’t keep it all in anymore as his words and tears started to both flow out of him without stopping. “Sarah kicked me out. I have no job, no place to go. I don’t want to trouble my parents or anyone with my incompetence. I tried getting a job, I have, I have had to do dumpster diving and bathroom showers as best I can but then I realized I am a burden to those places as well and I just want to stop being a burden!”

“Fuck this!” Looking around quickly he simply stated. “What is yours, lets pack it up quick. You are going to live with me bro.” He was stunned, why would he do this.

Dustan had to ask. “Why?”

The question got him a smack to the back of the head as Pat glared at him. “Cause dumbass you’re my friend. Friends help each other.” Gathering the few things that he owned Pat picked them up before bearing the weight of his friend on one shoulder. “Besides. You saved me from being a sociopath. Least I can do is help you not off yourself, if what you were about to do with that razor is what I thought I saw before I spoke up.”

Feeling a fresh wave of hot tears pour down his face all he could call out was two words. “I’m sorry.”

Over and over again he muttered that as he was escorted back to Pat’s place by the beach. “Think nothing of it man, you are my friend, you would do this for me if the shoe was on the other foot.”

Just like that, the dark days were fading and light returned to his world. Pat had saved him with something so simple, something so profound that he had forgotten it during that time: Friendship.

Now in the darkness once again Dustan found himself unable to escape and this time Pat wasn’t there to save him from himself. However something else had taken its place. Something soft playing off in the distance calling out to him. It was a voice at first then became something else.

Was that a melody?

Uncurling from his ball he recognized the music slowly but surely. Memories started play out before him, a rhyming zebra who lived alone, a would be Magister without a horn and Six Mares whom were all friends and had destinies that would shape this world: A unicorn with a posh sense of self but a generous heart. An earth pony with too high of a blood sugar level that would never let a friend frown if possible. A pegasus whose love for animals was only surpassed by her kindness towards all things. A stubborn mare who would kick trees all day long for their apples but would give you the honest truth when needed. A prismatic maned pegasus who valued speed and action above all else, except in the matters of friends. Finally a purple unicorn and her assistant both of whom were vastly intelligent beyond their years, save for the task of friendship which the former was studying.

They were all his friends. Using that music as a guide, he followed it and hoped it would lead to his friends once more. The closer he got to the music, the more the darkness seemed to fade as slowly but surely light replaced the darkness. When the light engulfed him he awoke to the sounds of medical equipment like a heart monitor, as well as a small music box playing by his bedside. As well as the soft snores of a princess too tired for her own good.

Reaching out he gently started to pet her mane and smiled. “Thanks for watching over me.”

Chapter Seventeen: Reputation.

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My Little Tactics

Chapter Seventeen: Reputation.

Like before after the incident of the slave camps Dustan found himself being reluctantly let go by hospital officials but this time they had been a lot more courteous about things, which was rather strange for Dustan. It was mostly due to the fact they kept using polite terms with him please, thank you, if you would, and how they said it that kept him on his toes. Always feeling like the other boot, or rather horseshoe, was going to drop any moment. So quickly once he was officially released he put on the clothes from his pack though his armor, both leather and bronze, were now shipped home so all that left him for protection was the cloak of T.G. Cid himself and the hood that covered his face.

It was a good thing as well as the hospital seemed swamped as well, ponies and even some other species were all crowded in the lobby and even out of the door itself all clamoring to be seen or heard in some fashion. As such he was having a hard time getting through the crowd that for the most part ignored him. Well all ignored him except for one.

A large Diamond Dog pulled at his arm. “’Scuse me brother, but ‘ave you seen ‘im?”

The voice of the diamond dog, while still rough no pun intended, was not the horrible broken speech he would have expected. “Um who? I was just released from here so I have no clue who you are talking about.”

“You ‘aven’t eard?” It seemed the dog had a bit of a problem with his H sounds but no problem with TH. When Dustan shook his head the dog continued. “The ‘uman.” Ok now dog had his attention. “They said ‘e caught the monster, that ‘e has the strength of a ‘undred dogs.”

The talk between him and the Dalmatian looking anthropomorphic dog was overheard as a pegasus mare who had been winging in the air turned and joined in on the conversation. “Are you kidding, I heard it was the speed of the human that did the trick, moving faster than a Wonderbolt on their best day.”

Ok Dustan had not been expecting this, in fact he was slightly unnerved by it and felt some of his old wallflower tendencies creep up on him as he slowly tried to edge himself out of the conversation as another pony came up, this one a unicorn. “I heard he used some lost magic from a kingdom that nopony has ever seen from thousands of years ago.”

‘Ok that one is not…inaccurate.’ Dustan thought to himself with a mental chuckle as he bumped into another who was getting in on the conversation.

He couldn’t even say ‘excuse me’ before the pony rushed to join in the conversation. “I heard that it was his sword play and weird foreign techniques that did the trick against the monster, all of which he learned from his guild.”

‘Ok how did they know I am part of a guild? Also what is that pony?’ The pony for all intense of purposes looked like a pegasus save for a few differences. One was the edges of her ears being frillier looking like feathered edges. Second the pegasus had enormous wings, Alicorn sized for sure or maybe even a tad larger. Third, instead of a normal bushy tail, she had a mix of fur and feathers as a tail, which looked fitting and reminiscent of something for some reason that he couldn’t place.

“Couldn’t be.” The dog said while standing up proud. “It said that ‘e was stronger than a pack.”

“No way!” the pegasus in the air said flapping harder making a bit of wind that billowed open the humans cloak somewhat. “Speed wins battles; that is why the Wonderbolts are the elite air squadron of all squadrons.”

“Nonsense.” The unicorn in the heated discussion nearly shouted. “Magic is the tactically superior way to win a fight, hit it at a range and reduce it to a pile of smoldering ash before it can reach you.”

“That isn’t true everypony. I spoke so some of the ponies that were there and-” However the mare was cut off as it seemed each of the three in the heated discussion were slowly getting others in the crowds that were backing them, calling for speed, strength, or magic over all others. However, it seems that the heavily feathered pegasus had just about had enough as she shouted. “Quiet!” As she flared open her wings causing a rather warm burst of air to hit all in the lobby hard, especially those near her like Dustan who had to shield his face from it.

“Holy shit!” The knight couldn’t help but call out as the warmth rushed past him and out the lobby doors.

Seems that the burst of air had quiet everyone there including the large winged pony whom started to apologize to everyone. “Sorry, sorry everypony sorry, so-” That last sorry was being directed at him, or at least he thought it was the start of a sorry as the beige eyes of the cyan and purple winged pony just gawked at him. “Oh my.”

“What?” Was all Dustan was able to say before he could see more and more individuals starting to turn to stare at him making him more than a bit self conscious. The pegasus that had been calling out for his speed in the battle’s wings were beating steadily but that was the only sound, though the breeze did feel nice on his hair that he should get cut and oh no his hood was down.

The realization struck him just as somepony called out loudly. “It’s HIM!”

Fight or Flight instincts are something else as the moment that was called, all ponies rushed towards him and his feet were in the middle of their third step away from the crowd. The problem with this was that he had been surrounded from the start but luck was on his side as the stairs were very close next to the few ponies that seemed to be locked in place as they stared at him. Muttering a quick excuse me he burst into the stairwell seconds before ponies and species of all types came rushing after him clamoring things that he couldn’t understand in the jumble of voices. Thankfully it seems the steadfast earth ponies were the ones that got into the stairwell first as the door was mostly clogged up by them and some of the taller species like the diamond dog he was talking to. This allowed Dustan to get up a few flights of stairs before the first pegasus squeezed through.

The human managed to get up the last flight of stairs barely in time to close it behind him as the pegasus banged into the door. “Sorry!”

He felt sorry for the air born pony for sure but now was not the time for that, now was the time for escape. He had not yet given thought to why he was running only that he needed to in order to escape the attention. Problem was he had considered the emergency escape as a way down but could hear ponies climbing up that so that was a no go. All four sides of the building offered no haven for him no way to escape his situation except to be trapped on top.

The building that was two floors lower however was another story. It looked to be some kind of parking garage judging by the chariots he saw dotting the top of the structure. However a two story drop was not something he was sure he could do without sustaining an injury or two at the least.

“We should strip him; I want to see if he is completely hairless like the rumors say.” A voice from the emergency escape called out.

The statement was all that he needed to hear to make his choice. ‘Free Parking here I come!’ Backing up to make the most of his running room, it was a rather long jump, but with an angle of two stories difference he hoped that it would make up for it. “NO DOUBLES!”

No pony understood the monopoly reference at all it seemed as they all stared at him first in confusion then in horror as he jumped from one building angling towards the other. In the middle of the air as gravity started to take hold of him and there was nothing below him but a six story drop his mind blared at him how much of a stupid idea this was. So much more when the descent brought on by gravity became more and more obvious that he was going to end up short.

‘Make it, make it, make it, make it!’ Those were repeated in his head over and over till they blurred together in a word that sounded nothing like the two that started it. His wishes were brought forth as his feet planted firmly on concrete before his knees buckled as he tried to roll to mitigate any damage he was to take.

Sadly his left ankle said that he had not done so quickly enough as he rolled and started to cast cure once he was upright. Ponies were quickly shouting on escape route to go down to the next building but by the time they could even start moving Dustan had already removed the swelling of his ankle and was up running again. Two ramps brought him down to the second floor where he jumped right out of one of the open areas of the building to come crashing down into a bush, the reason for that is he heard pegasi above him as they must have come from the hospital rooftop after the door slammed on the other, he really hoped they were ok.

Seeing there was nothing to do, he did his best to hide himself in the bushes that he had landed in, his brown cloak actually being rather useful to make him somewhat blend in with the bushes coloration with the leaves being brown along with its twigs holding up those leaves. No pony had left him alone for nearly an hour before finally the searches became more and more scarce. It would be another hour after that before Dustan felt himself become confident enough to get out of the bushes. He just had to make it to the suite as Cadance told him that he could use it for about another few more days via letter. Though he knew if that wasn’t possible he could always head to the train station to get a ride back to Ponyville.

As he was walking around Manehattan now unbothered by those wanting attention, he was able to think as well as realize how naked he felt without his axe or sword at his sides. Both of them having been transported back home as well. Granted he still had his magic, but that didn’t mean much as a knight at the moment.

‘Wait, why am I still a knight?’ He knew he wouldn’t have to fight anytime soon so why not switch? ‘Then again I have no weapons, no shields, and if I am worried about running away then I have a much better choice that GIVES me a weapon or two.’ Stopping on the sidewalk he concentrated on that feeling of mental transition that he had felt before then confidently stated in his mind. ‘Monk!’

The result was instantaneous as before as he felt parts of himself seemingly lurch around only in subtle ways as he wasn’t testing via something he couldn’t equip. He felt faster, his legs felt stronger making him both faster and lighter on his feet, he felt agile, and mostly he also now felt comfortable with his fists. Grinning and nodding to himself in satisfaction he decided to have a jog to see how his stamina would hold up. The answer to that question was surprisingly well as he managed to get to the block with the hotel in good time, even better was that Dustan seen no pony out in the front or in the lobby of the hotel.

The monk loved the fact his eyesight was better than a majority of all ponies period, helped him to blend in as a Diamond dog, read signs much easier at a distance, and actually helped him read books. The latter being as most pony books were in rather large font do to their eyesight being worse, which makes up for the fact he was farsighted, something the pony tests didn’t really play up for his tests seeing as his eyesight was better all around. He would have needed glasses back home for reading or anything of that nature but here it wasn’t a problem at all.

The hotel staff seemed to recognize him and though most remained professional the monk could tell they were happy and excited to see him. Smiling politely he thanked them for allowing him to use the Princess’ suite the last few days, and though he knew it was Cadance that set it up that way, the hotel staff claimed it was no problem at all. The elevator ride up was done simply and the elevator manager avoided looking at him as much as possible, likely recalling their previous encounter if it was the same pony, which to Dustan it looked to be the case. Once inside the suite he right away started to relax on the couch only to be interrupted by his stomach demanding something more than bane of all life in existence, of course he was thinking of hospital food.

He found the fridge, while not completely bare, didn’t have much left in it, but could last him two, maybe three days if he prepped it right. Or one day depending on how his stomach demanded food at the moment. Forty five minutes later he was sporting a rather nice lunch that consisted mostly of breakfast items and an errant fish that was left. After a good meal he decided to get a nice shower something the hospital couldn’t exactly help him with. The soothing warm water over his body was almost just as good as the meal he ate and with his body washed thoroughly, his belly full, and no longer having to think of important matters, he felt his body demanding rest. Though he had gotten plenty of it at the hospital he knew his body was still recovering both physically and mentally.

Overall he was feeling at peace with everything around him, or maybe it was the monk’s mentality that made him feel that way. ‘This is nice. I should visit the classroom soon; I haven’t looked since the Malboro fight and I wonder if anything changed.’ Dustan wasn’t really away of his surroundings fading away in the middle of his thoughts though as walls melted, scenery changed and soon he found himself laying on an identical couch in the place he wished to visit.

It took him nearly five whole minutes before he actually noticed himself and found that the instant he was startled the scene broke apart and flashed back into the hotel room. Needless to say his heart didn’t stop pounding for nearly an hour before the adrenaline wore off and he felt exhausted again. However this time instead of going to relax, Dustan started to dig through his supplies. Various items were still accounted for as was the main important one he always checked up on. The tear shaped stone with the symbol of Virgo on it was still there.

Looking deeply at it the monk sighed and simply said. “No one must ever get a hold of you. It will be a duty that I will likely have to carry my whole life, even if you are just a pretty stone and didn’t receive any powers.” However he knew deep down that wasn’t true, the stone’s luster, the way it shimmered was too enticing not to think it had some kind of power to it, it was just unnatural in that way. Maybe he was over thinking it, maybe he was fine.

Didn’t matter, it was his duty now. The merchant had sent him here with this, turning it real he felt, as had the other merchant turned his simple wooden carving to a real Blood Sword. His armor had changed when he arrived, he had changed. Dustan had been granted powers and abilities that were impossible to be had by anyone of his home world, he had been transported to a world that was fiction for all, and monsters that didn’t exist there but in the game that he emulated was. Too many things were apparent in his life now to ignore them all as simple coincidences.

His presence was changing things for good and bad. Zecora was no longer lonely sure, but her life was now more social whereas before she was the mysterious shaman that doled out advice and rhymes. Now she often goes to the town to pick up items or sell the things he had made. Ponies were flocking to the castle that he was rebuilding in an effort to make it better, and while he viewed it as a positive change, part of him was scared that one of those ponies he brought there would do something to change things for the worse.

‘The road to hell is paved with good intensions.’ Dustan silently wondered if such intensions as his were indeed the road to Tartarus here.

Suddenly from in his pack he heard a click and music started to play. Looking into his bag he found the music box that Cadance had bought for him playing its tune. It had brought him back from the darkness. He was always being looked out for friends large and small it seemed. The music started to slow showing it needed to be wound up again so he did.

As he lay down after winding it up he happened to glance at a calendar. ‘Well what do you know?’

The first day of winter, it was a special day for sure; it likely meant that the pegasi would be rolling out the snowy clouds, something he couldn’t wait for. It also meant he would need to see Rarity to make sure all his winter apparel was good to go. She had doubled check his measurements for sure but still, needed to be gotten from her, likely taking up too much space at her home. There was also the last thing this day meant, something important, something special if only to one person.

‘Happy birthday Patrick.’ His friend was a year older now, the first birthday away from those that he knew would celebrate it with passion, it was a bit of a bitter realization at that, turning his good relaxing day from the hospital and ending it on a slightly sour note.

The next found Dustan in a much better mood as when he looked outside of the suite’s window he saw snow, or what was left of it as street sweeping ponies were clearing it out. He felt that giddiness that never left him as a child for when he saw the first snow. The world around him was changing in such a magical way, or at least that is how he saw it, and though knowledge had come to tell him what caused it the feeling when he saw the first snow fall never left. Dustan found himself whistling a tune for breakfast clearing out the last bits of edibles that he didn’t finish off last night for his dinner after he had napped. Following that came a shower that while colder then he would have liked starting out did warm up.

Putting on a few layers of clothing, as the human could tell just from the chill of the window, he was going to need it. “Alright, time to head out I guess. Back to Ponyville and see how things are coming along without me, or maybe despite me, hard to say.”

As he left the hotel he gave a wave to the ponies operating the desk wishing them a good day, of which they returned quite happily. The train station was desolate for the most part; ponies were either inside getting warm or planning how the holidays would start for them. Either way it worked for him as it meant he could say goodbye to this world’s version of the Big Apple in peace. Pulling out his music box he felt himself calm as before and smiling as that feeling of being at peace with the world around him came.

Dustan kept his eyes closed for an amount of time he honestly couldn’t say, maybe thirty minutes or an hour, all he knew was that when he was opening his eyes he thought he caught glimpses of the armor stands from the classroom before the sound of a train whistle startled him out of his tranquil state making him wonder if he really saw them or not. By this time he had also spotted more than just himself at the platform but other ponies as well all boarding the train and showing their tickets off. It seems as if Ponyville was the first stop on today’s train so he would be getting off relatively quick, about an hour or two at best, or so he though till he was greeted with the schedule.

‘Thirty minutes but wh-oh this is apparently one of the newer model trains from Union Ponies? Is that an Equestrian equivalent of Union Pacific?’ Shrugging he decided to head to his cabin. Dustan didn’t honestly care, as long as he got back faster that was great news as far as he was concerned. Looking out the window of his cabin he watched the world fly by. It had been almost a month since he had been back in Ponyville, he was actually excited to see the small town covered in snow, as well as getting his winter clothing.

The train whistle woke him up as it seemed he had dozed off thanks to the combination of the warm cabin, the white noise that was the train moving over tracks, and feeling content generally. Gathering his things he left the train, no suspicious glances his way or anything marking either a refreshing change or an unusual one. Looking over the town he could see holiday decorations up all over unlike in Manehattan, after all it was getting close to Christmas and that being interchangeable with Hearth’s Warming it wasn’t any wonder.

‘Glad I got my shopping done before I left for Manehattan; though I wish I had more time to grab some souvenirs from there. Oh well.’ However before he could even think about doing anything else he still had one last thing for his job.

No pony was out and about because the snow, while lovingly covering Ponyville in a veil of white, made no one really want to venture out of their warm homes. In the distance he caught a glimpse of light coming from the library which made him smiling knowing that some of his friends were nice and warm. The boutique was the same way, along with the warm inviting glow of Sugarcube corner. Seems like all of his friends in town were nice and warm which was great.

However the monk had to speed up his foot work to get to his destination as his clothing still wasn’t up to par. ‘First stop after this is seeing Rarity for sure!’ Dustan loved snow, but he didn’t love it enough to get hypothermia. Opening the door and coming in, the warmth of the guild spread through him. Bottles of cider littered the place, streamers and everything as well. “Guess they had a party recently.”

Some of the tales that Pinkie and Mystic had spun for him was that partying for successful jobs, especially big ones, wasn’t uncommon for the guild, making the human guess that someone had scored big. While good for them he wasn’t here for that. What he was here for was behind the door of the manager’s office, the office of whoever was currently in charge or the highest ranking of the guild that was present. They were required to be there for not only job distributions but for clientele when they come in.

As such when Dustan knocked on the door he had no doubt someone was there. “Hey Dustan!”

Opening the door was the fiery guild leader herself wearing a huge smile. “Hey Allure, didn’t except you to be back already.”

The dragon pony giggled at that and waved him in. “I know, I like to pop in a lot, but that isn’t the only reason.” Sitting down she smiled. “I am making Ponyville the main headquarters of the Misfit Guild. So I have been busy moving my important documents here and such, getting settled, finding a place to live that sort of thing.”

“Oh nice, will be glad to see more friendly faces around.” The cloak wearing human was honestly glad for Allure’s move, having more unusual faces around meant he wasn’t so unusual anymore and while that wasn’t a big deal in Ponyville anymore, it was still nice to see diversity.

“Well it’s all thanks to you.” His confusion showed brightly on his face as she grinned. “Oh that’s right no one has told you have they, good that means I get to break the news.”

The hairs on the back of his neck were standing up, but the strange thing is he wasn’t sure if they were doing so in a good or bad way, it was very much a weird feeling. “Ok…what news?”

Standing up the coy fish patterned pony went to the window to look out at the silent town and spoke. “You went way out of your way to help Manehattan, word has spread all over. You have the Princess of love to thank for that.” Giving a stretch with a few pops sounding along her spine she continued. “During every meeting while you were out cause of your injuries, of which everyone around here was worried about when we heard, she was telling everyone she could who lead the Manehattan guard forces after discovering the source of the murders. She made you out to be quite the leader, made mention of your magic, your tactics, and personality. In other words she painted a very flattering picture.”

“I think I ran into some of those effects when I was getting out of the hospital. Ponies as well as other species all wanted a part of me. Sad to say I up and ran in fright.” That earned a laugh not only from the guild leader but himself as well. “Honestly I have no clue why I ran, just so many of them wanting to get all in my personal space just kicked my fight or flight response in high gear.”

“I’ll bet.” Moving to come back to her seat she pulled something out from under the desk. “Hot chocolate?” It was a thermos and a cup to which he gave a nod. “Oh hold on, it’s cold.” Pursing her lips a small silvery flame came out that turned the metal of the thermos hot for a few seconds before she poured him a cup of the beverage. “Here you go.”

“Thanks.” Sipping the offered drink made him hum in pleasure.

She waved off his thanks. “No need to thank me. After all because of you the guild can afford this move and more.” Stopping mid sip Dustan looked at her. “Because of your actions being known, it got out what guild you work for. Ponies came rushing in from all over to our branch offices to sign up. We have more recruits then ever in our history. Meaning we can afford to expand and open up to more job opportunities as well as earn more commissions. Speaking of, the nice hefty reward you earned for guarding the princess as well as the net gain the guard forces sent over as thanks from Manehattan were…let’s just say even with the guilds ten percent cut for jobs like this, you more than paid for some of our bills.” Laughing harder she leaned back in her chair. “Not to mention the princesses sending over a reward for and I quote ‘outstanding Equintarian work above and beyond the call of duty’ Let’s just say your castle is going to barely need any more payments at all, especially with all the new workers coming in to work on the ‘Castle of the Hero’.”

The more and more the dragon pony talked the more and more Dustan stared wide eyed at her. “Ok hold on. You say my mission payment, Manehattan reward, and a reward from the princesses came in along with workers to want to work on the castle cause of my fame? How much and how many?”

She pulled out a folder having seemed to have it ready for him just for this. “Let me get my camera.” She said as she slide the folder over to him while searching in the drawers of her desk. “Got it, go ahead.”

The folder was thicker then he liked opening up he could see page after page of profiles for ponies, stallions and mares, not to mention some griffons, diamond dogs. Hell there was even a parrot and a dragon. The summery for all the manpower was quite sizable; fifty individuals alone came to help him here. Then there was the profit report.

His eyes widened slowly, very slowly as he seen the number behind each reward getting larger and larger till it showed the total sum at the bottom. “Excuse me?!”

There was a bright flash. “Aha that is the shot!” The Polaroid-esc photo came out of the camera as she smiled. “Love it!”

“Ok hold on.” Dustan was kind of freaking out, the sum was too large. “This can’t be right, they couldn’t have given me this much money right?”

Allure gave a nod and smiled. “You’re right.”

“Oh thank goodness.” The human gave a sigh of relief at this. “I am not sure how to handle that kind of-”

“Its half.” The kirin grinned larger at him as his legs failed him when he heard her correctly. “I went ahead and invested the other half into your castle. Like I said, you won’t have many payments left.”

“I don’t think I deserve all that.” Dustan muttered numbly. “I just helped out the guard there, I didn’t do all that much.”

A sharp quick HA came from the leader of the guild. “Didn’t do much? You solved a city wide paranoia problem that was about to tear the city apart, you discovered the identity of the creature committing it, putting to rest the racial prejudice plaguing the city, you stopped what was possibly a potential city wide nightmare in the physical sense as well and possibly a nationwide one if that thing managed to overtake the city and spread further. All of this while keeping a cool head, thinking things through, planning, not rushing in, and you even risked your own life to save others. Face it, no matter what you think, you are a hero and not you or anyone at this point can claim otherwise.”

“I am sorry sir, but another donor has backed out of the funding for your ‘project’ after hearing word of another project that is being worked on by-” The suit wearing butler pony ducked quickly as a vase sailed over his head and shattered against the wall.

The rust colored pony responsibly for throwing the now shattered porcelain growled loudly before shouting. “The bucking human, I know!” Logistics Trail wasn’t happy. His project needed funding and his Hero status had waned drastically the last few months. “Any word on who has been spreading the rumors about me? About what I did to the human to keep him from the books?”

The butler was busy sweeping up the shattered remains of the flower holding object as she stated simply. “No sir. As it remains all we know about the mystery informant that has been, as you eloquently put it ‘blabbing her whorse mouth all over’ to the more publically acclaimed nobles and to the public is named Sunny Skies. That is all we know. The problem is with the backing of the beloved Fancy Pants the rumors won’t go away.”

Logistics was biting down on his hoof now as he growled louder. “I know that much moron! There are already petitions calling for my name to be repealed from the books and replaced. The legislation for the removal of the law of protection that I used has already cleared and is just waiting for its enforcement date to come up. Ha, Hearth’s Warming. At that point though I am still covered under the law since what I did come BEFORE the repeal. However it means that most will use it as an excuse to try to reinstate that mutant back into the books. More of my fame will be carved away and I will be left with none worshiping me as I should be. I went through hell in that slave camp.”

“But sir you told me you found the secret hideaway the first day you were brought there as it looked like it was a diamond dog stash.” The butler was wiping his hooves at a job well done as the rust colored unicorn threw another vase at him from a different table.

“And do you know how discussing that food was. No pony of my station should have to stomach that. That is why I started freeing other ponies, so they could try to turn that slop into something edible.” Chuckling to himself he went on. “Then I came to realize that those same ponies saw me as a liberator, so I used that to my advantage. I knew that only the elite would make it out as we are so much better.” Two more vases went sailing to different parts of the room. “Then that creature showed up and somehow pulled off a miracle. I was supposed to come out with a hoofful of survivors against impossible odds, spin tells of how those creatures used us and that how others had bravely volunteers for the job that I myself was going to do. Really though, I had rigged things up before to go off automatically thanks to a few useful time delay spells.”

Logistics was now overturning tables and furniture left and right, this had not been the first tantrum of this nature that the butler had overheard and he knew it wouldn’t be the last, in fact he could predict what was going to be said word for word. ‘I was to come out a hero for the ponies to look up to. I would call for funding publically for a project that I would then sneak out to where the real work was going on with my secret investors. I would be hailed a hero for generations to come for supplying this world with just what it needed when it needed it most.’

Truth was a lot of money Logistics had been sneaking out for himself as well which is why his project that was the front of his operation, a charity for enslaved ponies all around, was losing funding rapidly towards its goal. Not just because he was siphoning off the funding for the ‘other’ project but because Logistics himself was stealing from it. In truth only about a tenth of the funding went to the place it was supposed to go.

“We need to do something Faithful Servant.” Logistics called to the butler by name meaning that his rant was now over. “I have an idea so I want you to send the message to my associates. We need to make it look like it’s this Human that is spreading the rumors about me. Somehow discredit him and make his achievements look less.”

Faithful was just as his name suggested, loyal to the one he served and he had to say something. “Sir that would be unwise. The survivors of the camp had already been thoroughly interviewed time and time again supporting the rumors. At this point they are being taken as facts and-”

“Quite you bucking mudpony!” The unicorn noble told him. “Do what I pay you to do. This will make me come out smelling of roses and the human smelling of horseapples.”

Sighing the butler bowed and nodded. “Yes sir, right away sir.” Faithful had served the Trail family for now three generations, since Logistics grandfather and he couldn’t believe how far the apple had fallen. Trail Seeker was an extraordinary Stallion who explored territories unknown to Equestria all for the betterment of finding new culture and to bring trade to Equestria from them. Logistics’ father before that followed that vein as well. Trail Blazer was one who wished to expand even further and wanted to come to understand the cultures his father had contacted, not only to better relations but in general to show there was nothing to be afraid of the other races.

It had been a tragedy when Blazer was found killed by bandits on the road. Most of the current wealth the Trail family had was from the Princess who gave them the noble title and the rewards for heroics for ponykind. Logistics had squandered it all as a petulant entitled noble whom thought the world should revolve around him. The kidnapping, while Faithful hated it, thought it was also a good thing, hoping that it would teach the noble some humility and steer him to the right path. It had steered him alright, but now into a full blown mockery to what his family stood for.

‘This project…it can’t stand.’ Passing by the portraits of the previous generations of the household before the exit Faithful gave a bow. ‘I am sorry, but I can’t do this no longer my lords. I have been faithful to you and your ideals and to see your grandson and son step on them with what he wishes to do. I can no longer do it. I will be going to the princess to report him. Celestia save him for I cannot.’

Faithful Servant, loyal to the Trail family for three generations, walked out knowing that he would have no place left to come back to all while shedding tears for what he had to do.

Dustan carried a sack on his shoulder with all his new winter clothing, well minus the one he was wearing which kept him nice and warm along with, surprisingly, a new set of fur lined boots. It wasn’t Rarity who handed of the clothes but her younger sister Sweetie Belle along with the other crusaders while Rarity was over at the treebary taking measurements of everypony making double sure about things so that she could make dresses for all her friends.

Honestly Dustan wouldn’t be caught dead at the Grand Galloping Gala but when Sweetie Belle told him that her sister was even making him a suit. He had some suspicions about his attendances no longer being voluntary, especially if it was Celestia who was involved. With that he was glad he paid for all his clothes in advanced, and thanks to the crusaders for stuffing his new duds in a sack so he could carry it all, he wouldn’t have to make multiple trips, which Rarity would have insisted on so as not to wrinkle anything.

Arriving at Zecora’s hut he found a note on the door. ‘If it is your wish to find me, the castle grounds are where I will be.’

Quickly finding the hidden key to the hut he went to place his clothing away and found not even Boko was there, meaning she was with Zecora as well. However there were his weapons and armors. Quickly donning those things, the leather under his heavy coat and cloak, his sword at his right hip, and the axe in the loop at his left hip he felt once more secure in his being. It both worried him that he felt more comfortable armed and armored then he did without them, but also comforted him as it spoke to his nature in becoming more adept of being a warrior. He did change his class as his body violently lurched about wearing armor and using weapons, so he went back to his steady and true class of Squire.

Giving a couple of test swings with both weapons and holstering them Dustan started off to the castle to see what was there. As he got close there came the sound of heavy padded feet before the tell tale sound of a certain white feathered magical creature.

“Kweh!” Boko called out as she seen him and promptly pounced on him.

Giving an oomph he found the giant land bound avian nuzzling his chest giving off various coos. “I missed you too girl, now let me up, the snow isn’t a good place to lay down in.” She seemed to understand his worlds letting him up and letting him get a good look at her. The bird was now as big as a point and it seemed she was hitting her growth spurt. Gone now was all the down from her body, though it did seem she had grown a nice thick coat of feathers for the winter making her look very comfortable and warm. She also blended in so well with the snow that he wouldn’t be surprised if she played hide and seek and won for days at a time. “Who is a good girl, who is a big girl too?” Smiling he pulled her close in a hug. “It’s you!” The Chocobo answered with a pleased sounding Kweh and nuzzled him though the trotting of a pony caught their attention.

What came out was Zecora huffing. “Boko there you are. I am pleased to know you didn’t go far.” However as she looked up further she looked surprised for a moment before smiling and ran up to Dustan and gave him a hug. “I am pleased to see you champ. We have all heard that you gave that menace in the city a great stamp.”

“Really, you will have to tell me what all you heard about. I was coming to check in on the castle as well as see what everyone was up to.” Dustan returned her hug before helping her back to her hooves as she had to rear up to actually give him said hug. “For now though I am glad to just be back in once piece.”

“Indeed, of that I couldn’t agree more.” Zecora said trotting ahead in her coat while swaying her tail said to side. “When we get to our destination you will have to give out your battles lore.”

Of course, likely everyone was waiting for a good story. Well, he had one to give alright.

Chapter Eighteen: Training?

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My Little Tactics

Chapter Eighteen: Training?

It was good to be back, Zecora seemed happy to have him around, Boko stuck right next to him as they walked through the snow and someone was yelling at people at the castle. Everything was normal…except for that last part. As Dustan, Zecora, and Boko got closer to the castle grounds they could hear somepony shouting and from the sounds of it, giving orders. It was no one that Dustan could recognize so he turned to his zebra friend with a questioning look.

“I see you have started to hear that noise, I thought you would have picked up on it before but now you get to see some of our joys.” Zecora told him as they padded through the snow. “This one here showed up just the other day. She has been giving orders much to everypony’s dismay. She won’t take a moment to understand what it is that we tell her-”

“Well, looks like I will have to teach her as it were.” Dustan finished the rhyme for Zecora only to see the zebra brush heavily at that. “Something wrong?”

“N-no for I do not think you understood the reason t-that would get me to blush up a storm. However in my home land that would have eyebrows raised as it’s out of the norm.” He still didn’t understand and for a moment didn’t think he would ever but the shaman finished up and helped him to understand. “For just like when a Pegasus gives another a primary feather, finishing another’s rhyme is a sign that they are together.”

Dustan could feel heat rise to his own face at his faux pa. “Sorry, didn’t mean to cause any embarrassment.”

“N-no, no, for it is okay.” She said suddenly though was looking straight ahead and not at him. “What I meant to say is that it doesn’t cause me any dismay.”

“Ahh ok, that is good.” Dustan hearing that the little bit of cultural misunderstanding was taken care of, he could now focus on the distant calls of the mare he was told of.

“You all need to work faster! No pony can be this slow!” The Mare’s voice was not at shrieking level but still loud enough that spoke volumes of her character. “Lord Warner has instructed me to whip this place into shape and to make sure that it is fit for his return. Were he not in a coma right now I am sure he would say the same things to you lazy ponies.”

‘Oh, time to have some fun.’ The human grinned as he pulled the hood up on his cloak obscuring his face and changing the gait of his walk to be a bit rougher.

As they got close Dustan was able to see there were plenty more ponies then he was lead to believe, supposedly he only had fifty workers on the project but there were more than a hundred people there of all species, though mostly pony. In front of them all though, was a mare who matched the voice that he was hearing. Someone with their nose too high in the air for his liking, wearing noble looking attire and was pointing from pony to pony trying to tell them to do their job better. Oh yeah, this was going to be fun.

Whispering to Zecora to play along he came up to the mare and tapped her on the shoulder. “Where me work, you truly speak for Lord Warner? How you know him?”

He had made his voice a bit gruffer then it normally was, which he knew would come to bite him in the ass later as it was hell on his throat, but the mare bought it and turning to look at him, he could tell that he never met her before. “Hmm a Diamond Dog huh? I suppose we can find some use for you. Though you want to know if I speak for Lord Warner? I resent that remark as it is by his seal that I am here.”

The pony pulled out a paper of some type with some kind of symbol that he had never seen before. “That no look like Lord Warner’s seal.” He told her in broken English.

A mare of nobility should be calm, intelligent, and most of all polite to others, this mare didn’t get that memo it seemed as her blue face turned red. “How DARE YOU! I came directly from Manehattan where Lord Warner deftly fought for everypony’s lives to keep that monstrous plague from spreading across Equestria and you dare to not only ignore my word, but refuse to believe in the mark I am clearly showing you?! Get out right now; you do not belong on Lord Warner’s property as you clearly do not know what he had to sacrifice to save yours and everypony’s life.”

Standing up fully Dustan decided to let the other boot drop. “I think you are the one who doesn’t belong here.” He told her pulling back his hood and causing the red faced pony to turn pale. “As for what was sacrificed, I would think I would know considering.”

“L-Lord Warner, I-I can explain-” Lord Warner was having none of it though.

Looking at her he would plainly ask her. “Tell me the truth, right here, right now, all of it. Do so and I might not have you arrested for fraud at the very least.”

The mare looked left and right and backed up slowly. “I-I-” Then her horn went off, a flashbang like effect went off causing Dustan and several others to cry out in pain. “I won’t be taken in! I was going to have a good life here, I was going to be a noble again with you in a coma, I was going to-OOMPH!”

The Squire could hear struggling but his eyes were watering and screaming at him in pain. By the time his eyes came back into focus the fight was over. Merlene was atop of the unicorn who was now unconscious and tied up. Flapping her wings she swooped over to where Dustan was still slightly recovering.

“My Lord, are you alright?” Normally he would reprimand her for using the term Lord, but seeing as how he used it not too long ago and she caught the unicorn, he was more than willing to let it slide this time.

“Good job Merlene. Thanks for your help.” He told her and even with his ever improving vision he could see her fluff up at the compliment. “See if you can get a couple of volunteers and take her to Ponyville to get booked for fraud. I personally don’t have a seal as I am not a Lord beyond Land lord, so that was an obvious fake. She must have used my coma to come here to take control. Not sure why, but maybe the guard can get it out of her.”

“Yes my Lord!” She gave a salute and before she even had to call she had volunteers from a couple of the ponies he didn’t recognize.

With that the problem of the bossy mare was quickly solved and overall it seemed that many were really happy about that. Or least it seemed that way till he heard the cheers of Lord Warner. He was obviously confused about that for sure and eventually had to call for the crowd to calm down.

“Ok, not going to lie, apparently you all know me, while nice in that it saves on the need to give out introductions, that doesn’t mean I know all the unfamiliar faces or why they are here. So as such, after I get done talking to Sturdy and the progress of the castle I want anyone that has never met me to personally start an orderly line to introduce themselves to me.” Apparently everyone found that agreeable, or he would like to think so as the cheers were loud and he sighed if they were heard at all.

Eventually he was able to find and pull aside Sturdy for the conversation he wanted and the update. “Well boss as you can see, we managed the castle grounds pretty well in that we have full cobblestone brickwork under our feet for the entire courtyard and the wall so the outside is done though we did leave some places where gardens would look nice. We have currently rebuilt the entire barracks, we also have a smithy rebuilt and funny enough Allure already has someone filling the role so the need for tool repair went down a good bit from the cost, though it has been replaced in the budget with material cost for the repairs.”

“I understand and thanks for telling me about that.” With the money he seen that he got from the Princess that was now collecting in his bank account, he could funnel in more money and truly finish off the estimated building cost for sure.

“Beyond that, we got a bakery up and running but the position hasn’t been filled yet, a woodcutters hut, cobbler, tailor, the mill is half way to being done, we also have the gathering hall, brewery, and bath house done, of which the latter is already being used daily.” Sturdy chuckled suddenly and looked to his crew. “Did you know this castle had a built in hot spring that just needed some unclogging? I sure didn’t till I found a group of my ponies milling around in a makeshift bathing area. They thought I was mad at first but then I told them that it was now their project to make it an actual nice bathhouse.” Pointing a wing Dustan could see the work they did and it was very nice reminding him of Japanese bathhouses he seen in anime where it was separated to males and females.

Nodding and giving a thumbs up, something he knew this crew would recognize considering all the time he helped out before. “Not going to lie, that is going to be wonderful to visit later especially with the cold around. Anything else?”

This was when the pegasus got a bit sheepish and quite. “Well there are two things, but one of them you don’t have to worry about too much…I think.” Ok his attention had been gotten. “Well the castle will need a carpenter and mason building and we already built it, and well, I technically can fill in for both, but-”

“You were wondering if you needed permission or something to be the castles official one for those titles?” Seeing him nod with apprehension Dustan recalled the praise he had given as well as permission in how it seemed to startle the pegasus before it made sense. “Sure go for it.” He watched as Sturdy’s head snapped up to him and went wide eyed. “Now now, don’t think this is something I am doing out of generosity, I want you to work hard around here and keep things nice alright?” Truth was it was out of generosity but also because he knew of all ponies or anyone really Sturdy would appreciate and respect the post more than anyone.

Sturdy wiped his eyes with one of his forelegs before saluting with his wing. “No problem Lord Warner, I will do my best to be the best Carpenter and Mason you have ever seen.”

“You already are, just keep it up. Make use of the building if you and your crew haven’t already.” Dustan smiled at the emotional pony as he was positively quivering with excitement.

However that stopped when he remembered something. “Oh right the other thing. Allure has donated some of her own funds from the guild; she is putting up a guild house in the castle grounds if that is alright. If not we can turn the building into something else.”

‘Hmm that is a good question, should I allow that?’ The Squire thought about it for a bit weighing both options but in the end it came down to a few thoughts. ‘With a guild stationed here, it means jobs will be available as well as bring in commerce. The fame I supposedly gave to the guild will help in that regard as well and possibly bring many to live here come time. Will mean the castle will get income for a small bit of payments for the building space and what not. I might have to run a clause that says if the guild does any damages they will have to pay for it themselves though.’ Nodding he gave another thumbs up. “It's fine. I don’t mind at all.”

With that settled Dustan settled in finding a stool he could use so that the castle ‘guests’ could introduce themselves. Zecora went off to check the potted herbs in winter to make sure the enchanted vases were keeping them safe from the winter cold. Boko cuddled up to his side and settled her head on his lap for scratches. He really should get to finding where she came from and where the Chocobos in the area went. The first few guests that the human encountered were mostly fans or those that approved of him going out of his way to help others and had come to help him continue on that. It was about the sixth or seventh guest where he started to see the start of a trend. It was about the twenty some odd person that he was sure of it.

“I don’t understand, can you tell me a bit clearer why you are here?” Dustan asked the latest pony to repeat themselves.

“Of course sir.” The pony was an earth pony that stood tall and was currently in armor that surely must be keeping her cold. “I came here to receive training from the world’s foremost monster hunter of unique creatures that are unknown to Equestria.”

Nodding for a moment Dustan had to say something. “Ok one: what makes you think I am the foremost of anything. Second: how did you come to that conclusion?”

The pony seemed baffled by this before answering him. “Sir, Princess Cadance mentioned that you had exclusive knowledge of the creature in Manehattan and was the only individual who could come up with a plan at all. Your knowledge was so extensive that not only did it radically change the outcome with just it alone, but you devised a strategy so masterful that there are currently some classes being taught on its brilliance.”

That was news to him, not the first part but the second. “There are classes being taught about it?”

She nodded and smiled. “Yes sir. Somepony looked at your work and realized how brilliant it was and brought it to the attention of scholars in the field of warfare. They said it was simple, effective, and allowed for many interchangeable variables that could be used in other fields not only for this but warfare, capture, and more. Some are even looking to adapt it to chariot usage for aerial combat.”

‘Why do I get the feeling I either fucked up way too badly on this or I kick started something that is wonderful.’ Looking to the pony he smiled and nodded. “Well it’s good to hear my efforts are appreciated though I never intended them to be seen like that. I personally thought it was a simple strategy that allowed the most flexibility in teams minus the barrier mages. Allowed for squads to move out and be self sufficient.”

The pony nodded and pointed her hoof at him. “That is it exactly, before squads weren’t divided up that way. You had assault teams, defenders, medics, and more all separate. Strategists thought that having medics, mages, or others all mixed together would not only cause a conflict of interest but put high valued targets in harm’s way.”

‘Really? Am I more surprised that they thought that or more surprised that a friendly cartoon show about talking mini horses don’t know about basic squad compositions. Maybe I play too many RPG’s with a tank, support, healer, attack, and magic roles for a balanced party.’ Sighing and while he hated the idea of having to teach anyone about these kinds of tactics since he felt like he wouldn’t be a good teacher, Dustan did think this needed to happen if pony tactics were so horrible. “You know what, go through everyone here and ask them if they are here for training. That can be your first job in helping me organize things. Gather them over there where construction isn’t going on.”

She saluted and smiled “Yes Sir!” As she was leaving he had to admit that there was something…off about the pony. Maybe it was her tail which wasn’t normal looking more like a deer’s tail and her hooves being a different shape. Overall she looked like a pony except for those things, super colorful with her hooves and fluffy underbelly being green, her mane a type of blue that he wouldn’t call aqua but close, with a white spot on the bridge of her muzzle black body that was a gradient into violet.

Because of that the line of ponies reduced drastically to mostly the new construction workers saying they came for the chance to work on The Hero of Manehattan’s home. While it was very flattering for sure, Dustan wasn’t sure how to take all of it. Was it a good or bad thing he got famous, was what the people heard accurate or an exaggeration and did any of them care to get to know the real him? That didn’t matter now, what mattered is taking care of this problem and decide what he wanted to do with it.

There were at least about half as many here as there were current constructors though if he had to make a guess maybe thirty to forty individuals. “Ok, so from what it seems like all of you came here for some kind of training. I have no clue what you have heard of me, from what source, or why it is you think that I would be a good teacher. Honestly I am not sure how good of a teacher I will be. I might be a lousy one and honestly that is where I would place my bet. However you all here think you can learn SOMETHING from me, what that is, I have no clue. So before I confirm or deny taking any of you on, I have to ask, do any of you have experience with combat before this or military training?”

A few ponies stepped forward along with the dragon that was with them and the weird gradient pony from before. “Sir!” The dragon addressed them with a masculine voice matching his rather buff exterior. “I am a contracted mercenary that often is called on to run physical training exercise for military squads or companies.”

That was surprising but that was something Dustan could definitely use. “Alright, I will keep that in mind. If I am to train people PT time will be scheduled as I want everyone, pony, dragon, griffon, what have you no matter the race, species, or subtype to be able to be called physically fit.”

The dragon took a relaxed at ease pose and smiled at that before the next pony came up: A unicorn. “Sir!” This one was female from the sound of her voice but he couldn’t tell anything else as she was wearing a heavy cloak. “I am a former ERG, Equestrian Royal Guard for those not familiar with the anagram, and I often taught fellow guards spells and found I was good enough to teach for a while. I was dismissed a while back for supposedly taking bribes for students to pass grades but I assure you that I did no such thing.”

“Thank you for your honesty but forgive me if I still keep an eye on you.” Weirdly he believed her innocence.

The next couple of ponies were royal guards that wanted training from the hero while last pony was the earth pony deer look alike. “Sir! I am a border guard, or at least I was. I was fired from my post on suspicion of fraternizing with an enemy.”

Dustan had to ask because he had seen it so much now that it was almost expected the answer to be standard. “Because you aren’t entirely a pony?”

“That is correct sir.” She sounded a bit down about that and hoped it wasn’t something that was common with who she was. Self hate could be so destructive and he would know. “My grandfather was of the reindeer and he is the one that has gifted me with my current look.” The way she said it left no doubt that she disliked her genetics for sure making Dustan inwardly sigh. “I have been used as a scout in the past and am very nimble on my feet.”

Ok he had all the info that he needed for now before he would address the small crowd. “Do you know the reason I called for experienced people to step forward?” The crowd mumbled a few things before he explained. “Because all these individuals are better trained then I am. That is right I have zero military experience.”

“But the Manehattan creature!” One pony called from the group.

“Is one creature that I know about, what it is weak against and a few other details that no one else there knew about.” Dustan honestly was trying to get them to doubt him as much as possible. Anyone with doubts shouldn’t follow someone they couldn’t trust.

However the next pony caused his confidence to falter. “But what about the unusual magics and techniques you wield?”

Scratching the back of his head he simply said. “Yeah I do wield some weird stuff for sure.”

“Well we want to learn those!” The pony called back out sparking interest in those that were doubting him before.

“I am not even sure other species can learn those abilities. As far as I know they were unique to my species.” While that is what he said what he thought was a tad different. ‘For the most part, depends on if Tactics Advanced rules are being applied.’

The next pony’s question threw him for a bigger loop however. “What about the Goblin Camp incident?”

“Excuse me?” Dustan had to hear that question again just to make sure he heard right.

“You know, the incident with the slave camp that happened here in the Everfree. Ponies from all over were kidnapped. You helped saved them but supposedly the pony who earned credit did something and had you removed from being mentioned.” Dustan was flabbergasted, he was sure that only himself, Logistics’ team, and the Princesses were even aware of that deal.

“Where did you hear that?” His curiosity was too much for this, he HAD to know.

The pony offering the information was all too happy to tell him though. “There are rumors going all around about it, interviews with prisoners of the incident, those that were there, royal guards that were on the scene, and more all describing similar things too much to be a coincidence. So is it true?”

Deny or support, break his oath for glory and fame, or keep his word as he said he would for his own personal honor and knowing he upheld a deal even if he didn’t like it. “I am sorry, but I am going to have to deny things here. As the books will tell you, I had no part in that event at all.” He hated his nature at time.

However the reaction was nearly the opposite of what he thought, mostly because others had to but in now. “He is lying you know.” Whipping his head around he caught Sturdy along with Merlene and Eden all standing there looking at him. “We were there; we were rescued by Dustan there. Logistics Trail was nowhere to be seen. The only ones we saw were Dustan and a small squad of ponies that come to rescue those of us in cages from our fate. He led us, he healed us, he protected us, and he killed for us.”

Merlene took it from there picking up where Sturdy left off. “He led us out of darkness to find the light in ourselves when we had given up hope not only on life but on all things good.”

“He bled for us and never once came to ask for anything from us, not even a thank you.” Eden, whom was normally as quiet as Fluttershy, was the one that spoke up loudly then. “From my own interactions here and from what others who have gotten to know him we all know that it’s not his nature to seek thanks, nor to be compensated for doing the right thing. Dustan just does it.”

The human was astonished, he honestly didn’t feel like he deserved the praise he was getting, nor did he feel like it was well placed. Problem was seeing the looks on the people he had come to know so well he knew that their feelings were genuine and that took his words from him completely.

“These individuals are not wrong.” The clear voice of his shaman housemate came up. “If one were to ask him, he would say he isn’t at all strong.” Shaking her head and smiling she continued. “However one only needs to get to know him to know this, his strength comes to the brim. Of this I have no doubt that his nature isn’t to flaunt or taunt. Just as he doesn’t do what he does for want.” Damn was he getting choked up? All those people saying such good things for him had his eyes tearing up. “For no better friend have I ever had. Dustan is there for all things, happy, mellow, or sad.”

Giving a sniff he had to wipe his eyes now as Sturdy took up the conversation again. “There you have it. He has his flaws for sure, cursing being one of them when he gets annoyed or upset.”

“Thinking he is lesser then his station.” The griffon bodyguard said next.

The soft spoken unicorn gardener finished. “Or thinking he isn’t useful at all and being too hard on himself.”

“Geez, sweet talk me anymore and you will get me in bed everyone.” That got a chuckle out of everyone present and a blush from Zecora at his joke as likely she was remembering his earlier faux pa. However because of what they said it drastically changed his plans but he was ok with it. “Well there you have it folks, I am hard on myself, curse a lot, I think bad of myself often, have no military training or formal training for that matter, and I may or may not be able to pass on what I know to others. Be that as it may, it is your choice now. If you want to continue and stay, to train and what not, live here and learn, then stay where you are. If you wish to leave and head home back to what is likely a sure thing from whatever station you had before, then go for it I won’t think any less of you.” When not a single individual moved he gave a surprised sound. “Huh, well will you look at that?”

The next week saw many challenges for him indeed not only at the castle but elsewhere. At the castle, because he insisted on helping his new trainees train he went to PT with everyone and found out that he wasn’t in as bad of a shape as he thought. He was keeping up rather proudly of himself and not getting as winded as he might have when he first came to Equestria. Whether that be to his unique abilities or because he had gotten into such good shape from the food and exercise he has gotten was up for debate in his head though.

One thing was clear though, the ones who needed the most physical training were the unicorns, whom he told would need a basic level of ability to run at the very least if they wanted to be trained. For the most part he left the training to the dragon, whom was named Tremor. Turns out Dragons have the ability to compress their size down so it looks like they are younger than they actually are. Tremor was a fully mature adult and changed his size one day to prove it. He was named Tremor because he showed early signs of his mass compression ability and as such always had a heavier footstep then other dragons his own age. How he looked now was twice as tall as a teenage dragon from the show looked with rather large wings that he said were for gliding rather than flying at his current size at best.

Violet glow was in charge of magical training and Dustan’s request was to get basics down to a good enough point all around. Levitation, magical light, and those types of things to make them versatile and so they would be comfortable holding a weapon in their levitation. Mostly though he wanted to know who was capable of what, offense, defense, support, healing, and so on. From what he could tell she would be able to bring out the traits of the others doing so.

Fading Dawn was the name of the deer pony hybrid and she was in charge of training those who would be scouts. He told them plainly that in this forest scouts would be invaluable on the ground as air scouting was nearly useless with the trees providing a thick canopy which couldn’t really be seen through. She proved to be just like her name in that she faded in and out of sight quickly and with little to no sound. While she may have hated her heritage there was no doubt it helped lend her a helping hand in her silence while moving through the brush. Turns out she would also start growing antlers in spring which he didn’t think does would. She said both male and female deer grew antlers here and that the larger they were allowed to be, it meant the more status a deer had. While weird he accepted that and moved on.

The other soldiers that joined were in charge of basic teachings like maintenance of equipment and what not. Suitable jobs for sure, mostly because Dustan himself had no clue what to do with them after his bigger plans were used up and had asked them what they could do to fill in the gaps. That is what they chose to do when given the choice. Overall Dustan was pleased, he saw where he stood on the scales of stamina and strength compared to some and he was getting others prepared for changing Equestria in a hopefully good direction.

However something unexpected happened in that even as they were training, more and more individuals wanting training arrived, from Manehattan, Canterlot, Los Pegasus, Griffonstone, The Dragonlands, and more. While ponies were still the main body of attendance at the castle, it was quickly becoming a normal sight to see other races, something he was honestly happy for. Well at least till a familiar sight caught him, literally.

“It’s you!” Then a pony body hitting him and knocking him down in a hug. “I can’t believe it’s true you are training anyone that comes by looking for it. I wanna train too!” When the stars stopped spinning around Dustan’s head he found he was looking at the familiar feathered pegasus that was at the hospital during his fight of flight response. “I am Summer Breeze, here to help Lord Warner.”

“Ok, first things first.” The eager look on her face said it all before he had to crush that eager look. “Get off me, you are heavy.”

For a moment she didn’t seem to understand then looked down and realized she was sitting on his chest and stomach. “Oh sorry.” She managed to blush as she said it getting off of him quickly with a flap of her wings.

Getting the air back in his lungs was a bit of a problem as he felt his body already bruising up, however a quick Cure spell fixed that right up impressing many who were around to see that as it was the first time he had shown off one of his spells to them while they had been there. “Ok first things first. Find Tremor, he is a dragon and he is our PT leader around here. He will run you through your paces the first chance he can get and see where you stand.”

She smiled and saluted “Sir yes Sir!” With that she took flight looking for the dragon which wasn’t that hard to do all things considered.

Beyond the whole mess of new people he found the mane six hanging around more, Twilight and Spike for the new experiences and cultures, with Spike being more interested in the couple of dragons that had showed up. Pinkie Pie as she kept an active count of people to throw a massive party for she said as well as she kept eyeing Dustan when she thought he wasn’t looking which kind of made him nervous to be honest. Applejack kept coming by to deliver apples and apple goods as apparently the guild was paying her to make them along with Sugarcube corner netting her a rather nice profit. She also was here to talk to Eden a lot as was Fluttershy whom had made friends with the gardening unicorn.

Rarity was a different matter, often coming here having been hired by Allure to start decorating the barracks and other places as that is where many people that had come to the castle was staying, save for his room that had been left untouched. Finally there was Rainbow Dash. He personally had not seen her all that much but it seemed she and Merlene were getting along quite nicely, the only reason he knew that at all was one he often saw her flying off and heard others talking about the budding friendship of those two. Honestly he had been meaning to talk to Rainbow Dash for a while now, as when he woke up from his coma the idea had been swirling around in his head.

The other thing he had come to learn was that the show’s season was coming to a close, as there were only four episodes not accounted for. Winter Wrap up was going to happen at the end of Winter for sure, but the Party of One and Best Night Ever from the looks of things was going to happen at the start of spring, though in what order he wasn’t sure, same for A Bird in the Hoof of which he was looking forward to for a variety of reasons. Looking back at things in that sense he was coming up to the one year anniversary of him arriving in Equestria and it was a somber thought for sure. Though he was thankful for all the things to keep him busy as he really only found those thoughts happening before bed.

In the week he had been back he had also discovered something else as well. He had finally went back to the classroom and had enough points to by something he had put off for too long: The Squire’s ability of JP Boost. He had the points for it he finally felt he was good enough to survive everything that could from the wild so he could afford the luxury that was this ability now. Except when he went to activate it, it glowed red and told him one simple thing.
“Da fuck you mean ability disabled?!” Dustan shouted at the screen in front of him. “Come on!” Over and over again he pressed it and growled. “If you are disabled will you ever been enabled? If not, why are you even there?” It was as if the screen heard him as the ability went gray then vanished from the list. “No…Oh COME ON!”

After that Dustan searched out other abilities that were like that but found none. Hell he already had some other abilities he thought would likely be banned like that one but nope, everything else seemed up for grabs. It was just the JP Boost. Whatever forces dictated the rules of his little adventure here seemed to want him to earn every single point he spent. However with JP Boost gone, he was that much closer to Mastering Squire. He only had a couple of abilities left to learn. Counter Tackle and Beast Master. Chemist was looking good as well and would likely be his next Mastered job if not for the fact there were more skills to learn. Luckily enough though because of his time with Zecora all of that was almost done as well, with only Elixir, Remedy, Auto-Potion, and Safeguard being left.

However this brought with it something…unique. “Oh yeah, Onion Knight is a thing.” He was staring at the plumed helmeted stand with a smile on his face. “Too bad you are so weak till other jobs are mastered. Squire, Chemist, Mime and Dark Knight not counting towards it is a shame for sure but neat that you are unlocked now.”

His other classes were coming along fine, though now he had run into a problem two stands had opened up again but they were gray unlike the other vibrant colors of the stands surrounding him: Orator and Summoner. The latter bothering him greatly as it was one of his favorite classes in any Final Fantasy. Did he need approval or something from them like the others to fully start receiving their power? There was also the feeling he kept getting every time he came to the Classroom. It was honestly starting to bug him and there were a time or two in the recent trips since he awoke from his coma that he wondered around looking for the source of the feeling. He never found it though.

Something else he noticed was that coming to the classroom was becoming easier and easier as he slept, though he was getting a lot better rest now. A good bed, warm home, sense of accomplishment, and drifting off to the Final Fantasy Prologue in music box form all went a long way to making him feel great about the day he had. Dustan put it on his list to try to figure out a way to come to the Classroom easier then at the end of the day. However that was for another time.

The next thing on Dustan’s list was preparing for Hearth’s Warming. He had gotten his shopping done before his trip to Manehattan but he had yet to wrap up the presents. Luckily no one had found where he hid them, that secret compartment that was under the bed in his barracks room where he hid his pack and Blood Sword before he was abducted that one time. As he was wrapping each and every present before storing them back to their hidey hole he smiled as it felt like a great gift for each of those he considered friends. Zecora, Spike, Sturdy, Eden, Mystic, Twilight, Merlene, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Scale Allure, Celestia, Luna, Cadance and by proxy, Shining Armor. He had gifts for them all.

True the gifts for Mystic and Twilight were identical and not something that was bought but rather made, he still felt it would make them happy. For Zecora it was something he had found and was trying to cultivate on his own but so far had only done so much with it. Spike’s gift was easy to find but not cheap but would be worth it. Similarly Sturdy’s gift wasn’t cheap but for different reasons and would be highly valued he was sure. Still Eden was simple to shop for and he was sure that she would love her gift. Merlene…he was still on the fence about giving this item but she had earned it through her constant devotion. For Applejack, well he was just glad there was a stasis seal on his gift or they would have died before the chance was even given to give them. Dash was simple to get a gift for but she would look at it like it was a treasure without value he was sure.

Rarity’s gift took him a long time to plan out for and even longer to make arrangements for but he had gotten it put together and had cost a good bit to actually get his hands on but Dustan knew that it was something she would feel strongly about. Fluttershy surprisingly was one of the hardest to shop for, she really had everything she wanted in her life but once he finally figured it out he smiled. Pinkie Pie’s gift was practical and suited her wants so he was sure that she would love it. Allure’s gift, because he didn’t know her as well as he liked, was sadly not as impressive as he would have liked it to have been but hopefully she would like it. The last four on his list were the most difficult to shop for as three of them were the mares with everything money could buy if they wanted it. In the end for Celestia it just took time to put her gift together. For Luna, that gift took time and some hush money from the one he asked to work on it. Cadance took time as well as wasn’t sure what to get her. In the end the gift ended up being just as much for her as it would for Shining Armor.

For the last four he had to mail those in packages with extra fragile on some, or heavy load on the other. However he figured that he would either get a thank you card in a few days, or he would be paying for the mistake in the idea of it. Only time would tell. Tomorrow was Hearth’s Warming eve and he was looking forward to spending time with his friends.

Chapter Nineteen: Happy Hearth’s Warming.

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My Little Tactics

Chapter Nineteen: Happy Hearth’s Warming.

The weather team had pulled out the stops for today the eve of Hearth’s Warming. There was a light snow fall, just enough to give it the feel of the holiday without being too much for everyone to deal with. Well at least it was that way in town, in the Everfree castle as snow was constantly being shoveled left and right as the clouds were left unchecked for the most part. Some of the pegasi in the castle tried to deal with the clouds but there were too many at the time and so they gave up and just accepted the need to shovel like everyone else.

When Dustan woke up that morning, besides getting dressed for the cold day and after a much needed trip to the hot spring to warm up, he had planned on going into town to see where everyone on his present list was going to be so he could find them easily that day. However the first thing he noticed was the arch that was the entrance to the castle grounds that had been left open till now was now covered. When he tried to get someone to tell him he found every single one clamming up and gave that shifty eyed look that they knew something. For the moment Dustan left it at that thinking maybe it was something for tomorrow.

First up on his check list were the ones that were closest to him: Sturdy, Eden, and Merlene. “Merlene you there?”

“Yes my lord?” The falcon looking griffon asked as she appeared from her hiding spot. If not for the fact that Dustan was getting used to the fact she always seemed to be around that would have scared him half to death.

As it happened this helped him out. “Well two things. One: What are your plans for tomorrow?”

Merlene seemed to think about that for a moment before replying proudly. “I have been invited to a party in town hosted by the party planner resident.”

‘Ahh Pinkie got to her, well then chances are I am likely going to get a lot of the same answer.’ With a smile and nod he stretched. “Good to hear. Second, do you know where Sturdy Structure and Still Eden are?”

Nodding the wren would point towards one of the rooms of the barracks and say. “That is where they live.”

‘Oh right I keep forgetting they are together. They never tend to show any PDA so it’s kinda too easy to forget that.’ Walking over to the door he would knock and wait for an answer.

A sleepy looking fawn patterned pony appeared and smiled. “Oh hello Lord Warner, how can I help you?”

Groaning he face palmed and sighed. “Well for starters no more of that Lord Warner stuff.”

She managed to giggle into her hoof and grin at him. “As my Lord commands.” That just got another groan from him.

“I swear at this point is revenge for some unseen slight I have done to people that everyone calls me that.” Dustan told her honestly.

Except she shook her head at that. “While yes, for those of us that know you, we know how much that bothers you we do it to tease in good natured fun. Those of that also know you like addressing you as this cause even if you aren’t a noble in title you act more like a noble than any other.”

He could feel the heat rise to his cheeks and severally hoped that the cold bringing out the pink of his cheeks hid that fact, even if the new round of giggles said it didn’t. “Well thanks. Anyways I came to see what yours and your boy toy’s plans were for tomorrow.” Sighing after a moment as he seen her tilt her head halfway through his statement he just said. “Boy toy means colt toy.”

“Oh!” That managed to get the gardener to blush a bit before she giggled. “Well right now he is resting; he and the others of his team were busy with a project and didn’t get home till late last night.” Lighting up her horn she used her magic to make a tracing of light in the air showing a certain gingerbread house. “As for tomorrow, he and I are heading to Sugarcube corner for a party hosted by Pinkie Pie and the Cakes.”

‘Three down.’ “Good to know. Hopefully I will be able to catch you all there when I can.” He started to turn and walk away. “Alrighty thanks for your time. Go ahead and go back to snuggling or what not.” He was rewarded with a telekinetic shove and a blush for his tease making him chuckle loudly.

Next up on his list was Zecora. “Kweh!”

The white flash of the tall ostrich like bird came from his room as he chuckled. “Hey there girl. Did you sleep well?” The Chocobo merely nuzzled against him as he hugged and pet her. She had gotten into the habit of sleeping with him once again now that he was back, not that he minded as she kept him nice and warm at night snuggled up against her plumage. “Did you close the door?”

Both human and Chocobo looked back and could see that the door was wide open and with a quick ‘Wark’ did the White Chocobo quickly move and shout the door with her foot. Honestly everyday she seemed to be getting smarter and smarter, while not strange as Chocobo’s in Final Fantasy always seemed to be intelligent he almost wondered how smart she would get, or if it was this world affecting her somehow.

“Good girl.” He pulled out a small treat, something that Zecora said she had made one day of a mix of the green’s that chocobo’s liked, carrots, some veggies and fruit along with a few nuts all compressed and backed into a small square that Boko seemed to go wild for. Seeing the treat the white avian’s eyes lit up almost comically as she made a pleading noise. “It’s yours go ahead.” Giving an excited Kweh she took it right from his hand and devoured that treat like Pinkie Pie would with a cake…or maybe Celestia.

Traveling to Zecora’s hut was a bit of a challenge, not for Merlene or Boko as their wide feet offered them some measure of weight distribution on the snow, his feet were not made for that sinking in each time and thus having him trudge through the snow as best he could on the way.

The inside of the hut was warm and inviting though he didn’t knock as he still felt like this was his home even though he was slowly moving things to his room at the castle. “Zecora, you here?”

The clip clop of hooves on wood was heard as the zebra appeared and smiled. “Ahh Dustan, to what do I owe the appearance? Surely the Lord of the Everfree will find visiting me as interference?”

The grin on her face showed she was teasing as he went up to her and gave her a hug. “Never Zecora. You are my friend and I will always make time for you, just say the word. Though I am here to ask you what your plans are for tomorrow.”

“I will remember what you have said here today. As one day you might find out that you making that promise will make you pay.” Her chuckle was deep and genuine and he couldn’t help but join in. “Truly though my plans are very thin. I had considered just staying in. Problem was the pink energetic one wouldn’t let me. Thus I had no choice but to join her party for merriment and glee.”

“Seems everyone is going to that party. I personally haven’t gotten an invite yet but I will ask Pinkie about it when I get to town.” Dustan moved to the fire to warm up his hands some and smiled before he felt Boko move close and nuzzle next to him. “Thanks girl. Merlene you need to warm up?”

She shook her head and ruffled her feathers. “My Winter down is actually keeping me quite warm along with this scarf I bought from the seamstress in town.”

That had been one of the things he rectified as soon as he was made aware of it when he first went shopping for his gifts for everyone before his trip. Merlene had no income what so ever except from some odd chores she did around the castle for others. As such since then he authorized the bank to pay her every week a livable salary. At first she had refused the payment but when he pointed out her living arrangements, food situation, and the fact he was her Lord, she had no choice but to accept it. Truthfully that is when he first stopped asking her to use that term as him using it to his advantage cemented it and he knew it. It was worth it though to see a friend not ruin themselves for his sake.

At that thought, his mind wondered to Pat and his family. If time passed the same way here as it did there, then this would be the first Christmas they would be celebrating without him. He knew his mother and father would invite everyone over as they were always friendly to everyone. Dustan was an only child so no brothers or sisters to share things with, his grandparents on both sides were gone so nothing there. His father was estranged from his family and thus never saw them and his mother really had no other family except some distant relatives that she wasn’t close with. That left friends and while that would be nice, he knew they would be hurting this holiday for sure.

“So my friend what is it you have planned for tomorrow to inquire about my schedule with such curiosity?” Zecora gave a chuckle as she stretched and sat on the couch relaxing. “I must admit that I am not curious as to wonder if that means you have gotten me something with your generosity.”

“Maaaaybe.” The Squire couldn’t help but chuckle at that and stand up. “Finding out where some people are means I won’t have to go looking for them.”

The wren near the door suddenly looked at him and asked. “Is that why you wished to know what my plans are?” When he gave a nod she looked shocked at that. “M-my lord you don’t have to give me a gift. You pay for me and allow me to work for you as well as allowing me to stay on your land. I couldn’t ask for anymore generosity then that.”

“Cool, because you don’t have to ask for this.” Dustan said to her with a grin. “I give all my close friends gifts if I can afford it.” The displaced human watched as the griffon opened and closed her beak a few times before vanishing towards the bathroom in a haste that was not normal for her. “Something I said?”

Somehow, with tea in hoof, Zecora was watching even though her eyes were closed and enjoying the taste of her drink. “I think perhaps, that the time in which she had gotten a gift has long since come to elapse.”

“Hmm maybe. Still didn’t think it would get that kind of reaction from her.” Dustan had to wait maybe ten minutes before his bodyguard came out of the bathroom looking a bit red eyed but much better composed then before as she said nothing and took a stance nearby. “Alright, Zecora I will talk to you later. Next up is Fluttershy.”

“Hold on Dustan.” She told him before coming closer. “You have recently eaten some fish, and as you know Fluttershy is not a fan.”

Wincing at that he sighed. “I know she understands but I can still see it hurts her every time. I will make the visit quick then.”

“So long as you can understand. Then go and do as you have planned.” The shaman told him as they left the hut.

In truth now that it was Winter Dustan was trying to visit Fluttershy more and more as she seemed to be lonely without her animal friends. “Kweh!”

‘Well hopefully a visit from her favorite Chocobo will cheer her up.’ Speaking of. “Boko you are getting to be very big now, I know you love to tackle those you like to be around, but you might start to end up hurting them. So be careful ok? Fluttershy is a bit more fragile than most.” The Kweh that the bird gave sounded a bit sad as he pulled her close and hugged her. “I never said not to go and greet her or anything, just be careful in how you do it ok?”

That seemed to mollify the avian as she nuzzled him back. “Sir how large is your companion going to grow to be?”

Dustan grew a smile at that. “How big am I Merlene?”

“I would say you are nearly four claws tall my Lord. Or in pony terms twelve hooves tall.” Merlene told him making him sigh as he realized that he remembered Rarity saying such things as she was measuring him and doing some quick math he figured out the difference or close to it he hoped.

“My people use a measurement called a foot. A foot is basically two hooves or one point five claws ok?” Seeing her nod he smiled. “Good. Boko here, at full growth should be around the edges or taller than nine feet tall. That means eighteen hooves high or six claws tall.”

Dustan heard the claw falls of his bodyguard halt suddenly as he turned to see her looking at him wide eyed. “Truly?”

Nodding he smiled and rubbed at Boko’s head. “My people can use Chocobo’s as a mount if we want to as they have a much greater land speed then humans.”

She had a question on the tip of her beak now, he could see it, and it was only a matter of time before she asked it. “Is that why you took in Boko, to make her a mount for your service?”

Shaking his head negatively he smiled and hugged the bird. “Nope, Chocobos are just adorable. Look at this face and tell me you wouldn’t care for her if you seen her?”

“Likely not as I am not known to be good with animals sir.” Dustan managed a chuckle as he heard that. “Though considering how big they get likely my fellow griffons would likely raise them for their meat.”

That statement stopped him dead in his tracks as sudden images of meat products made of Chocobos being served in griffon lands: Burgers, slices of huge chicken like dishes of breasts, wings, and thighs. All those thoughts had his stomach lurching however it got worse as Boko gave a concerned Kweh at him and his mind made him imagine himself eating a giant chicken wing with white feathers nearby.

The tears that it brought to his eyes were only matched by how quickly he felt his breakfast leave him. ‘And now I can never eat chicken again. Not like I would get a chance in Equestria but I thought maybe I could order some meat delivered from the griffon nations or dragon if they were willing. Fuck this sucks.’

Boko was at his side nuzzling him and petting him gently on the back with her wings before he eventually stopped hurling. “Are you alright my Lord?”

Nodding he stood up slowly after wiping his mouth off. “Yeah. Honestly I had plans to eventually see about ordering various meat products from the griffons after investigating a bit more about the intelligence of the animals in their area. However with that in mind if they do find Chocobos you are likely correct in how they will react. That makes me much less inclined to eat anything chicken like from them. Which is a good thing as I rather be made to think of things like this now rather than in the middle of eating what could possibly be Boko’s relatives.”

Merlene must have taken that badly as she winced and bowed quickly. “I am sorry my Lord, I didn’t mean to taint your tastes. Please accept my most humble apologizes.”

“No need Merlene.” He told her waving it off. “Like I said I rather think of it now then later. So thanks.” Though that being said now that his stomach was getting itself together again it was now empty before getting a good chance to digest anything. “Well, now that my breakfast is melding with the snow we might have to stop by Sugarcube corner not only to find Pinkie but about some breakfast.”

“Yes sir.” She saluted making him roll his eyes at the constant need for formality between them.

When they got to Fluttershy’s cottage Dustan knew just what to do to avoid problems. Seeing one of the animals outside the abode, a penguin which the human chose not to question, he asked the flightless bird if he could get Fluttershy for a talk.

It took a few minutes, mostly for the penguin to waddle off to find the pegasus, but the bird succeeded as soon the butter cream pegasus trotted out with a smile. “Oh hello Dustan, Merlene, and Boko, what brings you all here?”

The Chocobo hearing her name trotted up and nuzzled the caregiver who giggled and gave the bird loving pets and nuzzles in return. “Well it is me that is visiting, these two are just along for the ride.” That got a giggle out of the pegasus before he continued. “I was wondering where you were going to be tomorrow.”

“Oh I see.” Absentmindedly the Element of Kindness continued to pet Boko who enjoyed the attention immensely. “Well, Pinkie Pie invited me to a party and I heard many of our friends were going to be there so I thought I would join.”

Nodding in satisfaction he merely smiled at that. “Good, though you just gave me an idea to save me a good bit of the day too. Hopefully I will see you at the party.”

With that out of the way and the pegasus giving a wave as he left, the next stop was breakfast and Pinkie. As they got closer to town Dustan had to struggle a lot less to get through the snow, which means he wasn’t sweating as much and getting chilled even less. The weather team obviously were doing their jobs though it was closer to brunch now then breakfast the snow was starting to taper off meaning they were going to stop for today. Least in town as the Everfree seemed content to go on and on. Ponies around town were happy and cheerful, giving waves to the group as Boko went up and inspected them closely. In fact now that he thought about it, was this Boko’s first trip into town or had Zecora visited with her while he was gone?

Well giving time for Boko to greet everyone she saw, which earned her various pettings from many and a carrot from Golden Harvest, aka Carrot Top, Boko and the rest finally got to Sugarcube Corner. The tinkling of the bell as they entered caused the Cake family to call out that they would be right there. Looking around it seemed pretty busy with families of all types coming in to pay a visit and get some treats for tomorrow no doubt.

“Oh hello Mr. Warner and friends. How can we help you today?” Mrs. Cake asked of him as he moved to the counter.

Looking through the various pastries he pointed to a couple. “Can I get a couple of these, raspberry jelly filled donuts? I Kinda had a light breakfast so looking to get through the day.” Looking back he motioned to Merlene who took a moment to look through the display case before ordering a pie with apple filling. “Oh a small bit of carrot cake for Boko if you would. Also do you know if Pinkie is around? I would like to talk to her.”

“I believe she will have a break in about thirty minutes if you want to wait around and enjoy your brunch.” Said the motherly baker as she was putting together the order on a tray. “Or I can bag this up and you can have a nice walk till you get back.”

Looking back to his company Boko was just going around Kweh’ing at various patrons whom all seemed to take the Chocobo in stride, giving her pets and affection. “Hmm I think we should stay here and get warm.”

“I thought you weren’t getting cold thanks to your feathers and scarf?” The human’s curiosity wasn’t rewarded as she just shrugged.

“Ok then here is your order and though she isn’t causing any problems right now, can you get your pet under control. Some ponies just want a good treat with their family and she might distract them from that.” Mrs. Cake brought up a good point.

Boko seemed not to be annoying anyone at the moment but she was distracting them from important family times or time to themselves. “Boko, come here girl, got a treat for you!”

Hearing her name she came trotting over to him as Dustan brought the tray to a booth so they could all sit down comfortably, or as comfortable as he could get. “Are all of her kind like that? Friendly towards all they meet?”

Scratching around where her ears were, which caused the White Chocobo to lean in he smiled at her. “Honestly that is a tossup. They can be aggressive and territorial, but usually only during certain times, beyond that they aren’t always friendly but they aren’t hostile either. When domesticated though they are some of the most friendly and loyal creatures out there though.” Sliding the slice of carrot cake to Boko he let her sniff at it for a bit before she sent out a tongue and tasted it. She took to the treat immediately.

Speaking of treats Merlene had a fork in her claw and was enjoying the pie she was eating while Dustan got to work on his donuts. While jelly filled was his favorite baked good back home, right up there with blueberry muffins, the donuts in Equestria blew them out of the water without it even being a close competition. A mental note was made to order more of these more often, which was only doubled when he went to get another one and found the three he ordered already gone.

“Aww an empty donut bag, that is so sad.” The voice of the party planner herself said as she sat down next to him. “That is why I make sure always to keep some ready for such an occasion.”

Out of her mane came another bag filled with more of the same donuts of which he was offered one; He didn’t refuse. “Thanks Pinkie.”

“No problem!” She smiled and giggled. “So Mrs. Cake said you wanted to talk to me?”

“Wep.” Otherwise known as the full mouthed ‘Yep’ was her confirmation as he swallowed before speaking some more. “I was wondering about the party tomorrow. I hope I am not being rude in asking, but I didn’t get an invitation so came to see what was up and ask you a few other questions.”

Waving a hoof and giggling some more, Pinkie just stated. “Oh don’t be a silly filly.”

“I’m a guy.” Dustan quickly replied to that.

“Oh I know. I remember our first real talk with you when you only had on a towel.” Leaning close she whispered gently. “Psst, you didn’t cover up as much as you thought.” Instantly that statement caused his face to flush in embarrassment. “As for your invite, it’s in the pouch on your belt, the one that is three from the center on your right.”

Taking a moment of not saying anything to get his face back to its normal color he checked his belt pouch and found a folded up letter in it. Pulling it out and opening it, he found an invite to Pinkie Pie’s Happy Hearth’s Warming Party and gift exchange. Perfect.

“Thanks Pinkie, that is actually fantastic, this works out so well for what I have planned.” Since he said that, the pink party pony grew wide eyed. He could sense her imminent bursting of energy so he forestalled it by telling her what it was. “I have gifts for all my close friends and I was looking for a place to give them all out as best I could.”

“So that is why you came to ask me a few questions. I bet those questions all involve where certain ponies are am I right?” The Element of Laughter was practically vibrating in her seat, even more so when he nodded and caused her to bound up from her seat. “Yay!”

Her happiness was easily catchy as he found himself smiling in response to her. “I have already talked to Sturdy, Eden, Merlene here, Zecora, and Fluttershy. So I am wondering are Twilight, Spike, Mystic, Applejack, Dash, Rarity, and Allure going to be there as well? Oh and I assume you are going to be there too.”

Nodding rapidly and at one point he thought he saw her head blur back to an impossible angle during the nodding, of which he quickly forgot for sanities sake. “Yep, they have all already RSVP’ed so yepperooni they are going to be there.”

Reaching over he gave a ruffle to her mane and smiled. “Perfect. That means I can get all the presents and present them all to the ones they go to all in one place.” ‘The others were already mailed out so that means they should be getting them tomorrow or are already there depending on how fast the mail will run.’ Smiling and patting his stomach. “Alrighty Pinkie, thank you for your time, especially considering this place is so busy. I will let you get back to it but see you tomorrow ok?”

“Ok doki loki.” Pinkie told him with a smile and bouncing back to her job. “See you all tomorrow.”

Tomorrow was going to be great; he knew it would be as he could feel it in his bones.

Celestia and Luna were eating their breakfast and dinner respectively as the morning rose on Hearth’s Warming. Both of them were excited as they had gotten some presents this year from those they cared about. Sure there were the common tributes and letters from those that never even knew the sisters, of which some were heart filled and sincere while others were empty platitudes for sure. That is why the ones from those close to them meant a lot.

“So sister, does thou wish to go first or shall We go first?” The sister of the night asked of her sun wielding counterpart.

“Actually I was hoping you would open my gift first.” She told her with a smile handing her a small wrapped gift. “Happy Hearth’s Warming sister.”

“Tia.” The younger Alicorn spoke softly before hugging her. However once the emotion had passed the moon baring Alicorn ripped open the packaging and then the box to find a piece of parchment in it. “What is it?”

“Simple Lulu. You asked how was it I got around in public without none of our ponies ever noticing us?” To which Luna nodded. “Well there it is. That is the spell I use written down for you.”

“Oh the one that allows thee to disguise one’s self in that persona of Sunny Skies?” Luna’s question was answered with a nod and a smile. “We have heard thou has been causing trouble spreading rumors about a certain incident and the legitimacy of a certain pony’s claims.”

“Maybe, though I would say it is more or less believed now, especially with the family butler coming to us for a meeting.” The latter part turned the mood of the room considerably. “We will have to wait for the investigation squad to see what they can pull up, but if it’s true then Logistics is facing Tartarus for his crimes.”

“Indeed.” Luna spoke adamantly for a moment before shaking her head. “However now is not the time for such thoughts. We are celebrating aren’t we sister?”

“Of course.” Celestia told her as she was handed her present from Luna. “Oh thank you sister. Let’s see what it is.” Opening it up, it was something similar to what she gave Luna except it looked to be a recipe of some type. “I am not sure what it is Lulu.”

“Oh it is simple. It is cake.” That had the older Alicorn’s attention right away. “We have asked the royal baker about all the types of cake they were aware of and after some investigation we found a list of five different types of cake that were unknown to them. Those are the recipes which you can give to them at any time.” As she finished saying that Luna found herself in a bone creaking hug from her sister.

“Thank you Luna, this is wonderful!” Celestia called out before letting her go. “I will give this to them tomorrow so they can start learning the recipes.”

From there it came to other gifts, the one from Twilight and Spike was a friendship report and a comic to Celestia and Luna respectively. From Fancy Pants a report to Celestia about his current endeavors and for Luna Shady Hallows was sending their regards and would be sending over some representatives to see her shortly having missed their patron Princess while she was gone. There were others however two stood out from the crowd next. A small box and a rather large box marked as gifts from Equestria’s only known human.

“Hmm seems Dustan sent us something as well. Do you want to unwrap yours first Luna or should I?” Celestia inquired politely of her sister.

Waving her hoof at the smaller gift Luna smiled and stated. “Open yours first sister. Ours looks to be quite hefty and might need work.” Luna smiled hoping her sister caught her use of yours instead of thy as she was trying to learn and use more modern speech.

Celestia gave a smile and nod showing that she had indeed gotten the message. A quick unwrapping later and a letter were enclosed inside of the box along with a book. Opening up the letter first the older sister read aloud its contents.

“Dear Celestia. Being old must suck at times. I myself can’t imagine living as long as you have and seen as many special holidays come and go. The precious friends coming and going, times where you might have been too busy to be yourself or to enjoy the times so many times missed that it must be lonely. So inside this book I decided to save some photographs of your student and her life in Ponyville. I won’t lie I myself couldn’t take them but I hired a photo pony down here in Ponyville to do it for me as I was busy. Inside this book is a collection of some pictures of your student enjoying her new life. No doubt you had a big role to play in it and just because you are no longer actively in it doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy the fruits of your labors. So I hope you enjoy.” The Alicorn of the sun teared up a little as the letter hit closer to home then most would ever realize.

“That was rather thoughtful of the human.” Luna spoke to her sister only to realize she wasn’t heard as she was already going through the book with a smile. The younger Alicorn decided to let her sister be for a few minutes to enjoy her present but wouldn’t open her own till her sister could be there to share it with her.

With a soft ‘thwap’ of paper closing with the heavy binding of the book cover Celestia had enough for the moment. “Alright sister your turn.”

Going up to the big box Luna’s horn lit up and tore off the paper as a magician would pull a table cloth from a table with disturbing none of the contents. Even the bow and name tag were left in place miraculously getting a clap from her older sister. Giving a bow Luna smiled before starting to open the box up and discovered two things. A letter and a set of armor.

“Let us see what the human has to say and why he sent me armor.” Again Luna hoped her sister heard her efforts to use more modern speech that time.

Giving a cough to clear her throat Luna began. “Dear Luna. It has been a pretty crazy year for you no doubt. Returning from the moon, reuniting with your sister, coming back to run a country that has long since changed, all while being mostly forgotten. I honestly can’t even begin to imagine it. In my gift to your sister I said she must have felt lonely and no doubt even now when reunited you must feel pangs of that as well. Well I can only say that I hope it gets better and to never doubt that people enjoy having you around, just give it time. You have gone through so much that give it another year and you might not even recognize yourself. View it as a rebirth of a type if you want, as that is how I am viewing it. As such my gift will hopefully help you transition in that.”

While she was reading that out loud Celestia was busy pulling the pieces of that armor from the box and organizing them to be displayed for her sister. The armor had only two colors to it but they were lovely colors. A nice shiny silver lining and trim for most of the armor as well as a deep blue that matched Luna’s coat colors perfectly. The armor wasn’t fierce looking either, instead having a lot of rounded edges both for protective purposes as well as to look not as intimidating as some more fearsome looks armors tended to go for.

Taking a moment to look at the armor Luna went back to reading the letter with another cough. “This gift was…honestly kinda hard to put together. I needed a smith that could manage to keep quiet about the project as well as leave the armor without any enchantments as I have no clue what ones you wanted. What was more they wondered where it was that I had gotten the materials for the project. That is why this gift is so special. You see the armor before you was mixed with a few different types of materials, but the major components were the left over pieces of Nightmare Moon’s armor.” That caused Luna to falter in her reading and bring Celestia in close to place a wing over her. “You are no longer her and as such that armor needs a rebirth as well. So I present this armor, made from old elements in a new fashion for a new age and a new beginning. I will understand if you want nothing to do with the armor considering what went into it, but as I said, this was a gift to show your rebirth and that even if something bad has happened in the past, the things that made it up aren’t what appear now. You may need to take it to a blacksmith if you decide to keep it as I simply gave a guestimate on your size.”

Nothing was said for a good fifteen or so minutes as tears dripped from the mare’s eyes down her muzzle, nothing at least till her sister spoke up. “I can dispose of this if you wish Lulu. I can make sure no pony knows that it was brought in at all if-”

“Help me put it on.” Luna called quickly cutting her sister off.

Giving a smile Celestia mentally made a note to send something nice to the human as she responded to her sister. “Of course.”

Meanwhile on a train going out of town Shining Armor and Cadance were cuddled up to one another enjoying their time with each other. They had spent the day with Shining’s parents exchanging gifts and leaving a present for Spike and Twilight should they show up tomorrow, though from the sounds of things they would be missing it so his parents said they would send it to her in the next couple of days.

The reason they were on a train right now is cause of the package that his Fiancé had received from that human creature that Shining had met before. Whereas before he was glad that they seemed like an upstanding individual, now he knew it for sure.

“So what do you wish to do once we get to the Lover’s Cove?” Cadance asked him simply while leaning against him.

Lover’s Cove was a beachside resort in the tropical areas of Equestria that catered exclusively to couples and was notorious for being THE place to visit for those in love. Cadance’s gift for Hearth’s Warming wasn’t something she could wait for and ended up opening it with his parents that night and discovering what it was. An all expense paid pass to Lover’s Cove for a week. It wasn’t a small chunk of bits either likely having come from the human’s secret reward money that Celestia and Luna had paid him from his heroics in the caverns below the Everfree.

“I think we should take it easy and just enjoy ourselves. That and you know more about this place then I do so why don’t you tell me about it.” It seems as that his answer was the right response as his lover right away started to speak of the various commodities the Cove offered to couples. Feeling her snuggle up to him while she spoke, Shining made a mental note to repay the human come time.

The day had been long and hard for Dustan. He started off wrapping the presents and double checking them before he was asked to help officiate some training for those that came for training. Apparently they considered it a privilege to be taught today. So today’s training consisted of finding the specific herbs that he used for the salve. He made sure to show them all signs of what to look for, to only cute the leaves so they could continue to grow, or replant seeds for those that needed the roots. That had been the entire morning, searching and making sure each recruit was able to id the proper parts.

With that done he ate a late lunch and went to the party carrying a sack, in his red dyed outfit for today complete with white trim and while when he first requested the suit Rarity wasn’t sure why he was specific for this one, he was. Today, he was bringing a bit of Christmas to Equestria even if no one but him knew about it. The walk with Merlene to Sugarcube corner was a pleasant one as Boko trotted next to them he hummed some of his favorite holiday tunes. Specifically he hummed the Carol of Bells, he loved that one.

Sugarcube corner was decked out in holiday fair that one would expect of his holiday back home, tensile, stockings, wreaths, and more. Hell he even spotted Mistletoe in a corner as he came in. He made a mental note to stay away from that corner.

“Ho Ho Ho, Happy Hearth’s Warming everyone!” Dustan called out in what he thought was a jolly voice and many responded to that by waving.

The party was pretty big but overall it consisted mostly of those that Dustan knew somewhat. Most were those that he seen in town or their family but he knew that would be fine as he was looking for specific people tonight. However first things first, He turned and smiled at his body guard.

“Happy Hearth’s Warming.” He knew that if given the chance she might try to duck out on him to avoid his gift so he thought the best tactic was get her right away.

“But my Lord-.” She tried to say only to be handed a heavy box from his sack.

“No buts. You are the first gift I am giving tonight so let me see if you like it or not.” With that being said and the fact he said it loud enough drew some attention so that she couldn’t avoid opening it.

She was still feeling nervous as she spoke. “O-ok, but I have a gift for you too; I will present it later though.”

“No problem, now go on.” He urged her and moved to find a place to sit down, sadly he had to settle for leaning against a wall.

Gently tearing away the paper and opening the box the griffon gasped and took out two metal objects. “Are these genuine?”

Nodding Dustan smiled. “Griffonstone made talon gauntlets. You might need to talk to our blacksmith to adjust them for your size but I figure you might like some decent equipment.”

One thing he had learned about Merlene is that she was easily moved by gestures of kindness. She was also very fast as she moved to hug him in the blink of an eye causing him to lose his breath for a moment.

“Thank you my Lord these are a wonderful gift.” She said as she continued to squeeze.

“Air, need, air!” The human gasped a bit in exaggeration though not by much.

Quickly she let go and smiled as she tried on the gauntlets. “A bit loose around the wrist but a simple adjustment can fix that as well as tapping them in a couple of other areas. Otherwise they are nearly a perfect fit. Thank you Dustan I mean it.”

That got a huge smile out of him. “Hey you called me by my name!”

Giggling a bit she hit his arm with her gloved talons. “Don’t expect it often my Lord.”

While she didn’t hit hard she was wearing metal on her talons making him rub his newly bruised arm. “Noted. Now for another victim!”

However the victim found him in the guise of a posh purple maned pony of distinction. “Ahh there you are Dustan. Just the human I was looking for.”

Not able to help himself he had to tease her. “Oh are their other humans? Damn I knew you have been keeping secrets besides beauty care products from me.”

That got a round of giggles from her as well as a few who overheard the exchange before the glow of her horn lit things up. From her saddle bags she pulled out an entire suit and the thing was they didn’t look wrinkled at all.

“Happy Hearth’s Warming darling.” As she presented the suit she unzipped the protective covering on it. The suit was jet black for the most part but there was a few subtle highlights or at least he thought he saw some at times. His gaze must have been noticed as Rarity giggled. “I see you noticed the special feature of this suit, it’s made of Star Cloth.” As she removed the covering completely he could see that the small bits of highlights started coming forth more and more now as streaks of blue as well as multihued dots of white blue and red. “This suit is made to look like a star field and I thought it would be perfect with the theme for you.”

As she turned the suit around Dustan got a shock. On the back was a constellation one that he recognized. “Is that what I think it is?”

“Well sort of dear.” She traced the image using her magic and smiled. “While the symbol is in the middle of the back I outlined it with the symbol of a shield since you have been nothing but protective of others since we first met.”

In the middle of the symbol was a symbol he had known all too well, it was the symbol of his birthstone as well as the powerful stone he was dedicated to defending. “Virgo.”

“That is right dear. It came to me in a dream and it seemed perfect for you. Also you need something for that Gala coming up right?” That question brought him out of his shock.

“Technically I haven’t received a proper invite to that yet, so no.” Dustan honestly wanted nothing to do with that celebration but if he was invited he would go. Though if he did go he knew how he would spend it.

“Hmm maybe Twilight can send a letter to-” Whatever she was going to say Dustan quickly cut off.

“Hold that thought Rarity, let me get your gift for you.” That did the trick as her eyes lit up with that.

“Oh my, you got moi a gift? What a gentlecolt.” Ignoring the colt part of that he understood what she meant.

Pulling out a rather small box he handed it to her with a smile. “I hope you enjoy.”

The small package was enveloped in the blue glow of Rarity’s magic as she pulled it to her and neatly unwrapped it. “Let see here what it is you got-oh my!” The look on her face told him what he needed to know. The unicorn pulled out a laminated card on a necklace. “Is this a V.I.P. pass to the EWFS, The Equestrian World Fashion show that is going to be happening in Manehattan in but a few months?”

“Yep. Got those before my trip to the city, though if I would have known I was going there I would have got them then.” He grinned at her before she grew misty eyed.

“I don’t know what to, I, I-WAHHHHH!” Then there was an incoming pony hug missile for him.

However he expected this. “Think fast Merlene.” She didn’t think fast as he quickly grabbed her and switched places causing her to be swooped up in the hug and captured. “See you later Merlene.” As he looked back he saw the griffon patting the unicorn’s back tenderly with a look promising revenge in her eyes towards him.

The next pony spotted was only half pony whom seemed to spot him first and waved. “Hey there bread winner. Just the human I wanted to see. Got a little something here for you.”

Seems she was a step ahead of him as he managed to pull his box out only a few seconds after hers. “Dang, you beat me to it.”

“Hehe, better be quicker on the draw next time.” They quickly exchanged gifts and Allure quickly tore hers open. “Oh very nice. You don’t see these often. A deluxe two in one scale and mane care kit. These are VERY hard to come by.”

“You have no clue.” He had ordered from eight different places from mail order catalogs only to get a reply of out of stock for all but the last one he tried. “It’s not the best gift since I don’t know you very well, but you have been very kind so I wanted to get you something.”

“Oh trust me; this is more than nice for me. You have no clue how annoying it is when something gets under a scale and you can’t get it out.” He had to take her word for it though as he had no clue how annoying that must be, especially with hooves. “Anyways your turn.”

Seems Allure had a sense of humor as after the wrapping paper of the large box there was another box inside that box, follow that step two more times and there was a medium sized lantern inside. “A lantern?”

She gave him a nod and a smile. “Not just any lantern, but an Ever-Bright Lantern: A lantern using a dragon’s flame that needs no fuel except air to run. It’s clean burning and if you know how to enchant it can be used to send messages. However I didn’t pay for that feature but you can when you get a chance no doubt.”

Turning it on, he noticed the color of the flame, it was bright silver. “You used your flame for this?” Giving him a wink she smiled and turned away to head off. “Thanks Allure, this is great.”

“Enjoy the party bread winner.” She called out as she went to go mingle with others.

‘Three down, ten to go.’ The human thought as he found his next target, someone in the corner who was doing nothing except saying ‘hi’ politely every now and then. “Hey there Fluttershy.”

“Oh, hello Dustan. Are you enjoying your first Hearth’s Warming in Ponyville?” It was Fluttershy of course she would want to make sure he was doing alright. Honestly it had slipped his mind for the moment this was his first one as he was mostly focused on the fact that he was away from home for the first time for Christmas.

As such that thought surprised him before he smiled. “Very much so Fluttershy thank you for asking. How about yourself, also Happy Hearth’s Warming.” He told her as he pulled out her gift.

“I am doing quite alright.” However when she seen the gift her eyes widened as she smiled. “Oh you didn’t have to go through the trouble and do that.”

“Wrong, I would go through that and more for my friends. Plus yours was a simple gift though I am not sure how much good it will do you now.” It was testing a bit of the fabric of the show but if this worked it would work out well.

She gave him a bright smile as she accepted the gift before rummaging around in her pack for her own. “Oh well thank you for thinking so well of me. I have a gift for you too if you would like it.”

“Of course I would like it; a gift from a friend is always appreciated.” Digging into the paper right away Dustan wanted to see what the pegasus had gotten him. It was more practical then he thought as he chuckled. “Thank you Fluttershy. Gyshal Greens tend to be tricky to get and a whole bundle of them for Boko will work out just fine. Speaking of, where did she go?”

Fluttershy opened up a wing and behind her was Boko fast asleep. “She came to me and started nuzzling me, next thing I know she was settling in for a nap.” Smiling at the adorable scene he missed Fluttershy opening up her present till he heard her gasp in shock. “Dustan, this is a lot of land. I don’t know what to do with it.”

“Well I figured you could use some extra room for your animals one day so I set aside some land for you for whatever needs you need of it.” Dustan could see in her eyes a conflict before he would pat her head to calm her down. “Its fine Fluttershy, trust me. I want you to have it. I own too much as it is and don’t know what to do with it all, might as well give you some. Plus this part of the land borders the whitetail woods and from what I understand none of the normal Everfree creatures go there. Anyways I am going to go hand out some more presents, I hope you enjoy yours.” As he was leaving, he mentally grinned as she was going to protest and call out for a moment but he saw her hoof go to her mouth in a thinking pose. ‘Maybe she will get her animal sanctuary up and running sooner. The poor girl could use a bit of more a break then normal anyways.’

The next one came in the group variety as he spotted Twilight, Spike, and Mystic all chatting up one another as he waved of which the sharp eyed dragon was the first to spot him. “Oh hey Dustan!”

Turning and smiling Mystic waved and grinned. “Happy Hearth’s Warming. We were just talking about you.”

“All good I hope.” Grinned the human as he sat his lightened sack down and started going through it.

Twilight’s horn started to glow as she spoke up first. “Well for the most part we were discussing the findings of our research in That it might be possible for ponies to learn your magic, though it would be very difficult.”

Dustan was too busy rummaging around in his bag for the three gifts that by the time he came up, Mystic, Twilight, and Spike were all holding out gifts for him as in a collective they shouted. “Happy Hearth’s Warming!”

Holding the gifts he had for them under his arm he took the onesthey gave and stacked them up with Mystic’s present going on bottom being the biggest, followed by Twilights medium sized box, with Spike’s smaller suspiciously book shaped box at the top. “Here you three go as well. For you Twilight and Mystic, and this one is for Spike. I only have one request before you all open it. That I get to pick who opens theirs first.”

They all looked to each other before nodding. “Alright then who gets to go first?”

Smiling at Mystic’s question Dustan simply pointed to Spike. “Me?” The question was that seemed unsure without a doubt but the Squire gave the go ahead with a nod. Soon Spike was tearing into his present before opening the box. His response was exactly what he hoped for. “No way!” pulling out the sealed bag in the claws of the dragon he held a comic. “This is issue number three of the original run of Power Ponies. The first two may be rarer then this one but this was the one that cemented readers love for the team.”

‘Thank you comic store owner for telling me all that, If not I would have never known what to look for.’ “That is right Spike. Now it is yours.”

The baby dragon gently hugged the comic close to his chest like a precious jewel…wait that might have been a bad analogy. Regardless it was clear that he treasured the gift. “Thanks Dustan, wow this is the best present ever!”

Reaching down he ruffled the head of the dragon, which was harder then it sounded. “No problem buddy. Don’t let anyone tell you that comics are dumb. They can teach just as valuable of lessons as any other, about friendship comradery, loyalty, and doing the right thing. That and they are just fun to read.”

Spike surprised him with a quick hug before backing up and sniffling a bit. “Yeah, um thanks.”

Chuckling he motioned for Twilight and Mystic. “Ok now for the next gift. The one to go next is…both of you at the same time.”

One second, two seconds, three seconds, and they were tearing into the packages like no tomorrow. “I wonder what it is.”

“Its book shaped that is all I need to know.” Twilight’s response made him break down in laughter that didn’t stop till they looked at him curiously. “It has no title. What is it?”

“Open up the first page and you will see.” Tick tock, tick tock, tick gasp. “Yep. A self authored book on all my current abilities and magics. I kept a few hidden away from you both on purpose just for this time.” ‘More or less accurate.’

“You might want to run.” Spike spoke up as he was looking at his comic between desire of opening it up to read personally or keeping it in mint condition.

“Wait wh-” He didn’t get to finish as two pony sized cannonballs rammed him to the floor hugging him both muttering ‘thank you’s’ a plenty.

The two ponies got a tap on their shoulders from the younger of their company to draw their attention. “Um, do you both want to get up and let him live long enough to open up our presents to him?”

“Oh right hehe sorry.” Mystic was the first one to speak up as he got his spotted body off him followed by the pop of a teleport as Twilight did the same. Though in the later case she still seemed to vibrate with restrained glee on what she held in her magic.

As he got up Dustan decided to go with smallest box to largest with Spike’s being the first. “Lets see, Ogres and Oubliettes: Waymaker edition.”

Nodding and pointing to himself Spike smiled. “That is right, I tend to be the game master of that game every so often so if you want to read up and join sometimes let me know. It’s a great way to stretch your imagination and have fun goofing off in fantastic situations.”

“Absolutely Spike. Count me in; just give me plenty of time to read it as I do have other responsibilities and all that.” Spike gave a thumbs up to that as Dustan moved on to the next gift, this one being from Twilight. “Ok let’s see what we have here.”

Twilight smiled as he got through the wrapping paper to the box held within. “I had to get help from Rarity for my gift, as did Mystic but we think you will like them.”

Opening up the box Dustan found a pair of gloves. They were faux leather from the feel and were mostly brown except around the palms and the back of the hands. Dustan was going to say something when his Tactical Eye activated on its own, something it only did a few times and only when he discovered something related to the world in question that he knew wasn’t part of Equestria.

‘That can’t be right. Tactical Eye says these are Magepower Gloves. That is FFT equipment.’ To be sure he looked up to the magister in question and asked her. “What are they, besides gloves I mean?”

He was fitting them on as she explained. “Well I managed to developed a formula based on your magic and then weaved them into gloves I asked Rarity to make. Those should act like a small amplifier increasing the power of your spells just a tiny bit. I call them Magepower Gloves. I wish I could get them to work for Harmonic Magic but as it stands only your brand magic will work for them.”

‘Well seems my ability was right, though I don’t feel any more powerful with them on. Guess it’s one of those show not tell types.’ “Thanks Twilight, I am sure this will come in handy.” He didn’t mean for that pun to come out but it got a laugh so he ran with it.

Mystic smiled and was looking at the next present excitedly. “Next up is mine, I had to think long and hard on it and in the end I needed both Ms. Twilight and Ms. Rarity’s help on it.”

The closer and closer he got to opening it the more excited the spotted pony got until he nearly squealed in excitement as Dustan pulled out the bag. Turning it left and right and even looking inside it Dustan had to ask. “It’s a nice bag, but I already have one. Not that I mind as mine is already starting to get worn out a bit, and the sewer smell from Manehattan still hasn’t gone away from this.”

“Reach inside.” It was all Mystic said but it caused the human to raise an eyebrow.

“But I didn’t see anything in it.” That response only made Mystic repeat himself. “Ok.” ‘I don’t see what is up with the bag. I mean what is so special about…wait…no…they didn’t.’ The realization hit him like a ton of bricks as his arm SHOULD have reached the bottom about a good foot back but didn’t.

Looking at Mystic the earth pony just chuckled and nodded. “took a while to get the formula just right for its dimensions but yes, it’s a bag that is tied to a unique type of pocket space that lets you hold way more then it appears.”

‘It’s a FUCKING BAG OF HOLDING!’ “This is awesome!” Dustan called out as he started transferring his stuff from one bag to the next. “I have needed something like this for so long!”

“Mystic was a genius on this part. I would have never thought that the pocket space could be shaped for a bag like that but he showed me the formula and it made so much sense.” Both of the ponies were giving each other a friendly hug as they smiled before the shine of something caught both of their eyes. “What is that?”

Dustan looked first at them then the object in his hand: The Zodiac Stone. “This is…nothing special, just a keepsake you can say.” ‘Don’t ask anymore question, please, please, please.’

“Oh must be something from your home. It is understandable if you don’t want to talk about it.” The magister in training said saving his metaphorical bacon.

‘Thank you Mystic Quandary you lovely earth pony bastard!’ “Thanks for understanding.” He responded trying not to let the sheer amount of relief show on his face. With everything transferred Dustan put his old bag in the box that the new one came from then put that in the bag as well, that way the smell was no longer around him. “Thank you all, these are wonderful gifts that I know I am going to enjoy for a long time.”

“Oh hey Dustan. Ah was lookin’ for ya.” Turning around he spotted one of the targets for gifting in his sights, the blonde maned county gal herself.

“Oh hey Applejack. I was looking for you as well.” Twilight and Mystic went to talking with each other as they were reading and Spike had settled on pulling out the comic and gently reading it slowly now. “I have a gift for you.”

“That’s mighty fine of ya. I have the gift you requested, though I must say I often don’t get requests.” She told him pulling out a bottle of hard cider complete with red ribbon around it. “This one is from one of the finer batches this year that I was going to save in case we needed to sell it for extra bits. But seeing how y’all have been so neighborly and still go about teaching Apple Bloom when y’all can, I reckon it’s the least I can do.”

Taking the bottle he put it away securely in his new pack as he smiled. “Thanks Applejack, means a lot that you came through on this. Anyways I have a gift for you as well.” This was by far the largest of the gifts he was going to give out tonight.

The unique shape definitely threw the mare off as she went to unwrap it but as she did she gasped as she seen them. “Wow these are wonderful Dustan.”

Nodding he smiled at her and chuckled. “Had to get their containers enchanted with a stasis charm to preserve them but you now have something to experiment with on your farm. These three saplings are from apple trees from various parts of the world. While I think your apples are perhaps the finest, that doesn’t mean you can’t make them even better or make different varieties by trying some cross breeding experiments.”

“Big Mac’ get on over here and take a look!” The large stallion silently walked over and looked at what his sister was calling him for. “Those are some might fine trees don’t you think?”

“E’yup.” That statement made him laugh as what else did he expect from the stallion of few words.

As he finished laughing he gathered up his now considerably lighter sack of goodies and picked it up. “Well I have a bit more to give out tonight so if you don’t mind I got to find some more ponies. Have a lovely evening you two.”

“You too partner.” The Squire could hear them talking back and forth about their plans for the trio of saplings as he wondered off to the next pony on his list. There were only five more on that list and though he had not been here all that long it feels like it has as the energy was already starting to wear off and get him to being worn out. Either that or the other reason.

“Hey there, look like you could use a pick me up.” The fastest flyer in Equestria told him as she handed him a drink. “Pinkie’s punch is good for perking you right up.”

“Thanks Dash.” He quickly drank the whole thing half expecting it to be pranked but finding it only filled with cool refreshing fruit punch. “That hits the spot.” Setting the cup down he reached in and found her gift right away as it was one of the two smallest gifts left. “Happy Hearth’s Warming.”

As she took the present her head reached around and got her own gift for him. “Happy Hearth’s Warming buddy.” Or at least that is what he thought she said considering the box was in her mouth.

The wrapping paper was Wonderbolts themed…who would have guessed. “I am guessing its either something about the team on the paper, or it’s your own theme to show your greatness.”

“Pfft, you already know how great I am, I don’t need to remind you of that.” They both took a moment to look seriously at each other before bursting out laughing. “Anyways I hope you like it you goofball. That one has a bit of a meaning behind it, but I will tell you it when you open it.”

Now he was curious, usually Dash didn’t put that much thought into things so now he had to open it up quickly. As he opened the box he found a necklace with a cyan feather as a charm. He wouldn’t lie he had heard tales on fanfiction on what those meant and it looks like Dash had known how he would take it.

“I know what you are thinking, but anypony who knows pegasus anatomy can easily tell this is a secondary feather not a primary.” She said plainly and without embarrassment. “Pegasus like to give secondary’s that we shed to close friends. Primaries are for lovers and mates. I know that was what you were thinking I gave you but you aren’t that lucky buster.” Ok so Dash was smarter then he thought as that is what he thought and he would have no clue how that came to be if it had. “Plus I got a few unicorns in Cloudsdale specializing in cloud magic to enchant that thing. Now it holds a year’s worth of the Cloud Walking spell and will just need magic to recharge it once a year.”

“Wow that must have cost a pretty bit to afford.” Shaking her head the prismatic mare denied that.

“Na.” Was the simple statement she gave. “They owed me some favors and now they owe me much less is all.”

Putting the charm on right away he smiled as it hang under his shirt. “Won’t your other friends get upset that you gave me such a gift?”

“Na, besides I already gave them each one of my secondary’s when I could, the only difference is that yours has the Cloud Walking spell on it. So now that my awesome gift is out there, let’s see what kinda gift you got me.” A she was unwrapping it a familiar griffon was making her way to him.

“That wasn’t very kind my Lord. She was crying for soo long I thought she would never stop and why are you getting behind me?” Merlene asked as she stopped near the two.

“Oh…no reason.” Ducking behind her he waited and finally was reward.

“Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh.” Twirling around and doing some tight aerial maneuvers in the bakery Rainbow Dash was holding her gift close. “Full Season tickets to the Wonderbolts show. These are good seats too! Thank you thank you thank you!”

Though it seems Operation Meatshield Merlene had failed as Rainbow Dash zipped around her and hugged him tightly. “Ok, no need to thank me. I know how much of a fan you are of them.”

“Wooooohooooo!” The speedster called out as she released him and zoomed all over the place.

“Seems like your gifts are going over wonderfully my Lord.” Merlene commented as the human was trying to get his breath back. “A few more of those and you might have to use your magic on yourself to keep you alive.”

“No kidding.” His breath came in and out quickly as he was trying to stabilize his breathing from the huge hug he had gotten. “But that means only four left to give gifts too. Then I might call it a night and head back to my room at the castle.”

“I will give you my gift when we get back then if that is alright?” The griffoness asked of him.

“Sure. Alright let’s see who else we can find.” Turns out the one he found was a duo. “Eden, Sturdy, there you two are. I have gifts for you two.”

“Hey there boss, come on over, we have some for you as well. Though my gift should be unwrapped for you by now.” That statement made no sense to Dustan but he went with it thinking that perhaps his friend had been hitting the cider.

Getting a hug from Eden she smiled at him. “Happy Hearth’s Warming Lord Warner. If not for you Sturdy and I might not be here to experience it this time around.”

Rolling his eyes at the mode of address he smiled at them. “No problem. Just glad to have friends around to spend it with is all myself. Anyways I got gifts. Here you go.” He handed two boxes of about similar size to each of them and excused himself for a moment to grab another glass of punch and a slice of pie. When he came back both of his gifts had been unwrapped and were now on display.

Sturdy was showing off his new tool belt complete with tools to his marefriend while she was showing off a box with seeds from around the world. “These are great Dustan, quality too.”

“I would hope so. Paid a good bit for self repairing tools.” He remarked as he stuffed a bite of pie in his mouth.

This made Sturdy look at them and specifically at a hammer. “It’s right here at the bottom: Phoenix Craft Artisan Tools, famous for their self repairing tools and high quality products.”

“I suppose. I had to ask Allure about them and she pointed me to a couple of choices. Those I got cause of that self repair part figuring that would go a long way for you if you didn’t have to repair things.” Pointing a fork at Eden he smiled. “Yours was a bit more simple to put together. I bought a large box and a few seed and garden kits of various rarities and put them together. I know how much you love to garden so I thought giving you a huge pool to choose from would be nice instead of just what we have around the castle and in the forest.”

“It is very lovely thank you Dustan.” She held the box in her magic looking at it lovingly. “This will fill my next Spring, Summer, and Fall with lovely flowers. I cannot wait. It may even last longer if I can get the flowers to give me cuttings or seeds for the year after.” Putting the container in her saddlebags she pulled out. “My gift might not be all that impressive but I think you will find its utility to be of great value.” Taking the box he opened it as it was decorated with only a simple ribbon. Inside was a relaxation kit complete with scented oils, candles and more. “The oils I made myself from various plants around the forest and town. Roseluck has some wonderful choices for plants so I managed to convince her to exchange some clippings a while back and we have been doing so ever sense. Those oils are meant to be put on that small saucer and above a candle of any choice that way the heat from the candle evaporates the oil.”

Honestly it sounded wonderful, maybe combine that with a nice relaxing dip in the hot springs, then again that also sounded dangerous as he might doze off in there with all that. “Thanks Eden, this actually is very wonderful and I might even use it tonight to relax.”

“Don’t mention it. I am glad you enjoy it though.” She bowed before her ear flicked and she seen Roseluck. “If you will excuse me, my friend is calling for me.”

She trotted off with a smile on her face and showing off her gift before Sturdy smiled. “When you head back to the castle, take a look at the arch. I think you will like what you see. Well I am going to get me some more snacks, they are great here.”

“Sure, see you later Sturdy.” Dustan waved him off and stretched. ‘Two ponies left. Who will I find next?’

The answer found him as he was finishing off his pie a familiar voice spoke up. “It looks as if spreading cheer is what you do. Though a Happy Hearth’s Warming to you.”

Turning around he swallowed the last bit of pie in his mouth and smiled. “Hey Zecora. Glad to see you as always. Happy Hearth’s Warming to you as well.” He went in search of the last of two gifts and pulled out the biggest left in the bag but still small in comparison to some of the others he gave out. “This gift might be a bit weird, but I think you will enjoy the challenge.”

“For that I can agree. For in my gift that is what I hope you will see.” Her gift was not wrapped and instead was plain to see. A faux leather bound book with very strange writing on the front. Inside it appeared to be more of a personal journal. “My gift is wisdom but a challenge like your own. As my gift is the translated knowledge of my home and all that I have known.”

Taking it gingerly in his hands he realized just what she was giving him. ‘This is a book filled with all her shamanistic stuffs. That is huge!’ “I don’t know what to say Zecora. Are you sure it is ok for you to give me this?”

“For that I am very sure. You have been a friend beyond compare and of your intentions I know them to be pure.” She quickly reached up on her hind legs and gave him a hug. “You came to me in a time of need but I speak of not your own need, and I may have had no physical wounds my heart did bleed. Your honest ways did make it mend, and I can think of no better way for such knowledge to be used then by my friend.”

The shear amount of trust and sacrifice this book in his hand was worth brought tears to his eyes as he hugged her back and petted her gently. “Thank you Zecora. You are my best friend.”

Dustan felt her squeeze a bit harder before letting go with a smile. “Now let us see what it is you have given, for if it is true then my need to know is driven.”

As she unwrapped the gift it was in a similar smaller pod that he had given Applejack just with a small box as well. “This plant, herb, or whatever it is you wish to call it is special. I am not sure how but I know it can be used or combined with something to make what is known as Remedy. It is a very strong curative item that can cure almost any status infliction be it poison, mute, confusion, even petrifaction and more. Problem is I am not sure how it comes to be in that state. So I figured since this is right up your alleyway this type of challenge would be perfect for you. Plus a chance to do that much good is great.”

“Hmmm.” Zecora was already studying the plant as she seemed to consider his words. “Judging from its looks it is not a type of plant that reproduces all too well, but other than that more time is needed to tell.”

Putting the book away in one of the pockets of his new pack Dustan yawned and looked around. “I have one more gift to give tonight Zecora then I am going back to my place and just chilling for the rest of the night. Relaxing I mean.” He clarified when the term chilling brought about concern on her face. “Now I just have to find Pinkie Pie.”

“Here I am silly!” The party pony said as her head appeared from his pack.

“You know what…I should be surprised…but I am not.” He chuckled as he helped her out of the bag and set her down. “So ready for your gift?”

“Yepperooni!” She shouted while also having her mane retrieve her own gift for him. “Here is mine for you as well Dusty. I hope you enjoy.”

“Sure.” As he was unwrapping it, Pinkie Pie somehow managed to slide his gift for her out of the wrapping paper without opening the paper at all. He wasn’t going to question it.

Opening the present she smiled and shouted loudly. “WOOOOO! A lifetime pass to Party Town Equestria, major retailer of all party equipment. This comes with a fifty percent discount of all party equipment including confetti and other things for my party canon!”

The pony was pronking around none stop as she started listing off the items she could get with such a discount. ‘Let’s see what hyperactive pink has for me.’ Opening up the gift gave him two things. One was a group picture that he recognized from the opening of the cartoon only now he was somehow in it. Second was a book, specifically a scrap book similar to what he gave Celestia. The only difference was it was pictures of him with his friends and various memories they had made together.

“So how do you like it?” He had been busy flipping through the tome and had not noticed that Pinkie had stopped pronking around and was watching him.

Nor did he realize his eyes had watered up. “Thank you Pinkie, it is wonderful.” Leaning down he scooped her up in a hug to which she responded with a giggle and a wee sound as he picked her up before setting her down.

Smiling the party pony gave a simple oh and zoomed off before coming back. “Here, since you seem tired I packed you a to-go platter of all manner of sampled goodies from the party.”

Taking it and putting it in his pack as well as the now empty sack he smiled and nodded feeling the energy leaving him. “Yeah, that sounds good. Thank you Pinkie for the wonderful party.” Giving one last hug he waved and called out. “See you all tomorrow everyone.”

A round of byes was called out as he left with Fluttershy promising to look after Boko. “My Lord. Would you like your gift now?”

The voice of Merlene called to him as the door to Sugarcube corner closed. “Sure.”

With a flap of her wings the griffon zoomed off to a spot he couldn’t see before coming back with a long unadorned box. “I hope you like it.”

Taking hold of the box he noticed it was about four foot long and decently heavy. Inside the box was even more of a surprise as inside was a sword and scabbard.

“Oh wow.” Dustan called out as he went to grab it and was further surprised. Tactical Eye was popping up again with more information. This wasn’t an ordinarily sword.

“This sword belonged to my old Lord whom was fond of the sword in his younger days.” Chuckling a bit Merlene continued. “He would often spin tales of this being a sword gifted with the power to strike with the power of lightning. It was his keepsake of many years. When he had grown too old to wield it any longer he gave it to me. However my proficiency lies not with the blade of a sword but in claw to claw combat.”

‘That means elements of Tactics was here before me if her former lord possessed this for a while. What could that mean?’ “Just to let you know Merlene, he wasn’t spinning a tale when he told you it could strike with the power of lightning.” Pulling the sword from its sheath, he could feel its power and know just what to do with it. This sword was blue in coloration for the blade and single edged, similar in shape to a saber but with less of a curve to it and more of a weight then it as well. “Watch.”

Swinging it around a few times, he could feel the sword waking up so to speak as if it had been a sleep for too long and before long the blade was crackling with electricity. “Amazing. I never knew.”

“My people have a similar weapon known to them. They call it.” He sheathed the blade with a crackle of lightning echoing in the open square. “The Coral Sword.”

Strapping it around the same hip as his Blood Sword but in a different position, he now had more options in battle. His Blood Sword for battles that need sustainability, the Coral Sword for exploiting elemental weaknesses, and his Harmonium Axe for brute force as it had a nice heavy swing to it.

Looking back to Merlene he smiled at her and told her. “Take the night off Merlene, go back and enjoy the party.”

Dustan expected a fight; however this time he never got it. “Alright Dustan. Thank you for being a good friend.”

“I am who I am, and that is all that I am.” If he had said that around Pat he would have gotten a slap to the head for that. “Anyways talk to you tomorrow.”

“Same, sleep well my Lord.” With that the door to Sugarcube corner opened and she was absorbed back into the party.

The walk home was filled with silence as memories started to flood the human. Memories new and old took shape around him. He saw himself as he wondered into Ponyville the first time lost and confused. He saw his family and Pat celebrating a birthday; his mother’s if he remembered right. Next came his first kill in either world the goblin band. After that came his first day of living with Pat, well the first day of truly living after he finally gotten over all the shit he previously had to deal with and how sweet the taste of freedom from his problems had become.

All those memories and more came and went and before he knew it he was at the castle, only now it had a name prominently displayed above the arch that was once covered. ‘The Castle of Luminary. Nice name. If I remember right it’s a person who inspires. Though in this context that either means me or that the castle itself is a place to inspire. Either way, that is good and I like it.’

The castle was quiet, no one around as it seemed they were all off either doing their own thing, or at various parties around Ponyville and beyond. That was good as Dustan wanted to be alone at the moment. Getting into the spring and washing up, he soon was back in his room unpacking his gifts and displaying them around his room. Some went to shelves either for display or in the case of some the book shelf for reading later. The oils went to his dresser next to his bed as did the framed photo.

Taking care of his clothing and stripping down to his boxers, he was glad for the enchantments on the barracks that kept them at a comfortable temperature or this wouldn’t have been possible. “Alright then.” He took out the bottle of cider and uncorked it. “Here is to you. Mom, Dad, and Pat. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. With or without me I hope you have a good one.”

Dustan would then start to drink the cider, wondering how strong the alcohol in ponyland was.

Chapter Twenty: Weighted Secrets.

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My Little Tactics

Chapter Twenty: Weighted Secrets.

The cheek of the earth pony bounced off his fist as sweat was pouring down his body. Dustan had little time to actually take a break though as a Pegasus was coming in hot, the only reason he knew that they were even there is a strange humming sound from above. Whatever the reason for the humming it worked to his advantage as he quickly rushed the staggering earth pony he had just decked in the face and used them as a springboard flipping around and delivering a move that looked like it belonged in street fighter to the Pegasus swooping in as the Monk flipped around and used his centripetal force to give some oomph to his kick. This caused the flying feather pony to give out a yell as they dropped to the ground squirming hard.

With those two down Dustan stood up from his landing looking around at those watching the fight. “As you can see, I beat them kinda easily. Anyone want to tell me why?”

Mystic was the first to pipe up today as he was watching the demonstration, no doubt to research the human some more. “Was it something to do with your magic?” Shaking his head to the pony Mystic gave a quick tap to the ground with his hoof creating a click that sounded like a finger snap. “Darn.”

The next hand, or rather wing, to be raised came from the large winged pony that had joined before the holidays. “You seemed to be everywhere so you were faster than them.”

Shakes his head to that and smiles wondering who would get it. “You were more experienced than them.”

Turning his head he found himself staring at the deep voiced dragon in their midst’s. “Correct Tremor, I have more experience than those two who kept rushing at me, though the dive was a good idea for sure. It almost caught me off guard if not for the buzzing sound you made for some reason.”

The pegasus he kicked got up and shook herself off. “Darn, I knew I shouldn’t have put off my preening.” Lifting up her wing he saw a bent feather and realized that is what was causing the buzzing: A stray feather catching the wind incorrectly as it rushed by.

“Try to always keep yourself fit, which means proper sleep, food, and body care. Be it horn, wing, hoof, hand, or what have you, try to keep it all taken care of.” He gave a smile off before taking a towel and starting to wipe off. “Most of you don’t understand this but ponies in general are stronger and faster than humans. We, humans I mean, tend to rely on endurance more than anything. So once you are all properly trained, get some experience under your belts you all should be making me work for wins not the other way around.” Putting the towel around his neck he looked at them all. “Now, anyone else want to complain about the regiment that I have you all on?” Whereas before there had been plenty which sparked the little match, now there were none. “Good, I expect you all to work harder than you all had done before. Dismissed.”

The trainees had all scattered to the four winds as it were, some literally in fact, as Dustan heard a deep throated chuckled approach him from behind. “Leaving out one other bit are we not?”

Looking back at Tremor Dustan started to roll his shoulders helping the building lactic acid he could feel to loosen up. “Not that I can think of.”

The dragon continued to chuckle as he looked down at the human. “Come on, even an experienced fighter like myself could see it.” Dustan looked at him with confusion making the dragon slowly stop his throaty noises of amusement. “You honestly don’t know do you?”

“Honestly if you see something I don’t then feel free to tell me.” The human started to use the towel to wipe off more sweat from various places that he could reach while waiting for an answer from the dragon.

“Hmm maybe you haven’t noticed because it is normal to you.” The monk watched as the dragon reached down to pick up a twig before turning around. The none reptilian ears of the male picked up a serious of breaks in rapid succession before the dragon turned around. “Do me a favor and watch.”

“Ok.” Curious to see where this was going Dustan watched as Tremor tossed the broken pieces of the stick up then quickly snatched them with his other clawed hand. “Ok what was I supposed to see?”

“How many pieces of the branch did I just toss into the air?” The question confused him more than a tad bit.

“I don’t get it. Is this supposed to be a trick question?” Seeing the dragon shake his head the human sighed and rubbed his head. “Ok five why?”

“Follow me.” Doing as the trainer of his guard instructed he followed only to watch as the dragon administered the test to various others. One by one what Dustan slowly realized was something strange.

“None of them can follow that?” He spoke it out loud as the dragon was testing Merlene now who managed the closest answer of four, well the closest honest answer as guesses were not allowed.

“Nope.” Was the simple answer of the brown dragon as he looked between the griffon and the human.

Speaking of griffon she seemed to sense something up and had to ask. “Are you saying you can follow that My Lord?” When he nodded he saw her eyes grow wide. “How?”

“Your Lord has a keen sense of reaction, not just in how fast he can adjust to things but how fast he can process them in his brain.” The dragon poked a talon to his head making him wince as it was a bit hard and sharp to be poked with. “Eyesight wise, dragons possess the greatest of all the species with this ability as we are apex hunters. We need keen eyes for gems to see both their quality and prey from high up. We also make steep dives to snatch up our prey so we need to be able to make split second decisions on when to pull up.” Poking him again causing Dustan to mutter an ‘ouch’ Tremor went on. “For the most part pony, griffon, minotaur, you name it, would hunt our kind for our threat. It never went well for them, all except a few. Those few have reactionary capabilities similar to our own that is what allows them to fight on our level. Dustan here seems to be among that level of reactions. It does explain a few things.”

“My Lord, is that normal among your species?” Merlene’s question should have been easy to answer. It should have been a straight up yes.

However Dustan started to think back, was his eyesight always so keen? Was it so clear and precise? He would like to think so, but if so then that would mean there were so many humans whose reaction time was way better then himself at this moment. The thing was, Dustan remembered the first time he could remember thinking dodging something was easy, fighting against the palace ponies in Canterlot. It had been so easy...too easy. It was a matter of his speed being upped thanks to him leveling up. Was this also such a thing that it could be attributed to?

“Honestly I am not sure. I would like to say yes, but the more I think about things the more I want to say no as well.” Dustan’s answer seemed to satisfy the dragon but not Merlene.

For her part she looked upset, but for what reason Dustan wasn’t sure, while Tremor seemed to smile and pat him on the back. “Learning more about oneself helps one to be a greater warrior. Hopefully this will lead you to becoming even stronger. I hope to one day see you as talented enough to challenge as an equal without lowering myself.”

Tremor’s statement wasn’t anything new. Since after the first week he had arrived and started helping with training regiments and to learn things himself, he stated his real reason was to grow as a warrior learning new techniques and strategies from others as well as to challenge stronger opponents. He had also stated while Dustan was unique he wasn’t special in his eyes as he was still far below him but not without potential. It was for that reason he had stayed to help bring him up and bring about a satisfying challenge.

With that being said Merlene went off as did Tremor as Dustan went to the bathhouse to wash up. Soaking up the warm water was nice though he was likely only in the weakest part of the spring since spring was around now. The last few months had been a trying challenge for sure. Winter Wrap-Up had been rather boring for him since his job had been as a guard and bouncer pretty much in that any animal that got too aggressive from being woken up suddenly would have him to deal with. Needless to say it sucked wearing armor in the cold and one he didn’t want to do again anytime soon.

A Bird in the Hoof had been an episode he had wanted to happen a lot. Philomena’s presence and molting as she was about go through her next life cycle provided Dustan ample opportunity to go around helping the girl’s, especially Fluttershy, as they tried to care for the bird. It was also hard in that he had to keep his mouth shut more than a few times as he almost blabbed about the phoenix and their lifestyles. However in the end it was worth it as there was now three examples of a deus ex machina that he could interject into MLP if worse came to worse.

The other episodes went by quickly as well, Owlowiscious was now part of the treebary, the girls had recounted their cutie mark stories, the buffalo made peace with the ponies, and overall every episode was accounted for, all except one. It was the one he had to get ready for this night. During the Philomena debacle when Celestia was about to leave she had hoofed him a proper invitation to the gala, something he was not looking forward to. That didn’t mean he didn’t have a plan for the ball though. Regardless he wasn’t looking forward to the ball at all. He was given an extra ticket in case anyone wished to come with him, however the only ones he wanted to invite were either all busy or didn’t care to come, and by only ones he wanted to invite, he meant Zecora and Merlene.

Zecora had no desire to mingle with the snobby unicorns of Canterlot, not that he could blame her, and Merlene had the day off and had no desire to go to a stuffy ball, again not that he could blame her. Mystic didn’t like the nobles either, Eden and Steady would be on a date that night, and it just seemed overall like everyone he knew had some reason not to go.

‘Lucky sonsa-’ Dunking himself under the water quickly for the last bit of his soak he proceeded to get out. Having washed before soaking it was left now just to dry off and head to his room to get his suit out. He didn’t dress himself right away as he did some maintenance from combing his hair, shaving his stubble off so that he was nice and smooth, which was something that sucked to learn initially as a straight razor was hell to learn when one had never touched one before. His hair being done up nice, face clean, B.O. in check with a quick spritz of cologne and Dustan was fit for polite company.

Meeting the girls out in front of the boutique he smiled at seeing them in their Gala dresses in person. “Well, don’t you girls look lovely tonight.”

“Oh my darling, a mare must look her best for the Gala.” Rarity called out with her tiara staying pristinely on her head as her glass slippers, as they were in the shape of such that Dustan refused to think of them as horseshoes, looked as delicate as glass.

Applejack trotted up with her boots and saddle, something of which he could have sworn he heard was a promiscuous thing or at least risqué to wear. “Well Ah reckon that ya clean up nicely yourself big guy.”

Shrugging and looking at his tux, Dustan moved up to take his seat in the apple carriage, the one he knew that Twilight changed earlier today from the show, with the girls climbing inside and Spike climbing up beside him and taking the reins for the volunteers that would be pulling the carriage. Along the way he could hear the girls talking about their plans and what they wanted to do only to have Spike get disappointed.

“I planned out my insider’s tour of Canterlot.” The little dragon spoke excitedly. “I gotta show Rarity the Crown jewels, and Applejack the Princess’s golden apple tree.” The dragon turned towards the window of the carriage and spoke. “And Pinkie I gotta go to my favorite donut shop.” Turning back around Spike reared up in his seat. “Then let's get moving! He-YA!”

With that he snapped the reins causing the beige pony that was pulling then to turn around. “Excuse me!”

The gray pony that was helping to pull the carriage turned around and started to shake his hoof. “If you weren’t friends with our neighbor Rarity-” The clinking of Dustan’s double swords, something he refused to leave without, pulled the attention of both stallions, as well as Spike, as Dustan merely let his eyebrow raise curiously. “-hmph.” Both stallions turned and started to pull once more with the dragon wiping off the sweat that was coming from his head.

“Don’t worry. Once I greet Celestia no matter what I will stick with you ok?” The human told the smaller biped as he faced forward and closed his eyes not seeing the dragon look at him with a smile.

Truthfully it had been almost a year since he saw any trace of the show and his memory was not infallible. He was starting to run into more and more instances he couldn’t remember or instances he swore were not in the source material. More and more when the moments for the episodes happened, he was finding himself going ‘Oh yeah that did happen didn’t it?’ or ‘Oh I remember now, that is about to happen!’ inside his mind.

When they arrived Spike dismounted in a rather acrobatic fashion as Dustan’s own shoes landed with a thud. Adjusting his swords on either side of his hips, his Blood Sword and the Coral Sword, he straightened out his attire. Dustan honestly couldn’t wait till he learned how to dual wield from the Ninja class then he could use both weapons at the same time.

“Wow you guys look great!” The call of the dragon made the human sigh and lock part of his emotions up. He could warn Spike or the girls on how this night was going to go, but it was a good lesson for them so much so that it would not have been right for him to take that from them. Especially since them not learning it might have future consequences, something he was always on the lookout to avoid where he could.

The music started and then the singing. The ponies all pranced in unison and the human got to see something that was slightly funny. When they were in their imaginations thinking on what will be the best night ever, their bodies mimicked what was going on, so it was rather funny to see Fluttershy nuzzling imaginary animals, Rarity being Rarity for no one in particular, or even Applejack on an invisible pile of bits.

The musical was winding down as he could hear the fireworks outside exploding in culmination to the music of harmony all ending with. “-At the Gala!”

Spike then came sliding in on his knees like something from a movie or a soccer player. “YEAH! This is going to be the best night ever. You know why? Cause we are all going to spend time at the Gala to-” Just like that the girls were gone, so fast that they left Spike spinning in place, though Dustan did stop him rather quickly so he wouldn’t be super dizzy. “-gether. Or not.” Looking up from his shoulder the dragon sighed a bit. “Well at least you didn’t abandon me Dustan.”

“Right I promised I wouldn’t after all. Now walk with me, I got to greet Celestia really quick then we can go do the stuff you mentioned. I honestly want to what you had planned.” ‘That and get away from all the snooty up nosed ponies here.’ Thought Dustan as when the song and dance had stopped the ponies all went back to normal and he was catching more and more looks and whispers being thrown his way.

“I just wish the others would as well.” The tux wearing purple pony raised dragon said causing the human to pat his head.

“Don’t worry, good or bad time I bet they will all realize that parties like this aren’t for everyone. We have to accept that and hope that nothing bad happens.” Walking up the steps he could see that Twilight had already made it up to the Princess and kept trying to speak only for another pony to show up and greet the object of her attention.

When it came time for his turn Dustan smiled. “Ahh, greetings human, how fares your time at the Gala?”

“Hopefully short and sweet.” He told her honestly. “No offense, the Gala sucks.” There were a couple of gasps behind as those in line heard what he said. “It’s not for everyone and honestly I will have more fun elsewhere. I just came to greet you since you were polite enough to send the invite. I didn’t have anyone else to come with as they were all busy.”

“I mean who would want to go with such a creature?” The snooty laughter behind him was ignored for now.

“Anyways, enjoy yourself Celestia, I am sure you have figured out something to entertain you tonight.” With that he turned to Spike who was looking at him with a mouth open in a gasp of shock at how bluntly he spoke to the Princess. “Alright let’s go buddy. Show me the sights.”

As Dustan was leaving he could hear Purple Smart herself speak up. “That seemed a bit rude and how could he call the Gala something like that. It obviously isn’t true.”

Looking down and sighing Dustan couldn’t help but mumble to himself. “Give it about an hour, hour and a half and you will see Sparkle.”

Dustan failed to see the look that his guide gave him and soon they out of the main party area. A quick change back at the carriage put Dustan back in his normal clothing and Spike in his au natural state.

“Alright where to first pal?” The dragon spoke as he pulled a map from...somewhere that Dustan didn’t wish to question at all. “We have the crown jewels that I had planned for Rarity, the golden apple tree for Applejack, Pony Joe’s Donuts. I also had planned to go to the gardens to show Fluttershy but she went there herself and I was going to show Rainbow Dash the paintings of some of Equestria’s fiercest leaders.”

“You are in charge buddy, take me where you want to go.” He gave the dragon a smile and thumbs up, one of the only creatures in Equestria and the only in Ponyville to know what that sign meant.

“You got it, one grand tour coming up!” The first stop was indeed the crown jewels, something that Dustan had thought Celestia and Luna always wore. Turned out the crown jewels were a part of Princess Platinum’s rule, a left over from The Pre-Unification Era. When seeing how gaudy the jewelry was, the Squire couldn’t help but comment that with how bad those jewels were and that it was obviously from the P-U Era, which got the dragon cracking up.

Next came the golden apple tree. Spike mentioned that this also was a relic from long ago, that an evil enchantress put a spell on the tree to produce the golden apples. The tale went that only the most fair of mares could partake of its fruit which caused untold fighting in the surrounding area till The princesses took control of the tree after exposing the ploy of the enchantress for all to see then they moved it to the gardens of the Everfree before it came here.

“You should be a tour guide Spike, a lot of this I have never heard before.” The grin the dragon gave him was a good trade for what he knew was supposed to be on the young one’s face tonight.

“Hehe.” Spike chuckled and rubbed his nose gently. “I know right. I even offered to write some of the notes for Ms’ Cheerilee’s field trip next month.”

That comment made Dustan’s blood freeze as he stopped mid stride. ‘Shit, a month away, I thought I had more time.’

“Next up is the hall of historical-” The dragon stopped what he was saying as he turned to look at Dustan. “Hey are you ok? You are really pale looking.”

Breaking out of his stupor Dustan looked at the tiny dragon and grinned as best as he could though his heart wasn’t in it. “Yeah sorry, just had a moment where I remembered one of my own field trips as a kid. Didn’t turn out so well and was hoping the fillies and colts would have fun on theirs.”

Silently Dustan hoped that the gullible dragon would buy it. “OoooKay.” Seems he had.

To be honest Dustan’s heart was no longer in the tour at all but he did his best to make sure that his little friend never knew. When at last they arrived at the famous, even in the human world in certain circles, Donut shop Dustan found himself replacing Spike in the original in how many donuts he was consuming. Though to be fair instead of sprinkles the human was getting raspberry jelly filled.

Eventually though the human had to ask where the restroom was and disappeared inside it. Having to kneel to wash up after his business was annoying yes, but it allowed him to take a look at himself in the mirror.

“One Month. That is all the time I have to prepare the guard around the castle.” He spoke softly to himself. “When it all goes down and chaos sets in I am sure the Everfree will be spooked more than normal and thus all manner of beasts will be displaced and they will need to know how to handle themselves. After all I might be needed in town in case something is stupid enough to try for ponies during that time in case they see it as an easy opportunity.”

Feeling himself steel up his determination he went to open the door but heard some familiar voices outside. “You mean doing exactly what I wanted to do the WHOLE time?”

“Yes Spike, you were right.” The voice of Twilight told the drake as he gave the told you so speech to them.

Smiling to himself he leaned his forehead against the door and smiled. “Least that went alright and Spike wasn’t miserable. That is all that matters as this is one thing I can change for the better.”

Moving back into the bathroom to gather himself and to give the girls their time together he would miss some lines that were not in the original.

The laughter from his friends felt good as the princess and Twilight were on either side of him now and everyone having an order of donuts. Spike was happy, this was how his night was supposed to go, this was how all their nights were supposed to go. Well better late than never he supposed.

“I am glad you don’t seem too miserable Spike. Did you enjoy yourself while we were out making dreadful fools of ourselves?” His heart raced a bit at hearing his crush speak to him.

That is why given the opportunity he knew that what he was about to say was going to sound cool and suave. “Absolutely, though I know I would have enjoyed it better with you around Rarity.” Or at least that is what he thought he said, in actuality what he said was. “Mhm, sure did Rarity.”

“Did you and Dustan enjoy yourselves?” Celestia’s question snapped the dragon out of his fantasy as he turned back towards the princess.

“I’m...not sure.” That got the tables attention as the looks they gave him all told him to explain. “I mean he seemed to at first but then at some point he changed.”

“Oh my, did he see something that upset him?” The quiet but concerned voice was clearly heard as the nature caretaker spoke.

Shaking his head Spike looked down at one of his pink frosted, sprinkled donuts. “I think it was something I said. I mentioned the field trip next month that Ms. Cheerilee was taking her students on. He froze and went pale as it reminded him of something bad that happened to him and though he told me he was fine after that I could tell it was still bothering him.”

“Well we can’t really blame him can you?” It was Fluttershy who said it. “I mean Dustan seems to care about others more than himself. Maybe he didn’t want you to worry. I know that when Philomena was ill before the rebirth cycle Dustan seemed to follow the poor thing all over.”

“Hmm now that ya mention it Ah remember Apple Bloom mentioning something as well.” The southern twing called everyone’s attention to Applejack now as she rubbed her hoof against her chin. “She said that while she was out helpin’ durin’ Winter Wrap up that she spotted old bundles of them herbs that they are growin’ to keep the Everfree creatures away.”

“So, they have been doing that for a while.” Dash had brought up good point, though it wasn’t lost on the others.

Shaking her head Applejack continued. “That is what Ah thought as well, but Ah know about compost and how long something takes to get like it was. That thing had been there for a while.”

“Oh, is that the bundle you brought to me for study? Hmm I thought that it looked familiar.” Twilight’s question was given a nod from the farm mare.

With that Applejack continued. “If Apple Bloom hadn’t gone and told me what it was. Ah wouldn’t have known either. So Twi, do ya remember how old you said it was?”

Twilight got a weird look on her face all before she answered. “Yeah, they date back to around the time of Nightmare Moon, though I would lean on before it by a bit of time. Maybe a day or two.”

Rainbow Dash looked at her friends and started flapping to get some altitude. “Whoa whoa whoa, are you saying that Dustan set those up BEFORE Nightmare Moon came?” Twilight and Applejack both gave a simple nod but said nothing, thus leaving Dash to fill the silence. “That's crazy. So what you think that he knew she was coming back?”

“It is possible Rainbow Dash.” The Princess said as she sipped the tea that Pony Joe had managed to serve her just a moment ago. “I myself knew and Twilight figured it out. I wouldn’t have been surprised if other ponies figured it out as well.”

“Princess Ah don’t mean to throw suspicion on anypony but-” Applejack rubbed her hoof on the table for a moment as if collecting herself or looking like she was about to change her mind. Instead she took a deep breath and looked at one half of the rulers of the country. “After Apple Bloom done told me about them and Twilight told me how long they had been there. Well Ah went into the Everfree on a hunch.”

Gasps rang out from various members of the group as they heard that with Rarity being the one to speak up first. “My word Darling you could have gotten yourself hurt.”

“Ah know but Ah had to check out my hunch.” Looking down at her donut she took a bite and swallowed before finishing up her thought. “It was right too. Ah found those bundles at various places leading all the way up to the castle. Dustan had done and gone placed them on the trail ahead of time. It was like he knew we would be going there.”

All was quiet for a good minute or two till the bathroom door closed and they all saw the human in question walking up to them. “Sorry about that everyone.” The only sounds coming from the paper towels he used to dry off his hands, however he noticed that none were talking as he arrived. “Hope, I didn’t interrupt anything.”

Spike was looking back and forth from one side to the other as Twilight and her friends looked slightly ashamed of what they were thinking and the human, sensing something wrong and was no longer smiling, spoke up. “They want to know if you planted some of those herb things in a ball and laid them out for them during the night Nightmare Moon came.”

Spike watched the human, his eyesight was that of a dragon so the ponies couldn’t see all the minute details of his friends face but he could: The shocked look, a slight look of shame, one of acceptance, then strangely one that didn’t make sense to the dragon, one of determination that all turned to a mask of seriousness where he couldn’t read anything more.

“Yeah I did.” Sitting down Dustan ordered a couple more jelly filled donuts before turning to the group. “I saw the signs ahead of time of the return of Nightmare Moon. I knew of the castle by that point and knew that if I was Nightmare Moon, I would want to do all that I could to return to a home of mine and prove from there that I was the true ruler of Equestria. So I figured that if she was going to go there, then someone associated with the crown would be coming to do something about it.”

For a while no one said anything till at last Rainbow Dash flew up and over to the side where Dustan was sitting. “See, the way you all made it sound he was doing some kind of conspiracy plan or something.”

A round of apologizes went out from all sides as Dash said that even from Dustan. “I didn’t mean to keep that from you girls, just thought it wasn’t important after the fact you know?”

After that was said the donuts for the human came and he dug in. After all was said and done it was a good evening and one Spike wouldn’t forget for a while.

Dustan barely slept that night at all instead getting up and writing out a draft of personal training for himself. ‘Whether the guards get enough training or not is not up to me but to Tremor. I trust him to deal with them and to be their best. However no one but me knows how my abilities work. Well even then I don’t know how they work completely. I need to get stronger, faster, I need more skills and more options for when things come to worse.’

It took him till breakfast to write out his plans which he quickly put into his bags. Armoring up and grabbing his axe which he couldn’t take to the Gala, he quickly ate up his breakfast. There he told tremor that he was in charge for the day and right away left.

Was it extreme to seclude himself for his training? Absolutely, however when the god of chaos was right around the corner, he needed to be prepared for anything. His training regiment consisted of moving in his heavy armor as a type of weight training as well as focusing on expanding his ease of use with the spells he knew. When he did visit the Classroom he made sure to buy what he could, even if it wasn’t what he wanted as variety might make the difference at the end of the day.

There was also the fact he started to train and spar with the guards a bit more than normal knowing that combat would help to raise his level a bit more than just training on his own. Seems the guards caught on quickly as well as more often than not after the first few spars they pretty much steered clear of him if they could.

It all came to a head one night when Merlene met with him, in less than ideal circumstances. “My Lord?”

“Holy shit!” Dustan called out as he quickly ducked into the water but soon realized he couldn’t breathe underwater. “What the hell Merlene, I am bathing!”

The falcon patterned griffon ignored his words and soon came to sit at the water and dipped her talon inside testing the water. “The last three weeks you have been...different. You are worried about something and seem to be rushing headlong towards something that none of us can see.”

Grabbing a towel the human quickly wrapped up his indecency before moving to sit on a bench that they had placed inside the spring in case someone needed to rest after getting to hot in the spring. “Sorry, it’s just...you are a warrior, you must know how it feels when you can feel something coming right?”

“My Lord? Do you feel something ominous approaching?” Merlene was clearly worried, ever single race he has met so far seemed to leave their facial expressions out in the open without regard for what might happen.

As much as he hated it the Squire often abused that fact without abandon. “Yes, I do.”

Dustan expected questions on how, why, and more, but he didn’t expect the question that Merlene asked of him. “Ok. What do you need of me?”

“What?” She couldn’t have asked that of him right he must have heard wrong. “Did you ask what do I need of you?”

Giving a nod and standing tall Dustan was in shock. “You are My Lord. My trust in you is absolute. If you feel something is coming I will help to prepare for it if you need it of me. So what can I do to help?”

An hour later had Dustan healing himself and looking at Merlene with a newfound respect. “Damn you are fast.”

“My particular variant of griffon are known for their speed. We can keep up with dragons.” Tremor gave a snort at that though Merlene ignored it. “Though you got a good hit or two on me with that wood sword of yours.”

Standing up and rolling his shoulders Dustan found himself grinning and telling her. “Again.”

The next five days saw Dustan working himself to the bone sparing against Merlene. It also drew quite a crowd when it happened as well, and when the castle goers had free time. Dustan tried to cast Haste on himself once again but found the results the same as last time so had to rely on his own natural speed to try to combat the quick moving Griffoness. The battles were rather brutal on him and on his armor, so much so that by day three it had to go in for repairs leaving Dustan without any armor as if his Bronze Armor wasn’t up for the talons and gauntlets of the bodyguard then his leather armor would have been shredded.

There was a point when one of the newer additions to the castle, one who arrived a day or two earlier, tried to stop the two from sparing as Dustan was bleeding all over. “You are going to kill him!” The mare yelled moving over to Dustan and gazing all over his wounds. “We got to get him to the hospital to suture his wounds as my magic might not be enough for this.” When the guard started laughing at the unicorn she glared at them all. “I am a certified healer, not of a very high order but enough that I thought I could come here and do good not get laughed at for-”

“It’s fine, they weren’t laughing at you, just that you are so new and didn’t know. It’s honestly good to know that there is another healer besides me here now.” The mare started to ask what he meant but his words cut her off. “Life’s refreshing breeze, heal from the sky! Cura!”

Whereas his regular cure spell created a single spire of blue energy that rose around him this one was more vibrant in green and it was a dual spiral that rose up to surround him. The mare in front of him was shocked at the display as she could visibly see the wounds close up on him.

She stared with a gapping mouth like that of a fish out of water as Dustan got up and helped her over to the crowd. “See nothing bad happening here. I honestly think it even helps bring my blood count up too, not sure though, not really wishing to let out a lot of my blood on purpose just to test.” Looking back to Merlene he brought up his wooden sword as he went to the sparing area. “Hope you aren’t too winded.”

“I think I see what you mean by humans having endurance.” Rising up in the air the Wren grinned. “But if you are the one constantly being beaten on then that stamina of yours will run out long before mine does.”

The human shared her grin even if his vision was blurring. “Bring it on, I can take-” His sentence was never completed as Dustan found out there was a limit to his stamina even with curative magic.

“I see.” Tremor muttered in the meeting hall. It was one of the latest things that were rebuilt and there were various members there, all having been called by Merlene after Dustan had passed out.

Zecora had a frown on her face as she heard the news. “That is indeed upsetting. Seems our local Lord was more worried about the state of things then he was letting.”

“If he was willing to push himself to exhaustion like this then obviously Dustan feels that this threat must be close. Merlene did he give us a time frame?” Mystic asked taking all this seriously unlike some.

“Look I get he is worried, but an unknown threat that could happen any time?” Sturdy, the pegasus builder, spoke up with a worried tone. “I think he is overworked and over worried about nothing.”

His friend though looked torn. “Well considering our proximity to Ponyville and the amount of unusual activity, perhaps he has subconsciously found a pattern.”

“Regardless.” The one who called the meeting said. “My Lord was very worried. We all know for about the last week he has been training with me intensely but before that he was training on his own as well.”

“You are indeed correct Merlene.” The Zebracan breed of mare stated. “Whatever has urged Dustan to rush it comes from what he has foreseen.”

A grumble from the large dragon in the room called the attention of all there. “Whatever the reason, two things are for sure. One: This supposed trouble that Warner has perceived has motivated him to improve even more than ever before. The last month has shown marked improvements in his physical and magical capabilities.” The mummers of those gathered offered no argument there. “Two: He is in the process of burning himself out.” That got the varied response of some agreeing, some not, and finally there were those that didn’t understand at all. “He is working himself too hard. Merlene how many times could he spar a day during the start of his training with you?”

The guard wren took a moment to think about it but eventually she came to a conclusion. “We could average with minimal breaks around fifteen bouts a day.”

Nodding as he himself watched and could confirm that the earth colored drake asked the next question. “How many did he do today before collapsing?”

Merlene seemed to pick up on it now. “Three.”

“Exactly.” Flexing an arm he looked at them all. “Working out produces various chemicals in the body, not to mention wear and tear, stress, and exhaustion all of which take time to recover from. His curative abilities, while impressive, only removes the wear and tear as well as possibly some of the chemicals; it is hard to tell honestly. Problem is, stress doesn’t vanish nor does exhaustion and because of that his body collapsed.”

Silence rang out in the room for a good solid minute and wasn’t broken till Zecora spoke up. “So, I suppose my job will be to brew something to help him rest tomorrow. By tomorrow morning I should have the proper ratio, I will just need some herbs from the forest that I can borrow.”

“Add something to keep him asleep. Give his body time to recover.” A loud popping sound came from Sturdy as he got up and stretched. “Let his mind de-stress as well.”

“Agreed but that means his body will continue to function while he is asleep, what then?” At Eden’s question all those present froze.

Except for one. “It is my duty to serve and protect My Lord so I will.”

“Are you sure Merlene...it’s kinda gross.” While Mystic was right Merlene saw it differently.

“There is nothing gross about doing one’s duty. It’s an honor to serve My Lord even at one of his lowest points.” The Wren soon took flight and went out of the room calling the meeting to a close.

All but one left the room, that one was Tremor. Moving to a nearby window he took sight of the guards being trained down below. They were keeping to the movements and schedule that had been asked of them since their fight against Dustan where he proved his superiority.

‘Something has you spooked. Something big.’ The compressed dragon mused to himself. ‘I have watched and judged you to be a rational being, you have made calm and collected choices while not losing sight of your morals and virtues in nearly all you have done, even if it went against what others would have done. I do not believe you are in error here. You keep secrets that much is obvious, so what secret is it that alerts you to the coming terror?’ Sighing to himself and cracking his neck. “I am getting too old to have that old Maredarin saying pop up now of all times. ‘May you live in interesting times’ I hope that you have not been cursed with such a fate Dustan. Otherwise we are all in trouble.”

Chapter Twenty One: D̴͎̤̋į̵͙̫̖̈́̿͘͜s̶̳̐̾͑c̶̛̝̱̪̮̟̃̄͜ǒ̵̡̨̥͍̝̺̏̔͋ͅr̸̥͑̚d̶̢̢̻̮̼̯͉̘̼͒͐.

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My Little Tactics

Chapter Twenty One: D̴͎̤̋į̵͙̫̖̈́̿͘͜s̶̳̐̾͑c̶̛̝̱̪̮̟̃̄͜ǒ̵̡̨̥͍̝̺̏̔͋ͅr̸̥͑̚d̶̢̢̻̮̼̯͉̘̼͒͐.

Yawning awake, Dustan was feeling refreshed, but at the same time he had cricks in places that needed a good extra pop or stretch to remove. Waking up and moving to gather his clothing he smiled and chuckled to himself as he supposed that he took things too rough yesterday to pass out like he had.

“I guess I will take it easy today, might be for the best considering what is coming.” Dustan whistled to himself a bit as he started to dress only for his stomach to grumble loudly. “Damn I am hungry. Must have worked up too much of an appetite yesterday.” Smacking his lips he realized they were chapped as well. “Weird but I am thirsty as well. Guess a big breakfast is in order.”

Suddenly a knock on his door came very loud and very quickly, one that was reserved for when someone needed to use the restroom stall you were in, or if something went wrong. “Dustan, Dustan are you in there?”

The voice belonged to Spike and he sounded beyond worried, what was even worse he heard another voice as well. “Stop that, you will wake him up.”

It was Merlene who was trying to be quiet it seemed, however it seems Spike wasn’t having any of it as he came bursting into Dustan’s room. “Dustan are you-Oh you’re up good!”

“Spike you-oh hello My Lord.” While Spike was relieved to see him, Merlene seemed slightly embarrassed.

“Sup you two, how are you today?” The looks they gave him just then worried him, that and they were covered in mud. “What’s going on?”

“You have to see it.” The young dragon told him as he grabbed at Dustan’s hand to drag him outside.

“Whatever it is Spike I am sure it can’t be that ba-” It was worse. The Squire’s eyes widened as he saw the cotton candy clouds pouring out chocolate milk over the castle grounds. “No...”

“I know right, Twilight and the others rounded up some of these clouds this morning and Dustan?” Spike must have noticed that Dustan wasn’t listening anymore as Dustan went out and held out a hand to catch some of the falling substance to taste it.

When he confirmed what it was he could feel himself shake. “Damn it, it wasn’t supposed to happen today, we was supposed to have another day.” He had forgotten he wasn’t alone as he whispered that letting those there hear him.

The library assistant tilted his head in confusion. “What do you mean?”

Turning quickly Dustan remembered both that they were here and something else. “Spike, why are you here?”

Merlene was just watching slightly worried as the dragon answered. “Twilight told me to come here as it would be safer then at the library with all the craziness going on.”

Gritting his teeth as his presence had caused another wrinkle in the plans of things. “Spike I am taking you back to the library.” Looking to Merlene he told her quickly. “Organize every guard and fighter in the castle, with all that is going on, creatures from the Everfree will be stirred up and might ignore the herbs we have growing.”

Saluting Merlene took off as the brother of the villages mage looked at him. “Is that why I can’t stay here like Twilight suggested?”

“Yes.” It was a lie, but at the same time wasn’t a bad reason either. “You might not be safe here as we live in the Everfree where all kinds of things might come out and with all the guards rushing out you might get lost. Even more so since you don’t know your way around the castle grounds, Spike.”

“Oh, alright.” Dustan was glad the dragon was so easy to convince, but this meant that he would have to leave.

Telling purple drake to hold on, Dustan went to put on his leather armor and grab his gear: Leather armor, check. Harmonium Axe, check. Coral Sword and Blood Sword, check. Belt with his supplies, check. Pack, also check. Magepower Gloves, check. Finally the Ever Bright Lantern, check.

Coming out of his room he checked on the dragon and found him outside with his mouth open. “Careful about drinking too much of that stuff, you aren’t Pinkie Pie and might get a stomach ache.”

“I have drunk more than this before I have gotten a stomach ache.” While the dragon’s youthfulness put a small smile on his face it didn’t last.

“True, but how often has it come from a weird cloud?” He could tell that the young lad wanted to say something but couldn’t find a way to argue that fact.

Truth was while he knew there were no side effects from the cloud in the show, that didn’t mean there weren’t any side effects to be had. Discord was revered as one of the worst legends and rulers of Equestria for a reason and while ponies now were tamer today than back then, it doesn’t mean that it didn’t hold water that he was horrible. While the risk to be seen by the God of Chaos was strong, Spike absolutely had to be in the library not only for Twilight to give him the Element of Loyalty but for him to burp up all the scrolls Celestia was going to send him.

Problem was he couldn’t figure where the time went, the girls were going to go on their trip tomorrow, speaking of. “Guess with all this craziness the Crusaders are going to have their field trip postponed till this all dies down.”

“What are you talking about?” The little dragon companion asked of him. “They went on their trip today.”

“Today? Are you sure?” Seeing him nod Dustan could only think to himself that maybe he miscounted the days. ‘Did I take one too many hits on the head? Where did I lose track of time?’

Regardless of his lack of chronal awareness, Dustan wasn’t lacking for awareness in his surroundings as they had just emerged from the woods into Ponyville proper. While in the show Twilight and the gang may have left the town in more or less an ok vision of itself, the one that was before the human was well onto its way to the final result. The ground was its checkerboard pattern and the bushes were all thorny but no buildings were floating as of yet and no distortion of the geography.

“Hold on.” Spike barely got a chance to ask what Dustan meant before the human lifted up the dragon onto his shoulders. “Do you see the library from here? If you can how does it look?”

Scanning as best as he could Spike almost gave up as while the geography wasn’t distorted as of yet buildings had moved locations. “There, a bit to the left.”

Setting Spike down the human smiled. “Good, we can get you there rather quickly and then we can-”

“Well, well, well, what do we have here~.” The voice sent shivers down the Squire’s spine as he tapped the dragon.

“Spike head back home, it seems I have company.” The human was no longer looking at the dragon but scanning around now.

“But Dustan-” For all the bravery that Spike liked to exude at times the voice had sent him to shivering as well.

“NO BUTS!” The young dragon flinched at the yell as Dustan locked on to something and pushed Spike towards his home. “Go home Spike.” The dragon ran off at that with no more arguments. ‘Tactical Eye op, needs nerf.’ Walking up to the barrel he asked. “I would ask if this was like shooting Discord in a barrel but I feel like as soon as I say that somehow it will be you with barrels inside you.”

There was a moment of silence before a rather joyous chuckle. “Well aren’t you interesting. I do not believe I have seen anything like you, even when I made things.”

“Well, glad I could provide some amusement towards you.” The wood of the barrel slowly trembled as the rings that held the barrel tight transformed to the creature that was Discord.

Eagle, dragon, horse, lion and more all wrapped up together in one disharmonious creature. “Indeed you have, though I am curious as to how you knew who I was. Care to enlighten little ol’ me?” As the Draconequis said the word little he had a flash of light surround him before revealing how tiny he was currently, barely six inches tall.

“Ancient magic, lack of typical sense in everything, weather-” The sun went down for a few seconds before coming back up just then. “And celestial phenomenon that cannot be explained by anything. Sorry but combine all those things and honestly you are on a list all your own.”

The tiny chimeric creature furled up like paper before unfolding into a parchment with an ink drawing of him moving around. “Well when someone is as iconic as myself I suppose I can understand that reasoning. However that does make me sound predictable.” Discord slowly started to change his shape to the letter of U. “What I don’t understand though is you. What are you?”

“My name is Dustan and I am a human.” Here came the moment of truth, if anyone or anyTHING on Equis knew anything about humans or other worlds, dimensions, whatever, it would be Discord.

Turning back to normal, or what passes as normal for him, Discord floated in the air with a claw on his chin. “Hmm nope, not one of my creations for sure. I also don’t remember your species at all, but then again a thousand years will do that I suppose.” Standing back up the tall creature, taller than Dustan by about four feet, pulled him close by the shoulders. “However that doesn’t mean we can’t get to know each other now.”

‘Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu-’ While his mind was saying one thing his body said another. “What do you mean? I mean I really don’t want to interfere with your fun here.”

“Interfere?” The misshapen master of chaos chuckled merrily at that. “No dear boy, you are going to enhance my fun.”

‘-uuuuuuuuuuck.’ This was what Dustan had been afraid of, attracting the attention of the villain. “I am afraid I don’t really follow.”

“You see, I am rather bored waiting for the Element Bearers to get to certain points in the maze I have them in.” Discord clapped his hands then spread them out creating a visual of an overhead view of the Mane Six showing that he had already gotten to Applejack and Pinkie Pie, with Rarity about to be next as he could see her approaching the wall with the three diamonds that were her symbol. “Oh speaking of, I will be right back, don’t you move now.”

Snapping his fingers Discord vanished and the rattle of chains at Dustan’s ankles and wrists told him exactly what happened. “Sonva-” Struggling against the chains the Squire could see that they were connected to the ground but he couldn’t pull them from the dirt. Looking to each of his blades he knew that they might not be thick enough to do the job, instead opting to use his axe.

Lifting the axe up and bringing it down on one of the chain lengths the contact of the metal on metal created a rather bright spark before the metal parted with a loud snap. Three similar whacks and Dustan freed himself from the Draconequis’ hold though he still had the cuffs on each limb with a few chain links on each. Question for him now was how to get away from the situation and away from Discord.

The answer came rather quickly as Discord popped back into view as Dustan was trying to turn the corner of a building. “Now that is interesting. How did you break my chains?”

“I could answer that, but that would ruin the mystery wouldn’t it?” He hoped the ploy would work, that Discord would like the unpredictability of that answer.

“Hmm, true.” An internal sigh of relief was given by the displaced human at that. “Instead let’s play a game and maybe I will get to see how you did it.” Nope Dustan changed his mind; his sigh of relief became one of sad acceptance.

“Alright sure, what kind of game did you have in mind?” Maybe he could distract the god of chaos for a time till the elements got back.

Discord looked to his watch after pulling up the sleeve of fur on his arm before letting it go. “Well I have time for about five games more or less. SO, how about a series of games? Each one of them different than the one before it.”

“Okay, what are the games? What about the stakes, rewards for winning and punishments for losing?” Discord seemed to always be about chaos but he was a fair being in the stories for the most part. Dustan figured if he could get something for winning, why not?

“Hmm that is a good point. This type of game will need some type of reward won’t it?” Pulling out a cap that had a light bulb on top of it, the mixed up maybe mammal thought about it tugging at his goatee before the light lit up. “Ahh, I got it, if you win three out of the five games, I will...hmm. Hold on, let me take a small stroll through your mental gardens to see what humans like.”

“Wait wha-” The human felt the claw of the Draconequis on his forehead and felt a rather disturbing feeling as if someone taking tap shoes to his brain. In a desperate attempted Dustan tried to shove all his memories of the show and its contents in a mental safe behind a stone wall in a metal room guarded by armed guards.

However it was just a mental image and whether it worked or not, he had no clue though Discord did pull his claw back and smiled. “I learned quite a lot there.”

‘Nononononononono.’ It was the only word running through his mind at that moment.

“But do not, worry I only flipped through the pages of your book to get a quick idea of who you are and what you like. After all as you said the mystery is part of the fun and I am never one to turn down some fun.” Snapping his fingers a scoreboard appeared with Discord’s face on one side, and Dustan’s on the other. “We will use this to keep score. Now as for the stakes, if you win, I will grant you a wish of your choosing.”

That reward was too good; it could only mean one thing. “And if I lose?”

“Well that is simple; you become my toy to amuse myself with whenever I get bored. So do we have a deal?” There really wasn’t a choice in this matter sadly and Dustan knew it. Regardless of him winning or not Discord was too interested in him to leave him alone ever unless he went back to being a statue, and even then that was a stop gap measure.

Sighing and running his hands through his brown hair. “Deal, but you better keep your word.”

Giving a smile Discord held out his hand and shook the one offered to him by Dustan. “Deal, now the first game is one of hide and seek.”

“Hide and seek, really?” That seemed...innocent enough.

“Yep. I am curious as to how you found me out, so I am going to hide and you are going to try to find me. I will give you thirty minutes. The limits will be within Ponyville.” Suddenly there was a flash and Discord was in a striped black and white jersey with a matching cap, a whistle and a cap gun. “On your marks, get set-” Discord vanished at that point, but not the cap gun as it fired without him, signaling the start of the match.

Right away Dustan started to look around focusing as best he could. ‘Ok, my Tactical Eye spotted him once before, it can do so again.’ Turning a corner Dustan smiled as he saw something unusual. ‘A question mark huh? Trying to hide yourself even more than last time are you?’ Or at least that is what he thought. When he got there, all he found was some weird berries growing on the weird thorn bush. They looked like strawberries but blue instead of red, and also instead of seeds, there were six pointed stars . “Huh I wonder what these are?” Picking a few, he thought maybe Zecora could find a use for them.

Wondering around he kept finding the same fruit on the plants marking them as a question mark in his vision as well as a few ponies whom he now knew the names of and some other info courtesy of his ability. Seems each pony had a class as well, most were something simple like gardener or teacher with nothing special about themselves. Though he learned and discovered a lot, there was something he didn’t manage to discover though.

A loud alarm clock sounded around him suddenly letting him know one thing. “Times up, round one is a loss for you my strangely shaped friend.”

The voice sounded as if it came from behind so the Squire turned quickly to confront Discord only to find him strangely absent. “Seems so; you hid yourself pretty well this time.”

Then, Dustan felt it, a rustling and quickly took his cloak off to find there on the material a stitching of the Draconequis. “So that is how you avoided me.” Sadly as much as he hated it, it was a brilliant place to hide away. “You got me.”

Giving a theatrical bow as the stitching vanished and reappeared in a flash causing Dustan to rub his eyes a bit to soothe the ache that it caused. “Well thank you, though would you mind giving me a moment. I just need to check on something.” Without waiting there was the sound a clapping of his hands bringing the image of the maze up once again only this time showing Twilight arguing with three of her friends. “Hmm seems they aren’t far enough along just yet. What about the others?” Switching to another perspective Dustan could see Fluttershy running scared at times and at others tiptoeing along trying to keep out of sight of anything scary. Rainbow Dash was the opposite, she was rushing headlong down one path and then the next when one of the paths she chose turned out to be a dead end. “Nope not where I want them either. Guess we can play some more.”

While the first game wasn’t hard he had failed it for not looking in an obvious place, then again hindsight was twenty-twenty. “Ok what is the next game?”

Leaning back on his tail Discord rubbed at his chin for a good solid minute before his arm snapped away as his eyes grew wide. “A scavenger hunt.” The disturbing thing was when Discord’s arm pulled away his claw was still attached to his chin rubbing it leaving only a stump raised in exclamation. “Oh hello you don’t belong there.” The normal response, normal being used loosely, would to have been to put the claw back on his stump of an arm. Instead Discord pulls his arm out of the socket and attaches it to the claw that way leaving a disembodied limb rubbing his chin.

Dustan couldn’t stop a shudder seeing the casual dismemberment like that. “I don’t suppose you can tell me what I will be looking for?”

“Oh you haven’t figured it out?” the arm vanished, followed by both legs, his tail, his other arm and now his body leaving only his head behind. “You are going to search for my pieces dear boy. If you manage to put humpty dumpty back together again, you win. If not, well, you lose obviously.” The head started to spin and attached itself to a pole as Discord’s voice came from it. “The game will begin on the count of zero and will last as long as the last one did.” Then his head turned into a globe and dropped like New Years. When his head hit the ground maniacal mix’em up shouted. “GO!” As the globe that was his head poofed away.

Instead of running off immediately Dustan quickly checked himself all over as well as his pack and his pouches, no sign of the Draconequus which meant he didn’t pull the same trick twice in a row. Securing the straps of his pack Dustan took off at a jog, two arms, two legs, a body, a tail, and his head, seven pieces in total. While thirty minutes seems like a lot Dustan knew that it could go by quickly when it seemed like one was trying to hold onto every second.

The good news was he spotted the first piece within five minutes of searching; then again it was out in the open. The body of Discord was floating around using its wings going from rooftop to rooftop as if it couldn’t fully achieve lift on its own without the whole of itself being together. That made no sense of course but with Discord making no sense made all the sense.

‘So the body wants to parkour huh?’ Looking around the Squire found two buildings close enough together so that he could run up one side jump to the next then one more hop and he was on the roof. He had to be careful here though; some roofs were made of thatch and meant to support ponies when they were on all fours. He was putting all his weight on two legs meaning it didn’t matter the weight difference, if he was heavier or lighter normally then a pony with less surface area to distribute his weight he would sink right through. That meant he needed to run along the edges where the frames of the houses were.

Taking a chance he stood up and found the wall could support him and he smiled. “Just a matter of making this work and if I fuck up I can pay for home repairs.” Justifying his future mistakes Dustan took a run and leapt to the next home with no problems. ‘YES!’ Feeling confident now he started to run and leap from roof to roof and before he knew it he was on the same one that the body was on.

However seems that even without ears the body heard him or maybe it felt him as he landed, either way it curled up and Discord’s neck turned to face him before it seized up in shock and jumped to the next house.

“Oh no you don’t!” Running along the edges he chased after it. “I am not going to lose two in a row.”

For just being a body the thing was squirrely as it seemed to be able to cut corners, skip and grind along the edges of the rooftops and at one point even performed a drift, though Dustan could have done without the body having ‘Déjà Vu’ play in the background as it did it.

“The temptation to just drown your body is high with that one Discord!” Not that Dustan had a problem with the song, but it was the fact that the Draconequus was flaunting his stolen knowledge to him that was setting him off. “You know how they say they will never find the body, in your case IT WILL BE TRUE!”

Overall the chase was starting to go on too long but might run out as they were getting close to a building that was shorter than two next to it on either side. Dustan just needed an opening something, sadly he couldn’t use any offensive magic as it might set the houses on fire, and while he could pay for it like he though, the human didn’t want to risk a town wide fire.

Then as Discord’s body was heading to a corner music started picking up once more. “…… Right into your miiiiiiind~”

Quickly realizing what was about to happen Dustan acted fast. ‘This is my chance!’ Quickly putting his power into his legs he jumped from the roof edge he was running along to the side of the higher building on the opposite side.

The disembodied body hit the corner as the music flared. “Déjà vu, I’ve just been in this place before~”

However instead of getting a good corner cut like the body was hoping to get, it got something else. “I know, that is why you are caught!” Dustan knew what way it was going to go cause of that song and tackled it off the roof, landing with a grunt as the body struggled. “You are caught now calm the fuck down and admit defeat!”

It struggled for a good few seconds before giving up. Suddenly it turned into red light and was sucked up into a small sphere. When the sphere landed it shook a few times before the red light on the center of the sphere turned off with a ding.

“Really…a pokeball?” Picking up the aforementioned device Dustan sighed and just nodded. “Sure whatever.”

Testing to see if it would auto clip to his belt he found it didn’t, so it stored it in one of his pouches instead. Right after that happened The Squire would give a loud yelp and turn around to see the hoofed leg bouncing off like a pogo stick after it seemed to have kicked him.

“Oh hell no.” Quickly running after the leg he saw it turn down an alleyway, as he turned into it himself he saw a sight that both excited him and upset him. “Oh…it seems I walked into the wrong neighborhood.” In front of him was the hoof leg as well as the scaled one as well and he knew without a doubt from the sounds behind him two more things were locking him in there, a guess would make it Discord’s arms. “Seems I either walked into an ass-whooping, or I got lucky.” Pounding his fist together as he mentally changed from a squire and into a Monk, he smiled. “Let’s see which it is.”

“Times up!” The head of Discord called a few minutes later appearing in the alleyway. “So did you manage to find all my par-oh my.” The head looked on to see four of his body parts beating the ever living crap out of a human body on the ground. “Guess I should have warned him, oh well.”

At the sound of the owner of the parts the lion arm snapped and all parts, even the pokeball’ed one, vanished in a flash of light before a reassembled Discord stood tall. Giving a hum seeing the human not move, but knowing he was still alive the embodiment of Chaos would snap again and Dustan would find himself standing, conscious and healed up as if nothing happened.

Patting himself down he looked around before going ok. “Oh…I did walk into an ass-whooping I guess.”

Nodding with arms folded Discord held out a paw holding up two claws. “That is two you have lost. One more and I win and with that you know what happens.” Clapping his hands Discord grinned as he looked into his little spying window. “Alright the next one is about close to where I want her, so I am going to make the next challenge a quick one before I go to ‘help’ them progress further in the maze.”

Dustan wanted to ask about the next thing that was about to happen but didn’t have a chance as a snap and a flash blinded him. “AHH FUCK! I am going to have you pay for glasses if you keep causing me eye damage like that.”

When the whiteness of the void receded to reality the Monk could see that he was at the starting line of a race track, though along the straight path forward there were many obstacles, some benign and some not so benign.

“The next event is an-” But Discord got a sour look on his face as Dustan interrupted him.

“An obstacle course?” Looking over to the chimeric creature he grinned. “And Let me guess, either I am timed or I have so many tries to get through it successfully.”

The miffed look on the chaos embodiment told enough to say he had nailed it. “You know, for that I am changing it.” With a snap of his claws a second identical course appeared and at the starting line was a creature that Dustan knew. Though in the game it was from it was simplified to be an adorable sprite, here he knew it was the real thing. A light blue looking large cat with two large whisker like tendrils sprouting from it that knew how to cast a terrifying ability that could petrify and inflict stop to enemies if it had someone nearby who had the ability to unlock hidden monster abilities.

“A Coeurl.” Whispered Dustan a bit fearfully as his Tactical Eye confirmed the creatures species, as well as a strange fact that it didn’t have a name, as it looked around and growled before trying to leap at him. Dustan prepared for a fight except that the feline bumped into a glowing invisible wall.

With a pop Discord appeared and touched the feline’s head. “There we go, it now knows what is going on. Strangely this creature is rather intelligent. I might have to look into them later. It now knows that it should try its hardest, or else.”

“Or else what?” Dustan wasn’t one to like open ended comments like that, much less ones that sounded as sinister as that. What was more was that the Chaotic entity choose not to answer him, instead just chuckling as if that was all the answer he needed.

“Now, I have added a few things on this obstacle course that you should enjoy. You have ten seconds to prepare, and by prepare I mean look at the track that you can see and plan what you can. No magical enhancements in the prep phase please.” With that the maniacal master of mischief vanished with a digital clock now counting down from ten.

Looking to the track, Dustan could see it consisted of some standard stuff, rope swings, high hurdles, over and under, and more. In fact Dustan glanced on the other side and seen it had been modified for the Coeurl on the other side since it couldn’t exactly hang onto a rope. However that was about all Dustan could think as the ten seconds were now up.

A sign that said go appeared before him as well as the feline as he took off. The first obstacle in the course for him was over and under, or under and over since it switched up quite often. He would jump over the high hurdle then have to drop down to his belly to go under a bar or two before jumping back up to go over another high hurdle. The next obstacle consisted of the Monkey Bars, though in the little picture that accompanied this one it showed a human with a banana.

‘Ok Discord, you want a monkey to do this, I will show you that this was my favorite part of gym class, and I hated gym.’ Taking a running leap Dustan grabbed hold of the first bar and used his momentum to skip the next two bars and instead took hold of the third to continue it from there.

When he landed on the other side a pop up read ‘+2.21 sec’. That got him curious and he looked to the other course to find the Coeurl belly crawling under some unders in the over under section that had been extended for its section showing that the human was ahead of it. That brought about some confidence in him now as he had a way of keeping track of how far ahead he was. That confidence would soon be shattered with the next obstacle in the course. A long stretch with nothing on the course, but many things on the sides.

‘Are those cannons?’ As he thought that, many of the cannons on the sidelines for both sides fired and- ‘ARE THOSE BULLET BILLS?!’

His thoughts must have transmitted to his expression as he could hear Discord’s laughter ringing out as Dustan realized what he was seeing. “I hope you aren’t expecting to find a Starman here as it won’t help you. Also let me assure you, unlike the ones that plumber faces, and unlike what the person you identify as ‘MatPat’ says, if these hit you, they explode…quite nicely in fact.”

“I hate you Discord. I hate you from the very bottom of my soul at this very moment.” The venom in the human’s voice was clear and even caused Discord to give a mocking ‘aww’ in hurt. Having to stop now Dustan knew he was losing ground but he rather read the pattern, if there was one, of the Bills rather than jump in hastily and get exploded. Then he figured it out, there was no pattern and no space to give gaps, so what was one supposed to do?

The answer was simple: Make one. Gathering up his inner force, Dustan used the Monk skill of Aurablast, or Wave Fist in the earlier translation, to detonate the bills in front of him, or on the sides if they were coming at him. The prep for the Aurablast was nearly nonexistent so he could spam it pretty well. Leaving the area of the Bills he noticed he was now at ‘-3.01 sec’ meaning he had lost his lead and was now three seconds behind the large cat.

The next thing that came up was ordinary once more, stutter step tires. The age old staple where one had to step in each tire then moved to the next quickly. He wasn’t as quick with that as he would like as he only cut down the time behind by point three as he came to another unique challenge. It was a standard wall climb except every now and then some of the handholds would change meaning one couldn’t stay holding on their grip for too long.

‘What I wouldn’t give for Dragoon Jump right now.’ The thought came and went quickly as he started his climb. Dustan would like to say he got up quickly; he would have loved to say he aced it. His ass would tell another story of falls, and the cushioning it tried to provide. Luckily he wasn’t alone in this hate as the Coeurl also had this obstacle and was hating it just as much as him.

By the time he got over it, the Coeurl made it just a bit before him, leaving only about two thirds of a second difference between them. Dustan now had a rope net climb; or rather a wire net climb where he could see that some strands became electrified at times while others weren’t. Basically causing the same concept as the Wall he just overcame only slightly less frustrating…he hoped.

He was right as well; the hands that held to the net only got fried once but were relieved thanks to a Cure spell. The same couldn’t be said for the Coeurl as its obstacle for this area had been dodging the Bullet Bills like Dustan had. As he landed on the other side, a loud explosion echoed in front of him showing that the feline had not dodged all of them.

Looking over he could see that the large cat had managed to get across all the shots except the last one, which it didn’t clear at all. It was making pitiful noises of pain and agony at this point and Dustan knew he had the rest of the course in the bag. His next obstacle was a rope swing over a mud pit…or at least he hoped that was mud. Taking a running start he jumped and swung across as the mewling and the agonizing sounds grew closer and closer as he caught even with his competitor. With a grin he was prepared to pass the monster till it gave a pitiful cry.

‘Come on, move, you can win, you have to win. If you don’t Discord does and you know what that means!’ He kept trying to tell himself to move but his feet refused. ‘STOP BEING THE NICE GUY AND WIN! DO YOU WANT TO BE HIS PLAYTHING?’

Dustan could feel his leg lift up and was about to hit the ground for the first step that would commit him to his path, except his eyes met the beast’s. Without even understanding the creature he could tell, it was prepared for death knowing it would be alone and no help would be given. How often had he felt like that? How many times had he come close to it coming true?

‘FUCK!’ Looking at the cat he spoke as he gathered his power. “Life’s refreshing breeze, heal from the sky. CURA!” Holding out his hand he sent the spell over to his opponent causing it to be wrapped in its healing trail causing the wounds of the creature to vanish. Surprise was evident on the creature’s face telling anyone who were to look that it had honestly thought itself for dead and that no one would save it. Dustan said nothing and continued on.

The next course was a low crawl through mud, or at least his hope was it was mud. On the other side the large cat had to swim versus crawl where its lost time was made up only slightly now though the human was still ahead as he got up for the last stretch of the course. It was a sprint with a pool of water on each side of a strip of land.

Knowing he was ahead of the feline he made a break for it to finish the race. Sadly the last stretch wasn’t a sprint. From out of the water burst Chain Chomps catching the human by surprise. Using his Monk abilities, he was able to bat most of them away all except one. It was at this moment that the flesh of man came to realize how deadly these metal balls were.

The spiky teeth clamped onto his leg sinking into his calf like a shark would a seal making him scream out in pain like only a few things in his life had ever caused. What was more he could feel the Chomp’s metal teeth scraping against bone. Losing his balance and falling onto the ground, he knew that was it. He was going to lose the race now.

With no choice but to turn his attention to the thing from the iconic game of brothers he started to punch the lump of metal in its stupid face, mostly aiming for the eyes like one should for a shark attack. Luckily it worked making the ball give a strangely canine like yelp of pain as it bounced back to the water.

That is how the race was to end. Dustan looked to the other lane at least wanting to see the Coeurl crossing the line thanks to his helping hand from earlier. However that wasn’t to be as when the human looked over all he seen was the cat sitting at the finish line looking at him. It could have already won, but it didn’t?

When the large cat noticed him looking it merely moved its head to the side using its head to point to his finish line. ‘No…’ Standing up he went to use Cura on himself to repair the damage but not all of it. Now limping to the finish line, the inner thought from earlier was right. ‘It’s letting me finish first!’

The kind gesture he had given it was returned in kind as he crossed the finish in first place with the creature coming in second after him. Dustan was going to thank the Coeurl but never got the chance sadly as the meister of the games popped up and snapped his finger, causing the creature to vanish.

Dustan was livid at this. ‘Did he just wipe out the Coeurl?!’

Seems that like before with his surprise, his emotions were all on his face as the mixed up monster chuckled. “I didn’t kill it if that is what you are thinking, just sent it away. I am rather disappointed in it after all. It had the chance to win and threw it away.”

The anger that he felt vanished quickly to be replaced with relief knowing that the creature wasn’t harmed. The same couldn’t be said for Dustan though as his leg was still bleeding, but at least the wound wasn’t to the bone anymore thanks to the Cura from earlier. Dustan was of half a mind to ask what the next event was, except Discord was gone, with the window to the maze in Canterlot open. He could see that Discord’s interaction with Fluttershy played out just like in the show having to force himself on her to change her mind.

When he came back Dustan couldn’t help but make a remark. “So not able to convince her so you just straight up magic her personality different huh? And here I thought you at least had some honor.”

Seems that Discord didn’t like being called out on things like this as he snapped his fingers and everything went white for Dustan. There was no pain, no tiredness. Instead Dustan felt great, rested, and everything. This lead to only one thought in his mind.

‘So that had been it huh?’ Dustan thought to himself. ‘The last straw he had with me before killing me became to irresistible.’

“You aren’t dead you know.” The voice of the thing that had done this to him answered as if reading his thoughts.

“Oh that is good to kn-wait then why am I blind?” Almost as if the universe was answering him, his vision slowly faded back in. “Oh.”

Discord clicked his tongue in disappointment. “You know, I get really tired of ponies, and people I suppose, thinking I would kill willy nilly. I have never killed anypony or anyone, just as I have never turned any to stone.”

“Directly, never killed anyone directly you mean.” Discord looked at Dustan as he said that and for a moment the Monk thought he had crossed a line as he opened his mouth. Instead the Chimeric creature only shrugged. ‘Ok that isn’t an unsettling answer at all.’

Tapping his chin it seemed Discord was up to something. “Let’s see, what is your next challenge? Oh you should be hearing it anytime now.”

“What do you mean I should be hearing-” A sound amplified by a speaker system located atop of the distant town hall. The sound of three frightened fillies could be heard, three bundles of mischief all calling out one word.

“HELP!”

Twenty Two: C͎̼̫̫̲̯̜̎̅̏̿̚̕͞͝h̵̹̝̥̠̪̥͎̎̔͊̄̕a̩̜͕͒͌̊͐̈́͊͟͠ͅo̲̤̲̜͎̅͂̎̊͘͘͡s̡̡̛̛͇̲̦̮͕̠̝͆͛̎̏̄͛̊.

View Online

My Little Tactics

Chapter Twenty Two: C͎̼̫̫̲̯̜̎̅̏̿̚̕͞͝h̵̹̝̥̠̪̥͎̎̔͊̄̕a̩̜͕͒͌̊͐̈́͊͟͠ͅo̲̤̲̜͎̅͂̎̊͘͘͡s̡̡̛̛͇̲̦̮͕̠̝͆͛̎̏̄͛̊.

“HELP!” The call of the Crusader’s call could be heard echoing to the outskirts of town.

Without a thought Dustan leaped towards Discord sword in hand and anger flowing through him like he had only felt a few times in his life. “YOU BASTARD!”

Dodging to the left of the crimson colored weapon there came a tisk tisk sound from Discord. “Dustan Dustan. If there is anything you should know about me is that I don’t harm ponies and I won’t this time. So calm down and think about things”

“So what do you call that?” Dustan barely held himself back, not even thinking about all the power the Spirit of Disharmony possessed, nor about the discomfort of wielding a sword in his current class of Monk.

Smiling, or rather it was a grin that unnerved the human to the core, he responded simply. “A situation that you can save them from. Those three are held up by a rope over a pit, said pit has more than a few nasty things at the bottom. Might be fire, might be acid, who can remember anymore what is in the bottom of pits these days.”

Dustan knew that things were too good to be true, Discord from the show and this one were two different beings entirely. One would never dare to put a pony in harm’s way, make them uncomfortable and annoyed, absolutely, but never put them in a situation to be harmed if they weren’t capable of getting out of it. This made him lose any and all respect for the monster before him.

Making no effort to hide his disgust from Discord caused said creature to frown. “Hmm I see. I think I am getting a good idea of who you are.” Shaking off the frown…literally, he removed his head and shook his head till all features fell off and then were redrawn, he came back with a smile. “Well no matter. You have about only…oh let’s say five minutes and fifty seconds? Yeah that sounds good.”

The number, like most things Discord did, made no sense to Dustan at all so he had to ask. “Why five minutes and fifty seconds?”

“You see, the timer will start when the song starts to play, when it stops that is when the rope will break dropping those three calling for you into the pit.” So that was it, a timer tied to a song. “Though I should warn you, while you can easily run to the Town Hall from here in less than that time, you shouldn’t expect things to be that simple. Anyways it’s time to start.” Parts of the malefic monstrosity exploded into snaps and pops of small firecrackers with only the head left remaining. “Good luck ‘Hero’.” With that final bit the music started, music that Dustan knew quite well.

The instant the music started was when dust was kicked up as he took off. Re-entering Ponyville proper the vocals had started to kick in, as well as the part that Discord mentioned.

‘Where have all the good men gone? And where are all the gods?’ Bonnie Tyler’s classic song was playing in its dramatic tone as skeletal ponies started to shuffle out and block his path.

Putting away his Blood Sword Dustan quickly drew out his Coral Sword and made the class change from Monk to Squire. The thought of switching to Knight came to mind but he wanted to keep the speed of Squire to better reach the Crusaders. Hearing them call for help again made his blood boil.

“Out of my fucking way!” Dustan spared not a second glance at the first skele-pony that he struck down, hearing the bones break from his strike and bones collapsing to the ground. They were everywhere, they were crowding the way.

‘Where’s the streetwise Hercules to fight the rising odds? Isn’t there a white knight upon a fiery steed?’ Ironic lyrics for sure considering the mass of undead in front of him and the fact they were all ponies.

Quickly slashing again and again, he could tell they weren’t Tactics Skeletons as they went down in a single shot every time, or if they were they were first level. It didn’t matter, what did matter is even though he was breaking one after the other he wasn’t making much progress. What he needed was something to clear them out, and since they were so simple to destroy well he had the idea.

Gathering the destructive power within him he felt it growing, sword in one hand magic in the other; flame gathered in his hand waiting to be unleashed. “Fi-”

His attempt at magic was cut off as one skele-pony lunged at him forcing him to use his Defend reaction. Holding his blade horizontal, the lightning elemental blade’s flat pressed against his glove covered palm of the other hand as it block the pony.

A strange pulse echoed through Dustan’s being at that moment but he had neither the time nor luxury for curiosity as he threw off the undead pony then cleaved it in two letting its charred remains hit the ground.

‘Wait, it’s charred?’ Sure enough the undead was on fire and burning away causing some of the undead to instinctively back up since it was one of their weaknesses. Holding up his sword ready to attack again the roaring and crackling of flame was what greeted him. ‘Why is my sword on fire?’

No answer was given, but something did happen to let him know the situation was better. When he swung his sword before, the resistant of splintering and crunching bones made it so that he could only realistically destroy one of them at a time. Now? Well that flaming and electrical elemental sword swiped through them like butter.

‘Late at night I toss and I turn, and I dream of what I need!’ Progress was being made and the song had barely just begun. Problem was he was still far away and every second he spent cleaving through the undead was another second that brought the girls closer to injury or worse. The crowd was thinning though, noticeably second by second, only problem was now it was no longer just by Dustan’s hand. The bones were clattering and clanking as they rose into the air, slowly fitting together making a larger skele-pony that was easily five times the size of the one before it.

‘I need a hero! I am holding out for a hero till the end of the night.’ The hoof, or would it be plural since it was made up of many, crashed into the ground just after Dustan rolled to the side swinging his flaming sword across the bones but only splintering a few, not even cutting through the entire leg. What was worse was that some of the remaining undead equines that were around broke apart and filled in the injury.

‘Least it is not super fast.’ That didn’t mean it wasn’t quick though as a rapid beat of its front hooves made the human dance about to avoid each once and just barely causing him to back off in a roll from the thundering presence before him. As soon as he backed off though the bony pony stopped and stared giving him a realization. “You are a guard!”

‘He’s got to be strong, and he’s got to be fast. And he’s gotta be fresh from the fight.’ The lyrics were right; he had to be fast, quicker than the pony guard. Making his choice he rushed in hoping to catch it off guard with how fast he could be. He was wrong.

The pony merely turned quickly as its large bony protrusion of a tail extended further to touch the ground and more and was swung towards him cloths lining him across the chest and sending him flying. Dustan felt a pain he had only felt once before in Equestria, the pain of broken ribs.

“Cure!” He called out with a rasp and though it was a quick casted spell he felt some pain leave him. Not much though. Giving a cough he noticed blood flecks hit the ground. ‘Please let that be from before I just healed.’

‘I need a hero! I’m holding out for a hero till the morning light. He’s gotta be sure and it’s gotta be soon. And he’s gotta be larger than life!’ Gritting his teeth again the song was right they were approaching the second verse now. ‘Larger than life.’

As soon as he got up and moved pain wrecked his mind yep, his ribs were not doing good things inside him. “HELP!”

Dustan’s feet left the ground as he rushed forward without a second thought, spurred on the words called out. The undead readied its tail swipe again and Dustan grabbed his sword in both hands, the negative reaction coursing through him again. He was never sure if there were any consequences for doing forbidden things for too long, or seeing an action through but it didn’t matter. Using the added power of Doublehand he cleaved through the pony’s tail. While it was using the last of the skele-ponies to regenerate its tail Dustan felt his hands go numb for a moment forcing him to drop his flaming sword, causing it to extinguish the instant it left his hands.

‘Somewhere after midnight in my wildest fantasy. Somewhere just beyond my reach, there's someone reaching back for me.’ This wasn’t his wildest fantasy, nor did he wish to see what was possibly reaching out for him from behind. Instead Dustan started to run straight to the Town Hall. It didn’t take a genius to guess from the loud thundering hoof beats behind him that that bony pony was chasing him now. ‘Racing on the thunder and rising with the heat.’

‘Normally I love that song; right now I hate it though.’ As he was running he slowly gathered up his power, slower as his attention was divided between running as well as breathing as best he could since that wasn’t working quite like he wanted it to. “Out of the ground,-” A hoof thudded next to him causing him to fling himself away, right into the path of the next hoof that came in like a dump truck to kick him. Dustan wasn’t sure how he landed on his feet but he did. “Raze all greenery with flame!” Gathering the flame in both hands and thrusting them forward as the pony ran at him. “FIRA!”

The heat was immense causing him to sweat more then he already wise and illuminating his pale pallor, a tornado of fire shot from his hands colliding with the pony. Shards of bones were popping off left and right as the beast gave an unearthly cry of pain as it thrust itself to the ground trying to put itself out.

‘It’s gonna take a superman to sweep me off my feet’ It wasn’t a superman that took Dustan off his feet, instead it was the racking cough that did that. Trying to cover his mouth with one of his hands while the other tried to pick himself up, he felt his blood run cold as the hand covering his mouth came back wet with fresh blood.

“HELP!” That sound again spurred him on, making him ignore his own injuries for the time being and giving him new strength. Judging from where he was, he was about a third of the way to the Town Hall now, meaning he was a bit behind as the song was about at the halfway point. At this pace he wasn’t going to make it!

Getting up and running, slow at first but slowly gaining a more steady pace, he felt like he could make it if he just pushed through everything. He could do it, he could make it he could-The sound of a loud whinny caused him to turn around as the creature had managed to put itself out but not without damage. The large skeleton was now missing half its skull but the other half had a glowing red eye that was glaring at him in anger.

‘Oh shit!’ His legs weren’t carrying him as fast as they had before but it was clear to hear that his opponent didn’t share that same problem as it quickly caught up to him. Dodging to the left this time Dustan thought he had avoided it only to see a shadow go over him before the pony landed before him baring his way. ‘Sonva-’ The thought never finished as the pony opened its mouth crying out as bone spears came flying out of it. The attack caught the Squire off guard who barely had time to duck out of the way into an alleyway, though not without injury. Large bone shards covered his right arm turning it useless though Dustan would pull the shards out. ‘SONVA BITCH!’

‘I need a hero! I am holding out for a hero till the end of the night.’ The chorus had started again. ‘He’s got to be strong, and he’s got to be fast. And he’s gotta be fresh from the fight.’ Strong, that was relative for Dustan. Fast, not anymore. Fresh from the fight, well the blood dripping from his mangled right arm was a good indication of how fresh from the fight he was.

Getting up, forcing himself to stand he took inventory of his magic, not much. The Fira had taken more out of him then he thought, not to mention the Cura spell from earlier that he had used on the Coeurl. The day was starting to add up and he wasn’t fairing the best now. Wear and tear on multiple areas were getting to him. He had just a bit more then what a Cure would cost him but that wouldn’t alleviate things at all, it would be a stopgap measure at best and at worst useless and drain him of the last bit of MP he had.

‘I need a hero! I’m holding out for a hero till the morning light. He’s gotta be sure and it’s gotta be soon. And he’s gotta be larger than life!’ The chorus was almost over, the song was approaching the last few lines of itself. ‘I need a hero! I’m holding out for a hero till the end of the night…’ The song was such a parallel to everything at the moment. Those fillies need a hero.

‘I cant.’ He could feel his tears stain his cheeks. With how far the song was, with how far away he was. He couldn’t run there normally let along injured and with the undead giant in the way.

“HELP US DUSTAN!” The voices of the Crusaders called out. They called out, for him.

Turning his head he slammed it against the brickwork of the house he was leaning against causing a trickle of blood to run down his forehead. “Damn it! I WON’T GIVE UP!” Dustan had only one choice to make things up and it was a gamble, both of his safety especially at this moment and of the safety of the girls. Gathering up his remaining power he knew that once he cast this spell, he was dry. “Layer upon layer, make your mark now! HASTE!” Two spirals of green roman numerals rotated clockwise around him and towards his middle.

The moment the Haste spell took effect, three things became clear. One: It had worked his perception of time slowed to a crawl. Two: the nausea he felt last time came back full force. Three: his body hated it worse than normal time. None of that mattered to him though. Rushing out he surprised the giant as when it tried to skewer him with a shower of bone spears, the place it had targeted him was empty of him by the time they landed, and not by a small margin either.

‘Up where the mountains reach the heavens above. Out where the lightning splits the sea. I could swear there was someone somewhere watching me!’ The pony was definitely watching shooting patch after patch of bone spears trying to time its shots to the speeding human only to miss every time. Except it was getting closer and closer each time.

Just when it thought it had the human this time, he had unexpectedly stopped and turned towards it, making the shower miss again. Jumping up Dustan landed on its face and raised his one free hand. The large pony looked him square in the eyes with its large glowing orb of an eye.

“PUMMEL!” Dustan’s fist lashed out so quickly that it appeared to be multiple hits, each one landing with a loud cracking sound. “Consecutive normal punches!” The reference was lost on the pony, though it didn’t matter. The punches did their job causing the cracks to splinter all the way through the remainder of the skull. The light left the lingering socket before it would give a shudder and start to break apart completely throwing the man down to the ground with a cry of pain.

‘Through the wind and the chill and the rain.’ The wind was Dustan’s voice leaving him in agony, the chill was coming from all his blood loss, and the rain was the tears falling from his eyes. ‘And the storm and the flood.’ The storm and the flood were one in the same, his heartbeat and the blood rushing quickly through his head as Dustan forced himself to stand once more. ‘I can feel his approach like a fire in my blood.’ It wasn’t the blood that was on fire, but his entire body.

Haste was still active and the last lines were the chorus to be song twice in a row with one last line after that. The human didn’t have long left and he was barely over half way now. His body protested the entire way and the coppery taste of blood filled his mouth more and more with each step till he could feel it wet his chin. The good news was he was in so much pain that the nausea no longer bothered him, the bad news was he was in so much pain that nausea was the least of his concerns.

The chorus finished once just as the Haste spell ran its course forcing his sluggish body back to its normal pace. The steps of the Town Hall normally were never a problem, but thanks to the chaos renovation company, aka Discord, it was now a series of steps that would make Rocky proud to climb. Running up them as fast as humanly possible, more so then his body should have, Dustan could feel his ribs touch and rip something inside causing him to gasp and lose his breath. Blood filled his mouth as he kept going, there was so much pain that no other thoughts could enter his mind anymore. Not even the song playing could be heard anymore.

The only thing that kept him going and the only thing he could hear were the cries of the Crusaders over the speaker. The chorus finished its second round now. All that was left was its last lines to be said as Dustan opened the doors to the town hall. His vision was blurry and fading at this point, but he could distinctly see three colorful bundles of equine mischief tied to a rope.

‘I need a hero! I am holding out for a hero till the end of the night.’ Those were the last words of the song as the music faded. With its fade the rope snapped as a pit opened up from the ground. The human moved quicker than he had a right to do so, kicking up off the ground and reaching out with his free arm to take hold of the girls and let his momentum take him clear across the room skidding to a halt. Dustan had jumped the pit.

There was a flash of light and the fading figure of Discord could be made out in the human’s vision. There was the muffled sound of someone speaking but the Squire couldn’t tell what was being said nor if it was Discord that was truly speaking it or not.

‘Guess if I had to go out some way, this isn’t a bad one.’ That thought seemed like a good last thought, so much so he managed a smile as he could feel everything start to fade away.

It wasn’t to be as a flash of light forced his vision to sharply focus and his lungs to fill with air. “Now now, that was quite a show. You nearly lost your life there to save these three.”

Coughing over and over again the human slowly raised up to find not a single scratch on him and his sword that he dropped back in its scabbard. “W-What?”

“I am very impressed you know, not an easy thing to do.” Reaching down Discord plucked the bundle that Dustan was guarding with his life only to find something off. “I mean not many would risk life and limb to rescue three plush toys with a recording attached.”

Sure enough looking up he spotted they were indeed plush toy versions of the Crusaders. “But, I thought-”

“I know I know. You thought they were the real deal. But never once did I say the things you were to rescue were ponies now did I? I also said I would never harm ponies, stuffed toys are not so lucky however.” A chuckle was given but Dustan wasn’t sure how to feel.

On one hand he nearly lost his life in this round to rescue someone, well three people. On the other hand, there was never any danger and no one was in trouble at all. He had risked his life for nothing, or did he? He was so confused and not sure how to answer that as with another flash he found himself back at the outskirts.

Weirdly Dustan felt a hand placed on his shoulder and looked up to see Discord smiling kindly? “Ponies are quick to say they accept and will offer help to others, but rare is it that they would ever risk their lives for another so quickly as you. I have seen pony guards in the past balk and run when I showed up, stampeding over fellow guards and citizens alike. I have met so called heroes and found them wanting. Rarely have I ever found anyone worthy of such a title.” Pulling away Discord walked a bit a ways and loudly chuckled. “Not only are you worthy of the title, but you embody it completely. That is why the last event shall be a three part event. I want to give you the chance to win JUST to see what you would do with the wish. However that being said, I won’t make it easy for you either to get this.”

To be complimented by Discord was…a weird feeling, something Dustan wasn’t sure if he should be proud of or not. “Thank you for saying those kind things.” That being said, for some reason it did make him feel good to hear them. “So what is the last event?”

“A battle contest!” Snapping his claws there was a scoreboard now that showed Dustan three times on the left and across from him were three question marks. “You will fight a best of three and if you win two, then you win. Since we are tied that literally means you win it all. However if you lose twice-”

“Then the same goes there and I lose it all.” Snapping his fingers Discord pointed and nodded as Dustan got it right. “So will I get to know who I face before hand or will it be a mystery each time?”

“My boy, of course it will be a mystery. However let me put it this way. I will make sure you recognize each fighter I fabricate.” He didn’t like the sound of that at all, from the way Discord said that, it almost sounded like- “They will be from your memories that I snooped through, though I will try to keep it to some more memorable ones.”

‘Damn, that means I could end up fighting op assholes like Emerald Weapon or something.’ The human was praying his gaming life wasn’t about to come back and bite him in the ass.

“The rules will be simple.” Here it comes, the rules for this stage and likely they will be strict were the thoughts that ran through Dustan’s mind. “No holds bar.”

‘Oh…ok.’ Dustan could clearly say he didn’t expect that at all.

Discord continued unaware of the thoughts of the human. “Feel free to use anything and everything. Hold nothing back as I will make sure you are refreshed between rounds. Though Keep this in mind. If you beat your enemy, you win, if they beat you, they win. However if you beat them but the effects they have on you render you down and out, it is a draw. Or vise versa.”

“So literally you will full restore me after each fight?” Getting a nod from the Spirit of Disharmony that brought some plans to the humans head.

“I will give you a moment to think about things, I will be right back.” With a flash he was gone, only this time he left no window to let Dustan view through. Not that Dustan would this time as planning was important.

‘Ok I should stay Squire, its kinda all around well rounded for many purposes. Switching to Black Mage might be a course but I am wearing Leather armor so it won’t like that. Damn. Technically Monk shouldn’t like it as well, though I only notice very minor discomfort from that, unlike wielding a sword.’ Running through multiple scenarios in his head, the displaced human came to the conclusion that Squire was his only choice in the matter, though Knight was the back up if he needed the defense. Discord wasn’t yet back so another matter came to his mind and he pulled out his Coral Sword. ‘Why were you on fire earlier?’

No answer came and no answer was given as with a flash the chimeric creature was back. “Ok then, that is settled, though if I know them they will likely be on their way back now.”

Hearing him say that brought to mind the events of the show. In all the turmoil happening here he had forgotten what was happening over there for a moment. With what he said Dustan could deduce that all of the Mane Six but Twilight were now brainwashed and on their way back.

They would need more time. “So who is my first opponent in our little tournament?”

Ticking his hand back and forth Discord looked away with a smug grin. “I said I wouldn’t say didn’t I? So that means you have to guess as they appear. I won’t tell you till AFTER the match as by then it won’t matter anymore.”

With a snap a heavily cloaked figure appeared. The blackness within its hood was so deep that Dustan could only see the yellow of teeth and the red of eyes. Two malformed hands came out of the sleeves of his robe as it raised them up. Four full zombies rose up out of the ground, pony ones at that.

‘Well it’s a step up from Skeletons I suppose.’ There wasn’t much time for thought.

With a snap of his fingers Discord rang an invisible bell and relocated to watch the fight with a bag of popcorn. The match had begun. The zombies rushed at him, nothing like a slow shuffle in most old horror movies. The first zombie was finished off with a quick strike to its head, removing it from its body. Dustan activated Tactical Eye to make sure it was dead. Sure enough as he did so the body vanished as it disintegrated. With that giving him confidence Dustan deactivated Tactical Eye as he ran towards the other zombies, cutting them down after a few thrusts and slashes.

The Squire was about to turn its attention to the hooded figure but instead of seeing a clear view between him and it, there were now eight zombies in his way. “Oh shit he is a necromancer. I should have seen that coming.” That seemed to make the yellowed toothed grin of the hooded creature widen as it continued to raise more. “Go ahead you little shit, I don’t have to hold back for you!” Calling up his power, this time no longer having to split his attention it came quickly. “Out of the ground, raze all greenery! FIRA!”

Holding out his single hand the torrent of fire washed over the zombies. Their shapes in the fire only lasted a moment before they vanished giving rise to the smell of burning flesh and burning horse hair. Not a pleasant thing at all to smell. However the flames reached the necromancer at the end and burned him as well causing him to scream in a high pitched wail.

Cutting off power to the flames Dustan rushed forward while the creature was still engulfed in the fire and before it could raise anymore zomb-ponies to its beck and call and stabbed it through the chest. “Take that.” The wail was cut off with a gurgle as it soon collapsed on itself. Opening up Tactical Eye, Dustan only took a quick glance at its health to make sure that it was indeed at zero.

It was. Giving a smile he turned towards the spirit with a grin on his face wondering how the being had liked the swift dispatch of that enemy. Instead Dustan’s grin faltered when he caught Discord staring intently behind him. Dustan barely got any warning as the tearing of cloth was heard.

Turning back something long and of a dull green had pierced the cloth and struck at Dustan, a fatal blow as well. The tentacle of the being had caught him square up under his ribs. It was then that Dustan caught sight of the being he was facing. A being that if he just took the time to examine fully with his ability he would have been ready for this.

Before him was a rotted face and body, of a dark brown only now green hair could be seen barely on the top of his head with green bones rose up along his spine down his back. Tentacles lined up on the side going up behind him and down below since his body was in a permanent hunch.

“Scarmiglione!” The archfiend smiled as Dustan revealed his true identity before tossing him a great distance. The battle was over, Dustan was about to go cover the hole that was left by the fiend when there was a flash and his wounds were gone, as was the undead.

The sound of a clack could be heard drawing his attention over to the scoreboard. “That is one win for me Dustan.” Where before was a question mark, was now the gnarled face of Scarmiglione the archfiend from Final Fantasy Four. “Take a moment for a breather and gather up an idea, I know who I am going to create next so take your time.”

‘I need to keep Tactical Eye up at all time.’ He told himself grimly. ‘I got cocky and overconfident in how the Legion bone pony was as well as how weak the zomb-ponies were that I assumed too many things about the other thing he summoned. If I had taken the time I would have been prepared for it, but just like in the game I got caught off guard and got a back attack. I am such an idiot! ’ Taking a deep breath and checking on his MP he did indeed find it fully restored as well. ‘Well now I have to win the next two in a row or it’s over.’

Looking up at Discord and giving him a nod, the snap of a finger came and went and as Dustan looked down at his opponent there was a feeling of dread that came over him. The figure standing away from him was another skeleton, this time human, or at least humanoid in that it was a biped with two hands. It wore black shorts, sneakers and a blue jacket. It was short, at least half his size but more and more a feeling of dread came to him.

To put that feeling of dread to a name Dustan activated Tactical Eye and his blood ran cold. “No…” This wasn’t a Final Fantasy enemy. Hell, he didn’t even come from Square Enix at all.

“It’s a beautiful day outside.” A shaking hand quickly drew his Coral Sword. “Birds are singing, flowers are blooming.” Taking up a ready stance, Dustan watched the figure slowly turn to face him. “On days like this, kids like you.” With that San’s turned to face the Squire with his dark empty eye sockets. “Should be burning in hell!”

Right away as those last words were said the time aware skeleton threw his hand out and Dustan felt himself flung backwards. As soon as he landed bones materialized out of nothing or out of the ground and moved at him. He knew what they would do in the game they came from but not here, so taking caution he did his best to dodge where he could. The attacks were fast in the game for sure, but if they were coming at him at the same speed as in the game, he could confidently say he could dodge them, the reality though was they were much faster than the game.

Wall after all came at him and it was all he could do to dodge each one the surprise came when the walls were no longer there, but instead a giant skull glowing with an inner power. “Well shit.”

Spike was gritting his teeth. Since near the start, he had been watching things progress between Dustan and Discord via the telescope that Twilight used for star gazing. The dragon caught glimpses of the Hide and Seek game as well as the scavenger hunt though he couldn’t begin to guess what it was the two were doing. The obstacle course had scared the dragon as the thing running against Dustan had looked frightening. Though when it had got hurt he felt sympathy for it and for a moment he had felt the same as Dustan, glad it was hurt to give him the chance to win.

The only difference was Spike felt a flash of guilt as Dustan turned around and healed the beast. Spike wasn’t sure if he would have done the same, he would like to think so but he couldn’t be sure. When it came to the Crusaders, Spike nearly leapt out of the balcony of the treebary except he was stopped by an invisible force. It was clear that Discord wanted no one interfering in whatever it was that they were doing.

So all Spike could do was watch, watch and hope for his friend. He watched the mob of skeletal ponies come, he watched them get cut down, he watched as Dustan formed a blazing sword, and he watched as the Legion came to be. Legion was a creature that Spike had read about in books, it was similar to how Timberwolves could form into a giant version of themselves except legion was also a collection of negative emotions as well as remains all coming together as one. It had taken on many forms in the past, none of which Spike would have thought was something like this.

The dragon winced watching his friend get tagged by the tail and could tell he was really hurt. From the treebary he got a good glimpse of it all, the run the sweat and tears, the spears, the blood. So much blood it made him sick to his stomach both at how much there was and to imagine how much pain the human was in. When all was said in done, Discord had proudly announced through the speaker system that he had won and saved the dolls and asked Dustan how he felt. However there was no answer, least not one that Spike could hear.

Then they appeared in the clearing at the edge of town once again only now Dustan was better, as if nothing had happened. Discord vanished again and when he came back he also brought a scoreboard of some type with him. Then the cloaked figure and zomb-ponies appeared. They were nothing like the comics he had read, these were rotten and pieces of them were missing or falling off. Spike swore off zombie books and comics right after seeing them.

Luckily they seemed easy enough to beat, and the fire! WOW, he thought his own fire was impressive but the fire that Dustan let loose, he was one hundred percent sure that he never showed Twilight anything close to that. Spike was cheering his friend on as well watching till he got impaled and then the cheers turned to cold blooded screams of fear.

He thought he saw his friend cut down before his eyes with nothing to be done or help with. He felt powerless, Spike felt hopeless, he felt…relieved when he saw Discord heal him up right as rain. However that good feeling went away when a point was added to Discord’s side. Now though the second fight started and right away Spike felt something different.

Looking at Dustan, the confident, or at least assured, face that he sported was gone. Instead a look had come to his face that Spike had only known when Twilight thought Celestia was extremely upset with her: Fear. Whatever had just appeared Dustan recognized and was afraid of. He had not been afraid of the skeletons, or zombies, but this one he was? It was a normal skeleton right, well normal for a human he supposed since he never saw a human skeleton before.

Then the craziness started, Spike had been telekinetically moved more than a handful of times to recognize the look of someone that it was happening to. The bones then started to appear and attack. With each dodge Spike gave a little ‘yeah’ in response. Though he saw a skull appear behind the walls, out of Dustan’s vision and tried to scream, call out a warning or anything. Whatever barrier had stopped him from going to help the Crusaders earlier now also seemed to block in sound as none of his words were heard.

The thing known as the Gaster Blaster fired a beam of energy at Dustan who tried to block it and barely did with his sword, though at a cost. He had took damage and his sword was flung to who knows where. The purple assistant watched as Dustan reached to his belt, grabbing not his other sword but instead his axe. Twilight had explained to him before about the axe and knew how important such a thing was and what it meant. He hoped it would help.

Seemed Dustan had got tired of being on the defensive and during the next wave of bones instead of dodge Dustan swung. The bones shattered on impact making the creature who summoned them jump in shock, it had not expected that at all. It grinned then and one of its eyes shown in a blue glowing fire as it lifted Dustan up and slammed him a few times before letting him go.

The skeleton shrugged and seemed to be talking, though about what Spike didn’t know, instead he did see Dustan grin and speak. Two green spirals appeared around Dustan and the bruises that he had just gotten as well as the burns from that laser vanished. Again the bipedal skeleton seemed surprised and this time summoned bones of white and blue. This tactic seemed to throw Dustan off enough as some of the white bones hit him as for some reason he stood still to let the blue ones pass through him. This time though it seemed as though things were turning around as Dustan prepared to strike the creature with his axe.

Except the moment he tried the creature moved so fast that he left echoes of himself behind. Spike could only cheer for his friend and hope for the best.

“What? You think I gonna just stand there and take it?” Sans spoke up with a wink of one of his…eye sockets?

‘How is that even possible?’ Another question that would go unanswered as suddenly Gaster Blasters appeared, four at a time lining up to deal area damage. “Oh Shit!” He barely had a second to move and get in place, each time the blaster fired, they left space open in some areas following the patterns of the game in that regard as they made X patterns and squares. How none of those beams hit anything in Ponyville was a mystery to him but he couldn’t focus on that right now. Instead he rushed forward this time with a plan in mind. Attacking with his axe Sans dodged wonderfully once more.

Shrugging again the skeletal brother started to speak. “Our reports showed a-”

“Thunder!” Lightning shot from Dustan’s other hand only to be intercepted by a wall of bones.

“How did you do that? The reports said nothing about lightning.” Sans was sweating now, either the surprises were getting to him or something else was happening. Shaking his head he just grinned and spoke again. “Go ahead and try to hit me if you are able. You should know by now that mercy is off the table.”

‘Is he really singing like from that one animation?’ Throwing his Thunder around as he ran forward Dustan watched as bone wall after bone wall came to intercept things, Sans was now on the defensive. As another wall came up, this time Dustan used his axe to chop right through.

“You think that you can spare me like I am some pawn?” Sans still sung just like in the animation.

‘Which means…oh SHIT!’ it was too late though, Dustan was already committed to an attack.

“Well you didn’t spare my brother so get DUNKED ON!” As he said that, San’s left eye glowed in a luminous blue flame as bones appeared below Dustan and rammed upwards.

Unlike in the game however instead of trapping him and damaging his soul to death, they launched him upwards only to cause him to crash down hard. “Damn it Sans, I am not Chara!” Dustan called out as a coughing fit took him, unable to see the Gaster Blaster’s appearing to finish him off.

When he opened his eyes and saw them he right away tried to defend himself from the upcoming attacks hoping to weather them. Instead nothing came. Looking up he watched as Sans seemed to look around at things, first at the surroundings, then at himself, and finally to Dustan.

When at last he came to the human he spoke softly. “You…aren’t are you?” Looking back down at his hands he chuckled. “Then again seems I am not really Sans either.” Snapping his fingers almost in a Discord like way, the skulls and bones all vanished as Sans reached out to offer Dustan a hand. “Sorry about that. Didn’t mean to cause any trouble. If you ever meet the real me, promise me you won’t have a bone to pick with him ok?”

Dustan was about to take the offered hand but a distant snapping sound caused the skeletal brother to vanish in a flash of light, leaving the human feeling a bit sad about that.

“I really do hate when they become self aware like that. However I suppose in a way that is a victory in of itself for you.” Clapping his hands, a mini-Discord at the scoreboard flipped over the tally to show that now Dustan had one point on the row where Sans head was.

Another snap of the finger and Dustan felt all the damage he took vanish as well as his MP being restored to full. “Guess that means we are in the final round huh? A win and a loss on each side. This really is winner take all here.”

Grinning at Dustan, the embodiment of chaos nodded and chuckled. “Indeed it is and this has been quite fun. I am looking forward to continuing this whenever I feel like it after I win.”

Not able to withstand Discord’s grin, Dustan responded with one of his own. “And when I win, I look forward to my wish. Now bring on your last challenge!”

“As you wish.” With a snap Discord vanished and in his place stood a black robed bipedal figure.

Dustan gave a face-palm. Sure this was loosely related to Final Fantasy but all the people who wore that robe were dicks to fight for the most part. Considering that the figure was now gathering water over their head the Squire knew he was facing the most annoying of the bunch too all of which was confirmed by his Tactical Eye.

The water soon formed a dome as it rushed up to the raised hand of the figure obscuring vision though it was clear to see the hood had fallen back to reveal blond hair. “Fucking fine, let’s get this one over with.”

The water formed a musical instrument as it finally stopped flowing, a musical instrument called a Sitar. “Dance water, dance!”

Dustan’s face showed his displeasure at this as he drew his Coral Sword and glared at the hooded figure. “I hate you Demyx. I hate you so much.”

The tall man with a short blonde cut sneered at him. “Silence traitor.”

“FUCK YOU AND FUCK ORGANIZATION THIRTEEN!” Dustan called out as he rushed forward. Demyx jumped towards him water erupting in pillars along the way. Dodging to the side Dustan got clipped barely by one of the geysers and could feel that if he got hit directly on it would be enough force to crack his ribs, and he had already had enough of that for a day.

Giving a strum to the instrument the Nobody called out. “WATER!” Making balls of the liquid form and come crashing down like bullets.

There was a moment when Dustan got hit but one where he felt his body pulse briefly causing him to lose focus and get hit by a few more. “ASSHOLE!” The area around him started to dim in light and suddenly a timer appeared above Demyx’s head. “That fucking translates into the real world! FUCK THAT!”

Water clones and musical notes started appearing in mass but the angry Squire had no fucks to give for it as he called out the chant for the Fira spell. In the game that Demyx came from Fira was usually one of the best ways to get rid of it all as it created a shield around the main hero that dealt damage. All the constructs couldn’t take much of a hit so it was very effective at taking them out. That worked well as then Dustan let loose the Torrent of flames from his hand and moved his hand steadily from right to left destroying all the constructs in record time.

“I am not dealing with that bullshit mechanic!” That cry gave the musically inclined man a look of slight trepidation before he found his nerve again and started to play his song calling out another couple of water attacks.

Dustan was more aware of how much those bullets hurt now and avoided most of them, his shoulders took a beating but mostly bruises. Taking a look at his arm he could see his Hp was about half and that needed to be fixed. Calling out the chant for Cura he restored his HP to full very happy about that. Problem was that he had done nothing to the Organization member and instead has only taken hits. At this pace it would be a battle of attrition that he would lose. He had a remedy for that as he pulled back his fist and punched it forward socking the blonde haired man right in the face with an Aurablast.

“OUCH how did you do that?” The water user asked as he rubbed his jaw.

“Fuck you that’s how.” At hearing Dustan say that the musician rushed forward creating his water spouts again, thankfully Dustan had predicted it this time since the man had reacted the same way before. Taking a step to the side Dustan jumped up and gave a horizontal slash though he underestimated how thick the geysers were and took a good hit to the arm.

Demyx didn’t get off scott free though as he sported a good long gash across his arm. “Well looks like we both got our arms hur-”

The bruising of that sword arm almost completely vanished as Dustan flexed his arm. “A sword that drains the vitality of those I hit and gives it to me. Really, really handy you know?”

“Now that just isn’t fair.” Strumming his instrument he shot balls of water from his Sitar at the human rolled from the first batch but got an idea at that.

“Fair or not, doesn’t matter to someone with no heart.” He shouted as the human ran to the side.

Growling at that “We do to have a heart. Water!” Strumming his instrument again he started firing off a rapid machine gun of those water balls again.

Grinning Dustan held out the hand that was now crackling with energy. “Thunder!”

The lightning bolt connected his hand to the first water ball destroying it, then connected it to the next, and the next all the way up to the main user who gave out a yelp. “What the hell Roxas?”

Rolling his eyes Dustan figured that it was that much. Whatever Discord did he remade the enemies he was fighting using the perceptions that Dustan himself had seen them have without anything too unique about them outside of normal thinking skills and the like. Thus Demyx was seeing Dustan as Sora who had fused with his Nobody Roxas. Damn he realized that he would never learn how that game series would conclude now that he was in Equstria.

‘No time for regrets now.’ Rushing forward Dustan was prepared to strike at the black robed man till he strummed his instrument and created pillars of water around him, pushing Dustan off and giving him a good hit as a result.

Demyx wasn’t done either, starting to ‘rock out’ aggressively towards Dustan and with each step a wall of geysers. The area was getting positively soaked at this point and no doubt it was making the water attacks happen easier. Dustan had to move and quickly to avoid the robed man’s assault though he couldn’t get away flawlessly. One of the geysers hit his free arm causing it to give a distinct popping sound as it caused it to be dislocated from the socket with a cry of pain from the man.

“Like it?” The sitar wielder called out before taking up a more relaxed stance. “Dance water, dance!”

The water that soaked the area formed into the constructs like before except more plentiful with leaving more than enough water to still soak the ground. The timer this time was twenty seconds, cutting the time from last time in half. Slamming his sword into the ground Dustan took a risk. Jumping to the top of the sword he used it as a springboard to jump higher into the air.

Angling his body downwards he held out his free hand and called out without the chant. “Thundera!” The massive bolts of electricity shot from his hand like a certain emperor wielding unlimited power striking the sword and having it flash fry the water and the constructs in the process. The clones and notes faded with a watery pop and Demyx was crying out in pain as Dustan landed closer to him and drew free the Coral Sword.

“No you don’t, WATER!” Demyx cried out shooting the machine gun bullet style of water balls out at him.

This time Dustan didn’t have the free hand to cast with and was forced to give some distance. “I am not losing this Demyx. Sad to say you are not even real, and I don’t even mean that in the Nobody way, but in the way that you were created by someone here as an image of something from a memory.”

“Shut up! I do too have a heart!” It was clear by that response that Demyx misunderstood him completely, but Dustan had to try. The Nobody started doing his aggressive strut causing pillars of water to rise up from the ground in walls. Dustan knew he only had a few chances to come, he had to dodge and wait for the right time. It took about thirty seconds, but finally the walls stopped and the man called out. “Water, water, water!” A few times in a row.

No bullets came out so Dustan took this chance to rush forward. Demyx looked surprised at the rush and could only hold up his Sitar to block. A musical instrument made of water VS a powerful sword that emits lightning. The water instrument was cut in half and a large gash was now sporting on the organization member.

“N-Nooooo!” The man of water started to evaporate into black and white energy and Dustan smiled.

Putting his sword away Dustan smiled. “Get fucked, you timer assh-”The victory was short lived as the dud of abilities now hit him.

Demyx had not tried to shoot them, but instead conjured the water balls in the air like he had the first time, three sets of them too. Dustan had not been in anyway shape or form prepared for it as he thought he had beaten him. That made the rain of bullets that much more intense battering and bruising to the point of a few things snapping inside him. His dislocated shoulder he was sure now had torn muscles and tendons to go along with it now, a few ribs cracked but from the pain it didn’t feel like any broke. His legs took the least amount of the beating but still got a good few hits on them weakening them to the point he collapsed.

With a flash the water vanished but Dustan couldn’t move as Discord appeared in front of him. “Hmm you both went down in the end, you are unable to move or continue, and needless of me to say that if I left you like that you would likely die. However you did beat him so that leaves us in a jar of a pickle as it means you technically had a draw, with one win and one lose on either end.”

Discord turned into a jar of pickles as he made the pun as the lid popped off and one of the pickles floated up. “Damn…it.”

The chaotic entity was right. He was badly hurt, and while he was sure his ribs weren’t broken, he wasn’t so sure about internal injuries. Giving himself a look thanks to his arm he used his Tactical Eye to read his own status and…it wasn’t looking good. A unique status had appeared to him: Bleeding. It looked like a triple scratch wound with a drop running out of it. Problem was, he couldn’t feel any place on him with an open wound.

“Tell you what Dustan. I will give you…let’s say two hours. If you can manage to stand up by that point and hit me, in anyway shape or form I will admit defeat.” Holding up a watch that appeared from…well the chain was connected to fur so…his coat….a pocket in his coa-oh his coat pocket. “Any longer than two hours and you run the risk of bleeding out. Or rather bleeding in. Anyways I got to go. Ciao.”

With a flash of light the former lawn decoration of the Canterlot maze left leaving Dustan with a countdown that told him just how much time he had left. Problem was he had no magic left, and everything hurt to the point where he didn’t think it was possible for anyone to stand. However that didn’t matter as Dustan knew that without him distracting, Discord was free to do as he wished.

‘I have, to get, u-’ Struggling to stand the Squire barely made it to pushing his own body up before the world started to tumble and turn.

Between one blink and the next seemed longer then it should have, so long in fact that he felt even more sluggish then before. He thought he saw something glow in the distance, a slight rainbow hue only for it to die out without accomplishing anything.

‘The…Elements?’ Struggling with his thoughts for a moment Dustan remembered that the Mane Six were just in Canterlot. They couldn’t have been here. Looking over to his good arm, the parts of his skin that were exposed he could see deep purple bruises on. Those types of bruises took time. “Did I…pass out?”

A chuckle was his answer, though he had not expected it to be. “You did indeed. The two hours are nearly up and Ponyville is looking splendid as the new chaos capital of the world. You only have about fifteen minutes left in fact. You were out so long those meddlesome Element bearers had enough time to get back home. Though don’t worry, they tried and failed to use the elements on me over there so didn’t see how badly you are beat up.” Summoning up a lounge chair the multi-parted maniac laid back and put some sunglasses on. “Hope you don’t mind if I relax to the last few minutes of our deal do you? Lay there if you don’t mind.”

He wanted to growl out his hate for the creature at the moment but couldn’t muster up anything beyond a wheeze. Taking that as agreement Discord laid back and pulled out a small reflective plate used to tan himself with. It was all true, everything looked like the end of the episode where everything was plaid, more clouds with chocolate rain were around, floating buildings, a pink sky and more.

‘Damn it. Was that the first or second attempt of the elements? If it was the first then that means they are about to come back and wreck his shit. If it was the second that means I fucked up the timeline bad enough that Discord is going to remain free.’

As if to taunt him the earlier words of Discord came back to him. ‘Not only are you worthy of the title, but you embody it completely.’

‘Bullshit. Heroes help people. Heroes save people. I have fucked things up just by being here.’ Barely managing to gather enough strength in him he could feel the grass under his hand flex but that was it. There wasn’t even enough strength to crush it. ‘I can’t do it. I have lied so much to everyone, just to try to make things right, but I still screw it up.’ Tears he had been holding back for so long were falling from his eyes now. His feelings of being powerless were only part of it though, as others came forth from the depths of his soul too. ‘Almost a year here, or maybe it has been a year, it doesn’t matter though. Nearly a year and all I do is lie. I sneak about and do what I can to assure a future that might not even exist anymore just because I am here.’

A voice called out to Dustan now as if it had listened in on his thoughts. “Jeez man, you are really harping on yourself badly this time.”

‘Shut up Pat, it’s true!’ The thought of never seeing his friend was getting to him it seemed as he heard his friend talk. ‘Damn it, I won’t see you, or anyone from my world ever again.’

“Pfft, like that would stop me. Since when do I care about rules and the like? I mean I beat your ass up for how many years?” The soft subtle sound of grass moving came from before him. As Dustan looked up, there stood his friend, the same as he last saw him in his Kamina costume. The blue haired cosplayer smiled and knelled down. “Come on man, seriously. How long are you going to lay there like a little bitch huh?”

The glint off the oddly shaped glasses made Dustan wince and move his hand to intercept only to find out it did indeed block the light. ‘How?’ Since his mind seemed to be working to communicate his thoughts and his strength was gone, thinking his words seemed easier then mustering up the strength to actually say them.

Chuckling, the tough looking costumed human smiled. “I just told you that I give little shits about the rules. However it looks like your wish came true. You are in colorful girly horse land. So how is it girly toys beat up your ass?”

‘I’m not strong enough. There is a literal god of Chaos here with the power to do whatever he feels like.’ Dustan told him feeling his tears start anew. ‘To make matters worse, me being here seems to have caused shit to go all kinds of haywire as things from the Final Fantasy worlds are here.’

“So, just go out and kick their asses. Do like you always do and be a hero.” Patrick gave a wink and a flex of his arm in a manly gesture. “I mean look how well it worked out for you and me. Doesn’t matter what you say, it’s what you do. Everything you do is heroic, even if you don’t realize it.”

‘But….I’m not strong enough.’ Dustan could feel his will draining away now, the last bits of his strength leaving him. No doubt the internal bleeding was having something to do with that.

A crash before him brought him back showing the angry face of his friend who had just punched the ground. “THAT IS BULLSHIT AND YOU KNOW IT!” There was a moment where Pat had to calm down and brush back his hair. “Look man. You have always been stronger than me when push came to shove. Every time I bullied you, you are weak yeah no doubt. But when it came to others your strength goes up so much that I can’t believe it’s you. So many times have I witnessed you do things where they contradict how powerful you think you are to how strong you can be are too many to count. But let’s go back to my first time experiencing it. You tackled me remember?”

Nodding and giving a smile. ‘Yeah, you were being a dick to another kid.’

“Yep, I was being a huge shit stain and you came over and tackled my ass to the ground. I never told you this, but when I started fighting back to get you off, the reason I started to hit you was because I couldn’t move you.” Laughing loudly and holding his hand to his chest he smiled. “This loser of a kid who wouldn’t fight back, was stronger than me. That is what pissed me off the most about you. I wanted you to fight me back seriously but you never did.” The laughter soon calmed down and Pat placed a hand on Dustan’s shoulder, something that Dustan could surprisingly feel. “As the years passed and you never did, more and more I got frustrated but more and more I felt lost. Why would that kid use his strength against me to save someone else? If he had all that power why didn’t he use it to get what he wants? What was the reason for power? What should I do with mine? They were all questions I had to face thanks to you.”

The warmth of the hand, the sound of grass moving under feet, it all felt too real. ‘It’s not possible for you to actually be here. How?’

“Dude, you are in crazy colorful horse land full of magic and shit and you question how I am here?” Shaking his head he stood up and smiled. “Doesn’t matter. What does matter is you laying there defeated.” Crossing his arms the Kamina cosplayer just looked at him. “So I am going to say this plainly since you seemed to think you have lost. Ahem.”

‘But-’ Dustan didn’t get to say anything as Patrick continued.

“Dustan. If you don’t do this, that Lunchables Mascot reject is going to do with Ponyland whatever the fuck he wants.” Turning around to look at the chaos around him Patrick pointed. “And if this M.C.Esher landscape is any indication, this place is royally fucked. People can’t live like this and I doubt ponies can either.” Bending down again the next words spoken were softer then before but with a firm undertone that spoke of steel. “That means ponies are going to die.”

The sound of grass crunching could be heard and the feel of his fist tightening registered in his mind. ‘But how?’

“How? Because you are a hero. Now get up and do what heroes do kick villain ass.” Standing up once more the Kamina clone looked down at him. “Cause if you don’t, those ponies over there…will die.” Dustan couldn’t help but frown at that and start to push himself up. “The ponies across the world will die.” A growl came from his throat as his body pressed upwards. “The ones you like from the show, the ones with the goofy names, THEY WILL DIE!”

“No.” It was said so quietly that Dustan wasn’t sure if it came from his mouth or not.

“But most importantly, and to quote one of our favorite shows.” Patrick moved closer to him and spoke quietly. “Most importantly, but before all that, if you don’t do this. You’re going to die.” A knee moved up under Dustan now supporting his weight. “And you are better than that. You are better than him.” He called out pointing to the still sunbathing Discord. “You are better than me!”

“Hmm, what’s this? Looks like you are trying to stand my boy. Let’s see you do it?” Seems Discord finally noticed his movement but he didn’t seem to notice Patrick standing there.

Nor did Patrick seem to care. “You are Dustan Warner!” Dustan moved his other knee up under him. “Now, plant your feet.” The twin thuds of the Squire’s feet moving up under him to steady him were heard. “Grit your teeth.” Growling out now Dustan could feel his jaw strain. Patrick smiled and pointed at Discord. “AND EAT THAT HORSE!”

“AHHHHH!” Raising himself up Dustan spotted Discord looking impressed before him as well as the Mane Six running up the hills with their Elements, before it all faded to black.

“Chaos is a wonderful, wonderful thing.” The creature of Chaos spoke out unaware of his guests.

Stepping up and posing, Rainbow Dash and her friends all struck a pose. “Not as wonderful as friendship.”

Giving a groan Discord looked at them. “Ugh, not this again.” Taking a drink from his glass, which made the glass itself vanish, he then tossed away the chocolate milk left behind to explode.

‘I don’t even want to think about how much that is going to suck coming out the other end.’ However it was then she noticed the only human that she knew standing blank faced behind Discord. “Hey, what did you do to Dustan?”

Looking from her to him Discord rose from his black throne and smiled. “You see, we made a bet, a bit of a scuffle here and a fight there and he end up like that. However the end of the deal said he had to get up and hit me in some way to win. Problem was, he passed out on his feet. You have got to admire that willpower though.”

“Yeah right. Like you didn’t just do to him like you did to all of us.” The pegasus snorted as Twilight moved up beside her.

“You nearly tricked me to being in a state where I wasn’t myself as well. You did that with Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Applejack too. You had to touch Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash when they didn’t do what you wanted to and force them to change.”

“I know, it was so strange.” Discord said as he popped out of reality to appear in front of the group. “Fluttershy was stubborn I admit, but I could have sworn I would have been able to influence the young Rainbow Dash myself without having to come into direct contact. But alas, seems Dustan here had a bigger affect on things then he realized.”

Scuffing a hoof in the dirt the farming pony Applejack looked at him. “What do you mean by that?”

Stroking his goatee Discord chuckled and said. “What DO I mean by that? For now let’s put that on the back burner.” A stove appeared and on the back burner of said stove was the book that Discord made of the memories he copied from Dustan. “Let’s just hope that doesn’t-” the book went up in a flash turning to ashes. “Opps, nevermind.” Patting his hands to clean them off Discord looked at the girl and grinned. “But enough about that, lets talk about-”

“Whoa what is going on over there?” Pinkie Pie shouted as she moved to point from over the shoulder of Twilight.

Everyone, including Discord all looked over to the still body of Dustan, or rather the formerly still body. “Oh wow, that is something else. His body is out of commission but his will is moving it.”

‘Wow.’ Were the thoughts running through everypony’s head at that moment.

Part of Twilight wondered. ‘Is it even possible to study that kind of phenomena?’

Applejack looked on and could only think. ‘Gosh darn even Ah ain’t that stubborn.’

Rarity thought that if he was a pony this would almost be like a scene straight from one of her romance books where the gallant knight’s body moved even when the knight itself had died. ‘Oh I do hope he isn’t dead though.’

‘Poor thing, he needs to get treated right away.’ Fluttershy’s kind nature not caring about so much as the how he could move, but more towards treating him so that he could get well.

‘That is kinda like me when I was planning a two week long birthday bash and then overworked myself only to fall asleep the day of shopping. I had to settle on just the day party instead of the two week one I had planned for lack of supplies.’ However that did remind Pinkie Pie of something that she had been meaning to look into. ‘Hey, I never did get to know when his birthday is. OH HE IS GOING TO GET ONE LATER SO HELP ME CELESTIA!’

Rainbow Dash was strangely not impressed, more so that she was worried about what she saw. ‘He wasn’t even that beat up when I bucked him. What did he go through? How can he move?’ That wasn’t the last question to be asked though, as the next one came as he raised his sword above his head. “Um Twilight, why is he glowing?”

Her magical friend had no answer for that as the glow pulsed for a moment then vanished, no rather it relocated. The Coral Sword raised above his head was now glowing a steady blue as energy seemed to waft off it like evaporating ice or fog on a hot day.

“I don’t know Rainbow Dash, but whatever it is isn’t like his normal magic, its…hard to describe it’s almost like-” The egghead couldn’t get another word out as all ears focused forward, even Discords.

The source of the sound was Dustan himself. “Life-”

“Life?” Everypony of the group repeated wondering what he was saying.

“-is short.” The second part seemed a bit grim to most of them listening.

Except Discord. “Not mine, I have been around for quite some time thank you very much.”

Dustan didn’t seem to hear him nor seemed to be finished as he continued. “Bury.”

“You don’t think he means bodies or anything do you?” Fluttershy managed to say above the volume of a whisper.

“Pu-lease Dustan, like the threat coming from an unconscious person can scare-.” Again Discords words fell to deaf ears as the chant was finished.

“Statis Sword.” The hand holding the blade above his head suddenly and quickly brought the blade down chopping the air in front of him.

“Stasis what?” Twilight asked only to get her answer.

Shards of clear ice seem to fall onto the spirit of Chaos from out of nowhere surrounding his body completely. All before shattering into a clear blade before even that vanished. The attack seemed to either surprise or hurt Discord as he made a motion right after the blade hit except after that he stood stock still.

The purple leader of the group of girls wasn’t one to look a gift in the mouth though as she called out. “Now’s our chance girls.”

Dustan’s body collapsed to the ground as the rainbow light started to appear. Discord was unable to move for some reason as the six ponies rose up into the air and gathered their power before shooting it in a beam forward hitting the Draconequus and slowly reverting him to his stone prison.

Rainbow Dash and the others could all hear one thing clearly from the villain before the petrifaction was finished. “Well played Dustan, you win.”

With the deed done they all ran over to their collapsed friend and the prismatic pegasus looked to her friends. “You think he is going to be ok?” None of them cared that with the spread of the magic of friendship Ponyville and everything around it was back to normal.

Twilight was using her magic while Fluttershy was busy touching and listening in on various places of his body. “He is really badly hurt, more so then I thought. He needs a doctor now.”

Fluttershy’s diagnosis was further backed up by Twilight as her scan completed. “She’s right, he has internal bleeding in several places and lots of blood pooling, putting pressure on places that are barely holding on as is.”

Applejack soon came back with a cart she borrowed from a nearby shop and they all worked to put the human in it before moving him to the nearby hospital. They all hoped that he would be ok, though none seem to notice the smile on his face as they brought him to get treated.

Chapter Twenty Three: Normalcy?

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My Little Tactics

Chapter Twenty Three: Normalcy?

The aftermath of Discord’s return mostly faded with his return to his stony prison. The sun and moon were now back on their normal celestial tracks guided by the two sisters, clouds were back to being fluffy and white while giving rain instead of the chocolate milk they once gave, grass was green and was either managed by ponies or grew as it would normally instead of in checkerboard patterns. Everything was back to normal, except Dustan.

Having been rushed into intensive care, his exposure to the high amount of Chaotic magicks made it so that normal Harmonic magic failed, meaning no magical healing, and no unicorn’s holding tools via levitation. Along with his alien anatomy the surgeons had no idea of how well they did or even if he would make it. It was only the result of luck that he lasted long enough to eventually have the Chaotic magic in his system fade enough where healing magicks could be used properly. It took three long weeks before Dustan could keep his eyes open for any amount of time and as he woke up properly he started getting visits.

The first was from Merlene, who right away lamented her failure of protecting him. Normally the human’s reaction to this would be to roll his eyes and answer in a teasing way, though this time he gave her a serious answer.

“Merlene, trust me. You can’t protect everyone from everything all the time, especially if Discord was interested in me. He literally can warp reality to his whim. If he wanted me alone he would turn you to a frog or send you to the other side of the world or something. You are meant to protect me from things that can be stopped, of which so far you have done a great job.” Though that didn’t completely soothe the wren, it did cheer her up some and save some of her pride.

The next was more of a group that came in, Eden, Sturdy, Mystic, and Allure all showed up. Eden didn’t talk much but instead started to set flowers around that she said would help him sleep easier at night as well as give a calming effect. That and color to the stark white hospital room he found himself in. Sturdy basically came to check on him as well and to inform him of how Castle Luminary was fairing. Apparently they had started to get mail from all over Equestria. Seems his fight with Discord had not been as private as he had hoped it would have been and somehow it had gotten out what he did.

“We have letters from the Griffon kingdoms, Minos, even one from the Dragon Lands, as well as a place I have never even heard of. Then again I am not really world traveled so that isn’t saying much.” Setting the letters down and within reach in case Dustan wanted to read them, though they were already opened showing that someone had been keeping themselves informed. “Yeah that was Merlene, she went through each of your letters to see if there were any threats, she only skimmed them so I am not sure how much she knows. Other than that no one has read them.”

That had been something that Dustan had noticed. “Thank you Sturdy. I will read them later for sure.” Many in the castle had stopped using many of the racial conventions when using terms like someone, instead of somepony, somedragon, somegriffon, and more. Hopefully that was a good sign. “Hope it’s nothing too important, kinda holed up here for a bit till my body recovers fully.”

Dustan got a bit of a surprise as the next one to talk to him was Mystic, the human thought for sure that he was here to hear of what magicks he used against the preverbal god of chaos. Instead Mystic had brought some food knowing how much food in hospitals sucked as well as the fact he was genuinely worried. As they got to talking it seemed that his hospitalization reminded Mystic of what had been sacrificed back in the slave camp where they first met.

“You sure showed that rainbow of animal parts whose boss.” Allure told him as she was next in the group. Though her statement puzzled him.

“Technically I lost against him. I failed three of the five challenges he gave me since he won the last one.” Dustan sighed knowing that when Discord got free he was in for a world of trouble.

“That isn’t what I heard, though not sure about the losing part, since no one could hear what you two talked about. I do know what others saw though.” As she said that the injured man right away started to think on who could have seen anything at all. “I mean that last attack against Discord before the Element’s put him back into stone as well as Discord even admitting you won. Least that is what I have heard.”

“Last strike?” Sadly though by the time he asked that the nurse came to inform everyone visiting hours were over for the day.

With them gone and him snacking on some food, he found several things that day that would make his dreams better, beyond the flowers and good food, he found someone had brought his music box into the room. Winding it up, he prepared for a well deserved night of sleep for his recovering body. Except he wouldn’t be going to his dreams right away.

Instead he found himself in the dual brown checkerboard patterned room of the classroom. Standing up and in no pain he smiled. Not stiffness, no fatigue nothing, the dream world was really something. After stretching though he felt himself stiffen as that feeling from the last few times he visited returned.

“I swear the statues watch me.” He muttered to himself though now looking around at said stands he noticed something, well two something’s right away: The Black mage and The Squire armor stands had a beam of light focused on them. ‘Ok that is new.’ Moving up to the first one, the caster of the two, he opened up the skill list and had his eyes nearly bug out. ‘THE FUCK?!’

There was a new skill there now. One that wasn’t present in this game, though was present in its successors though in different job classes. The spell: Water. What was more was that it was learned now instead of just being something new to be learned. Its powered up versions were there as well, Watera, Waterga, and Waterja. Dustan could think of nothing to say to this and instead pondered the other thing he found. Several spaces with question marks listed now showing there were other things he could learn that were not listed in the Black Mage list. Considering how many different magicks he knew the Final Fantasy games had, his guess was as good as anyone else’s on what those question marks represented.

Next came the bigger shock of the night in the form of what was in the Squire list. ‘I don’t even know what I am looking at right now.’ There were many new things in this list too many to count in fact. However most of the new things could be summed up in one category. ‘Why do I have access to Mystic Knight stuff from Final Fantasy Five?’ It was true, one skill he learned showed ‘Fire Sword’ as well as its advanced forms. What was more on the list were now Mystic Sword Spells related to Black Magic he has already learned: Fira Sword, Thunder and Thundera Sword, Blizzard Sword and Blizzara Sword. All to name a few, though it seemed he would have to spend job points to learn everything beyond Fire Sword.

Now the last surprise, the one that Dustan couldn’t even begin to make out was a hidden skill. Its name was obscured and the lettering was freaking out as if it was constantly undergoing a decryption process. Its learned status had the most puzzling answer to it as it was left as a question mark instead of if job points needed to be used or not.

Thinking on things now he focused on the skill of Fire Sword. Imagining him holding a sword out he tried to use it, though he knew it would fail. Surprisingly though, words came to mind for the spell itself which meant it was a valid thing. This would need to be tested. A LOT. However he knew he couldn’t dwell here forever. He had earned quite a few job points it seems form his battle with Discord. Lots in the Squire category and a good deal in the Monk category as well, with some more spread around to the other jobs he used. Geomancer was now open. That means that if he worked Geomancer up a bit, along with Archer and Thief, he could obtain Ninja.

‘Fuck yeah, Dual wield here I come!’ That and movement for Ninja was generally all around very good and considering his fighting style so far in this world revolved around him moving more than standing and taking a hit, it would likely serve him well to get it. Even more if he got Thief up some more it means Dragoon would be open and testing that would be fun or scary, or both even. Spending points where he could, Dustan felt himself starting to slip deeper into true sleep as he pressed ok for the last skill he wanted, sleeping it off with a smile.

The next couple of days went by quickly with the exception of the visit from the Mane Six and Spike. Because they were all busy they all came in on separate days or times when they could. The first one to visit him was Fluttershy. The pegasus who lived up to her name Didn’t say much but did thank him for saving the large kitty, though Dustan knew what she meant by that it did validate that someone had indeed seen his fight.

Rarity was the next one gushing on how he fought to protect the crusaders even if they turned out to be fake. Though that wasn’t the only reason she was here, as she had him sign something for Sweetie Belle and her friends which turned out to be an autograph. Not able to stop his chuckling at that he promptly did so. The last thing Rarity did was change out the curtains of his room to something more vivid and lively, a nice purple to complement the white. Dustan could only mentally roll his eyes as he knew exactly why the seamstress thought white and purple went together so well.

The last one who visited him that day was Applejack having finished taking care of everything on the farm for the day and had some spare time. Like Rarity she thanked him for the thought of saving her sister and her friends. She also brought a nice basket of apple goods and apples. She also gave him a report on the trees that he had given her during hearth’s warming and that they were growing well. It would take some time and hard work but she knew they would grow to bear fruit maybe in the fall. That was one thing he found out, Earth Pony’s could make things grow REALLY fast, which did explain how often in the show if a tree was damaged that the Apple family only seemed miffed rather than livid.

At the end of the day Dustan was left to finally read the mail that he been delivered previously to see what was being sent. First up was the Griffons. Their letter stated that such a unique being standing up to Discord and living was someone they wished to meet and if he was ever in Griffonstone to let them know ahead of time so they could set aside sometime to meet and speak with him. Overall Dustan took this as to mean they were kissing ass to someone they perceived as strong something they likely did on hearing anyone doing something outstanding. Though he might be biased about that based on how he knew the cat birds to be from the show.

The one from the Dragon Lands were next but really it was all multiple letters packaged into one envelop. Most of them were actually challenge letters of Dragons wanting to fight someone strong. Dustan stored those away and would try to memorize the names later to know who to avoid. The other was from Torch the Dragon Lord himself stating that he wished to meet him one day to see someone with the bravery courage and ferocity of a dragon that could stand up to someone like Discord and walk away with their life. The Squire made very sure to secure that one in case he needed it, but had no plans to ever visit in the near future.

The next one came from Minos and it was a dual part note. The first was to tell him that his mind was very keen indeed and his race must be very studious as their lead scientists had been working on the problem he sent over via the two Princesses of Equestria. They also congratulated him on his victory over Discord with the assistance of the Elements though they way they portrayed it made Dustan to be the main party of that rather than the other way around like the other letters made it out to be. Furthermore they were sending someone to his land to learn from him and study what they could. He supposed that was neat.

The last letter from a foreign ruler spooked Dustan to the core. It was an invitation from the Storm King. Dustan quickly read it and it seemed the Storm King was so far a no name in the world as he mentioned he was an up and coming ruler that would love to meet someone strong and see if he could convince him to come work for him. Storing that one away the human made a mental note to prepare for that in the upcoming years.

The last letters came from three rulers he knew about: Celestia, Luna, and Cadance. The first one he opened was Cadance’s since he knew her the best of the three and had spent the most time with her out of them. In the letter it stated how worried she was when she heard he had been hurt, that he seemed to be shouldering so much all the time. So she, and Shining, sent a gift hoping it would help him relax. Said gift was a card that was a year’s pass to Aloe and Lotus’ spa in Ponyville that allowed him to bring one guest each time.

That…didn’t actually sound too bad. “I mean my muscles are stiff, though we have the hot springs at the Castle, massages are supposed to be good for things.” In truth a lot of the tension of the last month had him stiff in places he knew he wasn’t injured in. “Alright yeah sure, I will make a point to visit them.”

Next up was Princess Luna, because though he was still trapped in Equestria didn’t stop him from continuing to place her as his former life on Earth had as best princess. Her letter was…well there wasn’t a proper way to describe the mixed feelings that her letter brought.

“Dear Dustan Warner, The Human, Lord of Castle Luminary.” Right away that rang bells in his head as it used his full name, his race and a title that he didn’t technically have. “I have sent this letter-” well he was happy to see her learning proper speech. “hoping it finds you in better health then I had last heard you were in. Many important things have been stirring in Canterlot this past season and it seems to have come to a head recently. Discord’s revival and sealing only delayed the news being spread.”

‘What was happening before?’ Her wording made it sound as if this had been happening for a while now which brought some worry to the human’s heart.

So instead of wondering and worrying he continued to read. “What happened to you many seasons ago has come full circle. I speak of the official meeting my sister and I had with you, were your place in history was removed.” The hairs on the back of his neck stood up at reading that part. “Logistics Trail had since become a rallying point for various individuals who sported a specific agenda which Logistics himself supported which was ‘The unification of all tribes, under unicorn rule’. I am sure that you know how that is not meant to be. We have found out because the rumors of your place in the return of my ponies from the underground caught word. More and more did Logistics find himself without support and he got careless. Our, my sister’s and my own, investigators soon caught wind of everything and had a breakthrough thanks to one individual.”

‘Shit, I am not sure if this is my fault or not.’ While Dustan was on the fence as it could be his fault thanks to Tactics creatures showing up in this world, it didn’t mean that Trail wouldn’t have gotten into that position before. ‘Then again maybe he wouldn’t have been found out. Damn I am not sure if I should take the rap for this or not.’

Leaning against his pillow he read on. “The Royal guard took into custody many parties involved in the plot to put unicorns in the ruling parties of which Logistics Trail was a part of. News didn’t get a chance to circulate till after Discord however. When it was discovered what he and others had done, there were mass calls for his name to be removed from history now, especially since the common and uncommon ponies knew who it really was that did all that. With the removal of the previous law there were no grounds to stop this too. So it was with a massive nearly ninety percent vote in favor of, that the motion passed. You have earned your place back into history, not just once, not twice, but thrice now. I thank you for our service to our ponies. If you have not read the letter from our sister yet then I suggest you do so. If you have, congratulations you have earned it. Luna, Alicorn of the Moon”

‘Gratz on what?’ His mind was still reeling on what he learned on how that ass hat of a pony as a racist but then chuckled on how it ended up. Now was the time to go and read that letter from Celestia. Placing Luna’s letter away carefully he picked up the other sisters letter and brought it out.

“Dear Dustan Warner, Landlord of the Everfree, Resident Human.” Right away the hairs on the back of his neck stood up again as the opening of the letters were totally different. “Twilight has informed me of your part in the fight against Discord.” It was at this point Dustan rolled his eyes at another person mentioning his part and wondering how it got started. “Tales of the two separate hunts, the obstacle course, the race to save three fillies, and the triple fight against unknown forces and the pain and suffering you endured during them.”

Dustan’s hand went instinctively to the spot where Scarmiglione had stabbed him. ‘No kidding, I thought I was going to die several times during all that.’

“Your heroics as well as the strike that allowed the Elements time to gather their power has proven you have the best interest of my ponies in mind around you and that you serve to make those around you safe and better then they are. You have gathered many different races all under your command at your Castle and have been training them not only in combat but magic, scouting, botany and more.” Technically that was true, though it was more Violet Glow and Zecora doing most of them with various help from others. “That is why with the recent inclusion of your place in history multiple times, we, my sister and I, wish to impart the title of Noble to your name. Your official title will be Lord of the Everfree and Lord of Castle Luminary. Though because of your injuries there was no official ceremony, your name and rank have been passed out publically for all to know. While I am sure you have many questions on what, if any, your new title does for you or what it does against you, you may ask my student Twilight Sparkle for help, she is sure to know. I hope this letter finds you well and I hope you visit Canterlot again very soon. Celestia, Alicorn of the Sun.”

One blink, two blinks, three and four, then Dustan called out loudly. “Excuse me?!” That got the nurses attention down the hall whom came in and then left in confusion seeing that he was alright though questioning many many things about laws that he thought he learned. ‘Twilight said it would take many hours, a basic year to get the title of noble. Bullshit, I didn’t even beat Discord. I definitely have questions for Purple Smart the instant I see her.’

The next day he saw the individual he wished to talk to, but not till towards the end of the day. Instead the first he got to meet surprisingly was Rainbow Dash, who said she didn’t have work till later in the afternoon when she was supposed to buck some clouds for clear skies. Considering pony naming conditions he found himself wondering if clear skies was the forecast being called for or if it was the name of the one who ordered it, which he never got to find out.

Instead he found Dash gushing about what she heard him doing. “I heard that you then used some kind of magic to make yourself super fast, which is cheating by the way but I forgive you considering you were doing it to save the squirt and her friends.”

“How do you even know all about that?” Maybe this would tell him something he didn’t already know.

“Oh Twilight told me.” Nope he already figured that out. “Well except for the last part, I saw that with my own eyes.”

Tilting his head curiously he had to ask. “Last part?”

Nodding she flew around in a quick circle before hovering in the air. “Yeah when you were all whoosh and crash and…oh right I guess you were out on your feet at that point.”

Face-palming a bit wondering if she was exaggerating he had to ask.“Mind giving me a play by play without embellishments?”

“Oh sure I guess.” Then the prismatic pony tapped her chin. “But it’s not going to be half as exciting.” Apparently the look Dustan gave her helped speed up the process of the story telling. “Fine fine. Me and the girls had just rushed up from putting on the Elements of Harmony after Twilight snapped me out of Discords weird claw change thing.”

‘Wait what thing?’ Dustan thought to himself before asking before she got too caught up in the story. “Claw change thing?”

“Yeah.” She came over to the human and put her hoof on his forehead. “He placed his claw on my forehead like that when I refused to go defend Cloudsdale. I mean I really wanted to, but I knew if I did that I would be a lousy friend.”

His heart was hammering in his chest as he heard that. ‘He had to force her? That can’t be right.’ Shaking his head for a moment he had question her story. “Are you sure that is how it went down?”

“Mhm.” Flapping back to her seat she sat on it and sipped some water she had brought up. “I was running through the maze missing my wings the entire time, he offered them to me to go help save Cloudsdale. I was about to take them to but I remembered my promise I made to myself.”

“What promise?” It was the million bit question, because so far everything she was saying was par for the course except the promise.

“Well it’s a bit embarrassing actually but I suppose I could tell you since you are the reason I first made that promise.” That made his eyes go wide, he was the cause. “You see after me bucking you then finding out you were a cool guy and all that who helped his friends, I first made the promise to be a better friend to you. But that changed and soon I realized it would be a bit selfish if I just made that promise to you, so I extended it to all my friends. So when I went to reach out for my wings I remembered that promise and barely stopped myself from taking them.” She then gave a hearty laugh and puffed up her chest. “You should have seen the look on Discord’s face, like he couldn’t believe what he heard. Then he got a bit mad and poked me with his claw and then…well changed me I guess.”

Dustan gave her a chuckle and friendly smile but under the covers where she couldn’t see he was busy clinching his hands tightly. “Sounds like you got under his skin a bit.” Though he tried to sound friendly his mind was angry, though it was at himself. ‘Another thing I changed, thankfully though it didn’t screw things up too badly.’

Since the speedster was busy soaking up the praise she didn’t notice his internal struggle. “I know right. Oh right we were talking about the end of the fight not about me. I mean I could go on about me if you want, I am pretty great you know.”

Hearing her say that helped cheer up his mood showing that though she changed slightly she was still pretty much the same. “I mean you could, but stories aren’t as good. You will have to show me how great you are in many ways another time.”

For a moment Dash froze before starting to laugh loudly. “Careful there lover colt. Say that to mares like that and they will think you are hitting on them. Not that you need the help, I mean I might be pretty bad at the dating scene but it doesn’t look like you are.”

Her first comment had him blushing a bit as he didn’t mean for it to come out like that, her second comment though brought back something Cadance told him. ‘You need to look around you. Yes a lot of ponies think you are strange, maybe because you are so strange that you don’t notice what we do, or we don’t communicate it well to you, but you are attractive to more mares then you think.’ There was also the other comment of ‘I can also tell you that it’s not just me that thinks so. During the investigation when you were talking to the ponies to help them with your ideas. There were a few mares there that were giving you signals but you seemed to not notice them at all.’

“I mean you do a pretty good job pretending not to notice; even I started to believe it at some point.” The boastful mare told him.

“It’s…not an act.” That got the chuckling to stop as she sighed. “Truthfully it has to do with the species difference Dash. I literally don’t know the signs you ponies give so I literally don’t know what to look for. Even if I did though I am not sure what I would do about it. I mean you ponies are adorable sure, but anything beyond that…I am not too sure.”

Truthfully when he said that he thought for sure she would say something like ‘Come on, you haven’t ever thought of it.’ or ‘Really? Is it a human thing, like are you or us missing something?’. There were a few more answers that he thought she would give, though those covered both ends of the spectrum for sure. Hell he even thought she might accuse him of some racism in that regards.

Instead he got an answer he didn’t think he would get. “Well, whenever you feel like going for a pony ride let me know and I will be your wingmare.”

It took a second to process that thought. “Excuse me? Does that mean you are into mares?”

It was an age old question many had debated about in his world, what side did Rainbow Dash swing for and now he was about to get an answer. “Yeah, and Stallions. I appreciate awesomeness in all forms, though they have to at least be half as awesome as me to live up to my expectations, which is a whole lot of awesome needed.”

‘Huh.’ The answer he got should have been seen coming given her personality as it did make sense, but at the same time it was a surprise too. ‘So she swings both ways. If I ever get back home maybe I will make an argument for that side.’ Shaking his head for a moment he realized they got off track again. “Mind finishing up the last bit?”

“OH RIGHT!” She said rising up a foot into the air before smiling. “So we came up on you, you were actually passed out on your hooves…umm feet? Yeah ‘feet’ is the word I am thinking of. You were passed out standing up, Discord starts talking, we all see you and were worried he did something horrible to you, which we later found out he did.”

Dustan was listening to it and realized what had happened. ‘Ahh ok, so when I was hallucinating Patrick and stood up, that was literally the last of my strength I guess.’

“Anyways while he was going on about things you raise up your sword, which was cool considering you were passed right the buck out.” He could tell she was getting pumped up as she was using her limbs more in her body language as she recalled the event. “When it raised up your whole body started to glow a blue color. Then it was gone except around your sword. Then you said something, but I don’t remember what. You brought your sword down then suddenly hit Discord with some ice that formed into a blade. He got frozen or something after that as he couldn’t move then we blasted him with the Elements turning him back to stone. It was pretty awesome if I say so myself.”

Rubbing his chin he sat there and thought to himself. ‘An ice sword? But I don’t know Blizzard Sword yet. Maybe I casted Blizzara? Though if I did why did it form into a blade?’

A ringing from the saddlebags that Rainbow Dash brought came from a clock. “Looks like I need to go, my shift is starting, see you later pal. Oh and Pinkie should arrive soonish to take my place during her lunch break. She said something about bringing you some snacks so look forward to it. Later.”

Leaving no room to ask anything more the pegasus took off out of his window and into the sky. Dustan meanwhile was back to thinking about what it was he could have used. So much so that lunch came and when he was about a third of the way through a pink bundle of boundless energy popped out…of his plants.

“HIYA DUSTY!” Long ago Dustan had warned Pinkie about giving him jump scares when he had just left the slave camps and though he had gotten over it, seems Discord brought some of that back as he instinctively flung the plastic spork as a throwing knife at her barely missing her head “EEP!”

Realizing what he had done he right away tried to get up and apologize. “Pinkie I am so sorry I didn’t mean to-ugh.” However he tugged at his iv drip too hard as well and felt some of the muscles in his body protest hard at his sudden moves. “Fuck this.” Gathering up his power he brought it to bear by chanting the Cura spell. That took care of most of his discomfort as he got up to go give her a hug bringing the little stand holding the iv bag with him. “Sorry about that, fighting Discord leaves one a little jumpy you know.”

Though it seems his hug wasn’t meant to be as she vanished into the potted plant…only to somehow sneak up on him from behind and give him a large hug. “No need to apologize, I can understand completely. I mean one of my balloons popped the day after Discord was turned back into a lawn gnome and I jumped and hit the ceiling.”

It did his conscious good to hear that and smiled at her. “Well then why don’t you sit down and talk with me a bit. I heard you were bringing some snacks so we can share them while we talk.”

Pinkie pronked right to her seat as Dustan took his before starting to gabber at him. She told him of the funny or exciting events that had happened while in the hospital, of which three episodes happened. Seems Twilight had a major freak out over not sending a friendship report and got into some major shenanigans trying to manufacture something to write: Lesson Zero. There was the aptly named Sisterhooves Social, which was also the name of an episode, where sisters of various families came to compete in a series of events, and while Sweetie Belle and her sister Rarity had some troubles they got over it during the event and had a lot of fun.

He was honestly glad to hear that and though he had no siblings himself he always considered Pat his brother so he knows how much it can suck when siblings fight. “Good to hear.”

The last episode event that he missed came in the form of Apple Bloom messing with something of Zecora’s to gain multiple cutie marks. Wincing at that, as the events she described showed a bit more of how much of a strain having all those marks on her was as she slept for a full day and a half after that.

“Twilight said having that many marks would drain a pony’s natural magic at a higher rate since they were all making her do their talents at once so she could have seriously hurt herself.” Pinkie’s words made some sense, after all a pox wasn’t something to laugh at and were usually a deadly disease if not treated.

“Well it ended well so we can only hope she learned her lesson.” Pinkie agreed as she inhaled one of the cupcakes she had brought whole while Dustan may not Kurby’ed the cupcakes he did devour them quite quickly. They were that good after all.

Sadly it seemed her time was up but she ended up giving him an extra long hug letting him cuddle that fluffy mane of hers a bit longer. “See you later Dusty!”

“Later Pink Stuff.” Giving a wave Dustan looked at his forgotten food, which was now cold, and shrugged before pushing the tray away. “I got full anyways.” While he was waiting for another nurse to show up to run tests, he took stock of his internal MP finding that Cura, while draining while injured had not depleted his reserves as much as he would have expected. Meaning he would likely request a full check up to see if he healed enough to be considered let go.

There was also the mental stock of the episodes of this season he had to take note of, five were already down, but the problem was he couldn’t remember exactly how many were in this season. He couldn’t remember if this season was the one with thirteen or twenty six as it had been too long. He was pretty anxious to get out honestly and though a nurse did tell him that a doctor would see him before the day ended, it was still a hassle. The reason for his anxiety was one reason and one reason alone: Virgo. He didn’t like being without it in arms reach and he knew likely all his stuff was stored back at the castle now, except for maybe his axe where ever that might be lying.

A knock to the door came quickly followed with the voice he wanted to hear from all day. “Dustan are you awake?”

It was Twilight, now he could get to the bottom of this. “Come on in Twilight!”

The door opened to reveal the purple magister herself along with her almost as equally purple assistant. “You are looking better today.”

Blinking he realized she must have visited him when he wasn’t all there or just out cold. “Oh thanks. Yeah might have accelerated that with one of my healing spells.”

“Oh which one? Was it Cure or Cura?” Twilight’s enthusiasm was palpable as she smiled brightly at him.

‘Stupid adorable ponies and their big eyes that make me want to punch myself for being so not adorable.’ That self bit of humor aside he chuckled and pointed to some chairs for both of them to sit down in. “I will answer that but I have some questions for you as well.”

“Yes!” She quickly levitated the two chairs close and set Spike down in one before jumping up into the other. When he told her which he used she followed up with the question all young children seem to use to infuriate adults. “Why?” He knew she didn't do it to annoy him but out of pure curiosity.

“Might have had a bit of a reason to move today and needed not to hurt to do so. So that is why.” He honestly didn’t want to say he threw the spork at Pinkie as he was slightly ashamed of that.

“O…k…noted.” She said writing it down. “So you wanted to ask me a question?”

“A couple actually.” Dustan thought long and hard on how to phrase his questions the best way possible, he didn’t want to sound like a dick after all. “So, I guess my big question, how do you know what happened between me and Discord?”

Instead of her answering though the young dragon raised his hand then spoke without waiting to be called on. “Oh oh, that would be me!” Blinking at that, he watched the dragon puff up and smile. “After you Discord surprised us and you told me to head to the library, I used Twilight’s telescope because I was worried. I saw the whole thing from start to finish though I am not sure what was said. It was pretty awesome at times and I was so scared for you at others. Then near the end during the last fight when you fell I started to burp up letter after letter so I couldn’t watch anymore.”

‘Ahh ok, that explains it, Spike kept an eye out for me. Can’t say I don’t blame him as I would have done the same. Actually I would have likely run into trouble to help out haha.’ Dustan thought not actually knowing he did try to come help only to be blocked by that invisible wall. “Of course I am guessing you told Twilight when you were feeling better on what you saw?”

The youngster nodded at that. “Though when I told her, all the others were in the room as well, as well as a couple of doctors, some nurses. I think some ponies down the hall heard me too…I was kind of loud to be honest cause it was so exciting to tell!”

‘Yep, that would do it, would explain how like wildfire that spread.’ Looking at the two he would ask. “I am guessing you sent a letter to Canterlot soon after telling the Princesses about what happened?”

Giving a nod the unicorn spoke up this time. “That’s right, she needed to know what kind of brave thing you did. If not for you, Discord might have done all kinds of things to Spike.”

Sighs at that and came to the conclusion to tell them. “Well then I suppose I have you both to thank for my recent promotion.”

That got the expected question out of the mage. “Promotion?”

He nodded and chuckled at her. “You are technically talking to the Lord of the Everfree and Lord of Castle Luminary.”

“What?! Really?!” When he again nodded she jumped for joy. “Congratulations, usually it takes forever for somepony new to gain nobility.” However she seemed to think about something. “Hmm that being said, you are promoting togetherness and community at the castle, you are training ponies and other species, you have done many deeds for Equestria, and you did them all without thinking of a reward or compensation. I guess it makes sense. You may not have the ponyhours behind it all but your deeds more than make up for it I suppose.”

“Which means in the next few days or next week, you and I are going to have to have a talk on what being a noble means. Technically you are one as well so I would hope you know something.” Pulling out a quill and some paper she wrote down a note, Dustan guessed it was a reminder or some books to set aside later. “The other question was about the end of the battle.”

She winced at that. “You were badly hurt, we rushed you to the hospital as quick as we-”

Holding up his hand, the human stopped her in her tracks. “I wasn’t wondering about that. I was actually wondering about the technique I used when I was unconscious.”

“Oh that, I was actually hoping to ask you to be truthful.” Twilight rubbed her chin for a moment as she spoke. “You started glowing after you raised your sword, then it pulsed and vanished though it was more that it was all transferred to your sword. Then you chanted and ice came down before breaking apart to reveal a sword’s blade.”

That was basically the same as what Rainbow Dash had told him, however he was hoping for one thing specifically. “Do you remember the chant?”

“Oh yeah. I wrote it down so I wouldn’t forget. One moment.” With that she popped out of reality in a teleport.

“She gets some pretty good distance on that if she can reach the library from here.” The Squire commented to Spike who shook his head.

“Likely she is doing a series of shorter teleports. Magic for teleportation tends to increase exponentially based on distance.” It was moments like this that the dragon showed how smart he was and how much he absorbed knowledge wise just from being with Twilight all the time.

“Huh makes sense.” ‘Maybe something similar is why the Teleport movement skill in Tactics fails.’ A pop announced that Purple Smart had returned to the room. ‘Questions for later.’ Looking to the paper she held Dustan raised an eyebrow at it. “That it?”

Nodding the Unicorn unrolled it and smiled. “Yep, I made sure to copy it down the moment I got a chance. Now here is the chant.” He couldn’t wait to hear what Blizzara Sword or Blizzard Sword’s chant was, though if it was like Fire Sword he could likely guess what it was going to be. “Life is short.” Then his heart stopped. “Bury.” Nope, it was stopped alright. “Statis Sword.”

Taking a moment to breathe and realize the pounding he was hearing was his heart actually beating and not stopped like he thought it was one thought came to mind and to mouth. “That can’t be right.”

Nodded and looking up at him the pony was obviously worried. “Are you ok Dustan? That is exactly what you said word for word. I even asked Rarity and she has an eye and ear for detail like that.”

“I mean it can’t be right as I shouldn’t be able to use that skill Twilight.” Rubbing his chin and face with a hand his thoughts started to fly. ‘Seriously, Statis Sword? Holy Knight isn’t a job class that can be obtained, nor is anything that can use it. Then again Water and Fire Sword weren’t in the original games either. What else can happen, what else is new?’ However like his previous thoughts on Teleportation, they were questions for later.

“Excuse me; I am going to have to cut the visit short.” The doctor said as she came in. “I need to examine my patient and by the time I am done visiting hours will already be over.”

‘Fuck, Curiosity cock blocking doctor!’ Sighing this was what he wanted so he looked to Twilight. “Guess we will have to look for answers another time. You two have a good evening, if all goes well I should be released tomorrow.”

“Get some sleep then and I hope everything goes well. See you soon.” She then turned to Spike and waited for him to say his farewells as well.

Spike got up and gave him a fist bump which he gladly returned. “See you later. Maybe you can teach me some of the cool stuff you did?”

“Anything is possible Spike.” And truthfully his brain agreed. ‘Literally at this point it’s all up for grabs on what is possible and what isn’t.’

Chapter Twenty Four: The Best and the Brightest.

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My Little Tactics

Chapter Twenty Four: The Best and the Brightest.

“I demand an explanation for this farce!” The well dressed mare said as she was being taken away by the guards out of the building that become the training hall. “Surely this can’t be the stallion that Celestia put in charge of the largest estate in Equestrian history?!”

Dustan sighed as he leaned against a wall. This had not been the first of those types of nobles surprised that a none-pony had risen up to high in the ranks of their society. Many had come to the castle thinking that maybe it was an oversight or some kind of typo in the decree but in the end had all nearly acted the same. They had come there to hobnob with suddenly the largest landowner and get in his good graces, and some mares into his bed, only to find that the letters had been right. The worst were the ones that didn’t even read the full thing before coming there.

It had been almost a week since he returned and he had found out that a few of those that normally always resided in the castle were missing. Sturdy had been called away to a job from Allure and Eden went with him. Zecora had gone on one of her herb gathering ventures meaning she had to take a train to go someplace where the herbs grew. Tremor had vanished leaving a note saying that a kin of his requested his presence. That left only a handful in charge and Dustan found them…slacking. When they were asked about it, besides the aspect of a break many of those not in charge said that without him there before and the lack of guidance as well no goals they felt unmotivated.

“Here is my amount of the scavenger hunt!” A mare’s voice called out as she dumped her supplies onto the table. “I still can’t believe it, FINALLY!”

Of course she would be motivated after all she was practically his biggest fan. It was the weird feathery mare, which he assumed was part parrot or something and pony, that had gathered the requested supplies first. In order for Dustan to get them all motivated he finally decided to give them a task that wasn’t training and something that was kind of promised so long ago when they started to show up. He sent them out to gather the requested herbs and such for a particular poultice one only he could make.

He was going to try to teach them how to make the Squire ability, or item that it seemed to be in this world, Salve. The instant every recruit heard that and what was needed, they all zipped off to the forest. He had warned them that if they brought back the wrong items that they wouldn’t participate at all as it was bad to rip out other plants needlessly, so he hoped that would deter over eagerness. The time limit to get enough for at least one batch was one hour and as of the moment only fifteen minutes had passed and only the one mare had passed though that would change rapidly from moment to moment as the minutes passed so did the recruits with the proper ingredients.

When the hour had passed by Dustan was rather proud to announce only five participants had failed, and not for ripping out the proper plants but because they couldn’t find all the ingredients. “Here you five go, from my personal supply.” He had never intended anyone to be barred from trying to learn this today except if they pulled the wrong plants. When the five saw him bring those supplies out and give hand them out, to them they seemed like it was a drink of water for a man dying of thirst with how they praised him for his generosity.

The whole time Mystic was taking notes, after securing his portion of supplies that was, about what was to be going on today. “It seems like we are all ready Lord Warner.”

This was likely one of the ONLY times he would allow the dapple patterned mini-horse to call him by title since he was acting in official duty as teacher. “Alright everyone I am going to pass out the script for the mixing, you will follow the instructions on that to the letter however you will not start that just yet, for now just read it over and get it as close to memorized as possible.”

“Can I copy the notes to review later?” A purple hoof from the back called out that confused the human to no end.

When he rounded the corner to look he found, not just one extra student but a few. “Um Twilight when did you arrive, as well as with the others?”

Twilight looked a bit sheepish while the Cutie Mark Crusaders looked excited to try something new for their marks. “Well yesterday when you came in asking where to get a good supply of paper to write on as well as things to write with I figured something good was about to happen so I may have popped in every now and then to check and then I heard your announcement about teaching and may have went out to gather the items you requested.”

“Then we saw Twilight in the forest talking to herself and thought this would be a perfect chance for our cutie marks.” The little winged pegasus that was Scootaloo said with her wings buzzing in excitement.

Sighing to himself and shrugging. “Sure why not, in fact it actually may be good that you four are here.” He had a bit of a bet going with himself on why it was that no pony seemed to be able to do Neutral magic anymore and could only do Harmonic. Waiting for about fifteen minutes he watched as each of his ‘students’ read over the instructions. Some like Twilight even went about mimicking the actions needed to take for the recipe, not a bad idea in fact.

“Sir?” Turning around it was the cloaked magical teaching pony Violet Glow, someone Dustan had been wanting to talk to but didn’t ever seem to find the time. “Though I am not participating may I oversee the use of new magic, or would it be the rediscovery of old magic.”

“Sure and hell if I know.” Dustan told her simply before turning back to the rest after handing her a copy of the instructions if she wanted to go over them later. “Alright everyone, you have the instructions in your head now comes the second part of the lesson: Magic.” A distant squeal came from a certain treebary horse as that word was spoken. “Most of you are familiar with magic intimately because you use it in your everyday activities even for just holding things. You use your magic through your hooves, your wings, your horns and more all to mix with the environments and to produce effects, which is the basis of Harmonic magic more or less.” There were several scribbling notes among the pegasi and the earth ponies as well as some of the extra species that were part of the guard as likely most of them minus the unicorns had never learned this before. “Problem is that is not the magic I use.”

Many called out at that point, least the ones who didn’t know, which considering was most of them. “But we see you use magic all the time sir!”

Holding up a hand and having a bit of fire come into existence above it Dustan smiled. “Yeah, you are right. Except mine isn’t Harmonic, nor is it Chaotic magic. Mine is the middle ground of Neutral magic. Harmonic you use your magic and mix it with the environment to produce the effects you want. Chaotic is the opposite in that you use your magic to take control of the magic and forcefully shape it to your will. Neutral as I said is the middle ground in that you do neither. You use JUST your magic to produce the effect. From what I am told it means your wellsprings of magic need to be a lot higher to produce effects, but I don’t think that is the case. Or at least it’s my theory that isn’t the case.” Moving over to Twilight he smiled. “Mind making a flame like this with your magic?”

“Oh sure.” Happy to use her magic in a demonstration like this her glow came up then a fire above her horn sparked into life.

“Now statistically that should use less magic then what I am doing right now since it is mixing with the natural magic of the world right?” Many nodded their heads at that. “I think that is mostly correct too. However the part about needing much higher wellsprings THAT is the part I think is incorrect. I think by nature all ponies, or at least all ponies today, are more aligned with Harmonic magic in general so it’s easier for them to use magic that way. I have been reading up on some books about magical nature when it comes down to the elements on how some unicorns find fire or water magic easier but other types harder.”

Violet came over and seemed to be in thought under her hooded robe. “So you think that is a nature problem in that because we are fighting against our inclined nature that we subconsciously use more magic or that we don’t use what we send out as efficiently.”

Blinking for a moment before smiling he pointed to her and nodded. “That is exactly right.”

For a moment the hooded unicorn’s teeth could be seen in the dark of her cloak as she smiled before she suddenly looked to the guests. “I see, that does make sense now on why they are here.”

Grinning brighter, Dustan smiled. “Right.” Twilight and the Crusaders though were confused. “Twilight you are an established mage, a Magister in fact.” When she gave a nod to that he continued. “I suspect you will likely have the hardest time in this lesson. While the Crusaders will have the easiest time.”

Ms. Bookhorse suddenly looked upset at that and came to her hooves. “What why?”

“It is simply for the fact that you are over-trained.” Looking confused Dustan continued. “Every unicorn, and to the lesser extent other pony races, were all taught to do certain things via training, whether that be levitation, cloud moving, or what not. Because of that going against your training is rather hard. You will literally have to be breaking your habits in order to do this exercise correctly and likely every bit of you will say some of this is wrong on instinct.”

Sitting back down Twilight had a hoof to her chin. “Except those who haven’t had it trained into them like these fillies.”

“Exactly.” Moving back to his area to oversee things Dustan went back to the start of his explanation. “So that brings us here on how to use Neutral magic. Truth is, I use it naturally this way, but if I had to tell you how to use it, just push your magic out without trying to mix it. When you are crushing the herbs, mixing the water, whatever you do, let out a small bit of your magic into everything you do. I am not sure if you use any Harmonic magic if it will corrupt the results but we will see won’t we. So for those that want to go straight into hard mode, don’t use any Harmonic magic; that would mean even holding items with your hooves.”

Many started to complain at that as he waved and wished them luck. “Wait does that mean you aren’t supervising us?”

Surprisingly that came from Apple Bloom. “Nope, some of you might get too nervous if I am overlooking every tiny thing, meaning you might push out too much magic or try to do harmonic magic subconsciously so for pure results I am going to go into another room and have a cup of hot cocoa. Make as many batches as you can with the ingredients you have though after each batch make sure to write down what you did or what you felt that way when I come back and it turns out one method of yours actually worked then hopefully we can reproduce that.”

While Dustan sipped his cocoa and nommed on some of the marshmallows that came with it he was rather enjoying today, minus the noble at the start. Truthfully while he was hoping to teach them eventually, he had little to no hopes for it to happen in one sitting maybe not even a month. Sadly that meant a lot of those ingredients would go to waste because of that but it was in the name of progress right? There was also the fact he had not told any of them that Zecora and Eden had managed a good little farm for growing every bit of the ingredients for Salve already so they had plenty of extra. However it was good experience for them to find the stuff in the wild.

“KWEH!” Chuckling at the excited noise his growing Chocobo was making as she had finished her lunch he gave her a good scratch. Boko was getting to be huge. Already she was almost as tall as him now and try as she might to flop into his lap like before, he just couldn’t handle the weight as well, so now she had to settle for doing as she did now and placing her head on his lap.

Sighing and standing up he told her. “As nice as a nap against you would be right now I have stuff to do girl. Maybe afterwards we can go for a run or something.”

Hearing that the Chocobo pranced around making happy noises making the human laugh and give her a hug before he started to head back to the dining hall, or what would be said hall in the future, where the students were currently trying to make the Salve. While on the way back Dustan contemplated one of the jobs he had unlocked when he went to the Classroom, Orator. It was basically a job that used talking to do its magic and while it was a great class in the game, here he had some problems with it. One, if it worked like in the game he could basically subvert free will whenever he pleased, he hated that idea with a passion. There was also the other fact that it came into play form the classroom MASTERED. That honestly scared him but in a way he could understand why it was that it did. It was just talking and adding a bit of magic to your words, honestly if he had tried he likely could have done so before without the job, but now that his understanding of it came from the armor stand he could see how easy it was.

Putting it in the back of his mind for now he came down the stairs into the dining room and looked to find most either finishing up or having already done so. “Alright everyone, if you are completely done raise your hand when I ask for the next person and I will come check your progress.” Using his Tactical Eye he found so far no trace of a single one making a successful Salve of the ones that had finished. Of the ones left were Twilight, the Crusaders, Mystic, Summer Breeze the weird feather pony, and Fading Dawn the deer pony. “Take your time and finish up I am not going anywhere.”

“Sir, did none of the guards really not make any of the item?” Glow asked him as he found a chair to sit down in with Boko making herself comfortable within petting range.

Giving a scratch to his loyal Chocobo’s head he shook his head. “’Fraid not. Though I honestly don’t expect anyone to make it their first try nor second. This lesson might take a month or more to produce results if it ever does.”

Violet looked at him with her eyes widening under her hood. “Are you saying you aren’t sure if we can even learn your magic?”

“No use in wondering what might or might not be, because if you don’t try you will never know.” Deciding to relax for the remainder of the time he pulled out his music box and let it start to play. He could already feel himself sinking into that relaxed frame of mind as he spoke with his eyes closed. “Sometimes it’s about the journey to discover then what you actually discover at the end.”

“Maybe, but still, done they have a right to know?” Violet made a good point but he still shook his head.

“Sometimes giving someone the impression they will fail from the start makes it predetermined to happen because that is what they expect. I want them to expect success and be daunted when they don’t get it. To steel them to keep trying in pursuit of that victory that eludes them.”

Twenty more minutes passed before he heard anything though he heard Glow tell him. “Sir the last one has finished now.”

“Good.” He said opening his eyes. Almost instantly his grip on the armrests of the chair tightened as he caught sight of the Classroom fade from his vision. ‘Ok I didn’t imagine it that time. The stands and the checkerboard pattern were there and I clearly wasn’t asleep. Is it a mind setting thing? Do I have to be in a certain frame of mind?’ Looking down at his music box as it slowed to a stop he made a mental note of things before putting it away.

The closest one to him to be checked was Fading Dawn, she looked sheepish but when he shook his head she looked like she was about to cry. “Sorry I couldn’t do it.”

Giving her a pat on the head he smiled “Hey its fine, I am sure you will get it in time.”

Next was Mystic Quandary who looked excited to be judged though with a hint of nervousness with how he shuffled his feet. “Well did I make any?”

“Sorry, but no.” The human told him after checking his results. The earth pony gave a sigh but didn’t look defeated. “Alright Twilight you are next.”

Twilight proudly presented all her results with detailed notes on how she made each of them, while it was nice the bowl that was on fire concerned him. “This is just like cooking in a way.”

As she said that the other bowls somehow caught fire. “Umm Twilight that isn’t supposed to happen.”

“Oh then does that mean I did something even more rare and new?” The mare acted like a filly who had just presented their parent with a drawing of their favorite animal not knowing just how bad it was.

“Blizzard.” The ice magic quickly flowed out to extinguish the fires…except after a second they flared back up. “I don’t even know how you did this Twilight. Also no, that isn’t a good thing as far as I can tell so can you put the fires out please?”

“Oh.” Suddenly all that mirth turned into a sheepish apologetic grin before her horn lit up and extinguished all the fires at once. “Sorry about that.”

“Its fine…I think.” He didn’t like how the mush in the bowls were now purple and bubbling. “Can you perhaps seal those in something so no one can get to them before we have someone examine them. They look dangerous.”

She did so with a blush on her face from the embarrassment sealing them into glass mason jars. “Sorry.”

Hearing that last sorry, Dustan went over to the Crusaders next. “Ok you three show me what you go.” When he made that statement all three proudly displayed what they had gotten. The early batches were somehow made of pine sap, he didn’t question it considering who made them, but as the batches progressed it was clear to see they were making progress. At least till near the end as the last few batches it seems like they either reverted or were getting frustrated.

“Let me guess, we didn’t make it.” Scootaloo asked as she sighed and looked at her flank. “I kinda figured it out when we didn’t get our Cutie marks.”

“Sorry Mr. Dustan.” Sweetie Belle told him as she looked like she was about to cry.

“Guess that just means we have to try harder next time right girls?” As Apple Bloom rallied her friends slowly the noise was coming from Dustan grew louder and louder.

“Are you laughing Dustan?” Twilight asked him suddenly as he had his hands at his sides holding his middle.

Hearing that question Dustan let loose without regards for anyone hearing it. “This is just great!” All eyes were on him as he wiped his tears away. He held out the papers they had written out for what was about the third or fourth from last batches they made. “About at this point you girls were losing energy and enthusiasm for doing this and honestly weren’t putting much effort into it. Stirring with your hooves and mouths as best as you could, what more was that you had the idea to wrap ribbons around your hooves to help hold your utensils in place. Very crafty I must say. But in the end your efforts were rewarded.”

He heard chairs and stools shuffling at that. “Wait you don’t mean-”

Chuckling again he smiled. “Congratulations you three, you managed to recreate my Salve.” Dustan pulled the bowls with the Salve forward away from the rest and let the others look at it before going to the last one whom…he was honestly surprised more with. “Seems like they aren’t the only ones.” Reading some of the notes Summer Breeze had written seems a bit surprising as the same results came from her. “Seems like you are all trying too hard, got to relax and barely put anything into it. Congratulations Breeze, you also did it.”

The bird pony took to the air and started to fly around happily yelling excitedly as well. The Crusaders were jumping around happily as they were surrounded suddenly by adults wanting advice on how to get their Salves made properly. To say they ate up the attention put it lightly. The Crusaders never got their marks for this but they did learn a valuable lesson for sure.

Taking moment he studied them with his Tactical Eye to see what it was, if any, their jobs were. The results were about what he expected, under each of their names: Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle, was one title they shared, likely a unique job class all to their own: Cutie Mark Crusader.

“So exactly why are we out here again?” Mystic asked of Dustan the next day. Near the start Dustan had dragged the magister in training out hoping to get him to take readings if possible to see if there were any lingering Chaotic magic residue signatures from where Discord had appeared. “The Elements purged this place with a high powered blast. I would expect like under the castle Harmonium would start to be found if we dug down from the spot where it was used.”

When he got out of the hospital he had come to discover that some of the metals under the castle had been turned to harmonium likely from the blast that changed Nightmare Moon back to Luna. That being said, he pretty much spent a couple of days helping to haul the stuff up as the only ones who could even move it were himself or the elements in town and most of them were pretty busy so they couldn’t help, true there were ways around it, but it was a pain so for the most part specifically digging the stuff out was avoided. Speaking of Harmonium he had been spending about an hour or two each day repairing the rusted weapons that had been gathered from the armory, just because they couldn’t use it didn’t mean that eventually he wouldn’t find a use for such things.

“’Better safe than sorry’ they say and I trust your device there to help discover if there are.” Dustan had asked how the earth pony had done magical readings before and when Mystic had shown him the device saying it could pick up on ALL types of magic, Dustan instantly thought of this idea. “If there are wouldn’t you like to know about it and somehow treat it now before it got worse?”

Mystic opened his mouth to say something only to stop and grab the equipment again. “Alright you made a good point there.”

As they were going through the town they came upon a sight that made Dustan’s heart flutter, one of the most heartwarming of episodes, also one that was slightly sad in some way. The Mane Six were out and about with Rainbow Dash wearing a whistle and a baseball cap, or whatever the equivalent was in Equestria, while speaking to a group of five pets.

“-A race against me!” The sports-wearing pegasus said as she zoomed to all the pets minus a certain tortoise. “As for where, well you will have to follow me to find out.” She started to slowly fly away with all the pets following, as well as her friends.

Fluttershy had to stop to pick up the slow moving shelled one though that did let her spot Dustan and Mystic causing her to change her course from regrouping with her friends. “Oh Dustan, I am sorry to ask but could you stop by my home tomorrow, it’s SUPER important.”

Not able to suppress a chuckle as this had happened before usually when the care-taker wanted to check on Boko. “Sure, not sure when but I will aim for around noon and I will bring Boko.”

“Oh thank you, but I got to go catch up with my friends, sorry.” Fluttershy started to leave but had to stop to answer a question.

It was a question from Mystic. “Where are you all heading to in such a hurry?”

Stopping and turning the yellow mare quickly tried to answer. “Oh Rainbow Dash is having a competition to find her perfect pet and we are going to the last event now. I have to go bye!”

Mystic rubbed his chin with one hoof while giving a ‘hmm’ sound. “Now that I think about it, all of her friends she is close to have pets, huh. Guess they talked her into getting one. I wonder what she will choose. Knowing her, something fast and that can fly.”

As he stepped forward to continue their expedition he smiled. “I am sure whatever pet she gets will be the perfect match for her.” Rolling his shoulders and groaning. “Anyways come on, we have more places to take readings from.”

Giving a sigh Mystic nodded. “Right, right.”

The next day Dustan found himself awake much earlier than normal, not by choice but because he had to get up to run the troops through their early morning drills. Boko, he could tell, was not happy to be up this early either but still went with him regardless. A loyal Chocobo through and through without a doubt and today she would be in her element as would Dustan as today was an endurance run for the troops. Dustan wanted to teach them about pacing themselves for the long haul and to work out their muscles for longer durations at lower outputs.

There was another reason for this of course, since his harsh training and fight against Discord, he had gone up by quite a few levels making his mana pool higher as well as his health pool for sure of which both were expected. What wasn’t expected though was how his stats raised as well as he remembered stats in Final Fantasy Tactics weren’t outrageous or anything nothing like the hundreds that other Final Fantasy’s sported. However looking at his stats now it was like the conservative approach of numbers of Tactics, but more willing to go higher and higher then what they had. Maybe it had to do with him being in Equestria? Truthfully numbers were numbers and at the end of the day only really worked when you measured them and gave them a relatable correlation to something, which is what he was doing now.

Turns out, while he wasn’t sure what number was associated with stamina, he did find out that he was still leading the pack when it came to the subject. In fact he wasn’t really even winded, sweaty sure, but not winded. Putting the troops to free study and patrol rotation for the rest of the day he went to the spring to clean up then to grab Boko and head to Fluttershy’s cottage as he had promised her yesterday. On the way to the cottage Dustan tried an experiment, pulling out his music box he wound it up and held it as they walked. One hand contently petting and scratching at his companion while the other held the box to be listened.

There was a point where he couldn’t help but grin, a faint checkerboard had appeared for a moment till he got excited and it vanished. “So it is connected to state of mind.” He felt was now a step closer to being able to visit whenever he wished instead of just when he slept, which was even now a rare thing. ‘If I can go there whenever, I can start to do experiments to see what is the most effective forms of training for certain classes. Sure it might be min max-y in a world that…shouldn’t really have it applied to it, but if it might save someone then it is worth the grind. Plus I kinda want to see what Summoner will do.’ Truth was he had already unlocked Summoner…just…he also hadn’t. It was like before, one of the stands that refused to release its power for some reason meaning there was a hidden condition for it. ‘I also REALLY need to grind up Thief and Archer as I want to be a NINJA!’

His experiment and inner monologue lasted long enough to reach the cottage of the animal lover where he knocked and could hear a scramble of hooves and various animals before Quiet Yellow appeared and smiled “Oh you are here. Come on in, I will get some tea ready.”

“Sure no problem. Boko be careful ok? You are getting very tall and you don’t want to break anything.” The large bird gave an understanding ‘kweh’ and headed inside making sure to be careful as Dustan went to find a cushion to sit on.

Relaxing for a moment Dustan would let those two have their fun and enjoy each other’s company while he caught a nap. Closing his eyes he started to calm his breathing while thinking of the training the troops were going to be given this week, possibly two weeks since he wasn’t exactly sure how long Tremor would be away for. The Squire felt one of the resident animals moved its way under his arm, likely looking for attention of which he had no problem giving. The fur of the large animal was rather soft and as Dustan found the creature’s ears to give it some scratches he felt it start to give a very deep purr sound.

‘Huh, didn’t think Flutters had any other large animals here besides Harry.’ Letting that thought go for now he went back to planning for the troops.

The human was never sure on how long he was like that but eventually the owner of the house came in and gave a gasp of happiness. “I see you two are getting along quite nicely.”

By this point the large cat had put its head on Dustan’s lap while he gave it attention. “Guess so. I didn’t realize you had any large cats at your place Fluttershy, new I take it?”

“Yes, she appeared soon after Discord came and went from what my other cute critters tell me.” The winged mare told him.

As he continued the petting he could feel the cat’s tail swishing lightly back and forth against his hips, he could feel the purrs it gave rumbling through its body, the way it was slightly kneading his leg lightly without hurting, the way its large whisker flowed down the length of his arm, how soft her fur w-

Blinking his eyes open he looked down to see the light blue fur of a creature he recognized as well as its waving tentacle like whiskers. “The Coeurl.”

“Oh is that what her species is called?” The pegasus quickly trotted over and smiled giving the feline a pet as well. “She came here and was looking for something, I couldn’t really tell as I don’t know her very well yet, but it was someone. She was also very hungry so I helped feed her and bath her getting her all nice and fluffy and soft.”

Truth be told, part of Dustan was panicking right now, but it was a small part. The kind pegasus before him wasn’t panicking and the large cat had been close enough to him when he was unaware to do whatever she wanted with him, only to just want affection. It honestly had him more curious then panicked to be fair.

“You said she was looking for something?” Looking down at the Coeurl he could see that she still didn’t have a name, maybe she was looking for that?

“Mhm.” The Element of Kindness came up and poked his chest. “It was you.” Blinking slowly for a moment it was clear he wanted her to explain a bit more, which thankfully she did. “For a while I couldn’t figure out what she wanted except that she was looking for somepony. Eventually when I came home from visiting you while you were in the hospital I was talking about you and she seemed very interested. So I put two and two together at that point and asked her if she was looking for the human that lives around here. She didn’t seem sure till I described you so that is when I knew.”

Looking down at the cat he saw her vivid green eyes looking back up into his at this point. “So you wanted to find me huh, well here I am.” He said with a chuckle.

That got the Coeurl to purr even louder. “She is very happy about that. The reason I called you here today was because of her, I would like you to adopt her as that is what she wants. It would mean ever so much to me if you said yes.”

‘Huh, is this because I saved it when it was hurt? I thought it paid me back by throwing the race.’ Of all the Final Fantasy creatures he wouldn’t mind having as a pet or friend, to be fair a Coeurl was never one that crossed his mind, mostly because of how terrifying it could be in an encounter. That being said since coming here many things have changed so why not his thoughts on the matter. “Sure, why not.”

The caretaker soon shot into the air at hearing that. “REALLY?!” When he nodded she flew around giving her trademarked ‘yay!’ before zipping off and coming back with a list. “I have noticed some of her eating habits and such so I have wrote them down here. She is primarily a meat eater but seeing as you do get shipments of fish and such from all over that shouldn’t be a problem.”

“Yeah we get shipments from all over the place and what are you talking about?” Suddenly confused he looked at her as if she grew another head.

“Oh, guess that was after you went into your coma.” Giving a cough she soon started to explain how Merlene and Tremor made a deal with various Griffon, Dragon, Minotaur, and even some extra species like cats and parrots, traders for shipments of fish and other meats to be shipped to the castle since there were other creatures that had diets that required that and with it growing so large over fishing was starting to be a problem. A good plan no doubt and one he would have to examine to its fullest when he got back for sure.

‘Huh, while that is good, I will have to look for other things I missed while I was out.’ Looking down at the purring Coeurl a thought came to mind. “You still need a name. Let’s see.” Thinking back through all the games he had played through he couldn’t remember a single notable Coeurl name or similar species name at all. However the name he finally thought of came as he was rubbing through her fur. “I think I will name you Maya. Your fur is the same color as that and it sounds like a good girl’s name. Sorry if I am not the best at naming things, but I hope you like it.”

The newly named Maya leaned up and licked his face over and over again purring all the while making him laugh as well as Fluttershy. “I think she likes it. Oh that reminds me.” The overly kind pegasus soon flapped away quickly before coming back with two collars and tags. “Here, I got these while you were unconscious and after Maya showed up, since I didn’t know what you would name her I haven’t gone to get hers engraved but Boko has hers engraved as well as on the back her home location and owner. Maya’s will need hers engraved with her name but all the information is also there.”

Taking them in hand he smiled and called Boko over after getting Maya to let him up. “First up is yours Boko.” The white Chocobo ‘kweh’ed’ in a pleased tone as she leaned down and letting him clip it around her neck and adjust it. Her collar was black with a gold tag. Next up was Maya, who almost seemed to reverently bow her head to let him put the collar around it. The feline’s collar was a burgundy maroon color with a bronze tag.

“I made sure to get them enchanted and to choose materials that complemented their color schemes; you can thank Rarity for that advice.” Fluttershy came over and took a closer look at the collars and tags smiling. “And she was right, they are both very lovely.”

She gave a squeak as she was pulled close by the human. “Thank you Fluttershy, it means a lot that you got these for me. I know bronze is very expensive so I will pay you back for them both; No that is not a suggestion, it’s a promise.”

He felt her wings and hooves wrap around him as she returned the hug. “Alright, I am just happy you are happy along with Boko and Maya. I know you will continue to care for them both to the best of your abilities and they will both be very happy.”

Nods then thinks for a moment. “Do you have an extra pet bed and such that I can buy from you? That is unless this one will insist on sleeping in my bed like this one does.” He points and rolls his eyes at Boko who just tilted her head as if to ask ‘what’.

With the bits given to her for the supplies, thanks to his bag of holding having a bag of bits which to use, he made his way back and made sure that the troops of the castle as well as its residents knew about the new companion, as Dustan refused to call Boko or Maya a pet, so that they wouldn’t attack her. He told anyone interested that she was a meat eater and would be put on a fish diet, as well as some small vitamins to help keep her healthy and full of energy. He took her tag to the blacksmith of the castle for an engraving, which didn’t take too long.

With that done there was only two more issues. A minotaur and pony had arrived while he was out and was looking to meet him, as such he was sent to a room to wait till Dustan had returned. Seeing as how he had and got informed of the visit, Dustan sent someone to go and send said minotaur to the meeting room first so they could speak. Said minotaur was huge, a good foot and a half or more taller than Dustan with a metal grey fur color over a tough looking hide. Though Dustan wasn’t an expert of minotaurs giving he had only met a handful so far he could tell this one was an older one judging from the lines of age under his eyes and on various parts of his face. What was more was the ornamentation upon the bull’s face. In each nostril was a ring and on his ears were five more, all made of gold.

The minotaur looked at the human for a moment before sitting down. “Thank you for meeting me Lord Warner. I recognize you from your description.”

“Thank you, care for some tea?” Dustan had went ahead and made some while waiting. “It’s not the best, but I did what I could. If it’s too strong we have some milk and some sugar if you need it.”

For some reason that seemed to put a smile on the old bull’s face which in turn seemed to relax the atmosphere in the room. “Thank you for the generous offer. I would be delighted to partake.”

Standing up Dustan poured him, it was a he as that much was obvious, mostly from his voice and from his lack of a bra…unless minotaurs didn’t have traditional breasts like he assumed a half bull half human type of creature would possess. “No problem. You are a guest and I am glad we can get along. Last few guests haven’t been exactly friendly given my looks and the fact I am not a pony.”

“That is easily overlooked, though I will admit, if you were in Minos it would likely be similar but only because of how scrawny you are rather than your species.” The bull took the cup and sipped it before setting it down and grabbing some milk and two cube of sugar. “However I should apologize for my lack of manners. I am Steel Brilliance. I have come here all the way from Minos after learning of your intellect so that I may better improve my mind. However in seeing your guards I would also like to offer my help in payment.”

“Ok, while I am not sure what I could teach you, I don’t mind doing so, just keep in mind I may not give you what you are looking for exactly as I am not sure what it is you are looking for.” After putting some sugar in his own tea and sipping Dustan asked. “But what help are you offering?”

Stirring the tea for a bit to make sure all the sugar dissolved and the milk was properly mixed Steel spoke. “I am ex-military from my homeland I will spare you the details but I am highly decorated. As such while I see you tending to the physical training of your guard, I have yet to see any such for their minds. I am willing to teach tactics as well as specialized training exercises to help improve their minds like how to recognize when someone is lying, smuggling contraband and what to look for, as well as spotting suspicious activity in general.”

“Alright then, you are hired.” Dustan said simply and almost immediately.

Seems that caught the old bull off guard. “Just like that?”

“Mhm.” Sipping more of his tea Dustan could tell the bull wanted to ask why. “While our PT instructor Tremor, a dragon, is doing wonderful, he is focusing a bit too much on training. He is doing wonderful don’t get me wrong, but having someone for tactics and such is what we need. I am not one for that as most of what I have learned has been through experience via one on one combat. So I am lacking in that side. There is also the fact that you seem to be interested a lot in what I can teach you and if that is true I am willing to give you a trial run to see what will happen.”

There was a large moment of silence between sips of the tea both of them had before Steel spoke up. “You are too kind. While I do admire that, be warned that it can be and will be a weakness.”

“I know, but it is a burden I am willing to bear.” Dustan finished his tea and smiled.

For a moment the face of the bull became unreadable before he smiled and laughed. “I like you. You are honest, seem to genuinely care about those around you, and are willing to learn with your subjects. I think this is going to be fun for all involved.”

The bull then got up chuckling the whole time as he left before Dustan went to make some more tea as he told one of the guards to now get the pony that wished to see him. The pony would arrive just as the new batch of tea was finished being escorted in and made to sit down in the guest seat.

“Welcome, I was told you wished to speak with me, also would you like some tea?” Dustan offered as he approached the table.

“Oh, sure thank you sir.” The pony seemed honestly surprised by the offer but saw the displayed milk and sugar cube and smiled back. Upon sipping the tea the unicorn would wince a bit and go for the milk and sugar. “I came here hoping to offer my services. I am afraid the last master I served did himself and his family a great disservice that I could no longer ignore. I left with a heavy heart but I had to do the right thing.”

“Doing the right thing is not always easy.” The human could easily agree with that even without knowing the unicorn’s problem he could tell it weighed heavily on him based on the look in his eyes. “What is it you did before?”

“I was a butler and general caretaker of my master and his estate. I can cook, clean, brew tea, perform small medicinal magicks, and have general knowledge of most Canterlot dealings from when I was there though that will fade in time since I am no longer there.” The black and grey pony told him.

Speaking of his color scheme, that Dustan knew this pony was a butler it was much easier to tell. His body was mostly black but his underbelly and thighs of his legs were great as if he was wearing a black butler uniform with grey under clothes. His mane looked to be taken care of really well judging from the shine of his grey almost silver coloration, though that might have come from age as well, and while it could use a touch up that was likely from whatever traveling he had just done.

“I can start at anytime if you approve, though it would be directly under you.” Something about that spoke that if Dustan approved he would be like Merlene in that he would be a vassal or something of the equivalent. “I have brought my own uniform if needed unless you deem it not acceptable.”

Using his magic, a silver coloration for sure, the unicorn floated his butler uniform out and showed Dustan. “Looks fine to me, though I am not sure why you want to follow me.”

Stowing the uniform away the unicorn pointed around and spoke. “The former family I was involved with had the betterment of everypony and everyone around them in mind when they took action. Though my last master had not, I wish to serve only those that would do as my original masters did. I can tell from how those outside interact with you and speak that you are someone kind and that they respect. I have taken time to look into what you have done for Equestria before being named a noble and found you to be a truly altruistic soul.”

Sighing and rubbing his chin, and making note that he needed a shave, Dustan considered the pros and cons of this before finally deciding. “Alright then, I will give you a trial run, a month to do as you normally do with some corrections here and there if needed and if it turns out that you fit in you can stay.”

Standing up the unicorn would fold in his front legs and lower his head to the ground in a bow. “Thank you Master, I promise that I won’t disappoint you.”

“Don’t overwork yourself to do so either; I am not someone that would want you to focus only on others while ignoring yourself.” Suddenly the unicorn stood up and went into the kitchen area. “Where are you going?”

“To make a batch of tea.” He also levitated the batch that Dustan had made with him. “No offense Master, but if you are the one to brew this it is not the greatest and I would be happy to show you how to do so that it brings out the most flavor of the leaves as possible.”

Standing up and feeling slightly hurt at that remark Dustan followed the pony. “Hey it wasn’t that bad…was it?” Now that he thought about it, everyone he served always tended to use a lot of milk and sugar in his teas. “Never mind, oh I never caught your name. Sorry about that.”

The black coated butler was busy familiarizing himself with things around as his magic touched plenty of things before turning and smiling his aged face upon his new master. “Faithful Servant at your service.”

Chapter Twenty Five: Suteki Da Ne.

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My Little Tactics

Chapter Twenty Five: Suteki Da Ne.

“So you want to set up a party for Hearts and Hooves Day?” Dustan was rubbing his temples as the pink party pony was doing what she did best: Planning out parties.

“Yep, yep.” The chipper pony told him. She had caught him just as he was heading to the hot springs to wake up. “I know it’s a week away, but I got most of the things already ready for the party, but I can make it even better if I use your courtyard and dining hall for the party.”

He had not even ate any breakfast as of yet. “Pinkie, look I will make you a deal.” This had her attention. “I haven’t forgotten that I owe you a party personally from me, if you can promise that this will also count as mine, without saying its mine. I will agree.”

Pinkie seemed to think that one through a bit. “So you are saying, that it will also be your party but I can’t say it is? Meaning no banners, personal cupcakes with your name on it or anything?” When he nodded she went thoughtful again as she stroked her chin. “Hmm you drive a hard bargain, but if you throw in telling me when your birthday is then we have a deal.”

Looking at her flatly he asked simply. “I am not going to get you to move out of my doorway otherwise am I?” As she gave the biggest grin possible he sighed in defeat. “September twenty first. Can I please go to the springs to wash up then go get breakfast now?”

“Okie doki Loki!” With that and a zip leaving only a dust cloud behind, Pinkie was gone.

Coughing cause of said dust the human looked at himself. “Well good thing I am going to go get washed up.”

A nice scrub and soak later Dustan was feeling less grumpy and more awake, which his grumbling stomach could also say. On the way from his room and into the dining hall he noticed that Boko and Maya were already eating. He mused that it must have been Faithful Servant, the pony who showed up at the same time as Steel Brilliance the minotaur from Minos. Faithful had been living up to his name, acting like a personal butler for Dustan but as well as caretaker for the castle’s upkeep like cleaning and cooking to name a few. Truth was, Dustan never knew how much his cooking, as well as many of the soldiers in the castle’s, lacked until the old pony had shown up and started taking on those duties.

Like now, as he was about to go into the kitchen, the old unicorn came out floating a wonderful smelling banquet of a breakfast in for him: fish bacon, eggs, toast, fresh squeezed OJ, as well as a bowl of bland cereal though bland only in the way that it was not overly sugary like most ponies preferred it but still plenty high in said ingredient, milk, and finally a freshly plucked apple from Sweet Apple Acres. True fish bacon wasn’t the best bacon around, but when one couldn’t have actual bacon from a pig cause of normal reasons of not eating an aware animal, fish bacon prepared by Faithful was a good second.

“Here you go sir.” The butler pony told him as he bowed.

“Thanks Faithful, this looks and smells absolutely delicious and I haven’t even taken a bite of it yet.” He went right for that bacon cause BACON!

“You are most welcome sir.” With that the pony smiled and went back into the kitchen, where no doubt he was cooking more breakfast for others who got up after Dustan.

Standing up after breakfast, the human made his way outside where he spotted the troops doing their morning run with Tremor barking orders at them followed by Steel. When Tremor had returned from his trip and found Steel, at first the two had a stare down with each other then clasped arms as if they were old buddies then simply turned and grinned evilly at the troops. Needless to say, not a single one had a good feeling about that. The dragon had not been the only one to return, but everyone had in the last couple of days. Zecora was the next who smiled and proceeded to give him a hug upon her return before telling him that she had been going around to various botanists so see about somehow enhancing the growth of the remedy plant that he had given her for Hearth’s Warming. So far though, no luck was to be had in that regards so it remained in stasis.

Eden and Sturdy came next and they gave him a warm welcome upon their return and told him of what they were up to. Seems Sturdy’s work on the castle had been recognized and he had been called away to help design some estates for more lucrative income individuals with Eden going to be his consultant on garden arrangements. Seems that their jobs had earned them quite a bit in bits and while that was nice, Sturdy was more happy that others were taking his word more seriously now as an architect. Overall he deserved it and Dustan was glad of his friend’s success.

The last to return was Merlene and her return came with a tackling hug as well as some tears to see him back on his feet. Dustan tried to calm her down as best as possible, but it didn’t work and for the rest of the day she was practically attached to his side. Come to find out, she had been visiting some relatives back home as it had been a good long while. Nearly two years since her search for a proper master had started. She said that they were happy to know she was happy, though miss having her closer to home.

Beyond that nothing else special happened to all of them. Most were apprehensive about Maya at first, especially Merlene who recalled that the Coeurl had been an opponent during the Discord incident. That all changed though when she saw the feline place its head upon Dustan’s lap for ear scratches one day and proceeded to purr up a storm. Merlene had concluded that if a cat could purr like that then it meant that they were completely happy where they were, meaning it was very unlikely that the large feline would betray him in anyway.

Something that didn’t get swept under though was the revaluation of the learned Salve potential among various individuals. Zecora was right away looking into things and even started to try to replicate it herself now that she had been informed of what it was she had done wrong. Almost right away she succeeded as well, given the fine control over her own magic she had before for the balancing she did, her own potion making, as well as other tricks she kept hidden. He really should get around to deciphering the journal he got from her. After making the Salve though, the zebra got a look on her face before she suddenly declared that she was struck by inspiration.

Though what she actually said was. “I have been struck by a thought. I need to go see if this idea can be caught.” With that she galloped away with a smile on her face.

As the days ticked by and the day for hearts and of the hooves came closer and closer Dustan made two very important discoveries. The Monk skill Chakra didn’t work as he thought it would. It wasn’t an instant recovery of health and mana like he had hoped it would have been. Instead it was more of a focusing technique which increased ones natural recovery of those things over time. This lead to him being able to use more magic in the day by taking breaks sure, but it wasn’t the instant heal that would replace Cure like he had hoped. The next discovery came in the form of the music box, or rather what it aided him in doing. Having determined it was all about a state of mind and recalling that each time he had gotten there had been when that box was playing, Dustan proceeded to try to enter the Classroom while awake. It had taken him a two solid days of trying before he was able to finally break through that wall and see the armor stands before him without needing to be asleep. However interacting with them at this stage was still not quite there so, while it was a step forward, it wasn’t the end all be all he wanted either.

Overall it was looking to be a very nice and relaxing week, well half a week at this point, till Hearts and Hooves Day till a certain marshmallow pony showed up and interrupted things. “Excuse me Darling but I am terrible need of a favor.”

Un-cupping his hands from in front of him and moving to stand up and stretch from his meditative Chakra sit he looked down upon the unicorn. “What’s up Rarity?”

“I am sorry to ask this but can you watch Sweetie Belle for a couple of days?” His look must have wanted further details as she quickly started to speak up. “I have been called to a client in Canterlot for a special dress making consultation and final details on a previous design of mine that she wanted to wear for her stallion on the holiday.” Rarity leaned in and winked to show what it was that the client mare was going for with her stallion.

“If it’s just her then it should be-” as he started to say that though he noticed the shifty look on Rarity’s face. “It’s all the Crusaders isn’t it?”

“It may be time for their sleep over weekend with Sweetie Belle, so Applejack wasn’t planning on hosting the filly’s this weekend so isn’t prepared, and Rainbow Dash has never been able to do it thanks to her house being made of clouds.” The fashionista then gave him the biggest doe eyes possible, a weakness of his for sure. “Please Dustan, there is no pony else I can trust with this. Pinkie Pie is busy planning a party, Twilight doesn’t have the room in her library, I already mentioned how Rainbow Dash and Applejack couldn’t. My only choice left would be Fluttershy, and to be honest, she has her hooves full as it is with her animals so I don’t want to burden the dear mare.”

‘Ok pros and cons time.’ Dustan thought to himself as he thought things over. ‘Pros: will stop from burdening Fluttershy when she is really busy, good. Means I can possibly keep the girls out of trouble. I have a whole castle of people to help keep an eye on things as well. Last, they are adorable.’ Rarity could no doubt see him thinking with how his head was leaning one way then switching to lean another. ‘Cons: it’s The Crusaders, agents of chaos, and the sap wielders of untold fathomable power for mischief. I also won’t be able to really train as I please if I am watching them. Shit this is tough. Fuck it.’ Looking up at the pony he nodded. “Alright Rares, go ahead and tell them they can come here. I will find a guest room they can take on as theirs.”

She gave him a hug instantly before depositing things in his arms. “This is a list of contacts for anything you might need as well as a list of foods the girls like, any type of allergies, and more. Here is some horn polish for Sweetie Belle, an all deluxe mane and feather shampoo for Scootaloo, a hoof care set for Apple Bloom, not to mention extra ribbons-” The list continued as did the pile in his arms as he was already regretting his choice. In the end he had went to store a large armful of products in a spare guest room that he would dub the girl’s room for the weekend.

Within twenty minutes of him putting the stuff away the three fillies in question came barreling in. “This is going to be such a fun sleepover!”

Apple Bloom turned to her unicorn friend as she said that and responded with. “Ah know right!”

“I seen some pretty cool places to ride my scooter on coming in, I can’t wait to try those!” The tiny winged pegasus shouted as she pranced with her friends.

‘What deity did I anger to deserve this?’ His question went unanswered though as right away they soon all split shouting a scouting mission of the castle before he could even sigh. “This is going to be a long weekend.”

Luckily he wouldn’t have to do much for now as Scootaloo, true to her word, was doing stunts around the castle. Apple Bloom went to go see Zecora as she wanted to practice making more concoctions. That left really only Sweetie Belle around him as she wanted a proper tour of the castle and what it had renovated so far.

He showed her around the wall first as it was a good parameter reminder and allowed him to point out things along the way, like the smithy, the cobbler, the guild buildings, housing, many in construction buildings, as well as the hot springs, which she was really interested and said she couldn’t wait to try later. Inside the castle proper, or at least what was constructed/renovated, there was the main foyer that had three distinct exits on the bottom floor, along with two stairs heading up and three more exits. Branching off of those came the various places of interest of the castle so far. The dining area and kitchen to the left a massive wing for sure as not only did it include those two things but also the cold storage for food thanks to some very nice enchantments that cost a pretty bit.

To the right came the enclosed training field for when the weather was bad, or for when the troops or as they were now properly named thanks to Tremor and Steel working together as the Luminous Guard. Like the dining area, this wing had two distinct branches as well, the armory and storage. The armory as was it sounded, the place for storing completed weapons and armor for the Luminous Guard. The storage was for many things though it was mostly related to equipment and its upkeep. There was also a display case for the various Harmonium tools that Dustan had refurbished and completed, thanks to the smith of the area for supplying the various handles scabbards and more for those.

Now directly forward was a simpler branch as it was the mass storage and treasury area. The mass storage took up two rooms filling it with various building materials and raw materials for various herbology experiments and more. The treasury was the more secure of the buildings in that it had been slapped with more protective enchantments on every wall, ceiling and floor then many of the enchanters could name from any single building in history. Only certain people had access to this room of which Dustan was one obviously. That meant none could gain access to it. Here is where he stored various things that were too dangerous to let loose that they had uncovered, of which many were books from the library. Others were enchanted, or cursed depending on the perspective, weapons and armor, and a few lingering artifacts that the enchanters had deemed dangerous or couldn’t ascertain the properties of at all. Needless to say for many of those he had already compiled a list and some magical photos that had already been sent to the princesses.

The second floor was similar to the first in that it had stairs to the, still in progress, third and final floor, even though it was only one set rather than two, as well as three branching paths. To the left and right were the guest quarters meant to house any high ranking guests that would visit, like if Celestia or Luna wanted to come, or some kind of dignitary. This was a castle after all and no doubt one day someone would come expecting such a thing. The center path though was special in that it leads to the throne room or what would have been it in the past, but now was the counsel room. Here were seats for everyone that Dustan trusted to be on his counsel as well as room for others to come and sit should they need to have a meeting.

“How come you don’t have many decorations like tapestries and such?” Sweet Belle asked him as he told her of the room.

“Oh honestly it's literally the last thing on the list to do. I rather get everything furnished, finished, and functioning before I think about fashion.” He told her honestly. The guest rooms were perhaps the exception so far as he had Rarity go about with those ahead of schedule so as not to offend any guests. When Dustan told Sweetie that she gave a simple ‘ohh’ as she now understood why their room was so fancy.

On the third floor were structures and half formed walls to show that it was still a work in progress but he still went about the tour as it was. He explained to her that the third floor, the final floor of the castle, was to be the bedrooms of those that lived in the castle permanently such as himself, Eden, Sturdy, Mystic, Tremor, and the rest. The human even made it a point that any ‘servant’ rooms were just as well off as they were just as important here as they helped keep the castle running smoothly.

Looking around though the filly unicorn asked. “This seems awfully small for a castle.”

“Indeed you would be right Sweetie.” Moving to the edge of the platform he pointed out several places form their height advantage above the trees. “This place was the main castle building before, and was a lot bigger, but since this is the main hub, I cut down on the size of the building and turned most of the castle into the courtyard. That is why the levels under the castle are SOOOO much bigger. We are still uncovering things in the basement; some are dangerous too that is why you need special clearance to go there.” Turning to look at her he got serious. “That is why no matter what you and your friends don’t go in there. Plus it's guarded. If I find out you all went in there without permission, I will revoke all rights and privileges that you girls have for all time here at the castle. That means future classes to learn things I can teach and more.”

Judging by how she gulped and nodded, he had made his point. Hopefully it would stick and he wouldn’t have to punish the girls. If it came down to it though, he would rather keep them safe and have them hate him rather than them get hurt. Dustan really, really, REALLY hoped they would listen. Only time would tell he supposed.

When dinner rolled around he actually got a surprise from Scootaloo as she ordered fish. Turned out the little filly loved the taste and like he had learned about, pegasus required some protean supplements to make sure they stayed healthy especially for their wings. The Squire really hoped it would work out and some day her wings would grow and fill out properly. As dinner finished up, he spotted them going to talk to Summer Breeze, the fellow completer of the Salve, who was currently talking to Zecora about things.

Shrugging it off, he had informed Zecora about the girls and to give them a proper course on spring etiquette since they were separated on both sides by male and female. Speaking of, he found his soak to be particularly relaxing, even going so far as to visit the Classroom without the aid of the music box and tried to interact with the stands. Nothing as of yet but he could feel he was getting closer. It was just a matter of concentration mixed with relaxation. It was an odd combination for sure and one that would seem not to work together well. No doubt this was one that the brown haired human would have to master in order to improve himself.

‘It is so close I can almost feel it.’ A hand reached out and passed through the armor before he sighed and stood up to go dry himself off.

Feeling better he made his way to the girl’s room to see if they had gotten back yet or if they were still washing. Turns out all the girls were there, as well as Zecora and Summer Breeze. Seems they were discussing something as he entered. “How did your bath go girls?”

“Ah thought it was so relaxing.” Apple Bloom said jumping up to her hooves.

Waving a hoof and looking off to the side the tiny pegasus waved it off. “Pfft it was alright.”

“Oh really?” Sweetie Belle poked her side. “What happened to ‘oh this feels so good, the aches from my wings are melting away.’?”

Instantly the filly blushed while all around her started to giggle though she was saved by Breeze speaking up. “Hey I know what you mean. My wings are really large so if I am hovering too much or using them for anything but long distance flying, they tend to ache something bad, so the springs are Celestia sent for sure.”

That was true; Summer Breeze was gifted with extraordinarily large wings, than again that might have been her parrot heritage. “I wish my wings were that big.” The filly sighed and grumbled as her friends patted her back.

“Little filly with wings so small.” Zecora started as she stretched out. “I am sure one day your wings will grow about the same time as you grow tall.”

“Was it like that for you Breeze?” The filly asked of the mare with such large wings.

The mare just chuckled nervously as she scratched at the side of her head with her hoof. “Actually for me it was the opposite problem in that my body was way too small for my wings, I had to grow into them rather than vice versa.”

Apple Bloom pushed a drawing she was working on over to Zecora as did Sweetie Belle while Scootaloo was busy having her crisis of wanting bigger wings. “Hmm the smith for armor might be your best bet, for something like that I couldn’t get.”

“Oh what are you girls drawing?” As he mentioned that Scootaloo remembered her own she was working on and handed it over as did the others.

“Oh we all had some really weird dream but, its kinda hard to describe you know?” Taking the pictures in hand he looked at them and chuckled.

“I know right? I just wonder what all those letters meant.” The off white unicorn asked as she held her chin with the frog of her hoof.

Summer Breeze laughed loudly at that and nodded. “I know what you mean; I had a strange dream not too long ago as well.”

“Dreams for the most part tend to be your mind processing information you got in the day, or trying to work out a problem you happened upon. Then again sometimes they are just random too.” Dustan looked down at the drawings now wondering what they were about, only to get a shock at what was there along with what was said next.

“Maybe, but what could I have seen to make me dream about a weird menu that needs something called JP.” Breeze wondered out loud.

Dustan could feel his blood run cold. “Ah know right, I had that same dream. There were these two stands with pony armor in my size on them.”

Scootaloo buzzed her wing. “All the Crusaders had the dream so we thought it might be connected to our cutie marks so we drew the outfits we saw and wondered if Zecora could make them.”

“Are you alright my friend? That color on your face and what you are wearing doesn’t blend.” The zebra obviously was talking about his pale coloration.

Sitting down he handed the girls back their drawings though kept the most detailed one at the moment. “That is a Squire outfit and the other is a chemist one. The place you visited in your dreams I call the Classroom.”

All eyes were now on him as he revealed that. “Wait, you know about that place?”

Looking at them he asked simply. “Brown and beige checkerboard pattern, light in a circle only so far where the stands reside? Pure darkness outside that ring but feels like there is something out there?” When all of them suddenly nodded wide eyed he chuckled and ran his fingers over his face to cover his eyes. “Jeez, I thought it was technically something special about me.”

“My friend it seems an explanation is in need. We are all curious so please do not make us plead.” All the mares in the room suddenly scooted closer, almost into his personal bubble.

‘Huh, a little over a year ago this would have made me clam up and become very self conscious with how close they are, guess I have made progress in lots of areas.’ Shaking the stray through from him he started to speak. “This is going to take a while, if someone wants to go get some snacks and drinks before we start, I suggest you do so.”

“On it.” With that Summer zipped out of a window down to the kitchen and coming back with an arms full of snacks and drinks before landing a few minutes later. “Ok we are good to go.”

Pouring himself a drink of soda, Dustan sighed as he leaned against his chair. “First the place you visited was the ‘Classroom’ as I like to call it. It is literally where my powers come from.” That got everyone in an uproar. “Calm down, I will explain further.” Once he was sure they were settled he continued. “As I said for a while I thought that was unique to me, but it seems I was mistaken. When you are there, you see representatives of a specific class and its skills via those armor stands. Each one has active or main skills, reaction skills, support, and movement abilities as well.”

They were all taking notes on this, especially the older mares. “Ok but what does that have to do with those JP things that we noticed when looking at those funky armors.”

“JP stands for Job Points.” Taking a sip of his drink Dustan closed his eyes. “Basically if you gain enough of those points you can literally purchase the skills from that class to use and it puts the info sorta directly into your head, though it’s up to you to really refine and figure out how to use them practically.” Taking out a piece of paper and an ink quill he began drawing. “As you gain more and more skills and more points in a specific job, you ‘level it up’ so to speak. This means that it grows stronger and stronger. As you do this you may meet the requirements to open up other job classes, jobs being those armor stands. Each job has its own abilities for you to master and learn. For me there were even some additional requirements, some of which I am still unsure of today what they were.”

“Wait…are you saying Ah could learn how to use magic like you?” The small earth pony asked with wide eyes. Those eyes grew even wider when he nodded. “OH MY GOSH!”

“However you should note, that this magic is…less variable then pony magic in that it is more restricted to what you can do.” Holding up one hand he would call out the Fire spell and made the flame appear in his hand. “Fire literally only does that, you have to learn control with it if you want to make it smaller or bigger, but other than that it pretty much will stay the same size and power. Same with others like Cure.” Letting the flame vanish he stood up. “For the most part, all of those abilities that are not main abilities are always active or only come out during certain circumstances. Beyond that though, it’s all about self training.”

As he started to walk out Apple Bloom called out to him. “How do I learn magic?”

“Follow the route of the chemist, try helping out Zecora a lot.” Looking back at her and the rest he spoke plainly and directly. “Black Mages use destructive magic and are clad in blue robes and a large brimmed hat. White Mage are their counterpart in that they use restorative magic to heal and protect others and are dressed in white robes. If you visit the Classroom and see those types of stands, it means the potential is within your reach.”

With that he left the room, both happy that others could learn these skills, but sad in that he was no longer unique in that sense.

After the little info sharing session, the weekend passed by and soon he knew his peaceful days with the crusaders were over, which was saying something considering all the bits of chaos they seemed to cause with every step. The first one to interrupt his days was Twilight and Applejack, with Rainbow Dash following suit almost five seconds after the two of them came into the bath he was currently taking.

“Look Ah don’t mean to cause a fuss but-” Applejack barely got those words out before Twilight interrupted her to take over.

The mane of the unicorn was mussed and out of place in many areas. “-What is all this talk about a classroom and armor and self learning abilities and, and, and-”

“Yo, I heard from Scoots that she could get magical powers and that technically anypony could no matter the species.” The speedster had barged into the conversation as quickly as she moved, which was saying something.

“Look Ah got here first and Ah want things cleared up. What is all this talk about Apple Bloom becoming a magister?” As the cowpony called that out the unicorn and pegasus of the group turned to her as Dustan used that chance to stand up and wrap himself in a towel.

Shaking her head quickly purple smart’s mane twanged a bit as it popped more out of place. “No, no, no, a magister is a pony who can use Harmonic magic. No, this would be something else, something that defies classification, something unknown and unprecedented.”

“I want to learn some cool magic as with some of what I seen Dustan can do; I know I can pull off some REALLY cool tricks if I learn some of that. I mean come on imagine me shooting flames from my wings as I-Eep!” Why the spectrum pony gave off the start is she suddenly found her wings pinned under Dustan’s arms.

Dustan then proceeded to grab Twilight the same way and just glared at Applejack which got her to move before him before they all found themselves outside the hot springs. “First: out…this is the men’s bath, mares aren’t allowed here. Second: you are VERY rude for interrupting my bath like this and start demanding things. Three: you ever think to just ask me and not demand like this?” With that he set the girls in his arms down and walked back inside to finish his bath.

Getting back to his bath he sighed as the water closed back around his body up to his neck. Dustan no longer felt this was a relaxing soak but now just stalling to give the girls time to calm down and get their shit together. Sighing in frustration, Dustan got up and went to dry off and get dressed before gathering his stuff and heading outside and looking at the three there now looking a bit sheepish.

“Follow me.” He simply said heading to his room in the barracks and pointing to a corner for them to be. “Applejack, you were first, so you may speak first. You two keep quiet till she is done then it will be your turn.”

The farm pony now looked a bit unsure of herself then before but soon mustered up the courage to speak. “Apple Bloom came home from her sleep over sayin’ things like, she will be able to learn magic and become a magister. Look Ah get it that it’s nice to let fillies and colts dream but it is not right to give them false hope as well.”

Sitting down and pouring himself a glass of water from the picture near his bed he gulped it down before looking at her. “I didn’t tell Apple Bloom a lie. With her learning my abilities, if she keeps at it and focuses enough she should one hundred percent be able to learn my type of magic.”

“Wait really?” Looking hard at the human she squinted as she spoke. “You aren’t just pulling my leg are you?”

“AJ if I wanted to pull your leg I would reach out and do it rather than just make up a fib.” The orange pony gave a simple ‘hmm’ before she backed off. “Twilight you are next, and if you go on a rant you will forfeit your turn.”

As she was called she started to open her mouth but closed it when she heard the stipulation about ranting and had to take a moment to compose herself even further before speaking. “Can you tell me exactly what you told the Crusaders. I think if I hear that I can properly make an assessment.”

“Alright.” Dustan motion for them to sit and started to explain to them exactly the same thing he told the fillies. The classroom, the armor stands, the menus, the JP points, the categories, and how they grow additionally. The human also mentioned to them that even if they do learn it, practice is still needed just like it was for him. “That about wraps it up.”

“Hmm I see.” Twilight had been writing down the entire conversation while he explained it so she had some pretty detailed notes. “So it seems that to unlock all this you need to learn something from the basis and then it seems to trigger these visions. At that point it seems like your unique brand of magic, or in the case of others, their magic syncs up with this place. What you may be describing is a synchronous event.”

“Going to have to explain that one Twilight.” Dustan told her simply as he took another sip of water.

“Basically a synchronous event happens when a pony’s magic hits a very unique and specific magical frequency and lines up with it perfectly. Usually it is another plane of existence’s magic, that is how some pony’s learn various magicks randomly or instinctively without training. It technically is also the basis of all cutie marks as all ponies are naturally in tune with harmonic magicks quite a bit so we are bound closer to it than others and it ends up expressing our talents on our flanks prominently.” That was actually very interesting to Dustan and it answered a question he always had, he would have to research that more in the future for sure.

However he did have to interrupt and ask. “Is that why all pony names are kinda similar to their talent?”

“There are many theories around that yes, but nothing concrete, wait how do you know about that research, as far as I know it is still a top secret project for high ranking magisters.” Cocking her head to the side in curiosity she now had another question for the human.

“Focus Twilight, we are talking about your question for what I told the fillies remember?” She gave him a look that all women across universes gave a guy, the look of ‘we will talk about this later’.

“Yes of course.” Moving back to lecture mode she continued. “So it seems like what is happening with you, and now others, is that you are syncing up with a particular plane of existences magic and its flooding you with specifics and knowledge about the magic while requiring some kind of toll. The JP situation you mentioned. From how you described it the Job Points, could be synonymous with the amount of effort you give while working with that particular Job correct?”

Letting it sink in for a moment he gave a nod. “Sounds about right, yeah.”

Giving a very bright smile to that, she grinned as she continued to explain. “Good so that means while the source alignment is Neutral magic, your specific brand of abilities come from this plane. This might bring about a whole brand of unique magic to ponies and all other species too.”

“And other abilities.” That made her raise her eyebrows at that so he would explain. “It teaches you other things too, like for a specific Job called Monk. None of that uses mana at all but I can perform things that seem like magic. If I were to guess it’s likely using something like Ki to do so.”

“Oh I know about that!” Dash suddenly called out and smiled. “I am a black belt you know and anypony worth their bits knows about Ki when you are a martial artist, but it’s always been a pipe dream. Are you saying that is real?”

Nodding and standing up he simply said. “Follow me.” As they all went outside he went to grab a stick that had been blown away from a tree into the courtyard. “Twilight, can you sense the use of, or have a spell that detects any kind of magic usage?”

“Sure, it’s not one I use often but I can cast it.” She started to charge up her horn and ask. “Would you like me to cast it on the area?”

“Yeah go for it.” She sent out a wave from her horn that went out in all directions, making the ground and walls glow showing their enchantments but otherwise only a few things were glowing on Dustan, and that were the gifts he got from Hearth’s Warming, like his gloves and the pendant he wore. “One moment.” Unhooking his gloves and taking off the pendant, since he wasn’t wearing his swords at the moment, he was left completely without magic now. “As you can see I am using no magic at the moment right?”

“Ok yeah, we can see that.” Dash spoke up saying what they were all seeing which was confirm by a consensus of nods as now that this field had gone up the guard started to walk up as well as they sensed a demonstration going on.

Stepping away a bit from them Dustan tossed the branch forward away from him, clearly away from reaching distance, then punched forward making the branch shatter much to the gasp of everyone nearby. “No magic, see.”

“How did you-” Twilight gasped as she just looked at the destroyed branch.

“Hmm.” Applejack hummed gently but said nothing.

It was Rainbow Dash that spoke up as she held the sides of her face. “THAT WAS SO COOL!”

Nods and looks at everyone around. “It might be possible for anyone to do that, given if they can pass the Salve test and then dedicate themselves to that specific training that would lead them to this path.”

With that most of the guards got back to training right away as Dustan used that as a motivator. “Ok so all I have to do is make some Salve, got it. I am going to go get a list of things I need from Zecora and some instructions, later!” Zipping off quickly the pegasus vanished from sight into the forest.

“I have some research to do on Synchronous Events. I don’t think there has been a documented report of any event being teachable to others. However I never delved too deep into that research so I will have to double check.” Twilight told him before vanishing in a teleport.

“Ah suppose Ah should goin’ as well. Ah have to apologize to Apple Bloom. Ah also want to see if Ah can do that fancy trick since its kinda the same as to what Ah already do with bucking apple trees.” With that Applejack also left.

“Later AJ.” As Dustan walked away he suddenly had a double take to where the pony was already out of the gate. “Wait what? Kinda the same?” Dustan wouldn’t get an answer to that question sadly.

Heart’s and Hooves day was here, and while the episode event seemed to have happened exactly the same as before…even to the point where Dustan sat in silence watching from a distance, he smiled as it didn’t go awry, nor did it interrupt the plans for what was happening at the castle. A big party and stage were all set up in the courtyard as well as the dining room, with the stage being in the courtyard of course.

Currently Dustan was in one of the temporary guard towers, until proper ones can be built, keeping watch and doing his share as individuals from Ponyville came and were getting ready to cut loose. To be fair to Dustan this felt more like a small fair or concert then a party so he didn’t feel as off about the crowd as he normally would have. Hearing a pony climb up the stairs the human gave a glance at the stairs. The pony was wearing a cloak something of the style that many of the Luminous Guard were now wearing, something obviously modeled after his own cloak, as well as the mare having the symbol of the guard. A circular badge with a lightning bolt in the middle of it with light rays shining from it and the reason for this was that many said he gave out inspiration and inspiration can strike like a lightning bolt.

“I came to relieve you sir.” The mare saluted to him as he stretched.

“Thanks. Most are coming in through the typical paths but I spotted a couple using one of the more westerly paths so give an occasional pass over other areas.” The mare nodded as he started to climb down.

The best part of the castle and buildings being refurbished or built from scratch was, everything was made to also house him for the most part, which meant he rarely had to duck at all to get into places around here. True that most ponies would normally have a hard time with larger doors like this but they were made with them in mind as well having a second door handle for all involved. It also made picking locks harder as all doors had a two key system and both would need to be unlocked in order to open things up.

Heading to his room now that he was off duty, Dustan slipped into his regular clothing, a pair of jeans and a simple long sleeved shirt and only took his cloak around him as well. It was a party so he didn’t think he would need his weapons or armor, as well as his pack nor his gloves or anything. Honestly the only thing he wore was the feather pendent and that was all.

“Oh hey Dusty, come here I want you to meet somepony!” It was Pinkie who shouted for him, or at least he assumed so as he was already being pulled towards something by a pink moving blur. When the world had stopped moving around him he heard the energetic voice of the earth pony once again speak. “Dusty, this is Vinyl Scratch, or as her stage name calls her: DJ Pon3.”

“Nice to meet you.” Looking down at the unicorn he remembered from the show, she was exactly the same. She was a pure white coat with a two tone electric blue mane with a double music note for a cutie mark on her flank. The only difference was she was wearing headphones around her neck with the ear pieces facing outwards away from her.

“~Hey there~” The voice shocked him, not because so many of the community assumed the dj was mute, but because of how it came out. It came out of the headphones around her neck. “~I love seeing that reaction from everypony. Let me guess, you thought I would either A: talk normally or B: not talk at all?~” When he nodded to both of those she gave a wide grin. “~I am the best DJ around not only cause I send out the best tracks but because of my specialty in musical magic. Since I was born mute I had to learn to speak in a different way, thus I manipulate sound and things that can produce them. I am so good at it I can even help others connect to the music of harmony.~”

“That…is actually really neat sounding. Hell, I wouldn’t mind trying that sometimes.” Dustan mused loudly to her.

“~Oh, got a Heart-Song in particular that is just dying to come out? Maybe it’s for somepony in particular hmm?~” The DJ wiggled her eyebrows suggestively as she said that.

Shaking his head quickly then laughing Dustan smiled and told her the honest truth. “I am not affected like ponies are or it seems even other races for that matter. I seem to be really immune to The Music of Harmony. So if you can help others connect to it, I would like to see what it’s like normally for others.”

Nodding and crossing her arms in front of her as she did so the musician smiled. “~I can definitely get behind trying new things. I mean half the rumors about my trying this or that are true, though not really the locations where I tried them at. Most of the time it was just me doing my thing with a couple of friends.~”

‘Wait, did she just admit to trying drugs?’ Blinking a few times he would tell her. “I honestly haven’t heard any rumors. I tend not to listen to that type of stuff anyways. If I want the real story from someone I will ask them.”

Giving a pony clap, aka stamping her fore-hooves a few times in the ground she smiled. “~I like how you say someone, I really should use that more, but everywhere I play is nearly pony exclusive to it makes them feel better if I use somepony and the other things like that.~” A buzzing came from her headphones before she reached around to pull a cord up with a small display. “~Oh, looks like its preshow warm-ups for me now. I’m going to go hide now till the show officially starts to build anticipation. Later!~”

With a charge up on her horn she teleported away with a unique sound, one that made Dustan bust out laughing. “HAHA SHE TELEPORTS WITH A WUB HAHAHA!”

The festivities pretty much kicked off after that, the party getting in full swing, with even some liquor. Though after reading the label Dustan finally understood why the Hearth’s Warming gift from AJ packed no punch at all, plenty of flavor for sure, but no punch. Reading the bottle it said it contained only a little over twelve percent alcohol per volume. Dustan, while not an active drinker, knew from Patrick that the average per volume back on earth was in the upper thirty percent, close to forty percent on average.

‘Could also be the fact I am a heavy weight when it comes to drinking for some reason. I remember Pat complaining one time he took me to get hammered how much he had to spend to get me there and that it would never happen again. Good times, not that I can remember that night at all.’ Putting the pony liquor back on the table, he left to go to the stage with the many chairs in front of it, as it sounded like the preshow was starting.

The human was fine standing in the back as with how tall he was Dustan knew that it would block someone’s view, so when one of the guard tried to find him a better view he declined saying that he was one of the tallest here, and his vision was much better then ponies so he had no problems seeing. There were V.I.P. seats though as he could see the Mane Six, along with Spike and even Zecora all in the front. Off to the side he could make out the different colors of his friends Eden and Sturdy were near the middle, Mystic was talking with Violet Glow off to the side no doubt talking magic stuff. Tremor was with Steel having made their way finally to the drink table and were laughing heartily, Boko and Maya he knew were sent to Zecora’s hut so the loud music wouldn’t scare them. That just left a few individuals that were scattered here and there.

‘Ahh Scale made it, good to see her getting out of her office. Merlene I believe is on the scout tower over there. Oh Breeze is with her, wonder what they are chatting about. Fading Dawn, called for the last couple of days off.’ Thoughts of the many standouts of his home were cut short as the preshow got off to a great start.

Loud music, booming base, hell even Octavia showed up to have a good time doing a piece that was classical yet not stuffy enough for a piece in a concert. It was nice. However it was after that show that the stage transformed. Before it was held together by enchanted gold for stability as well as light burnished wood, but soon light slowly surged over it. All the gold changed to a silver coloration and the light wood almost blackened to asphalt coloration. Hidden doors popped open as speakers were lifted, new lights came down or were brought up and there was even a giant screen. It all came up before the DJ and her large Magi-digital, or as he would learn later it was called Magital, turntable set up with her hooves thrown up in the air.

Bringing her hooves down when the set up was complete her voice called out from the speakers. “~HELLO EVERYONE!~” He was personally glad to hear her say everyone for all the species here, felt like he had influenced things in a good way, even just a tiny bit for that to happen. “~You know, when I came to Luminary Castle, I thought this play would be literally shining, instead I found a really dark colored stone castle. It wasn’t till I met individuals here that I realized it’s you all that give this place its name, and you should all be proud.~”

‘Really hamming it up, but its fine, everyone is loving it.’ The crowd was eating it up too from all the cheering.

“~When I was contacted about this place, I thought, Buck a castle gig, that is going to be boring and more Tavi’s place of expertise.~” That got a round of chuckles and laughter along with some well meaning jeers from the audience. “~But it’s clear as Celestia’s Sun and Luna’s Moon that you all are nowhere close to being those snooty Canterlot ponies. That is why I love you all!~” Again another round of applause as someone bringing around drinks came and asked Dustan if he wanted something, which he gladly took up. “~So here is what is going to happen. The first set I will play will be a nice warm up for me before I pull out my big guns and then a surprise that I hope will arrive. Anyways let’s do this!~”

The first couple of songs were bumping club songs without a doubt, of which he was glad that everyone had thought ahead to make a dance area off to the sides of the seats for those individuals who couldn’t contain themselves and had to. Overall Dustan wasn’t much of a dancer in general let alone a club dancer so he was content to just tap his foot to the beat and nod his head as well as occasionally getting another drink and some snacks from the various tables around. If the show was just this, with the preshow before and all the stands and what not, the party would have been a success.

But it wasn’t done at all. “~Alright, my first set is done, give me ten minutes and we will be right back with my big surprise for tonight.~” Putting the table on a playlist she got up and lit her horn.

With that she wubbed away and many ponies got up to stretch and get refreshments for those that didn’t want to get up and lose their seat. “I must say, though I am not a party thrower, if this were to become a regular thing I could see myself becoming a regular party go’er.”

Turning to meet the rhythmic tones of another mare he knew he smiled. “I know. I honestly didn’t think it would be as good as it was. I mean I figured it would be good, but it was better then what I had expected.”

He noticed Zecora’s eyes dip down to his drink as she tilted her head. “First glass of the night to help you get loose? Careful now, do not drink it like its juice.”

Leaning close he smiled. “This won’t get me drunk trust me. My people create much more potent liquor then this by about three times. Not to mention I could drink quite a lot before getting drunk on that stuff.”

The Zebra’s eyes went wide at that little bit of info. “Truly were you such a drinker in your homeland? Surely you drank water with it and had it planned?”

Shaking his head he chuckled. “Never needed to. That and there were times when I wanted to get drunk, mostly cause my friend wanted me to. See that bottle over there?” She would follow his pointing hand to the bottle in question. “It would take about three of those for me to get drunk. I am guessing with that amount of liquor, most of the ponies here would be at least tipsy right?” Seeing her nod he laughed. “Guess I shouldn’t ever compete in a drinking contest, wouldn’t really be fair. Guess humans are made of sterner stuff in this department.”

The lights around the stage started to change color now, stropping in an RBG pattern now which likely meant one thing. “Seems like I better go get a good seat once more. Who knows, maybe if the music is good enough I will show my stuff on the dance floor.”

With that she left him to go back to her seat, she even had a bit of a wiggle to her hips and tail. ‘Guess she really is enjoying herself.’

The stage once more started to change not a minute later this time the silver being twisted with gold and the light and dark patterns of the wood being a checkerboard pattern on the ground. More platforms rose up and it turns out that Octavia’s orchestra was now taking the stage with Vinyl’s set up.

“~Hello everyone, did you miss me!~” DJ Pon3 asked as she appeared with a wub back on stage with Octavia at her side, of which she got a cheer for sure that could be heard in Ponyville. “~Glad to hear it. For my next set, the big set of the night, my fiancé here will help me out and give you a nice mix of both my down and dirty style along with her classy and clean style.~”

‘Oh, well guess that confirms a popular ship from my world, good for them.’ A round of applause came out for the mixture though Dustan clapped for them in particular for many reasons.

“~Tavi, while I would love to have you here by my side I know your place is down there with them, so go on mare, go on before I can’t control myself and show these good folk some PDA.~” It was easy to tell that it was all an act as ‘Tavi’ rolled her eyes and giggled lightly, or what he assumed was a giggle from how her face and ears showed since he couldn’t actually hear anything from up there. “~Alright here we go! EVERYONE GIVE US A COUNTDOWN OF TEN!~”

With Octavia in place, the crowd gave her what she wanted, a giving a countdown which culminated to a wild fusion of classical and dubsteppy goodness that shouldn’t normally be possible. ‘Damn adorable ponies and their magical music, haha. So many song writers and music artists would kill for the abilities that ponies had when it came to music.’

Despite his reluctance to go to the dance floor he could still feel his body sway to the music and it seems he wasn’t the only one as Dustan could see various ponies both on and off the dance floor shaking their stuff. The mix of styles was going very well, so much so that he found himself wishing the technology of his world was around to capture it for replaying at a later time. The set couldn’t last forever, no matter what some ponies wanted though and soon it came to an end as a round of clapping could be heard.

Vinyl let the crowd calm own before her synthesized voice echoed over the speakers again. “~And now I bet you are all thinking, what could beat a set like that. Truthfully I am not even sure myself but that doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy what follows up with it and if it rocks us to our cores then all the better. Now if you all remember earlier I said that the set I just played with some very lovely assistance was part of the big set then I have something I hope I will arrive. Well this is that moment, you see the thing that I hoped would arrive was a special guest that would come up onto stage and sing for us. They truthfully have been here the whole time and now is the time when I hope they will take up our call and grace us with some singing. Dustan, you mind showing us what humans can rock out with?~”

A spotlight was suddenly shown on him and it honestly made him jump as he had not expected it in the least. Problem was that with everyone clapping, in their own ways, he found it hard to say no as he proceeded up onto the stage and waved at everyone that he could see. The crowd apparently thoroughly enjoyed the idea of him getting on stage.

“~Now Dustan, I have done my research and it seems that pretty much the only thing any of us know about humans is what one Twilight Sparkle has researched on you by actually talking to you and examining you. Not going to lie makes me a bit jealous that she got such juicy information about you that no one else knows.~” For a moment Dustan could feel his ears burn at the thought of someone implying things as well as being jealous of those implied things, only to have the synthesized voice start to laugh. “~I of course am talking about how your people make music. So when we talked before the show about how you in particular were immune or at least resistant to the Music of Harmony, that confirmed what I had heard. You see everyone; his people write and experiment to make their music the best that can without aid. Now I am really curious what kind of music can come from that so I hope you will treat us.~” Dustan opened his mouth to tell her something but it seems she knew exactly what he was going to say and held up a hoof. “~Oh and before you ask how I will get your music, it’s simple. Using my power over music and even delving a bit into the Music of Harmony, I can connect you to others, meaning it won’t affect you but will affect the music others will be feeling to play. In other words, remember the song and we can play it.~”

“Oh, that is actually pretty cool.” It seems as if the round of applause that Vinyl got from that statement agreed as well. “So where do I stand?”

Vinyl showed him a circle with a mic placed in it. Said circle had lines radiating all around it that ended in circles all around various band members and such, though there was an extra thick one that went to the DJ herself likely to show she was the source. Moving over there he took a look down and around, saw Vinyl still needed a moment to get set up so he thought he would talk.

“Alright, seems our wonderful DJ here had done the correct leg work and found out about me. Yeah it’s true.” The human told them all as he smiled as he took hold of the mic. “Humans make our own music via hard work and imagination. We create it whole cloth from the words to the music which takes time and effort to say the least. So if this does work as intended I will be able to bring you some music from my lands. I hope you all enjoy it.”

The circle around the mixer table soon lit up as Vinyl lit up her horn in a hot pink glow that filled the ring and line that ran to him. Honestly the moment it lit up his ring he felt…well the only closest words Dustan could use to describe it would be a tingle, before the lines soon went to the band.

‘So think the music and it shall happen. Ok then lets do this.’ Right away he thought of the song he wanted to share and got a response.

One of the band members near a mic right away got up and went to it before laughing out loud. “~HAHAHAHAHAHAH!~”

‘Perfect.’ Dustan thought as he picked up the vocals right away. “~Feel good.~” Then the base line hit.

The music definitely was different for sure, but not bad, in fact many started to dance to it half way through the song, and while she would have liked to join, Pinkie was making sure that all her friends kept nice and hydrated as well with snacks. Hoofing out a cupcake she made note of all her friends reaction to this ‘Feel good’ song that Dustan was playing.

Twilight was being…well Twilight in that she seemed to be thinking on something as the song played. Rarity seemed like she could appreciate the hard work put into the music but it was clear this song wasn’t to her taste of which Applejack seemed to be of a similar mind to her in, which was funny considering their normally opposing tastes. Rainbow Dash seemed to be enjoying it as she was bobbing her head up and down to it and even singing along to some parts as it seemed the Music of Harmony was spilling off the stage a bit for her. Even more surprising was Fluttershy’s reaction as she was actually full out dancing in front of her chair to the music, which got a giggle from the pink pronking mare.

Soon though, the song came to an end to a grand round of applause showing the hit that everyone thought it was; that is when it hit: her Pinkie Sense. ‘Oh what is this one, let’s see, hmm scratchy ear, twitchy eye, and a small pinching in my frog. That would mean: OH NO. One or more ponies are about to be very sad.’

“~Not going to lie, that was pretty jammin’ if I do say so myself.~” The DJ called out when the song ended to the whistles of various individuals in the crowd. “~However this is kinda the wind down Dustan and it is Hearts and Hooves day. Humans have love songs right? Care to share one with us?~”

The cloak wearing human seemed a bit taken back by that request as he waved his hand at that. “N-no thanks, I am good. Love songs have never been my forte.”

It seems the music pony took that as a challenge as her horn lit up with her hot pink magic. “~That is why I am here. Assisting with the power of music is my specialty, now here you go, one heart song for love heading straight to you.~”

“Wait a se-” Holding out his hands as if to physically stop what was about to happen it was clear that the human wasn’t ready for the effects as it caused him to gasp loudly.

Pinkie however saw more and that for some reason Vinyl’s horn flared up for a moment before it died down completely as she herself gasped. Even more so was the lines on the stage still seemed to be glowing. Dustan soon put his hood up as he turned towards the stage, masking his face in darkness completely as a somber and mellow violin and guitar was starting to sound.

It was impossible to tell what was on Dustan’s face emotion wise as the song began. “~Wind, and my heart swimming in collected words. Moved by the wind, in through the world.~” Dustan’s voice, it was clear it was full of emotion from the very start, but something was off. Clearly there was love there but something else. “~Clouds, like a voice that we all recognize. Carry the holding future.~”

All across the courtyard various individuals were pairing up as it seems that the love in the words carried over causing those already close to start drifting together to cuddle up with one another. Part of Pinkie was ecstatic that ponies, as well as various other species, were getting along together as it reminded her of the Cakes. The problem was that underlying tone and judging from the faces on everyone in the crowd, none seem to pick up on it.

Dustan was holding the mic with one hand and the stand with the other as he continued the song. “~Moon, on the sky as a trembling heart, shown on the glass unsteadily. Stars, shedding tears into an overflowing stream. I see the night all around me.~”

Truthfully Pinkie could see where this was a love song for sure, the emotions written in the words was kinda like love in that it seem to be fragile and almost intangible with how light it was but easily could change into other emotions. She silently wondered if Gummy ever thought as deeply about things like this but giggled at the thought. The song started to pick up now and that called her attention back to the stage.

As the human spoke all got a surprise in that his next line wasn’t entirely in Equish. “~Suteki Da Ne. Being together, all alone walking hand and hand.~”

There was the love part that everyone was waiting for, the couples listening and holding close to each other were now swaying softly to the music and had their eyes closed, just feeling things. Pinkie really wished she could enjoy the music but she kept scanning the crowd, somepony was sad somewhere and she wanted to help them out. Sadly though she couldn’t spot whoever it was that needed the help.

“~And I want to, go to your city. To your home, into your arms.~” Dustan had not moved really at all as he sung, keeping in place as he held the mic close. “~That soul, inside your body. From those conflicted nights, as from my dreams.~”

A beautiful violin was heard breaking through the music now taking over the lead as no vocals could be heard. Looking over to her friends she spotted the emotion on each of their faces. Twilight surprisingly had stopped with the thoughtful look as if she was examining something and instead seemed to be in the moment just listening. Rarity was misty eyed from the emotion and love in the words. Applejack had her eyes closed and seemed to be lost in a memory and a powerful one at that if the tears running down her face were any indication. Was she the sad pony, maybe but it didn’t look like she needed help. Rainbow Dash had a mix of emotions on her face that made it really hard to tell what she was thinking to be fair so Pinkie didn’t really try at the moment since none were obvious sadness. Fluttershy seemed almost memorized by the words seemingly similar to how Twilight was feeling and just experiencing the song for what it was.

The violin calmed down as did the song, pulling her attention back to the stage as it seems the vocals were back this time so full of emotions that it was almost choking the voice of the singer itself. “~Wind died away, and I feel all the words. Led by a gentle illusion.~”

‘Is Dusty the one sad?’ The thought seemed to strike true as thought it was dark and only the stage had any lighting, there was a flicker of light that barely illuminated the human’s face for a fraction of a second but it was enough for Pinkie to see. ‘He’s crying.’

The flash of light seemed to be missed by all as his face was obscured by darkness once more. “~Clouds are the future that cannot be attained. Told from impossible distance.~” Pinkie wanted to run up to him now that she knew but she found that no matter what she wanted she couldn’t move. Looking all around almost desperately she realized that Vinyl had made a mistake. She connected his heart to the Music of Harmony alright and now they were all in the grips of his heart song. “~The moon filled with night as it flowed through your heart. Such faraway reflections. Stars, ripe like tears, like fruit falls from a tree. I wipe my dreams off the nighttime.~”

The music seemed to swell once more and the pink party pony could feel her hair drooping as it did so. ‘Please stop.’ It wasn’t for what she was feeling, but for what he was feeling.

It didn’t stop though. “~Suteki Da Ne. Being together, all alone walking hand and hand.~” The emotions seemed to be getting to many, as some couples were displaying gentle affection with nuzzles, some soft kisses, and hoof/appendage holding. “~And I want to go to your city. To your home, into your arms.~” Dustan’s form while not wavering seemed to lose some strength for a moment before it recovered. “~To feel your face. The touch of memory. And now that I awake. As from a dream.~”

The violin and guitar took the music away as it wound down. ‘Thank Celestia it’s over. Now I can go make sure he is ok.’

She started to stand up but was cut off as the voice of the singer himself once more spoke, now no longer bound by music. “T-thank you everyone for coming, but I think that is it for me. I am a bit partied out so I am heading off, sleep well all.”

The hooded human slowly made his way off stage as the DJ spoke up as well with a bit of interference with her voice. “~T-to be fair I think that is it for me as well. You all have been great and I am sure that those who take over playing the night down will be great. Have a good night.~” Vinyl seemed to try to magic her way off stage but it seemed her concentration wasn’t on point so instead he galloped off stage. What was more Octavia seemed to quickly follow with a look on her face.

Free to move about, Pinkie quickly excused herself from her friends and went to go find Dustan. It seemed she wasn’t alone as well as the striped pony that she once called an enchantress was running along with her. Neither of them said anything as they looked for where Dustan had gone. When they couldn’t find anything they asked if any pony had seen him.

One pony at the craft and drinks table had indeed seen him. “Oh yeah, weirdly he grabbed a whole bottle of the booze and quickly went away. I thought it was a bit rude of him to hog it but it’s his castle so I suppose he can do whatever you know?” When Pinkie asked the pony which way he went, the pointed to the barracks, currently where Dustan’s room lay.

Both of them galloped over and were surprised to find an already empty bottle dropped outside of the Lord of the Everfree’s door. “Do you think we should-”

She never got to finish asking her question of Zecora though as the sound of loud crying could be heard coming from inside. Someone who was suffering beyond what any words or comfort could give. The message was clear, they couldn’t help this. They couldn’t take away his hurt nor comfort him. They could do nothing. All they could do, was listen to the heartbreak of one human.

Chapter Twenty Six: Mysterious Mare Don’t Well.

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My Little Tactics

Chapter Twenty Six: Mysterious Mare Don’t Well.

A yip of pain and thud followed the sound of sizzling wood as Dustan stood over the last body. “That takes care of that.” He muttered to himself as he looked at the burning bodies of the Timberwolves. Looking over his shoulder he could see the road to the Castle in the distance and frowned. For the past two weeks more and more reports had been coming in of their warding herbs no longer working, which wasn’t true. Extensive tests by Zecora and Eden showed they were still effective, but that the incursions from the various creatures of the Everfree kept coming.

‘Something is driving them here.’ The Squire remembered Merlene telling him. Her experience in various hunting parties for prey animals for her old Lord coming into play here. ‘They wouldn’t move from their territory to an unpleasant one unless something was moving them forcibly.’

So it was that the guards were sent on more and more patrols in their territory to observe things. Dustan’s mood since Heart and Hooves day was down to say the least. He could tell the others knew something was up, and though he tried if he was honest with himself Dustan would say even he wouldn’t buy his own act. As such many of the residents around were either treating him with a tender hand or giving him space, the latter of which he didn’t mind at all but disliked the former as it kept reminding him of what he was sore about. Then there were some like Pinkie; she kept leaving him cupcakes nearly every day when she couldn’t visit personally for any long period of time and when she could always made sure to give him a hug. The human just assumed she was sensitive to his mood as the party planning pony she was.

The musing of what caused the Timberwolves to invade and his own trip down memory lane cost him though as the rustling of the bushes went unnoticed for too long allowing one of the wooden canines to leap out open jaws at him. Acting instinctively Dustan brought up his arm to defend himself only to have the creature latch on with its thorny teeth into his arm. While he could feel the fangs so very deep in his arm drawing blood he was silently glad it was starting to warm up so he was wearing a short sleeved shirt today, meaning no tears and bloodstains.

“You know.” Dustan spoke through gritted teeth to the wolf. “It was smart of you to do this, attack when I let my guard down, latch on to my sword arm. I am not sure if you knew to do this through planning, instinct or just dumb luck. There is just one small problem with your plan.” He told the wolf who tried to jerk him off his feet now only to find it couldn’t. “One, your level and stats are too low to really bother me anymore.” Next Dustan held up his free hand bringing it around to the head of the wolf. “And two, I have a free arm that is just as deadly. Fire.”

Dustan caught sight of the Timberwolf’s eyes turning to pinpricks the moment as it saw as the fire in his hand starting to glow before it erupted over the head and body of the canine. The pressure and weight on his arm vanished as the creature was reduced to splinters of burning wood. Plucking the fangs still stuck in his arm out and casting a quick Cure to heal his wounds Dustan looked towards the dead creatures now. There had been another reason for him coming out here besides checking on things and getting away from the residents of the castle trying to sympathize with something they didn’t know or couldn’t know about.

The crystals that appeared above the dead bodies were the reason. “Ok time for testing.” Taking one of the crystals he tried to store it in his bag only to find that when he brought it to the opening of his bag one of two things happened. When he tried to shove the crystal in, it utterly refused to budge past the opening. If he had to hazard a guess as to why it was likely something about the dimensional pocket that was his bag causing some weird interference with it. The second thing was that when Dustan tried to let go of the crystal and drop it into the bag, or a cloth to carry it for that matter, it shattered and vanished as if used the moment he let go. “Ok so then, its either use, or not, got it. Can’t store them later for any kind of emergency full heals. Damn that would have been useful.”

There was also the fact he wanted to see if any of his new students could see the crystals themselves without having to witness him murderlizing something to do so. He doubted the Crusaders would ever forgive him at that, Zecora could handle it and even Summer but not them. Sadly they were not the only ones to join the ranks as Fading Dawn the Deer Pony had joined them as well as had Mystic Quandary, the latter of whom was damn near ecstatic when he did so. At this point there were two sections of ponies, the Squires and Chemists. Among the Squire types, those that when they found out were the ways to such classes like Monk and Knight, were Fading Dawn, Summer Breeze, and Scootaloo. For the ones found in Chemist group, and thus the way to unlock magic classes like White and Black Mage, were Zecora, Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Mystic.

What more were the great strides that were being made as well from both groups. Seems having someone around to teach you the abilities helped accrue more Job Points then training on one’s own would do. Each of his students having already learned something that pertained to their interest though for some that left points over that they were waiting to spend and for others it drained all they had considering the cost. Fading Dawn had learned Move +1 stating as a scout that speed could really help and it showed, though she was learning to control herself when using it. Summer Breeze wanting to become a stronger guard in general learned Focus and was trying to put it to good use though finding it very hard to actually execute. Scootaloo was more of the mix bag one in that she had more points to spend for being a Squire longer but didn’t focus on the various high cost stuffs and instead got Throw Stone, Rush, Counter Tackle, and Defend. Since all his Squires had learned Salve when they became one, this meant that Scootaloo now had access to Knight and Archer.

For the Chemist group, the big notable achievements mostly went to Zecora. It was thanks to her new found knowledge in the class that she actually was able to develop the Potion and Antidote, the actual item not just the skills. It was also thanks to her knowledge as a Shaman that she was actually blowing through the skills at an amazing pace which lead Dustan to think that pony affinities might still work with such things. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle likewise were making quick progress, though the former more than the later thanks to her visits to the potion maker. Zecora even stated that she and Apple Bloom had access to the White and Black Mage classes now but they had no clue how to actually use the skills. Well she said it via a rhyme but that about summed it up. This caused Sweetie Belle to be a tad jealous as she was a unicorn and wanted to learn magic so bad, but instead of pouting on it forever, lasting only a week, she redoubled her efforts in the potion making arts. This left Mystic, whom while not completely outclassed, was struggling a tiny bit only because he was more in tune with magical formulas and not chemistry itself so had to learn a whole new science.

Honestly thinking about his students was likely the best part of the last couple of weeks as they were the single thing that seemed to always bring him out of his funk. ‘That’s right, today is another teaching day. It’s why I wanted to come out here for the crystals.’ Sighing and using one of the crystals left over to refill both his Hp and Mp Dustan mused something else. ‘Well I know I am over the twenty kill quota for sure for Dark Knight. I just got to master Knight and Black Mage as well as get Dragoon, Samurai, Ninja, and Geomancer to level eight.’ He gave a grin as he thought of that. ‘That just means I need to get Dragoon, Samurai, Ninja then bring them and Geomancer to level eight and master Black Mage.’

It was true, had had mastered Knight only a few short days ago when he was able to go to the classroom in his dreams and properly put the rest of his points in. That nice star emblazoned on the pedestal that the Knight armor stood on was just lovely to him. Dustan was also spending all his time now on the Thief Job Class to work it up. His goal was to spend his entire time as Thief until it raised it to at least level five that way he wouldn’t really need to spend anymore on it since that was what Ninja required. Sadly though, he still had not managed to actually activate Summoner even though he had points to spend in it and couldn’t spend them as well.

“Merlene, you there?” He called out to the air only for a flap or two later to find the Griffon dropping in which told him that she was likely out of earshot of anything he might have said out loud.

Standing at attention she looked at all the glowing embers of wood that were the Timberwolves. “Do you require assistance my Lord?”

“No.” The Thief said simply. “I just wanted to update you on my patrol and show you that I can take care of myself. No need to follow me on my patrol like this.”

The instant she smiled was the instant that Dustan knew she had a response already prepared for him that would shut him up. “My Lord, with all due respect, you yourself along with Tremor and Steel, said that no patrol should go out alone, that there should at least be one other if not two others with them.”

‘Yep, she got me.’ Sighing and shrugging at the response he was given he merely looked up to her knowing he had lost this one. “Fine. There shouldn’t be too much left to patrol then we are heading back. Got to go teach and check to see if anyone else has made progress on the Salve test.”

“I will scout ahead my Lord.” She said simply as she took off into the air.

Calling out to the air he asked her something. “Mark this place on the map so that Dawn can come back here and see if she can track where the wolves came from.” She did so as he caught sight of her hovering as she pulled out a map and a charcoal pencil as that was easier to use in the air then a quill and ink well, which honestly was a good idea, though makes him miss a good ol’ ink pen.

The rest of the patrol went off in a rather uneventful fashion as the black stone walls of Castle Luminary came into view. In the past two weeks they had made great progress with the building. It was finished in fact; it was just a matter of some small details plus furnishing the new rooms. He had already assigned the rooms or tried to at least giving those he trusted rooms first and tried to ignore his own room for as long as he could. That wasn’t happening and his was to be the biggest and final room built, of which he tried to argue that he didn’t need such a big room but none of his friends were having it and given his mood lately he wasn’t in the mindset to argue with them.

“Welcome back Lord Warner.” The guards at the gate said with a salute to which he nodded in response. “Zecora said she would be in the main hall for studies with the rest of her group for when you returned.”

“Thank you for letting me know.” Dustan said before looking over to Merlene. “Head to the scouts and give them the position we marked, I am going to go wash then head to teach.” Merlene did as she was told with no fanfare or salutes, of which he was glad for. It had taken so long but she was loosening up to his informal attitude about many things. Heading to grab a change of clothes Dustan quickly washed up before heading to the main hall.

“Greetings Teacher.” Zecora spoke up with a smile. “I hope your return wasn’t delayed by a creature.”

Chuckling as her rhyming seemed to always have a soothing effect on his mind he looked to her and smiled back. “A pack of Timberwolves. I had Merlene mark it on the map and she should have given it to the scouts by now for them to see if they can track where they came from. Hopefully that will give us some answers as to why they are pushing up into our territory.”

The zebra gave a nod and it seems that their conversation brought together all of his students and signaled the start of the session. While they may have been divided up into two groups Dustan insisted on some lessons being purely one or the other to give the other group some experience in the other side to make them a tad more well rounded preaching on how it was good to be a specialist but having some other skills to round out your repertoire never hurt either. Today was a Squire day and as such was teaching them various things, how with practice all of the Squire’s abilities were near instantaneous except for Salve which took time to prep the materials to make, technically Throw Stone as well as one needed to grab a stone but still the point was made.

He tried to give them all a good point on how much mana to use in each movement, as though the amount of mana needed for each skill was so negligible that it wouldn’t use up a point in the grand scheme of things; it was still something that was needed. Which is why when they went outside to the straw dummies for arrow practice and he threw a stone they were all surprised by the stone sinking into the dummy somewhat.

“No matter what class you ultimately decide to be, or even if you decide to be flexible and choose many classes, Mana management is more than just making sure you don’t use it all up through a fight, but how much or how little you are using when doing so. Sometimes it will be the small moves that will make or break a fight.” Holding up a single finger on his hand he ticked it back and forth as he continued. “Now when I say fight I mean that in a general sense. You could be fighting with making a potion but because you used up all your mana you can’t make anymore and you have customers coming soon. You could be a Squire and because you can’t use Focus you can’t move that cart that you were pulling anymore.” Looking down to a pocket watch he got from the local time keeper himself Time Turner, he chuckled. “Sadly this ends today’s lesson everyone.” The Crusaders let out a long ‘aww’ before looking to pack up their gear. “Girls I will be walking you three home today since my patrol did find something in our territory.”

“Oh good, I hope we can get back quickly, I have a club meeting to go to!” The tiny winged pegasus of the Crusaders said with excitement.

He wanted to ask her what club but- “What club meetin’ do you mean?” -seems he was beaten to it by Apple Bloom.

Scootaloo right away pulled out a rainbow colored wig that was shaped into a very familiar style. “Why the Rainbow Dash Fan Club of course. She has been saving a lot of ponies lately and has been getting a ton of press for it and there have been plenty of ponies wanting to join it.”

‘MARE-DO-WELL!’ Dustan instantly thought to himself as he heard that. It was the only time really he could remember such a club gathering and with the fact it seems Dash had been saving people lately it meant that it should be this episode. ‘Though I thought the club meeting happened at the start…huh well as long as the Episode stays on track…’ Honestly this was one episode he particularly didn’t like as it kinda made the girls seem very cruel in his eyes. All of it could have been solved if they really just sat down and talked about it, or even did the heroics themselves without a costume and as a result seemed to really hurt the speedster. ‘Maybe I should sit down and have a talk with the girls once I spot the ‘mysterious’ mare.’

The walk back to Ponyville was not quite by any stretch of the imagination as Scootaloo was pretty much going on and on about her hero. While that was happening, a stray thought came to Dustan in the form of him questioning the Bard and Dancer’s Fly ability. He wondered how well it worked in practice as it was really only a hover for the most part in the game but cost so much that he honestly rather use any other movement ability in the game then it. In the end he was curious as if it would allow true flight or that hover; if the later it would be nice to tell Scootaloo about it just in case she never could fly.

‘Better find out myself before I tell her just in case I am wrong and so I don’t get her hopes up.’ The Thief mused to himself as he looked over the three. ‘If I told them about it they would work none stop just for the goal to get to Dancer since they are fillies and won’t care about anything else. Yeah, best to keep this to myself for now.’

“Kupo.” That word got Dustan’s attention right away as he looked up and around.

“What was that?” He called out and looked all around.

Scootaloo looked at him and simply told him. “I said I can’t wait to show Rainbow Dash all that I am learning from you, you know?”

“Oh ok, sorry was kinda lost in my thoughts there. Didn’t meant to ignore the question” Dustan mentally sighed to himself. ‘Damn, I thought I heard the word Kupo not ‘you know’. Kinda makes me wish Boko was here, her Kweh’s would sound nice right now since it wasn’t what I thought it was.’

Dustan was so lost in his thoughts that he never heard the bushes rustle slightly and a red dangling object peeking out from said bush.

The white creature watched the three ponies walk down the road with the tall biped and wiped off the sweat from its brow. He had almost caught him while he was watching. So far he seemed nice just like the White Chocobo and the Coeurl had told him, but he seemed like something was weighing down on him. For now he should continue watching just in case he saw something off about this human. Quickly moving from bush to bush, his vestigial wings flapping and his red pom pom bouncing around on his stalk, he followed the group.

Here Dustan stood in the back of the club house for the official Rainbow Dash Fan Club, though really it was the Crusader Club House temporarily changed to house the club, sitting in the back resting against the wall to make sure he wasn’t interfering with anything. That and Scootaloo practically begged him to stay saying that if he showed up it would show that even adults thought Dash was great. Dustan honestly thought all of the mares were great, though back in his life on Earth RD had been one of his favorite ponies from the show and he often thought she symbolized her element really well compared to the others. Comparing facets of their lives that he could see to the real deals though had filled them all out in ways he had not expected and was glad to see honestly.

True, while Twilight could be manic and hungry for knowledge like in the show or easily prone to panic, she also shown to be a thoughtful and caring mare not only to her close friends but many around Ponyville. Fluttershy had been a love hate relationship from the show for him, loving how adorable she was but frustrated from the over the top actions of her fear from the show. In actuality she was just more of a home mare, happily comfortable at home being a caretaker and it was only when she was brought out of her element that her easily spooked nature showed. He had watched a bunch of her animals get into a fight once before, Harry and Henrietta both Bears of different species, and while that made him hesitate she got right up in there and ended it without her Stare.

“I call this meeting of the Rainbow Dash Fan Club to order.” Scootaloo called out though Dustan was honestly not paying attention as he was too busy comparing the mares from the show to the ones he knew.

Applejack was still Stubborn to a fault for sure just like in the show, but unlike the show she was willing to change and take criticism a bit more. What was more while she was all about apples like her name sake she didn’t actually like all apples. She hated sour apples in fact preferring sweet tastes herself which Dustan found out when she happily gave him some sour apples to counter all the sweet tastes in magical horse land. Rarity was a sticking point in the original show, his least favorite in the show if he had to be honest. She seemed like the one least like her element considering all the greedy selfish actions she had taken throughout the show. Here he found that those moments were just like her name in that they were rarities. He had compared her prices to other shops even outside Ponyville with lesser quality clothing and found them to be around the same price if not higher, meaning often times she was getting undercut by others. She then proceeded to tell him a story of her cutting her quality of cloth down to save money only for not only herself to be dissatisfied with her work, but finding that she gained business that way. When she realized she was unhappy because of that change she went back to the way she did things claiming she rather be happy then rich if that is what it took.

“I object!” Snips a small off blue colt with an orange mane spoke up. “I think-”

Sadly Dustan was still in his mind at this point as he came down to the last two of the Mane Six. Pinkie Pie was in his top ponies for sure though he always thought of her as too manic for himself in that she was a living sugar rush for sure. However it seemed like there was that Pinkie, and the Pinkie around her friends. Pinkie was still a hyper overactive mare for sure but around her friends it seemed that she was a lot calmer. Did that mean that the overactive Pinkie was an act, something for first impressions, or was it her party persona? Dustan didn’t know and honestly it didn’t matter. Now came down to the last of the six: Rainbow Dash. This iteration of Dash was becoming vastly different. She was still that cocky egotistical mare from the show…or at least she was at first. More and more he has been finding her to become more tempered like in the later seasons or maybe even more and from many of the conversations he had with her it seemed he was the catalyst for that. The Discord deal where she wasn’t brainwashed was a good example, her loyalty waned for just a moment in the show to allow Discord to do his thing. Whereas for Fluttershy she represented her element so much he couldn’t find room in her heart to change her so had to do it forcibly. Now the Element of Loyalty herself had that same conviction which she didn’t have in the show. Luckily it had not messed up anything in the long run and seemed to be good for her.

“How about super-extreme-awesomazing?” That brought him out of his inner thoughts hearing Dash’s voice and couldn’t help but chuckle at her hidden help for the club.

After a round of agreement Scootaloo stood up and looked to her fellow club members. “All in favorite of declaring Rainbow Dash super-ultra-extra-uhh-whatever you said pony in all of Ponyville say aye?” All the ponies called out an aye without hesitation.

Not able to help himself because of the youngster’s enthusiasm, even he called out a moment later. “Aye.” He waited for a moment, listening hard for the giggles that came with the declarations but it seems it wasn’t meant to be as the noise of the children drowned it out.

“Pinkie Pie, if I could have a moment?” The proper voice called out to the pronking pink party pony.

Turning around the fluffy maned mare saw it was none other than one half of the most famed musical couple in Ponyville. “Octavia!” Rushing over she smiled at the gray mare. “What’s going on?”

“I wish I knew.” Octavia obviously meant that to be more said to herself even if Pinkie still heard it before the pony looked back to her. “Vinyl hasn’t been herself since the concert at the castle two weeks ago, I was wondering if you could talk to her. You seem to have quite the knack for cheering ponies up and I haven’t been able to do so yet so I was hoping-”

“That I could turn her frown upside down?” Pinkie smiled, zipped away for a moment and was back with a saddlebags worth of supplies for what she would need. “I got it, show me the way.”

When they got to the half and half house Octavia right away steered them towards the white and blue side of the house and knocked on the door. “Vinyl, I am not sure what to do for you to get you out of…out of this funk you are in. I have tried so many things but it doesn’t seem to help so I brought in an expert.” Hearing no response the classical pony nodded to Pinkie and let her in. “I still have some errands to run so I will be back later, sorry I can’t stay.”

“Okie Doki Loki!” With that Pinkie went into the darkened room. No lights, curtains were closed, Vinyl was on her bed not wearing her glasses or headphones and her bloodshot red eyes were now looking at her. “Hey there. Pinkie the party pony is here to help.” The mute pony simply shook her head and pointed to the door. “No can do, I won’t let such a big sad mood such as this stay in Ponyville so you might as well get used to me being here.”

Rolling her eyes the electric blue maned pony reached over to grab her headphones. “~So, what, you going to hang around me till I smile? Not going to happen.~”

The base of Pinkie’s tail twitched as did her knee which was followed by a pinching sensation at the base of her neck right below the start of her mane. ‘Oh…my supplies won’t help me here.’ Setting down her saddle bags she did pull out a couple of cupcakes and hoof them over to Vinyl. “Ok, I won’t try to cheer you up, however I will listen to you if you wish to talk.”

The DJ just stared at the cupcake for a moment before she sighed. “~My power went haywire during the concert. That has only happened a couple of times before. When that happens it’s like…the music of Harmony is bursting right through me to get to somepony as if it couldn’t do so properly before. When that happens I get…flashes, images of what is connected to their Heartsong. It has never been like this though.~”

“What do you mean?” Pinkie thought this was a good thing, she was getting her to talk and it seemed like whatever it was happened at that concert for sure.

“~I~” There was a pause. “~I saw everything. The music of Harmony surged through me so much that it connected me to everything that happened to Dustan when he was singing. It was…it was horrible.~”

‘Oh…’ Right away Pinkie could feel like she knew part of what was going on. “That is why he was crying; I saw him crying on stage. I guess he really misses somepony from home.”

Pinkie’s statement didn’t get the reaction she thought it would. In fact it didn’t even come close to the expected reaction that she thought would be evoked. Instead Vinyl stood up, her face as red as her eyes as her horn surged and things started to fly around the room, clearly not directly controlled by the unicorn as her magic surged wildly.

“~That is the thing!~” More and more the objects flew around more vigorously. “~He misses who she WAS. Dustan lost her long before he left his…home. She was a monster who shouldn’t be missed.~” Slowly Vinyl’s magic calmed down as she looked down to her hooves. “~I saw everything those two ever went through, every bit. It was nice to start with then became…distorted. What is more, that song he sung. It was both about his love for who she started out as and her loss. The latter part was of him remembering their time together fondly and is more, do you know what Suteki Da Ne even means?~”

This whole time Pinkie was silent, not because she wanted to be but because she couldn’t think of anything to add till now. “It sounds foreign but I think I heard some colts once saying something in a similar language saying they wish they could speak it.”

“~Its Neighponese, the language of Neighpon.~” The objects that were in the magical grasp slowly levitated back down to their rightful places as Vinyl stood up. “~It means ‘Isn’t it wonderful’.~”

Trembling hooves slowly rose to her mouth as Pinkie started to piece things together. “Oh Celestia. It was wonderful when she was at the start, but then it meant that it was wonderful in memory only now.”

“~That’s right.~” Vinyl said as she opened both doors to her room the front one before she started to head outside.

“Vinyl, where are you heading?” Pinkie called out as she came outside.

Looking back as the DJ finally levitated her glasses to her head. “~I am going to talk to him. I have some questions that need some answers.~”

As she left Pinkie heard her name being called by her friends and shaking off the funk she was feeling herself she put on a smile for them. “Heya girls, what’s going on?”

Twilight was the one who spoke first. “It’s about Rainbow Dash.”

Honestly it was a bit hard to stand and be on the sidelines while he watched the punctured balloon fall to the ground but he held sure. ‘This is part of the episode, Rainbow Dash is busy signing autographs at the moment and should take too long to rescue it while Mare-Do-Well comes in and saves the day.’ He gritted his teeth, he really wanted to change things but honestly for this kind of thing he had no tricks to stop a falling balloon like this.

However it didn’t matter as surprise after surprise happened, Dash wasn’t late, instead zipping quickly to under the balloon to try to slow it, however the momentum was too much, leading Mare-Do-Well to save the pony and lightening the load. This caused a feeling in Dustan’s gut to start growing as already things were off. Moving closer to listen to the aftermath he could hear Dash talking.

“-you came along. I don’t think I would have stopped the hot air balloon in time so I am pretty glad you rescued the passenger.” A pretty modest sounding RD told the purple costumed pony whom seemed to hesitated before slowly nodding her head and running off. The mare dubbed her the name she had in the show as Dustan decided to keep watch.

Dustan followed them around the whole day, watching one event after the other play out unlike the show. Rainbow Dash was cooperating with Mare-Do-Well every step of the way and thanking her for the help. Dash never stayed for any interviews longer then it took to say ‘Glad I could help’ before she rushed off again.

Having had enough of this Dustan went to go find Twilight, and surprise surprise, actually found her in an alleyway by mistake. “Ouch, why did they have to place the trashcan there?”

Turning into the alleyway he found Twilight in the middle of demasking and sighed. “You know, I would think considering all your magic, you would make sure to set up some kind of barrier, illusion, something so people wouldn’t stumble upon you like this.”

He apparently surprised her as she eep’ed and quickly tried to push her mask back on, only to get it half way on where her muzzle still was sticking out. “I have no clue what you are talking about citizen and I am not who you think I am and are you buying any of this?”

“Nope.” Crossing his arms he watched the magical mare magic off the mask and the rest of the costume.

“Didn’t think so.” With a pop the costume returned to wherever she hid it before she looked at him directly. “Honestly, the plan isn’t going like it’s supposed to so honestly this was the last appearance of Mare-Do-Well.”

“You sure Pinkie, Fluttershy, and Applejack won’t pop up as her then, or you just talking about yourself?” He watched as Twilight opened and closed her mouth a few times before he smiled. “I am not stupid by any stretch of the imagination Twilight. A mare that has wings, a horn, super strength, can predict the future. Unless a new Alicorn is in town we can scrap that idea so it has to be multiple people as this costume crime fighter. That means you would have to find someone with those traits for each time she appears. Super strength, Applejack, surprising amount of flying ability, well its not Dash so someone connected to AJ which leaves Flutters. Prediction, Pinkie, and finally an absurd amount of magical mastery, IE you; so my question is this, why?”

For a moment Purple Smart said nothing as she sighed and looked down. “Didn’t realize it was that obvious but when you put it like that yeah it kind of is. However we didn’t do this for ourselves, we did it for Rainbow Dash. The first few times she saved somepony afterwards her ego started to grow and grow. It was starting to become unbearable before the girls and I hatched a plan to help teach her some modesty.”

Hearing that Dustan had to say something to the mare. “So, yeah I agree that Dash’s ego can get…inflated, but was this really the best way? Why not pull her aside and just tell her how she was acting, that would have been way better than this. One wrong move, one wrong statement and you could have lost your friend instead. She is the element of loyalty; do you think she would have taken this breach of such lightly?”

Sitting on her plot she sighed and rubbed her head. “I know I know, but we had to do something, or at least we thought we did. Today as we started rescuing ponies we realized that something already sent Dash’s ego into check and we are not even sure what. She thanked Mare-Do-Well; she expressed gratitude whereas before in the plan she should have been chomping at the bit for lack of attention on her deeds. I am not saying that is a bad thing but, it means something drastic happened to her, which might be good or bad.”

“That is why you talk to your friends if you can.” Sighing he reached over and patted her on the shoulder. “Look, why don’t you and I go talk to Dash together and get the word straight from the pony’s mouth ok?”

Nodding the unicorn smiled and gave him a hug. “Thanks…you know you can do the same too, if you ever need to talk.”

Dustan knew exactly what she meant but he didn’t want to talk. “Twilight, there are some things in some people’s lives that aren’t for sharing unless you have experienced something similar. I doubt any of you girls or anyone around here has experienced what I have so best to leave that Trauma in the past.”

“I mean, that love song was kind sad but heartwarming as well. I am sure losing your special somepony must hurt but there are plenty of ponies around who have lost the ones they love.” Twilight was trying to be upbeat and comforting he knew, but at the same time that same tone just irritated him at the same time.

“Twilight, just shut up about the subject…please.” The thief felt a bit bad about his tone after he said it but at the same time the human didn’t want to go down memory lane.

Eventually Twilight had met up with the other girls and they had all decided to join in for the explanation of one pegasus on what happened. “So you girls are Mare-Do-Well? Awesome, you were all pretty cool out there.”

That feeling in his gut that had been growing through the day spiked at that point as it was obvious Twilight was right. Something had tempered her attitude in a big way. The question now was what.

“Rainbow Dash, honestly we did this to start getting your ego in check since it was starting to get a bit big, but-” Twilight started only for Applejack to finish.

“Honestly you were gettin’ to be a big jerk with how you were actin’.” As the honest but blunt mare said that there was a tiny bit of a wince on the pegasus’ face.

Nodding and rubbing the back of her head she chuckled. “Yeah I can see that. Sorry about that everypony. That is why when I thought about something it made me calm down a bit.”

Dustan was determined to let the lesson play out with his presence in the background as Pinkie was the next to speak up. “Oh, so what did you think of to calm you down? Was it cupcakes, those always calm me down.”

Shaking her head she then pointed a hoof at Dustan. “It was him.”

‘Yep, there it is, that is what my gut was telling me, that this episode is screwed up somehow cause of me.’ Finally figuring out what his gut had been telling him, he had to know. “What did I do?”

The others were curious as well but Dash just seemed mystified. “Dude, what are you talking about? You have done so many heroic things, way more then I have lately, but you never once stood around to boast or ask for anything as a reward. Instead you were just happy to have helped. When I heard you in the Squirt’s little club meeting I remembered that. The last time I let my ego and feelings get ahead of me, I kinda said some really horrible things to you remember.”

The scar on his jaw and cheek was enough of a reminder for sure but he nodded. “I thought we left that in the past Dash?”

“We did.” She said before looking up and sighing. “Doesn’t mean I can’t still learn from it right?”

“So what you are sayin’ is-” Applejack started before chuckling. “-that you wanna be more like Dustan.”

While that got everyone chuckling, it did get a certain speedster to start pouting and cross her forelegs, Dustan shook his head. “Which is kinda a bad thing for sure, and my body boasts the scars to prove it.” Looking at Dash with a genuine smile he told her his honest truth. “Don’t be like me. Instead be a better you. Each of you are great in your own ways, you all have flaws of course but that is what makes each of you who you are. When you make a mistake, aim to never make it again, if you fall down, get back up and try again in a different way. Never take what you have for granted. Do all that and you will be fine.” Looking up into the sky he sighed. “I should get back to the castle, with the final floor being finished, I have no doubt Sturdy is looking to send me both plans and the finalization paperwork.” Giving a wave to the group the Thief left them alone.

The trip to the castle wasn’t a long one by any stretch of the imagination as he used it as a chance to get a good jog in. Dustan had been slightly neglecting his training cause of his moodiness and today ended up being a pretty good day when he thought about it. He hated this episode so seeing it turn out rather well without the girls having to beat Dash’s ego into the ground felt good. He wasn’t looking forward to the paperwork though that was for sure.

Opening up his door he saw the pony sized stack sitting in his chair. “~Dustan, we need to talk.~” Oh wait it actually was a pony

Seeing it was the musical pony herself Dustan smiled and nodded. “Sure, though I have to admit you surprised me being here.”

Though the human tried to play it off as light hearted as he could the mare never smiled. “~I need to tell you what happens when my power goes haywire like it did during the show.~”

To be fair he had been thinking on it since then and knew it was cause of her, but honestly he couldn’t be mad at her. “Its fine Vinyl, I forgive you for the mishap. As long as there is no harm its fine.”

“~That is the thing Dustan, there was harm, to both of us.~” Ok that definitely had his attention. “~I have had this happen a couple of times before in which case I caught glimpses of what the pony’s Heartsong was about. For one who was singing to his lover I caught images of them holding hooves, one image of them in bed, and one image of him and her as he saw them in the future. That was it.~” Taking a sip from a glass nearby she had she continued. “~For another that was more intense, I saw actual images from their past, how they lamented about a lost love, then found each other. I saw quite a bit.~” Looking to him now, her red eyes were intense. “~For you though…I saw it all.~”

Right away Dustan could feel his gaze harden as he spoke a few words. “You are a unicorn with a sound affinity so you should be able to sound proof this room right?” She nodded before he motioned her to do so and her horn lit up giving the room a glow. “Ok then, what is it you saw and what is it you wish to talk about.”

The musical mare for her part took a deep breath before looking at him in the eyes. “Everything. You, Sarah, how she treated you, your life….your world.”

Chapter Twenty Seven: A Heart Transformed.

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My Little Tactics

Chapter Twenty Seven: A Heart Transformed.

A moment or two passed in silence as Dustan seemed to prepare himself. Going to grab some water as well as a few snacks before coming back and divvying them out to the both of them as well as pouring him a glass in preparation for what was to come. Another moment of silence went by, seems like he was half stalling by now and it was kind of the truth. These type of memories were not something that came out easily.

“Ok.” Dustan finally said as he closed his eyes and sighed. “Some of these questions require a bit of a story. Feel free to interrupt anytime you want.” He told her as he opened his eyes. “That being said, don’t feel offended if I tell you that the answers are to come in some form or fashion ok?” The unicorn gave another nod to this as he sighed. “Ok then, before I answer your first question, tell me. How is it you know I come from another world?”

This seemed to be an easy question for Vinyl to explain. “Simple. On your desk, in one of the memories that I got, is a complete globe that is filled out with the names of countries and everything on it. You have explored your world completely it seems.”

That particular globe was a gift from his parents and he knew exactly which one she was talking about. “Ok then, with that answered what is your first question?”

Seems it also took a minute for Vinyl to organize her thoughts on which to ask first before finally she asked. “~What are you really?~”

Smiling at this question the Thief told her. “Honestly, I have told the truth on that. I am human. Nothing about that has changed really except for one thing.”

“~That you are not from this world?~” Giving her an affirmative nod she gave a follow up question. “~Why hide this fact?~”

Taking his first sip of water he responded. “There are too many reasons to count. Suspicion on who I am for one, ponies haven’t exactly been forthcoming to my presence normally you know. Saying I am from another world wouldn’t really help that any and saying I am from far off but I am not sure exactly, is both truth and fiction depending on how you look at it.”

This was a tense conversation for sure, both could feel it between the heavy pauses that just seemed to increase the pressure in the air that was weighing them down. “~Are your people really technologically advanced as you told us? I remember catching images and flashes but nothing concrete.~”

“Yes, terribly so in fact.” Leaning back on his bed so he was against the headboard Dustan spoke up. “We have weapons that would destroy pony cities just out of pure destructive power if we unleashed them, and I am not talking about a small city like Ponyville or anything, but think Manehattan sized with just a quick button press.” The look in her eyes was both disbelieving and of horror. “Yeah, there are people back on my world that are called Doomsday Preppers for that very reason. We could at any moment of any day destroy ourselves because of the destructive power of our weapons. However make it be known that we don’t use those weapons willy nilly. They tend to be reserved for the direst of situations and as such most countries have a written agreement never to fire these weapons, of which they could essentially hit the other side of the planet from.”

“~That sounds…I don’t even have words for what that sounds like.~” The unicorn rubbed her temples with her hooves. “~Let’s move on to the next question then.~”

“Alright shoot.” Dustan told her, his smile from her reaction now fading now that they were moving on.

“~Tell me a bit about your life, without Sarah in it. I rather get the answer for her after this if possible.~” Not the question Dustan thought was coming but not a bad one.

“Hmm alright. I grew up in a cul-de-sac a closed off kind of loop for a neighborhood. I knew all my neighbors and they all knew me. I have only moved twice before adulthood, both of those I was too young to remember.” The brown haired told her as his eyes started to lose focus. “It was never terribly cold where I lived, having only seen a significant amount of snow only a handful of times. It was hot and humid where I lived for most of the year round. The weather in my world works like the Everfree, except everywhere so we can’t exactly change that like you ponies do. Instead we had to deal with it.” Taking a sip of water though barely even tasting or seeing it, the human continued with a slight smile on his face. “I never really made too many friends in my neighborhood as there were no kids around my age, so I turned out to be kinda a loner for most of my life. In middle school I met two people that would change my life. Patrick, a bully who would turn out to become my best friend, and a girl named Sarah.” It was a bit hard to get those last words out, chocking him up as he remembered the girl so long ago.

“~Take it slow, I am not going anywhere.~” Levitating a cupcake over, Dustan gladly took it for something to put in his stomach as it was now tossing and turning.

“Thanks.” Sipping some more water Dustan continued. “High school wasn’t anything special. I didn’t really make too many close friends, the two I did, one you know about being Patrick, and the other eventually became my girlfriend.” Something wet fell down his face and he knew what it was. The human did nothing about it. “During high school I took some electives for my specialty, which I would tell you, but honestly there isn’t even a close equivalent here so let’s just call myself a designer and artist ok?” Dustan wasn’t even looking for a nod instead continued. “After high school those classes…didn’t really help. None of those classes counted for credits since I had to go to a specialty school, which I promptly dropped out of when I realized that none of it actually helped me. So instead I went out and made contacts, did work with my specialty even if it was minor stuff. Eventually I was getting some pretty good paychecks. Good enough to ask Sarah to move in with me. She was a fashion designer, kinda like Rarity. If we were talking about a few years ago, the two of them would have gotten along so well.”

“~What changed?~” The unicorn was now curious and it seemed like Dustan was off in his own world so she wanted to ask while she could.

“I suppose for that we should go back in the timeline some.” Holding up his hands as if his life was before his eyes and moving them like he was using a touch screen he smiled. “Sarah was always loving and somewhat shy girl in middle school. We grew to be fast friends even though I was being bullied. We both liked to draw, but just liked drawing different things, until we found a common interest in cartoons. Do you know what those are?”

“~Yes, cartoons are hoof drawn pictures flipped over and over in front of a projection in a movie theater. Foals love them.~” She was curious, especially seeing the smile on his face.

“Yes but for us they are on a miniature version of a movie theater called a Television, something you can watch in your home without leaving the house.” That sounded very fascinating and though she didn’t bring one with her, she did wish she had a notepad with her.

One Twilight Sparkle was in the middle of organizing her library, as she put off doing it cause of the Mare-Do-Well event, when suddenly she shivered. Her horn lit up and her parchment and ink well showed up as did her quill.

“Twilight, do you need me to mail something to the Princess?” Spike, the ever loyal assistant to the librarian, asked.

“No I…I am not sure why I brought this out.” Looking at the objects in her magical grasp she soon poofed them away in a teleport. “I just felt the need to have them for some reason.”

Giving a shrug Spike went back over the checklist. “Ok, next on the list is-”

Vinyl waited as Dustan seemed to have gone completely silent as he relived some of his memories. “Anyways.” His voice caught her off guard as it seemed like he picked up where his thoughts left off. “Finding an interest in those we became closer and closer friends. Her parents didn’t like me though, she was from…I wouldn’t call it a well to do family, but they definitely were far from bad off. My family is more of a modest income type of family and has been for a while so her parents didn’t think I would be any different and wanted better for their daughter.” Vinyl could definitely sympathize with that remembering going to meet her future in-laws for the first time when she was a struggling artist. “Time moved on and we grew closer and closer till in my junior year, she was growing more and more restless I suppose with how things were going. Puberty had really hit her well both in body and attitude so gone was the shy girl and out came a more confident woman by the end of it.”

The DJ didn’t want to interrupt but part of her party mare attitude came back. “~So she was stacked?~”

Laughing a tad bit he smiled. “She was curvy that is for sure. Not too large but not tiny in any sorta way. She was really well proportioned with a bust that was just…I am getting off topic.” Dustan said as he shook his head to clear his thoughts. “Her parents still hated me, mine loved her. More and more she found herself at my home, until near the end of the senior year her parents gave her an ultimatum, dump me, or leave. She wasn’t dumb and neither was I by any stretch of the imagination. So she pretended to dump me and get together with Patrick a couple of weeks later. He would drive her over to my place or he would drive me out to meet her, he really stuck his neck out for us.”

“~Were you two never caught?~” That question got a loud laugh from him.

Shaking his head he grinned. “Nope, least not until a few years later. They thought their precious girl finally came to her senses when they gave her that ultimatum. That she finally saw what they saw. Was it a hassle to go about dating that way? Absolutely. Was it worth it? Well, we were in love, so it was at the time and I would happily do it again if I had to.” Sighing, he reached up into the air again, this time as if trying to grab something. “Time moves on though, my work put a tiny bit of a strain on things, and her college work was no different. However when the time came when I was starting to make money, and she was starting to get part time work as well, we moved in together. Her parents thought she was moving in with a friend and was more than happy to give her some independence thinking they had done right.” Another tear fell as he clenched his fists. “Those were the best of times.”

Vinyl was starting to get a bad feeling, something had to be said. “~Something happened didn’t it?~”

All she got for a good solid five minutes was more tears and a nod as Dustan occasionally sipped water. “Yeah.” It was the answer that came out when things calmed down again. “I am a heroic personality, if others are in danger, I can’t help but move. When it’s me though, I rather take the hit then others.” Dustan moved his hands up to his throat feeling it want to clench up. “A robber. I was home she wasn’t. She ran to the store to pick up a few things for dinner that night.” Laughing to himself Dustan found his hands brought to his face now as the tears wouldn’t stop flowing. “I was tied up, gagged, as the guy was loading up a car outside. A car is a kinda of mechanical carriage that uses science to move without being pulled.” Seems he wasn’t as far gone in his thoughts to not notice her look of confusion it seems. “She pulled up and saw it, started to call the cops on a phone, think of it as a device that lets anyone use a kind of communication over long distance. The robber spotted her and reached into our car to grab her and pulling her into the house she complied for a bit till she saw me then started to fight back. That is when he took the butt of the gun, a kind of powerful crossbow that shoots small shaped rounds of metal at high speeds. Anyways he hit her with the end of it against the side of her head and she just crumpled.”

As he said the word crumpled he started to sob and felt the hooves of a pony around of him. Dustan’s sobs never stopped for a good thirty minutes before finally he had to quit and get something to drink as his throat was becoming hoarse. Taking a moment for a snack break as well hoping it would settle his flip flopping stomach, it didn’t.

“~Take your time and continue when you are ready.~” Vinyl hated asking these questions but…she had to know, to make sense of the images in her head. The memories, they weren’t complete by any stretch of the imagination and had been keeping her up at night for what she did know.

“Thanks.” It would be another couple of minutes before he would do so though. “I couldn’t do anything being tied up, so I could only watch her bleed till the cops came and called an ambulance as well as untie me. We rushed her to the hospital but seems there was some swelling in her brain. She went into a coma after that, and only then did her parents find out about us. They cursed me out and more, and me being emotional I didn’t take it too well. I ended up telling them to fuck off essentially and that I would pay for everything, that they didn’t even know their daughter at all and that she was my family and that one day we would be married.” Looking down at the bed and his hands he sighed. “I don’t think I ever saw them after that.” Clenching his hands and closing his eyes he could still hear the sounds of the machines that she was hooked up to. “Six months, several surgeries, procedures, medications and more. She woke up…but by that point the damage had been done.”

The blue maned unicorn’s heart clenched in sympathy at hearing that but she had to know. “What happened?”

“Brain damage.” Releasing his fists, only to see blood where his nails cut into them he solved that with a Cure spell. “The doctors said that it was located in the frontal lobe of the brain. That is the part that deals with personality and such; I was never really all too good with medical knowledge so most of what they said went over my head. What they did say was that she would have mood swings for a good while till her brain essentially learned new pathways and corrected the imbalance if ever. That and medication to help along the way.” Pouring himself a new glass of water and taking another sip Dustan continued. “Being bedbound for six months also means you need physical rehabilitation. It took another six months to recover and by that point since I was paying for everything, I had run through basically all my savings. I didn’t touch hers as I didn’t have access since we kept our accounts separate.”

Slowly Vinyl’s eyes widened more and more during this part of the tale of his past. “~She didn’t just show her true colors, she changed cause she got damaged!~”

“Yeah.” Rubbing the side of his left arm with his right he looked down. “It wasn’t bad at first. For the most part she almost turned back into a shy girl for a good few months before slowly gaining her confidence back. After that I started to notice that she kept giving me compliments, but they were not always good ones. They were ones that were backhanded. I had lost my job taking care of her during this time and when I went to go in for an interview for another and dressed up nicely, she said ‘That new look for you is great, so much better than your old one’ and slowly it grew from there. Never once did she ever physically abuse me or anything, but slowly it became verbal and emotional abuse. I didn’t want to say anything cause part of me always HOPED she would find her way back to being her old self. Another part of me thought I deserved it for letting her get hurt in the first place. This went on for a year and a half.”

“~I am so sorry.~” The wince on her face was visible it seems as he looked over to her and nodded.

Looking her straight in the eyes he spoke. “Yeah…so am I.” swallowing another lump in his throat Dustan proceeded. “I was still paying for the bills, and soon finally finished them. I was working two jobs, doing everything I can to pay for the apartment and everything that we lived in, but I was barely doing anything. Sarah on the other hand found her new mental process working well in the fashion world it seems as she started getting contract after contract for high paying jobs. She was essentially paying for everything as she grew more and more abusive to me. Finally she seemed to have enough and kicked me out. Most of my big possessions I had sold off during the rehabilitation phase so I didn’t really have anything to bring with me beyond some cloths. From there I lived on the streets, trying to do anything to make my way, to do anything to survive till my shattered personality from her abuse just didn’t want to bother anyone anymore. I didn’t want to be a burden on my parents or my best friend like I was for her, so never told them I was living on the street. Eventually it got so bad; the hunger was eating me up so much inside that when I found a razor, I thought about ending my life. Patrick found and saved me.”

She said nothing as she watched him ball up his hands in the sheets of the bed. No words would be enough to comfort him or even be able to sooth him from what the unicorn had heard him going through. Eventually he threw a pillow in a rage at the wall before sighing.

“Pathetic.” Hitting his bed with his fist he yelled out. “I am pathetic!” Ever so slowly did Dustan calm down and look back up to the roof of bedroom as he lay back down. “Patrick gave me a home, he helped me slowly start to come back to who I was and is the only one besides you to now know what she did. Patrick had become a rather savvy investor when he was working as a Graphic Designer. Making some smart or rather lucky calls got him wealthy rather quickly. This let him by a very expensive home, car, everything he wanted. He still worked cause he liked it and he wanted to keep up his lifestyle. I lived there working from small jobs to small jobs as best I could all the while paying back small bits of things here and there that I missed and giving Patrick some money as rent, which he didn’t want to take but eventually would when I would find other ways to spend it if he didn’t take it. Groceries, utilities, small repairs, upgrades for appliances. Anything and everything was fair game when he wasn’t taking it.”

~Did Sarah ever get better?~ She had to ask it even if she already could feel the answer.

“No, least not from the last time I saw her.” Sighing once more, a habit he seemed to have judging from this little therapy session. “Pat let me come to a convention, kinda like a comic one, nearby and I used some of my funds to get me some materials for a costume or paid for parts if I could. While there he got me the coat I wear now all the time and it was there that I came to come to Equestria. See this person called the Merchant, one who uses an accent from overseas, is a kinda urban myth in my world in certain circles. A man who dresses up as a character called the merchant from a type of interactive novel would do something horrible to you and whisk you to a new world. This one didn’t do that, instead, he seemed like he was rather nice…till his twin froze me, slammed me to his stall table, took my wooden sword, turned it metal and then ran me through the chest with it creating my Blood Sword in the process. The nice one pulled it out of me, gave me something and sent me to Equestria while healing me. He saved me and for that I thank him. Plus I have met so many interesting people here and get to do things I couldn’t in my world.”

“~And the rest is history I suppose.~” When Dustan gave a nod, Vinyl sighed and stood. “~Thank you. I think I can rest easier now. I thought that your loved one was naturally liked that. Her being a victim is sad and a tragedy for sure, but it is a shame she ended up the way she did.~”

“Yeah.” Finished up his water with those words, he also stood. “Thank you for coming by. I won’t lie, while it didn’t feel good to remember the bad times…it felt good to remember the good ones. I sometimes forget there were even any good times back then. It’s good to be reminded of them and find those memories once again.”

As she started to light up her horn she paused before looking at him and speaking in her synthetic voice. “~Dustan. I have a question or two more before I leave.~” Her horn would power down at that especially seeing his curious look. “Do you find ponies attractive, or are we too alien for you to see that way?”

This time he shook his head, the first in the session. “I do think you are all adorable and rather sensual at times for sure, do I find you all attractive, in some ways yeah.”

“~Then why have you not tried to date while here? Or does your heart still belong to Sarah, the old one?~” It hurt to ask this question because now that she had those memories and now the knowledge, it felt like she knew the person as well.

“No…my heart doesn’t belong to her.” The look in his eyes told her just how much it hurt to say that. “I came to realize that a long time ago, that I had let her go, mourned the death of who she was. That being said, while my heart doesn’t belong to her, it doesn’t mean that I have moved on either. My heart just isn’t ready to be in a relationship. I still am healing from what the damage Sarah did to me. Till I can absolutely be sure that I am done healing from that, I don’t think I will be ready to start dating or even be able to see others in that way.”

“~Thank you. Those were all of my questions. Though you should know there are so many around you that gives you signals. Maybe its cause we are alien to you, just as how you are alien to us, but if they end up straight out telling you what they would like, try to either let them down easy, or giving it a try, just to see if your heart is more ready then you thought it was.~” Her horn lit up after that and took down the soundproofing spell. “~Thank you again, hopefully next time we meet will be during a fun party.~” With her horn lighting up again, she teleported away with a ‘Wub’.

“So do I.” Taking a look at his watch he saw what time it was. The snacks were gone and so was the water but the human was not ready to do anything. Instead he went to his bed and got lost in the good memories once more, eventually falling asleep to them.

Peaking out of its hiding spot the white creature frowned at what it saw. The creature was large, easily several times its own size and weight in one of its long necks let alone its huge body. Speaking of necks, there were three, and it was the cause of it that factor that the creature could even be in this part of the Everfree.

‘So much has changed too Kupo.’ Looking at some of the trees of the area the creature sighed. ‘The forest wasn’t this wild before the old ones were to cast the seal Kupo. How long were we gone for Kupo? A hundred years Kupo? No, growth wouldn’t be this bad Kupo. Five hundred Kupo? Nope I heard something about two Alicorns moving the sun and moon and have been in control of it for something like almost two thousand years or so Kupo. I last remember that was the job of the Unicorns, so it has been a while it seems. Kupo.’

The creature growled and snapped at something the fluffy white nut loving hybrid couldn’t see. Though it could easily hear the crunching of bones and the tearing of meat soon come after. It seemed like the large thing found a meal.

‘Ok that should buy me some time to sneak away Kupo.’ Hearing the thing growl and snap reminded the Moogle of something. ‘If I am awake, that should mean that the others are waking up as well. It would also explain the other things too Kupo.’ Shuddering at that the Moogle reached up to stroke his pom pom comfortingly. ‘I really hope Ifrit has calmed down during his down time in the seal Kupo.’

The loud noises of all the many of those gathered were easily in an uproar today, as so many reports have been coming in from all over Equestria and even from territories beyond them thanks to some select individuals strategically placed in those territories. Spies, they were spies. Celestia and Luna both hated all the noise but even as their twin gavels rang out to call order to those assembled it took a good long while for silence to reign.

“Thank you my ponies for gathering so quickly for this emergency meeting.” The solar pony greeted all the Canterlot nobles that had arrived in a timely manner. Mostly because if they didn’t come to an emergency meeting such as this their nobility could be called into question and none wanted to lose their power, except for the few whom were actually there out of concern for others. “I wish I could have sent out summons to other nobles but the reports keep coming in at an alarming pace.”

“Indeed, I have reports coming out from the west and east coasts alike about strange phenomena come to pass.” The rather pudgy pony yelled out in a breathless voice. “Fires, floods, bouts of sudden uncontrolled snow flurries to just name a few of the reports I have been hearing about.”

“Thank you for telling us my little pony, for my sister and I have also suddenly been getting reports about such things. We have already sent teams out to check things out, but having all these things happen at once have prompted my sister and I to look into patterns in the past to see if anything like this has happened.” The light colored pastel pony looked to her sister as she stepped back and let Luna take the lead.

Said night pony looked around at the nobles before her and though her face showed nothing, she felt disgust at how the nobles have turned out. “While my sister and I have lived a long time, we have encountered nothing like these phenomena before. So much in the last two years have been happening, even before my return, strange creatures suddenly started to show themselves. At first we thought some were merely either Everfree creatures being encountered for the first time, or migrating species from parts unknown. Yet now my sister and I think there is a different reason, one that is connected to the phenomena happening at present.”

That caused the rabble of ponies to increase tremendously and made Celestia stand up and rap her gavel loudly. “Silence everypony, my sister isn’t done speaking!”

Hearing the normally calm and kind solar ruler speak so seriously and to yell for that matter hushed everyone quickly. “Thank you sister.” Celestia gave a quick nod to her sister then let her continue. With a glow a book was soon teleported into the meeting hall. “This is one of the journals of the legendary Magister Starswirl the Bearded. Inside his journals he detailed many things, for this one, it was his memories and his day to day activities. It was here that I found the answer.” Opening up and quickly flipping through the pages she looked to the assembled ponies. “Forgive me if this is slow, the pages are written in a dialect no longer spoken so some words need to be roughly translated.”

“Take your time sister, what you have to say is important.” Celestia already knew what was in it of course, and the news wasn’t great.

Taking a breath and starting to read her words soon came flowing out. “I am amazed at times of the splendor of the land. The calm nature of many animals, and how the monsters that plague the land are slowly being pushed away from pony settlements are all things of modern wonders. I can only imagine what this land was like a few generations ago. My great grandfather once told me of his great grandfather, as far as I know the last practitioner of the Neutral way. He describes the lands as running fierce with creatures of unspeakable natures and names. Once that could take up arms in their hands like the Diamond Dogs or Minotaurs can. Ones whose breath were so foul that they can alter ponies or even melt them down to nothing but bones. Felines whose power over mysterious magicks could petrify like the mighty Cocktrice could. What is more I remember my ancestor telling me of even more frightening things, things that gave his great grandfather nightmares. He called them by many different names: Espers, Primals, Eidolons, and more. It was these creatures and more that cause him and many other great mages of their time to band together to create a type of seal, one that my great grandfather could barely understand and as such couldn’t relay it properly to me.”

Luna took a moment and looked around before a glass hovered over to her and she smiled. “Take it slow sister, no need to harm your voice to rush your words.” Celestia told her younger sister.

Smiling, the dark blue mare nodded and took a breather before taking the book up a minute later to continue. “The spell he described, it sounded like some type of seal with a timer or a type of time displacement spell that sealed the creatures out of sync with time. The spell was not the most stable and as such not only did it hit these Eidolons, but many other creatures. My great grandfather said my ancestor lamented about the loss of some of these creatures as some were friendly and loving, while others were terrifying. In the end it caused the world to become a lot calmer for sure.” Luna stopped and looked at those assembled as she closed the book. “The book then goes on to Starswirl lamenting that so much knowledge had been lost about such creatures or muddled thanks to Discord’s time that no pony even seems to remember these creatures even existing. Then it goes on about him going to search for the Alicorns of myth that seemed to have shown up.” Looking to those assembled the Princess of the Night called out. “My sister and I think that the seal may have finally given way. It would explain why new species started to show up, why horrific creatures that seem to be nightmares made flesh have shown up. The phenomenon the book describes also seems like what has been occurring around all known territories as well. That is why we have sent investigation teams to these areas both to close off the areas for safety as well as to investigate.”

Standing down and letting Celestia take her place, the older sister stood before those assembled. “There you have it my little ponies. The reason we called you all here, and hopefully this shows we have taken measures to keep the peace. Hopefully these matters will be solved quickly and peacefully, if not then we hope no pony will be injured with its resolve. Now, to open the floor to questions.”

Said questions were either stupid and tedious, like how many ponies were in each time, or ones that were so self serving that Celestia almost outright banned a few ponies for the questions like ‘Will these phenomena affect my stock in this company?’ or ‘Will standard insurance cover the new creatures and possible Eidolon damages?’. To say that Celestia and Luna wanted very much to alter some records to abdicate some noble seats, they could not, least not at the moment.

Honestly the Princess both wished to call Dustan up at the moment to see if he could explain to them or their advisers or anything, however the last time he was there and spoke, from what they have gathered, is that a lot of ponies ignored what he said and either didn’t write it down, or the knowledge he did give was not as widely distributed as they would have liked. True his knowledge was helping others, and over time, though at the cost of lives, the princesses ponies have learned that what he said held value.

Casting a spell Celestia started to speak right to her sister’s mind. ‘Luna, do you think the nobles would listen to Dustan if we brought him here for the meeting? I myself can’t imagine they will as some are still sore that he was given the title of Noble.’

Giving a slight look to her sister, the Princess of the Night started her own spell to communicate back to her. ‘Dustan, while a source of solid information, will likely be ignored or outright dismissed by the nobles. They will not listen to him, mostly because of two reasons. One, some nobles were backing Logistic’s Trail and having a unicorn, a rightful noble removed then having a none pony noble come about right after, one that was deeply connected to his fall. Many resent that. There is also the fact that Dustan’s rise in status came so quick, many believe the human has not put in the time or effort to become a noble. We both have seen the petitions to have him removed as a noble, of which I have often dismissed as there was no basis for the removal.’

‘Indeed sister, many of the names I have found on some of the larger petitions came from ponies either paid to write their name, or from ponies who do not exist. However when the charges are brought up, the pony who had them sign says that was the name a pony gave them, they can’t be at fault for false names given.’ The diarchy found the petitions annoying and rather slanderous at times but always found ways to skirt the laws. Celestia and Luna even had a very small task force now, mostly because the normal channels didn’t have enough to go on, dedicated to snooping out many instances of the flagrant fraud users as a result.

For her part, the blue Alicorn simply sighed. ‘Sister, there is also something else to bring up.’ A inquisitive feeling bubbled up through the communication spell which made Luna smile a bit as always her sister was the ever curious one. ‘It is in regarding the forces at Luminary Castle. From what we understand the training methods of various individuals are helping to strengthen the individuals involved such as a Minotaur Ex-Major General, a rather elder Dragon whose exact age has not been confirmed as of yet as he is going around in his compressed form, a hooded black unicorn, and Dustan himself. I have looked into many of their dreams and found myself sorting through what they go through and it’s rather extensive. As such, I am starting to wonder about the training of our own guard.’

A ‘hmmm’ was transmitted over the link before Celestia ‘spoke’ up. ‘Considering this was some time ago but I heard of when Dustan first came to meet us that two of the new royal guards stationed to guard the castle attacked him but couldn’t land a hit upon him. If the Luminous Guard of his castle is getting to be a fraction of his own strength from that time, plus a bit stronger from the other sources teaching them, it is possible that we might want to hold a competition between the two. We might even get some ideas on different training methods to improve our own guard.’

‘Indeed. In fact I believe we should mention this to one of our Captains after this meeting.’ Luna couldn’t stop her giddy feeling from bubbling up through the link as well. ‘I will admit, I will be happy to have a friendly competition to see which of us is the better upon the field of combat. Maybe we can even get Captain Shining Armor to participate as Team Captain.’

The elder sister of the two rolled her eyes as she smiled. ‘You just wish to see what Dustan’s abilities can do in actual combat. You always have loved a good fight and hearing about a few of his adventures makes you wish to see if they are true doesn’t it?’

Grinning a bit she smiled. ‘There is that, plus he has offered to fight me before, I almost wish to take him up on that offer, but I feel like if the gap is too large then it would not feel fair from his point of view.’ Looking over to her sister she couldn’t help but grin. ‘You would do well from a good work out as well sister; your posterior is becoming rather corpulent.’

‘Maybe, but I have found that stallions like a mare with a sizable backside.’ The sisterly banter started as Celestia grinned. ‘I mean you could do well from gaining a few pounds as well sister.’

Luna not one to be outdone flexed a bit to show off her form. ‘Sorry sister, but my body is highly toned and many find it to be rather attractive. I should know since I have found more than a few subjects dreaming of said form.’

For a moment neither sister spoke before breaking out into laughter and confusing many nobles.

“Kweh!” The pure white Chocobo called out as she spotted him. Following closely after her was a blue Coeurl that gave off a curious sounding purr.

The Moogle merely smiled at the both of them and waved them over. “Hey you two, thanks for showing up again Kupo. Sorry if I was gone for a few hours, I had to go check on something Kupo.”

“Kweh?” The curious sound was simple and to the point for sure, or at least it was to the Moogle.

Shaking his head the white creature just told her. “No I haven’t met him yet, been waiting on it to be fair Kupo. There is just one small problem Kupo; one that I think will get worse if something isn’t done about it Kupo. I can’t ignore it and I am not an offensive type to actually fight it, so I am going to need help Kupo.”

“Mrow?” Seems he piqued the feline’s curiosity, to which he did laugh at as it was really hard to get her to speak to him.

Nodding to her he pointed a thumb back at himself. “Yes I am going to have to talk to your owner soon about it for sure since it concerns him as well Kupo. I am sure he has already felt the effects here at the Castle Kupo. I am just glad that creatures tend to ignore my presence unless they directly see me otherwise I wouldn’t be able to move around like I do Kupo. I mean your owner almost caught me once which surprised me since even when I say Kupo creatures still will ignore me so it was a real surprise when he suddenly stopped and looked around for me Kupo.”

Nodding and ruffling her feathers again, the Chocobo spoke up again. “Kweh.”

That solid sounding note made the Moogle sigh. “Yeah, I think it’s time your master learned about the creature stirring up the forest Kupo. I just really hope that he and his forces will be strong enough to take it out Kupo.”

Chapter Twenty Eight: Hail.

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My Little Tactics

Chapter Twenty Eight: Hail.

“You sure you want to do this lad?” The blacksmith asked him as he nodded. “Tis going to be hard work you know?”

Dustan knew this better than anyone and chuckled as he wiped off his brow. “I wouldn’t do it otherwise if I didn’t believe in the effort. Honestly I am trying to expand my knowledge a bit as honestly I am hoping to recreate some things you know?”

“From your homelands?” The smith asked of the human.

Dustan shrugged to the question. “Well close enough to what I know at least to pass for it.” Technically that wasn’t a lie, Dustan still wasn’t ready for others to know where he was from, so far only Vinyl having come to know his secret, though had considered the Mane Six as well as his other close friends for such a secret.

“Well regardless-” The smith said setting the hammer down as he went to quench the nail he was working on. “-I am just glad to see ya out and about. A couple of weeks ago you gave off this gloomy air but suddenly you just up and came to see me about metalworking tips. Why did you come ask me for the help?”

“A friend of mine is having a birthday soon and instead of ordering something like I have before; I wanted a change of pace and tried to make something.” Truthfully he could have become a Knight or a Monk for the added strength but was determined to grind his Thief levels up. “That and there is nothing really to do during Estrus season.”

“Aye that is true.” The pony smith told him. “All of the mares are in Ponyville while all the males have come here. We get to wait two weeks for them to calm down but other than that is basically a holiday.”

“Yeah, besides some patrols and the like I have a lot of downtime since I am giving the troops this time as a break from training as well.” Dustan commented as he wiped his brow again. “Constant training like they have been doing I would say they have earned it.”

Nodding the smith put his tools away for now he looked to Dustan and told him. “That was my last order for today. Not that I don’t trust ya lad but I doubt you would know what to do if the forge got away from you so I am shutting her down for the day.”

“No problem, appreciate the time you give me.” Taking off the heavy faux leather apron from his front Dustan moved to clean off his tools and put them away neatly to where he borrowed them from. Standing up and heading out of the shop he was nearly run over by a group of foals chasing one another. Giving a chuckle he watched them for a bit before heading to get some lunch. The foals and younger ones not yet ready for estrus were sent here as well and the castle has had more and more laughter than ever. ‘That will calm down in a couple of days sadly when the season comes to a close.’

Truth was some mares were already visiting again as the ones with a lighter season were already back to normal, sadly none of his friends were one of them save one. “Heya big guy, grabbing lunch?”

Chuckling at the speedy blue pegasus he nodded as Faithful Servant brought his lunch out as he went to sit down. “Yeah, thank you Faith, much appreciated.” To which the older pony smiled at that and bowed before leaving. “While I know this season is horrible for you mares, I do appreciate the downtime. Lets me look into a few things and have some me time since I am letting everyone off training during this time.”

“I usually nap on some clouds or practice my stunts when that happens.” Taking a bundle of hay fries and starting to chomp them the Pegasus didn’t waste time as she continued speaking with her mouth full. “I mean have you ever slept on a cloud, it’s awesome.”

Dustan had to wait for her to swallow before he asked her to repeat that to finally understand what she said. “Ahh nope, clouds aren’t exactly ground made you know.”

“Right, I will have Rarity look into getting you a cloud cushion bed after the season is over and she can get around to decorating your room.” Grabbing another bundle of hay fries she finished off her lunch with a smile. “Speaking of after the season, have you thought about Twilight’s present?”

“Yeah, been working on perfecting it. Been buying everyone’s present lately, I felt like I needed to do something different. Making something with my hands feels good.” Taking a bit of his burger he moaned out loud. Faithful did some good work with the meat they had been imported. Dustan still couldn’t eat any kind of chicken but as long as this beef wasn’t sentient before he would gladly keep eating it.

Rainbow Dash scrunched up her nose for a moment at his action but sighed. “I sometimes forget you are meat eater you know? I was about to ask you what you were eating then I smelled it was meat.”

Swallowing his bite he looked to her. “Sorry. I can stop for a bit to talk if you want.”

The mare shook her head. “Na, its fine. Fish and stuff is fine, helps pegasi keep their wings healthy, haven’t we talked about this before?” As he gave a nod, she just gave a face-hoof. “Ugh I hate when that happens. Come on ask a question, let’s change the subject.”

Swallowing another bite he thought for a moment as he took some fries and dipped them in ketchup. “How is everyone in Ponyville handling things. I know the season is just about to wrap up and some are already getting back to normal. Anyone handling it bad or we should look out for even after the season is officially over?”

Rainbow rolled her eyes at that and sighed. “Most of the girls are fine except Rarity, but she should be good in a day or two. Eden was staying at Fluttershy’s as those two seem to be on friendly terms and talking about flowers and animals helps they say.” Dustan knew about the friendship between them as it had started at first with Eden going to Fluttershy for some manure from her creatures that she could mix into a compost of hers which then lead into the discussion of specific animals and their diets then into various plants and veggies and then they became friends. “I don’t know Dawn all too well and same for Summer so couldn’t really tell you there. Merlene though is having a bad time of it; she might need a couple of days, same with Zecora.”

He winced at hearing that. “I thought she drank something for that?”

The pegasus belched out after chugging her soda. “Usually she does, but this time her Estrus came on a bit quicker than normal and cause of the distraction she couldn’t go out to find the last ingredient so she had to do without this time. Though I heard her swear she would make sure to keep some in stock for next time instead of waiting till the last minute.”

Sighing as he heard that and tells her. “Honestly that might be my fault.” At first Rainbow was shocked then suddenly started to grin. “With all the animals being stirred up as well as the creatures, when she went to go out for supplies I asked her to wait a day or two for another patrol in that area. I had forgotten Estrus week was around the bend and well, yeah.”

The grin fell off as Rainbow Dash looked disappointed. “Aww and here I thought I got some juicy gossip.”

Dustan would blink a few times dumbly not understanding what she meant. “What juicy gossip did you think you had?”

“Oh that you asked Zecora not to use her medicine so you and her could, you know.” Blue Speed made a motion with her two hooves that even without fingers Dustan could tell what she was inferring.

That being said it still caused him to blush. “What, no! I mean Zecora doesn’t even like me that way, and as I said I am not looking for a relationship at the moment.”

“Wait, so you don’t-oh…oh wow.” Dash chuckled to herself as she suddenly had to stop herself from laughing. “Anyways, its fine. I am sure one day you will want to go on a pony ride.”

Groaning and face-palming he just looked to the pony and shook his head. “That was a terrible pun and you should be upset with yourself.”

“Na, I am too awesome to be upset with, even by someone as awesome as me.” Tossing the can into the garbage the pegasus took to the air and smiled “Anyways I have to go, going to go make my rounds and check in on everypony.”

Before he could even give a wave the pony zipped off leaving her signature contrail behind her. A second later the doors to the dining hall slammed open and in ran Boko and Maya both of whom stopped for just a moment and looked around and upon seeing him ran over to him.

“Hey you two, you have been running off quite a lot lately on your own, I hope you two have been-WOAH!” While he had missed the pair a lot lately he didn’t get a chance to actually talk to them as both of them took hold with beak and maw some part of his clothes and were tugging him towards the door. “Ok, ok, I get it, you both want me to go somewhere. Let’s go.” When he started to walk it was clear that the pace he was setting wasn’t what they wanted.

Surprise came to Dustan as Boko quickly moved around and he felt her head snake between his legs, then her neck. Quickly he was lifted up and slid down to her back where his legs naturally settled behind her wings after they gave a flap. It took a moment before two things happened: Dustan realized that Boko was finally fully grown and the other was that Chocobos were fast!

“HOLY SHIT!” The Thief called out as he grabbed hold of her feathers and wrapped his legs around her leaning forward as the White Chocobo was now booking it. He was sure he caused quite a stir as Boko took off through the courtyard. ‘This is awesome! I am pretty sure I even saw the Crusaders look on in shock at this speed haha!’

So caught up in the speed of his friend that by the time she slowed to a halt, rather quickly at that, in a secluded clearing he realized three things. One: He wasn’t sure how long they had run for. Two: He had no clue the direction they went. Finally there was reason three: Dustan had not been holding on as tightly as he should have.

“OH SHIT!” He did his best to tuck and roll as the sudden stop of Boko had flung him off of her but the human knew he would have a few bumps and bruises when he stopped rolling. “G-going to need to work on your stops girl. Ugh.”

“Or maybe you need to pay attention more Kupo.” A voice from his right told him though he couldn’t see who it was as he was currently seeing the green grass of the ground he was so intimately connected to at the moment.

“That is also a possibli-” Dustan stopped midsentence and quickly shot up from the ground and looked to where the voice came from. “Oh…my…”

The Moogle in front of him merely stepped back slightly looking surprised. “Wow, usually no one can understand us, anyways don’t be frightened. I know I look strange but I can assure you that-KUPO!”

“YOU’RE SO ADORABLE!” Not able to contain himself he reached over and picked up the fluffy white creature. “You are taller than I thought you would be, you are about the size of Spike in fact, maybe a bit bigger but you are even more adorable then I imagined!”

This…was not the reaction the Moogle expected. “T-t-t-thank you Kupo!” He shouted as he was pulled left then right as Dustan swung him back and forth. “C-c-can you p-p-put me d-d-down Kupo?”

Dustan’s brain had to process the request for a few seconds before realizing what the Moogle actually said before staring down at him. “Oh hehe sorry. Just I have always wanted to meet one of your species, so that is kind of a dream come true you know. Moogles have always been one of my favorite creatures of all time.”

The Moogle puffed up his chest and rubbed his nose gently as he grinned. “Well then I guess I can forgive you and understand why you reacted the way that you did Kupo.”

“Oh I have so many questions I want to ask you, too many to count. Crap I should have made a list.” Dustan said frowning suddenly. Boko came over and nuzzled the Moogle. “Well you certainly seem friendly with him Boko. Is this where you have been girl?”

The Chocobo leaned her head over to him now for him to scratch and enjoyed it from the noises she made. “Yeah, Boko has been a big help Kupo. I am not very good with flying so having her carry me around at times has been a big help in surveying the state of the forest Kupo.”

“Surveying the forest? What for?” There was another thing that popped into his head suddenly. “Oh sorry forgot to introduce myself, my bad. I am Dustan Warner. Pleasure to meet you.”

Holding out his hand the Moogle looked at it for a moment before shaking his head. “Sorry, but I honestly can’t give you my name Kupo. Same with shaking your hand as that would be considered a sign of agreement Kupo. However if you wish to know it, I have a task for you Kupo.”

While it was strange to hear all that Dustan pulled his hand back and looked over to the Moogle before asking. “Ok, I am willing to listen, what task?”

Grabbing a stick and holding it in its ‘nub’, for lack of a better word, he then began to draw up some sketches, nothing great mind you but enough to get the point across. “Some time ago, as I know you have noticed, creatures have been getting displaced from their normal territories Kupo.”

Hearing that the thief nodded as he now was paying close attention. “Go on.”

“Well seems I found the answer Kupo.” Another crude drawing came, this one of a creature with two legs, a large body, a tail with spikes on it that also match some on its back and many heads. “A hydra Kupo. This one currently only had three heads showing when it first appeared suggesting that it hasn’t been in all too many battles but that was when I first saw it Kupo. Last time I saw it, now it has seven heads and pretty much can take on anything in the forest Kupo. It’s also grown to twice the size it was originally Kupo. It has also adapted to the forest changing from a yellow to a light green and it’s getting closer and closer to matching the forest every day Kupo.”

Standing up right away and grabbing the Moogle without even asking for permission he told him. “Alright and now we head back to the castle.”

“Wait, what, why Kupo?” The Moogle seemed confused.

Taking a moment to figure out how to actually get up on Boko properly he would finally do so and nearly slide off the other side. “WOAH! Hold on.” Righting himself, eventually, Dustan smiled as he sat properly “Wow you are so fluffy and soft Boko I might not ever need a saddle. Not sure if I could bring myself to ever make you wear one either.” Shaking his head and focusing, he brought the Moogle up properly now. “Ok, as for what and why, easy. I am not dealing with something like that alone. I am not feeling particularly suicidal at the moment. Second this is a problem that faces EVERYONE of the castle, not just me. If this is as important as you say it is then we need to make sure that this thing meets its end and doesn’t run off, which might happen after it eats me when I go in alone.”

“Ok, so you aren’t the brave foolish type got it Kupo.” The Moogle seemed to grin at that.

Narrowing his eyes the Thief had to ask. “Did…did you just test me to see if I would go murder myself by running head long into a deadly hy-you know what, going to preserve my cute cuddly image of you by not finishing that statement.” Tapping gently with his legs to Boko’s sides he would ask gently while petting along her neck. “Know the way home girl? If so can you get us there?”

The White Chocobo didn’t need to be asked twice, booking it full speed giving a happy ‘Kweh’ the whole way. She seemed to love running. That reminded him that he should absolutely spend more time with her and Maya. When they got to the courtyard he tapped on Boko to let her know to slow down.

She seemed to get the message pretty quickly as it seems though what she found funny last time with his landing she had her fill of it this time. “Hey everyone, I am calling an emergency meeting, Tremor, Steel, gather up the guard! Meet me in the conference room!”

Getting off of Boko and heading up there right away, after moving to grab a map or two and looking at the Moogle for advice. Tremor was the first in then Spike as he was also staying at the castle cause of the season instead of ‘hunkering down’ in a room that he would rarely come out of. Sturdy and Mystic came in nearly at the same time and a few moments later the Squad leaders of the guard joined them.

“What is this about? I don’t think you have ever called us in like this.” The deep bass of Tremor’s voice stated as he was now looking both at the map and Dustan knew he was also looking at the strange creature that was with him.

“Thanks to this little guy, I now know what has been pushing the Everfree creatures out of their normal territories.” That caught everyone’s attention rather quickly. “Want to tell them?”

The Moogle seemed confused at first. “You sure Kupo?” When he received a nod he again shrugged and looked at all those gathered there. “Ok who here can understand me Kupo.” No one responded.

“Come on guys, say something, I know that the Moogle is strange but trust me in that he doesn’t mean any harm.” For a moment they all looked to each other sharing a strange look though Steel seemed to be contemplating something.

Finally it was Sturdy that looked at him. “Are you saying its talking right now? You know besides saying Kupo over and over again?”

Looking from all the eyes in the room, though some avoided his own he had to ask. “Wait are you telling me none of you can understand him? He was just asking if you understood him.”

“OH THANK CELESTIA!” A guard called out drawing everyone’s attention to him. “What, I thought I was the only one that heard and was going crazy.”

Steel was grinning at something before leaving the room for a second. “So why can you understand him and no one else Side Winder?”

Side Winder was one of the Squad leaders they had chosen, a rather tall Unicorn that had once been stuck up and better then thou sounding as he had come from a military family thinking he was already qualified with his training when he arrived. Tremor beat that out of him quickly, or Dustan did in sparing matches. Over all he came out a rather likeable orange pony whereas before he only wanted to beat the pulp out of him.

“I couldn’t tell you sir. I understood him asking the question not the reason why I understood and why others can’t.” Luckily his question didn’t go on for much longer.

Steel came back in moving six other ponies into the room and looked to the Moogle. “Alrighty creature, if you don’t mind, ask your question again.”

Looking from the minotaur to the new arrivals the Moogle started. “Can either of you und-”

“HOLY CELESTIA IT TALKS!” One of the Luminary guards said shocked while the other levitated a blade ready to strike. The other four were confused though.

Looking to the older minotaur Dustan had to ask. “I take it you figured something out that we are all missing?”

Nodding and smiling he simply said. “For the most part. There are some legends among my kind, some hold water, some don’t. I didn’t think this particular one did, and you honestly threw a nice question into the mix just with how you are, but I went to go grab some to confirm my suspicions.”

“Those being?” The minotaur just smiled and pointed to each of the ones that could understand him. ‘What I don’t get it. Side Winder, myself, and those two uni…OH!’

Seeing realization come across Dustan’s face the old hybrid merely chuckled loudly. “I take it you are just as confused why you as well now huh?”

Nodding for a moment Mystic was taking notes this entire time and had to ask. “So what did you figure out?”

Pointing to the others he told him simply. “Apparently Unicorns can understand him for…some reason. Steel, any of your legends say why?”

The chuckling stopped right away when the old one got a serious look on his face, one that Tremor quickly shared and was now looking tense for. “Aye. We minotaur’s like to preserve our writing and findings for future generations to look after. What I know is from some of our OLDEST achieves. Concerning creatures that only horned races could communicate with. Creatures that could bring great prosperity, but were just as likely to cause mayhem as well.” Looking suddenly to the Moogle who was now squirming a bit he stated two words. “An Eidolon.”

“What’s an Eidolon?” Came the voice of one snoopy winged pony as she looked at her two compatriots.

The yellow filly shrugged but was looking through the crack from the bottom of the totem pole they had made at the entrance of said door. “Ah don’t know, but Ah reckon at least we now know why Sweetie Belle could understand that cute thing.”

“Told you I wasn’t hearing things.” Sweetie told her friends with a slight look of smugness that one gets when telling someone so.

“Quite down.” Scoots called from the top. “They are talking.”

“That…explains SOOOOOO much right now you have no clue Steel, and we will talk about that later. For now if that is true then this Moogle really can’t harm us…I think. Esper Moogles are healers.” Dustan told them with a smile.

The Moogle then said something in its language that Scoots couldn’t understand so she tapped Sweetie Belle to get her to relay what it said. “It asked how he knew that.”

Dustan chuckled and told it simply. “I know a lot of things. None of that matters now. What matters is that a Hydra is the reason why I called you all here and why we are having the issue of creatures moving into our once safe areas.”

Everyone in the room either went silent or gave a hiss at hearing that. “That is some troubling news indeed. I take it you wish to use the castle guard as a subjugation force correct?”

The large dragon often gave Scootaloo shivers when she looked at him, something about him just screamed too much predator at times making her just naturally uneasy in his presence, this was one of those times. “That’s the plan. Honestly though we can’t leave the castle undefended either so it was more likely leading half the force to it.”

Steel spoke up and nodded “Reasonable. A large force like that moving to engage a large predator like that will have all the groups in the forest running away from the site and likely into us as well as out to Ponyville.”

“My thoughts exactly. I will leave half here which will then split in half again to guard the castle and make sure everyone is kept inside. The other half would then patrol outside of Ponyville, and yes that means I know you will be exposed to the smell of heat but I ask you to try to ignore it. Lives may be on the line here and we need all the help we can get.” Dustan looked at them all and told them.

“Hear that girls?” Apple Bloom asked excitedly.

Nodding Sweetie seemed unsure though. “A hydra sounds scary and dangerous. I don’t think we will be asked to help.”

“Pfft, its fine, we will just follow them out when they leave, once we are there we can help and they won’t be able to turn us back.” Scoots told them with confidence brimming in her voice. “It’s something Rainbow Dash would do for sure.”

“So tell me, what do we know about a hydra?” Dustan asked simply. “We need notes and points to be given to everyone who is going on the mission, even if they aren’t in the party that goes to subjugate the thing.”

Tremor moved closer to the table now and spoke up. “Hydras are deadly, not only are they strong, but their stature is great. They have a large bulbous body, that dispute what you think is all muscle. It’s meant to carry and support the many necks it can grow, which it gets when it heals from severe injuries, which is another thing. It can regenerate rather quickly which is one of its most unforgiving traits right alongside its other one its deadly poison.” Mystic was taking notes this entire time of which Dustan asked him to make copies after he was done to give to others before letting Tremor continue. “Its regenerative powers are best along its necks which does mean YES the rumors of cutting off a hydra’s head and two growing back in moments is true, however it doesn’t come without a price.”

“What do you mean?” The worker and builder of the group asked as he was taking short hoof notes it seemed.

“Simple, it’s about being able to supply the body with what it needs.” Looking to himself he pointed to one of his old scars. “In order to heal a body needs magic and sustenance. Cutting off a head, while it doesn’t seem to affect it, does in fact. Growing two heads for the cut off one is draining and in battle it can only do this a few times normally, but it’s usually enough that it has more offense that it never comes to that. The other option is going for its body, which while it does regenerate, doesn’t do so anywhere as quickly as the next. A fatal wound for you and I might be a week’s worth of healing, if not days depending on where it was struck and how old the creature is.”

The Moogle said something but before Sweetie was asked to translate Dustan did so for her. “He says it’s in the prime of its life. Double the size of a normal Hydra and is adapting to the Everfree.”

The scowl on Tremor’s face grew as Steel gave an impressed whistle. “That is a right beastie you got there.”

“Indeed.” Tremor was rubbing his chin while thinking of things. “If I could assume my uncompressed form, I might stand a chance against it, but for reasons that I can’t go into, I cannot assume that form any longer.” One of the guards instantly piped up with a ‘why not?’ “What part of ‘I cannot go into’ did you not understand?”

“Its fine Tremor, to be fair, I was thinking of asking you to stay and guard Ponyville as the backup in case things went badly.” The human may have said that but even Scootaloo could see that he didn’t like it. “So poison, regenerative powers, strength, and bulk. That about cover it?”

The dragon simply said one word. “Yes.”

“Is it quick?” He asked of the group.

The Moogle spoke and filly unicorn translated. “He said ‘not particularly’.”

“Great, it means speed will be key here. It’s going to suck, but hit and run tactics seems like it’s the name of the game. Either wear it out with body shots, or hopefully make it grow more and more heads till it eats itself alive cause of the cost.”

“Aww yeah, speed is the name of my game. My scooter and I are ready.” The winged filly said buzzing her wings.

“Likely the best plan. So question now is 'who are we taking?'” At this point the fillies decided to duck out to get their prep going and so Scootaloo could modify her Scooter with the wagon to pull all of them and their supplies.

Looking over his equipment, he smiled. He had his leather armor, he would have loved to use his bronze but this being a hit and run, speed and agility were key so it had to be left behind. Dustan, still in Thief mode for its agility and speed, had his axe, his two swords, his pouches but was leaving his bag behind in a now, secret storage behind a wall that he asked Sturdy to set up when building the room so only he and the pegasus would know. Taking a moment he realized something, he had changed since coming here. Whereas before part of him was always excited to engage in a fight at first as it was just like a game, till he quickly realized how much it wasn’t. Caution had been prevalent and more and more training was the name of the game. However even in training he noticed something and had been told by Merlene many times, something that bothered him a bit.

“You like battle don’t you My Lord?” The question from his retainer surprised him at first and he had to think about it.

Hand still on his chin and head cocked looking up he told her. “I suppose I do. I mean I also don’t though. I don’t like conflict as I hate having to see things end that way sure, but I like being able to test myself. Feel myself pitted against something and come out on top knowing my training was worth something.”

“To successfully know one is stronger and the thrill of a hunt is a good sign of a predator species indeed. You don’t often show it but it is in your blood for sure.” They had both laughed about that once they were done and he would have to admit, she was right.

‘I am a predator, and now I am going to go down with my predator pack and take down an apex. YEAH!’ Sure he was saying that to himself to get hyped up but part of him really was excited for this. Heading out to the courtyard he saw his men, least the number going with him as he stood there. “Alright everyone. We have twenty four of us going to take this fucker down. This hydra thinks he is the king of the forest but he is about to have a swift dethroning. We are going to use quick in and out harassing attacks to make it use up all its fuel until it can’t regenerate anymore. Remember to watch for its claws, fangs, and spines, it has poison that even a small scratch can kill you in minutes and it’s a slow death. Report any injuries to the squads assigned for care giving if you don’t want the paralysis to claim you. However I am confident in each and every one of you if I wasn’t I would be sending a letter to Canterlot right now to ask for back up. We got this!”

With that shout they all shouted with him as he started to move. Boko and Maya were with him as he discussed the layout. It would be teams of four meaning six teams, of which two were support teams who was carrying their supplies of salves and potions, the latter of which was not that many but Zecora had been making them by a good amount with each batch. Boko was to be part of the recovery team with her ability to heal with Maya being with him, Side Winder, and another guard pony for his squad. The tactics were two teams would go in at any point and time alternating which ones go together to give the others a chance to rest, the first one would hit and as the beast was preparing to retaliate the next would rush in and hit it from the other side while it was open and distracted. The plan was to constantly switch and back off like that until it keeled over.

With the Moogle leading them to where the creature was last seen it came as a shock to find out how big the thing truly was. “There it is Kupo. It looks like it just ate so it should be a bit sluggish to wake up Kupo.”

Nodding and looking to the couple of unicorns that were with them, Dustan gave a simple command. “Alpha Strike.”

They each nodded and as the squads got into position they unleashed their strongest spells upon the serpentine creature. To say it woke up pissed would be an understatement. With a roar from its multiple heads it came right out of the gate charging, moving a LOT quicker than most realized it would. Healer teams were busy right away treating the injured leaving really only two squads left to switch back and forth.

“CHARGE!” The call given, Dustan started running with his team only to realize something rather quickly. It was just him and Maya in the charge after a moment with a brief glance behind him revealing why: He had outpaced the squad. It was too late to stop though so instead he kept up with it and called out the chant for one of the abilities he had been practicing. “Drifting Breeze, come down with fury! Blizzara Sword!” Instantly his Coral Sword frosted over as mist drifted off it, what was more, unlike normal Blizzard Sword where it would just have that mist; this one had shards of ice breaking off it quite a lot.

Maya and his sword struck at the same time, Maya biting in and clawing while his double elemental sword sank into the beasts rubbery and scaly hide quite deep. Its roar told them that they now had its attention and as he told Maya to pull back he noticed the wounds on its body already healing. Clearly this creature had quite a bit more vigor then they were lead to believe or it had more excess to heal then they thought, either way this might be bad. They were down two squads and an endurance race was something they would lose at this pace.

Soon they met up with the rest of the squad, making him still look at them with a tad bit of wonder with how he had outpaced them. The guard he could understand, he was known as Steady Shield and was a more bulwark type of fighter that wanted to set up defenses and not the quick type. Truth was, he wanted someone else in his squad but beggars can’t be choosers. Side Winder though, normally he should have outpaced Dustan with ease IF he was in the air. As it stood and they discussed, taking to the air with many heads that could crunch you and snatch you from the air was a bad idea.

‘Thief job really shows off their speed in situations like this.’ The human thought to himself as he smiled.

For now the plan was working, squads pulling back as another attacked at a blind spot then for the reverse to happen. However the first two squads were getting pretty tired by the time the potions worked on the other squads and they could finally get into the action. Dustan and his squad were resting as the recovered squads told them to while they did a couple of runs, of which everyone was thankful for. So far the plan was going well, while he was resting he asked one of the healing squads to be a timer when not healing and watch specific wounds and how quickly they were healing. Twenty minutes into the fight he was told that the wounds were now taking three times as long to heal, however considering before the wounds only took about a full minute to heal beforehand said that this thing was far from going down. That being said his dual elemental sword’s wounds were taking MUCH longer to heal was a good sign. From what the Moogle said the creature didn’t do too well with the cold which is why he used Blizzara Sword in the first place but there was a downside, though the casting of the ability didn’t take much Mp its sustained draw caused him to have to deactivate it after the last run that he made.

‘I am just glad I run on the Tactics Mp regeneration table where turns can recover a few Mp each time. Still, didn’t think the draw would be that bad.’ Taking a deep breath and putting away the water bottle provided to him from the healing team, which held the supplies for them as well, Dustan stood up and prepared for a new charge.

Except the team that was about to retreat got caught out badly as the tail of the Hydra came over and quickly swiped at them tossing two of the team without injury, one with minor scrapes, but the last got impaled via his leg on one of the spines of the creature before tossed off nearby screaming. He was about to order the healing team to get ready for emergency treatment except something surprised him just then. Buzzing.

As he was running to aid them a scooter shot past him pulling a wagon. On the vehicle was a small pegasus beating her wings quickly and in the wagon were a unicorn filly as well as a bowed earth filly brandishing a couple of potions. Dustan watched on in horror as he wasn’t the only one to hear the buzzing as it drew the hydra’s attention quickly whom lashed out at the trio with one of its feet kicking out hard. The scream of the three caused him to draw on his mana right away, what for he wasn’t sure, all he could see was the three girls being tossed away from the kick, scooter and wagon shattered as well as the supplies they carried.

When one of the heads of the hydra was rushing forward though he knew exactly what he was drawing mana for, a spell and in particular a big one. “Thundaga!” Dustan wished he had time for the chant, he wished he had time to brace himself, but one can’t always get what they want. Holding up his right hand a mass of pure plasma shot and arced away from him striking the serpent in the face and doing a rather gruesome job on it, though he never got a good look as he was thrown backwards from the force he unleashed.

When he recovered from falling back the hydra was letting out a scream as it stumbled back leaving all teams free to take a moment to recover as well as the recovery team to take the injured back, luckily the three fillies were not visibly harmed, unlike the hydra who had one drooping head whose eyeballs had been popped and melted down its face that was currently smoldering and burned from plasma burns. It really wasn’t pretty.

Looking to the three fillies Dustan wasn’t angry that they were here, but that they were in danger even if his voice only conveyed anger in general. “You three shouldn’t be here!”

The girls all folded their ears back as Sweetie Belle spoke up first. “We just wanted to help.”

Pointing to the healing groups he sighed and told them. “Then help them! Never run up like that again, that was incredibly dangerous and irresponsible of all three of you!”

Tears graced each of their eyes and though the human wished he had time to properly sit down with them and tell them why he was upset Dustan couldn’t as now the hydra had all eyes on him of which the crusaders also noticed. “We should go.”

The three booked it quickly as the six remaining heads all roared even as the seventh head was slowly becoming aware again. “Well shit.”

Then the running started.

“Administer the salve, cleans the poison from him then administer potions and healing magic.” The medic told the girls as they were helping with the pony who had gotten his leg impaled. “It’s times like this I wish I could know those spells Lord Warner knows for healing.”

“No kiddin’ those would be mighty helpful right now.” Apple Bloom responded even as she pulled out the salve and was administering it.

Sweetie Belle was uncorking a potion as Scootaloo was grabbing a bandage while the medic unicorn was using his limited knowledge of healing magic to try his best to seal up the wound and keep the pony from bleeding to death. The pony in question had been lucky, no arteries had been hit, the spine pierced cleanly and exited just as clean, overall it was hard to say if there would be any lasting damage but if they could patch him up enough to get him to a hospital or a proper healing unicorn then the guard would be out of the worst of it.

“Do you mind if I take a break?” The orange pegasus filly asked wiping her forehead.

Bloom looked at her friend a bit worried as the medic nodded. “Sure, all three of you can take a break, I can finish up here, you were just in a near death experience and on a battlefield you shouldn’t be on in the first place, take all the time you need.”

The three girls soon backed up and away from the group as Scoots leaned up against a tree still sweating. “Are you alright?”

Scootaloo looked up at her unicorn friend’s question before smiling and giving a hoof pump. “Of course, just was giving it a hundred and ten percent before my scooter got wrecked. Oh man that took me forever to get too.” She gave a chuckled and reached around and plucked a splinter from her flank. “Plus it’s going to take me forever to get all these splinters out of my fur.”

Her friends came up to the side of her and wrapped her up in a hug. “I am sure we can all pitch in to help you out right Apple Bloom?”

“Sure as shootin’ we can. We are the Cutie Mark Crusaders after all.” The little filly said with a smile.

Giving a hug to her friends she smiled and told them. “You both are my best friends. But give me a minute to get some these splinters out before trying to give me anymore hugs ok?”

They all had a laugh as the filly pulled out a pointed splinter that was green colored. Strange, Scootaloo didn’t remember any part of her current scooter that was green, must have been grass stained.

The hydra was no longer caring about the others, no longer caring about the damage they were doing to its sides, all it cared about was the thing that melted one of its heads, it was the biggest threat of all in its eyes and it wanted it dead. Dustan disagreed and wanted to live, thus he was currently running for his life. He wanted to keep it close to the clearing and thus running and maneuvering room for the other groups if they needed it, but those fangs and tail swipes were getting awfully close for his liking. There was also the fact that he was currently dry on Mp having used his full supply at the time to cast Thundaga in the first place.

‘If that thing gets a hold of me, I will have to hope to whatever deity is currently watching that my healers can patch me up. I really rather not die to this overgrown lizard.’ That being said he had switched swords, now wielding his Blood Sword in case he got injured and he had salve on him for poison if needed.

Hearing a roar that was rapidly getting closer, Dustan dodged to his left barely avoiding the large head of the hydra as it moved past him. Luckily, or unluckily, as he dodged he could already feel his sword swinging on instinct, Counter had activated.

“Yes!” Dustan called out for a moment as the head was severed from its body. ‘Oh wait, the head was severed from the body!’ Continuing his run as the creature roared out its loss Dustan shouted. “INCOMING AN EXTRA HEAD!”

The sickening sound was heard all around though as suddenly the severed head’s neck was splitting in two and growing into two new limbs which to hold the two growing craniums on. This gave the other teams plenty of time to wail on it as its hate for Dustan only grew, by now all of the ponies and others involved were soaked in blood as was the clearing as a small splashing sound was starting to be heard where hooves, paws, and feet were treading.

As Dustan ran back into the clearing one of the healers called out. “Sir, Private Narrow Escape is going to be fine, though he should be transported to a healer ASAP. Also the creature doesn’t seem to be healing noticeably anymore.”

Hearing that Dustan broke one of the cardinal rules of a chase, never look back…only to be ahead of the creature by a good bit. It was slower, much slower than before it had regenerated its head. It was at its breaking point!

“Keep at it, cut off and gouge out what you can, it can’t be allowed to escape!” The lord of the lands told his people as he soon was charging in and prepped for what he had to do. The Hydra once it was in range right away sent out another head to try to attack the biped that dared harm it not once by twice now only for it to seemingly throw a punch nowhere near it and hit the head coming to eat him.

Dustan smiled as his stunt worked and the head shot pasted him to the side. It’s what he waited for and gambled on. Bringing up his sword he brought it down again to remove the head of the creature and shouting out another warning about a possible growth. The warning was for naught though as instead of a roar, came a gurgle and convulsing.

The hydra soon collapsed down and was now weakly trying to fight back but each and every fighter, griffon, pony, and person, took to chopping the thing up. When it breathed its last breath there was a chorus of shouts in victory. High fives, hooves, and claws, were given around and soon the healers were checking everyone over.

Dustan slipped away as he wasn’t injured and went to go look for the Crusaders wanting to clear up why he yelled at them. Spotting them under a tree he smiled and called out to them causing Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom to wave to him, while Scootaloo slept.

As he was approaching though time seemed to slow down, something was wrong about what he was looking at, something, off that he couldn’t touch on. Each step he took time seemed to move slower and slower, the girls smiling and waving at him in return, the cheers in the background, all of it was fading from his mind. The girls started to tell him that they had just finished helping Scootaloo remove all the splinters from her body and even showed him the pile of it. This took maybe a few moments in reality but the feeling of everything going at a crawl kept up, was he poisoned? He checked his status and saw that he was fine, no status effects what so ever.

Then he looked to the pile of splinters and got a pop up message. ‘Hydra’s Claw Fragment.’ Quickly grabbing it as he felt his heart start to race, he looked over the green sliver and sure enough it looked like it belonged in a splinter pile except for its green coloration matching the one that it came from. Quickly looking over to Scootaloo caused his face to drain of all blood.

In big bold status above the girl, was the number three. ‘No.’ That status was there for those that were dead and whose soul was about to leave their body. Right away he dug out some Salve and pressed it against her hoping beyond hope that would help. Two. “Girls go get someone NOW!” Dustan shouted as he used what little Mp he had left for a Cure spell hoping again that it would help the girl. One. This left him with only one choice; he had saved these for an occasion like this but had never hoped to use them.

“Dustan what's wrong.” He heard the Crusaders call to him though he ignored it.

He was fumbling with pouches till he found the bundle he was looking for then pulled it out just as the timer was hitting zero. “PHOENIX DOWN!” The bundle of feathers started to glow then a wave of energy lashed out causing him to tumble back. As he opened his eyes groaning at being knocked back like that he noticed that where ever he was it pitch black.

“Well, this is certainly a surprise.” A voice called out to Dustan as he turned to face the figure. Said figure was cloaked in an ornately designed hooded robe with the edges being white that faded into the black that was the color of his robes. Figures, symbols, and more were all part of said design as well but whatever was under the hood couldn’t be seen, even if it was standing up on two legs and had two arms. “It has been a while since one has managed to come to entreat with me. So Dustan Warner, what is it that has brought you here to bargain with Death?”

Chapter Twenty Nine: The Price.

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My Little Tactics

Chapter Twenty Nine: The Price.

“So I have to ask and I am sure you get this a lot.” Dustan asked the cloaked figure of death itself. “By why do you look like a human?”

The figure itself seemed to chuckle some and waved its skeletal hand towards Dustan. “Because of you. I am just a representation of an universal force that exists. I am defined by the perceptions of others like yourself otherwise my form is nothing. For those that fear what I am, I am something that strikes terror into their hearts as they pass on. For those that see me as something natural that happens and welcomes it, I am a comfort like an old family member come to take them home.”

Blinking for a moment the human gave a ‘hmm’ as he thought about that. “Honestly that makes…a scary amount of sense.”

The cloaked figure soon was moving around Dustan taking a look at him. “I must admit, you are a rather unique looking specimen that I do not see when it comes to this location, in fact I do not ever recall seeing one of your kind in this universe at all. I have been told of you though, of your kind by my counterparts from other universes, but rare is it to encounter one of them to converse for very long and to be fair most of us do not care about such matters as they are trivial in the grand scheme of things.”

“Hmm well that kinda answers one of my questions I had about things, damn.” Shaking his head for a moment he looked towards Death and asked him, well rather it since it didn’t have a gender. “Why am I here though, I was trying to use a Phoenix Down and next thing I know, it’s dark around me.”

Death flowed around Dustan for a moment before extending a hand and pointing. “Look over there.” Where he was pointed, the Thief could see himself along with the body of Scootaloo with the Phoenix Down in mid glow, but just them. A spotlight was on the two of them illuminating only part of the scene where he just was otherwise it was dark. “That is your body as well as the one whom is dead that you are using that item upon.”

“Yeah, that item is called a Phoenix Down from what I know. It should have brought her back to life.” The human said confused. “Also if that is my body, what is this?” He asked gesturing to himself.

“I will answer the latter first before the first.” Death said moving back to face the darkness and away from the spotlight. “This is a representation of your soul as defined by you. Most Individuals either see themselves as a ball of light; some see themselves as a figure based on mythology or religion. Then there are those that are like you and represent themselves as themselves.”

Looking upon his hands for a moment the Lord of the Everfree merely said a single thing. “Huh.” Profound words aside the brown haired human looked upon the force of nature. “And the former question?”

Nodding and opening his cloak up, his skeletal figure was now exposed expect for his face. “That item doesn’t guarantee the filly’s return; instead all it does is give you the opportunity to bargain with me for her soul’s return. If you had used a spell, such spells tend to use up a LOT of magical energies which usually covers the price.”

“That explains it!” Dustan had last looked at the Raise category of spells and realized the numbers on them didn’t match up to his memory, instead the JP required to take them were on par with Holy and the better version even higher than that as well as the Mp costs being ridiculously high. “Raise substitute’s magic for the offering.”

“Correct. It is a taxing process to use such a spell to restore one’s soul and as such I have not seen such a thing in many of what you call years.” Death informed him before gesturing again and holding out his cloak with one arm. “So Dustan Warner, tell me: What will you give me to return this child’s soul to her body?”

Inside the cloak as if looking through a dark pane of glass that suddenly had light shine through it just right, he could see a darkened version of Scootaloo facing away from him and seemingly walking. The image was honestly both horrifying and disturbing and he was sure that it would be the subject of many nightmares to come not just about this filly, but others as well.

Shaking his head Dustan looked to the figure and asked him a question. “What is typically offered in exchange. Sorry but this is my first time doing this.”

Closing his cloak for now Death instead opened the other side and like before the cloak let visions through. “Life, souls, power, energy, and more are all things I take. Offer me what you think is right for her soul and I will tell you if it’s not enough, or too much.” The entity must have seen his shocked look and chuckled loudly causing some of its bones to clatter. “I am not an unfair or malevolent force Dustan. I give and take fairly and will not overcharge for what is exchanged unless there is no way to give only a portion.”

Dustan sank to his knees at this feeling defeated and could feel tears come to his eyes as he realized something. ‘She is so young, so much potential; the price she would have to be exchanged for is huge. I would have to offer my entire self and even then I am not sure I could cover it.’

“You misjudge things Dustan.” Suddenly looking up at Death he could see pearly white teeth inside of the hood gleam. “This is your soul, I am the one who ferries said souls and takes them to the other side, of course I can read your thoughts here.”

Standing up and wiping away his tears Dustan flung open both arms and told him. “Then take it all, bring Scootaloo back and I will give you everything I am.”

“No.” The way in which Death said it, with such finality and so quickly, felt like a crushing blow to the face for Dustan.

“I am not worth the exchange I see.” Arms falling to his side he could feel the tears spring back up to his eyes.

“You misunderstand, as do most mortals.” The images in his cloak vanished as he returned his cloak to his skeletal body. “You are worth much more then she is.”

“Wait what? Why? She has so much more potential than I do! Besides I am a worthless person who isn’t even supposed to be here!” Dustan felt a tad angry at the accusation to be fair, always thinking that mostly everyone around him was worth more than himself.

“Potential is worth nothing.” Death said as a matter of fact. “I am a force that deals with the now not the past nor the future. This is what others misunderstand as they think Death can see it all future and past, and while I can do so about the past, the future is as blank to me as anyone else.” Gesturing with his cloak once more an image of Celestia and a pink haired filly appeared on his cloak. “The filly has no current power, no influence on others, and no ability to change anything around them. Celestia is a figure of immense power, immense influence, and the ability to change so much around her. If measuring both of them side by side Celestia’s soul weighs more. She is able to shape the world NOW where as the filly might be able to shape the world someday if everything goes perfectly for her, which may never happen. Destiny changes with every choice, sometimes just the path leading up to it, and sometimes the destination itself changes with the choice, but every choice does change things.”

Dustan was trying to wrap his head around what the universal force was telling him, trying to parse the information and put it all together properly. “So you are telling me, potential means nothing and that it’s what you can do now and here that matters?”

“Yes. A foot soldier maybe able to defeat an enemy or two on the battlefield, they might beat twenty, but a General which their influence to plan and strategize can topple armies with a proper plan that comes from experience. A young filly or colt learning magic might zap someone who intrudes into their house and save their parents, a well trained magister though can fell hundreds or save hundreds right then and there. The weight of return is based on this fact, what can be done here and now by this individual, who can they influence, what can they influence, and more.” Pointing to Dustan the bone finger extended. “Your soul weighs so much more than this one’s.”

Taking those words into mind Dustan started to think of things and smiled as something came to mine. “Then what about part of my soul? Would you take that in exchange?”

Nodding and thus making a feeling of accomplishment rise in Dustan, Death spoke. “Yes I would.” But Death wasn’t done as it held up a hand. “However what you are thinking won’t work.” Dustan’s head shot up having forgotten that his thoughts were in the open here. “A soul damaged might recover over time, as do souls grow or diminish in time, but a soul damaged by me doesn’t recover. You will not ever have that part of your soul returned till either you die or make a new bargain for it to be returned.”

Trembling a bit, as he felt like he was making a deal with the devil talking about souls like this, Dustan asked the force a new question. “Ok, say you take part of my soul, what would happen to me in my body then? Would like whatever part of my soul is connected with that part rot or something?”

“No.” Feeling a sense of relief at hearing that Dustan almost wished he didn’t have it for what Death said next. “Whatever part is lost becomes numb, losing all feeling in it and no amount of magic can restore said feeling. For you Dustan, if you lose your leg in this bargain, it might hamper your ability to run and land safely as well as channel magic through your legs as once you lose feeling you won’t be able to guide your magic. It will just stop flowing past that point as your mind cannot connect how it is supposed to move to its destination.”

Hearing that, Dustan would close his eyes. “Would a limb be satisfactory to bring her back?”

“Yes. Yes it would.” Dustan knew Death was following his thoughts, he knew that this entity could see him coming to his resolve to give up a couple of dreams at this, and he knew that this force would knew it had its bargain.

Holding up his right arm, his non dominant one as Dustan was left handed he spoke. “Take my arm. Take my hope of dual wielding; take my ability to cast with this arm. If it means returning her to life then take it.”

Moving closer the skeletal hand came up and ran its finger halfway over the bicep of the human. “From here down is what I will take.”

Weirdly he expected the cold clammy touch to be what he felt, instead, he felt warmth. “I thought you conformed to expectations and visions of what you are supposed to be from someone?”

Death moved the hand from the arm to the hood of his cloak pulling it back to reveal a skull, but not a normal skull. Where the teeth looked normal, it was clear they were covered in some kind of pearlescent material that made them shine. In the eye sockets were two multifaceted gems of a shifting rainbow hue that held an inner fire inside of them. The skull itself was made of a black onyx material or obsidian that seemed to suck the light from everything around it giving the illusion of just the gemstones and teeth floating there.

“Dustan Warner, I am what you envision me as, even if your conscious mind doesn’t realize it fully.” Throwing back his cloak a ball of light flew away from his cloth and shot towards Scootaloo hovering over her body. “Your arm for her soul, everything that this arm carries, your hopes, dreams, and more will be forfeit in this bargain is this correct.”

Trembling a bit Dustan nodded. “Y-Yeah.”

Suddenly in an eerie glowing light a scythe was formed in the entity’s hands. “Then know this, pain will come from this transition as you are losing part of your soul. Bear with it.”

“A scythe really?” Dustan couldn’t help but chuckle at this.

Death seemed to chuckle with him. “It’s your iteration of me.”

With that the scythe was brought down.

He watched as the human leader had just felled the hydra with his troops they were all celebrating and he smiled as this human might indeed be worthy as he had told him he would reveal things to him after this. Slowly though the Moogle stopped as he watched the human known as Dustan run towards a small figure laying still. No life was felt within that body by the Moogle and he could feel tears threatening to come free. He watched the human struggle; apply a salve for poison, healing, everything including asking for others to be called.

In the end the Esper saw Dustan take out an object he had not seen since before his seal. ‘Is that-?’

“PHOENIX DOWN!” Yep, the human had just called out the item in question and he knew that a bargain was about to be attempted.

He knew time didn’t flow the same in the gap between this realm and the next so the instant he'd seen the item in question start to glow and send off a spiral of red that he knew it had worked. As the spiral started to spark to finish its usage instantly the filly gasped and drew breath once more. The opposite could be said of the human who let out all the air of his lungs and fell to the side clutching his right arm as his scream instantly seemed to make his throat hoarse. What was more the Moogle had felt the disturbance the resurrection had caused as it flowed against the natural forces typically in place.

The Moogle wasn’t the only one as three pops sounded off, once for teach teleport. “WHAT IS GOING ON HERE!” Came an incredibly loud voice from a midnight blue Alicorn that the Moogle recognized as the rumored Lunar Princess.

“Auntie look!” The second voice was from a smaller Alicorn mare whose mane didn’t wave or shimmer like the other two. “It’s Dustan!”

Moving towards the fallen figure with the blue and pink Alicorns did the tallest peer down and nod as the various pastel colored parts of her mane flowed. “Indeed, we need to get him and the filly back to the castle at once.”

The Moogle’s eyes widened at that and he ran over. “Hold on, I need to talk with him as well Kupo.”

All three eyes were on him now as the smallest one looked at him. “While he is adorable what is he?”

The blue one took the lead and glared at him. “I know what it is, and we should bring it with us to ask it questions.”

The tallest one looked at the various figures around and spoke to them. “We need to take these three back with us, please return home and…is that a Hydra?” Shaking her head for a moment she continued. “For now we need to focus on other matters. If somepony would write and give it to Twilight Sparkle as soon as possible to give to us, we would very much appreciate it.” With that the horns of all three Alicorn started to glow before the Moogle felt all of them start to be moved through space.

The last thing he remembered was pain, horrible mind numbing pain. Slowly getting up Dustan found he couldn’t move at all or at least not very far as he was strapped down to a bed. Nothing was in his mouth or throat so while he figured he was in the hospital, judging from the beeps and such as well as the white ceiling, it had not been for long.

“Hel-” the instant he tried to speak though did he start coughing at the pain.

The coughing must have alerted a nurse or doctor as a few figures he didn’t recognize instantly came into the room to check him out. One of them eventually levitated a glass of liquid with a straw to him instructing him to drink. Whatever it was wasn’t water though it was a bit thicker and much more soothing to his throat. Instantly though one of them vanished in a teleport somewhere as the others started to read off the instruments and do various tests on him. Touching all his toes, touching all of the fingers of his left hand, shining lights in his eyes, the whole nine yards and more did the doctors and nurses test him on.

“Still no reaction from his right forelimb.” The individual called out.

For a moment Dustan panicked at hearing that and looked over to see them poking and prodding along his arm till right around the middle of his bicep did he flinch instinctively from the prick. “Right here seems to be where sensation returns to the subject, mark it please.”

Levitating a marker over the instant it touched his arm did the memory of that warm touch come back to him, as well as all that was involved in it. ‘Oh…right.’ Suddenly though his eyes went wide and he tried to sit up. “What about Scootaloo, the orange pegasus filly, is she alright?” He was ignored though as the medical professionals continued tests and marking him, which naturally raised his ire pretty quickly. “Hey listen to me, where is the filly, is she alright?”

Still nothing and instantly was his anger flared, in his mind he called for Monk and felt himself change jobs. Tugging hard the strap broke rather easily to his surprise and he lifted up causing all the doctors to suddenly take notice. They all backed up instantly as he started to undo the straps looking rather pissed at them all.

“Subdue him!” One of them called and another shoot a bolt of something at him that started to make him feel tired.

‘Fuck this.’ Dustan thought as he started to struggle to stay awake before using his magic quickly. “Esuna!” The ball of light circled his head before the curtain rose and instantly he felt the sleepiness vanish from his body. “Don’t do that again, GOT IT?” He put enough effort into his gruff sounding voice to make them all flinch. “Also you shouldn’t ignore patients, makes you all seem like fuck ups who don’t care about their well being at all, which I am hoping you all do care.” Standing up a bit wobbly he stretched and looked down. “Oh for fu-where are my clothes?”

A nurse quickly brought him the stuff, which looked cleaned of all the hydra blood on it thankfully. He had just put his shirt on when three pops came and three Alicorns appeared before him. While the first two of the sun and moon weren’t too much of a shock to him, finding lovebutt herself here did make him curious.

Before he could ask though Celestia spoke up. “We will take this from here, thank you all for your effort.” Before she lit up her horn and suddenly he felt himself being moved somewhere.

Said somewhere was a rather large room with a huge bed and-“Oh this is the room I was staying in last time I was here.” He called out as he landed on said mattress.

The three Princesses were standing before him now though Luna went to the door and left for a moment before coming back. “Indeed Dustan, and though we would very much like to be concerned for your health, we must first ask a few other questions.”

Nodding his head Dustan stretched a bit feeling his muscles protest moving like this after not doing so for a bit. “I have a few of my own as well.”

“We all imagined that you might, but we have need of our own questions to be answered first as they are important.” The tone of Celestia right away put him on edge as she was beyond serious.

“Ok then, go ahead.” Moving to fix his pillows to lean against them, he made himself comfortable.

The horns of the rulers all started to glow for a moment and they were silent, though their facial expressions changed just enough to make him think something was going on. “Dustan.” I was Luna who spoke first. “My sister, Cadance, and I noticed something two days ago, when you were brought in. On the ground were you, whom were screaming out of his mind with pain, a filly whom seemed to be gasping for breath, and an Eidolon in the shape of a white furry creature. While this wasn’t what called us there we still wish to know what was going on.”

“The creature is called a Moogle and he came to inform me of a hydra that has been disturbing the Everfree.” Dustan went on to describe how for a while now creatures of the Everfree were going beyond their normal territories to the point where they would ignore the herbs that kept them away and started to threaten things because of this. He told them of the Moogle having discovered the hydra which was the cause of the issue and of the fight with said hydra, though he got a curious look from them when he mentioned the numbers involved. He ignored it for now and explained the final bit he could remember. “So I am going to apologize to the girls for how rude I was in the moment and I notice the pegasus filly not moving…or breathing. She was dead. I thought I could erase the poison and heal her and it would bring her back but…it didn’t. So I used a trump card of mine, an item which would allow me to bring the dead back to life if they had expired only moments ago and can only be used in a VERY small window of opportunity.”

“I see, but that item didn’t work as you expected it did it?” Luna said in a way that told him that she knew more but didn’t want to say.

Nodding he simply said. “Yeah.” Leaning back on the pillows he sighed and raised up his right arm. “Instead because it’s only an item, it allows one to converse with and thus bargain with the entity that represents the force of death.” The gasps of the youngest princess let him know that she had no clue what had happened unlike the oldest of the three. “While there I had a conversation with Death itself on a lot of different meanings and what a soul is worth and more. In the end, since my soul is worth more than a filly’s soul I could give up part of mine to return her to life.”

“Your arm.” Celestia spoke with conviction.

Nodding and chuckling. “Small price to pay to give a girl a chance for life.” Bringing up the arm in question Dustan looked at it and sighed. “I cannot feel anything from this arm, I cannot use magic through it either, so it is just a step up from being useless. It sucks that I can’t use it properly anymore but again it was worth it.”

A bit of color out of the corner of his eyes made him catch the three doing…whatever they were doing again and it seems Cadance wasn’t happy about it at all as she had tears in her eyes and stomped her hoof a few times before speaking up. “I need to go.”

With that she left and Dustan merely looked at the other princesses in the room. “She is understandably upset, she has not encountered disruptions to the natural flow of things before and though it is rare my sister and I have read up on such occurrences happening before.” Luna looked back at him and continued. “Though we admit, the last time we even felt something like this was before our banishment and our sister can confirm that not a single incident like this has occurred in over twelve hundred years. Two hundred years before our own banishment so Equestria has not seen or felt it’s like for enough time for such magic to become myth and legend.”

The herald of the sun stretched for a moment before looking at Dustan. “We are grateful you would go to such lengths for foals like you have, but I am understandably upset that you had to do so in the first place.”

“No kidding. They honestly shouldn’t have been there in the first place and I had no clue they were there until they rushed in like they had. Which by that point it was a bit too late.” Dustan was a bit focused on his arm and how it felt as he touched it with his left to notice the looks shared between the two princesses.

“That isn’t what I meant Dustan.” Looking up from his arms the human noticed both of the pony princesses looking rather seriously and worriedly at him. “You seem to think your life is less than those around you.” He started to open his mouth but right away got cut off with a glare and a stern voice. “If you were about to say something along the lines of ‘they are worth more’ then you best keep your opinion to yourself.”

When he clamped his mouth shut caused both of them to wince slightly at the action. “Dustan, neither my sister nor I knows the cause of such an opinion of yourself but you may wish to see somepony about it. It is not healthy; take it from somepony who knows self loathing on a first name basis.”

Taking a seat next to him on either side of the bed both of the large ponies looked at him but it was Celestia who spoke. “As much as I wish to explore your mind some with conversation to find the root of such a problem we have other matters to discuss, two very important issues.”

“Though one is less important than the other.” Luna jumped in causing him to look at them curiously now.

“The first issue is the creature that came in with you.” When he tilted his head Celestia used her magic to conjure a simple image of what he recognized. “This creature, do you recognize it?”

“Oh yeah, the Moogle.” That seemed to surprise both of them. “Like I said the Moogle is who let me know about the hydra.”

“You truly can communicate with it?” Nodding and sighing rubbing her temples some Celestia asked him. “Do you know its nature as an Eidolon?”

“Yeah, does that matter?” The line of questioning was starting to bother him as it had his spidey-sense tingling.

Luna would take over seeing her sister being over taken by the stress. “Lately phenomena that we believe relates to various Eidolon emergences are happening all over. This is due to a seal formed by ancient unicorns sealing them away as well as other creatures with magic. We believe it is also the reason new species like that Malboro you encountered in Manehatten have been appearing.”

Dustan looked startled at this. “So you are saying they were here long ago?” Seeing both of them nodding the human actually felt a bit of a weight come off his shoulders. ‘Haha, so it’s not my fault that they are here. However, that means this isn’t the main timeline of the show, definitely not with me in it.’ Then what she said fully played through his head. “Wait, other Eidolon?” Seeing them nod had him start to have a cold sweat knowing what some of them could do. “What kind of phenomena has been happening?”

Celestia would look to be a bit better now as she picked herself back up and put herself into the conversation. “Scorched areas reduced to ash, frozen ones where nothing can survive for long, areas flooded in a matter of moments, erratic lightning storms coming from nowhere, and more.”

‘If I was a betting man and if they coincide with tactics then that would mean Ifrit, Shiva, Leviathan, and Ramah for the ones they named.’ Looking up to the sisters again he started to stand. “I think I need to go to those places. They are dangerous and if they are what you said they are Esper incursions then I might be one of the only people to have any knowledge of them.”

The sisters looked towards one another and nodded. “To be honest, we were going to ask you for your assistance as it were. I have sent some scouting teams to go and check the areas out but they wouldn’t have arrived at some of them yet so we have yet to really gather much information.”

“Either I or Celestia will call you to the castle when we have more information and discover if possible the identity of those behind it.” The princess of the night said before leaning forward, her horn glowing. “That being said, if you do travel to the places where they are happening, your fame may not get others to cooperate with you. If that is the case I am placing a special spell seal upon you.”

Blinking as a glyph suddenly appeared on his chest right below his collar bone. “A what?”

“Spell seal.” The large white Alicorn told him. “It’s a type of delayed spell no longer really practiced as it requires a tremendous amount of power from one’s own reserves to accomplish. What it does is store a spell in the body or object it is placed on and will trigger when one speaks the specific phrase.”

“Which is ‘Mutatio’ good Dustan.” Luna said still inscribing said seal. “This is a polymorph spell. It will trigger when you speak that, do a scan of the area around you then will take in account the species around you and find one that best fits you. The spell does lean towards the most popular species in the area before actual compatibility though so keep that in mind.”

“So if I can’t get answers out of people I use this, it changes me and I blend in?” Celestia gave him the confirmation on that and he chuckled. “Neat.” As he said that, the dark princess was finished and smiled. “So that is it, where is it?”

Grinning and chuckling, Luna spoke with a tone that one that was stating a fact would use. “Spell seals never show up till they are activated or when they are being enchanted onto the object or pony in question.”

“I assume that was the important subject right?” Getting a nod from them both it was time for him to throw some questions out. “Then before we get to the less important subject, mind if I ask what happened with Scootaloo?”

The princesses looked pleased at this and the older of the two spoke. “She is fine, was a tad shaken up but didn’t know what had happened to her. She was told she got a concussion and that when you went to heal her you succeeded but you had some venom from the hydra in you so you started to react right after that.”

‘Yeah I can see where others would buy that.’ Looking towards them again he gestured to them. “Sorry about that, didn’t mean to interrupt but it was important to me.”

“Understandable.” Luna nodded with her response. “And now for the lesser subject.” Horn set to glow a letter popped into existence. “This was to be sent through Twilight when your fight happened but it had to wait.”

Taking said letter he was going to set it aside but seeing the looks on their faces he opened it up to read. “Dear Dustan Warner, Lord of the Everfree, Ruler of Luminary Castle, Freer of Others, Hero of Manehatten, and Dueler of Discord.” Looking up at them he chuckled. “That is a lot of titles, are they all actually titles or ones that you made up to butter me up.” When they both simply blinked and tilted their heads Dustan’s eyes went wide. “Holy shit those are all real? Why do I have nearly as many titles as I do letters in my first name?”

“You have earned them all Dustan.” The Princess of the Sun told him.

Only to have the Princess of the Moon speak up right after. “Also you have as many as the letters in your name. That letter doesn’t speak of your new title, Hydra Hunter.”

The human gave a face-palm as his response making both of the older Alicorns chuckle at that before he got back to reading the letter. “This letter is being sent in regards to the force you have been building up and training at your castle. Some nobles wish to see if the force you are training is adequate for defense of your territory. So in response to this we humbly request you to bring up to sixteen members of your forces to represent yourself, of which you may include yourself. You will be in a mock battle at Canterlot on a date to be announced and are to show your skills off to the city of Canterlot as well as esteemed guests. Your opponents will be consisting of Shining Armor: Captain of the Royal Guard, Captain Regal Gloom: Captain of the Night Guard, and finally Noble Aurora: Captain of the Day Guard with a hoofful of hoof picked guards at their command to fill out their forces.”

Taking a moment to reread everything must have worried the Princesses as the midnight blue pony spoke up. “Is everything ok?”

“Yeah just…is this cause of the whole Logistics deal?” Seems the pony princesses were good at having poker faces but their ears, a quick twitch of them wanting to lay back said otherwise. “I see. Let me ask this in a different way. If the nobles had not ask for it, would this still have happened?”

That question brought a smile to their faces. “Of course. Especially in light of the numbers you brought to the fight with the hydra.”

Hearing Luna’s words gave rise to a sense of confusion. “Huh?”

The smile on the princess’ face slowly withered before she looked shocked. “Do you know how many guards it would have taken normally minus captains to take on a hydra that big?” When Dustan shook his head the Dream Princess looked even more shocked as did Celestia. “Dustan. You had a force of twenty four including yourself. Twenty seven if you include the three fillies. Minus captains it would have taken nearly four times that amount from the Canterlot Guard to do what you did.”

“I personally would say more sister.” Gestured Celestia with her hoof as she spoke up. “You are forgetting that minus the filly his proper forces suffered no casualties. Our forces with the number you would have provided at the very least would have suffered a ten percent loss rate in that. For an assured victory with the absolute minimal of losses I would have suggested five times the attack force Dustan brought.”

Dustan was rather amazed at this information even as the sisters continued back and forth stating different factors of terrain experience, types of troops and more that altered the numbers, suffice to say they concluded and went in the middle of their original estimate of four to five to four point five times the attack force: A whooping one hundred and eight total troops to do what he and his twenty four did.

“I will not lie Lord Warner.” Luna called to him with his title. “I have been investigating some of the dreams of your guard before my sister or I thought of this competition. What was presented always left us confused and thought that it might be exaggeration on what they were doing. I have changed my mind and now think that the actual training is much more intensive then what is presented in said dreams. If this is true then it’s possible you with your forces, of which only half of the male forces were present during your fight, could likely storm Canterlot castle with those numbers alone and take it over if I or my sister were not here and what is more is that it wouldn’t even be a proper battle but a slaughter at the disparity between the guards.”

Standing up a cat like stretch came from the Solar Princess as she looked to her sister. “Sadly sister, we need to leave.”

“Of course, so much is still needed to be done cause of the phenomena. We need to-” A knock interrupted the younger sister before the door opened and a round face was looking in.

“I hope you don’t mind me coming in Kupo. I heard Dustan was awake Kupo.” The Moogle slowly came in as he spoke.

Smiling and moving to pat it on its head, to which it didn’t seem to mind at all Celestia started to head to the door. “Not at all, but me and my sister were about to leave.”

“Actually Kupo.” The Moogle called out to her. “Can you stay just for a moment Kupo? I need to do something really quickly with Dustan then I hope you don’t mind if I ask you to teleport me back to the forest seeing as it’s my home Kupo.”

This must have intrigued both of them as the door was soon shut and Celestia and Luna shared a look that said plainly for anyone to see. ‘We want to see where this is going.’ The night co-ruler gestured a hoof to him. “Go ahead, and since it is your home that we took you from we will gladly return you.”

Giving a small bow with its hand stubs, in front of it, the Moogle smiled. “Thank you Kupo.” The white fluff ball then turned towards Dustan. “Do you mind if you stand up and come to the center of the room Kupo?”

“Sure, no problem.” Was the simple response from the human as he got up and went to stand in front of the Moogle, but then decided to lean down to be closer to eye level. “Here this might be easier for you.”

That only made the Moogle smile more. “It actually does Kupo.” Taking a deep breath the Moogle paused before a glyph suddenly formed under it and four glowing green balls came into existence, each holding a burning crimson flame. “I hereby request a compact with the human known as Dustan Warner Kupo. Upon completion of this compact I will come to aid him when called as he has proven himself worthy of such, I will also relinquish my name upon him and though he may speak it, others will not be able to understand the name he shouts and instead only interpret it as my species name Kupo.” The Moogle started to bring his right hand forward only to quickly look towards Dustan and switch hands. “Do you accept this compact Kupo?”

Dustan was honestly floored at this as if this meant what he thought, garnering the summoning spells were something MUCH harder than in the game. “I accept and will promise that I will try to honor our compact as best as possible.”

Clasping hands the Moogle smiled as his pom pom bounced. “The compact is complete Kupo. My name is Mogri Kupo.”

The glowing green balls then started to spin around the two faster and faster till they vanished as did the glyph below. ‘Mogri, really? That was the name of the mistranslation of Moogle haha.’ Dustan smiled and told his new ally what he was feeling. “I will try to be the best Summoner I can be for you.”

That made Mogri grin hearing that. “You even know the title of those that made pacts with us Kupo. Color me impressed Kupo.”

“As am I.” Turning to his right, he had honestly forgot about the princesses in the moment. “We didn’t think it was possible to do such a thing with an Eidolon.”

Mogri gave a nod as he turned to face them. “It is, though each Esper has its own requirements for completion, the most common way though is prove your strength though Kupo. You also have to be able to communicate with them and have the proper magic inside Kupo. You two, as princesses, meet two of the three requirements but you lack the proper type of magic Kupo. Dustan here has all three though Kupo. That isn’t to say he is stronger then you both though, let me make that clear Kupo. Dustan just has the required strength to do so, not your overwhelming amount Kupo.”

That brought the thinking faces to settle on both of them before it was quickly removed as Celestia smiled. “Thank you for letting us witness your ritual as well as the information you have given us. My sister and I will send you home now if that is your wish.”

“It is Kupo.” The Esper told them before he watched both of them light up their horns.

“Actually…could you wait a moment longer?” Dustan said sheepishly. “I mean as long as you are sending people home to the forest, I could use that ride once I get all my gear collected.”

This caused both of the princesses and the Moogle to burst out laughing.

Author's Notes:

Hmm was that a satisfying conclusion to last chapter's cliffhanger, I am not sure. What could this mean? Am I losing my touch for the epic cliffhangers?! That can't stand! PINKIE!

Pinkie Pie: "Yes sir?" she said with a salute.

Start making a pot of coffee, I have writing to do.

Pinkie Pie: "But sir you don't like coffee."

You're right, make it hot chocolate so we both can enjoy.

Pinkie Pie: "Okie Doki Loki, will get on it right away sir." before she vanished to where ever the kitchen was.

Also on an important note, sorry this chapter took so long to get to you all. I have been really busy irl, stressed, among other things and as such haven't really had all that much time to sit down and relax period let alone to get into the state of mind to write let alone. For that I apologize and I hope to start getting chapters out once again more often.

Chapter Thirty: Day of Birth.

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My Little Tactics

Chapter Thirty: Day of Birth.

“Here you go as requested lad.” The grizzled old smith said as he handed over the piece of equipment to the Lord of the castle.

Merlene was puzzled by the equipment as well so she had to speak up. “I am puzzled by this request my Lord, why do you suddenly want a shield?”

Dustan chuckled as he looked at the blue colored shield with gold trim. “It’s a buckler and I have often noticed while I fight I leave my right side open with me rarely casting spells from that side. I thought I would try to focus all my offensive capabilities to my left and use the shield on my right to cover me.” Strapping on the buckler he then wiggled his fingers and smiled. “Plus this keeps my hand free just in case.”

Merlene pondered this for a good bit before nodding. “Though this means you will need to train for its use since its weight isn’t something you are used to.”

Dustan gave a mental sigh of relief as she accepted his rationality. “Yeah, I am sure you will help me with that.” The human told her with a laugh which she joined in on.

It had been two weeks since his awakening after bargaining with death and since then he had been visited by Mogri to be checked in on once, and had gotten a letter from the princesses informing him that his stunt with the personification of death was not to be made public no matter what, of which he was one hundred and ten percent fine with. Luna also pitched in a letter of her own giving him more specifics of his new little gift of hers in that all the magic was already there and cast but just needed the final word to work, meaning nothing could prevent or stop its activation once he spoke the word. Since returning he had been working on a few personal projects, one of which he finally finished though the smith worried about him the whole rest of the way as he kept smashing the thumb of his hand having to heal it. Getting used to not being able to feel his right arm was…taxing to say the least but after a couple of days of waking up to bloody sheets and having to explain to one of the hired maids of the castle, approved by Faithful of course, as to why they shouldn’t freak out as he forgot about a minor cut when heading to bed and asking for their forgiveness in the extra work did he learn to check once when getting up and once when going to bed on his arm at the very least.

The buckler he was currently now strapped with was more of an attempt to disguise his new infirmity than anything else. When moving the shield arm to do anything, the unusual reaction time not normally seen in his movements could be explained away as him getting used to its weight. Dustan not casting with his right arm anymore was also him ‘rebalancing’ his fighting style as well. Now this wasn’t to say that he wasn’t going to try to use the shield as intended but it was still mostly for cover, for now. Moreover most of his troops had no time to spare to pay attention to him as when he informed them that Celestia and Luna had narrowed down a date for a little tournament to show off the castle’s training they all pushed themselves to a new level. Oh they pushed and pushed so well that he was proud to say that every single one of his guard could now use Salve or Potion and were all Squires and Chemists now.

Hearing a couple of children running around the castle as well making him chuckle reminded him that it was just his guard that were coming to find skills. Since the Crusaders showed off one day at school for show and tell, did Cheerilee come ask him if he would consider opening up classes for any foal showing interest to which he gladly did. Nearly the whole class had come with a few small expectations being Snips and Snails as well as Diamond Tiara whom was mad that Silver Spoon also opted in for classes. Said friend explained that it was her father’s idea to learn the new skills as no other place in Equestria had these skills and could be used for a good bargaining bit later in life. Whether that was true or not remained to be seen but regardless soon after hearing that Diamond also joined the classes.

Because of the weak amount of magic all the foals gave off and lack of proper understanding of Harmonic magic, it was much easier for them to grasp and learn the abilities then others and as such the whole class had acquired a Job in the week it has been since they had joined the castle for lessons. Considering that the classes for them were only held on weekends effectively meant it took days instead of the weeks and weeks that the adults had to do to acquire said Jobs. That being said most of the foals he noticed, didn’t have unique Jobs and instead were either defaulted to ‘Student’ at first but changed to the name of the Job they had acquired at the castle.

Because of this Dustan had been prompted to take a mental note of all unique Jobs he came across and now had kept his Tactical Eye up all the time. There were the Cutie Mark Crusaders with their unique Job, Celestia and Luna he remembered having their Princess Jobs. The new ones he found since opening up his eye all the time though was from the Mane Six, each one having a unique Job all their own. Twilight had the Job of ‘Student of Friendship’ which was understandable; Rarity had the ‘Fashionista’ Job which he felt was too on the nose for her class, however if hers was on the nose then the others were being repeatedly booped on the snoot. Rainbow Dash zipped around with the Job of ‘Speedster’, ‘Caretaker’ was what was given to Fluttershy, ‘Farmhoof’ was proudly displayed for Applejack, and while he was happy that Pinkie Pie got the ‘Pink Party Pony’ Job, Dustan was also disappointed that it wasn’t ‘breaker of reality’ or something along those lines.

“Sadly though, I have to get a rain check on training for today Merlene.” When his griffon body guard tilted her head curiously he chuckled as he was reminded of pet birds in a pet store when she did that. “I was invited to Twilight’s birthday so I am going to go personally deliver my gift and spend the day with them at Canterlot.”

“Why Canterlot and not here?” The falcon looking griffon asked as she tilted her head the other way now.

‘Sweet and Elite is why.’ He thought for a moment before telling her simply. “Apparently while at the castle Rarity’s pet caught ill and they couldn’t make it back. So we are all heading up there instead so the girls can be together. I told them that if they just wanted it to be a girl’s day I didn’t mind but they insisted I come so…yeah.”

“Fluttershy looked sad when you said no didn’t she?” His guard said with a knowing giggle.

Shaking his head the former Thief, now Squire, looked at her and told her. “It wasn’t her, it was Pinkie. Have you seen a sad Pinkie? You can’t say no to that face, it’s impossible and you will do anything in your power to make that sadness go away. That level of manipulative power should be banned as mind control magic I swear.” The latter addition to that sentence caused both of them to burst out laughing after a moment as slowly Dustan took off the shield and put it in his bag.

He was wearing casual clothing today, none of his armor and only his Coral Sword at his side. “Sadly I cannot go with you today my Lord since it’s the weekend. The foals are here to learn and someone has to keep them in line so they don’t wonder into places like the basement. Speaking of, that is almost done in its construction, most of the underground has been explored and catalogued now including all the items found, most of which are in the process of restoration except for the Harmonium weapons which only you can touch at the moment.”

“I really need to get on that but been putting it off more and more lately.” Sighing loudly the human shrugged and chuckled. “But it’s not getting done today either so can’t really help that.” Looking towards the clock he shouldered his pack. “Anyways I am meeting the girl’s at the train station, I should return tomorrow. The day after at the latest.”

“Safe travels my Lord.” She waved him off which he returned as he traveled the forest. To be honest Dustan wasn’t even on guard anymore in the forest. Since the defeat of the hydra, the biggest apex predator in the forest all the creatures fear of it, transferred to the castle and they stayed away from this part of the woods now. There was still the occasional interloper but that was now the exception rather than the standard. He knew all this as Mogri had talked to some of the forest inhabitants and conveyed the message and while the herbs were still in place he could honestly say that this part of the forest had been successfully tamed.

Speaking of herbs, Zecora had managed to replicate more and more of the Final Fantasy style remedies not only because of her study of the Remedy plant he had given her but because of her own progress in the Chemist Job. Strangely it was her and the Crusaders who were making the most progress in their Jobs, Zecora even stating she seen the Statues of Black and White mage appear but they had not yet accepted her, likewise Scootaloo claims she seen Knight and Archer. Even further was that Zecora could interact with the statues of her jobs without dreaming, confirming what Dustan had thought in that it was a state of mind deal and that the zebra had a temperament and personality shaped by her shaman training to interact with it perfectly from the start. Lucky her.

“Hey Dusty, you are the second one to arrive!” Pinkie called out to him as she spotted him approaching the train station. “I can’t wait to throw Twilight the best birthday party ever at Canterlot, what about you?”

“I am sure it will be without a doubt interesting and rememberable Pinkie.” He gave her a nice pat on the head causing her mane to get smoothed under his hand before pushing it away as resisted being compressed like that.

The party pony looked at him curiously and had to ask. “Why are you bringing your sword?”

“Instead of answering you straight out, let me ask you a question instead.” The human smiled as he sat down on a bench nearby. “Is there some kind of supplies or item you carry with you always that if you forgot or didn’t have with you that would make things feel off or different for you?”

“Oh of course.” Pulling out a small cannon she grinned. “My party cannon. If I didn’t have that with me I wouldn’t feel right at…ooooooooooh.”

“Yeah, for me it’s the same Pinkie.” He told her tapping the scabbard at his side. “Without something on my hip I feel off.” Closing his eyes for a moment and sighing he leaned back on the pony sized bench as much as it would allow him. ‘You would think that coming to a peaceful world like this, being always armed would make me feel uncomfortable, but time and experience have caused me to do the opposite and feel more comfortable with steel by my side, or…whatever the Coral Sword is made of. Actually that is a good question: ‘What is it made of?’.’

Pinkie must have felt him thinking to himself as she didn’t disturb him at all while he did so. Eventually though his thoughts were broken as he heard the others gathering, the first being Rainbow Dash showing off how fast she got there only to see she had been beaten by two others causing her to let out an adorable ‘darn’. Applejack was the next who was walking with Fluttershy as it seems both of them met on the way there as Applejack needed to do some things on the farm and likewise Fluttershy had to make sure her animals were ok. The last to join them was Twilight, and in a Twilight move she claimed that she got there right when they were scheduled to meet and not a second too late.

“I can’t wait to see Rarity; hopefully Opal will be ok by herself even if she is sick. I wouldn’t want to have to leave Rarity alone taking care of her.” The magic mare told them all as she bounced around excitedly but would look worried when thinking of the under the weather feline.

Dustan knew the truth though and choose to keep quiet even as Fluttershy spoke up. “Well I have with me several remedies that might help the poor thing.”

“I hope so, it’s not fun being sick, you can’t do anything.” Rainbow whined while she hovered, and this was something that Dustan couldn’t resist.

“So basically ninety percent of your work day where you nap in the clouds?” He said it with a straight face to her in hopes she would take him seriously.

She did. “Yep just like that.” Tic, tic, tic, DING. “Hey!” With her realizing what it was that was said he started to grin. “I nap cause I choose to!”

“So just like Opal.” Looking to the others he asked them a question. “Anyone else picturing Rainbow Dash as either a cat, or with cat ears and a fluffy tail?” They all nodded at that. “Weirdly fitting isn’t it?”

All the girls giggled loudly as he chuckled, though Dash looked a tad upset as she crossed her hooves in front of her. “I am nothing like a cat, I am at least ten p-” Her words faltered as Dustan reached up and gave her a scratch behind her ear causing her hovering to slow till she landed and leaned into the scratches. “Oh that feels great.”

“See, cat-like.” They all laughed at that and honestly Dustan fully expected some kind of retaliation from the Speedster.

He was mistaken as the pegasus just leaned in more to the scratches. “Don’t care. Keep that up, in fact a little to the left.”

Looking to the other girls he asked, though he did keep scratching. “Is this a normal pony thing?”

“Well, technically I don’t think it’s ever been studied since most species with digits like you end with claws.” Twilight informed him while rubbing her chin in thought.

“Oh, oh, me next!” The bubblegum colored pony called out as she was now pronking next to him.

Well he had two hands so he didn’t see the harm of splitting up the attention between the two. So using that free hand he reached over and carefully timed his movement to the bounces that Pinkie gave and as he started she froze in mid-air and looked happy suddenly as she slowly floated back to the ground, one of her hind legs going crazy and twitching.

She got a dopey grin on her face and her tongue was hanging out. “Oh yeah, that is the spot.”

“No offense sugar cube, but keep those grabbers away from me. Ah don’t want to end up like those two.” The farm pony told him as she looked at the display with a mix of emotions that he couldn’t place as they were mixed too well.

Fluttershy however was of the opposite opinion and not for the reason one would expect. “I wouldn’t mind trying that one time later, it might help me understand better ways to scratch Angel bunny.” Or maybe the exact reason one would expect.

Twilight had some notes being taken as she spoke out loud. “I wonder if there are any other places you could scratch or rub that would elicit similar responses or different ones.”

Luckily he wouldn’t have to respond to Twilight asking him to molest ponies for science as the call for boarding was sent out. When he pulled his hands away both ponies tried to follow them for a moment with Pinkie snapping out of it first and looking at his hand with a pout. Dash on the other hand came out looking confused as if she had forgotten where they were then suddenly lost for some reason before weirdly walking with the girls instead of hovering like normally.

Sadly they had one of the slower trains, ones that were phased out as newer models were being produced and thus it would take a couple of hours to get to Canterlot. Because they were six they had two rooms they decided to go three to a cabin, Applejack, Twilight, and Pinkie in one with Dustan, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy in the other. In the room after they stored their bags away Fast Blue and Butter Cream took one side and he was allowed to stretch out on the other. Since this was one of the last one being phased out it was a luxury room which catered to many races allowing Dustan to actually enjoy a cushion on a train for once.

Lying down on the seat he yawned and told the girls. “I think I am going to take a nap, it’s going to be a bit before we get there after all.”

“That sounds nice actually. I had to get up early to make sure all my animals were taken care of so I didn’t get to sleep as long as I wanted to.” Fluttershy told them both as she stretched out on her seat as well.

“Yeah, sure.” Was the response that the flyer gave to her fellow pegasus.

They had all settled in and about fifteen or so minutes had passed, before Dustan woke up slightly from his nap to the poke of a hoof. “Huh, what?”

The one who disturbed his nap so soon was in fact Rainbow Dash as she looked at him sheepishly. “Look um…could you…” She made a motion with her hoof to her ear before he chuckled as she gave a rather adorable looking blush. “Look it feels nice and will help me sleep.”

Dustan while nice had gotten his nap interrupted so his filter for things was a bit down, so what he said might have sounded rude normally. “Look Dash, I am trying to nap as well and I am comfortable for once on a train. I am not getting up to go scratch you over there so you can nap and there isn’t space for you to lie next to me. Sadly you are going to have to either go back and try normally or climb up and lay on me.”

He closed his eyes thinking that would be the end of it, only to hear the flap of wings a moment later and feel a surprisingly light weight settle atop of him. “Fine, whatever, just get to scratching ok?”

It took a moment for Dustan’s brain to register what was happening and report it to him. ‘Sir, we have an adorable looking pegasus asking for our hands while laying on us, should we alert the rest of the body?’

The fictional commander of Dustan’s brain responded heroically with a shake of his head. ‘No soldier, this is strictly platonic, arm hands and get targeting online asap!’

Snapping to attention the soldier called out. ‘Yes sir!’ before he scrambled away.

The commander meanwhile muttered to himself. ‘Besides, she is just our friend.’

Reality came rushing back in as Dustan’s thought process finally caught up and he reached up to the rather adorable pony laying on him and started to scratch her ears. “Oh yeah, that feels so nice that it alone beats a cloud bed.”

It took about ten minutes but it seemed she wasn’t lying to him as he heard her soft breathing as she fell asleep. Trying to think of a way to get her back to her side failed and it ended up with him just shrugging and resuming his nap with her atop of him on his chest.

Twilight awoke from a nap a bit early thanks to an alarm spell she had placed next to her and attuned to her so only she could hear it that woke her up when they were just fifteen minutes from Canterlot. Getting up and stretching she found both of her friends still sleeping and while she would have loved to let Pinkie and Applejack sleep in some more she didn’t want them to have to rush and forget their saddlebags or anything.

“Girl’s get up. We are almost there.” She called out gently but with just enough force behind her voice so that they wouldn’t ignore it. Pinkie Pie got up first, or rather half of her did as she plopped out of her seat with her hind legs moving but her front half still asleep. The cowpony of the group got up rather easily having been used to having to do so to take care of something on the farm when it was needed.

Applejack must have seen the magister’s look of bewilderment when looking at their friend as she chimed up. “Ah got her, you go get the others up if they decided they wanted a nap too.”

“R-right.” Twilight so badly wanted to document what she was seeing. Was this a form of automated physiological responses or was it sleep walking? There was also another possibility of this just being Pinkie and when that thought crossed her mind her muzzle immediately scrunched up as she put the thoughts out of mind as she went to the other cabin. Opening the door quietly in case they were sleeping Twilight right away shut the door barely keeping a squeal of joy from escaping before running back. “Girls, wake up. I need to show you something but keep quiet.”

“What has got you all worked up?” The farm pony asked raising an eyebrow as she adjusted her hat.

By this point Pinkie had also woken up and was surprisingly fixing her hair with various tools to give it the volume it was known for. “Oh? Is it a big cake for all of us?”

The lavender mare said nothing just grinning and giving them a shushing motion and then waving them to follow. This had both of the friends curious as to what was going on so they followed quickly and silently. When they got to the room they all got to see a sight that they thought was rather adorable.

“You know, I always thought she was friendly with Dusty. Though I didn’t think she was THAT friendly.” The pink party pony mused happily.

The Element of Honesty chimed in with a grin of her own. “Ah suppose she could do a lot worse. That filly has learned a good few lessons from that buckaroo.”

“They are so cute together!” Squealed the leader of the Elements herself which ended up causing the three in the cabin to wake up.

The first to wake up was Fluttershy who looked first to her friends then the other side of the cabin before giving her thoughts on the matter. “Awww~.”

Simple and sweet for sure but the next up was mare that was the subject of the discussion who rose up and stretched. “Hey girls what is going…on?” Seeing the looks on their faces she looked around and though not seeing anything she had a sneaking suspicions that the instant she figured it out she would regret whatever it was they had caught her doing.

“You know, when you are laying down you aren’t so heavy.” Dustan called out from under her making her realize finally where she was and starting to blush up a storm. “But standing on four hooves like that does tend to make me rethink things.”

Right away she jumped off him stammering replies such as the one anypony would expect was the whole ‘It’s not what it looks like’ and of course that just made Applejack grin, Fluttershy and Pinkie smile, while Twilight was barely keeping herself from making more excitable noises at what she saw.

“Technically she is telling the truth.” The human told them while yawning and giving a good stretch, to which Twilight watched and made a mental record of how he moved. “She was having trouble sleeping so she wanted an ear scratch. I was annoyed cause she woke me up to ask so I gave her a choice as I wasn’t getting up to put her down and she chose to hop up here to get it.” The smart pony of the group blinked a bit as she heard both her pink bubbly friend and her hard working one suddenly start chuckling while the athlete and caretaker both blushed heavily.

Flying up to his face the speedster called out to him. “Could you not say it like that, you made it sound completely wrong!”

Tilting her head as she felt like she was missing something Dustan spoke. “Hey, if you all interpreted the things I said as dirty then that is your problem, which you all seem guilty of…except purple smart judging by her expression.”

The solo unicorn of the group looked at all of them each in turn before asking. “Ok what am I missing?”

None of her friends answered, well except Dustan. “You really want to know.”

Right away all of her friends started to shake their heads even Fluttershy, but she couldn’t stand being left out of any knowledge. “Tell me.”

Everypony face-hoofed while Rainbow Dash blushed even brighter and left the room as the human leaned in and whispered what all they thought and explained innuendos. To say that she was flabbergasted after the explanation was an understatement and if anypony needed something boiled they could just place it on her head with how heated her face was feeling at the moment.

With that the human left the room laughing saying he needed to stretch his legs. Twilight however was busy trying to find something to hide under or in to cover her embarrassment. She was not the only one either as Applejack coughed into her hoof and left saying she needed to get her bag in order while Pinkie pronked away giggling up a storm. Fluttershy, however, had nowhere to go so was forced to look after the unicorn while she adjusted and came back to being normal, which would take nearly as long as they had left to arrive at the Canterlot station with just enough time for Dustan to come back and grab his bags and for her to leave to go get hers.

As the group was getting off the train the conductor was thanking them all for being the final passengers for that model of train as this was its last stop before being retired. ‘That means every train from now on will be the higher speed models, I wonder if when we head back to Ponyville after my birthday if the conductor will let me examine it.’

Twilight’s musing was interrupted though as the group walked towards town. They were in the lower area of Canterlot where a lot of street venders were trying to sell wears to various travelers and nobles which is when Fluttershy got pulled into things.

“Oh, this would be a perfect gift for Angel Bunny, oh and this one for Harry, and this one for-” Fluttershy continued as she stayed at the stall.

“Go on ahead girls; Ah will keep an eye on her.” The farm pony told them as she adjusted her hat and went over to keep the caretaker company.

The birthday filly nodded with an understanding smile. “No problem, be sure to meet up where I told you before.” She called out to her friend as the group of four.

That was until the party pony started to shiver and shake. “Oh, that one is new. Dusty, Dashy, come with me.” The pony had her tail whip out to grab the wrist of the human who was about to protest when he started to get dragged along with a perplexed expression on his face.

“Pinkie, we shouldn’t leave Twilight alone as its ru-why are you so strong?” Indeed Dustan looked to be fighting back in strength and losing rather badly as he was pulled along by the pronky pony. “What kind of Deus Ex BS is this?!”

Rainbow Dash sighed and looked to her friend. “She did invite me and some responsible pony needs to keep an eye on him in Canterlot considering all the snooty types around. I will be back in a flash Twi.”

Before the purple pony could even tell her that it was alright and that she was right, a streak of rainbow signaled that her friend had left. “Guess we will all meet up at the castle.”

“Don’t ‘ave a look so dahn girly, in fact w don’t yer cheer yourself up at me stall.” A voice called to Twilight from nearby.

Turning to look she found a pony dressed head to hoof in some kind of coat in a stall. “I am sorry, but I really should go to the meeting spot for my friends.”

The pony in the coat seemed to smile behind his mask as he spoke. “Nonsense. Besides, let me tell yer, I can tell just by lookin’ at yer that yor one that appreciates magical mysteries and such and let me tell yer, I ‘ave some buggers yer will be interested in.”

The accent of his reminded Twilight of that time she went with the Princess to a visit to the Great Bitten a country that was made up of both Diamond Dogs and Ponies. “Ok, I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to take a look.”

Twilight watched as the pony pulled out a fair number of items, most of which she recognized and in her head identified at the same time as the man spoke. “'ere we 'ave some magical gadgets that will keep yor coat shiny and new, one that will do the same for yor teeth. 'owever I figure yor lookin' for sumfink more along the bloomin' lines o' 'eavier study, in wich case I 'ave this book 'ere. For the bleedin' life o' me I can't figure it out as magical education is a bit beyond me.” He told her before tapping his hornless head.

However Twilight didn’t hear him, instead focusing her whole attention upon the book before her. ‘What is this? It looks like a spell book of a unicorn, a personal research journal?’

“Go ahead and 'ave a 'ave a look, but only the bloomin' first couple o' pages, right, anymore and I will 'ave ter charge yer.” The man told her smiling gently.

Twilight was reading slowly and came to realize that a lot of the formulas being presented were both extraordinarily advanced but at the same time inferior in many ways to what was currently available, but these were clearly just experiments. Each page went into detail about how the one described in the book, one Misty Move, was a unicorn studying advanced teleportation and that this journal was her records.

However before she could read anymore the book was taken from her. “Hey I wasn’t done yet!”

“Sorry girl, but as I said, right, read any more and yer will buy it. Can't 'ave yer readin' me product for free after all. Tell yer wot, if yer buy the bloomin' book now, right, I will include this wiv it! Its sumfink the bloody author used ter cop the bleedin' coordinates o' object's origin. I can't make 'eads or tails o' it though so its pretty useless ter me and none seem interested in buyin' it.”

Twilight was conflicted, she really wanted to continue reading the book, it was so interesting, even if likely nothing would come of it and she would likely find the experiment ending in failure…then again. “Fine.”

She could tell the stallion was grinning behind his mask. “Alright so, whaddaya buyin’?”

Overall the event went on like normal, Rarity was surprised by the girls and Dustan as she then made an excuse about why she was dressed up for a party she was going to attend claiming that it was for her cat Opal’s sake. Dustan knew it was all a lie but didn’t call her out on it. The human figured this was one of those lessons that were better off learned on its own along with the fact that he actually just had no clue how to handle it in a good way that would end in the same results. So he ignored the looks and fidgety nature that the designer had shown the entire night as well as her moments where she snuck away.

In fact he knew Rarity knew that he caught leaving as she had been caught by him several times coming back to which he merely asked a stupid question. “Huh, I hope cats can’t give ponies colds, if so you might want to get checked out if you have to go to the bathroom that much Rarity.” The purple maned pony just stammered out a weak reply that if it got worse she would do just that.

When it came time for both parties to interact Dustan made the excuse that he was feeling a bit tired and would sit down for a while and that they could go ahead. “Plus Nobles and I tend not to mix. I usually rub them the wrong way and don’t want to hurt Rarity’s chances of snagging up clients.”

“Are you sure? We don’t want you to be left out of the party.” Twilight asked him sounding a bit worried.

The class changing otherworld human just waved her off. “I am sure that I will join you girls again in a bit, I just want to take a moment rest and get my energy back up to partying levels.”

The girls all gave a nod as they went outside to join the other party from there. From the window of the ballroom Dustan was able to watch the entire rest of the episode go down, from Applejack’s interpretation of ‘Garden Party’ to Pinkie Pie doing unspeakable things to a cake, all the way to the disaster that was Twilight’s Dancing.

“That girl really needs to learn some dance moves.” Sipping on some punch he got from the bowl he continued to watch the episode resolve itself, or he would have at least if not for someone or rather somepony joining his self conversation.

“I do not know. I find the free inhibited movements of Twilight rather refreshing.” Turning to the source of the feminine voice the human would find the Alicorn of the Night there. “Expression of one’s self rather than the measured pace of practiced moves can show a lot about a pony’s sense of self.”

Curiosity struck him and as such a question came out before he could even think about what he said, not that he would have changed it if he thought. “So what does her dancing say to you?” Though at the moment she was no longer dancing, instead it was the confession part of the episode happening.

The dark blue Princess considered what she had seen for a moment before speaking. “She is a mare, that while conscious of a lot of things around her normally, cares not for what others think when she is with her friends and instead decides to be true to herself and enjoy herself and her company.” Luna looked to him at that moment as he was watching the Nobles of Canterlot all except the designer and her friends and started to have fun. “Which begs the question, why aren’t you out there with them?”

Dustan was so focused on the rather nice heartwarming scene of them all that he just told her his thoughts while he smiled at the scene. “There is a time and place for me Luna. This isn’t one of them.”

Tilting her head at the response, one that she wasn’t really expecting at all, she now was filled with more questions than before. “You make it sound as if an event were to occur and that your presence would have hindered it.”

Coming around to look at her now Dustan realized what it was he had been saying and gave a nervous cough as he cleared his throat. “Rarity seemed like she really wanted to get on the nobles good side, I had caught her going outside to mingle with them during the party but said nothing. She needs the publicity for her shop after all and nobles tend to be more…exclusive minded then other.”

“You mean to say most of them are bigots and seeing you as Rarity’s friend would cause her harm.” Luna hit the nail on the head so he nodded at that fact. “Well soon there is a good chance that many of their minds will be changed.” Raising his eyebrow at that, Dustan motioned for her to continue. “The date of the exhibition match has been decided, as well as who is going to participate on our side.”

“Oh?” Drinking the rest of his punch he crunched up the paper cup and tossed it from where he was into the trash bin across the way. “Yes, perfect shot! Anyways, may I get the details?”

“Absolutely.” The glow of her horn preceded a pop as a scroll appeared to be given to him. “That scroll has all the details, the date, our lineup, as well as the guests in attendance.”

Opening it up, he was rather surprised by the date. “Two weeks huh? That is doable for sure. As for your lineup, I kinda admit to knowing nothing about rankings so beyond a few like private versus captain I can’t really tell the difference and the only person I recognize is Shining Armor as one of your combatants.” Continuing to read along the lines of things he got to the guest list and was rather surprised. “Huh, I didn’t think the girl’s knew about the match but they have already RSVP’ed it seems, along with Twilight’s parents, a lot of nobles as I recognize quite a few of these from their brownnosing attempts. It also seems that this match will be watched also by some foreign dignitaries as well.”

Nodding to the last comment Luna gave a smile to him. “Since your guards and grounds include any race that wishes it as well as the fact that the reports of your Neutral Magic has been getting around, many are both excited to see some race other then unicorns use magic as well as what those trained by an unknown like yourself can achieve.”

“Not to mention they are scouting out both possible alliances as well as scooping out any rising powers to take note of in case they need to create countermeasures.” Judging by the exhausted look on Luna’s face that appeared only for a moment, he hit the nail on the head. “Luna, I knew the moment I appeared in Equestria that I was a target. Ponies were afraid of me from the start; you are all a skittish people after all. Combine with the pompous attitudes of the nobles I am surprised that no attempts have really been made against me. However I know from studies that Equestria is the leading world power at the moment so a new type of magic coming into play to add to your power in the form of a new noble serving the crown is going to make others take note and pay attention.”

Bowing her head suddenly, which caught him off guard, the Princess spoke with a voice where he could feel the sincerity coming off it. “Know it was not mine or my sisters intention to cause that kind of attention to you. Our hopes were to promote your type of magic and help to create a more balanced perception of both your status as a noble and of yourself in general to the populace.”

Reaching out he gave a pat to her head and would then pull her head up by her chin so that she wasn’t bowing anymore. “Luna, I am a pretty easy going guy. Least I like to think of myself that way. Unless you specifically do something against me, are an asshole or the like, I really don’t care about most other people. Will I go out of my way to help people I don’t know? Sure. However that doesn’t mean I am invested one hundred percent into those people. Those that I care about I make sure know it and those are the ones whose opinions matter. Meaning even if they royally fuck up, no pun intended, I know that they didn’t do it on purpose and it can be overlooked. Just like this time.” Leaning back in his chair he looked out the window again to see Twilight opening various presents from her friends when she got to his and was reading his card. “You meant good and it will likely do as you say, but it also has unintended side effects which you didn’t mean. I can’t blame you for them nor can I blame you for what others do.”

He gave a large grin as Twilight opened the box after tearing off the wrapping paper and held up the Diamond Bracelet. It had taken him a while and many failed attempts that resulted in failures but he managed to replicate an item from the game. He signed the card with ‘I have made something from my culture, I am not sure if it will affect ponies, especially a unicorn such as yourself, but this bracelet helps to reinforce ones strength both physically and magically to make it stronger. Again I am not sure if this will work for you, but regardless figured it would make a great gift since I had to craft it myself. Happy birthday Twilight.’

Twilight was currently showing off the item to the others with Rarity in particular gushing over it. ‘I am really glad I took the time to look up some unicorn customs, I almost made it a horn accessory instead, which would have been the same as me proposing to her.’ Looking back to Luna he stood up and stretched. “I think that is about all for me sitting here Luna. I think I am going to go join them now since it seems like most of the nobles out there are plenty happy to go with things and accept new ideas. As for the date, know that me and my team will be ready. Also know that I will be leading my team and will be participating.”

“Of course, that is what we were suspecting from the start.” Though he was walking away, Dustan could feel the grin on the Lunar Alicorn’s face. She was really looking forward to things it seemed.

Chapter Thirty One: The Brave and The Barrier.

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My Little Tactics

Chapter Thirty One: The Brave and The Barrier.

“Alright everyone, are we all packed and ready?” Dustan asked as he made sure to double check his own equipment. The castle had been in a flurry of excitement at knowing the little match was coming up as last minute prep was being done, equipment, training, tactics, everything possible to boost them up just a bit more had been done. “This is to be a ten on ten battle, done in one on one style, or unless requested. As such you nine are the ones I have chosen to go with me in this tournament.”

Before him were both some predictable choices and not so predictable ones. Merlene was of course there, and though she had not gone into the Job System as much as some of the others, she did still participate in the physical training side of things and along with fighting various species has become rather adept at combat. Side Winder a guard that joined him on the fight with the hydra was here for similar reasons as Merlene along with the fact that his teleporting prowess, as was he told him, had gotten much stronger since he had initially joined up as part of the guard and that he was looking forward to showing them a few tricks he had developed.

“Merlene and Side Winder, you two are my sub-captains for this match, meaning your points for winning and losing are adjusted more heavily like my own.” Turning to look over his whole squad he started to walk around them inspecting them. “You see, those that are soldier class, which is the rest of you, are worth five points each if you beat someone of equal status as you. If you beat a sub-captain though, its twenty five points and captains are worth fifty. If a sub-captain beats a soldier though they only earn two points. That changes when they take on someone of equal rank though as subs that beat subs earn ten points, subs who beat captains earn twenty. However for captains if they beat anyone but a fellow captain they only earn one point, beating another captain is five points.”

Mystic rubbed his hoof to his chin at that moment. “So if a captain beats all soldiers but loses to someone like a sub the sub’s team already would have more points at that point.”

“Right.” A thumbs up given by Dustan showed he was happy that it was understood. “Meaning captains and subs are encouraged to only come out for strategic reasons and not just to mop the floor with those at the start. Not only might this be a bad idea, but it leaves them open to wear themselves out quicker.”

“What about the rules of the match itself?” The falcon like griffon asked even going so far as to raise a hand, though she spoke before being called on.

“Good question.” Turning to face them all he grinned. “Standard from what I am told. Go all out as protective magic covers the field so that if something fatal were to happen, its game over for that person and they get instantly teleported out. Also anyone who enters the arena will find that their attacks will be adjusted automatically, even those of magical origin, so that when they attack that it won’t be able to cause permanent injury and instead will cause the part to be numbed to such a degree that they can’t move it. If fatal, well, teleportation. Anymore questions?”

Side Winder spoke up at that point. “Sir, that is from the previous year, the current year’s model does all that but injuries to occur as normal, bleeding happens and this was set up to provide a more realistic combat experience for those on the field. It will still stop fatal attacks though.”

“Good to know, let me know if anything else I say has changed.” Dustan told him.

Merlene, Side Winder, Mystic Quandary, Summer Breeze, Fading Dawn, Zecora, Moonlight Hunter, Winter Comet, and Emerald Rain all stood at attention as he smiled at the various states of dress and equipment and Dustan mused to himself that many were in for a surprise. That being said it wasn’t just them leaving for Canterlot shortly, but many of the higher ups of the castle were coming like Steel and Tremor and those from Ponyville were making it a point of coming after hearing about the match, Cheerilee even bringing her class to show everyone of the young ones what they might accomplish if they work hard.

“I am going to tell you all this, I am proud of you all, win or lose, the progress you have all made recently is just astounding. It actually makes me a bit jealous of how fast some of you have come around to some things but we can discuss my green eyed monster another time. Anyways, you are all dismissed, pack up your gear and head to Ponyville. Go!”

“YES LORD WARNER!” They all shouted before zipping off to various rooms to grab their gear.

Many he trusted fully and knew they would do great, while others he still had some concerns about, though most of those were from off the training field. Moonlight Hunter was a pegasus that apparently came from a monster hunting family and joined the castle guard in order for a chance to hunt the abundance of creatures in the Everfree and seems rather hard to approach. Winter Comet was…an oddity, he was a griffon who was adopted and raised by pony parents so often times his instincts and upbringing seemed to conflict making it hard to understand his emotions at times though he and Spike got along great, not really a surprise. Then there was Emerald Rain, the less said about her the better and as such he had advised many of the leaders of castle to keep an eye on her. She had not made any kind of harmful actions and as such that lent her some trust, but he wasn’t quite ready to welcome her in completely not confront her on her secret, of which he made sure none knew but himself to not cause panic. The only reason he had accepted her in the first place was the job class he read off her: Exile.

Beyond the last one he had very little interaction with those three and as such they came recommended for tourney spots from Merlene, Side Winder, Tremor, and Steel. Trust was going to be hard earned but Dustan felt confident that each of them would prove to be someone worth something in the future. Stretching and watching the last figure disappear around a corner, the human would head to his own room and switch to the Squire Job while grabbing his equipment. He was bringing both swords and his axe, along with his leather armor. Well trained pony soldiers he figured might be quick while sub and actual captains might be that much faster, especially the latter since it was Shiny himself that was leading the opposing force. Along with that he had his belt pouch version two, which now included some holsters for potions that the chemists along with Zecora were now producing.

Grabbing his pack, in case he needed some last minute equipment changes, Dustan left his room and made sure to start heading to the train station. While those coming with them from Ponyville, including the Mane Six and Spike, were all excited and chatting up a storm, his group was rather silent all mentally preparing themselves for what was to come, even Dustan himself as he was meditating seeing the classroom come into view but still not able to touch anything.

‘Least I am able to call it up anytime now, just missing that something to touch things anytime I want.’ Dustan knew, if he could touch things, he might be able to buy skills as they were needed in response to future problems or at least more actively select skills instead of just building up points waiting for the chance that he would visit said room.

Canterlot arrived barely thirty minutes after they had left which was a testament to the advances the new trains had leaped forward by. As everyone departed from the train it was clear that Canterlot was taking this opportunity to turn it almost into a fair of some type as more venders then normal were out. Banners hung everywhere depicting the sun and moon symbols as well as the Old Symbol of the Everfree, reminding Dustan that he needed to get around to designing a new symbol for them.

As Dustan’s crew got off though, the crowd started to gather heavily and cheers were heard. ‘Not sure if that is genuine or it is something that they are just hyped for, either way, it is good for my team.’ That had broken the nervous mood of many of them causing them to smile and wave to the crowd as they marched through. As they came to the castle grounds and were heading to the wing, many guards either saluted them honestly or hesitantly, clearly showing which ones were biased.

“Well, well, well, look who it is, an earth pony pretending to be a magister.” One of the guards called out causing the Squire to see Mystic flinch from the corner of his eyes. “A hat and robes, come on, don’t embarrass yourself like this.”

It was clear that Mystic wasn’t going to respond so the human stepped up to the illusion wearing Day guard. “Sorry, but it’s hard to tell you all apart when you are wearing that get up, who are you, why are you harassing one of my team, and should I even respond to you if you are not one of our opponents in today’s match?”

The pony did a double take, as if he somehow either didn’t see Dustan there until now, didn’t expect him to come up like that. “I am Star Victory, an up and coming royal guard and part of the day under her majesty Princess Celestia. I am just informing, not harassing, Mystic there that he is just going to get himself in trouble if he keeps clinging to false hope like being able to cast magic and becoming a magister. As for why you should respond, I am the first one you are going to be fighting today and am here to escort you properly to the grounds.”

“Interesting.” Pulling out a piece of paper he handed it over to Side Winder. “Hey SW, do you mind rearranging the order of number one and number five for me?”

“Ok…why?” That was till he read the paper. “Oh, never mind, this should be quite funny.” Quickly pulling out some writing utensils he did as asked and rolled it back up. “Want me to hold on to it until we get to the ref so we can turn it in?”

Giving a nod Dustan could see Side shiver a bit at his grin. ‘Oh it’s going to be good alright, really good. Starting things off strong for sure.’

The stadium was rather huge as they were lead out into the open field and shown around. There were four sections, each themed after a season: The flowery open field of Spring, the lightly forested Summer pond area, the heavy Autumn forest, and the snowy hills of Winter, along with a fifth neutral marble stone arena in the middle. Along the border of Spring and Summer as well as Autumn and Winter were two staging areas for each team, likely the base for each time where each member will wait until their turn.

In the middle where they were being lead, the marble stage area, was a pony who was white with a black mane wearing a stripped shirt as smiled as she seen them as well as the other team advancing towards her. Dustan had not noticed it till now, but the stands were already getting packed as ponies were squeezing in as close they could and the reserved seats were being filled for those that had just arrived.

The team halted behind him as Dustan continued after seeing Shining Armor’s own team do the same. “Captains, thank you both for approaching me. Please present me with the order of your combatants.”

Shining’s horn glowed for a moment before a pop was heard and his list was in front of her. “Our order has not changed, we expect to be well known as the Royal Guard and as such will have our strength and weakness’ known. It will be how we deal with it that matters.”

Snapping his fingers Dustan called for Side to hand over his list. “This is ours; sorry about the sloppy writing but I had some last minute changes to do and didn’t have time to find a clean piece of parchment.”

Smiling kindly the mare told him simply. “No problem. To be honest, I am very excited for this match as are my fellow referees. Be sure not to let any of us down, we expect to be discussing this for a good while after today.” The unicorn ref’s horn started to glow then she just…vanished. Well not really vanished instead became transparent. “This is an ethereal spell, very complicated but makes it so that we can’t be touched by physical or magical effects nor can we do anything in return. This makes us completely neutral. Anyways, would both teams head to their boxes? Castle Luminary, you are in the Fall and Winter box, while the Royal Guard is in the home box of Spring and Summer.”

“Thank you miss.” Shining told the mare before looking to Dustan and holding out his hoof. “Best of luck to you and your team.”

Taking said hoof in his hand and shaking it Dustan threw the comment back at him with a grin. “You too, either way, it’s going to be interesting for sure.”

As they went to their box, similar to what a dugout might look like for baseball, with benches and lockers, a bathroom, and even a snack bar, there was a pony team there with obvious scrubs on showing they were the on staff medical team.

“So who is first Lord Warner?” Winter Comet asked his talons ticking nervously on the seat he took up.

“Originally I was going to have it be you Winter, but I decided on a last minute change.” Looking to his right to the dapple coated yellow stallion he grinned. “Our first up is going to be Mystic here.”

“Wait me?!” The pony’s eyes went wide as saucers as he heard that. “But that means I have to fight Star right away, why?”

Patting the red mane of the pony he gave a grin and simply said. “Mystic, it’s time to put up or shut up, and I have no doubt and with full confidence that you will wipe the floor with him.” The magister in training opened his mouth up with a ‘but’ however was cut off before he could get his thought out. “Trust in me ok? I wouldn’t do this for no reason to my friend.”

Taking a deep breath as he closed his eyes, Mystic eventually opened his eyes as he released said breath. “Ok Dustan. I will believe. I am going to meditate till its time ok?”

Giving him a thumbs up Dustan sat back and waited for the stadium to be filled which only took fifteen more minutes. From there it took another fifteen before Celestia and Luna showed up, along with Cadance in a private sky booth directly overlooking everything.

Celestia came up and her horn gave off a glow before it was clear she cast some type of magic. “Welcome Mare’s and Gentle Colt’s. Today we all have an auspicious meeting on our hands as Equestria’s only known human and Noble of the Everfree has brought a team of hoofpicked guards that he has trained to come and face off against the noble Royal Guard in hoof to hoof combat. The rules as you all know are the same, anything goes as the field is magically enchanted to prevent fatal injuries. The point system will be displayed on the board as well as an active tally of points.” Pointing over to several places on the wall were boards with the symbols of each time and a space for points.

Luna took this moment to approach as well and do the same as her sister. “From what we are told, the human known as Dustan Warner, has employed a different training regiment then our own at the castle and academy, so we are eagerly looking forward to the results considering the Royal Guard’s practice and standards have been going on for many a year.”

“The captains of both teams have many great deeds under their belts.” Cadence called out as she came out now as well. “Many of you know of Captain of the Guard Shining Armor’s many heroics, as by this point they are such common knowledge that even the youngest of foals know of them. On the other hoof, Dustan Warner has been earning a name for himself as well, rediscovering lost Neutral Magic, leading the efforts to free a slave colony, then later leading an assault force against a dangerous monster known as the Malboro just to name the most well known ones. Both combatants bring highly specialized magic and experience to the table and only time will tell who will come out on top.”

This time all three spoke up at the same time. “As such, it is our pleasure to announce that the Canterlot Competition is now STARTING!”

The crowd went ballistic in the noise they gave off and as such eventually it had to be calmed by the head ref as she called for silence. “Thank you, now that all of you can hear me, it means so can our two teams. Please, would Star Victory of the Royal Guard come forth to meet against his opponent, Mystic Quandary of the Luminous Guard.”

Dustan turned to look to Mystic only to see him still in deep meditation so he had to go over and tap him. “You’re up. Show them what you got!”

There was a brief moment where Mystic looked both startled and worried before sighing and smiling. “Right. Don’t wish me luck, because I have this!”

With that he trotted out of the little bunker onto the field where Star was waiting for him on the marble arena. “Look Mystic, you can either walk away right now and I promise I won’t think any less of you, mostly because I can’t. Or tell you what, I can give you the first shot, you can embarrass yourself, then I can mop the floor with you. Take your pick.”

Mystic would brush off the snow and leaves he had picked up from on his side of the field off of his blue robes. “I think I will take the latter option though modify it a bit and change the last bit with the mopping.”

Chuckling, the Day Guard backed up a good few steps and was now relaxing. “Fine then, don’t say I am not true to my word though.”

Taking the wide brimmed tan hat off of his back, Mystic settled it onto place causing a shadow to come over his face letting nothing be seen except his eyes, his normally blue eyes being reflected somehow as bright yellow now. “Nor I.”

“Alright Mare’s and Gentle Colts: LET’S GET READY TO RUMBLE!” With that statement, the match officially began.

“Go ahead, as I said, first move is yours.” The golden wearing stallion guard said again.

However the yellow eyed Quandary was focusing purely on him as he spoke. “Strip away the ground with glistening blades!”

“Oh come on, a fake magic chant, that the best you g-why is my fur standing on end?” Star started confidently before ending nervously.

“Because me!” Mystic called out, the eyes of the Black Mage glowing brightly. “Thunder!” Raising up a hoof to the air the crack of lightning came down quickly striking the armored covered pony causing him to almost immediately poof in a teleport.

Grinning from his seat at the stunned silence of the crowd as well as the princesses in their seat he could barely contain his laughter nor could he stop from asking an attendant to use the voice augmenting magic on him so he could speak. “Magic isn’t just a unicorn exclusive thing now. Neutral magic is here and anyone can learn it.”

Sitting back down the crowd erupted in exclamations to which even the refs were having a hard time calming to which the Solar Princess had to call for silence herself. “As we promised my little ponies.” The Sun Alicorn called. “This will be interesting, so enjoy, but make sure to grow quiet when the officials call for it as is polite.”

The audience listened to the princess and was quiet as the ref called in a mare called Gleaming Platinum. ‘Huh, if Star Victory and her get together, would they have a kid called Star Platinum? ‘Honey look, our boy is about to speak his first words. ORA ORA’ haha!’

Gleaming was a Night Guard as her attire made her look like a Thestral even if she was a unicorn and because of her armor it was impossible to see her cutie mark. As the match started she started to cast a beam of energy that looked like living stars forcing Mystic to go on the defensive.

It was here that Mystic showed another of his skills though he had to quick cast it. “Shell!” Small bubbles appeared one after the other in a circle around him before doing the same again with larger bubbles, as they vanished the largest bubble yet appeared around him. It was because of him trying to cast and dodge at the same time that the beam did graze him, but it was clear that the protective magic was doing its job as there wasn’t much damage beyond some ruined fabric and some singed fur.

Sadly though Dustan knew how the rest of this match would go as Mystic was still low in level his MP wasn’t the largest and those couple of spells had already drained a good bit from his reserves. ‘Ponies rely too much on harmonic magic and as such it seems their innate mana pool isn’t too big in most cases because of that. I remember my own MP stat being a good fair bit higher than his and others who have gotten to his stage seem to confirm that as well.’ As the Black Mage quick casted Fire the opposing mare teleported before fire appeared at her hooves only slightly singeing them, no wait, she wobbled a bit as she came out of the teleport showing it had gotten some damage on her.

“Thunder!” Mystic called out quick casting the spell that would take up the rest of his MP as the Mare shot off another beam catching him directly in the chest. A poof of a teleport was heard, but it wasn’t Gleam alone that vanished as both parties vanished.

“DOUBLE KO!” The ref called out loudly. “With this both teams earn the respective points for the knock out, but it means we will be sending out two new fighters. As per regulations since this usually doesn’t happen, both sides do not have to announce who they are sending in and can try to surprise the other side.”

Right away looking to the side Dustan knew the right call. “Dawn, you are up, try to get in the Autumn area.”

The deer saluted before bouncing off and vanishing into the forest. A noise from their box indicated they had sent someone in, he supposed, and soon Dustan spotted a pegasus take flight into the air. The ref soon officially started the next round. The unnamed pegasus, since he wasn’t announced, flew around looking for his opponent only to hear a very loud thwang and a glowing red bolt of a crossbow fly past him. It didn’t leave him unscathed either, ripping through the feathers of his wing and causing him to plummet to the ground. Luckily he had that pegasus gift of crash resistance or something as that kind of fall would have killed Dustan back home…he wasn’t sure if it would kill him now.

Too bad for him though as by the time the pegasus stood up and was shaking off the shock and stun of the fall, he took another red bolt to the chest poofing him. This surprised everyone once again as the ref called for a KO as Dawn was never seen by anyone let alone her opponent once during that conflict.

The next pony called out by the ref was Onyx Mark, a unicorn of the Royal Guard, not affiliated with either day or night, though one would think his name would lead you to believe he was part of the Night Guard. “Well that might be it for Dawn.”

Dustan looked to Side Winder as he heard that. “Care to explain?”

“No need, watch.” The former Royal Guard told him as Dustan turned and faced the field.

Onyx raised his head, his horn glowing black, before a pulse raced from him along all directions. When it hit the forest area there was a moment when nothing happened before a beacon of light shot up from it. Almost right away the pillar started to move erratically making Dustan realize what just happened: He just marked Fading Dawn. The Royal guard’s once more started to glow before a shimmer appeared around his body causing the light to sparkle off his armor and body, almost right before a bolt came out to hit him, except it bounced off him with no visible damage.

“Onxy Mark is a tracking and counter-specialist, in that he will find you then make you destroy yourself. He is one of their Sub-Captains.” Side told him as Mystic finally came back from being treated wearing a badge that told them all that he was already eliminated and not to be put on the field again.

Seems the earth pony had heard the conversation though and started to speak as well. “His combo is almost set up, in my research for becoming a magister, I studied many up and coming mages of the Royal Guard. Onyx there was one. He tracks somepony then puts up the appropriate shield, in this case an anti-ranged kinetic barrier to ward off physical shots from bows, crossbows, slings and the like. Then he puts up a counter barrier so when the opponent looks to attack him again, said attack hits it and is reflected back at the same strength it hit. What is more is that it tracks the source, thanks to the beacon spell he puts on them at first, meaning there is little escape from it.”

‘So it’s a homing reflect spell! Minus the power up spells get when reflected that is.’ Dustan watched as, just like predicted another shot came out only to bounce off a newly placed barrier. The bolt was reflected into the air and right away zipped out into the forest before a poof was heard. “Well since that is one of their subs, it means they get less points.” It wasn’t much of a comfort but it was one.

Because of their order list, Dustan knew who they were sending out next and he smiled giving her the thumbs up knowing that of all people they had, she would likely be the one to beat him. “Next up from the Luminous Guard is Zecora!”

The cheers for the zebra weren’t as great as some of the others, as the stigma that she would have faced in Ponyville normally seemed to be more prevalent here, but many were caught up in the cheers from those that did know her that soon the crowd was roaring along bringing the levels of energy back up to normal. Zecora was wearing what looked to be a grass skirt with many beads interwoven in it that covered her flanks, though Dustan knew that there were pads hidden in them to make the armor deceptively frail looking while providing a decent amount of protection. Along her barrel were a couple of bandoleers of various bottles with a multitude of colors contained within them.

Zecora moved to the lightly wooded area of Summer near where Onyx Mark was till she was only a few paces from him. Both of them were now eyeing each other sizing up who they were going against, and when the ref called for the battle to start, Zecora acted first throwing two bottles from her bandoleer as she bound backwards. Onyx didn’t make a move, instead taking the hits head on causing the bottles to shatter but nothing happen to him.

Onyx charged up his horn again and the liquid that was clinging to him suddenly slid off as if it couldn’t grip his armor or fur splashing at his feet. As he started to charge his horn a couple of more bottles hit his shield splashing him before the liquid fell off him to pool around as his pulse ran out from him lighting up Zecora who was now smiling and standing still. The sub-captain just stood there looking curious at the Zebra who was now making no moves and instead just finished his final spell.

That is when Zecora decided to speak, and thanks to some of the spells on the field those in the crowd and boxes could hear what was being said. “You expect an attack but it will not come as my attack is already done. For you see, I have already won.”

“What do you m-” Onyx couldn’t finish what he was saying however as the world started to wobble left and right before he found himself on the ground. “What did you do?”

“Simple my incapacitated foe. One by one a mixture I did throw. For you see when those simple items mix, their fumes hit like a ton of bricks.” As the Shaman finished she sat down and waited before Oynx chuckled and closed his eyes, poofing moments after.

The crowd went wild especially since Zecora was a soldier class who just beat a sub-captain, meaning she just earned a whopping twenty five points for Castle Luminary. Many in the crowd were now upset, likely many finding their bets going down the drain as it was looking more and more in favor of the away team.

“With the defeat of a sub-captain, as per the rules, the Royal Guard may now choose who they send out for the rest of the battle instead of keeping to their revised order.” The ref called out, something that Dustan wasn’t aware of as he had back loaded all of their subs in the list. That meant that they would have to go through all their soldiers before getting to a sub meaning at that point it would be pointless to choose who could go out next as their would only be two left.

‘Damn, thought I had read up completely on the rules but there just wasn’t enough time, I knew I would miss something but damn did it have to be something important.’ The Lord watched as a pegasus flew out of the box of the Royal Guards, moving pretty quick. ‘That is the worst person for Zecora to fight, and there isn’t enough trees to matter for cover and to stop the pegasus from coming in.’

Zecora did try her best, managing to hit him with one bottle but the pegasus zipped in and out hitting her as they went eventually coming in and finishing off the zebra who was still holding a bottle in her hoof as she poofed. The next in line for their group was Emerald Rain. Moving to the field quickly, she eagerly waited for the match to start. The unnamed pegasus rose into the sky, which gave Emerald the advantage as well being a unicorn, but when the fight started, it was clear it was for him rather than her.

Emerald was a unicorn that specialized in quick blasts of force and energy to beat her targets, but against a speedy and agile opponent who had the whole of the sky to work with, many of her attacks didn’t even come close, and those that did were still dodged with little effort. Least until the unicorn showed off the spell that also bore her own name. Pouring a lot of energy into her horn, she caused a ball of energy to grow at the tip getting larger and larger till it popped and sent out a shower of beams to rain up into the sky leaving the pegasus no room to dodge.

Instead the pegasus took one large flap to raise himself up some and keep him in the air just long enough for his wings to glow and then flap again as the beams were almost upon him causing a massive explosion of smoke. “That is unfortunate.”

Dustan looked to Merlene this time for answers. “Something happened?”

“Yes My Lord.” She pointed to the sky where the smoke was clearing showing the pegasus was unharmed. “You don’t see many pegasus who use their magic like that, he isn’t a sub but likely he is close to the power of one for sure. This is bad for us. Especially that!”

The human watched Merlene’s eyes grow wide before suddenly turning and looking to the sky where the pegasus started to descend straight down spinning. The guard caused visible winds to start to swirl around him and gaining speed in his descent. Moments before hitting the ground, the white coated Day Guard pulled a ninety degree turn and shot horizontal along the ground, the winds from his move tearing up the ground. He wasn’t even flapping anymore, just spinning and letting the air keep him moving forward like a bullet. Emerald was exhausted after her big attack and tried to run, for what little it did.

Instead she did something else. “I yield!” causing her to poof before the attack reached her.

Sighing, Dustan figured on her reason but still, the reaction from the crowd was a round of boos at the action. The teams were back to being even for those that were left, with the count being six to six still to go and the points still heavily in the favor of Castle Luminary. Dustan was trying to think of something, anything to pull this around as most of the remaining fighters except subs might not be able to take this one.

“Don’t worry Lord Warner, though I may face defeat here, I will set up Hunter for the victory against him.” The voice belonged to Winter Comet. The griffon gave his version of a thumbs up and a wink as he took to the field.

Said white griffon whose wings were orange and tail red, thus his name, was raised by ponies causing many in the crowd to be confused as a pony name was called but a none pony took to the field. It didn’t last long though as they saw said griffon and what he was wearing. Fully decked out in metal armor, bronze in this case, and bearing the blue and purple coloration of the Luminous Guard who pulled off a heavy great sword from his back and held it in one of his claws.

Truth was, Dustan didn’t get what the griffon meant when he said he would set up Moonlight Hunter, least not till the pegasus flew in for an attack. “Rend Power!”

The sword in the griffon’s claw lit up red before the timing of said griffon caught the pegasus and passed through him. The Day guard thought he had been hit and retreated looking at his injury, only to find none. As perplexed as he was, Dustan was even more so as he had been unaware that Comet had changed jobs to become a Knight like he had. In hindsight it made sense though; the heavy armor, the knight sword, the fact that honestly the griffon’s personality suited that perfectly and he seemed to be so much more confident in training lately as he suddenly excelled in the physical aspects. Dustan chuckled and gave himself a reminder to really pay more attention and use Tactical Eye more often, something he was still bad at doing.

The pegasus attacked Comet again for the same result of a Rend Power to happen only this time the Day Guard didn’t relent and kept hitting him each time getting three to four hits per Rend Power. The cycle would continue five times before Winter finally was forced to succumb and poofed off the field, though at this point the pegasus was struggling to keep in the air.

“Stupid griffon had to show off didn’t he?” Moonlight Hunter said, though not with malice as she was grinning. “Guess I have to clean up his mess, figures.”

“Good luck Hunter.” The captain of the team told them only for her to laugh.

“Who are you telling that to sir; me or them?” She said as she continued onto the field when her name was called.

Among all the guards at the castle, Dustan knew only her to practice and use the wing blades. Blades attached to the main wing bone of a pegasus that extended off it making them a living flying guillotine. As the fight was started, Dustan got to see something interesting, though the Day Guard was only affected by Rend Power, since he was struggling to keep lift; it meant his speed in the air went down as a result.

‘Note to self, a physical response to status effects affects more than just a stat if it is related to an action.’ Smiling at that the human grinned. ‘Good to know.’

As a result, similar to how the day guard zipped by and hit Zecora over and over again, Hunter did the same, only her attacks were a lot more effective thanks to blades being how she dealt the primary damage. With the pegasus poofing, half of each team was now gone. The difference was that Dustan’s side still had both sub-captains, though the other side had more soldiers.

The next pony to come out for the enemy team was a unicorn wearing heavy armor, more so then her fellow royal guards, and because she appeared as a Thestral meant she belonged to the night guard. The heavy armor wasn’t the most curious thing though but the many swords strapped to her back which the purpose of was quickly found out as the match started and they were quickly all levitated simultaneously from her back. When Hunter came in for a quick pass to attack, she had to divert each and every time as a wall of swords was there waiting for the pegasus to run into them. If Hunter passed too close some of the swords would swing around slashing at her.

“Hunter can’t win that; she won’t be able to even land a hit will she?” Dustan asked seeing both Side and Merlene shaking their head. “They really got us good sending out a sub so early so that if he failed they could start countering us early.”

“Indeed, I should have warned you My Lord but I had thought you knew and placed our subs in that position for a reason.” Side Winder told him and bowed.

Waving off the bow the human turned back to the field watching the pegasus take more and more slashes each time. “No, that was my fault for not asking if you had any recommendations. I came to you asking if my order was ok since you knew the most about the challenge matches like this and should have asked instead if you had any recommendations.”

“Lord Dustan.” Turning to see Summer Breeze, the one who was to go in next, he could already see the defeated look on her face. “Even with my own crossbow, I do not think I can defeat her, eventually her swords will eat up all my ammo and I will have to either go in for an attack and get teleported, or yield like Emerald.”

Hunter was poofed as she said that to which the crowd cheered for the Night Guard. “Go in and yield right away, that is not a battle you can win sadly and you are right. We will fight smarter and not cause unneeded pain.”

“I am sorry.” The large winged pegasus said with tears in her eyes. All Dustan could do is give a comforting pat upon her back.

The resulting boos from the crowd were very loud at another withdraw from the Luminous guard resulting in Dustan stepping up and using the field's amplification for speech to talk to the crowd again. “There is a difference in many things, skill and experience are two of the more important things you have to factor into a fight. The skills of the Royal Guard’s current Soldier are a counter to Summer Breeze’s so all that would have happened would have been the same as what Hunter had happen to her. If this was a real fight and I sent my people out despite that, I would have been sentencing her to death and for that I refuse to do so. That makes it a boring competition because of one less fight then that is something I can live with, but I won’t order my people to go into a fight like that.”

That seemed to shut the crowd up as Side Winder stood up and smiled. “Don’t worry, I got this. Just be glad you didn’t stagger too many fliers right after one another. Switching Comet and Mystic might have been the right call still, if not for Comet setting up Hunter, he might have kept going for even longer in which that Night Guard would have taken an even stronger stance since we would have less people on our side.”

Dustan nodded though not sure if he was comforted by that or not and by this point as Side was called out most of his team was back in the box except for Moonlight Hunter. “Don’t worry Dustan, Side Winder likely is the best one to take out that Night Guard.”

Mystic’s words were heard but the human remained silent as Side came out and grinned. “I suggest you yield now, you won’t be able to touch me but I will be able to hit you.”

That statement got the crowd roaring again as the Night Guard grinned. “Ok, if you can beat me that easily let’s make a little bet.” The unicorn raised his eyebrow at her statement and motioned for her to continue. “I beat you; you pay me double what I make in a day.”

“And if I win, how about a date?” Side asked her causing the mare to be startled and blush as she backed up. “What, you are cute and your levitation prowess is rather impressive. I myself use similar techniques so it’s always nice seeing a pony in a similar field as me, even if I do not specialize in it as thoroughly as you.”

“F-fine. But I am not paying on that date!” The still blushing mare said as Dustan himself was just laughing at the back and forth of the two and the crowd as giving various noises as the deal was accepted.

“Well now that the flirting is out of the way, fight start!” The ref called out and a whoosh was heard.

Side vanished and was now to the mare’s right, her swords coming up for an attack that never came as another whoosh and now Side was behind her. Dustan had never seen Side able to move like that with his teleport, as he normally had the traditional pop, this was something different.

“Impressive right?” Dustan didn’t stop watching even as Mystic explained. “After the fight with the Hydra, Side said he finally was able to grasp the advanced short ranged teleport spell: Blink. He has been working since then to use it with his style and finally got it to a level he was comfortable with just a few days ago and has been refining it since then. However that isn’t the only trick he has learned since then.”

The swords of the mare were spinning around her now leaving many gaps in her wall as there just wasn’t enough though the reason for this was because of the impressive sight that the sub-captain of Luminary Castle was causing. At this moment, there looked to be no less than eight of the unicorn as he was blinking so fast that they were leaving afterimages now. The mare he was fighting started to panic and sent out a few swords to try to hit where she thought he would be only for them to pass through an afterimage.

Dustan was then shocked to learn what else the unicorn could do: Dual Cast. Various knives and daggers started to levitate from the back and hidden pouches of the unicorn then being left at each image before they started to zoom in making it look as if they were being thrown rapidly, only to be caught by images on the opposite side and thrown again creating an endless flurry of edges. There was a good bit to be said for the mare though as her swords and armor kept any decent damage from being done until suddenly everything froze.

The knives, the swords, the teleporting, everything stopped. “With that, I win. Yield please.” Side asked as he smiled with a knife now to the mare’s throat.

“How?” The Night Guard, as well as everyone else, wanted to know.

“Look where your swords are. You had them responding to where I was and my angle of attack, least…the ones you could see.” Floating one of the knives up he then had it hover over her before descending down. “You left your top exposed so I had one of my knives and blinked it above you. Blinking and teleporting things other than yourself is really difficult though, so I will admit, it was hard to do all while keeping you distracted.”

The mare closed her eyes and chuckled. “Guess you win, I will see you say Saturday.” When his sub-captain nodded the mare smiled wider. “I yield.” She called out and poofed.

For a while none were sent out from the box of the Royal Guard, as likely they were discussing things and how to handle Side and his trickiness. That was until a unicorn stepped out, an older Stallion judging by the lines under his eyes and right away everyone knew.

“That’s their other sub isn’t it?” Dustan asked only to get nods from everyone on his side. “Does anyone want to fill me in on who that is?”

“Commander Warp Strike, or rather former commander.” Moonlight called as she joined them. “He gave up his position cause of his age and let Shining Armor become captain and commander of the Royal Guard in his place. What is more-” Dustan saw Side bow before the unicorn. “He was the one who taught Side Winder.”

“Well shit.” The match started and right away both of them vanished as the former commander vanished only a tad slower then Side did.

The difference though, is that it seemed that eight afterimages were Side’s limit but sixteen was the limit of the commander, showing that while he was slower thanks to age, that he was able to pull off the blink better then Side could. None among them, not even Dustan, could tell what was happening as images and flashes of knives from both sides came and went, but one thing everyone knew, is that it was a short battle.

Reappearing opposite of each other, both were bleeding profusely from various cuts along their bodies. “You are as skilled as ever Master.”

“Alas I am not as spry as I used to be, my blinks are slower than your own thus while I may have been harder to pin down cause of my numerous clones made in my image, you had me once you pinned me down. Good job.”

Both of the stallions smiled at one another as they poofed together. A double knock out was declared which meant that both sides had to choose someone to send out and of course the Royal Guard sent out one of their soldiers. Dustan and Merlene looked to each other before they both smiled.

“You want to go next Merlene, or do you want to watch me take them out?” Dustan asked her as she thought about it.

“That is a tough choice.” She ticked her feathery head to the side. “On one claw, I want to go out and fight, but I doubt I can take on Shining Armor myself and when that happens, it means you will fight. I will not have recovered by then and will not get to see you fight to your fullest as I had missed the Hydra fight before.” Huffing she held out a claw and pointed to the arena. “Go on My Lord; show Canterlot what you can do.”

Tightening up the buckler on his arm Dustan tossed his pack to the ground and grabbed his weapons, strapping them on properly as he strode out to the field. To say the crowd went ballistic would be an understatement as he took to the field and the soldier he was fighting was now looking less sure of himself. Dustan’s opponent was an earth pony with a pretty large stature for sure, not as big as Trouble Shoes in the show, but he was close no doubt.

“The match will be soldier of the Royal Guard, Shatter Hoof, versus Captain of the Luminous Guard of Castle Luminary, Lord of the Everfree. Dustan Warner!” The ref must have been excited as well as it could easily be heard in their voice which made Dustan chuckle.

“Though I am not sure how I will stand against you, I am proud of my strength, so if you would allow, let us have a clash of hooves. I would like to see just where I stand.” Dustan thought about it before looking at the pony with his Tactical Eye.

When he saw what he did he nodded. “Alright.” Removing the shield from his right arm, he hooked it to his back where he had something made to hold it before. ‘Monk.’ As he shifted jobs he smiled and took up a hand to hand stance as the large pony did the same.

“Battle-” Both sides gripped the earth, preparing. “START!”

Both Dustan and Shatter kicked off the ground and rushed to close the gap between them and when they were within striking range, the large pony sent out his right fore hoof, while Dustan sent out his left fist causing them to connect. Since they were standing in the spring fields the crowd could see all the flowers around them get blown flat for a moment from the impact of both limbs.

Even Dustan took note of that. ‘Wait, how strong is he? How strong am I? Questions for later.’

The earth pony smiled before backing up. “Thank you. I yield.”

“Wait, wha-” Though the Monk couldn’t get an answer to his question as the large stallion poofed away. “But…I was getting warmed up.”

Rubbing his head he eventually just shrugged and strapped on his buckler once again as the next fighter came out, the last soldier. Switching back to Squire Dustan looked to the Soldier, a pegasus flying high up into the air.

“I will take you down human, just watch, and with that I will claim victory for the Royal Guard.” Dustan’s opponent called out and grinned.

Face-palming the battle started as Dustan looked up at the pegasus rapidly descending at him so he held out his left hand. “Thunder.”

The bolt of energy struck the pegasus in mid air as Dustan then stepped to the side as he landed, eyes swirling as he got ko’ed by his own landing, or the lightning, he wasn’t sure which. Either way the pegasus soon poofed away. The crowd wasn’t sure how to react, either amazed by how quick both victories were or cheated by how fast the Royal Guard Lost. Regardless, this meant one thing.

“Mare’s and Gentlecolts of all ages, with the Royal Guard now incapacitated except for one, and the Captain of the Luminous Guards already on the field, we are about to be treated to a rare sight, two captains taking the fields against one another. Everypony, please give a round of applause for Captain and commander of the Royal Guard. Shining Armor!”

Dustan moved to the center of the arena where the captain was waiting. “So, now that we are both here, are you having any doubts Shining?”

The white unicorn in his purple armor with the Trojan helmet grinned and responded. “Nope, been honestly looking forward to it. I know Shatter Hoof personally from the academy and I know how strong he is. The fact you could match him like that means you are not one to take lightly.”

Drawing his Coral Sword Dustan readied himself as the horn of Shining Armor started to glow. “Everypony, are you ready?” The crowd got the loudest they had gotten as of yet. “Opponents, are you ready?” Both Shining and Dustan nodded. “Good; then let the battle START!”

Shiny released the glow of his horn putting up a purple dome around himself as Dustan took that time to chant. “Out of the ground, raze all greenery with flame! Fira Sword!” The Coral Sword erupted in fire and lightning, the latter thanks to its natural affinity for said element.

“Take all the time you need Dustan, I am really proud of my barriers, do what you need to do if you think it will break it.” Confidence oozed from the unicorn but considering what the other-worlder knew, it was well earned.

“Don’t mind if I do.” Slowly red orbs flew into Dustan as he called out. “Focus, Focus, Focus!” Deciding that enough was enough, he rushed forward.

The smile of the unicorn never faded as the human rushed at him. It did fade when the actual clash happened with the elements of fire, lightning, and metal, hit pure force thus causing a large shockwave to occur and cracks to appear on the barrier. Shining was pushed back and was surprised but quickly reapplied a new barrier, this one looking like a bunch of hexes instead of the normal bubble. Dustan likewise was thrown back but managed to land on his feat with a grin.

Standing up and taking on a more casual stance he asked. “Guess that you didn’t expect that huh?”

Chuckling and nodding, likewise in a casual relaxed stance, the head of the Equestrian forces smiled. “No joke. I was using my second best personal barrier thinking you would find out quickly why I was declared a Barrier Master but you cracked it. So I had to put on my best personal shield, this one modular so that if you break one piece it can move around to cover things in case of an opening. All of that is automatic just to let you know because I will reapply missing parts as needed.”

‘Welp there goes that plan, well time to see how strong this one is.’ Shrugging and moving back to a battle stance Dustan called out. “Guess we will just have to see then, technically I can use a strength boosting ability a good amount of times, before it causes strain upon my body. Something for later though.”

Rushing forward Dustan tested the barrier again, this time with a cautious looking Shining inside of it, though this time the barrier held even if one hex cracked but didn’t shatter while throwing back Dustan and leaving Shining Armor standing still.

“The recoil on hitting a barrier like that is no laughing matter. You ok?” While there was genuine concern both knew that it wasn’t needed.

That didn’t stop the human from rubbing his sword arm’s wrist. “Yeah, not going to lie, that made my hand go numb for a split second but the pins and needles are going away.” Watching the hex getting mended the Squire knew that brute force wouldn’t win this and dismissed the Fira Sword effect so his MP would stop draining. “Aurablast.” Dustan called out throwing the hand holding his sword forward like a punch only for it to hit the barrier. “Hmm not bad.”

While it didn’t harm the barrier it did still surprise the pony. “What was that?”

“My neutral magic has its abilities divided up into various Classes or Jobs, as such each one has its own personal twist on things and can do things others might not be able to.” He told the Unicorn as he was slowly walking around the barrier examining it. “That was a Monk ability; think of monk as being a type of martial artist that uses Ki. Anyways I threw out a punch with my Ki as a ranged attack, I wasn’t sure if it was actually thrown or if it just phased through things to hit a target. Now I know.”

Scratching his chin suddenly it seemed like an idea came to him. “So tell me, I saw an earth pony using similar magic, is that neutral magic as well?”

Confusion was plan on Dustan’s face at the question. “I said it was earlier but-.”

He was cut off as Shining continued. “And he learned that from your teachings right? A lost magic that anypony could learn, or anyone for that matter.”

Suddenly it made a sense what Shining was going for and bumped up his opinion of the guy a few notches. “That’s right, as far as I know; no one else knows the secrets to Neutral magic but myself and those I let know.”

“So what you are saying, if somepony wanted to learn, they would have to come train under you and your guard?” With a nod both men smiled at what they just did. “Good to know.” Rolling his shoulders some the unicorn took up a proper stance again. “Ok then, are you done probing my defenses? I am sure you will find that they are quite thorough.”

Suddenly stopping and grinning, planting his feet firmly on the ground he pointed his sword towards the leader of the enemy team. “Are you sure about that?”

The frown on Shining’s face showed that he didn’t like that question at all. “What do you mean?”

The human would bring his sword down and have it touch the ground as he smiled. “Wind Slash.”

Within the barrier Shining Armor’s eyes widened as he shouted in pain at being slashed at thanks to the Geomancer ability that was used on him. His horn would light up and the barrier would flash and the Wind Slash would get cut off suddenly.

Panting as some blood ran down various parts of his body, the Captain of the Royal Guard composed his self before he spoke. “Ok yeah, that did catch me off guard as I didn’t think you had any type of power that traveled through the ground like that. So I just gave myself a three hundred and sixty degree three dimensional barrier. I am now enclosed in a sphere that won’t let enemy magic pass through.”

‘Damn, bastard is more durable then I thought. Honestly not surprising considering his level is almost ten higher then my own.’ Dustan’s Tactical Eye had told him this when they had first stepped out onto the field to meet the unicorn. “Well then, I guess it’s back to me probing your defenses since you are a barrier type. You specialize in defense and letting me wear myself out after all.”

That caused the purple wearing guard to smile, a smile that put Dustan strangely on edge. “Tell me Dustan, do you know what it takes for a specialist to be considered a Master?” He already didn’t like where this conversation was going. “For example, for a mage that specializes in fire, they must be able to meet one of two criteria which is very similar for all mages. Master your aspect to such a large extent that you can tap into other aspects even if just a bit, or make it so your aspect doesn’t have a weakness anymore.”

‘The hairs on the back of my neck are standing up. My body realizes something that my brain hasn’t yet, fuck.’ The thought right away took hold of Dustan as he was listening to the explanation.

The unicorn didn’t notice the inner thought or the shift of the human’s stance slightly though. “For the latter part of a fire aspect mage they would have to make it so wind couldn’t blow out their fire nor could water extinguish it. For the former though, I have seen fire mages conduct a fire so strong with so much heat that it turns to plasma, basically lightning. Or for another example I have seen a fire master go against a water mage who threw a wave of water at him, only for the fire mage to freeze the water solid in an instant by sucking up all the heat from the water.”

Getting his guard up and raising his shield arm the Squire realized what Shining was saying now. “So you are telling me, you are a Barrier Master, someone who can go on the offensive instead of just stay defensive?”

Instead of answering him simply the unicorn conjured a flat rectangle type barrier in the open. “This is a rectangle barrier right? As you can see, I can shape my barriers all kinds of ways. So what happens if I do this?” The bottom of the barriers now tapered with one of the sides pulling back at the bottom effectively giving the barrier an edge.

“So you turn your defensive option to offense by sharpening the edges.” To anyone listening it was a question, but both he and Shiny knew that he was just making a statement as Shiny finished the little demonstration up by shaping the barrier to a proper sword shape.

Nodding the unicorn conjured up three more of those barriers for a total of four barrier swords. “That’s right. That being said it is true that I do like the more defensive option as I like to protect more than attack so I rarely get to bring this out, but my instincts are telling me leaving you alone to probe my defenses will be bad for me. That and if I don’t end this soon the wounds you gave me might start to really get to me and I might lose concentration on my barrier. En Guard Dustan.”

With that the four swords quickly rushed towards him giving him just enough time to dodge one of the swords but not the other three. To defend himself against the others his shield was raised to fend off one, his sword the next, and by luck he managed to kick the other away as he struggled to get ground to catch some breathing room. He didn’t succeed and instead only managed to stagger the attacks of the blades to a barely manageable defensive where only two at a time came at him.

‘This isn’t going to work. I need to do something quick but it is not like these things are weapons otherwise I would use Rend Weapon. Right?’ Deciding that testing the theory couldn’t hurt so he readied himself and pushed forward. “Rend Weapon!”

His Coral Sword turned red and slightly ethereal as he slashed at the barrier sword and the instant the blades made contact, the barrier shattered causing Shining Armor to yelp out in surprise and the other blades to falter. Seizing the chance Dustan repeated what he had done on the other three destroying them as well. The human could feel himself wearing out quickly so he went in for a decisive strike.

Running up to the shielding hexes he called out. “Rend Armor!” The results were his sword phasing through with nothing to show for it. “Rend Shield!” Sadly that was the same result.

By this point though the two failed attempts and gap closing efforts let Shining Armor recover to the point where the barrier swords started to reappear causing the human to be forced back. “I am not going to lie, that smarts. I haven’t experienced a spell backlashing like that in a long while. I am just lucky you couldn’t do the same to my barrier or I might be toast.”

‘Backlash! I had forgotten about that!’ Smiling at this Dustan looked to the fellow captain and asked him. “I will admit, both the cases of breaking your offense and failing to break through your defense surprised me though. I wish I could have followed it up better but at this point we both might exhaust ourselves too much to continue.”

Nodding in agreement the unicorn looked over his wounds, still bleeding from before. “Plus blood loss is bound to get both of us soon.”

“Both of us? But I am not-” Dustan had done incredibly well to defend himself with sword and shield, escaping any wounds, or so he thought. Looking to his right side showed his arm had sustained more than a few good gashes and he was leaking a lot of red onto the ground. Recovering from his shock quickly Dustan tried to blow off the wounds as best as possible. “Guess my adrenaline is pumping more than I thought, I didn’t even notice them, either that or your blades cut way more cleanly then I thought they would. There is just one small difference between you and me when it comes to wounds though Shiny.”

“Oh, what would that be?” Curiosity had a hold of the pony as he watched Dustan raise his sword arm.

“Life’s refreshing breeze, heal from the sky! Cura!” Two balls of green light spiraled around the man as his wounds closed and he grinned resting his sword on his shoulder. “I can recover.”

The crowd went wild with that to which even Shining Armor joined by stamping his hoof in applause. “Well done. Seems our skills are rather opposite of each other. I am specialist while you seem to be a jack of all trades. Well at least I would like to say that normally.” His horn started to glow and the wounds on his body sealed themselves. “But I also know healing magic. I learned it so I could also treat those wounded in the field and while I am not the best at it, I can patch a soldier up just fine by sealing up his wounds or at least slowing blood flow.”

The Squire narrowed his eyes as a suspicion dawned on him. “You made it so you weren’t bleeding all that much after that first hit huh?”

Giving a grin of his own the unicorn smiled. “Got me. Bluffing is a viable strategy to make your opponent think they have an upper hoof. Truth is that I could keep this up all day.”

‘Given what I know from the show and how he kept Canterlot shielded for…huh, guess it’s been so long that I can’t actually remember how long he held that shield but I remember it was days on end, that and in the Crystal Empire, no wait, that was Cadence. Damn my memory really is starting to fail me on the show.’ Sighing and chuckling at that Dustan could only think of one last thing to try. “Guess you had me on the ropes from the start then huh?”

Nodding and smiling the unicorn gestured with a hoof to him. “To be fair, you have surprised me more than a hoofful of times during this whole thing. If I ran into a few individuals with skills half as good as yours, I am not sure if I would win such a fight.”

‘So far so good, time to see if he falls for it.’ Rolling his shoulders and stretching them Dustan put his sword away. “Well then, how about a little bet Shining Armor? We both know that your barrier will block anything that I do normally so long as you don’t give me time to prepare to face it right?”

“Go on.” Seems that both brother and sister had a curious streak a mile wide, which was a good thing considering that this was his last chance.

“Well then, the bet is this. You give me time to muster my best attack. If, by the time the smoke clears, your barrier is still standing, I will concede the battle regardless of if we can continue or not.” While he gave a sure smile the human was really hoping the unicorn would take the bait.

The Barrier Master seemed to consider that for a good moment before he asked. “Let me guess. If by some chance you destroy my barrier, you want me to surrender instead?” Dustan gave a nod to the unicorn which let him take another moment to consider. “Alright, deal. I am not sure what type of trick you got up your sleeve, but I am curious to what you can do when you go full out.”

‘Score!’ Not able to contain his grin anymore he let it out. “Alright Shining Armor, let me show you an all out attack of mine!” With that said Dustan had but one thought. ‘Black Mage!’

Throughout the entire fight Spike had been whooping it up for both sides next to her making her chuckle through the entire thing, when she wasn’t taking notes about what each side could do. Especially Dustan’s side considering most of what they could do either were extreme versions of things she already knew, or were completely new, like that ‘Rend Power’ that the griffon used. Now when it was time for both of the captains to take the field Twilight was very nervous.

On one hoof she wanted her brother to win, on the other, she wanted to see how far Dustan could push his abilities. So she used a spell she rarely used to record her thoughts to parchment while she watched so she could be free to take in all she could without missing anything. The initial clash was spectacular as she watched a powered up Dustan crack her brother’s shield, something she didn’t think was possible as she had never known him to really lose on that front at all. Then again it had been some time since her brother really demonstrated his skill to her, which after this she knew she needed a refresher to reevaluate what he could do.

Everything from the personal strongest shield of her brother, to the mysterious air attack that Dustan used, the barrier weapons, and the shattering of said weapons amazed Twilight to no end as it did her assistant and her friends. “Look at ‘em go, Ah may not be a magic pony of any type but even Ah can tell that is impressive.”

“Indeed Darling, it is most impressive and makes you really understand that our dear friend down there is a lot stronger than any of us possibly gave him credit for.” The diva of the group said in response to the hard working earth pony.

“I know right!” Pronked the pink pony from her seat. “Did you see those two, I mean the POWS, and the BOOMS, and BOOSHES!!!”

“Right, it’s so awesome!” The flapping came from a row down as the rainbow maned friend looked around to them from next to her bouncing pink friend. “I mean I have caught Merlene and Dustan sparring plenty of times but sparring is completely different then THIS!”

“WOOOO, GO DUSTAN!” A surprisingly loud shout from their normally silent and shy companion, which gave them all a good laugh as she realized she was being looked at.

“Its super surprising what all Dustan can do right Twilight?” The green and purple assistant asked to which she nodded.

“I’m definitely going to need an updated list for sure.” She was actually very glad for her spell going off and writing as it made a note for her to get said list.

The girls and Spike continued to watch and as the bet was being set up as Rainbow Dash looked to the others. “Oh let’s get in on that, what do you all think will happen? I am thinking Dustan has something up his sleeve and he is going to totally blow that shield away with some strong magical attack.”

“Oh come dear, no need to place bets, just enjoy watching.” Rarity told her as the rest of their friends started to watch.

“Alright Shining Armor, let me show you an all out attack of mine!” As they heard, that the speedster started to call out a ‘told you so’ when she froze.

As did everyone in the stadium as Dash asked a simple question. “Woah, does anypony else feel that?”

Rarity just nodded not surprising considering she was a unicorn. Surprisingly though, so did the rest of the group. This caught Twilight by surprise, so much so she went so far as to look at her friends to see if they truly did. Each one had a look on their face that told her that indeed each one felt the sudden surge of magical power coming from the human.

“RD, even Ah can feel that.” Well there was the Element of Honesty chiming in so that confirmed it. “The only time Ah have felt something that strong is from Twilight here when she rocked that Ursa Minor to sleep.”

“Yeah, power wise it seems Dustan has a similar amount of magical power as I do.” The Magister told her friends. “The only difference is that I use Harmonic Magic which means Equestria also gives me power which likely would give me the edge in pure power.” However Twilight stood in her seat as she felt more power coming from Dustan. “That being said that is a whole lot of power.”

From their seats, and thanks to the magical enchantment on the field, they could hear what Dustan was saying. “Heavenly bolts,-” The human had one hand held out in front of him, palm open as his shield arm braced his arm. “-come bring god’s judgement!” Lightning crackled off the arm before starting to gather into a ball at his hand. “Thundaga!” The ball of lightning was suddenly propelled from the hand holding it and rapidly sent on a collision course with the shield. When it did a loud explosion rang out causing many in the stadium to cry out as smoke and dust covered the center of the field where the arena portion was.

Normally she had complete confidence in her brother’s shields, but Twilight would later read her doubts in her notes as was hoping her brother was ok.

Feeling the power and hearing the telltale crackle of lightning in his palm Dustan knew he had one shot. “Thundaga!” Instead of keeping his aim steady though, he drifted slightly down on purpose. The massive ball of plasma not only made contact with the barrier of his opponent but the ground as well causing a huge cloud of dust to obscure the vision of all there.

“Sorry Dustan, if you were hoping that I was bluffing earlier when I said I made my barrier extend underground as well, I wasn’t.” The voice of Shining called out from the haze.

However Dustan was already running up on the barrier at this point, gathering his magical power once again. “Illusion, lies to heaven. Dispel Magic!” While true this was called Harmony in the remake of the game he loved, calling it thus here seemed wrong and luckily the world agreed letting him change it back. As he completed his chant he touched the barrier and heard the sound of glass shattering and a cry of agony from the pony within. He had but one shot, just in case the unicorn reneged on his deal, so the human quickly drew his Harmonium Axe and moved it to the throat of the figure he saw in the dust.

As the smoke cleared the collective gasp from the crowd showed them that many believed him to be the loser of the exchange when they heard the captain of the Royal Guard speak before, now though he spoke in a different voice. “Going to have to ask how before I give up. You owe me that much at least.”

Dustan grinned and withdrew his axe putting it back in its loop as he held out a hand to help the pony get up and help him keep steady. “My plan was never to overpower your shield but to break it. When you mentioned backlash that is when the plan started.” Sitting down on the ruined flooring Dustan leaned back. “I knew any attack I could do at the moment wouldn’t burst your bubble so to speak, so I made sure to word myself carefully. I said ‘after the dust clears if your barrier was still up’.”

“Which I fell for hook, line, and sinker thinking you only meant the one attack.” As Shiny cleared that up Dustan nodded.

“Yeah, that is what I was hoping for from the start.” Laying on the ground then he chuckled. “I have a neat spell up my sleeve called Dispel Magic, which like the name implies, nullifies magical effects on something. Your barrier is centered on you and by extension means the barrier is a part of you that I can target. So I targeted it and by extension you. When I cast, your barrier shattered-”

“Causing me backlash, like I mentioned earlier, so even if I had not agreed to surrender you were ready with a follow up stroke.” Suddenly Shining Armor started to laugh. “I was completely outplayed, ow, hurts to laugh.” Holding his head suddenly as his laughter ended. “Anyways, a deal is a deal. I yield. This is your win, but don’t expect the same results next time.”

As Shining poofed from the field Dustan registered that his name was being called out as the Winner. “With that Mares and Gentle colts, we have a winner. With a total of sixty four to forty three, the winners of this exhibition match are the Luminous Guard of Luminary Castle!”

Closing his eyes Dustan smiled. ‘Hell yeah. Though if we do fight again Shiny, I am sure the results will show you are stronger than me for sure.’ The Lord of the Everfree didn’t get to keep his eyes closed as the call of his team rang out and soon he felt himself being dog piled by all of them. “Hey, if the match was still going, that would have poofed me, ease up will you!”

Chapter Thirty Two: Family.

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My Little Tactics

Chapter Thirty Two: Family.

Zap Apples: one of the Apple Family’s biggest sellers and what pulls in plenty of the bits for the year alone. If Dustan remembered right Applejack once told him that it was nearly twenty percent of their annual income. The human couldn’t remember if that was ever mentioned in the show or if it was different in said show but at this point his memory was failing him and he was conceding more and more points lost to time then he would like. He wanted to get a hold of some of those products this year but doubt he would all things considered with how popular it was.

The crunch of a Timberwolf head came and went as Dustan and some of the Luminous Guard were currently protecting the farm. The human looked at the splintered remains of the wolf as it started to put itself back together and waited for the guard to be the ones to finish them off or drive them away. In truth Dustan was rather bored, Timberwolves were just not a challenge anymore and he zoned out while fighting them most of the time which was why he was only there as back up.

“My Lord, the wolves are coming together to form the giant wolf!” He heard one of the guard shout at him making him come out of his thoughts and smiled.

“Good, was honestly bored out of my mind.” The Lord called out as he rolled his shoulders stretching as he watched the wolf starting to form.

After the exhibition match many questions were raised both by his friends, random ponies, and those of Luminary Castle as well, most of which were about his strength or his techniques. Truth was Dustan never thought anything about it till that tournament and now that it came and went letting him examine what had happened he found that he needed to do some tests of his own. The tests consisted of a sprint, a long run, various types of weight lifts, and a balance test. The results surprised Dustan immensely! While he couldn’t remember the exact numbers, he had remembered the general number range of the fastest sprint being something like twenty five to thirty miles per hour. He clocked in at sixty two showing he was now twice as fast as the fastest human on Earth in a sprint. For a mile run he found he just barely made it in under a minute at fifty eight seconds which at this point the results were almost scaring him. What was worse was that he was doing this all as a Squire, meaning he could have altered the results even more if he chose to go Thief or Ninja.

Similar results came in the weight category; this was the results that sickened him the most. Again, while he couldn’t remember the exact numbers, Dustan knew that the deadlift record was somewhere around half a ton. His came out to over a ton to which he put a stop to the tests that day and went to his room to drink. Somewhere along his journey, his training, and hardships he had slipped past human boundaries and had not even noticed. Was this a result of magic, either his or Equestria’s having an effect on him? Was this something done by the Merchant all that time ago when he was sent to this world? He suspected it was the Final Fantasy influence as in every game it was clear that all the main characters, or those that you played as at least, that they slipped past human boundaries at some point with some games it happening sooner. Sabin makes six really clear that he was beyond human when he suplexed a train.

Dustan mulled around the knowledge he had so far and mused that it was both a good and bad thing that he had slipped past those bounds like he had. Good in that let him keep up with those around him in training and against threats, but bad because of a simple question that came with it: Did this make him less human? The question didn’t get easier to ask himself as the next day the results of the other weight lifting reported a similar boost past norms so far shown. He was even able to perform an anime trope of the one fingered one handed push up which resulted in him needing to drink again that night. The tests of agility and reaction time came in the form of dodging attacks that were easier to measure: Bows and arrows. He told them not to tell them when they were to be fired nor how many they would choose to fire and to see if he could dodge them. Not only could he dodge them but he found he could catch them pretty easily.

Dustan that night drank, knowing that even if he was genetically still human; the answer to his question was that he wasn’t human anymore. Humans had limits, they have pushed those limits and have records of them and if he had just barely managed to push past those he would have not even thought of anything against his humanity. However he didn’t just pass those limits, he had crushed them and left them so far behind, with the knowledge of he was still getting stronger and faster all the time. He had passed the limits of humanity, but he was still unsure of his own maximum limits. The Squire had always had a debate to himself that if humanity were to somehow invade Equestria, that they would ultimately win just based on things like nukes. With ponies that could match him who could now lift a ton being trained, while not common, meant that the average was still higher than a human. A pegasus who could fly faster then humans or just run faster than normal horses, magic that could do many different things, and then the grand power of all Alicorns…he was starting to have doubts about the assured victory. What was more the brown cloak wearing human knew that this wasn’t counting weather manipulation, other species like Griffons or Minotaurs, or the overwhelming nature something like a Diamond Dog who could tear through gems or Dragons who were just overpowered in general in large size could add.

Dustan was still coming to grips with the profound nature of his abilities even now as the giant Timberwolf was being ridden by him having gotten on top of it after a failed pounce where he had rolled to the side before climbing up on it’s back. The brown eyed man didn’t want to destroy this creature but every time he spoke it seemed either not to understand his warnings or ignored them. So even as it was trying to buck him off it’s back the man would sigh knowing that he had tried. Forcing a hand between some of the branches that made up its body he chanted for the Fira spell before letting it loose inside of the creature causing it to howl a horrific sound before Dustan leapt off its back as it shuddered and collapsed in a heap. No human could do what he just did.

“Great job My Lord!” Merlene called as she flew over.

“Hmm? Oh thanks.” The reply came and a smile was mustered but Dustan just didn’t have it in him to give it the full effect it needed. His stomach grumbled and he was thankful for it. “I am going to go into town for something to eat. Everything looks to be ok here. Come get me if something happens.”

The Squire barely heard her reply as he started to head to town. Thoughts kept popping into his head of Earth, Patrick, His Mom and Dad, Sarah, and more. If any of them knew him now, would they even wish to associate with him? Pat would as he would think its cool to have a superpowered friend. Sarah, if it was before the accident, likely would have supported him no matter what with the new one likely trying to make use of his new abilities somehow. His Mom and Dad though, he would like to think they would support him but even with those thoughts each person he thought of came with doubts.

“Oh hi Dustan! Out for a walk?” It was Twilight along with Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie.

He tried to give a good smile but like with Merlene, it didn’t come. “Oh hey you three.”

Twilight didn’t need to have Pinkie sense of any of the party ponies sense of happiness to know that something was up with the resident human of Ponyville. “We were just out for a walk and thinking about stopping by the school to listen to some of the presentations for Family Appreciation Day.”

Instantly she noticed a wince pass across the face of her friend. “I think I will pass. As neat as that sounds I feel like I wouldn’t have much to contribute. You girls go on without me.”

Pinkie must have sensed something though as when he tried to leave she zipped up and pulled out a cupcake from her mane. “Here, I can hear from here your stomach imitating one of Fluttershy’s animal friends.”

Seeming to nod and giggle herself the normally timid pegasus would smile. “It does indeed sound like Harry.”

“No thanks Pinkie. I am just don’t feel like eating at the moment. Thanks for offering though.” With that he walked away leaving the three mares to look at each other.

Pinkie was the first to speak up after sniffing her cupcake. “Well its not this. What is making him so sad?”

“He seemed to really be lost in thought when we ran into him. Maybe something has happened at the Castle?” Fluttershy might be on to something there.

Nodding in agreement The mage of the group started to light up her horn. “Lets go find out. Get close girls.”

A pop later and the group were at the gates to the Castle courtyard as they went inside. A woosh of flame came from one side of the courtyard as Mystic was practicing his magic, while the slicing of air came from the other side as the rest of the Guard worked on weapons training. Since the exhibition match against her brother’s team, Twilight has really come to realize how extraordinary the training at Luminary Castle was. She remembered how her brother came to tell her about the training he did while she was still at Canterlot Castle training with Celestia and nothing she heard from her brother seemed to compare to the rigors of the training put here.

‘I suppose it just goes to show that they really are pushing ponies to the limits then breaking those limits here.’ She personally knew that while those that participated for Luminary were chosen as the best, a good deal of them were only marginally ahead of some others. If there was a full team battle all at once, she honestly would place her bets with Dustan’s group more than any other force for sure even if that did slightly hurt her pride in her home, but only slightly.

The girls were lucky in that the guards that were training seemed to get a break letting them come up and talk to many of them all asking them the question of: “Can you tell us what has been happening lately at the castle. Dustan seems to have his mind on something and we are worried about him.”

For the most part the day to day of the castle had not been all too much different, except that they were finding more and more nobles as well as interested parties showing up to discuss things. At first this led the girls to think that maybe Dustan was stressed out from all the new happenings, but that didn’t seem to be the case as many even claimed to have seen the Lord of the Everfree smile after some of those meetings. The smiles seemed to stop though when the discussion of the tests came up.

The word ‘Tests’ instantly made the studious mare both excited and worried as she was slightly triggered by it but once learning what the tests were she sighed in relief. “Yeah, Lord Warner really seemed to get upset at some of the results. I heard he stormed off on the first day, I was on guard duty that day sadly so couldn’t see. Maybe he didn’t get a score he was looking for? I don’t know.”

The next pony informed them of the second day tests making Pinkie Pie whistle at hearing about his strength. Another informed them of day three and four again with Pinkie commenting on his reaction speed for the last day all the while Twilight was taking notes. Truthfully though, it didn’t seem like they got many answers though until finally they spoke to the current figure standing before them. It was the tall commander of physical training himself Tremor the dragon. Fluttershy immediately eeped and hid behind the pink mare as Twilight stepped forward to speak to him on behalf of the group.

“Excuse me Tremor. We were looking for answers on Dustan’s mood as of late and why it seemed to be down. So far we are looking at the possibility of stress from the new visitors, him being upset at the result of some tests, and last being an unknown reason that we haven’t found yet and were hoping you could help us out.” Twilight hoped she stated the problem clearly having not had all that much interaction with the dragon personally.

The winged scaled commander must have sensed that as he reached out and gave her a pat on the head. “Do not worry ponies, I will not bite. As for your quarry its likely a combination of the two things you have found so far, and the last that none seem to notice.” This caught all the girls curiosity as the dragon waved them into the castle proper asking Faithful if some tea could be brought out.

The old butler quickly got the tea along with some biscuits of which Pinkie asked for the recipe for. “Ok so stress, plus those tests we know but what about the last one?”

Calmly sipping the tea the dragon sighed and looked over them. “The stress at first was nothing to write about, but it was clearly weighing on him. I first noticed his shoulders dropping a couple of days when he got back from Canterlot and at first I thought it was purely because of those now visiting. I was wrong, something has been on his mind since then and it seemed to take up more and more of his thoughts as time went by. The catalyst seemed to be the tests he wanted done though.”

“Ok so that means it has to be related to the tests if those were the catalyst right?” Twilight’s question was met with a shrug.

“Who’s to say, all I know is that when he went to his room, my nose picked up the smell of many bottles of cider having recently being drank rather rapidly from what I could guess. It takes quite a bit for your pony liquor to affect him though, which means he was looking to escape from whatever thoughts had hit him because of the tests. Which he went back to day after day so much so that I suspect that when he gets back to the Castle from the subjugation run of the Timberwolves that he will likely have some kind of alcohol with him for his personal reserves.” Tremor sighed and looked at his cup. “All I know is that whatever it is, it’s not weighing on his mind so much as his heart. I have my suspicions on what it is but it’s not my place to say.” Finishing off his cup he set it down and finished his thought. “I have seen the looks on many a trainee and those flying a far distance.” Standing up the dragon stretched and started to walk away. “I have to get back to supervising the training of the guard. I wish you all the best of luck if you wish to help him.”

With that the dragon left them alone to their thoughts each of them seeming to contemplate various different things, so they were all a bit surprised when Rainbow Dash landed near them followed by Rarity and Applejack. “Oh what are you girls doing here?”

The speedster smiled first and puffed out her chest. “Been training and hanging with Merlene mostly. She isn’t the fastest flyer but she can fend off herself well enough, plus we didn’t get to see her fight in the match so been trying to see what she can do.”

“I am here making a delivery, it seems many want to decorate the castle with some tapestries so I was commissioned to make some prototypes to see if any would fit.” The fashionista told them as she brought a couple out of her pack. “These are the first two I designed, though Dustan really should make a prominent symbol of some type.”

The prototypes were quite nice but indeed there seemed to be something missing from each and Rarity was quite glad when Applejack spoke up to draw attention from the incomplete work. “Ah am here for a delivery as well, but for me its apple and other goods.” She pointed a hoof at her empty cart. “Ah get regular orders from the castle so pretty good bits whenever Ah come here. What about you girl, you all look like somepony done stole the last apple fritter before you could get your hooves on it.”

“Something has been bothering Dustan a lot lately.” The purple unicorn told her friends. “Tests that he has taken has brought something to mind or called out a bigger issue and it’s been weighing on him it seems.”

The girls frowned but it was the chromatic mare of the bunch that spoke up. “Yeah, Merlene has said the same thing. She said he has been drinking heavily lately.”

“What could have driven him to drink though? Surely this can’t simply be about some tests right?” Rarity seemed to have spoken what they were all thinking as they all nodded in agreement.

The normally energetic party pony was concerned and it clearly showed in her voice. “Something has Dusty down in the dumps that is all we know. I wish we knew more.”

“Maybe we should ask him what is wrong?” Fluttershy quietly asked while looking at her friends.

Sadly her suggestion was shot down. “Dustan ain’t the type to tell no pony his problem that Ah have noticed. He keeps it all to himself.”

“I know it’s pretty unladylike but if he keeps drinking to himself, maybe if we eavesdrop on him we will understand. I mean we can’t ask him, he is clearly hurting in some way and won’t tell anypony.” The suggestion of the posh pony, while not the most honest of actions, seemed like the best choice so far especially as none of the other girls had anything better to beat it.

It seemed like their choice was further cemented as Dustan himself was seen coming back to the castle. Right away they all knew something was up. While he waved and smiled back to any who greeted him, it was clear he was not entirely there. His eyes looking far off and his smile didn’t seem full enough for his usual self. The thoughts of each of them hoped that he wasn’t going to go back to his room to do what they thought he might. However that hope was dashed when he told one of the castle guard that he was heading up to his room and not to be disturbed. They all knew that he was going there to drink and each of the girls knew that this was likely the only chance they would get to listen to him.

They waited, waited till the door closed and even then waited minutes after that. They didn’t want any chance Dustan would come out if he forgot something as they all snuck up there. Merlene was surprisingly already there guarding the door and as she seen them had a somber look on her face as she looked at Dash.

“He’s already started. I think it’s bad this time, he looked ready to cry.” The falcon type griffon told them as they all joined her up at the door.

They could hear the clank of one empty bottle against another as the cap of another was pulled off. “What do you think Pat? Bet you couldn’t believe it either. Mom and Dad sure were surprised when I told them.” Then a genuine laughter came from the resident inside. “You should have seen the looks on their faces when I showed them.” The laughter though slowly changed becoming less happy as it continued until eventually it turned to crying.

“Twilight can’t we do something?” Pinkie asked her, clearly close to tears herself as were all of them at the door.

She wanted to answer her but instead of getting the chance a voice rose up in song from inside the room. “Almost heaven, West Virginia. Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah River. Life is old there, older then the trees. Younger then the mountains, growing like a breeze.~”

This song, whatever it was, hurt and it hurt just as much as the time when the concert with Vinyl happened. Whatever he was singing came from pain and though it didn’t seem like the Music of Harmony was working here, in a way that made it even more pain. Somepony, no someone, who expressed themselves because of pure emotion without the need or aid of magic seemed even more powerful and sad then if they were aided by the magic that inhabited the land.

It only got worse as Dustan’s voice rose up clearly, so clear that she wouldn’t be surprised if he was heard a floor down. “Country roads, take me home! To the place, where I belong! West Virginia, mountain mamma!~” the last verse wasn’t delivered in tune though they all knew it was part of the song. Instead all the girls there knew, it was a plea from the heart. “Take me home, country roads.”

They all knew exactly what was bothering Dustan so much now. The tests may have triggered it, but this day, this day especially seemed bad for him. Why? Because it was family appreciation day and the human had no family to share it with. He was home sick and no way of knowing how to get home.

When Twilight got home that day, after spending some time with her friends and giving them each a hug and telling them how thankful she was to have them there, she sat down and wrote a letter to her brother and to her mom and dad. When Spike got home he was concerned by her sudden need for a hug but she assured him that she was fine, though he clearly didn’t buy it. Later after dinner she lay in her bed reading her book that she got during her birthday but ended up closing it as she couldn’t concentrate on it.

Staring down at her pillow all she had were her thoughts even as Spike lay in his basket next to her. ‘Dustan is clearly home sick and honestly it shouldn’t surprise me. What does surprise me is that I have heard of no pony even trying to locate his homeland or even try to get him home. He was brought here against his will; of course he is going to miss his home and his life. Celestia I remember wrote me asking for any clues but when I told her what I knew she told me that it wasn’t enough to go on and that it’s likely that anything they could find out wouldn’t help seeing as the world was big and there were many places still unexplored. Even if we did somehow find out where he came from what then? There wouldn’t be any trains, a hot air balloon might not be safe enough; what if it’s across the ocean, what then? Teleporting might be an option if either of the princesses tried it but that wouldn’t teleport them across the world.’

Setting her book on the nearby desk she sighed and felt her eyes getting heavy wondering if there was anything she could do. When her eyes nearly closed the fading images on her desk caused her eyes to suddenly shoot open. Rushing out of bed, though quietly to avoid waking the little dragon next to her, she tested out a theory by plucking one of her own hairs from her mane. When the answer came, while surprising, she was delighted. Now it was just a matter of putting her brain to the test, and this is one she was going to pass.

With those thoughts in her head, she was more than happy to lay back down with a smile on her face, having a plan of action for her next magical studies.

It took about two weeks for Dustan to get out of the funk he was in and only because of something someone mentioned. A birthday of someone he knew was coming up, one he hoped to change for the better though he had warned those close to him to pack up various valuables in the vault. As he had a ‘premonition’ and if it came true to let the Elements of Harmony deal with it. He didn’t tell them what it was, but it didn’t matter as he wasn’t going to be able to be there to deal with it as he had been called up to Canterlot for a few days as Celestia and Luna had been gathering information on the Eidolons and wanted his opinion on things as well as some other unusual spotting of creatures.

As he went into the treebary for the party he smiled as things went off how he remembered it, though honestly the reason he remembered this episode so well was because of his distaste for Rarity in it for how she manipulated Spike. Sadly it seemed that didn’t change as she was sporting the fire ruby necklace she made. All the presents stacked up on the little dragon rather quickly making him collapse, though the human had waited until after the collapse to hand his present over to the young drake.

“-piece inspired by the generosity of Spikey-wikey.” Dustan tuned into Rarity after she spoke a bit cause honestly he was watching the dragon for any signs of the episode to come. “And I will be making one for each and every one of you.”

Seeing the mantle like cape he had no choice but to hold up a hand and shake his head. “I am afraid that I likely won’t wear it Rarity.”

The unicorn gasped hearing that as she rushed over to him. “Why not darling? I am sure it would look good on you and it would certainly bring out your color more than the drab piece you are wearing now. Plus it will make you look more regal befitting a lord of your station.”

Not able to hold back a chuckle Dustan merely pressed a hand to the claps of his cloak. “Sorry Rarity but still going to have to decline. I have never been one for overly fancy garb as you know from my custom orders from you. Also this cloak was the last thing given to me by a friend before I was sent to Equestria so it means more to me then a lot of things honestly.”

That seemed to cause the mood of the girls to shift into a sad and awkward moment which caught him off guard. “Anyways, maybe Spike should open his presents now?”

Twilight’s suggestion hit it off well with the others especially the young dragon who gave an excited yell before savagely murdering the wrapping of the presents he had gotten. Of course there were the expected toys and comics from his friends as well as AJ’s apple themed blanket which Spike kept thanking her for, but surprisingly Twilight had ordered the presents to be opened in order of them being received rather than alphabetical order or some other sequence that she likely would find pleasing. This meant that Dustan’s present to the drake was the last to be opened.

As the little dragon opened up his gift he pulled it out and it took a moment before he realized what it was. “Is this-” Before finishing his question he opened up a clasp on the object and wrapped it around his shoulders. “Oh neat it’s a cloak kind of like yours.”

Said cloak was a similar color to purple though Dustan himself didn’t know the exact name for the shade. “Yeah, it’s smaller but I figure that it would be enough to hide your arms a bit and look good.”

“Oh Spike that shade of deep lilac really complements your purple scales and really makes them pop.” Rarity called out to him with the complement as well as identifying the shade of purple that the cloak was. “The stitching on this item, while not the best, is built more for use and likely won’t wear out for a long time.”

“Yeah, sorry about that. Not the best when it comes to that sorta thing. I know how to work the needle some but not masterfully like our resident designer here.” Dustan chuckled out as he leaned against the wall of the treebary.

“Wait you made this yourself Dustan?” Spike asked him to which he nodded. “Yeah, been trying to make more things by hand as they seem to work well with my nature as a neutral magic user, so they tend to come out with some effects.”

“You mean how like my bracelet you gave me for my birthday raises my magic and strength?” Twilight asked as he responded with a nod.

“Oh oh! Will Spike be able to breathe fire balls or something now?” Everyone looked at Pinkie Pie for a moment before she realized. “Oh right he can do that now.”

Smiling at her antics the Squire would call out and tell them what it did. “Actually it is supposed to raise up his evasion. It basically makes him harder to actually hit by physical and magical attacks, similar to how mine works. Supposedly it’s supposed to be raised by around ten percent, though it’s kind of hard to measure that sort of thing. It’s made of wool as well so if you ever get cold it should help with that as well.”

The little dragon ran up to him and gave him a big hug to which he returned. “Thank you so much.” Then he ran up to Applejack again. “And thank you for the blanket; I have been needing a new one.”

Just like that the episode seemed to pick up where it left off, like he wasn’t even needed there. A sobering thought for sure so he almost missed the call for Sugarcube corner. As they were walking he stopped and sighed, not wanting to ruin the mood.

“Sorry everyone.” They all turned to look at him. “But you will have to save me a piece of cake, I have to head up to Canterlot and I already booked a ticket on the train. The princesses wanted me up there to discuss things today, but I put it off as long as I could so I could make some of Spike’s party.”

They all gave a ‘awww’ to hear that though Spike surprisingly was the most mature. “It’s ok, we will make sure to save you some. I mean if the princesses called it must be something important.”

Dustan walked up to the small drake and knelt down in front of him and placed a hand on his shoulder, covered now by his new mantle. “Sometimes you have to do things as an adult that aren’t exactly the most pleasing, but you do them for others. That is what being responsible means, doing things not because they are fun but because they need to be done for others. Temper that with a generous and loving heart to know when not to do something wrong and you will find the road to walk not easier but in fact harder. Nothing in life that is worth it is ever easy, but that is what makes it so sweet to when you finally get it. Greed won’t help and neither will hate. They will only make the road miserable and even then might be what bumps you off the path. Remember that Spike.”

It was clear his words stumped the little guy as he stood up and waved bye to them and headed towards the train. It was Dustan’s hope that this helped him to avoid what was to come in the next day or so. Speaking of next day, his meeting with the princesses had to wait as his train had arrived a lot later then it was supposed to thanks to a blockage on the rails that had to be removed and so he stayed at one of the palaces guest rooms that night so that in the morning he could meet with the advisers and the princesses themselves.

“So you are saying water magic at a distance is likely the best way to counter them and that most earth magic won’t have an effect thanks to them levitating off the ground?” The expedition force commander asked of the human as he had arrived a bit early to the meeting and was now comparing notes.

Because of the commander having apparently not receiving much in the way of detail from his last visit and discussion about enemies, he had come to talk to Dustan in person for advice. “Yes, however note that if they get into critical condition where it looks like they will die, they will self destruct. It’s why they are called Bomb and all of its subspecies are part of the Bomb family and thus have similar names.”

The commander winced upon hearing that and sighed. “We have lost a few good soldiers to these things already as they seem to be gathering here in quite the numbers.”

“That begs the question why there?” Upon looking over Dustan seen the pony was no longer adamant about talking. “Everything ok Commander?”

“Yes Dustan, it is just he is under royal orders not to discuss the mission at hoof with others, so please forgive him.” The voice from the door called out as it opened up revealing Celestia alone this time. “My sister is currently sleeping but I will fill her in on the details of our meeting at our next meal together.”

Turning towards her the human Lord of the Everfree gave a small bow. “Sorry then Commander, I won’t ask anymore about the location.”

Stepping up to her seat at the head of the table the Princess of The Sun looked towards him. “Do not worry about that too much Dustan as I am here to fill you in on the details of such a thing. You see it is my hope that you will join the commander and his team in their efforts.”

Sitting down once more in his seat the man looked towards the ruler of the country, well co-ruler, and merely raised his eyebrow in curiosity. “Oh, can’t say I am not curious but I can’t say I will accept until I hear more details about things, after all knowing is half the battle. G.I. Joe said so himself.” Seeing the confused faces all around he sighed and face-palmed. “It’s a human thing.”

“Oh right, though it seems G.I. Joe as you called him or her is correct.” The commander nodded hearing his princess say such a thing. “Sadly it seems that most of what you had discussed last time you were here was lost, though I suspect most didn’t wish to hear what you had to say. I suspect things are different now after the display against Captain Armor.” Her horn lit up and soon a map appeared on the table before them all. “This is the area in question that the commander could not talk about.”

Looking over the map Dustan couldn’t help but chuckle. “A desert, yeah the heat would attract Bombs for sure, likely also Panthers, Aevis, and Skeletons as the most common types of creatures to roam those areas.”

The princess looked towards the commander who then turned to Dustan. “Could you describe those creature you mentioned for us, I mean Skeletons are pretty obvious but the others not so much.”

“I am sure you have gotten word Princess about my two companions, a White Chocobo and a Coeurl?” When he spotted her nod he smiled. “The Coeurl belongs to the panther family the variations of them differ on coloration and some abilities. They are felines that are bigger then ponies usually with long whiskers no manes or anything like a lion though.”

“Then yes we have encountered that type of creature there. Some had the ability to petrify my soldiers. It was lucky we had a magister with us who knew the counter spell for Lesser Petrification.”

“Lesser Petrification?” As he asked that, Celestia looked out a window to the garden where a certain statue rested. “Ahh ok, never mind I understand. Glad to hear that it didn’t stick though commander.” The commander soon gestured for Dustan to continue though. “Right, Aevis are rather large bird like creatures, how big I honestly couldn’t say as I haven’t seen one but from the images I have seen of them its implied that they are pretty big. They are all dark colored for their feathers, with a blue-ish tinge for the most common, but they all have different chest plumage to show distinction from each other with the most deadly being the ones with red. They are known as Cockatrices for the most part where I am from, but since you already know of another creature named that we will use the lesser term for them Cocatoris so there isn’t any confusion. Just like the creature they share a name with though their beak can also Petrify beings.”

The commander rested his head upon his hooves and sighed loudly. “I really wish I knew all that going in there. True we didn’t suffer any casualties in the long run but our expedition was cut short because of creatures like the ones you described as well as others. Like giant ant looking creatures, turtles with impossibly hard shells, and weird slime looking entities which were extremely durable and seemed to be resistant to magic. There were other things spotted as well but, we avoided them.”

Sighing again Dustan leaned in his chair. “Bug family, Rockbeast family, and Flan family.” He told them getting their attention right away. “The Bug family loves deserts, the most common one is known as an Antlion with its powerful mandibles as well as an ability to manipulate sand. Again I am not sure how big it is cause I haven’t seen it myself before, same with the others I am about to mention. The Rockbeast family are turtle looking creatures with a VASTLY hard shell, thus you tend to want to aim for parts you can hit. They often have metal objects stuck in them like swords where others have tried to attack it and thus can usually turn that into a strength as they somehow vibrate that weapon to affect those with metal on them or in their hands. As for the last one, you would need to tell me what color it was as the Flan family tends to be different though have a similar base set of strengths.”

“They were red.” The commander told him while the Princess stayed silent for the moment.

“Jelly. That is the name of that species of Flan. As you said they are really resistant to physical attacks, but are surprisingly weak to magic attacks.” He could see the commander looking confused but continued. “Let me guess all the offensive mages you had with you went with the thought of ‘It’s the desert so let’s use scorched earth tactics as we can unleash more powerful spells without having to worry about collateral damage?’ and those spells being of the fire element right?”

The pony that had led the expedition’s eyes went wide almost popping out of his head as he leaned forward and put his hooves on the table. “H-how did you know?”

Chuckles and tells him honestly. “Cause if I didn’t know what you were up against I would have had the same mindset. Truthfully it wasn’t a bad call, just a bad match up as a Jelly absorbs fire magic. It’s weak to other magic though by a lot.” Dustan went silent for a moment though as he thought. “I am also guessing since it was the red types, that means that when it looked like you might be actually doing something, one of them that was close to death killed itself and suddenly it seemed like all the others were rejuvenated huh?” Again the bug eyed look said it all. “Jelly have the ability to use Sacrifice, it kills them but heals all of its allies and curse them of any kind of status effect that might be hindering them.”

“Again I really wish you had been around. We might have made progress deeper to find out what the princess sent us there to do. We might have even tried attacking the monster that seemed to be cloaked while holding a knife and a lantern.” It was Dustan’s turn to look wide eyed at the commander.

Shaking his head quickly he reached over and grabbed him. “Listen to me, NEVER engage that enemy. EVER. It’s called a Tonberry and will absolutely MURDER every single thing it comes close to or deems as a threat. If you think I am lying then let me tell you this, even I wouldn’t go near that creature!” Seeing that he was scaring the commander as well as Celestia a bit he took a seat and sighed. “They have two abilities that are devastating. One is called Karma. It can read your soul or something and use the grudge of all those you have killed against you, meaning if you haven’t killed anyone it won’t harm you though it makes no distinction of animal, creature, or actually aware being, anything you killed will come back to bite you with this attack. For the other, it’s called simply Knife. If it uses that little butcher’s knife of a dagger on you I am not sure what will happen. In many cases it is said you will just be put near death, others say it outright kills, so I cannot confirm nor deny its power. They are extremely tough and hard to kill but luckily are incredibly slow. The Karma attack can reach to a range but beyond that as long as you can stay away from the Knife and make sure to only put those close to it that haven’t killed anything, it should be ok. I myself though would likely just explode from Karma considering I have ended a bit too many lives since I have come to Equestria.”

With drawing a bit into himself he distantly heard the Solar Princess ask him a question. “What do you mean since you came to Equestria? Surely someone like yourself was a great warrior in your homeland.”

Dustan couldn’t help but to laugh loudly at that and hold his sides. “Are you kidding, I never killed anything larger then a bug in my previous life. Since I got to Equestria, I have killed a Bomb, an unknown number of Goblins, Skeletons, Timberwolves, a Hydra, a Cocktrice in the woods that one time on a patrol, many many, fish from when I first got here to feed myself, and more I likely am not even thinking of. Hell, I still have nightmares about the first aware thing I killed here in Equestria, the light leaving its eyes as it slumped to the ground after I ended it with my sword.”

“Dustan, I am so, so sorry for the hardship that you have-” Problem was Dustan didn’t want to hear it.

He cut her off and looked to them both as he asked them. “We aren’t here to talk about me though, we are here to talk about this. So tell me, what is it that you were looking for here?”

The Squire could tell that though the subject was over for now it wasn’t closed, so instead the Princess looked to the human and simply said two words. “An Eidolon.”

Chapter Thirty Three: Trains and Travel.

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My Little Tactics

Chapter Thirty Three: Trains and Travel.

“You sure about this lad?” The smith asked of Dustan as the man just gave a nod and smiled. “Ok then, I will have my apprentice look at it as he is gettin’ to be better with fine work then I am in my old age.”

“That is fine Bellows. Truth is I expect it to be destroyed during you taking it apart. I just wanted to make sure you and yours know how to make more or even variants of them if possible.” Dustan watched as the box was carried in the back and murmuring was quickly heard from the old smith’s young ward. “Be careful of the smaller objects in that box, they are explosive.”

“You already told me twice. Though you still haven’t told me where you got such an interestin’ contraption like that.” The old stallion’s hooves were thrown up in the air at this point in excitement. “You go and vanish on us like that and when you show back up you don’t say much just say you had to go somewhere. Had us all worked up and now you give me something like this.”

“I know it’s a bit much to ask but everyone has to keep a secret or two, keeps us all interesting right?” Dustan’s grin must have been infectious as the smith soon started to smile himself.

A chuckle came from that grizzled veteran throat before he gave a nod. “That it does. Alright fine. I will see what I can do, but it’s not a top priority got it? I have enough keeping my plate full as you work all the guards around here into stupors and ding up their armor and weapons.”

“Gotcha. Let me know if you make anything of it. If you need any pointers I left a note of what I do know about it in the box I gave you. Should answer some things but not much as I don’t know much about the inner workings only what it can do.” Stretching, Dustan looked up into the sky before he sighed. “Got to go meet with Allure and then hope on a train, so I am not going to be here for a while.”

“Well safe travels lad. I wish you the best of luck in whatever it is you do.” The brick red and rusted stallion gave him a smile at that. “Seems like whenever you go away this place gets boring so don’t stay away too long.”

“Sorry but if I had my choice, peace and quiet would be the order of the day. I will keep that in mind though.” Dustan didn’t get to take two steps though before he found himself face to face with a flapping blue and rainbow colored obstruction. “Hello Rainbow Dash, mind flapping over to the side? I have to head that way.”

Said pegasus looked at him curiously for a moment as if trying to gauge something. “Actually I wanted to talk to you about something but then I overheard you talk with Burly Bellows there. You going somewhere?”

“Yeah I got to go meet with Allure. Talk to me along the way.” The Squire told her as he started to walk with her flapping around to his side. “What question did you want to ask? Unless the question is ‘where did I go?’ then I will just answer that I had to go meet someone. Just like I had the last few dozen times I got asked that.”

“Umm…” The flying speedster looked away and scrunched up her face, not the most convincing of signs if one was trying not to look like they were thinking up a question on the spot. “H-how are you?”

“Really? You came all the way here to ask me how I am?” She only gave a hesitant nod before Dustan sighed and played along. “I am fine, thank you for asking Dash. Work must be slow if you are concerned about how my day is going.”

“Actually because of the schedule and it being late Spring and early Summer, beyond a few light showers there isn’t much to do.” She told him honestly as she sighed. “Honestly I was thinking about taking a vacation or something it’s just been kinda boring around here.” Gesturing to him she chuckled and smiled. “Honestly I was hoping to get some sparring in with you. Twilight has told me you have some abilities related to martial arts and I am a black belt myself so I was hoping we could get some training in.”

“She is right, but I can’t. I am about to head out of town.” At this point they had gotten to the office in the castle village proper where Allure had her new base of operations.

Most of her work still occurred in Ponyville but she was much more comfortable around the diverse assortment of castle dwellers. “Hey Dustan, Rainbow Dash welcome as well. What brings you two here?”

Dustan just cocked his head to the side confused before gesturing with one of his hands to her. “You called me here remember?”

For a moment the Kirin just looked confused before her hoof came up to slap her forehead. “Silly me, right. You are heading to somewhere in the Neighvada Desert right?”

‘I hate you horse pun god, or whoever decided that these puns were ok.’ Putting a smile on his face despite the irritation of said humor. “Right. Why?”

Reaching into her desk she pulled out a small object and tossed it from her mouth to him. “Take that brooch. If you clip it onto your cloak there as a type of clasp it should enchant it.”

Blinking for a moment before doing as she asked, he looked over his brown cloak and didn’t notice a change. “Ok what is supposed to happen?”

“Ok look at it.” Doing as she told him she continued her instructions. “There is magic in that brooch that is supportive in nature in a couple of ways. The two diamond shapes on the top and bottom indicate temperature. It can give your cloak a slight heating or cooling effect to help mitigate high heats and low colds. Not enough to save you from the effects by itself but coupled with the appropriate clothing it can certainly help.”

Pressing the down diamond he found his cloak started to radiate a cooling effect. “Oh that is just sweet. Air conditioned cloak.”

“That isn’t all.” She told him smiling and holding back her giggles at his demeanor. “The two diamonds rest on a circle, and you notice how it has various colors to it?” Giving a nod she gestured with a hoof. “Rotate it. It’s a wheel.”

Doing so, something instantly caught his eyes as he looked down at his cloak. Cycling from brown it turned to red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet, purple, white, black, then back to its basic brown. The brooch not only turned his cloak into a portable ac, but could change its colors to anything.

Laughing suddenly at a thought he couldn’t help but express it out loud. “Better not show this to Rarity. She would want to equip this to every piece of fabric she could all the time.”

“Yeah, no kidding!” Dash called out laughing with him.

Allure turned her attention back to the pegasus now that she had spoken up remembering that she was here. “So Rainbow, what can I do for you today?”

The laughter of the speedster slowed till it stopped as she thought about things. “Truth is, I was hoping to spar with Dustan here but he is leaving, so my next thought was to take a vacation since weather season is light right now. I have the paperwork already done, just have to turn it in if I want to go. Problem is I don’t know where to go or what I would do.”

“I see. Why don’t you just go with Dustan then?” The Kirin asked of them both to which she could see Dustan shake his head. “Is your mission that dangerous? I have only heard where you are heading not why.”

“Yeah it is that dangerous.” Face-palming and sighing, especially seeing the excited look on Rainbow Dash’s face he knew that she would follow him and not let him out of her sight now. “I am going on a mission asked by Celestia and Luna themselves to the desert on the reports of a possible Esper being there.”

Allure frowned and went into her desk starting to dig around for something as Dash looked confused. “When you say Esper, you mean like that Maggle thing?”

“Moogle.” The human corrected before squinting in concentration. “Also yes and no.” Clearly both Dash and Allure, who had pulled out some documents, were confused. “Yes it’s an Esper, Eidolon, or whatever you wish to call it since it has a few names, but the Moogle is the calmest and least likely to harm anyone.”

“So you are saying it’s going to be dangerous?” The guild leader asked of him as a concerned look came over her to which he gave an affirmative nod.

“How dangerous?” The prismatic mare asked from never him flapping around to face him.

“Dangerous enough that Celestia and Luna are sending plenty of guards with me to find out. Also it will entirely depend on what Esper it is. Golem is the best bet; Titan and Salamander are iffy as I am not one hundred percent sure on what their personalities are supposed to be like. Ifrit though…that is my worry. Ifrit typically doesn’t like other beings at all.”

“You make it sound like you know them.” Dash commented making Dustan both chuckle and shake his head.

“Just stories.” The Squire commented. “Where I am from Titan has been shown to be a guardian, a disturbance, and more. Salamander I think has only shown up in a couple of stories but only one that I know of where it’s been an Esper, I could be wrong on that as it’s been so long my memory is starting to fail me on some things I used to know.” Dustan caught both of the ponies in the room flatten their ears back and make a face so he shook his head. “Its fine. I have accepted the fact that some things are lost to me.”

Rainbow Dash still had her ears back and a worried look on her face. “Are you sure? Merlene said you had been drinking quite heavily before you vanished a couple of days ago.”

Honestly the concern struck Dustan more then he thought. ‘Didn’t realize that they all knew that or were that concerned. Then again, I kinda wasn’t hiding the fact that I was trying to drink my worries away either. I really should take some time and let them know that I am fine now. The meeting with Durin on his world helped out a bit. Seeing another human and knowing that there are others out there going through similar things to me.’ Reaching up he gave Rainbow Dash a pat on the head. “Thanks for the concern, means a lot to know I have people looking out for me. Though I am getting over what was bothering me, slowly but surely Dash.”

Almost adorably Dash nuzzled up into that pats with a happy look on her face before her eyes shot open and a blush came to her face as she swiped at the hand to make it leave. “I am just worried that you will get into another funk and things won’t be its normal levels of crazy around here is all.”

Giving a genuine smile he gave out a simple. “Thanks Rainbow Dash.”

The pegasus looked torn between accepting the thanks as normal and refusing it but luckily was saved by Allure’s giggles. “While the two of you are absolutely adorable, I am curious as to how dangerous your mission will be. On a scale of taking a comfy nap, to taking a dirt nap, how dangerous are we talking about?”

Sighing and leaning his head against his hand the human closed his eyes. “Depends on the Esper. If its Golem, then I would say its somewhere between a lumpy bed of sleep to, sleeping on the ground.”

“What about that Ifrit you spoke of. If it’s that one, what is the scale then?” Allure’s question honestly bothered her as it did Rainbow Dash because when answered it made things awkward.

“There is a good chance that something will die if he follows his lore from what I remember of it.” Dustan frowned as he said that. ‘If he follows lore he will hate me right away just for being human. However a lot of things that aren’t supposed to be in this world have been here long since before I came. Were there humans as well here before me and if not would he still hate humans or something else? There are too many questions.’ Looking up at them he simply said. “In the end, no matter what it is we find, it’s going to be dangerous. Not to mention the Esper, there are plenty of monsters along the way so it’s going to be a trek through creatures some of which even I don’t want to face.”

The last bit got both of the ponies in the room to take attention. “Creatures you don’t want to face? I seen how you fought against Captain Armor and you are telling me there are things that even you still fear?”

“Absolutely.” With that declaration Allure merely sat back down and sighed.

“Ok then. That means I am absolutely going with you.” Rainbow Dash told them with an adamant tone. “Just got to go take Tank to Fluttershy and hoof over my forms for vacation.”

Before Dustan could even argue or try to talk her out of it, even if he personally knew that it wouldn’t work, the mare zipped out of the room. “Hope she at least remembers to pack for the desert.”

The Kirin must have been feeling some sympathy for him as she went into the back and grabbed a few items that were pony sized. “Just in case. Also here.” Pulling out a familiar lantern she smiled. “Had it enchanted just like you wanted. It should connect to Spike just like the princesses and he should be able to send messages to this lantern no matter where you are. We already tested it to see if it could and it does.”

Stuffing the items into his pack along with the new enchanted Ever-bright Lantern, now the Ever-bright Message Lantern, Dustan stood up and told her. “Might as well head over to the train now and wait, going to have to have some explaining to do to the captain when I eventually board on why I am talking a civilian so taking time to make up an excuse now will do me some good.”

As he was leaving Allure told him. “Just tell them she is an Element of Harmony, which should smooth things over.”

Waving to the pony guild master he would make his way to the bench in front of the train boarding platform as Dustan took the moment to meditate as well as thinking up excuses for Rainbow Dash. Speaking of the mare, she showed up just in time as the train was pulling up with her saddle bags looking stuff.

She chuckled and rubbed the back of her head with her hoof. “I wasn’t sure what to pack, so I just grabbed a lot of items.”

Dustan didn’t get to say anything as the door opened and an armored stallion came out and saluted him before looking at the pegasus along with another coming out one Twilight Sparkle. “Sir, we are here as requested for pick up. Is there mare to accompany you? If so she isn’t authorized.”

For a moment Dustan wanted to try his excuse first but decided to go about it via Allure’s suggestion. “This is an Element of Harmony, specifically The Element of Lo-”

The stallion turned and saluted Rainbow Dash right away. “I am sorry Ma’am I wasn’t aware. Forgive my insubordinate attitude.”

“Um…its ok?” The look on her face said she wasn’t really comfortable being addressed like that before she shook her head for a second and stood up with more confidence than before. “I mean, It’s ok soldier. You weren’t aware and it’s an honest mistake, you did good by checking in to make sure. You did nothing wrong.”

“Thank you Ma’am, let us board if possible, we all wish to get to the destination quickly.” The soldier told them and Rainbow Dash went ahead and inside.

Dustan waited and looked to Twilight and asked. “Hitched a ride from Canterlot? Wasn’t aware that you even left last night. I could have sworn I saw you after the last train left still in Ponyville.”

The unicorn chuckled a bit nervously. “Yeah, went to see my parents so I boarded the last train. I am sure you must be misremembering the time.”

‘Weird, Twilight is clearly lying, but I don’t think she is meaning any harm and Tactical Eye says she is normal. Oh well.’ Shrugging he let her think the lie worked. “Sorry about that. Anyways Dash is coming with me, mostly cause I can’t stop her so we will be gone for a few days.”

“Oh ok, no problem.” Twilight seemed strangely relieved, too much for just letting the lie glide by like that but Dustan didn’t have time to actually follow up as he went inside.

As they boarded the soldier kept his cool before heading off to inform others after showing them to their cabin passing by many other soldiers all looking prepared for a fight or were checking on equipment. Clearly these were the active combat soldiers that occupied the Equestrian forces. Judging by their levels they were lower than that of the Exhibition match participants, but higher than the normal Royal Guard he saw around Canterlot.

Since it was only supposed to be Dustan it only had one bed though it was large enough for him. “I am rather surprised you handled that so well Dash.”

Clearly Dash was thinking that they were going to share that room as she was unpacking already some items. “Yeah, the Wonderbolts, while being mostly for shows and such, are a military group so I made sure to practice how to respond to things like that as well.”

“Um Dash, this is my room. We are going to have to get you a room to yourself.” He was honestly impressed though that she went to that extent to learn the skills of the Wonderbolts. Though as he got halfway through that thought his surprise wore off before realizing that of course she would do this.

“Hmm true, there is only one bed. Guess you will have to find another room.” Seeing the playful look on her face he knew she was kidding.

Deciding that two could play that game he gave her a grin and shrugged. “I suppose that sleeping with you again wouldn’t be that bad, you are light and you seemed to enjoy being on top of me.”

“Well yeah you are nice and war-” Seems her brain caught up to it to what he said only in the middle of what she was saying and caused her to right away turn into a tomato with her color as she started to wave her arms and flap her wings. “N-no, I swear that it’s not like that.”

Coming in closer to her he would lean in close and whisper. “You sure Dash? You sure looked like you really enjoyed my fingers.”

The eyes of the pegasus turned to swirls as she started to stutter and quickly grab her stuff. “I-I gotta go!”

Dustan watched amused as Dash had to carry her saddle bags in her mouth as she couldn’t fit them on her body with how her wings were positioned and had a bit of trouble getting out of the door. ‘Huh, wing boners are a thing. Neat.’ Tossing his bag to the nearby shelf the human stripped out of his weapons and armor laying it close by as he knew by what was discussed at the castle that this would take a good few hours to reach the destination. By few they meant about seven to eight hours. That meant they should arrive around three or four in the afternoon. ‘Wait, are time zones a thing in this world. If so that means it would be what one at the earliest? Or would it be noon, I forgot if Nevada was western or mountain time zone. FUCK, I have forgotten so much of my world.’

His musings were interrupted with a knock and the door opening with a rainbow maned head peeking in, still with a bit of a blush on her face. “Dustan? T-they don’t have any spare rooms.”

‘Oh that is rich, having to come back after my teasing like that.’ Smiling Dustan asked. “So you are wondering if you can share my room like before.” She gave a rather bashful nod before he waved her in. “Sure, but I have one condition.”

She came in with a sigh though when she heard that latter part she tilted her head. “Ok sure what?”

‘Will this make things awkward, sure, but is it worth it. Considering how adorable she acts when she is embarrassed absolutely.’ Smiling innocently he asked his question. “As you know I don’t know much about pony behavior, so I am curious. Why were your wings so stiff earlier?”

His answer was her blush returning and a pomf from her wings extending.

Twilight watched the train as it had left and wiped her brow from the imaginary sweat she felt formed there because of her nervousness. ‘I feel bad for lying like that but I have a good reason which I know he will love. I just have to think of it like a surprise party, I can’t let him know when it’s ready or that I am setting it up or he won’t be surprised.’

Trotting to the tree house that served as her home she greeted her number one assistant as she told him that she was going to be in the basement. “Alright Twilight, I will come get you when Lunch is ready if you don’t come up before that.”

“Thank you Spike!” She called out behind her as she descended the stairs to the basement which had become her makeshift lab since she moved in. While it couldn’t compare to what she worked with in Canterlot it made due. Her current project was currently sitting on a raised platform and drawn using chalk. Nearby on a desk was several books, one of which she got during her birthday along with the device that came with it. “Ok lets see.” Finding her current notes she smiled. “Stability brought about by Clover’s conversion of mass calculation was indeed correct. This leads me to believe that the advancements made by others to improve upon them might work, but going to be using shorter range destinations to confirm. First I have to take three baseline measures of how much thaums it uses up.” Writing down her notes and her process she smiled as she moved upon the platform and erased some marks to replace them with others. “Commencing test number one.” Her horn lit up as did the circle she was using before a pop sounded and she vanished.

Spike would later remark about her coming through the door a few times but never seeing her leave. “Twilight, if you are going to teleport somewhere let me know before ok? Or is this just practice to keep your teleportation skills sharp? Wait; is this part of your experiment?” She knew that Spike asked each of the question and got the answer each time as her face surely would tell with how big her grin got towards the last one. “Never mind then, I will just let you know if Lunch is close if I see you walk through the door and if not I will come get you.”

“Thanks again Spike, you are the best.” She told him with a smile and gave him a big hug causing him to chuckle and dig his foot into the wood of the floor a bit embarrassed. Getting back down to the lab she wrote down the number and smiled. “Process recorded and getting consistent numbers. On to experiment TP-V3-01.” Redrawing different parts of the circle now she smiled and triple checked her notes before moving to the raised platform. “Experiment start!” And just like before she vanished.

Pegasus fur and down were surprisingly so very soft Dustan noted as he woke up first. Dash, though wanting a nap just not in the same position as before, was next to him deeply breathing showing she was still asleep. Checking the time and stretching, Dustan slowly and quietly went outside to avoid waking up the pegasus and asked a soldier how close they were to their destination.

The soldier recognizing him right away saluted and remarked. “Sir, it seems we are about thirty minutes away from our destination.”

“Thanks.” Going back to his room he found Rainbow Dash already awake and pouting slightly. “Sorry, didn’t mean to wake you up when I left.”

Shaking her head and starting to stretch out her legs and wings she looked over to him. “You need to cover up a pegasus if you leave them alone after cuddling them. We are ponies that are attuned to weather and thus temperature. I woke up because the warmth on my back was gone.”

The human had never actually thought of that but it made sense. “Sorry about that, didn’t know.”

Nodding and continuing her stretches she smiled and told him. “Yeah I figured. I could tell when you came back in the room and mentioned about leaving. Griffins are the same way, anything with wings really so keep that in mind.” Flapping out her wings some before bringing them around to start grooming them she continued to say. “Earth Ponies are more in tune with movement while Unicorns are more in tune with magic or something. The more they know their partner the easier it is for them to pick up when they left. That is just in general though so it changes from pony to pony you know.”

Dustan had not expected to get a lesson on pony sleeping habits but it was good to know. “Neat, I will have to keep that in mind. I mostly keep to my own bed though, so it’s rare that I have had to share like this and only when needed.”

“Well you should remember it for when you do. You are nice and warm and considering you tried to spare my feelings by moving quietly that means you are considerate at the least. Lots of ponies like that in bed partners.” Remarked the pegasus as she pulled a loose feather out and sighed in relief.

An expression came to his face as he understood what she was doing. “Oh ok, I get it. I walked into that for teasing you earlier.”

His chuckling came to a stop as the human heard Dash growl and fly over to him making him face her. “Ok we are nipping that in the bud right now.” He wasn’t sure what she meant as she landed before him. “I am going to teach you about pony body language now and you are going to pay attention. It seems you can understand a bit by our ears but you have to look at how we are standing as well as our tails, not to mention other cues.”

The next thirty minutes had Dash covering everything from how fast a tail swishes, to stances, to combination and as the train was pulling up she even quizzed him on what she taught. Suffice to say he didn’t do too well on the test, so she noted that he needed improvements for sure giving him only a ten percent out of a hundred. He was with her though in that he needed to improve that aspect of himself a lot and was glad for the help even if what was being taught was in fact way more complicated then he thought.

As they exited the train, right away it was clear that they stopped in the middle of the desert itself in front of a base camp of sorts. What was also clear was that the sun and heat of that the desert was no joke making Dustan turn on the ac ability of his new charm and also changed the color of his cloak to white. When he spotted Dash sweating up a storm he pulled out a spare cloak that Allure gave him along with the same brooch that he possessed.

“Turn it onto white color as that reflects light more.” Looking confused at his instructions he smiled and told her. “Light generates heat, that is why when you lay in the sun your body warms up. Reflecting more light means less heat transfers into the cloak and thus keeps you cooler.”

“Oh, makes sense why clouds are so cool even at low altitudes then.” Rainbow Dash said mostly to herself as she turned the dial to white. “This cooling cloak is almost as cool as I am.”

Rolling his eyes Dustan marched with the others to the camp as the leader came out, the same general that was in the meeting with him before. “Lord Warner, good to see you. With your help here we will be sure to conquer the creatures out there and make our way to the source of the problem.”

As the general came up he noticed other creatures not in soldier or guard uniforms come with him, ones that he knew too well from the show. “Buffalo general?”

Nodding he smiled and pointed to the one to his left. “This is the chieftess of the local band of Buffalo that call the desert its home, Chief Sandstorm she and her tribe know this area better than anypony.”

Dustan reached out a hand to try to shake the chief’s hoof only for her to look to the general and ask. “This is the one who is knowledgeable about the creatures invading my tribe’s home?”

“That is right ma’am.” The general told her with confidence. “I have seen his prowess myself and have picked his mind to find it matching his prowess and I can assure you that with his help we will get to the heart of things.”

The buffalo snorted at that claim. “We will see, but I cannot officially greet you till you have proven yourself in my eyes.” With that she turned and went back to her tribe.

“I take it things are more tense then it seems around here?” Dustan looked around seeing the Buffalo all gathered together eyeing the ponies with mostly a neutral look, mostly as some have open hostile eyes and others that are begging for help.

Sighing and taking off his helmet the general scratched the back of his mane. “The Buffalo are being driven out. The monsters appearing and growing fiercer in the area are forcing them to flee. Some are blaming us ponies saying we are somehow turning the monsters loose on them to run them from their home. The ones that aren’t hostile are either looking for our help as they realized they can’t fight this while the others are too stubborn to admit they are out matched.”

“Because of that they are basically mostly against you since there is hostile, ones who resist, and only a few who want they help?” The general gave a nod to the question which made the human sigh and close his eyes. “All we can do is try to help hoping that convinces them of our involvement and intentions.”

“The Buffalo of Appleoosa were pretty stubborn as well and there had to be a compromise on both ends for that to work.” Flapping into the air and looking around she shook her head. “Considering its monsters we are dealing with, there isn’t going to be a compromise here at all is there?”

“’Fraid not.” Dustan told her his thoughts and they were not happy. “Truth is, even if we are successful here, monsters are still spawning. I am not sure how they breed, if they spawn from mana, the earth, or old fashioned breeding. Regardless they are now here and like it here. To secure this place we would need to wipe them out so they won’t return because even if we get them to manageable numbers, the Buffalo being nomadic will eventually run from a place and they will gather up there, which gives them a good spawning area to grow again.”

Looking at him wide eyed she looked to the general who had a similar pained look to his face. “So you are saying they are doomed?”

“Yeah, more or less. Unless they leave this area or can somehow protect themselves better then they have, it’s going to be over for them.” The tears in the pegasus’ eyes told of her sadness even if they didn’t come forth.

“SIR ENEMY SPOTTED!” A call came from the edge of the camp towards the North.

Dustan stretched and drew his Blood Sword. “Good, I am itching to take something down.” Heading over to the guard line in the North the human took a look at what was presented. “Three Bombs huh?”

“Those creatures are what have devastated my tribe; we get them on death’s door only for them to decide to take down their attackers with them.” Chief Sandstorm told him as she looked at him as well as the other tribe’s members. “Subdue those three on your own and you will have proved yourself capable of leading us to the heart of this problem.”

‘Seriously going to potentially kill me just to make me-you know what fuck it.’ Looking back to the enemy approaching Tactical Eye revealed something to him ‘Huh.’

Scratching his chin he heard Sandstorm chuckle. “Afraid aren’t you?”

“Huh, oh no. I am just worried I am about to make this seem really easy.” That got her chuckling to stop and a frown to appear. “But Whatever.”

Stepping forward past the line, he could hear some of the guards speak up worriedly, only for Dash to assure them. “Don’t worry, he has got this. Show them your stuff Dustan!”

Moving his hand towards his right side horizontal from his body, he spoke. “Liquid that gives life. Take it away now! Water!” He moved his hand from right to left as six balls of water spawned. He chanted the spell twice more and now three rows of water balls were floating in the air. Dustan lifted his hand to face the enemy cocking it like gun. “Bang.”

The balls shot away from him heading straight for the Bombs at a good speed and each one hit with an impact that would make some of the guards and Buffalo wince. When the final ball hit three small plumes of flame floating in the air were all that were left, evidence that the Bombs were no more.

“Cheater!” Called the Chief who now looked furious. “You used cheap magic tricks to win! You are no better than the horned ponies who do the same!”

“Really?” The Buffalo was stubborn about this and nodded. “Really?!” He was walking over to her now only to get another stubborn nod. Suddenly surging forward he grabbed the Chief by the throat and lifted her up with one hand only to get close to her and whisper. “Really?”

Sandstorm, leader of her tribe, the strongest and wisest grasped with her hooves at that arm to pull it away only to find it like steel and just withstood her strength. So she tried hitting at it, she did leave marks and some deep cuts which started to bleed but couldn’t remove his arm.

“Dustan stop!” Both the General and Rainbow Dash called out to him only to be stopped by a glare from him.

He then turned back and looked at both the chief and then the Buffalo themselves. “Truth is, you are all going to die. It doesn’t matter if it’s today, tomorrow, or a year from now. The monsters out there aren’t going away, they will keep breeding. Those Bombs only need to have twenty of them in the entire desert, maybe less depending on if their explosion catches multiple of you or if they get you at night. If you say magic is cheating, if you think we are here to kill you, let me tell you this. We don’t need to do anything. They will do it for us. Yet here we are, trying to help. Why?”

“To enslave us?” One of the formerly glaring tribe’s members called unsure of themselves.

“Ha, really? Why? I took down three of them myself, any caster unicorn here can do the same at range. A pegasus can just gather the small bits of moisture in the air and then form it into a rain cloud to kill them. Those are just the Bombs too. Lets talk about the Aevis, the Antlions, the Skeletons, or perhaps the worst of them all the hooded lizards known as Tonberry.” He noticed the tribe shiver at the last description. “Oh, you have run into one of those have you? Let me tell you something, those are the worst of all of them, even I wouldn’t go against one. As I said, as it stands right now, you are all dead. Unless you can do one of two things this end result will not change.”

He dropped the chief now who coughed and gasped for air while rubbing her throat. “What two things?”

“Either plea for help from other tribes, including pony ones to see if can bolster your forces enough to survive your encounters with them, doubtful if they aren’t trained in combat.” Casting a Cura spell on his arm healed it right up with no marks. “Or two, you can flea from the desert. Cause let me tell you something, I came here to find an even bigger threat then the creatures you have faced. One, which if it went on a rampage, would devastate your tribe in a matter of moments. Truth is, there could be more options to you, but half of you hate help, the other good bit of you are too stubborn to ask, and those that realize you need it, seem like you wouldn’t abandon your tribe.”

The tribe looked at each other some losing their anger towards him only to have it replaced with sadness, while others kept up that stubborn and hateful glare. “We won’t run.”

“Then leave. You aren’t here to help your tribe but to bury them right alongside yourselves and your traditions.” Was he perhaps too harsh? Yes. Kind words wouldn’t solve this one, especially when the chief clearly wanted help but was being a choosing beggar. “Those of you that stay and done leave with your tribe, I have other options for you, but they are tough ones. Ones that will break your traditions and others that might break your culture as you see it. However to preserve what you can is what I am offering you, nothing more, nothing less.”

“Come! We leave this place and these desert dung here.” Sandstorm called out to her tribe. As she was leaving she turned and looked at all who joined her, only finding two thirds of her tribe with her. “Cowards! You will not be welcomed back, you have made your choice!” Then she ran off faster than the others creating a large dust cloud behind her, likely the reason for her name.

Those that were left looked equal parts hopeless and eager for any hope he could give them. “Ok then, I have a few choices for you.” He held up a single finger. “Leave to join other Buffalo tribes, there is one in Appleoosa that I know of but beyond that you would have to ask around for where others are. I am sure they would offer you a home.” Some looked at each other at that as if that was a good idea. “Two, join pony society, learn how to survive there with them though considering how they live and how you live it will be beyond difficult.”

That got the Buffalo talking looking like they would lose hope at that. “Are there any more choices?”

“Yes, but it will make you think I am trying to do as the one of your former tribe’s members spoke of and enslave you.” That got them looking very apprehensive. “The last is to come to live with me at Castle Luminary. There I and my people can train you to be greater warriors, tactics, weapons, even magic all can be learned there. We just ask that if you do that you can contribute to the castle in some way, be it trade skills or even as guards. You will no longer be able to run as free as you have before, running from place to place. However what I can guarantee you is that you will gain the skills needed to one day take back your home from these creatures. It will be within your lifetime but I cannot say if by then that the children you will have will be raised up like you will have wanted to them by a tribe. They will be raised in an environment that belongs uniquely to the castle comprised up of different species from different cultures. Human, Pony, Dragon, Griffin, and more all reside at my castle.”

“You are telling us we could learn magic? Like you used to beat the living flames?” He assumed that the tribe member meant the Bomb and so nodded his head.

“What if we don’t want to fight, what if we wanted to learn how you healed yourself, would we be able to learn that magic?” As he heard that he smiled and looked to the young male Buffalo that asked.

Moving over to him he knelled before him. “My castle is a castle of choice. I don’t care where you were born, what you are like, or even your race. All I care about is that you have a choice and that you can live free how you wish. Given there are bounds to what I can do, the forest I live in is a bit dangerous so stampeding around isn’t something I can give you as it would put your life at risk. But healer, combatant, blacksmith, tailor, anything you want to do and more, I can tell you that I don’t mind any of it and welcome it all.”

The adults that were still there, about a dozen with two dozen more children, all looked at each other before looking to him. “Is there a time limit on this offer?”

“Yes and no. The first two don’t as you can reasonably do those any time you wish.” Standing up now from the Buffalo boy he looked to them all. “For my personal offer, yes. I want your answer before I leave from this place. Truthfully I wouldn’t put a time limit on this as anyone is free to join anytime at my castle. However with how your chief was, I don’t want you to be pressured into coming to my castle later to learn my secrets for someone willing to throw you all away like that because she didn’t like your choice. I rather not she get my abilities as I fear she might do something unjust with them. Anyways I will let you all deliberate now while I get a sitrep from the general about the ar-”

“I agree to your terms.” One of the adults said before he was finished.

“As do I!” Another called out, only for the rest of the adults to call out one by one. Soon it was clear that they all wished to join him.

“Huh…going to need to draft a letter.” Dustan mused to himself honestly surprised.

Chapter Thirty Four: Fire and Claws.

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My Little Tactics

Chapter Thirty Four: Fire and Claws.

“Water!” Dustan called out, shooting out balls of water towards a Bomb that was heading towards the group.

“HA!” Rainbow Dash called out from somewhere to his left as she flying tackled a Skeleton into shards while leaving its bony pony head in the air spinning for a moment or two before falling to the sand.

“Aqua Spike!” One of the unicorn mage soldiers called out impaling a Jelly upon a lance of water making it pop and turn into a puddle of red.

With that the last creature was felled as the General called out. “Any wounded?”

“Aye sir!” Two soldiers came up one sporting a good gash upon their left foreleg from an Antlion that got too close and the other a rather sizable burn on their side from the Jelly.

Heading over to the two Dustan called out the chant for Cura and let the balls of light do their mending as he looked over the corpses. Three Skeletons which the mages were currently purifying which he found out stops them from being able to resurrect themselves. Two Bombs, one Antlion, and one Jelly. It was the Skeletons that dragged the fight on longer then they cared for as they had run up front to take the hits giving them time as the battle with the rest of the creatures that they could come back to life and come in to cause chaos.

They were day three into their trek. It was slow going because they were trying to avoid roaming parties of monsters as their forces were now split. The General didn’t want children and bystanders that didn’t wish to fight to be here so half the forces were left behind. That still made them a good number strong but considering everyone took shifts for active duty to help conserve stamina and magic in the desert heat it was understood. Dustan and Rainbow Dash themselves were quite ok thanks to their cloaks, to which the General had taken notice and said he would be bringing it up with the Princesses.

Truth was he wasn’t the only one, as he had already sent a message through to Spike to be delivered to Steel and Tremor to get an order sent out for the brooches since part of the standard uniform was a cloak already it would only increase the versatility of the guard giving them the ability for stealth as well as the ability to venture into territory that would be uncomfortable normally. He was also rather proud as he had finally settled on a symbol for the castle, one he felt was appropriate for himself though he doubt others would understand.

While everyone was busy he went to the death sites of the monster and came face to face with the floating crystals, and surprisingly, one treasure chest. He had come to find out that only he seemed to be able to see these as when Dustan asked they all looked at him as if he were hallucinating and suggested he drink some more water. So he simply went to them and absorbed the crystals, though no skills would be learned from the monsters he could at least refresh his HP and MP along with grinding towards the requirement for Dark Knight. However today was the first time ever he had seen a monster spawn a treasure chest and it had came from the Jelly. Opening it up he was rather surprised as what was contained in it was a Flame Rod. He quickly put the item away into his pack and would look at it more later when he could sit down and really examine it.

For now it looked to be time to set up camp and settle in. For the most part night time was the most peaceful as very few things hunted at night, most of which were Skeletons and a couple of ghosts had been spotted. He found it interesting that the Skeletons and their variants were inhabitants of Equis and not a single one was spotted that looked humanoid, minus one that was a Minotaur’s skeleton.

As he worked to set up his tent, one provided by the company he looked to Dash who was setting up near him. “Same thing as usual tonight?”

She turned to him and nodded. “Yep.” She smiled and was working on her tent more and more, though usually she failed at it and it ended up going to some soldier unlucky enough to stroll by to set it up. Dash’s problem was her best attribute in that she tried to rush setting up her tent and as such kept messing it up. Dinner wasn’t the best, field rations meant for ponies which was why he was happy he stocked up some jerky and other supplies in advanced otherwise he might eventually face health issues or worse depending on what it was that was in those rations.

After washing down jerky and dried fruits with water Dustan retired to his room to find Rainbow Dash already there with a smile on her face. “Are you ready?” she was already standing on all fours leaning forward as her tail swished quickly back and forth behind her.

“Excited mixed with aggression?” The human spoke a bit unsure.

“No.” Thinking for a moment Dash shook her head. “Sorry also its yes. Wasn’t really paying attention at that moment my bad. Was excited for the challenge.”

Laughing at that he just gave a shrug to her antics and told her. “Regardless, thank you again Dash. Sorry if I am slow about this, haven’t had a life time to get used to it.”

“No problem big guy. That is why I am here.” She proclaimed while puffing out her chest with pride.

In Dustan’s mind though suddenly she became an anthro her face became extremely chiseled and her eyes were shadowed as she repeated the line ‘I am here!’ while her arms were at her waist. Of course the mental image of Rainbow Might was just too strong for him and he started to burst out laughing. It took about five minutes for him to get himself under control from his laughter during which his teacher had a pout on her face as she was wondering what was so funny.

“Sorry, the way you said it mixed with something from human culture and the image was too funny and I couldn’t help myself.” Hearing the explanation, while not the best, did help some with the hurt ego that was Rainbow Dash. “I am ready.”

“Ok then. Ahem, pose one!” Dash took a moment to sit down on her rear while sitting up on her fore-hooves ears and eyes forward to him while her tail was curled up around her legs.

Looking at the pose that one was an easy one, usually something she did to help warm up. “That shows you are paying attention and are relaxed while listening to me right?”

“Good job.” She adjusted her post some, slouching some as her ears tilted away one on each side hanging down some as her tail was now swishing lazily behind her while her eyes were still on him. “Pose two.”

“Um let’s see.” It took a moment but he thought he had it. “While you are physically looking at me, you aren’t really paying attention and are just kinda waiting for me to stop talking?”

Perking up she smiled. “Hey two for two, awesome. You are picking up on this rather quick.”

Nodding and chuckling he pointed to her. “Helps when I have someone explaining everything to me. No offense to ponies, but you all expect me to automatically know or figure it out, but when you don’t give me context I tend not to be able to put it together a good bit of the time. I mean, we are coming to two years now in about two or so months and I only learned about ten percent from just observing. Honestly when I think about it, that isn’t bad, that is about on part with a two year old right?”

Raising a hoof, Rainbow Dash was about to object to that when she brought said hoof to her chin as she tilted her head. “Huh, when you put it like that it kinda makes sense. Actually makes all kinds of sense and more especially since a mom and dad would say if something was bad or good helping to give clues for the foal.” Thinking for a bit more she stood up and stretched. “Let’s stop here for today.”

“Wait, what why?” Dustan was confused and disappointed as he wanted to continue.

“Because you are right.” She told him as she went to the tent flap that sealed the opening. “You are like a foal when it comes to learning this stuff and I keep throwing the advanced stuff at you. I can’t expect a foal to do tricks like me. I have to give them something easy to work up to it. Which is what this is, you are a foal learning everything and I shouldn’t be giving you a pose that says too many adult things all at once. You won’t understand it and it might actually do more harm than good in learning.”

Dustan couldn’t find flaw in her logic, which honestly made him really proud. “You have come a long way since I first met you Dash, you know besides bucking me in the chest.”

“Hey, I thought we were past that!” She glare at him playfully knowing he was joking with her.

Giving a chuckle he smiled at her. “But yeah, you were extremely rash, still are but at least I can remove the ‘extremely’ part of that statement. You have calmed down quite a bit. I image if this was a year ago and you suddenly found out I could sprout wings, you would challenge me to a race or a trick show.”

Tilting her head back and sticking out her tongue as her wing came up to scratch the back of her head she mused. “I guess you’re right. Now that I think about it if a new pegasus came to Ponyville or something I would have started with a challenge to a race to see how fast they were mostly to prove something to both them and myself. Guess I have you to thank for that.”

Shaking his head and pointing to her. “All you. You are the one who chose to change; you can thank yourself for making you twenty percent cooler.”

“Hehe, guess I will. Thanks me.” She remarked grinning like her usual self and puffing out her chest, all before coming over and giving him a big surprise hug. “Thank you too, for forgiving me and being an awesome friend. There were so many times I thought bad things at you, insulted you, hit you, or more and yet you forgave them all. You will always be my friend Dustan.”

“Hey now, don’t get all sappy on me, that isn’t the Dash I know. The Dash I know is prideful and would make sure to try to keep an awesome image.” He told her pulling back from the hug playfully and booping her nose.

She went cross eyed for a moment before chuckling. “An awesome image is nice and all, but being awesome inside is better. It’s cool if they both overlap but I rather leave the first and take the second any day now.”

With that she left with a smile and a proud strut with ears held tall and a tail that that moved back and forth a bit that left Dustan rather flabbergasted both at her words and her posture. ‘Oh wow. She really has changed a lot which…she wouldn’t have if not for me. Huh, a good change for sure. Also, going to have to remember that posture, no clue what it means. Definitely a lot of pride for sure but something else as well, an assured sense of self? Oh well.’

The next day they were up bright and early, not because they wanted to be but because a sight that had forced them to move. A Tonberry. He wasn’t going to put anyone at risk to try to confront that, he told the general to have everyone pack up quickly and move. Because of that they were all up an hour earlier then they wanted to be and those that got to sleep did so in the wagons that were being pulled. Dustan had first questioned the wagons in how they could move over the sand but a simple explanation had been give: Magic.

No matter what, the meme of ‘It is magic: don’t have to explain shit’ persisted. Honestly he didn’t mind it when it came to cases like this one. He wasn’t a researcher, and he doubt he would ever be least as of right now. Maybe one day when he hung up his sword and didn’t feel the need to patrol the Everfree with his guards leaving everything to them and the next generation of students his makeshift Class school generated.

‘Yeah, that wouldn’t be a bad way to spend my time, researching Neutral Magic. Maybe I will be able to develop more of them from my memories.’ Dustan was once more interrupted that day as a call to battle was heard.

“Aevis incoming!” A guard shouted and it was true, a flock of about ten was heading their way. Aevis were really agile in the air like that and any projectile magic usually missed as they could see it coming, unless you could somehow surprise them that was.

Dustan smiled as he drew his Coral Sword and looked to Dash. “Up, up, and away.” Before a plume of sand shot away from where he once was. Feeling the wind rush up past him was rather exile rating and he could understand why Dogs did that out of a car window as he was shooting up into the air at the speed only a Dragoon could manage. Coming up short in front of the Aevis caused them to halt their dive and stall in mid air which is just what he wanted. Holding out his sword he grinned. “Thundara!”

The flash of lightning was like a strobe light over the sand as the cracking and boom of thunder echoed with the pained crowing of the birds. As Dustan could feel gravity taking hold of him once again after a moment he ceased his lightning as he plummeted back towards the ground and shouted.

“If they aren’t dead yet, they are at least stunned, fuck ‘em up!” The sound of spells whizzing by came sharp to his hearing as flashes of light and color zoomed past him. Landing hard in the sand one foot planted firm, the other in a kneeling position while he held out one hand to the side.

“Super hero landing, really?” Dashed asked him as he stood up grinning. “What are you five?”

“Pretty sure a five year old couldn’t do what I just did.” Sheathing his sword he crossed his arms still grinning.

Sighing but giving him a smile. “Right, ok you earned that one.” She told him as she held out a hoof to bump against his fist. “Next time it’s my turn.”

“Against anything other than the Aevis family, sure it’s your turn next.” At that she looked confused. “Some Aevis have the ability to petrify anything their beak hits. Think about a pegasus flying that suddenly turned to stone, what would happen to them?”

The pale look that came over her face right away told him that she got it. “Ok yeah, good point. Even if I am confident in my flying skills I know that I can walk away from any crash landing. Being shattered though, yeah I don’t think I am going to be able to walk from that one.”

“Right. Now let me go visit the bodies really quickly, I really wish I could pluck and dress them but don’t have the time to let the bodies drain or I would be eating oversized chicken tonight.” He could see a few soldiers shiver at him mentioning his diet only for him to shrug.

“Seriously? That makes you shake?” Seeing some of them nod Dash moved to one of the pegasus. “Don’t you eat fish to help keep your wings in good shape?”

“To be fair ma’am, I take the supplements instead, I don’t mind fish as my sister eats it though.” The mare told the prismatic pegasus. “Eating something with wings though, that would make me feel like a cannibal.”

“Actually, ok fair point. I can understand that one, but the rest of you?” That got them looking away from her as she said that.

“Dash is fine. I am an omnivore. I have long since understood that ponies aren’t like me in that aspect.” Reaching up and swiping his hand through the crystal that only he could see for the last Aevis the human came back over and chuckled. “I am just happy the castle stocks for all dietary needs. For the longest time you wouldn’t believe how much I missed bacon with its greasy fatty flavor as it slathers down my throat after its been cooked to a crunchy crisp.”

A couple of the soldiers went green with that and one rushed away before the sound of retching was heard. “A bit too far big guy?”

Sighing and nodding. “Yeah, my bad.” Looking over to where the pony was retching Dustan sighed. “Sometimes I forget how good I have it and then I come back out into the world and get reminded that ponies for the most part are really…never mind.” Feeling a pat on his back made Dustan smile as the pegasus companion looked at him sympathetically.

The day marched on and so with it did the band of guards. It wasn’t until around noon when the first guard dropped, then three more that told them all something was wrong though it was easy to figure out especially when you had cooling cloaks and were still sweating up a storm. The heat, it was scorching them and so much hotter here then it was the previous day.

“Should it be this hot, I mean pegasus control the weather right so I feel like a spike in temperature like this should be unheard of right?” He asked Dash who nodded and was wiping her forehead off as she too looked worse for wear.

“Everypony HALT!” The general called out to all of his troops. “Pegasus troops, are you able to do anything about this heat?”

“Sorry sir, there isn’t enough moisture in the air here to even try to gather for a cloud.” One said as she approached and she wasn’t alone, with her was a unicorn.

The unicorn wiped her brow before speaking up. “Sir, this isn’t normal, I have been detecting an increase in magical fluctuations in the area but they aren’t natural.”

The general pulled off his helmet giving a bit of a cough as even he was getting affected. “That means we are close. Some of the Eidolons came with reports of heat spikes in the area.” Looking over to the human in their midst’s the commander of the troops asked him after drinking from a canteen. “Any Eidolon you know of that would be able to do that?”

“Yeah, two of them.” Sighing and sitting down taking a swig of his own canteen to cool off Dustan shook his head. “The first is who I hope it is. Salamander, though I don’t know much about that one personally. The second is Ifrit who is less then welcoming to outsiders.” Sighing to himself the human thought one solemn thought. ‘Sure wish Phoenix was a summon in this game, might explain the heat as well and it was notorious in that it liked deserts in a few of the games.’

The sound of a pop was heard as a unicorn teleported in with a Pegasus. “Sir reporting! Eagle Vision and I have spotted a dip in the sands that leads to an underground cavern system!”

Dustan stood up and looked at the general. “I am putting bits on it that says the Esper is down there. If it is a fire type then it’s only going to get hotter from here. Have any and all unicorns start buffing and see if we can get some heat resistance going on thanks to some magic.”

General Silver Shine immediately started to gather the unicorns in the group helping them to apply said heat resistance to all those that were going to go inside. The general’s idea was that some would stay out at the entrance and secure it while the others went down. Depending on how deep it was he had planned to create checkpoints as well so that no one would get lost if the tunnel proved to be too cavernous. All and all, Dustan couldn’t see any problem with it save for the lack of man and pony power that might be left at the end. When all was said and done, the group proceeded to head into the tunnel.

The first half hour delving into the tunnel came in the form of clearing out sand and such that had been blown into it and out of their way, as well as making sure those cut from the glass that was found along the way were properly healed. The fact that there was glass wasn’t a good sign as it meant it was definitely a fire type Esper for sure that had come in there, nothing else could have melted sand into glass like that. Further evidence came about around the hour mark, as the tunnel kept on going and going as now the tunnel seemed to be getting hotter and hotter causing the group to have to take breaks.

It was right after their third break that things came to a head as the group exited the tunnel into a gigantic underground cavern. “Holy horse apples, this place is huge!”

As one of the guards said that another pointed further in. “Look, is that lava?!”

Dustan was on guard and made sure that Dash was behind him. “This is definitely its lair.” Looking around he told them. “Don’t split up, if this thing is hostile then that is the last thing we want.”

General Shine gave the word and the formation tightened up as they proceeded in towards the cavern. It was a huge place that seemed to have been part of an ancient magma channel as it had carved out a good number of places as the sleek obsidian and glass could attest to as well as various pumice rocks and more. Eventually a giant lack of lava, or rather magma since it was still underground technically, appeared in their sights with a small land bridge that connected a large island in the middle.

“There it is, that is its home.” Dustan declared confidently as he looked to the features on the island.

“How can you be so sure?” Rainbow Dash had been strangely quiet this entire time up till now.

Pointing to the island he gestured to the four stalagmites at the corners. “Those are pillars that form a square. In some other sources I know, when an Esper contracts with someone, pillars like that will have green glowing orbs on them with a red flame inside. Those do not so that means-”

“This Eidolon is still wild.” The general finished up his thought for him to which the human nodded. “And since this is its lair, it means that it’s likely to either return, or still be here.”

Speak of the devil and he shall appear is the old saying, and such was the case here. The cave started to rumble a bit as the pool of magma started to shift and something was rising up out of it. Parts of it appeared once the magma sloughed off it, crimson colored hair that seemed to be made of fire itself, two sets of ebony black horns seemingly made of obsidian one that curled back over its head and the other curling around to the side of its face. All of the ponies were backing up but Dustan was standing firm, hand on his Blood Sword’s hilt. A golden looking bangle on its left bicep depicting flames, red and white beads adorned its neck and hung down from it as clawed hands brought it onto land in front of them.

“Sweet Celestia protect us.” One of the guards called as she looked at the creature.

A chuckle came from its throat and judging from the tone, it was a he. “I do not know who this Celestia is, but rest assured PONIES, that she will not protect you here and not from me.”

The mouth that spoke this was fang filled and jutted out in a muzzle. Orange eyes appeared as if they were glowing embers as the creature stood up on its hind legs, digitigrades for sure as well as having razor sharp claws on it as well. Around its waist was a black tattered loincloth that seemed unaffected by the magma or the flames slowly crackling off of the creature as it stood up tall. So tall was it that Dustan estimated there could be two of him standing on each other’s shoulders and only barely look him in the eye as he was at least a good twelve feet tall.

“Hmm, what are you supposed to be?” The creature asked of Dustan as it caught sight of him finally. “I do not recognize your kind or your scent.”

‘Wait, so he has never encountered a human before? That might be a great thing.’ Taking a more confident stand then what he felt Dustan let go of the hold he had on his sword. “I take it you are Ifrit, the King of Flames?”

The Esper chuckled and leaned down to get a better look at the human now. “Indeed I am, it has been such a long sleep that it seems that my prowess has faded in all but mere whispers of legend. It pleases me to know that something remembers.”

“I am a human, one that as you can tell can understand you while only unicorns normally can do that.” Ifrit seemed to take a moment to register this fact before letting Dustan continue. “As such I was hoping to come to talk to you, to learn of some things and possibly to get you to agree to turn the heat down for the desert.”

That got the fiery fiend’s attention right away as it stood up tall. “You wish to make a compact with me?”

“If I can yes. There are creatures out there being attracted by your heat and as such it poses a danger to others with their increased presence, plus the heat around here is likely to devastate what little of an echo system there is in a desert.” Dustan while calm on the outside was mentally shaking at the presence of the Esper, this was nothing like Mogri.

“I will be willing to hear you out if you can meet my challenge.” The Esper spoke aloud as it pointed a clawed finger at Dustan. “But only you. I do not deal with ponies. The ponies tried to use me for war, to destroy; I tired of it and scorched those that wished to do so. I will not take another pony as my Master without good reason.” Lowering his clawed hands to the ground the creature stood now on all fours. “You though are willing to take my challenge to preserve nature and to help cull the creatures hurting others. A noble cause for sure.”

Dustan was surprised this was going so well, he honestly thought he would have to fight and subdue Ifrit to get him to agree. “Sure, what may I ask is your challenge?”

A grin came to the King of Flame’s muzzle. “I thirst for battle. Provide me a suitable challenge.”

‘Well shit.’ Thinking for a moment and looking around the cavern quickly Dustan tried to formulate a plan before nodding. “I will accept but give me a moment to prepare.”

Growling impatiently the Esper spoke up. “Do not take too long or I may reconsider.”

Turning to the group he quickly pulled off his pack and his cloak. “You all need to get the fuck back right now!” He yelled at them and tossed his stuff to Dash. “Hold on to that for me please. The only things I really care about that I own are that cloak and a couple of things I have gathered that I keep in that pack. Rather them not get toasted.” Deploying the new folding shield that the smith Burly Bellows had developed for him the buckler now covered his forearm.

“Whoa Dustan you don’t have to do this, we can get one of the Princesses here to do it or something.” The prismatic speedster told him as he quickly started to stretch.

“No we can’t.” He could tell she was about to ask why so he quickly told her. “Ifrit said he won’t work for ponies, I am sure someone among the group was translating for the pegasus and earth ponies here right?” Seeing someone nod he continued. “As such no one here could have a chance to earn his loyalty but me.”

“Didn’t you say this was a worst case scenario if it was Ifrit?” Shine asked him quickly as the human drew his sword and mentally changed his class to that of the one with the most evasion and speed: Ninja.

“Yeah.” Dustan said simply and walked forward. “But it’s our best shot.”

The ponies quickly all darted when they felt the heat rise up a bit as Dustan approached the creature whom merely chuckled. “So you are ready it seems.”

“Yeah, but a quick request, one that you will have no trouble fulfilling.” He called to Ifrit who growled.

He tensed up at said growl as the stone below its claws moved out of the way letting them create gouges in the earth. “Don’t try my patience, if it’s a ridiculous request then I will call off the challenge now and roast you to cinders.”

“If I am defeated, do not hurt my companions.” Dustan quickly called out getting the creature to look startled. “I get you don’t like ponies, but they are good mares and stallions, might be a bit too fidgety at times and could be a bit more open minded, but they all came here risking their lives to help bring balance to this area.”

Ifrit paused, taken aback by the request before chuckling and growling a more pleased sounding noise. “Done. The ponies can go free once we are done one way or another. You may make the first move.”

Nodding and calming down Dustan pulled at his mana. “Silent light, shield from evil! Shell!” Orbs appeared around Dustan in a spiral from his waist before more appeared to take the place of the small ones. Once the larger ones vanished a large sphere appeared around the caster himself before vanishing.

“I didn’t take you for a caster as well, I am surprised.” Fire started to come from Ifrit’s nostrils and mouth now. “Don’t disappoint me now.” Then the large creature surged forward.

While Dustan was prepared for it to do so or even shoot flames, the speed at which it moved wasn’t something he could have anticipated as he barely avoided a claw swipe that raked the ground where he stood. In that moment, Dustan knew one thing for certain, any hit likely meant death.

As such while he was back pedaling the chant for Protect came out as the diamonds appeared to show the completion of the spell. ‘That might help me survive a hit. Problem is I am just barely staying out of range and if I piss him off too much by just dodging he might just want to kill me instead of play with me.’ The next move was risky but that is why he cast it without the chant to make it less risky to himself. “HASTE!” Roman numerals appeared in two spirals that closed in on him before the effect activated.

His gamble was rewarded, though he wasn’t as fast as he had been with Discord, the nausea was more manageable like this. “Stop stalling human!” Jumping up Ifrit launched a breath attack that would make a Charizard proud.

Dustan zipped out of the way as his mind raced, with this nausea he was likely not to be able to cast anymore, locking him to his physical side. Luckily the new burst of speed caught the summon off guard as Dustan was now up on him as he landed. Jumping up and landing a slash across the chest of the creature Dustan smiled as he roared in pain and hot red splashed out, hissing when it hit the ground.

There was just one problem. Not being used to the new speed Dustan landed a bit roughly and as such as he turned around he caught a big meaty backhand that launched him into a nearby stalagmite. The wind was knocked out of him to say the least as he pulled out a potion and chugged it even as he stood up. It did little to heal all of the damage was inflicted on him but now he could at least continue to fight.

“Good hit and good to see you can still stand after my counter.” The glow in the Esper’s eyes grew brighter as the beast grinned. “Good, my first true fight since I woke up. ENTERTAIN ME MORE HUMAN!”

The heat in the area skyrocketed and from the corner of his eye Dustan noticed a shield being erected around the group away from the fight showing that even they were feeling its effects. Thrusting the first holding his sword forward Dustan performed the Shockwave technique hitting and surprising the Eidolon before doing again with Aurablast. Running full tilt when his Aurablast hit Dustan was hoping that the invisible punch to the face would stun the Esper long enough for him to reach, his hope was in vain though as Ifrit growled a pleased growl as he looked towards Dustan running him and opened his maw spitting out more fire.

Quickly using his Dragoon Jump skill Dustan leapt up to the ceiling of the cavern before bounding off it and towards Ifrit getting a passing slash on him but only a shallow one on his shoulder. The King of Flames halted his outpouring of fire to turn and try to swipe at Dustan only for the Ninja to duck under the swipe and a red glowing saber as Aim+1 came across its forearm as Dustan quickly took off running feeling a bit better now that his sword healed him a bit.

Seems the spry action was noticed though as Ifrit mused. “Interesting, using a cursed sword to your advantage. Very brave. Clearly you are not worried about it eating your vitality or your soul.”

Chuckling Dustan held out said blade and smiled. “Cause its vitality is mine, it was made with my blood and already tired to eat me but I survived.”

“Interesting. So you were the intended sacrifice but were saved somehow or did you manage it on your own?” Ifrit asked of him genuinely curious it seemed.

Dustan was wiping the sweat off his brow when he realized something. “You are stalling, using the heat as a weapon.”

The answering grin told the tale. “Can’t it be both?”

Dustan rushed forward answering its question with an invisible punch to its face as he ran towards it, this time though Ifrit didn’t even flinch. Seems play time was over. It drew in a deep breath before roaring out, the wave of hit stopped Dustan dead in his tracks and forced him to retreat as the stone right below Ifrit now started to glow a bit, showing just how much heat he was pouring out.

Putting his weapon away Dustan started to throw out Shockwaves and Aurablasts to make up for the fact he was now also locked to ranged. Ifrit just strode towards him forcing Dustan to back further and further away, which quickly slowed as Haste wore off.

“Growing tired human? You have slowed down quite a bit. The heat must be unbearable.” This was an apex predator, one who knew its own limits and had found a prey’s limits.

Backing up quickly Dustan switched up tactics, moving towards the lava lake now Dustan uncorked another potion and chugged it down to heal the damage from earlier before tossing the vial away. “Kinda yeah, trying my best here but I am hitting a wall that I am having a hard time seeing over the top of.”

“As have many before you.” Ifrit told him as it approached. “What is more is that you trapped yourself with magma to your back, even if you were to jump using your prowess my heat will still fry you. I will say you have stood up to me better than most even in the past have.”

“But not better then all of them?” Dustan asked curiously as he went for another potion.

“Sadly no, some have met my challenge as was required.” Ifrit told him as it continued forward. “This is it human, are you prepared for the end?”

“See that is the thing about humans.” Taking hold of the potion he had in his hand he quickly chuckled it forward and upwards full power. “We are really fucking stubborn!”

The potion was sent flying to the ceiling where it hit the base of a stalactite that was now hanging just above Ifrit causing it to dislodge and come plummeting down towards the beast. Sadly it was a slow falling rock, even if its weight was rather impressive judging from the noise and impact it made when it landed, as the flame using Esper jumped out of the way rather nimbly.

“Good effort and try with tha-” Ifrit was half turned and saw something that made its eyes widen.

Dustan was right before him sworn drawn in both hands. Dustan knew violating the rules of Tactics always had a drawback that made him rather sick to his stomach as much as using Haste would even if it was a different kind of sickness. What was more was being this close to Ifrit with his heat aura turned on like this was burning, charring his skin even as he dove forward. He had already closed his eyes to avoid scorching them but because of that he couldn’t see where to attack and could only guess. Timing his shot correctly Dustan swung his sword around and met resistance only to slash through it.

As he landed the human screamed out from all the burns, even if some were healed thanks to his Blood sword. Falling to his knees and dropping his sword Dustan barely registered blood coming from Ifrit’s neck though nowhere near the amount that a fatal blow or anything that would debilitate it would cause. Unlike himself who now couldn’t bear to move because of the pain as parts of his clothing had now dry rotted and were crumbling away from him as well. The Ninja’s world was nothing but pain so he couldn’t register anything going on.

That changed when healing magic was felt coursing over him relieving him of some of the blistering white hot pain that he felt, enough that he could register that it was the medical unit from the expedition squad. Another spell and suddenly his whole body went numb letting him no longer feel any pain as ointments and other such things were quickly brought about.

“Can you understand me now human?” The deep voice of Ifrit called out to him making him look over a bit slowly as he tried to figure out what happened. “Your wild tactic was wonderful. Had a been a tad slower or you a tad faster the difference in our strength would not have mattered as you would have ended my life then and there. I had thought there was no creature foolish enough to dare approach me while my Aura was active. For that arrogance I almost paid the ultimate price. For that I am willing to admit defeat.”

“Wait…really?” Dustan could scarcely believe he heard that right.

“Well yes and no.” Ifrit called slowly turning and walking along the land bridge towards the island. “You are still far too weak to be called my Master. Your spirit is strong, so I am willing to make a compact with you. I wish to see your growth so I will lend you a portion of my power. As per your request as well, I will withdraw my Aura from this land as I project my spirit and take a good look over this world now that it’s changed.” Ifrit moved to the center of the four pillars as a large glyph appeared below him and he turned to face the group. “You have no earned the right to ask more of me as of yet. In time you may. I look forward to that time.”

Striking a pose there was a green flash and when ponies and human could see again, Ifrit was now a statue and on the pillars were glowing summoning orbs. Even though they were in an underground magma chamber, they could all tell the heat was receding and all let out a cheer. Dustan was not cheering as much as he was busy casting all of his healing magic he could to remove the burns from his body, luckily it looked as if none would leave any scars thanks to that.

Unfortunately once it was clear he was no longer in any pain, soldier and friend dog piled him mercilessly even if he wished to do nothing more then pass out then and there.

Chapter Thirty Five: Country Roads.

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My Little Tactics

Chapter Thirty Five: Country Roads.

The train was rather soothing as it padded along. The buffalo were happy to be left alone, and those that were coming were put up in the cargo hold for the trip. The trek back through the desert was more peaceful then what it took to get to Ifrit’s Cavern which was now what that location was called. Dustan was tired, the heat had sapped all of his strength and though it was a lot less than before, he still found he had no energy to do anything. This was fine with everyone else as well letting him take a back seat considering he had won the Esper’s challenge.

Because of that, Dustan had a few days to consider things. Sure he liked pushing himself and testing his limits in friendly combat, but Ifrit was a whole other beast to himself. Even now thinking about the Esper standing in front of him was enough to make him shake. He had tried to be friendly and talk to all those wishing to talk to him during the trip back, but it must have been clear that he had a lot on his mind as eventually they all stopped, even Dash.

‘Do I really want to keep fighting?’ Looking down at his hand, the one that couldn’t feel anything Dustan continued to muse to himself. ‘Maybe its time I did like I thought. Maybe I should hang it all up, study my magic some more, teach, govern more actively, things like that. Sure I will still spar to keep me in shape but honestly, do I want to continue doing this.’

Unhooking his cloak and looked at it, it was tattered, worn, and had very thin spots that were verging on becoming holes in some places. Stitch marks were crisscrossing in some places where he had repaired the cloak and there was even one patch where he had to fix a large hole from when he had found a stray goblin in the Everfree and it had tried to shoot him with a bow. It was likely the last goblin from the slave camp that had been managing to hide out in the forest for so long, only to meet its end at his hands.

‘So many things have died to me, Ifrit even said if I had been a bit faster I would have killed him. HIM an ESPER for fuck’s sake. I thought those things were neigh immortal! Or at least the games always made them out to be.’ Looking at the cloak and closing his eyes for a moment Dustan sighed before opening them once more. ‘Plus, let’s face it. From what I have read or at least skimmed over, no Displaced makes it back home. I think it’s time I make peace with that. I think when I get back, after getting the buffalo settled in and taking a good long rest, I will have Rarity make me a new cloak. Maybe I will put the new Luminary symbol I sent home on it?’

There was some comfort thinking about things like that and also a sadness. A sadness that must have been palpable as Rainbow Dash shook him and looked at him curiously. She didn’t need to say anything but it was clear what she wanted to say.

“Hey, are you alright?” The unsaid question from her asked.

Giving a smile he chuckled and gave her head a pat. “Yeah, just thinking about things and finally settling some things in my mind. Somber thoughts but I should be better in a few days after I have had time to rest.”

“You sure?” Clearly the pegasus wasn’t quite convinced but didn’t feel the need to push further when he nodded in assurance. “Ok then. If you ever need to talk there are so many of us willing to listen. Me and my friends of course, Merlene, is always willing to listen to you if you just asked.”

“I know, and that thought alone helps more then you know Dash.” Giving a pat once more he leaned back and heard a rip. “Speaking of help, you could give me some right now by heading out and letting me change. I think I might also try giving going armorless and weaponless a try for once. Need to learn to stop carrying them around all the time anyways.” The wonderbolt hopeful smiled and nodded before heading out giving him the time he needed. As Dustan stripped and pulled out a new set of clothing, stowing away his ‘utility belt’ as well as his weapon and armor a thought came to mind. ‘I will need to do this anyways sometime, why not now when I am looking to finally retire.’

Eventually Dustan redressed in his Battle Boots, a plain pair of black jeans that Rarity had made, as well as a plain white T-shirt before throwing his cloak back on, and his feather pendant that he had received on Hearth’s Warming. For a bit he debated whether to put the cloak back on at all or if he should put it in with his gloves along with everything else. That choice was made for him as they got closer to Ponyville and Dustan recognize the tale tell pattern of pitter patter signaling that it was raining.

Opening the door and letting Rainbow Dash know he was clear she came back in and looked him over. “Wow, not going to lie, its kinda weird not seeing you without your gear on.”

Nodding in agreement he moved his hand to where his swords should be. “I know, I feel naked without them and my armor, but got to get used to that.”

“I still don’t understand your hang up about wearing clothing all the time. I mean us ponies, griffons, minotaurs, and more all go around as we are.” The pegasus stated as she plopped herself back down on the seat while Dustan took a seat on the cot.

“We have no fur Dash, we are really susceptible to the natural elements like heat and cold. Clothing helps alleviate that, and growing up humans historically developed the subconscious need to have clothing on for society so it became taboo for a few reasons to be undressed in public.” He explained, not the best explanation sure but it was the quickest one he could do that was somewhat accurate.

“I mean, I can kinda get that, but still. That makes humans sound weird or prudish, not sure which.” She rubbed her chin as she had a thought before suddenly looking at him. “Not going to lie, all the secrecy also makes me want to see what is under all the wrapping you know?”

Giving her a deadpan stare and in a flat tone told her. “No. Plus you and the girls have already seen everything when you all barged in on me bathing, more than once I may add, or in the middle of changing, or in the hospital, or when I am sleeping.”

“Ok one, I said I was sorry.” She told him plainly.

“No you didn’t.” Dustan replied quickly.

Giving a sheepish grin she rubbed the back of her head. “Well I thought it. Anyways the other times were you already with clothing or hurt. Also you sleep naked?”

The train gave a loud whistle to signal that it was pulling up to the station for Ponyville now, and hearing that Dustan grabbed his bag. “Oh would you look at that, lets continue this conversation never.” He stated as he started to head out.

Dustan waited at the opening for all those getting off, namely Rainbow Dash and all the Buffalo but was surprised when the flapping of wings and the landing of paws and claws signaled the arrival of his personal guard. “Lord Warner. Welcome back.” Merlene stated as she gave a bow before quirking an eyebrow at him. “Is everything ok, where are your weapons and armor?”

Give a rustle to his pack to call attention to it he stated. “In here. Trying to go without them and get used to it.”

Nodding at his words she still had a slightly confused look to her face. “Ok, I can understand but are you sure this is wise?”

Shrugging Dustan chuckled and then looked to the buffalo. “Anyways follow me and Merlene here and we will lead you to the ca-”

“DUSTAN!” A familiar voice called to him as he sighed wondering what else was up. The purple mage that was Twilight Sparkle was the one that had called him and was currently galloping towards him with Spike on her back. “I am so glad you are back. I want you to come over to the library, I have something exciting to share with you and I need your help with something, not in that order. No wait, I guess it kind of would be in that order.”

‘I just want to go home and get the buffalo settled in then to take a nap.’ Rubbing his head and then his eyes he looked to Merlene and tossed her his pack. “Take this to the castle please and the buffalo. I am not sure how long this will take but I will try to be back quickly.”

“Yes Lord Warner. As per your instructions we have been setting up a place for them though more spacious housing won’t be constructed for another three or so weeks.” She explained then motioned to the sky. “There was a sudden request for rain and it should be happening all this week.”

Another reason he wanted to hurry things up. “Right, get them somewhere dry and see if they are hungry as it should be dinner time.” Turning to Twilight he motioned for her to lead the way.

“Why would they schedule rain so soon? I am going to go find out.” The lead weathermare told them as she took off.

As they were walking the enthusiastic look upon Twilight’s face faded as she looked at the residential human. “Is everything ok? You look worn out.”

“That is because I am worn out Twilight. The desert was a real struggle in some ways, I have to help the buffalo settle in which is a bit of a story all its own, and I was hoping to be able to rest up before I have to leave for Canterlot in two days to give my report to Celestia and Luna.”

While the human was looking at her, he could see her ears folding back showing that she was either worried or sad she was doing this now before Spike chimed up. “Don’t worry about that, remember Twilight we sent that letter to the Princess telling her what we had planned.”

The book pony then perked back up and smiled. “That is right, you have a bit of time before you go back since you are helping me with this. So the report isn’t needed until we are done with it.”

That was a bit of a relief to him but at the same time worrisome if it meant helping out Twilight in whatever she had going on, speaking of which. “So what do you need my help with?”

They walked to the front door of the Golden Oaks Library as she stepped in. Quickly using some magic to dry them all off Twilight grabbed her saddle bags and pulled out a weird device, a type of small sliding box that had what almost looked like a display on the front, a note pad that was FULL of notes that he couldn’t even begin to comprehend, along with a piece of parchment along with an inkwell and quill. Whatever Twilight was doing was research intensive and if it meant he was here, likely had to do with results she got from him during a test of some type or something involving humans she had been studying from his talks. If it was the latter he decided he would amuse her since likely he knew it would be a false lead.

Turning to him she smiled at him, the type of smile that someone gave when they were happy but needed something from you. “Can I get a couple of strands of your hair?”

Looking at her weirdly and then back to his hair, shoulder length now where he kept it cut he shrugged once more. “Go ahead, but don’t make me lopsided.” As she took a clipping he looked at his hair and mused. ‘I used to like keeping my hair short but stylists here in Ponyville don’t understand my meaning of short and keep it around this length anyways. No need to pay them for something I can do with some scissors when its just evening out the length in the back.’ Dustan always kept his hair brushed back so none went into his eyes anyways though he did muse to himself that he might need a trim since there were some spots that felt singed from Ifrit.

Twilight opened up the box, double checking that she cleaned it apparently as she swabbed it out with a clean cloth before placing the hair in it and closing it. Pressing a button on the side the front soon lit up with several strings of numbers that Dustan had no clue or meaning to what they could mean, though it seems Twilight did. Purple Smart quickly was writing down the numbers and double checking them each and every time.

Part way through recording them though, the brown haired human did hear her speak mostly to herself. “Strange and fascinating, the third string usually never changed before. Oh well, shouldn’t make a difference.” While he didn’t like the sound of that he had no time to process it as Twilight set Spike down. “Ok Spike, you are in charge until I get back ok?”

“Right.” He gave a salute and a smile as Twilight then motioned for Dustan to follow her as she lead him down into the basement.

Said basement looked to have seen better days as charts, boards and even desks were filled with more work and magical studies then he had seen anywhere, which was something considering he had walked in on Mystic in one of his rants as he had boards everywhere. Twilight herself was busy erasing something on a magical glyph that was on a slightly raised platform and was looking to her notes each and every time. When he tried to ask again what she was up to she told him she needed quiet to make sure everything is correct.

Shrugging and finding a place to lean against Dustan watched Twilight do her thing, till finally she came up and smiled. “Ok, stand up here with me please.”

“Ooookay.” Part of Dustan’s mind was giving him warning signals, saying Twilight was in one of her phases that he shouldn’t do anything she says but at the same time, it was Twilight. ‘Most harm she has ever caused was…ok never mind she actually has caused a lot of harm with her freak outs.’ As he stood on the circle Twilight put some items in her saddlebags including the notes and other objects as she came up to stand with him. “Um Twilight, what is going on. Also why would Spike need to watch the library?”

The unicorn lit up her horn and soon the glyph below them started to light up with her magical color as well growing brighter and brighter. “Oh, I have been working off of some research notes I purchased and found a way to make them work. See they are teleportation experiments and they are old but at the same time very revolutionary. With today’s advancements I am able to combine them and effectively make long range stable teleportation a reality.”

Blinking as that wasn’t part of the show at all though it was amazing. “That is incredible, that could revolutionize how anyone gets around. Trains might still be needed for large transport of cargo and things, but anyone could go to any city and since its teleportation its basically instant right?”

“Yes and I know right?!” The pony was practically vibrating as she got complemented. “I have already done local experiments with myself, even getting to Canterlot easily, though I need coordinates to be placed in the circle to actually work.” Frowning a bit she looked down. “The charging seems to be taking a lot longer than normal this time though.”

Tilting his head Dustan couldn’t help but ask. “Coordinates? How do ponies standardize those?”

“Oh we don’t have any standardize way that I know of. That is why I used that device. You see I can put a sample of anything in that and it locates the origin of the object and displays those origins in the form of numbers that I use as coordinates.” She must have seen his confusion as she chuckled. “The one I put your hairs into.”

Nodding in understanding he smiled. “Ahh gotcha.” Then realization hit him, one that had lots of possible ramifications. “Wait Twilight, did you just say you-”

The circle below them suddenly shimmered brighter and brighter. “Oh here we go!”

“WAIT TWIL-!” Dustan called but never would finish as with a sound of a pop they vanished.

It took some time but Rainbow Dash had finally gotten the paperwork she was looking for. A request for rain for this long at this time was unusual, sure it was Summer and all, but those requests usually didn’t come till later. Sitting down at her desk the weathermare looked over everything, from payment to the delivery of clouds, everything. It all checked out, though the amount of money thrown at things just for a simple shower didn’t check out.

“Why would somepony want rain to be happening now.” Suddenly there was a note that popped up as Dash turned the pages of the report. “What, weird that wasn’t there before.” Having already checked over this report a half dozen times the pegasus took the note. “Hmm let’s see.”

It was addressed to her it seems. “Dear Rainbow Dash. I am sorry about this, but the truth is, I needed you away from Dustan’s side for a bit. Twilight NEEDS to show him her experiment as it’s important. I understand your loyalty, but Dustan needs this and I spent too much effort and time to set it up for Twilight to research what she needs in order for it to happen. I am not doing this out of malice or even to be hurtful, I am strictly doing this to help him. I always regret having to do what I did and have been trying to make it up to him in ways that are small or unnoticeable but I can only do so much without being found out. The circumstances were now perfect but you leaving with him to find Ifrit was a bit unexpected, so I put in this request just because I knew you would come check it out right away when you got back and Ms. Sparkle being who she is would likely want Dustan’s attention right away. I hope you forgive me for this deception.”

Rainbow Dash didn’t like this note at all; it was too personal and too knowledgeable about Dustan as it read like whoever wrote this knew him personally. Getting up and having a bad feeling the pegasus quickly dove out of the window to her office and zoomed towards the library. Knocking on it Spike soon opened the door and let her in.

“Oh hey Rainbow Dash. What brings you here?” The small dragon asked her as she looked around.

“Is Dustan around or Twilight?” Zipping around high and low she looked for them quickly.

Only problem was there was no sign. “I mean if everything went well they should already be gone. But I suppose if not you can check the basement.”

She zipped to the door that lead to the underground area that she knew to be her friend’s lab and in there she found egghead writing everywhere but no signs of the two she was looking for. “Must have missed them.” Rubbing the back of her head, she started to fly back upstairs as she thought to herself. ‘Why would somepony named Humble Merchant, know Dustan?’

“Uggh.” Dustan moaned as he tried to lift himself off of the brick wall he was slumped against. Feels like he had been tossed down Mount Canterlot the way he felt. The pitter patter of rain was continuing though so it was obvious that somehow they were back outside. “Great, Twilight teleported us outside.”

As if mentioning her name out loud Dustan realized that she wasn’t next to him and quickly started to look around. Where ever he was he was in the alleyway between some buildings next to a dumpster a bit from the street, though luckily Dustan found a purple leg sticking out from behind a dumpster just out of sight and came up to check on her. She was pale, the coloring of her coat was off and she was out cold, right away the dread that she was dead came over him as he checked for a pulse. Relief quickly washed over him when he realized that she was still breathing and her heart was going.

Pulling off his cloak he wrapped her up in it to keep the rain off her. “One second Twilight, be right back.”

Though he wanted to pick her up and carry her, Dustan had no clue where they were as buildings like this weren’t in Ponyville at all. As the Ninja made his way out of the alleyway his heart leapt as something sped by in front of him splashing the sidewalk with water that had collected nearby. It was a metal box, that moved at rather quick speeds on a road of black carried by wheels made of equally black color. Looking around Dustan quickly realized where it was they were, and the realization brought him to his knees.

“Am I…home?” Dustan asked, tears being washed away by the rain. ‘That is Jack’s Pharmacy right there, and the Pizzeria where I used to work to make the best pizza when I was a teen. It always was a family owned place that refused to bow to places like Pizza Hut.’

His thoughts were interrupted though as the rain over him stopped and a voice called to him. “Are you alright young man?”

Looking over after jumping slightly he saw an elderly woman holding an umbrella out for him along with holding the hand of a rather young girl, maybe six at best, both of which were human. “Yeah, just-” Then he remembered! “My dog is sick and I had forgotten my phone, I have her wrapped up but I have no way of calling for a ride to come pick us up to take her to the vet. Can I borrow your phone?”

The woman looked on in sympathy and pulled out a phone, an older one but he didn’t care about that, he just needed it to work. “There you go.”

“Thank you ma’am.” He told her quickly as he dialed in a number that he hoped had not faded from his memories as well. ‘Please, PLEASE WORK!’ soon a ringing sound was heard over the device, a good few rings.

Dustan was starting to get worried when the ringing stopped and a voice picked up, one he would know anywhere. “Patrick Morris, Designer and devilishly good looking, who am I speaking with?”

He nearly choked up hearing that voice but quickly started to get out. “Pat, I need a ride.”

There was silence for a good long moment before a somewhat angry voice spoke up. “Look, I don’t know who you are but trying to imitate my friend’s voice like that is-”

Dustan understood his anger but didn’t have time for it sadly so pulled up a bit of history that he hoped he would never have to. “Pat if you don’t get your car over to Sam’s Pizzeria right now I am going to tell everyone what I saw at Jenny’s party from when we were in high school!”

More silence, stunned too as he could hear some muffled sounds of movement from the other end. “Holy shit Dustan that you?! Where have you been?!”

“Please Pat, hurry, I am across the street from Sam’s I need a pick up, it’s important. I have used this old woman’s phone long enough and should give it back to her, I will explain when you get here.” Not wanting to hang up like that but he knew it would get his friend here as quick as possible as he wiped the rain water and tears from his face and handed the phone back to the woman. “Thank you very much ma’am, more then I can ever express.”

“No problem dearie, now come along Julie.” The shy little girl stood behind her grandmother as they walked off and Dustan went back to the alleyway to pick up and move Twilight’s covered body towards someplace with more shelter, not that there was much in the alleyway.

Looking towards the pizza place of his youth Dustan kept watch over Twilight as time went by. Each car that came and went brought both hope and joy to him as well as fear and worry as thoughts came to his mind. Thoughts like ‘How do I explain this to him, to Mom and Dad, hell the government? I am likely declared legally dead or something after all.’ As well as other thoughts ranging from simple things of soda he might wish to try now that he was back to grander things of what the world was up to while he was gone.

All those thoughts came to a halt as a rather nice looking black Bentley Mulsanne pulled into the parking lot of the Pizzeria and out stepped a tall sandy blond male in a pair of jeans along with a t-shirt and jacket. Dustan could feel the tears well up in his eyes again but shook them off as he wrapped Twilight up tight and made sure nothing of hers was showing as he carried her towards his awaiting friend. Patrick for what it was worth was looking quite well, no dark shadows under his eyes, appeared in good health, and judging from the quality of his clothing and the fact he was driving a Bentley meant he must have been well off money-wise.

Regardless of who he was now, the instant Pat saw his friend he ran over and gave him a hug. “Damn man it’s so good to see you.”

Pat was taller than Dustan by a good few inches being six foot two, hugging back to his tall friend Dustan held him for a moment. “Glad to see you again too man. Mind if we get out of the rain. I rather get someplace nice and dry.”

“Y-yeah sure.” The older former bully told him while wiping his face and leading him back to the Bentley. Opening up the doors Dustan chose to hop in the back to keep an eye on Twilight. “What do you have there and where have you been? Noah and Olivia were so upset when you vanished.”

Those names brought tears to his eyes as he wiped them away. “Have my parents been well you know beyond besides being worried for me?”

The car hummed to life as the warm air soon was staving off the cold of the rain. “Yeah, been helping them out. Your Dad had a nasty scare with Cancer but it was treated and hasn’t come back. Your mom is still a florist, can’t really say much about that.” Shaking his head for a moment he looked back as they were at a red light. “Don’t change the subject, where have you been, what’s in the blanket?”

“It’s a long story that likely won’t be finished by the time we get home, but here look.” Dustan told him as he lifted the hood of his cloak showing the face and horn of Twilight Sparkle.

A moment passed before the honking of someone behind them got Pat’s attention to start driving once more. “Dude, I know you liked the show, but buying a pony and painting it is likely not the best course of action, let alone gluing a horn to it like that. But hell I don’t care right now, you are back that is all that matters.”

“Yeah, I’m back.” Dustan said with a smile as he leaned back against the warm seats.

The drive to Patrick’s home, and the home of Dustan as it were since he had been living with Patrick at the time before vanishing, took longer than expected and when asked Pat told him that he had moved away from their old place to his own property he had built. Hearing that, Dustan gave a whistle as he had been impressed as it was something that the designer always talked about but should have been years and years off.

“Sounds like your designs are getting popular then.” The formerly displaced human told his friend to which got a chuckle.

“Not really.” Pat said turning down a new street. “I mostly design as a hobby now and to keep myself busy.”

“What wh-” Dustan stopped as a gate in front of them opened and in came the view of the place Patrick now lived. “Holy shit.”

In front of him was a modern three story home that he could see both solar panels atop of the roof as well as a pool off to the side, plenty of land and more all that said private property. “Yeah, um I may have hit the lottery around New Year’s this year and the pot for it was…let’s say generous.”

Laughing and smiling he reached over to give his friend a celebratory pat on the back. “If anyone deserves it, it’s you man.”

Parking the expensive car, which now made sense on why Pat had it, in the garage his friend looked back to him and told him. “Come on, let’s get your pony someplace dry, it looks sick and I can call in a vet or someone to come take a look at it.”

Picking up Twilight he shook his head. “Trust me, once I start explaining things, you will want NO one to know about or see Twilight here.”

Chuckling at hearing the name pat waved him in. “You named your pet after the lead of the current generation?”

“She isn’t my pet and…wait how do you know that?” Dustan knew that Pat was not the biggest fan of MLP at all but then a thought came to mind. “Um let me find a nice quiet place to put her then we can talk alright?”

“Sure. One of the guest rooms on the second floor should work.” The home of his friend was…luxurious to say the least but not overly so to show what kind of money he had. Fancy items were few and far between and it was clear he picked items that had a mix of comfort and design with emphasis on the former. “Actually, since she is your pet, let’s take her up to the third floor to your room.”

“Again she isn’t my-wait my room?” Dustan asked confused as his head tilted as they climbed the second set of stairs now. “Didn’t you say you moved here?”

His friend took on a somber face as he slowed. “I couldn’t just leave your stuff there. It would have been like admitting you weren’t coming back, that you were gone and dead somewhere. I refused to believe that, so when I hit the lotto I paid good money to have your room shipped here and placed more or less how you left it. That way when you got back you had someplace to call home.”

Opening up the door it was just like Patrick had told him. His bed, his posters of various anime, his bookshelf of books, manga, and comics lined the shelf though it was smaller than he would have liked having to sell more of his expensive items during Sarah’s treatments. A shelf of games and anime that he owned his old tv, game systems, computer, everything was more or less oriented the same in this room as it was in his old smaller one, more spacious with a huge window on one wall, but the same. Holding back tears, Dustan set Twilight on the bed, uncovering the cloaked from her covering her up in the blanket.

Folding the piece of clothing up, he carried it as he went out of the room then hugged his best friend. “Thanks man, means a lot.”

As his friend hugged him, he could feel the tears coming from him matching the ones Dustan felt coming from his own eyes. “No problem man. You would have done the same for me if you could.” The sound of grumbling was heard as the designer pulled back and laughed. “What the fuck are you, an anime character?”

Laughing and smiling Dustan rubbed the back of his head in the typical anime way to emphasize the point making his friend laugh. “Dude, I don’t suppose I could get something to eat.”

Waving him down Pat started to head to the kitchen on the first floor. “I was just about to start dinner when you called up, so yeah let’s get something to eat. You can explain while I cook.”

Pat, while not the best cook in the world knew how to make certain dishes extremely well, such as this dish: Spaghetti and meatballs. The well to do blond would grind up the meat himself adding in seasonings same for the sauce, which was made from scratch. His friend never told him exactly what he put into it as it was one of the things that his mother had taught him before she died stating that it was a family recipe.

“So man, what happened. I got drunk during the con and when I woke up, you were nowhere to be found.” The stirring of the sauce slowed as it seems that saying that brought memories back to him. “For the longest time I blamed myself for that. I thought to myself, if maybe I was sober, what had ever happened could have been prevented. So tell me man, I need to know.”

Sitting down at the table Dustan remembered back to almost two years ago now to that day. “Well, let’s start with me saying this. I know you aren’t the biggest fan of MLP but in the community there is someone called the Merchant from Resident Evil Four that shows up and takes humans from our world and puts them into Equestria, the world of My Little Pony.”

“Wait, you telling me that the guy we bumped into at the con was some kind of mystical abductor that just happens to be real from fanfiction?” Turning around and leaning against the counter Pat tossed a small meatball back and forth between his hands now. “Come on man; tell me the truth, what happened.”

Dustan looked at his friend and said nothing really, instead he felt around inside of him, looking for his mana and pulled. “Water.” A sphere of water manifested in his hand floating above it and the splat of meat hitting the ground was heard as Patrick froze wide eyed at the gravity defying water. “I am not lying.”

Forgetting the lost object of food the blond came over and poked at the water finding it firm but not so firm that he couldn’t push his finger into it. “The fuck?”

Giving a toss to the sink, Dustan watched with a smile as it landed and splashed. “For the past almost two years I have been in Equestria brought there by a pair of merchants.”

Patrick moved to clean up his mess now as he checked on the sauce and prepared a replacement meatball. “Ok, so now you have my absolute attention.”

Dustan started off explaining about the two merchants, the good and bad one; how the bad one impaled him with the formerly wooden sword he carved and turned it into a Blood Sword by having it absorb his blood. How the good one had saved his life by sending him to Equestria fully healed. Mentioning his first encounter with Ponyville, Zecora, the goblins, and ending long after they had finished their meal with what had just transpired that brought him here. To say Patrick was stunned was an understatement, having not said a word the entire time and looking like he was both worried and flabbergasted at times.

“Damn.” It was the only thing that came from his friends mouth in nearly an hour and a half that wasn’t a sigh. “So, let me get this straight. You have magic and super human abilities. That pony upstairs is in fact THE Twilight Princess of Magic and Friendship Sparkle, and she is somehow from a version of Equestria that has elements of Final Fantasy in it? Not to mention you are a fucking noble Lord now?”

“Yeah, that about sums up some things.” Standing up now Dustan looked to his friend as he started to go back upstairs. “I should check on her. Though I am still curious to how you know all that.”

That somber face came back to his friend as they climbed the stairs. “After you vanished, it was rough on me. After some time, when I was healing, I remembered you liked that show as well as other things and started to watch them to connect to you man. There were times when I wavered on if I believed you were alive or not and watching things you liked helped remember our friendship and keep my hope strong. Sappy yeah I know but it’s true.”

The Lord of the Everfree was shocked, as he remembered how much his friend detested the show before. “Um, don’t mention that she is from a show around her though. She doesn’t know, hell she thinks that I am a human from an unknown part of Equestria.”

Wincing as that was said Pat folded his arms in front of him. “The show thing I can get though honestly I feel like that is going to bite you in the ass. You are lucky you didn’t have any pony memorabilia in your room.” A chuckle escaped the pair. “You should tell her though, at least about where the fuck she is now. You owe that much to her.”

“Yeah, you are right.” It was something that should be told later once Twilight recovers.

Opening up the door and letting the hall light in must have been enough to awaken Twilight as she groaned and covered her eyes. “Spike, tell the princess it’s too early to wake up.”

Dustan quickly went over to the pony as he heard her speak even as his friend gave another wide eyed look as he heard her. “Twilight, are you alright?”

The lavender pony slowly rose up from the bed and opened her eyes. “Yeah, a bit mana depleted and have a huge headache but yeah.” Finally noticing things around her, no doubt strange and curious she rose up more. “Where are we?”

Dustan looked back to his friend as he strode forward and placed a hand on the shoulder of the pony. “As Will Smith once said. ‘Welcome to Earth.’”

Chapter Thirty Six: Earth.

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My Little Tactics

Chapter Thirty Six: Earth.

The next day couldn’t come quick enough for one Twilight Sparkle, or at least that is how it appeared to Dustan as she was practically bouncing all over the place. He had explained to the mare the truth that where he was from wasn’t Equestria at all, might not even be the same universe at all, and honestly for a moment he thought the mare would explode when she suddenly started to vibrate then word vomit came out. A stream of sounds that he supposed were words came out of her mouth before he got annoyed.

It was Pat who solved things when he suggested that Twilight make a list of questions she wanted to ask and handed her a ballpoint pen and some paper, only to find she couldn’t use her magic. That was easily explained away in that she was empty on magic at the moment and instead took the pen in her hoof and looked around asking for where the ink well was before being told the nature of the ball point pen. The look on her face was that of someone finding the holy grail as she held up the pen and tried it out using her hoof to hold it.

After that she was given one of the guest rooms for her own use while Dustan got his own room back for his use. Sleep came rather peacefully that night for him, tension that he didn’t know he had seemed to fade from him as the next morning came too early when a knocking on his door was heard as Twilight told him to get up as breakfast was being made. Grumbling as he came out the bright fresh eyed look on Twilight’s face said she had gotten sleep but it was not something he honestly thought looked normal on her.

“Are you always so chipper in the mornings like this?” The human grumbled as he took to the stairs followed by Twilight.

Shaking her head the mare simply spoke up with a happy go lucky voice. “Normally no, but I have so many questions I want to ask, everything from what all these things are to what the world is like out there.”

Pat was already hard at work in the kitchen as they came down. “Still having a hard time waking up in the mornings?”

“Fifty fifty honestly. Some days are easier, some aren’t. This was one that wasn’t, mostly because I was having some really good sleep.” Looking over to see what was being cooked, he found pancakes, bacon, eggs, a juicer making some OJ, and a box that held some muffins along with a pot of freshly brewed coffee. “Twilight doesn’t eat meat, so-”

“She told me already and she is fine with just the pancakes and an extra muffin along with her OJ and coffee.” Looking over to where Twilight was sitting, a mug of steaming coffee with a content look on her face, he could see she was rather content with things. “That is her third cup this morning.”

“It’s going to be a long day, I can already tell.” Dustan groaned out.

Breakfast was rather enjoyable, Twilight even complemented it though was looking excitably at the two. “Go ahead Twilight, start asking, we both know you want to.”

At Patrick’s go ahead Twilight picked up the notepad showing she was still having mana issues. “Ahem. After thinking for a good while and finally sorting out the important questions from the small ones and ones that were identical to others I would ask, this is my first question. Why didn’t you tell anypony you weren’t from Equestria?”

Resting his head in his hands as that was the question he knew was coming. “My first encounter with you all involved running, screaming, and calling me a monster.”

“Ahh ok, true. But after that when we all got to know you, why didn’t you say anything?” She asked taking a sip of her coffee and looking like a job interviewer at the moment.

Sipping his own OJ, as Dustan himself wasn’t a coffee drinker, he set it down before telling her the honest truth. “It wouldn’t have mattered.” Seeing her confused face he scratched his head. “Knowing I am an alien, extra-dimensional being, whatever wouldn’t have changed the fact that it was likely I was never going to be able to come home. Plus I didn’t want to risk that knowledge somehow coming to cause harm to myself or those around me. Saying I am from an unknown part of Equestria was also just…easier.”

Twilight took a moment to take some notes before nodding. “Alright, I can easily understand all that.” Moving to the next question on her list she smiled. “You said humans don’t really know magic, but use technology. Can you show me some examples, I mean I get that some of the things here are fantastic, but it’s nothing that Equestria doesn’t have.”

Looking to Pat who smiled with him they both got up and went into the living room. “Twilight, meet Television.”

Turning it on caused the unicorn to jump as the images on screen appeared causing her to look on in awe. “Twilight, that is just one show that was recorded an unknown amount of time ago, though we could easily find out, and is being broadcasted and re-broadcasted to every home with a television or TV for short. Every home in this country has a TV with very few exceptions.”

“Fascinating. It’s like a play but you captured it and show it to everypony.” She was writing this down quickly having to sit down to do so though and glancing back up to the show, a comedy it looked like. “So this is being shown to thousands of pon-um people at once?”

Patrick looked to his friend for a moment before looking towards the pony. “Um, how many ponies are there in Equestria Twilight?”

Twilight looked like she had to think for a moment before remembering. “If I remember right, Equestria has something like fifteen million ponies.”

Face-palming at this Patrick sighed and looked at her. “Twilight, the United States of America, the country we are in now, has over three hundred million in population.”

The pen dropped from her hoof as her jaw went slack. “Th-three hundred million? So there are that many people who have the ability to see this if they choose to.” To his nod Twilight shakily picked up the pen to continue writing. “This must be the largest country in your world.”

Dustan was about to stop Pat but he was too late. “No. That would be China.”

“O-oh, and how big is China?” Twilight asked gulping as if afraid to hear the answer. “It can’t be that much larger right?”

“One moment and I can find out.” Pulling out his phone Twilight grew curious as he typed up the information he wanted to search for. “China has a population of one point four two billion.”

Twilight shakily put a hoof to her forehead. “If, if that is the largest country then how-”

Pat must have anticipated her question as he had already pulled up the information he wanted. “The world: Earth, currently has seven point seven billion people living in it.”

It was clear that the pony wanted to write that down but her hoof was shaking too bad. “Equis doesn’t even come close to that many beings. We don’t even know how many beings there are on our world!” She went to her notes and started to look through them, clearly that answer has reshaped the order of her questions. “Um, let’s see. You once said you don’t have any other species around your home, since I know that it’s a different world, is that still true.”

Nodding Dustan sat down nearby on the couch. “Yeah, humans are the only intelligent life on the planet. Well intelligent in that we can converse like this.”

“Ok, how long have humans existed?” The next question required some thought and much searching on the internet.

Pat eventually found an answer. “It’s believed we, as we currently are as a species, have existed for about three or two hundred thousand years or so. It is a bit hard to say exactly as much of our recorded history has only happened in the last few thousand years or so.”

“That is incredible. Pony history hasn’t been as well kept because of Discord. So the earliest bits of history come roughly a thousand years ago, most of anything older is either hard to read, illegible, or is so fragmented it can’t be stated with absolute certainty where in history is was recorded at.” Seems she has gotten over her shock of the population of the world and was back to being her chipper self. “May I ask what it is that you are using?”

She pointed her hoof to Patrick’s phone as he smiled. “Oh this is a Cellular Phone, a Cell phone or Cell for short. It is a human communication device that lets us talk to one another over distance.”

“What kind of distance? Like a telepathy spell or a message spell?” Twilight was in her element, learning all she could and enjoying every second.

It was adorable how eager she was that Dustan chuckled as he answered instead. “It’s more like Spike’s flame, how it can transport mail over long distance but ours is electronic and basically instant.”

“How instant are we talking about?” The unicorn asked as she was writing down notes once more. “Days, hours?”

“Milliseconds.” Pat told her. “I can talk to someone across the world right now provided they have coverage in that area to receive transmissions. What is more I can access the internet via my phone.”

“M-milliseconds!” The mare looked ready to swoon at how fast that was before it seemed a thought brought her back. “What is the internet?”

A few moments later Dustan was tucking Twilight into bed as she had fainted learning that basically all human information was nearly readily available at most fingertips. Coming back down to the living area Dustan was chuckling as he looked to Pat and asked him a simple question, one that he had to know.

“Did you plan that?” His friends knowing grin said it all. “That is cruel you know, telling her that. The idea of the internet is basically her idea of paradise.”

“I know and I had to tell her.” Sitting down and laughing with his friend Dustan looked to him with a question on his face. “Go ahead ask, I have nothing to hide.”

“You really have watched the series huh?” Obviously his friend had as he smiled and gave a nod. “How far?”

“I have finished it.” The designer told him as he relaxed.

“Oh so you are up to the current season?” Dustan smiled, happy to be able to share this with his friend only for Patrick to look at him a bit unsure.

Rubbing his arm for a moment and looking around it was clear Pat didn’t know how to say things. “Oh right, you don’t know.”

“Don’t know what?” The Ninja asked his friend.

Looking unsure of himself the blond man just came out and said it. “My Little Pony ended with season nine.”

Blinking for a moment there was only one thing to say. “Oh.”

Twilight was excited, they were going to get in this carriage they called a car and show her around the town. The windows were tinted enough that none would see her and as such it would allow her to see a bit into human culture that wasn’t just her asking questions or her watching TV now that she had recovered from her fainting spell. Speaking of spells she still couldn’t cast any, though she could feel her internal well of magic returning she just couldn’t seem to do anything.

Shaking her head of those thoughts she instead got into the seat and asked the one she now knows is named Patrick, or Pat as Dustan calls him, as he was the one who was driving. “So this is a gasoline fueled machine that propels itself forward using controlled explosions with said explosions moving pistons and acting almost like a steam engine in some aspects?”

“Pretty much more or less.” Her driver answered as she sat in the back of the car. “Please buckle up, rather not have an accident end your visit to this world by mistake.”

“Are these Car’s dangerous?” Twilight asked a bit hesitant now.

Luckily Dustan had the answer. “They can be. It’s kind of like magic, people can use them for good but if misused or used carelessly they can harm others.”

“Ok.” She told him while getting her notepad ready and the lovely invention of humans that was the pen.

Driving around provided so much information about humans, she saw that in many aspects they were just like ponies, they had marketplaces called grocery stores, pharmacies, various food establishments, places to work, places to buy specific items, and more. What set them apart were methods and what exactly was being sold or used. Fundamentally she understood that Dustan was an omnivore and indeed saw him eating meat on occasions, but hearing about all the kinds of meats when she asked that question was a bit…disturbing. She understood that there was no intelligent life on this world, not even most animals were all that intelligent compared to the Equestrian counterparts but learning that the foods they had came from various sources like cows, disturbed her. Cows on her world were sweet creatures, a bit scatterbrained and more prone to running off when spooked then ponies sure, but the long established treaty of bovine and equine have long kept them protected in exchange for their milk.

Speaking of food, Twilight eventually asked where all the food comes from only for her to hear about large farming areas dedicated to the practice but since this was a more population dense area it was more for living rather than dedicated to growing and as such other types of jobs were focused on here. She had then asked what it was that Patrick and Dustan did, well what Dustan had done before he arrived in Equis. Patrick explained that now he only worked as a hobby but he designed various graphics for companies, anything from logos to background designs for all kinds of products. Dustan was more of an oddball in that he did various jobs but no set profession as he had done everything from heavy labor to food service. Honestly hearing how humans had no Cutie Marks to guide them and seeing it action was fascinating as they did whatever in search of what made them happy or helped them live to how they wished and also a bit sad to those that couldn’t do either.

The next set of questions came via the asking of human’s medical situation and the answers she got were…mind boggling to say the least. Chemicals, radiation, gene manipulation, so far above Equestrian technology that she honestly couldn’t follow some of it but from the sound of things they got a good number of reactions similar to magic with how advanced they were. She pointed that to them at one point and Dustan had laughed and told her a quote from someone but he couldn’t remember who.

“’Any technology advanced enough will appear as magic to those not as advanced.’ Or something like that.” He explained and it was true.

Then she spotted something that set her mind ablaze, something hovering in the air sporting a disk atop of it and a metal tail with a cabin inside it for humans only to be told that was a helicopter. A type of flying machine that generated lift via the rotating blades atop of it and kept stable via another set of blades in the fin. The fact that humans would be able to make something that could not only spin that fast to look as a semi-solid disk but also to fly it was amazing. Then they told her of planes and her vision started to swim causing her to have to take deep breaths when prompted by Dustan this time to make it stop.

When they had come back to Patrick’s home for lunch Twilight’s mind couldn’t stop running. ‘No wonder I was told that Dustan was smarter then he looked when the princess told me he solved a Minotaur problem. At the time he said all his people had that kind of knowledge and honestly the princesses thought it was him being humble. If nothing else we have no clue what kind of information Dustan himself holds, let alone his people. Our technology isn’t sufficient enough to even try to tap into it let alone for him to apply it at times.’

Thoughts aside, she had a wonderful lunch and then the real treat began. Patrick hooked up a device he called a laptop to the television saying it would act as a bigger display for what was to come, and then she was allowed to look up information on the famed internet. So many questions, the average run speed of a human, the average level of education, math problems, science, anything that popped into her mind she asked Patrick to work his technological magic to ask this information database. It felt like she had just got started when he had stopped and told her it was time to get dinner prepared.

“What, but, we just got started!” The mage from another world whined.

“Yeah, several hours ago Twilight.” Dustan told her looking amused at her if she guessed the look on his face right.

Looking up to the time via a clock on the wall she could indeed see that it as they said and time for dinner. Blushing as she realized this she sheepishly offered to help to which none of them accepted saying that she was the guest and didn’t need to help. She accepted this but felt like it was just like when she offered to help Spike and he said it was fine. Instead she went back to her room to try experimenting with her magic as by this point her reserves were basically back to normal. It took until dinner was ready that she realized why it was she couldn’t use magic and rushed down to tell them.

“EARTH DOESN’T HAVE MAGIC!” She exclaimed to them only for them to look back to each other.

Then as they looked back to her Dustan simply said. “Yeah, I told you didn’t I?”

Looking at Twilight as she exclaimed that and as he reminded her that humans didn’t really use magic he smiled. “I am an exception remember, we have some legends and things, or more accurately books marked fiction, games, stories, and more so legends might not be entirely accurate.”

Breathing heavily for a moment the pony shook her head before lighting up her horn. “No you don’t understand, well let me rephrase this.” She calmed down and looked to a fork on the table. “Earth has magic but it’s such a weak harmonic field that it’s basically nonexistent.” Her magic started to slowly form around the fork as it then started to lift up. “I have to exert a lot more force in order for this to work. Umm let me find a comparison. Rainbow Dash likes to wear weights when she is doing stamina training; this is like wearing magical weights with how it feels. Magic can still be done but I need more force to do so.”

Blinking for a moment as he saw that then lifted up a hand and generated a flame she looked at him as if in disbelief. “I am not really having much of an issue.”

Dustan swore he could see the gears in her head turning before the metaphorical light bulb turned on. “OH, that is because you use neutral type magic.” Lifting up her notepad in her magic now and the pen she started to draw. “Your magic comes internally remember, so you aren’t reliant on outside forces like Harmonic and Chaotic magic is.”

“Yeah, I remember, it makes Neutral magic the weakest as everything has to come from…ahh.” The human understood though it looks like Pat was lost. Looking over to him he chuckled. “I use neutral magic, I generate all of the magic. Twilight uses Harmonic magic, meaning she combines her magic with the magic in the air. Part her and part the world.” That seemed to make things click within his mind as he then gave a nod.

“This makes so much more sense, why the music of harmony doesn’t affect you, why you are naturally adept at Neutral magic, why your species leans towards technology.” She smiled and was writing rapidly. “Because no magical forces were exerting themselves against you, you either had to develop magic yourself which would be incredibly hard or use tools to advance your way. Like most things your species took the path of least resistance and went the route of technology. Because of this your bodies more and more evolved for higher brain functions rather than to be attuned to magic, which is why the music of harmony can’t grip you as you have a higher magical resistance then those of Equis.”

Looking at her as he ran a hand through his hair he gave her a smile. “I had always wondered about that last one. Figured it was related to me not being from Equis which is right, I just couldn’t figure out any more than that.”

“Yeah, exactly.” She then pointed to him with her hoof and smiled. “It also explains your increased abilities beyond what a human can do. Because you are developing your magic, your body is more energized with your mana allowing you to go even higher then what should be possible just physically, it also explains the time at Vinyl’s concert when she connected you to the music of harmony that time and why it hit you so hard.”

Wincing at that, it still hurt him to remember that. “Yeah, it was like once it was allowed in, it rushed in and just filled up everything. I couldn’t escape it, I was forced to sing and relive memories I didn’t wish to be brought back up.”

Patrick had been silent while they had magically nerded out but now it seemed like he couldn’t hold back his own curiosity. “Oh, what did you sing and what memories?”

Gulping a bit past the lump in his throat Dustan looked down at his plate of food, Tacos one of his favorites. “’Suteki Da Ne’ and the memories were of Sarah.”

Instantly two arms wrapped around him and gave him a hug. “Dude, I am so sorry.”

Hearing his best friend, being home, those memories all coming back, it was too much for him and he couldn’t help but let out his tears and pain once more in a howl of emotional pain.

“He is resting now.” Patrick told her as she looked on in worry as she was washing up the plates from dinner while she let Dustan’s friend take care of him.

Looking over to him as she set down another plate from her magic she couldn’t help but ask. “Why did he react like that?”

The blond human was about to sit down at the table but instead went to the coffee maker and started up a new batch. “We are going to need this as it’s a long story. Let’s start with some base work before we get to Sarah though.” She could tell this was going to be a very serious talk so she took up a seat and looked at him. “Dustan’s self esteem isn’t the greatest. He views basically anyone around him as more valuable then himself. More wanted, and more needed then what he is which isn’t true but he believes it. I won’t lie; I didn’t help him with that growing up as I was his bully for so long. Dustan is a selfless soul regardless of what his self esteem is like though. He will fight for others with a strength that I can only describe as heroic. I was the strongest person in our middle school, because of that strength and other issues that I rather not share as I don’t know you that well, let’s just say I acted out and enforced my will on others. He saw that one day and tackled me to the ground and he was stronger than me.” Chuckling some the blond smiled at the memory. “Not just by a little bit either; I couldn’t move at all and couldn’t do anything till Dustan himself allowed me to.”

Twilight herself could vouch for that type of strength for sure. She had watched him work with others, do work himself that he didn’t have to, heard about what he had done in Manehatten as well as other deeds. ‘Discord himself even commented on his heroic nature.’

“Truth is, he is a great guy that should be the one to have anything he wants not me. You needed someone to help you, Dustan was there, needed someone to help move or watch your home for a day or so, he did it. Didn’t even ask for compensation most of the time.” Laughing suddenly as the pot of coffee was ready and he poured two mugs of it. “That isn’t to say he is perfect, I am sure you have noticed when he is irritated that he has quite the foul mouth on him.”

She winced at that one, though she had not experienced it too often she did see it pop up. “Yeah, I have heard a few accounts of that.”

“The issues got worse with Sarah, though again let me emphasis this.” Taking a sip before he continued Pat added a bit of cream to his coffee as well as a tiny bit of sugar. “Because his self esteem is what it is, he doesn’t think people can show him any kind of affection, mostly because he doesn’t think he does anything that would make others take notice or of value to make them want to give him affection. So when people do so it stumps and mystifies him or he completely misses it and misinterprets it as something else. Sarah basically had to hit him over the head with it.” Then she witnessed the human blanch visibly as if struck. “Fuck, poor choice of words.”

“So Dustan had a special somepony, I mean somehuman before?” This was news to Twilight for sure.

Nodding and reaching into his pants the human pulled out a folded piece of leather, which did make Twilight’s skin creep a bit but inside were pictures. “Here.”

Inside was a picture of the three of them sitting around a table with pizza on it each smiling. Dustan was clearly there though younger looking, as was Patrick. Next to Dustan leaning on him though was a shorter looking female with blond hair that was of a different color then Patrick’s own sandy blond so much so that it looked as if her hair was made of strands of thin gold woven into strands of hair instead.

“You look so happy here.” She commented wondering why Dustan had the reaction he did.

“We were.” Pat pulled the picture back and smiled. “Dustan and Sarah were dating, they were on their way to being married for sure as they both just fit together. They eventually moved in and were happy. Then robbers came to their home, tied him up and gave Sarah an injury that led to some brain damage. It changed her personality, she went from a sweet confident girl, to a confident bitch of a woman who would rather tear someone down then give them kind words. Dustan always blamed himself for it, he had spent every dime he had and worked more jobs than ever to pay for her treatments. She never thanked him, she never paid him back, she never acknowledged his efforts at all. Instead, she berated him, belittled, tore him down emotionally, and then when she was done with him, kicked him out to the streets. He had been living on them for who knows how long when Sarah called me saying she needed more room in her home and to come get his ‘junk’ that he had left behind. I didn’t even know he wasn’t living with her at the time, she basically bragged to me over the phone how she saw him living in an alleyway on Third Street.”

The mare couldn’t believe what she was hearing, but at the same time it made so much sense now, things were falling together in so many ways. Twilight had seen so many mares giving him signals but he ignored them, she always understood intellectually that no doubt he might not see them as signals given the body type difference. Now though, she knew even if he did see them he wouldn’t think they were for him or would think them as something else. It all came back to this and now she couldn’t help but see each of those smiles and kind words, confusion and other emotions play out in predicted ways whenever a situation like that arose.

“I quickly went out and found him, he looked.” Pat choked up at that. “I have never seen him look that bad, there was no hope in his eyes, no love, nothing but pain and self loathing. His eyes were empty as if he couldn’t see the world or bear to be a part of it.” The blond man was holding one of his forearms with the other as it was shaking now. “He had a razor in his hand looking at it and I knew instantly what he was planning to do with it. If I had come even minutes later.” He never finished that thought but the Canterlot born mare easy knew what he meant. Bringing his hands to his head to hold it up she could see tears in his eyes. “We were family, forged of friendship, them of love. If Sarah saw who she would become, she would either beat the ever living shit out of that Sarah, or she would take her own life so someone like her wouldn’t become that person. Especially on seeing how she treated Dustan. I am betting the former though.” He chuckled at that and closed his eyes.

After the ending to the tale though it was clear that the emotional drain had tried out the host of the home and so they called it a night.

“So why are you taking grass samples again from the backyard?” Pat asked the formerly fictional mare as he looked at her placing it in a weird box then writing down something off the front display.

“Well it turns out the place we came out to was an alleyway seeing as Dustan was born there.” Twilight told him as she continued to write down things.

“Oh yeah, I had forgotten about that.” The designer mused as he remembered. Dustan’s mom had thought it was a false labor and had gone on a walk, only for it to be real and ended up giving birth in the alleyway before the ambulance had found her when someone finally called. “I had almost forgotten about ‘Alleyway Dust’.”

Seems Dustan had chosen that moment to come outside as he groaned at hearing that. “Please don’t bring up that nickname again. Took me years to grow away from it.”

“Dude, your parents named you after someone from one hundred b.c. who was supposedly a brave warrior who got tried for treason and then sentenced to death. Would you rather me call you something like ‘dust in the wind’ or something?” The grin on his face must have been infectious as his friend was likewise grinning.

“Sorry to answer your earlier question.” Twilight interrupted. “I am getting coordinates for here instead of the alleyway that way with proper tuning and more it’s possible that transport between dimensions is a bit more stable for us. Which if I am judging things right, is the reason for the fourth set of numbers. There is X, Y, and Z normally, which I understood. The fourth I never did until we came here, which means it stands for D, Dimension.”

For a moment there what she said went over his head, but not for the reasons of simple coordinates, instead it was what she said at the start. “Wait, us?” Looking over to Dustan he simply asked. “Aren’t you staying here?”

All heads now looked towards the displaced human as his brows were furred. “I…am not sure.”

Twilight bounced up at that and looked at him “What do you mean? I mean I can understand that this is your world, but what about everypony back at Luminary Castle?”

“What about your mom and dad here? You called them this morning and they are coming over tonight for a dinner together.” Pat looked at Twilight and told her. “We will get to introducing you during that, sorry you can’t come out to greet them.”

“No problem.” She told him before looking back to him. “But still, what are you going to do.”

Closing his eyes Dustan told them. “Twilight, how long would it take you to make the teleporter manageable for casual use between our worlds?”

“Well if I focus on it, weeks, but I can’t devote that much attention to it. Instead it will likely take months on end, maybe a year. However I do have some revisions to do when we get back, so we can still visit just expect it to be when we have for sure down time as the drain on my mana was just so…oh no.” Twilight who was smiling before now was looking on in horror. “We can’t go back.”

All eyes were now on her. “What do you mean you can’t go back?” The designer asked now as she looked horrified still.

“I am a Harmonic mage, I amplify my power through harmony magic. If I was completely drained coming from Equestria, full of magic-” The mage’s thought was finished for her by an equally horrified looking Dustan.

“Then with Earth’s weaker field, you don’t have enough power to get us back!” She weakly nodded before her legs gave out from under her. Coming up to hug her, Dustan wrapped his arms around her. “Twilight, we will think of something. I know we will. For now just focus on the things you can do.”

Nodding and slowly getting up. “Y-yeah. Just…I think I need some time alone to think and make sure my formulas are right.”

With that she trotted off to the guest room with Dustan about to stop her but Pat stopped him by putting his hand on his shoulder. “Let her go, she needs time to get her thoughts together. Instead, I want to talk to you about a few things. Mostly I want to tell you about what I have been up to. I have been thinking about what you have gone through and there is something I should tell you.”

Dustan looked at his friend and Pat’s serious face must have worked on him as he gave a nod and came inside. “Ok, what has been up? Must be pretty serious to give me that look.” The displaced human remarked as he took a seat in front of the TV with his friend sitting to the side.

Grabbing some water as this would be a bit of a tale Patrick looked down at his hands as he came back. “I was…devastated after you vanished. I count you as my brother and in some ways my moral compass as well. When you vanished, I woke up with a hangover, not even aware you were gone. Those that I had been partying with at the time were all bitching and complaining so at the time I didn’t know you were gone. The next night I went out to drink with them again and realized I had not seen you during that time, figuring I must have missed you or something or you slipped in and out when I was out of it. The next day the same thing, though by this point the con was wrapping up and I was getting worried.”

“Hey man you couldn’t have-” Dustan didn’t get to finish as Pat slammed his hand on the table.

“WRONG!” Pat must have startled himself as he sighed and rubbed at his hand. “Wrong. I had been getting shit faced and didn’t bother to notice. If I had been sober I would have noticed, but I kept chalking it up to the booze and after effects thinking it was normal. The last day of the con I had people searching for you, intercom being called, everything. When it was over and you still had not come back, I called the cops.”

“They wouldn’t have found anything, you know that.” Though he was trying to be comforting it didn’t work.

Instead Pat gritted his teeth for a moment. “At the time I had no clue, so when nothing came up, they told me if I had called sooner that it might have helped as the first twenty four hours are the most critical. Three days, I had missed that mark by so much that all they could do is chalk you up and write you up as missing persons report and that was all. Your parents were destroyed but didn’t blame me. I wanted them to though. Sarah heard about it and didn’t seem to care about it at all and said she had not heard from you. I didn’t take it well. For about three months I stopped working, started drinking more and more to forget, but that just reminded me that drinking got me that way in the first place. I had met a girl during that time at the bars and while I hate her now, I am also thankful to her. She was a gold-digger using my savings and investments I had up to that point to help fuel both of our addictions.”

“Pat, I…I’m sorry.” While the designer did smile at his friends words he sighed at the same time.

Shaking his head he leaned back in the chair. “Not your fault man. It’s my own. When I noticed that she was starting to get into more addictive substances and using my money to fuel it, I kicked her ass out. Her parting words were ‘What the hell?! I thought you were just like me!’ and for the first time in a while I realize I was a step away from being her. I went stone cold after that and it sucked. Went to meetings, stopped going to them because they wanted me to accept that I had a disease and needed a higher power to overcome it. I get that sort of thing can help others, but I didn’t want to go that route. I accepted instead that I had a problem, one that might have lead to my brother vanishing and likely dying. That isn’t to say I didn’t go on a spiritual journey though, went through trying to find myself with various religions for a few months till I got with this one girl who was a spiritual healer.”

That honestly surprised Dustan or at least it seemed to seeing as his mouth was open and his eyes were wide. “You are religious now?”

“Pfft fuck no, annnnnd yes.” Pat said chuckling lightly. “I will explain that latter part later. It was during this time I had given up. Jenny, the girl I was with at the time, knew I had been having nightmares and had been trying to solve them for a while. Around this point you had been missing for just over a year, maybe by a month. She got me this dream catcher that she said she got from a guy who gave off some ‘weird vibes’ and said it would help my mind settle.”

Shivering a bit the cloak wearing human just leaned back and looked up. “I don’t think I will be buying much if anything from anyone giving off weird vibes. I already learned the hard way what can come of that.”

“No kidding.” That got his friend’s attention now as Pat smiled. “Seems she wasn’t lying, though I thought it was just a coincidence for a while. You see the first and only night I hung that thing up, I found myself in a dream where I was watching you but unable to move or speak. You had on a more detailed version of your cosplay outfit as well as a pack, two swords at your right hip, and an axe through a loop on your left. Did I mention you were fighting against first a zombie summoner, Sans from Undertale, and then Demyx from Organization XIII?”

That caused a fluttering of a cloak as Dustan stood straight up. “Wait, you said you dreamed that?!”

Smiling and nodding. “Yeah.” Sipping from the glass of water the sandy blond waved him down. “The summoner fucked you up and I screamed, or I tried to but my throat made no noise. Then this Lunchables reject that I later found out is named Discord heals you. Anyways after the third fight with you struggling, more and more I felt some kind of energy fill me. Whereas before I couldn’t move, I now found my feet going forward step by step as I realize I am in my old cosplay costume of Kamina from the con we went to together. Each step I took drained some of the energy so I knew my time was running out, or at least the time in what I thought was a dream. So I decided that if this is a dream I am going to be that hype man that gives the hero his motivational speech to make him kick ass. So I gave you a Dragon Ball Z Abridged quote.”

His brother by friendship’s eyes had been going wider and wider that whole time. “So that means-”

“Yeah, that seems to have been real for both of us.” Sighing and chuckling. “I managed to watch you beat his ass before waking up. After hearing your story I realized the same thing you just did though. Kinda wished I kept that dream catcher now as when I woke up I started to cry and Jenny trashed it. She was a good girl and I miss her, but our views didn’t line up. We are still friends but she moved off across the world with someone. She gave me one final gift though.”

“What was that?” Tilting his head as he asked, Pat couldn’t help but find it slightly hilarious that his friend had a similar tick to anime characters in that regards.

Chuckling a bit and grinning the designer merely said. “She wished me the best of luck but said I should make my own luck. Believe if my friend is alive that I should do so with all my heart. If I believe good fortune is on my way, I should do so. Then gave me a lottery ticket.”

“Wait, you don’t mean?” Dustan said as he started to laugh at that.

“Yeah, two days later I became a multi-millionaire.” Pat laughed with him.

Chapter Thirty Seven: Reunions.

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My Little Tactics

Chapter Thirty Seven: Reunions.

Dustan was nervous as all hell as he adjusted his suit that Pat gave him. He was dressed nicely, shaved, even got a haircut so now his hair was nice and short and gelled up nice and spiky for what was left, the last was at Pat’s request for some reason. Looking over his choice of undershirts, Dustan quickly second guessed himself and took off the jacket and undershirt quickly looking through the clothing in his size that remained and searched out something.

“Dude you finished putting your make up on? Your folks just called and said they are around the corner and will be here in a few minu-JESUS!” The voice of Pat called from the hallway only to shout as he walked into the room.

Standing up and thinking something was happening Dustan quickly took up a combat stance only to realize nothing was off. “What?!”

“Dude…Dustan, man.” Pat’s worried voice sound like it was on the verge of breaking.

Looking to follow his eyes, Dustan realized he was shirtless and all of his scars were exposed. Various woodland attacks flash through his mind, Goblins, the work camp, Discord, and more all popping into his head. Sighing and grabbing the shirt he had picked out he quickly covered himself and grabbed the jacket to put on.

“As I told you, my time in Equestria wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows. I fought tooth and nail to get where I am now, and not all of it was without bloodshed.” Sighing once more Dustan fixed the jacket before looking to Patrick. “I am going to tell them everything. I know you helped set Twilight up in the basement so she wouldn’t pop up during this visit but my parents deserve to know not just that I have been gone, or some excuse of whatever it is I can think of. They need to know it all.”

“You sure? You know this type of thing once they know they will worry and they will fret.” His friend told him and Dustan couldn’t help but chuckle. “What’s so funny about that?”

“Did you just say fret?” He asked of his friend as he was chuckling with suppressed mirth.

“Yeah so?” Clearly irritated his blond friend just crossed his arms and gave him a look.

“Sorry it’s just-” He took a moment to collect himself before Dustan continued. “Fret isn’t something normally said and feels like something only an old grandma would say.”

Groaning as he seemed to realized. “Yeah laugh it up, go on keep it up. Anymore and I will kick your overpowered ass up and down the yard just watch!”

That seemed to get the both of them to suddenly burst out laughing. After a time Dustan, who had taken to wearing more normal clothing though still with his cloak looked to his friend and thought for a moment as if deciding in his head he pulled off his cloak and folded it up before handing it to his friend.

“What do you want me to do with this?” Patrick asked as he looked to the battered and repaired piece of clothing.

Taking a moment to sigh and look at him. “That is the cloak you bought me at the con, it’s the only thing that has really kept up and survived…more or less. I held on to it as a memento and to remind myself that there might always be some way back. I was getting ready to hang it up for good and replace it before coming here. Now that I am here, I don’t think I need the reminder anymore and want you to wake up the next time I am gone knowing that I was here and it wasn’t some kind of dream.”

The blond designer held the folded up cloth for a moment before coming to give his friend a one armed hug. “Thanks bro.” Pulling back from the hug a moment came and brought with it a realization. “Um D, tell me, how are you going to explain that you went into My Little Pony, won’t your parents recognize that stuff?”

“They shouldn’t. I honestly kept my love for the show hidden from them.” He told his friend as he looked up into the air. “Only people who even know are you and Sarah and she is content to have me out of her life. How did she take my ‘death’ as it were?”

“I…don’t know actually.” Scratching the back of his head the home owner just seemed to think for a moment. “Your parents, her, and myself were the people most regularly contacted by the police in their search of you. They called us all in one day and she was being a bit of a bitch. When they said they were calling off the search and it that you should be declared legally dead well, your parents were upset, as was I. I yelled at them to continue searching, she though, she just said nothing and left, honestly she likely thought it was a waste of time. Last I seen of her honestly.” Moving to sit down on one of the patio chairs as they had made their way to the backyard Patrick continued. “I have heard some things though. Apparently her fashion dealings went even higher and bigger; I heard that she was working as her own designer now and every now and then working with companies like Victoria’s Secret.”

“Seems like things have gone well for her, I’m glad to hear it.” Sitting down as well Dustan looked out onto his friend’s backyard. “No matter what she has done to me or if she doesn’t care, it doesn’t mean I wish bad things on her.”

Things were quite between the two of them for a while before Patrick started to chuckle. “Damn man, still a fucking hero aren’t you? Can’t help but forgive people and such.”

After a good laugh by the two the day continued to pass and eventually the call came that Dustan’s parents were close to arriving. “So just stay in the kitchen until you call for me?”

Twilight had calmed down quite a bit focusing on her work for the past few hours and was making a good bit of headway but had informed Dustan that there was a limit without being able to research other methods of magical something or other that he didn’t understand to be able to get more efficiency from the circle. Now the unicorn was just waiting in the kitchen as she was just told thanks to Dustan wanting to set everything up as he was not even close to being sure how his family would take this.

Pat came in through the door and looked at him. “They are here.”

Dustan looked himself over once more, having on a pair of jeans and a black t-shirt, casual of course in his dress as always with a simple jacket. His hair was cut short; his face shaved and groomed though he had debated on using any kind of product to hide the scar on his cheek from where Rainbow had gave him a good hit so long ago. Taking a deep breath he let it out shakily as a knock came to the door.

Pat went to answer it and he heard him call out. “Noah, Olivia, good to see you two again.”

“You too Patrick. Been taking care of yourself?” His father’s deep voice had Dustan tearing up.

“Honey he is a grown man.” His mother’s voice, so soft and kind had those tears flowing. “That being said, are you eating right?”

“I am but, that isn’t why you are here. Come on in and you can also come out!” The latter part was yelled of course to him.

Wiping his eyes and heading in to the living room Dustan could see how time had changed his parents though at the moment that didn’t matter. “Hey Mom, Dad. I’m back.”

The rush to embrace his parents came just as quickly as the one the older pair gave to hug their son. Olivia was a woman that was only two inches shorter then her son, brown hair that was of a lighter shade of brown then his own but now was sporting a bit of gray. Her blue eyes though still shined with a motherly warmth that even her own friends said made them sometimes feel as if she were mothering them. Next to her was his father, shorter even then his mother by another two inches making him a good four inches shorter than him, his hair was at one point darker but now that age had taken hold of him had lightened with the gray that peppered him as well as the thick mustache that he always wore. He had once been a man of strength, stocky and powerful, but time had not been kind to him while Dustan was away as he was now skinny due to his cancer treatments, if Dustan had been asked who the strongest man he knew was just a few years ago he would have said his father without a doubt.

When the crying had, mostly, dried up his father pulled back and looked at him. “Seems like you have filled out quite a bit son, been working hard?”

Wiping his eyes Dustan nodded and smiled. “M-more than I can say.”

“Well just means we have a lot of catching up to.” Olivia smiled brightly as she sat down and pulled her son to sit down with her. “So tell us, what happened.”

Everyone took a seat as he started. “It’s going to be a bit hard to believe but trust me in that I can prove what I say is true.” He began his story, told them exactly what happened, his mother looked like she was about to cry when he told her about being stabbed in the chest but then was confused when Dustan told her that he was healed. It was when the displaced man got to magic and ponies that his parents were frowning and stopped him. “I know it’s hard to believe and I figure this is about when you would stop me so evidence number one, Water.” Dustan left a floating ball of water in the middle of the table for them to gawk at. “Evidence number two: TWILIGHT!”

The clip clop of her hooves brought the two adults to look over to the unicorn as she gave a sheepish smile and wave. “H-hello, I am Twilight Sparkle and I am a friend of your son.”

His father gawked, his mother fainted. “Yeah that is about where I thought things would happen as well.” Dustan commented.

It took them throughout dinner, once his mother recovered, and a good bit into the night as well to mostly explain what it is that he had gone through, his responsibilities, how he had returned, and how he was unsure if he should come back or return to Equis. His parents were loving and happy to hear what he had made of himself, scared and worried about what he had gone through and the danger he has faced, but understanding of everything surprisingly so.

When he finally asked how they could just accept him going back like that his parents looked to each other and his mother spoke up. “Sweetie, we always knew you haven’t fit in around here. Honestly the person you are…doesn’t work here, not anymore. Heroes are used and abused and you have always been a hero.”

Feeling a hand on his shoulder the displaced looked to see his Father. “I can’t be more proud of you son. You are living a life like no other and that no one could imagine. You are sticking to your morals and responsibilities, as a Father I can’t tell you how proud I am of your success and as a man I can’t even begin to start to tell you how envious I am of you. Magic, super human abilities, all of it seem fantastic.”

Everything that Dustan had done up to that moment, first landing in Equestria, meeting Zecora, the goblins, becoming friends with the Mane Six, the camp, the castle, everything all played back quickly through his mind both the good and bad and for the first time in perhaps since he had arrived had he felt like a weight and pressure had been lifted from him. The only thing that he didn’t tell his parents about was what he did to save Scootaloo and because Twilight was there and he didn’t want her to worry. Dustan felt light, reinvigorated, and rejuvenated. He felt good.

His parents soon had to leave, it was late and the hotel and its beds they had checked into were calling their names, giving one last hug Dustan promised that tomorrow they would go out and enjoy each other’s company to the fullest. The Lord of the Everfree could honestly say that he slept the best he had in years that night.

A good portion of the next morning had been discussing with Twilight options on how to return, everything from trying to construct a magical battery via this worlds gemstones, trying to convert electricity to magic, or even using natural weather phenomena to help power up the circle. In the end all of them were scrapped as each presented their own set of problems or challenges. Earth’s gemstones, while decent at holding a charge, would need to be of a good size to do anything meaningful. The electricity to magic idea had promise, as while it had never been done before in Equestria proper, had the potential to yield results and could get them back. If the project was given years of research which Twilight didn’t have the time for nor did Dustan. For weather phenomena to help, well given how unpredictable Earth’s weather was compared to Equestria and with how little magic there was, there was no guarantee that more magic was produced during those events.

When it was time for Dustan to finally leave to go shopping with his parents both Twilight and Patrick had something to do. Twilight was working on refining the circles some more giving all her attention to that as it seemed like the best bet to get them back and Patrick had to wait for a few packages to arrive that he had said were coming today, though what they were he didn’t say and Dustan didn’t want to be rude and ask. Instead the man who had walked another world just smiled and told them to have a good day as he walked out of the door.

First order was of breakfast, of which the location wouldn’t be first in most people’s mind for welcome back food, but seeing as how his parents had lots of things to do with him this was the thing that had to be rushed, so McDonalds was in order. Fresh food and a healthy diet had done his body wonders, but he had to admit, he missed the greasy fast food from this world as it had its own unique taste and thus its own pleasure to be had from the well done meals of Equestria. Plus their hash browns were always tasty. A large OJ in his hand accompanied him and his parents as they first went shopping of which was funded by Patrick as he had told them all to use his card and not worry about it to which Dustan filed that info away in his mind for later so that he could make it up to his best friend. So many outfits to try on, so many were chosen but even more were discarded as they weren’t chosen. A few pairs of shoes, hats, and other accessories were also gotten and stowed away in the car before they went back in for even more. For Lunch, they had gone to a local pizza place that was beloved by many for pizza made from scratch and being, OH so good. The movie theater was hit up then and not just one movie but two were watched leading to dinner.

The place they had chosen was a bit classier requiring Dustan to wear the new suit that had been obtained, as well as new shoes and a tie which his mother assured him made him look rather dashing. The order of the day, a big ass steak…or two…he was hungry. It was here it was confirmed that it seemed that Dustan was eating a tad more than normal, either that or because he was just that hungry or the fact that portions were different in this restaurant though he would make some mental calculations in his head from the amount he was eating at Patrick’s meals to now it seemed to point that he required a bit more food than normal. It made sense though as he could do way more so his body would need a bit more fuel. It was something to ask Twilight later as likely she could tell him.

Throughout the day they had so many pictures taken on the phones they had gotten from one of the stores that they visited, for Dustan it was new and for his parents they just used their own that they already had. As they stood in the elevated parking garage to take another photo footsteps approaching caught his attention.

“Well well well, some tourists it seems.” The man said wearing some clothing that were not as well up kept as one might like while he reached into his jacket along with a few of his friends for pistols. “I am sure you won’t mind donating for a good cause right?”

Shivering to himself for a moment from his conversation with Twilight he looked around. “Ever get the feeling someone somewhere just fucked up really badly?” The unicorn just tilted her head curiously before giving an unsure ‘no’. “Huh, weird. Maybe it was nothing. Ok so you were wondering about how a plane works now right?”

The muggers all twitched on the ground as Dustan flicked his hand getting rid of the static electricity that lingered after his spell. “Damn son, I had come to understand you could wield magic but seeing it…wow.”

“Are they ok?” His mother asked gently and worriedly for the muggers who had just tried to rob them a moment ago.

Nodding he had smiled to them all. “Remember how I told you I can see certain things thanks to my magic? Well it’s telling me they are just unconscious as I did hold back.” Frowning for a bit before he shrugged as it made sense when he thought about it. “I held way back in fact. I was worried cause they register as only level two so I tried to cut back on the power as much as I could as I was hoping to scar them away but to fully KO them like that wasn’t something I was expecting.”

“So what are you saying son?” The shorter male of the group asked him as he just shrugged. “So you just gave them the magical equivalent of a ‘shoo, go away?’ and you still fried them?”

“I would have said magical bitch slap but that would have had more force behind it so yeah that would be about it.” Shrugging once more he looked them over and moved to prop them all up against the concrete wall in the center of the garage where cars didn’t travel as it was meant for people walking in that portion. “There, they shouldn’t be run over that way.”

Apparently he was moving them so easily his father and mother both were impressed. “You said you had grown a lot stronger considering how you picked up one in each hand and moved them around like that I can see what you mean.”

For some reason he couldn’t help but smile at his mother’s praise. “Thanks. Now let me do something about these.” Looking at the five guns from the robbers Dustan honestly had no clue how to work a firearm as that was something he had never really done before. After fiddling around with it and thanks to some knowledge from movies, he was able to remove the clip and the one in the chamber for all of them before proceeding to use his strength to break many portions of the guns to make them unusable without extensive repairs in the future. Pocketing the bullets so they couldn’t be used, and using his coats ‘kerchief to wipe down the guns of prints at his father’s advice, the group left.

During the drive home it was his mother who first spoke up about what had happened. “So tell me again why it was we didn’t call the police on them?”

The displaced man didn’t get to answer as his father did so instead. “Hello officer, our son just stopped five muggers all with Glocks thanks to his magical force lightning power.”

“Fair enough.” Olivia told him after a pause. “They really wouldn’t believe that would they? Plus the fact that the guns were wiped down of prints after you handled them means that they might not even be able to prove the guns were that groups either.”

“Right.” Dustan nodded from the back enjoying the soothing feeling of a car that he always felt from them. “That and I broke the guns in a few places. Not sure if normal people can do some of them, taking them apart sure, but I broke them. Not sure where I could find the answer to the amount of force needed to break a hand gun like that but I doubt anyone but me and maybe a few stronger people could do so.” The car ride continued in silence after that as he looked towards his parents and felt his heart jump up into his throat. “So you have to head back in the morning huh?”

“Yeah, my treatments and all.” Noah grumbled displeased as well.

“Honey you need them in order to help you get back to normal. You might be free of things now but it doesn’t mean it might not comeback so getting healthy again will help if it does.” The motherly tone that she sported clearly was laced heavily with worry.

The doctors, or so they had told Dustan, had said that they got it all, but he would need extensive rehabilitation to get back to normal from where he was. He had noticed that there were many times during their day that just walking around sometimes caused his father enough exhaustion to warrant a five minute break or so for him to catch his breath. The temptation to try to help his dad with Cure or Esuna was strong, but even after looking at the status screen of his father he wasn’t sure if either would do anything. Plus with Chemo and such being a poison to the body technically, even if it was one for treatment, he wasn’t sure if Esuna would erase it or not as he still had some lingering treatments going on to make sure things were taken care of and Dustan didn’t want to risk anything. There was also the fact that it would cure exhaustion nor build his muscle mass back up as only time and hard work could do that.

Their time seemed so short but it had come to an end as they pulled up into the driveway of Patrick’s modern home. They all worked to get his new items into the house even ask Twilight came to greet them after being told it was ok. Questions were thrown out as to what happened, what he got up to and more. Seems Twilight herself was taking a break from her thoughts and research and had been asking Patrick a million questions and he was relieved to see them and was also curious. Of course his parents told them everything, even making them both go wide eyed at hearing about the muggers.

That just prompted Patrick to look over to Dustan and grin. “Do it Anakin.”

“Unlimited power.” Was the Lord of the Everfree’s answer along with his own grin.

“So you clapped some thug cheeks huh?” Patrick asked with a smile and curious look as Dustan pulled out sixty five bullets.

“They are still using the term ‘clapped’?” He asked and looked over to his friend. “Figured people would be using a different slang term about now.”

Shrugging his shoulders the blond just nonchalantly waved it off. “Maybe they do, but I like that term so it’s what I used.”

“Fair enough.” Dustan said before looking to his parents as they were watching the interaction with a smile. Quickly coming to give them a hug they all knew it was time. “Mom, Dad. This isn’t good bye; this is just farewell for now. I don’t believe I will stay in this world as it doesn’t need me. The other side however does and I have made a life for me. Do I miss things from here? Absolutely, but I am finding I am missing things from over there as well.”

“I am proud of you son.” His father told him as he wrapped his arms around him in a hug which was quickly followed by his mother.

“Me too.” The motherly lady whispered seemingly choked up.

The hug while seeming to last long to those watching, ended too quickly for those involved as the displaced magic user looked to those that gave him life. “With what Twilight is doing, who knows, maybe travel will become quite easy and available to both sides and I can show you around my place some time.”

With that, the night ended both sweetly and bitter sweetly as all wished it could have lasted longer.

The circle that had been carved into the concrete of the patio glowed for a fraction of a second as Twilight pumped her magic into it to test if it was viable. She knew that those watching her were close, almost too close though she didn’t realize how close till she felt one of their breaths near her ear.

“Do you both mind?” She asked almost irritated as the information was currently processing in her brain about the circle and if it would hold. “This is about the limit of what I can achieve here on Earth without my research materials so I am trying to make sure everything is working ok.”

Both of the humans backed up and looked nervously at each other. Truth was, this was the fourth revision and from what Twilight said, the final one. It had been almost a week now since they had arrived and four days since Dustan’s parents had their day with their son. Package after package had been arriving at Patrick’s place which he took up to his room to do…something with, but wouldn’t say. Twilight had been in the guest room and was practically chasing down every lead she could on what could be done with what she had available. Dustan himself was in a precarious spot, he wanted to help but had no way of doing so, he wanted to be productive with what Patrick had going but the surprise element of things meant that he couldn’t. So between hanging out with his friend when he wasn’t busy, as well as teaching Twilight on her breaks, he found that he had a lot of alone time.

Curiously it was during one of those breaks he had asked Twilight a question.

“Twilight?” The human called out during lunch during the fifth day they had been on Earth. The unicorn had her mouth full so could merely respond with a curious ‘mmmph’ sound. “I can produce several different elements with my abilities, some even generate matter like my Water spell. So why is it that some seem to drain more mana than others?”

Swallowing her bite of lunch, a nice blueberry muffin, she smiled and her horn lit up. “That is simple, it’s about elemental affinity.” Dustan was going to stop her and tell her that he understood what that concept was and that answered his question, but he had opened up the magic enthusiast in the purple magister. “There are eight elements, not including non elemental which is more of a neutral force. Earth, Wind, Fire, Water, Ice, Lightning, Light, and Dark. For any sort of unicorn, and I suppose more now that you are teaching non-unicorns how to cast, usually their magic corresponds to the first spell they cast as it is usually the one easiest for them to do.”

“Twilight, I get it but-” He was cut off as she levitated over a pen and some paper dividing it up into eight sections with a circle in the middle. She drew some glyphs on each section as she smiled.

She then proceeded to draw the same thing again and once done she spoke. “This paper is a good way to test elemental affinity with these glyphs and as such a unicorn would only need to apply a bit of their magic into the center and the page will become colored. The more the color rises in a section the more affinity they have with it.” Her horn lit up and she touched the center as all the glyphs soon started to glow. Each section filled up with a color: Brown, Green, Red, Light Blue, Dark Blue, Yellow, White, and Black. For the unicorn each section filled up about three fourths of the way. “As you can see, my elemental affinity is very high with all types.”

It was clear the way she was puffing out her chest to the two humans that she was very proud of this fact. “You are the element of magic so makes sense.”

She smiled then pushed the first piece of paper over to him and waved with her hoof. “Go on, your turn.”

‘Hmmm couldn’t hurt to know what I am good and bad at. Would kinda suck to try to spend a life time developing a magic that I am not aligned with.’ Moving and charging up his magic he put his finger tip in the center circle and watched as the colors filled up the page, it was clear by the end of things that he wouldn’t have a high affinity with everything like Twilight did, but a surprise did come to a head.

“Oh, look at that.” The purple nerd of magic said pointing to one section filled up with light blue. “Your affinity with water is very high.”

Holding up his hand and making a ball of water, he supposed it made sense. “I don’t use this magic very often until recently so I guess I never really paid close attention but I suppose it doesn’t really pull like the others but just seems to do as I ask without much direction.”

“Mhm, that is because your affinity is so high. Whereas if you tried to use Ice or Earth, where your affinity is low at, you would find that the feeling would resist you.” As she said that Dustan recalled the feeling of using Geomancy in the tournament. It had a delay, like it had to be urged to do as he asked. Geomancy while it could produce various elements was related to terrain and earth so it made sense that it would act like that. “However-” Twilight’s voice brought him out of his thoughts quickly as she pointed to the other sections. “Light and Dark are also high affinity, not as high as water for you but up there. Fire, Wind, and Lightning seem to be average for you though.”

“Huh, considering how much I like to use my Thunder spell I would have thought it would be higher.” As he mused that though a clearing of a throat came through.

“Question.” They both turned to the blond host as he tilted his head. “How long does it take to calculate things on that?”

“Shouldn’t take long, why?” The unicorn responded only to have Patrick point at the paper.

As he pointed they both saw what it was that he was pointing at. “So why are Light and Dark still rising?”

The book smart pony tilted her head as she kept watching. “That is unusual but not unheard of. It means that though his natural affinity for them is high, it seems like he has untapped potential for them.” At this point they had reached the same point as his water element and were still going which made Twilight twitchy. “Dustan you might want to remove your finger from-”

He never got a chance to hear the rest of her sentence as the glyphs on the page for Light and Dark burnt themselves out and made the paper catch on fire.

The results had spooked her for sure from that day. There are those with untapped potential, like herself, but they were rare. She herself knew her elemental affinities could go from high to very high if she were to train them because as a filly she registered as low for all of them but just like with Dustan they had rose after the initial test. However, it could be the medium of paper used different from parchment that Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns used, but she had never heard of anypony burning out the glyphs like that. If those readings were to be believed and accurate, that would mean that if Dustan were to learn spells of those elements they would likely come out either super charged or with almost no drain to his mana if he unlocked his potential in them.

However that wasn’t the most pressing thought on her mind at the moment, not even the top one hundred. “Its…not going to work.” The teleporter was.

“What do you mean?” Dustan’s voice sounded almost alarmed as she said that.

“It means what I said it means.” The student of Celestia had informed them with her head bowed.

Patrick however leaned back and simply asked. “So you take more time to refine your circle and-”

She had kept her emotions mostly in check until now but to hear him say that and without truly understanding what she had done set her off finally. “I can’t refine it anymore!” She stood up and looked at him with tears in her eyes, she could feel them and could see everything as if underwater. “Every method I currently know well enough to confidently put down I have tried in some shape or form and while I have gotten a fifteen percent boost in efficiency that is it. That is the limit. I could further get more out of it but that would throw our safety of getting pack in one piece into question let alone with all our limbs still attached. Oh and trust me, I have run those numbers as well and guess what, I STILL WOULND’T HAVE THE ENERGY NEEDED TO USE IT!”

With that final outburst she felt her energy fade and her barrel touch the concrete as she collapsed. “So it’s a matter of power that we can’t get around.” Dustan summarized her thoughts as she nodded still on the ground.

“Without the ability to fully utilize harmonic magic, I can’t power it.” She looked at the pad of her notes that she had been scribbling on for the past few days and tossed it away.

She could no longer bear to look at her conclusions but it seemed she was alone in that as Patrick picked it up himself and looked over it giving it a ‘hmm’ in thought. “Ok, question.”

Twilight half growled and looked up to him as she asked. “What?”

Turning the pad to a page showing a rough drawing that Twilight made of herself, showing that her strength was about half of what was needed by the fact that it was half filled in with ink he asked his question. “Ok, so you told me that you could find other ways to use magic, either from earth or the weather, so you can pull magic from other sources to power the circle right?”

“Yeah and none of those are viable.” She sighed, no longer caring about those ideas, as nice as they were, were impossible to use practically.

Turning the page to a fresh one Patrick quickly sketched out a much better sketch of Twilight then her own and a human. “Well if you are about half, if what your drawing showed was right or if I guessed it right, then what about this?” He then drew a plus sign next to Twilight and sketched something next to it.

When she saw that her eyes were drawn to it as math quickly started to form in her head and she lit up. “Of course!” she took the pen from his hand and quickly started to sketch out some math. “I am an idiot. We should have had all the power we needed all along but I just never considered it.” She then turned to show Dustan the drawing that was now surrounded by math. “It doesn’t have to all come from me or this world. We can use our power together Dustan!”

She didn’t want to admit how hard she squealed from solving the problem, she didn’t want to admit that she was that oblivious but at the end of the day she would admit she was stubborn and that friendship was magic, especially when your friend had the magic to get you back home.

The problem had been solved around breakfast that day, but Patrick had asked both him and Twilight if they would stay for one more day to which they had both agreed. The reason for that was simple seems that Patrick had been planning for them leaving and had been gathering up souvenirs for them to take home as well as other things. The blond man even said he wanted to get more stuff but he didn’t want to bog them down and instead got what he could. Twilight looked at her bag with eyes as wide as could be and practically was vibrating.

When she was told to go ahead and open it she opened up the zipper of the rolling suitcase and looked inside and squealed. Science books, tons and tons of them about different subjects as well as math ones. Seems that all the conversations that she had with them had informed Patrick as to what her interests in human society was as well her level of math education.

“That should take you from middle school math all the way to college level for us. There are also books on chemicals, flight and aviation, and more. Oh and more than a few dozen ballpoint pens.” The blond told her only to have his arms suddenly full of horse as she leapt at him and hugged him hard. Even if it was clear she was hugging too hard, the tall male just hugged back and patted her on the back. When she had calmed down and was trying to hold herself back from just diving in and starting to read now only to find two things she didn’t recognize. “Those are special, a bit of tech from our world. See all those books in that back pack, well they are also on that device there. It’s a smart pad and the thing next to it is a solar charger, place it in the sun and hook it up to that and it will keep it powered even away from here. That way if something happens to one or if another wants to borrow them, you still have a back up.”

Dustan couldn’t help but laugh as the unicorn once more seemed to vibrate wanting to study them only for Patrick to motion for to open up his own pack. “Alright, guess it’s my turn.” His pack was a lot more lean then Twilight’s, sporting three laptops, three chargers, and one external hard drive for the tech. The other things inside, pictures, all framed of various moments in his life with his friends, and of course one of the three of them: Sarah, himself, and Patrick. There was one more recent as well, one of Patrick flexing both arms in the back with Dustan to his right holding up a ball of floating water in one hand, and on the other side was Twilight with her horn glowing its usual color as she had been the one to use the phone with her magic to take the picture.

He was very much like Twilight in that he was hugging his friend quickly before anything was said, but unlike the unicorn, Patrick protested his hug because of his strength. “Jeez man, going to Bane me there and break my back.”

“Haha, yeah sorry. Got carried away.” The dark haired traveler chuckled as he rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

“No problem man. Though I can tell from your looks you are wondering what the laptops have in them.” Giving a nod to his friend he smiled. “Each has a list but each one has its own purpose. In the red cased one is games. Pretty much every game you have had on your steam library and more. Whatever I could fit went in there. The Blue one has movies, all kinds as well as music, as much as I could fit. The green one has books like Twilights, but also ones I know you like. The HD, well that is both a back up as well some surprise content. All of those things are password protected though so only you can unlock it. The password of which is your birthday.”

“What kind of surprise content, we aren’t talking about porn now are we?” Dustan asked only for a question to surprise them both.

“What’s porn?” Both sets of eyes looked towards the curious unicorn now as she tilted her head.

“Yep not answering that, that was is all you D.” Patrick said as he got up to walk away. “Also the surprise, let’s just say here is a hint.” As he walked away he whistled the opening theme of MLP.

That night he barely got any sleep and at some point went around taking pictures with the phone that he had gotten. He tested to see if the chargers would also work with his phone and they had so he went about taking photos of everything, trying to store away a life time of memories just in case. When morning came around and he packed away everything that was gotten for him in three bags: a backpack filled with various supplies and gifts, the rolling suitcase, and a literally bag of clothing, he went to join Twilight. She informed him of how things would work yesterday; basically it was him trying to match her output and increase it to the casting point. As he came out Dustan could see she had her own bag and looked like she got about as much sleep as he did, though the Lord of the Everfree knew it was likely cause she stayed up late reading. Patrick came up to the two of them and gave them both a hug. “Twilight, it was great meeting you. D…I look forward to hearing what you have to say next time.”

Twilight responded to the hug with wrapping her hooves around him for a moment as well before dropping down with a clop sound as her hooves met concrete. “Thank you for showing me some of your world and giving me some of its knowledge. You have been a wonderful host and a good friend.”

“I will definitely be back bro so don’t worry. Give it a month or so. Once Twilight gets it refined enough where just she or I can power the teleporter then expect many more visits.” Letting go of his own hug he looked to his companion who nodded. “It’s time my friend. You know, you never did tell me what you believed in. You said you would fill me in but you left me in the dark.”

“Ha, look at it instead as something to ask next time.” Patrick said wiping away his tears. “Kick ass over there man. I expect to visit one day and if I don’t see something worth remembering, I am going to kick your ass and take your place.”

Wiping his own tears away, Dustan nodded and grinned. “Feel free to try.”

The chime of Twilight’s horn signaled the start and pressing his hand to the circle he started to try to match her output. It was hard, really hard as he couldn’t sense hers as well. “Forget about matching me, just keep raising yours up slowly and I will match you.”

She told him when he kept fluctuating so that is what he did. Dustan calmed down and breathed out slowly, picking up the pace more and more till the circle started glowing more and more. This was it, making sure the bags were close and being held in his other hand, or for Twilight’s case her hooves, the man looked to his oldest friend, his brother.

“Till next time.” The humming of the circle was loud but he knew Patrick had heard him as his blond friend smiled before the scenery changed to a dusty basement and Dustan felt exhausted, though not to the point of collapse. Looking around it was easy to tell where they were, though it was his companion that smiled the widest. “So I guess that means-”

“Yep, we are back home.” Twilight told him with a grin.

“Welcome home Twilight.” He told her with a smile all his own.

The next statement said was both the truth in his mind and in his heart as he heard the unicorn speak. “You too, welcome home.”

Chapter Thirty Eight: Returns and Revelations.

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My Little Tactics

Chapter Thirty Eight: Returns and Revelations.

The sounds of two sets of coughing could be heard as the smoke from their landing vanished. “That supposed to happen or did no one clean up down here while we were gone?”

“To be fair.” Twilight remarked between her own fits. “Spike doesn’t like to come down here and I told him to make sure to touch nothing down here while we were gone.”

“Still how does dust gather so quickly down here?” Dustan remarked as he looked around only to see that their arrival had apparently had enough force to knock down two different chalk boards and their erasers causing them to fill the air with their contents. “Oh, chalk dust.”

“Oh, I hope those weren’t anything too important, then again my back up notes should still be fine. If not them then my backup’s backups should be preserved.” Overly preparedness or not Dustan couldn’t help but find no fault in the purple unicorn taking such measures considering she had been tampering with long range teleportation.

The coughing fits, crashes, and other noises that came along with their teleportation though must have caused enough noise to warrant the number one dragon assistant to come down and check on things regardless of previous instructions as his rounded face quickly peered into the darkness that was the basement before he would light up a candle. “Twilight? Dustan? Is that you?”

The human stood up wiping chalk dust from his new suit as well as grabbing his luggage and bags before smiling. “Hey buddy, we are back.” Dustan wouldn’t lie, with his mana reserves feeling low like they were he was a bit wobbly but it was manageable as it must have been the same with Twilight, judging by how she stood up before she grinned.

Magic lit up her horn as she started to just about create a whirlwind of levitation before she ‘eeked’ some when a book nearly planted itself onto her face. “I am going to have to get used to normal outputs again.”

The tiny dragon came up with a smile looking at Dustan in his fancy suit as well as all of what he brought. “I take it you both had a good time at your home?”

“Yeah, we did. Helped me out a lot both physically and mentally.” He told the young one though Twilight was glaring.

“How do you know what I was doing?” She questioned of him with a bit of an accusing tone.

In response the dragon just rolled his eyes. “Twilight, I am the who helps you out, and the one who restocks the shelves. I may not know the exact details, but even I can start to follow trends. Though to be fair, I didn’t really put it all together until you called Dustan over to help out. That is when I understood. Especially when you both were gone for a few days.”

Twilight wanted to be mad, it was clear, but in the end she just sighed before chuckling giving the young drake a huge hug. “I am just glad to be back. Let’s head upstairs so that I can unpack.”

“I will be heading back to the castle myself, though Twilight could you please set up the meeting for me when you get a chance and let me know when it’s possible.” Seeing her nod Dustan couldn’t help but smile and whistle a bit of a tune as he started to head out of the library. Carrying his luggage up the stairs and out of the door of the library Dustan looked at the sight of Ponyville and couldn’t help but feel his smile grow wider. A sense of nostalgia came to him making him change the tune he was once whistling and once more since he had come to Equestria found himself whistling a certain tune.

Those that recognized him gave pleasant waves for the most part, minus the upturned nose of a certain mare. “Welcome back darling.” Rarity said with a smile before gasping. “Oh my where ever did you get those clothes? The stitching on them is just tre magnifique and the colors do so well for you, I always imagined blue was your coloration but this certainly proves it. Though it seems like you got into a bit of fight with an eraser, here let me help you with that.” Lightning up her horn, his suit and self were soon chalk free and back into pristine form. “There we go, oh it looks even better now!”

The black jacket over the blue suit was indeed something that Dustan enjoyed even if normally he wouldn’t. “I agree honestly and a friend bought it for me saying I should have something nice when I come back though he did let me pick.”

“Hmm something is missing though, not from the suit itself but from something.” The fashionista remarked as she looked Dustan over before finally figuring it out with a gasp. “Your cloak. It has become such a staple of your look that I can’t believe I didn’t realize that you weren’t wearing it. I know how much it means to you so what happened?”

“It was time to retire it Rarity. It had served me so well for so long, but honestly wear and tear was getting to it.” The smile still was on his face as he looked over the village, though Ponyville honestly was growing to be more akin to a proper town now since he had first arrived and the human briefly wondered if that was just the nature of this place or if it was because of him. “So since my journey started with my friend buying me that cloak, I thought what better way to send it off, then to give it back to my friend as a sign of our friendship and as a promise that I will return.” Giving a nod to Rarity one last time the human started to walk away. “I will have to commission you sometime soon to make a new cloak, and maybe an outfit or two. For now though I have to get going.”

As Dustan was leaving he wouldn’t see the smile on the designers face nor see the shocked realization come when she realized what he had said. “Gave it back?!”

The next visitor that that approached him was one he half suspected might pick up on his happy attitude. “Oh what has you so happy Dusty?” The pronking pink party pony of Ponyville asked with her mane lightly bouncing with her body. “You were gone a few days with Twilight.” She then gasped. “Don’t tell me you two…” She just initiated a few gestures that only had meaning to her even if Dustan knew what she was trying to insinuate.

Of course with how light his mood was and her goofy gestures he couldn’t help but laugh. “No Pinkie, Twilight developed a new method to a spell that let me visit my home. I got to resolve a few things and now I am back.”

Gasping for a second time did the pink earth pony stop in mid air for a half second before floating down. “Oh that means I need to prepare a welcome back party…oktalktoyoulaterbyebye!” With that last sentence did Pinkie leave a cloud of doppelganger behind as she went to plan the party that was to come, likely when Dustan least expected it.

Carrying his bags and case further down the road, it wouldn’t be until he approached the edge of Ponyville proper that the next visitor would dive bomb him and nearly make him jump out of his skin. “Fuck Dash, I didn’t expect you to stop in mid air in front of me like that.”

The prismatic speedster just grinned and folded her forelegs in front of her. “That was a new trick I have been working on. True it’s not as fast as I would like it to be but doing a mid air stop from a dive like that is pretty hard.” She then zipped around him. “But look at you big guy, looking sharp.” Giving a nod she smiled “Looking good in blue.”

Laughing at that a bit the human moved to set his bag of clothing down as he pointed at the hovering pegasus. “Careful if you said that to anyone else with how cool you are, they would think that you are hitting on them.” That got the reaction he was hoping for out of her, one of her first puffing out her chest in pride at the cool part then slowly realizing what it was he said and red filling her face.

His laughter didn’t stop her retort. “I didn’t mean it like that and you know it!”

Her pout was adorable to him though and he reached over to her and scratched her ears making her hover slowly descend to the ground as she closed her eyes, though as she felt her hooves touch the ground her eyes popped open and she swatted his hand away. “No, bad Dustan!” She reached up and gave him a playful shove though she did smile. “That was a good one; I didn’t expect you to say that.”

“Hey even I have moods to tease people. Plus it doesn’t help that your blush face and pouting face are adorable.” Patting her on the head he grabbed his stuff and continued on.

Rainbow Dash would blush even harder and shake her head before yelling out at him. “Don’t say things like that, it’s weird!” Before she flew off to wherever she went for a nap or her home.

Bags swinging from his step Dustan was making good time as he got to the forest and unlike last time where others had approached him, this time he saw a certain yellow pegasus walking along the path towards the castle. “Hey, Fluttershy!” The timid pony jumped and ran into a nearby bush from the sudden call as the human jogged over to her hiding place. “Sorry about that, didn’t mean to scare you Fluttershy.”

The bush to which he was speaking was shaking though it did calm as two eyes could be seen slowly opening in the foliage. “Oh, ok.” Then it seemed to register who it was as she leapt out and gave the surprised human a hug. “Dustan you’re back! I know Spike said not to worry but that just made me worry even more. I have been making sure Maya and Boko have been eating well while you have been gone.”

Hugging the animal caretaker gentle he smiled to her. “Thanks, that means a lot to me knowing you help to make sure they are happy. I wish I could give them more attention than I do but being a Lord is hard work sometimes.”

Releasing the hug and gently fluttering her wings like her name suggested she moved to set back down on the path and smiled up at him. “Oh it’s no trouble at all. I won’t lie; Boko is so nice and fluffy that sometimes I fall asleep against her for a short nap.”

Standing up and grabbing his bags and suitcase once more Dustan couldn’t help but to agree. “Yeah she is really soft that is for sure. Maya too, that shampoo you gave me a while back for each of them works wonders. Maya purring when she either lays against me or has me put my head against her tends to be really relaxing. I swear those two conspire against me as often when Boko wants to sit on my lap it means I am pinned down as I have to give her attention then Maya is right there to lie just far enough behind me that if I were to lie back my head would find itself perfectly resting against her.”

The approach to the castle was quicker then what the brown haired displaced would have expected as the conversation between Fluttershy and himself about the details and antics of their friends distracted them both quite well. Looking at the black stone bridge of Norite did Dustan smile before seeing the same black walls only now more decorated then before. Seems someone took the time to paint various murals onto the entranceway depicting various races all wearing different get ups all of which he recognized in one shape or another: A Squire Dragon, a Black Mage Pony, an Archer Deer, A Chemist Zebra, to name a few.

However it was the new flag that he recommended the design for that really made him smile. ‘I only really suggested those lines but they gave it color.’ It was a white flag with the black outline of a crystal in the middle with four lines at the diagonals to show light but each of those lines were a different color: Red, Blue, Green, and Yellow. ‘They put the colors of the four crystals.’ Dustan could see other changes as well, off to one side, where they had been clearing some woods was now a farm where he could see mostly earth ponies tending to the fields.

As Flutteryshy and Dustan approached the open gate the two guards, a Buffalo and a Pegasus pony, saluted them. “Welcome back Lord Warner and Lady Fluttershy.”

Giving a nod of his head before he would smile Dustan looked at the two guards and told them. “Thank you.”

“Oh, thank you so much.” The caretaker beside him said giving a small bow by leaning back almost looking like a stretching cat.

The pegasus of the two quickly flew off as the Buffalo stayed put. Heading into the town it was more lively then he remembered as the Buffalo seemed to be integrating rather well, though he could see some awkwardness behind their actions like at a food stall where the fluffy maned quadruped was fumbling with counting out money. From what Dustan understood they had a barter system before so it was a bit of a shock to go from one to the other. There were more Earth ponies then he remembered as well but if he had to take a good guess they belonged to the large farm he saw, were their more than one? He would have to ask that later to those that would know. What was more the human saw plenty more faces that were not there before as well as…a parking area? There were chariots in a small lot dedicated to them showing that nobles were now coming in and out of the castle, though the hope that nothing was up was not strong within Dustan as he thought about nobles.

“My Lord!” Merlene’s white and brown coloration moved quickly to land in front of him, the sky blue highlights at her wings and eyes made her form that much more distinct and noticeable as she gave a bow her yellow eyes gleaming as she smiled. “It is good to have you back.” She looked at him curiously then as if seeing him for the first time. “Why are you dressed up and what are you carrying?” Merlene had been his close confidant, his friend, his lead guard, and honestly he had missed her, Zecora, Side, Tremor, everyone from the castle, so when he gave her a hug she froze and gave a bit of a squawk a slight blush coming to her cheeks and beak. “M-my Lord?”

Giving one last squeeze before pulling back, Dustan smiled at her as he went and picked his bags back up. “It’s good to be home again.”

Blinking for a moment before shaking off her embarrassment she stood proud and smiled. “Welcome home My Lord. Where did you head off to?”

The Squire almost told her then and there but shook his head. “I am trying to plan a meeting to get all together so I can explain some things, where I was will be among them, just have to coordinate a bit to see when it can happen. You will be invited amongst others so don’t worry. You will find out soon enough, till than think of it as a surprise.” Sighing mentally he let his thoughts briefly wonder. ‘I hope they will all understand why I held back.’

“Just let me know and I will be there. Should I inform any others that such a meeting will be taking place?” Merlene had a point, should he ask for her to do that even if a date wasn’t announced yet?

“Let them know one is coming but that the date hasn’t been confirmed yet. I hope they will be able to make it when its time.” Unsure but confident that people could make it he smiled to the head of his personal guard.

Of course people can surprise. “What if I ask them if they will be free in the next couple of days and if so which ones? Would that be of help?”

Chuckling a bit, Dustan gave a firm nod. “Absolutely it would help. I will get you a list later after unpacking and unwinding.”

Giving a salute, Merlene soon fell into line to follow him as he went into the castle, though on the way many were waving and giving salutes to him welcoming him back. However once inside the castle proper, he barely took three steps before being tackled to the ground by a horse sized battering ram of fluffy feather that gave happy noises to see him again.

The nuzzling beak of Boko was hitting a few spots that were a bit ticklish and combine that with the feathers she possessed the White Chocobo soon had him laughing up a storm. “Ok girl, I missed you too.” Giving him a soft ‘Kweh’ Boko let up on the tickling but still didn’t get up off him until he gave her a nice big hug, only then did she relent. Except the universe conspired to keep him on the ground as soon the power of a large cat pounced him and pinned him back down slathering his face with licks. Part of Dustan wanted to remember a fact about large cat’s tongues being so rough they could lick layers of skin away or something, he was never sure about said fact though. “Hello to you too Maya, I didn’t forget about you.” He gave her a laughing hug that had the Coeurl purring heavily on him except she didn’t get off him. “Come on girl, I will give you affection in a bit, I need to get unpacked.” She wasn’t budging. “Fluttershy a little help?” The Squire asked chuckling however stopped his laughter when he saw Fluttershy backing up. “Wait what are you-”

“My turn!” The pegasus called as she leapt at him and that was the last thing he saw before yellow fluff piled atop of him.

Merlene closed the door behind her as Dustan sighed. He had given her the list, though it had taken till after dinner to do so. Now in some jeans and a t-shirt Dustan got up and went off to his room from his office, during the day while he was looking over some things, everyone had come to visit him. Tremor came to welcome him back and was reporting that no longer would he be conditioning the first group of soldiers that he had been as they now passed his acceptable standards. Dustan had suggested to at least continue to keep them active at least once a week so that they remember to keep themselves in shape and that it wasn’t a one and done deal. Liking that idea Tremor agreed and left. Steel was the next to come in, mostly to welcome him back and let him know the various stratagems that was currently being taught. Beyond that he didn’t have much to report to the Lord of the Everfree at the moment. Sturdy came and gave him a hoof bump to his fist bump and updated the Lord about various buildings that had been added, most of them being homes for the buffalos and the new Earth Ponies that had come to farm.

Turns out there were three farms. The first was the mixed farm he had seen growing various veggies thanks to a mix of different families having come to live in Luminary Castle. The second farm was taking over Eden’s and Zecora’s previous job to grow both the various special herbs for keeping monsters away, as well as more of the common ingredients for the reagents that the castle could use, like the ingredients for Salve. The last farm was for a small orchard of various trees, some of which he learned Applejack was not happy with. Amongst them were oranges, pears, lemons, cherries, and Peach though there were plans for more to be added later. Seems the soil of the Everfree was especially rich and reports from the farmers stated that one could expect those two fields to feed the entire castle in a month.

Speaking of Eden and Zecora, seems the two of them together had been making progress with Zecora’s hidden projects as they both came to greet him at the same time. Dustan couldn’t help but smile at the two of them and was happy to see the both of them doing well. Eden and Sturdy had gotten engaged while he had been away prompting him to smile and congratulate them. Zecora also said the same thing only much more rhythmic as it seems Dustan was the first they wanted to let know. Once the hugging was done, of which he felt Zecora’s strength as she gave a squeeze hard enough to boop her nose to let her know it was too much, he got an adorable blush out of her and really wanted to make a blushing newspaper joke or something along those lines but now wasn’t the time. Turns out the Remedy plant that he had given her was now bearing results. While she still couldn’t MAKE Remedy in of its self, she and Eden have been able to take clippings and seeds to plant and grow them and were experimenting on how to incorporate them in various potions, of which Hi-Potions had been discovered.

Dustan couldn’t help but congratulate them again for the progress and as they left gave them both another hug, though this time Zecora blushed and only gave a light hug likely remembering what happened just moments ago. Progress was huge for sure, farms, training, research and discovery. So many things in the few days he was gone, they must have all been bubbling up to this point and just had coincidently popped at the same time.

Mystic was up next saying he was improving on his casting and that many others were getting to his level and he felt soon that a few more casters would show up. He had also updated him on his thesis on Neutral magic and how he sent it off to, hopefully, be published. If it was published that meant he would have every qualification to take the Magister’s test. The Squire was incredibly proud of his friend and smiled asking him if he needed any help or anything, to which the speckled pony surprised him with a simple ‘nope’. Him displaying that level of confidence made Dustan both surprised and happy at the same time, getting that feeling and knowing that it would turn out great for him.

Scale Allure, Guild leader extraordinaire, was next to see him, informing him that they had officially moved into the castle and this was now the headquarters and that they would be paying him some taxes as per usual. She also explained that the visitors to the castle in the chariots were both her people’s chariots as well as various nobles that were coming to higher them. She also brought up the idea to pay for lessons for individuals that wanted to become part of the guild as well as those that were already a part of it. He mentioned put it in with her taxes to him and that would cover all their lessons. When she asked if he even knew what his castle was bringing in…he floundered. It was there that she had introduced him to Exemplary Finance: A matte grey pony in both coat and mane with thick glasses whose eyes couldn’t be seen because of that and a scale with a bag of money on one end and a stack of papers on the other weighing equally. Turns out when she had talked to some of the people in the castle things were being done haphazardly and she had told them about this accounting stallion and right away had gotten to overseeing things.

This was where things got a bit…weary for Dustan as Finance told him that between taxes to the crown, their current ability to sell, the planned income from the school as well as collected taxes from all residents, even the relaxed spending that was to come in a month from the fields paying off, they were only gaining a small income. The problem came from the fact that was maintaining, not repairing or upgrading. New buildings, new expansions, new anything were pulling from the castles coffers heavily as well as his own since they were tied together, of which Dustan didn’t know that. They would need another source of income.

After Scale and Finance’s visit, exhausted him but his day wasn’t over with just that. Next came the resident Forge Master Burly Bellows who came to introduce him to something new. It looked like a bracer with a flat metal bar. When prompted to put it on Burly told him to put it on his right forearm to which he did. There was a plate like button on the inside that the Forge Master told him that he could hit with his other hand or even against himself and when the Squire tried, the bar extended and then rotated out to create a collapsible buckler. The stallion was quiet proud of it as it was a tad lighter than his other buckler and could always be on him as it only took a second to fully extend to its shield form. For sure this was a welcome upgrade for Dustan even if his plans moving forward were not for much combat if he could.

Applejack had visited him last in the day, where he had learned about her dislike for the pears being grown on his property. When he told her that the castle needed it for various balanced diets as well to increase variety so that people could enjoy her apples more, she backed off on the subject as it was technically true and it did make him wonder why Applejack had such a problem with specifically pears. Something to look into another day, but for now Applejack’s real concern was Apple Bloom whom had been having some weird dreams lately but won’t talk to her about it saying it was normal and had to do with what she was learning. The Lord of the Everfree had no clue what it was but said he would ask her about them and help straighten things out if it wasn’t normal.

With that he was free to be in his room after he ate dinner and relax, pulling out the various chargers, of which the solar panels for went to his window ledges around the room and then set up his laptops. He didn’t know how long he had to plan for what was to come but he made sure to start familiarizing himself with various objects that were on the devices as he started to work.

The next day he found out when the Princesses could visit, it would be the day after tomorrow, and had looked at the list that Merlene had brought him. She would run out for him again that day to inform those on the list the day, which luckily all had free, and the planning was starting. He looked at the list of those that were coming and started to try to get things that he hopefully would need for questions from each of them. Dustan wanted each answer to be positive, but…that would have been impossible. So he did his best to do what he could to make it not seem entirely terrible. Note cards were written, torn and erased, then rewritten countless times. In the end, he had nearly secluded himself in his room even taking his meals there to prepare.

The next day was mostly the same with the exception of one particular visitor during the morning. “Hello Darling, I hope I am not interrupting anything.”

Dustan had pushed closed the devices before she had entered so nothing on them had been seen. “Hello Rarity, what can I do for you?”

The white and purple Unicorn pranced into his room with a smile on her face. “Well I was finishing up the outfit I promised you the other day when Merlene came to ask me if tomorrow was a good day for a meeting. I told her yes and asked why and only was told that you were setting up the meeting. So I made sure to do my absolute best while putting the final details on your new outfit and here I am.” Floating a couple of cases out of the saddle bags at her side she presented them to him. “Go on, open them up and tell me what you think.”

He wasn’t able to stifle a chuckle at her enthusiasm before open up said cases. The soft interior of said cases showed how much care Rarity had put into this as well as her presentation. However taking a look at the pieces of his new outfit as he took them out he couldn’t help but feel his Tactical Eye chime in on some and he smiled. “Wow, these are definitely a cut above the rest.”

The Fashionista smiled and took on a pose. “Well of course. Though I do have to admit, I had to get Spikey-Wikey’s help as I had to examine his cloak that you got him. That sent a lot of inspiration through me and just, I found myself incorporating designs and spells together that I wouldn’t have normally.”

Part of Dustan took what she said in and it made sense for her to be able to create these. Of all the people around she likely had the lightest touch of magic for what she did considering what she did. “Rarity, you and I will need to talk later but thank you. I will send payment over soon, and before you try to disagree with me. I am going to insist.”

She already had a hoof up to deny the payment when he said that before giving off a sigh and smiling. “Well if you insist. Though I do have to admit, while the designs are more simplistic then I normally do, these have to be my finest works. Yet I can’t even begin to understand why. THAT is what makes me excited. Oh wait, don’t try it on yet, in fact don’t wear it at all until tomorrow. Let your new outfit be a surprise for everypony, even me.”

Thinking about what she said, he could agree with that and put them back in the cases. “Ok I can do that.” Setting them to the side Dustan sat back in his chair and put on a smile for what he knew was going to be the tedious part. “Now, to discuss payment.”

An hour…it took an hour for them to come to an agreement on the price. Dustan would admit he got a slight victory in that he paid more than she had wanted him to pay, but Rarity proved to be a much better bargainer then him as the price wasn’t much more than what she proposed. In the end it left Dustan with a slight case of ‘How did she do that?’ syndrome after she left and he had a chance to take a look at the price he put down.

The day didn’t have much more to it than that, except Faithful coming in and bringing him a royal issue Signet Ring sent by Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. The ring was made then sent out as soon as the Castle’s Emblem was chosen and was enchanted so only he could wear it. Putting it on he found it had fit perfectly which did make him question how they had known that but in the end chalked it up to magic. Honestly this made signing some papers a bit less challenging as he could just stamp his ring in a bit of ink then press that to the parchment, but he still signed his name just in case someone tried to forge the symbol.

In the evening he was again left to his own devices and focused on what he would talk about and it was when he was heading off to bed, a slight bit later then he would have liked, that he felt he had did the best he could. Dustan hoped for an ending that had everyone understanding but he knew that they may not. Closing his eyes his dreams were empty that night, both thankfully and regretfully. Thankfully as it wouldn’t give Luna any ideas of what he had planned but regretfully as he was still hoping to go back to the classroom.

The Princesses were visiting, it was a big day, Castle Luminary had thrown up various decorations when it had been leaked that the Lord of the Castle had invited the Two Sisters over for a meeting as well as various other guests. There had been some nobles that had flown in via carriage or some other method who wanted to be a part of this, most though were for acclaim that they were there in case something monumental happened. Only some of the guest list had been leaked, mostly from hearsay of one pony or another having overheard one of the Lord’s Attendants going around and asking various individuals on when they were free before seeing that same individual come and ask them to show up at the same time and day that the Princesses were to show up.

It was to be expected that the Lord himself was to be there, as he called the meeting and most would agree that maybe one or two of his most trusted were there, a servant and a guard most likely or maybe the captain of his guard. Speculation was high, but for the most part, many knew the Elements of Harmony would be attending which lead some to think that some evil force had awoken that the Lord had discovered. Some were even suggesting that the Human who was the lord had something wrong with him, as he had been missing days prior with the Element of Magic herself and rumors from eloping to him being cursed were thrown around. Either way good or bad the term Everlord was being thrown around as a new title for him even if it wasn’t official or anything. Either way it must have been a big event as two guests had just arrived that had been on the rumor list. The Famous Orchestral pony herself Octavia Melody, complete with Cello case and all looking quite prim and proper wearing her white collar and pink bowtie, her dark gray mane looking silky smooth as did her lighter gray coat. In contrast was her Fiancée next to her with her unruly and spike two toned blue and electric blue mane headphones around her neck and her black rimmed violet lens glasses covering her face, though what anyone failed to realize was how shiny her coat was, looking just as silky smooth as her partners as did her mane. On her back she carried a small case, which most knew as her collapsible turn table with self contained sound system. They were no doubt there to provide music for the meeting was the general consensus.

Next came the first part of the Elements of Harmony, though for the most part they had been kept out of the papers so many didn’t even have a clue who they were, though for those in the know they knew the two pegasus on their way were Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy. The latter of the bunch could pass for a model, tall slender, coat and mane that just screamed love and care as did her wings, which most wouldn’t notice but other fellow Pegasi would, were just a touch bigger than normal. Her demeanor though lived up to her name as she kept yelping from various flashes of photography as the Element strove to stop them while posing for others. Rainbow Dash was the opposite of her companion, while had soft cream and pink colorations, Rainbow Dash lived up to her name as her mane was a living rainbow complete with every color therein. Her Cerulean coat, was vibrant as well sticking out while on ground level but would blend in quite well in the sky, of which she seemed to have an issue with leaving as not once did her hooves touch the ground while she was zipping from spot to spot to protect her friend as well as pose for the cameras where needed. It made some speculate that it was possible that they might be more, but those were the ones who also didn’t know of the two’s past friendship.

After that pair came two that were well known as what they could provide Equestria was already creating splashes in certain circles, or had been a splash for a long while: Rarity Belle and Applejack of the Apple Clan. The former was a Unicorn that would not look out of place if she was from Canterlot in her well maintained horn, glossy white coat and well done curls of her purple mane. She carried herself with a sense of grace that the Earth Pony next to her had no sense of. She had been making a splash in the world Fashion as of late and was rumored to be the personal tailor of the Everlord himself which by process of association did bring her attention from nobles. The orange coated farm pony with the blonde mane next to her though carried herself with simple form, one that was self assured in who she was in that she didn’t need to impress none of the paparazzi that were trying to ask her questions, and when she did respond her country dialect, which while charming, did nothing to endear those to her that she told to ‘Back off darn it!’

The last pair of the elements was actually a trio in that it was the last two of the Elements as well as a small dragon that came with them. Pinkie Pie, pink in coat and pinker in mane was hopping along in a strange fashion jabbering on making guesses on what could be happening though it often came back to some kind of party which she was excited on. Most reporters took that at face value on what was happening, while others could tell with how confused the mare was that it might not be the case. Either way the Pink pony zipped around at speeds that made most Pegasi jealous as she tried to answer as many of the questions as possible, most of which she could only answer ‘I have no clue, but its sure to be fun!’ She zipped here and there so much that often times she just seemed to vanish and reappear as if teleporting, of which seemed like that case as she once appeared under a reporters hat, which should have been impossible. When asked on how, it was Twilight Sparkle who ended up telling them ‘Just…don’t ask. Its Pinkie.’ Speaking of the titular Element of Magic herself, her three toned dark sapphire mane with purple and raspberry stripes worked well with her lavender coat that she wasn’t done in anything special. Then again she had been from Canterlot and many reporters knew how functional over form she was when trying to get many interviews from her over the years. The dragon with them had also been a known factor often accompanying the Element of Magic even before her risen status to an Element Bearer, and as such most disregarded the purple and green drake outright.

After that point many castle goers could be seen coming and going, many that were noted to live in the castle proper as higher ranking individuals, A large dragon, an older Minotaur, a few different ponies one even wearing a strange get up of a weird wide brimmed hat, but overall nothing the reporters took note of, except maybe one or two who had recognized them from the exhibition match. There were those individual paparazzi that tried to get interviews from the past event, and some that tried to use that to talk them up to see if they knew what was going on but all either declined or, like Pinkie Pie, said they had no clue. In the end nothing new was gained from talking to them and it mattered little anyways.

Soon a magical disturbance was felt as powerful magic was being called upon and soon with a loud pop the Two Sisters had appeared along with a one guard each. Princess Celestia, Raiser of the sun, Sunlight made real, Alicorn Princess of the Sun stood in all her glory well above even the tallest of stallion, her quad colored mane and tail stood flowing in the wind that didn’t exist showing off the pastel pink, blue, green, and purple as her majestic white coat gleamed as it did from her golden crown, shoes, and peytral. Likewise her sisters navy blue coat and dark spots stood out all the more against her sister, as did her dark as night crown and peytral though her shoes were silver. The Princess of the Night and Dreams was not all that seen but her work in Equestria was getting to be well known, especially amongst foals who thanked her at night and when they woke up, often saying that she came to them and banished their ‘bad dreams’. Her mane, a dark blue was littered with specks of light as if they were the stars from her night sky that she kept until needed and the amorphous halo of Purr-sian blue, which surrounded her mane like the ethereal plane that all dreams were conjured from. At their sides stood their Champions, Covered in white and gold came the first, a unicorn, though the figure was covered horn to hoof in armor so their gender couldn’t even be ascertained, nor their name. All that was known about the knight was their title: Knight of the Dawn. Likewise the twin Champion of the night themselves was likewise armored leaving a mystery to their gender as they walked with an authority that could only come from experience in battle, clad in blue and black armor: The Knight of the Dusk. While many clamored to get the princesses attention at best they got an acknowledging nod to their presence or a wave. Trailing behind the two knights and the two princess, the paparazzi tried to follow them but on the stairs upwards the Knight of the Dawn was the first to stop them and it was clear that even if they somehow got past them as the Princesses made their way into the private conference room that the Knight of the Dusk would not let them past that point. The presence of those two knights, known to be personal guards of the princesses and them alone, caused all ponies to not even think about intruding. They could only speculate on what was to be said or happen in that room.

Twilight Sparkle, Element of Magic, registered Magister, Student of Celestia, was looking forward to this meeting. She had an idea of what it was going to be about as Dustan had told her some of what he wanted to discuss back on his world before they had transported themselves back, though even then he had told her that he wasn’t sure what else he was going to say and that he needed to think and to plan so she had been looking forward to this. She had made sure to keep the facts she had come to know to herself but the true test had been hiding her newest fascinations from others. The marvel that was the Pen was so strong that she may or may not have sent the designs to a patent office so that she could get said object patented so she could looking to having them manufactured for everypony, NO, everyone! Surely this would be something that would revolutionize everywhere! Just thinking that thought alone had her shuffling back and forth giddily like a schoolfilly eager for her Hearth’s Warming Day gifts.

Speaking of being giddy, she was happy to see her teacher again and wanted to talk to her, but she was afraid she might babble out and leak the surprise early so had kept her distance, which was hard for sure. Many of the choices for whom was brought into this meeting didn’t surprise her. The Princesses were of course a given considering she had been ask to send them a letter about it after all. Her own inclusion was also a foregone fact considering she knew and was likely going to be asked to attest to certain facts later. Her other friends had not been surprising as she had told Dustan that she wouldn’t hide this from them. Mystic wasn’t a surprise as he was likely the sole human’s best friend so it figured that he would be included as well. Sturdy and Eden were a tad surprising but at the same time from what she knew were in Dustan’s call for council so at the same time it wasn’t a surprise to see them here. Faithful was surprising to her though, she knew of his past as it had been mentioned who he had worked for at some point during her classes for Neutral Magic but considering how apologetic he was for his former master and how much he lived up to his name for Dustan she trusted him and so must he apparently. Tremor and Steel were definitely not two she figured would be here. Tremor always seemed like he was waiting on something from Dustan while Steel always seemed to be considering something about the human. Zecora, that one wasn’t a surprise at all though it did bring a smile to her face after all even Twilight wasn’t THAT clueless so she wished Zecora good luck though considering what the unicorn now knew she knew that road was going to be a long and hard fought one. The most surprising two were Octavia and Vinyl Scratch. She honestly didn’t know if they had even talked to Dustan outside of the concert and even then only knew that Vinyl was the only one that did so as she was the one asking him questions. Had they interacted at all beyond that? If so that was a surprise to her.

Faithful left for a moment through a door to check on something and when he returned, she knew that it was time. “Mare’s and Gentlecolts, may I have your attention!” The unicorn called out in his cummerbund and tie. “I have the distinct pleasure to announce the Noble Lord of the Everfree, Masher of Malboros, Summoner of Eidolons, Master of Neutral Magic, and Master of Swordsmanship. Lord Dustan Warner.”

The door opened and even to Twilight the human struck a rather sharp image. Before them the Lord of the Everfree’s attire had changed, his short brown hair was now accompanied by a tunic stylized almost like a robe that was mostly gray with blue trim and lines that broke up its pattern. A new belt that seemed specifically designed with him and his weapons in mind, of which now his Harmonium axe rested in a proper hip holster at his left for easy access while his two swords were on his right properly strapped and same with his weapons were pouches for various items to be held and potion loops to hold vials and more. Loose fitting blue leggings barely made any noise as he moved though his boots, the same beige ones that he had been wearing since he had arrived and still didn’t seem to be showing any signs of wear, hitting the ground made up for their lack of noise. Clearly a blue undershirt was worn under his tunic as the sleeves went down to his elbows while his gloves, the ones she had given him, rose up high on his forearms. On his right forearm he sported some kind of bracer that was new that had a metal bar of some type lain on it, she would have to ask him about that later. His most distinct characteristic though, one that he had not been without and even on Earth had struck her as weird when he had given it up, was his cloak. Styled the same way as his old, it was a hooded cloak that went all the way to his ankles. The blue of this cloak was the same as the blue of his pants and tunic’s trim, but the cloak had a trim of gray instead and as the man turned to move towards the head of the table, she could see the distinct pattern that made up the emblem for Luminary Castle embroidered upon the cloak.

Apparently though his new look didn’t go unappreciative either as she heard Rarity make a comment that she knew it would look good on him. Then again Twilight should have known that she made it, the details were too good not to be her work, though even Twilight would admit that this level was something else. Fluttershy was even impressed asking Rarity what kind of stitching she used in it, the variety and level of knowledge that Fluttershy shown to do that surprised the fashionista a bit but she told her that they would talk later about that.

Applejack of course was not one for subtly as she called out, “Cleaned up right now didn’t ya?!”

That earned her a chuckle from him as Pinkie Pie went on with a ‘Wowie Zowie.’ Spike next to her whispered to himself about possibly getting himself an outfit like that but in purple and green of which the image wasn’t too bad in her own head either and might have to help her little brother out with. A surprising reaction came from Rainbow Dash whom she seen blush and rather surprisingly wasn’t flying and instead had her wing spread-oh…she was going to save that fact later to tease her about or when she pulled a prank on her. Vinyl’s reaction was to give Dustan a Diamond Dog whistle as her Fiancée just rolled her eyes and kept giving out a modest hoof stamp cheer as did the Princesses, Sturdy, Eden, Mystic, and Side Winder, whose presence she just realized was there. Tremor and Steel, just like she had thought before, said nothing. They seemed to be content with mulling something over in their heads as they continued to watch the man move to his seat. The least surprising reaction came from the Shaman of the woods. Twilight couldn’t help but mentally snicker some as she watched every bit of the white parts of Zecora turn red and her hooves start to shuffle around nervously yet she never looked away. Merlene was a tad bit of a surprise in that while she clapped, the Magister would take note of a slight red hue to her face as well and only because it mismatched with her sky blue markings did Twilight even notice.

“Ahem.” Dustan cleared his throat as he looked to everyone.

‘Well then, its time.’ Twilight mentally recorded to herself.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, I would first like to thank you all for coming on short notice like this.” Dustan looked around as the crowd was calming down, many were stopping their hoof stamps, Zecora seemed to be patting herself in the face a little too hard as it seemed to leave her cheeks red. Rainbow Dash seemed to be preening herself or doing something with her wings, though she likely was just restless. “I have called you all here to discuss some things, many things honestly and truth be told while I didn’t NEED to call a meeting for this, I rather get it in one instead of many separate instances.” Holding out a hand towards Twilight, the purple unicorn made her way over to him. “Recently Twilight Sparkle had found a way to let me visit my home.”

Many gasped out at this and many others smiled and congratulated him. “While that is fantastic news Dustan, and I would love to learn the details of how later, I assume that something happened during your trip there that prompted this?” Celestia asked as she looked him over with an appraising eye.

“Yes and no.” Tugging slightly at his new clothes, of which his Tactical Eye had told him when he looked at him that his new tunic and cloak registered themselves as a Silken Robe and as a Mage’s Cloak respectively from Tactics. “The only reason it was a yes is because in order to send me home Twilight had to teleport with me. You see there is a truth I have been keeping from all of you. A truth that while I have good reasons to hide, I won’t from you all any longer.” That got everyone in the room to lean forward slightly except for Vinyl and Twilight of whom the former seemed to lean back some as if slightly afraid of what was about to happen. “I have lead you all to believe that Humans exist somewhere out there on this world. In truth, they don’t, least not as far as I know and in fact I am not sure if they even exist in this universe as in truth I am not from this universe.”

No one said anything, in fact most of the faces around were either dazed at hearing that or in disbelief. “Wait Dustan, surely thou are saying this in jest?”

Shaking his head he would point to both Twilight and Vinyl. “These two here know the truth, Vinyl from when she connected me to the Music of Harmony and got feedback from my life as a result during the concert, and Twilight cause she went with me.”

“Vinyl is that true?” Octavia asked of her DJ lover.

“~Yeah.~” The sound of her voice came via her headphones projected via her magic. “~The feedback showed me a few things and while it could have been played off as a different part of the world I happen to catch a look at a globe via one of the visions and it didn’t match up.~”

“I can also agree, Equestria isn’t even on the map as I looked it over. Humans have extensively covered their world to a degree that caused even me to boggle at the numbers.” Twilight backed up Vinyl as she spoke. “So many innovations and so far advanced from us with just technology that I honestly can’t even begin to comprehend it.”

He could hear many around discussing the legitimacy of those claims as he went over to a nearby cabinet dresser and pulled out a bag and slowly pulled out his laptops. “These devices are computers, computational machines capable of running programs and numbers quicker than you can think of them.” Dustan would activate a program on them as he pointed them at a wall and caused it to enter projector mode to display upon the wall what he was talking. “As such I am going to be showing you all proof and various things from my world just so you know I am not lying about things and to show you that my claims are not exaggerations. With that in mind I have prepared something for each of you today to show. So…who wants to go first?”

It seemed everyone took a moment to adjust to what he was saying before Rainbow Dash recovered the quickest. “What is the fastest a Human can move!”

“Usain Bolt currently holds the record.” He told her pulling up a picture of the man in question. “Clocking just under twenty eight miles per hour or a little under forty five kilometers per hour. That is by foot at least.” Dustan pulled up a picture of a sleek aircraft. “The fastest a piloted craft can go in the air of Earth that we have done so far, Earth being the name of my world by the way, is four thousand five hundred and twenty miles per hour.”

The look on Rainbow Dash’s face was priceless as she just looked on in shock. “Excuse me?!”

Smiling Dustan pulled up a few clips of various flight tests of some machines his world had: F-16’s, normal commercial planes, and more. “Air travel for us humans is a daily thing and we are capable of traveling the world in a matter of hours at most a day depending on where in the world you are going. This is something normal people can afford to do as well all though the speeds I told you about before are not what those vehicles I just showed you are capable of.” Rainbow’s Wings popped out at that and he laughed as did many individuals around the table prompting the mare to blush and smooth her wings back down.

The next to raise their hoof was the Princess of the Night herself. “Thou said that thine kin achieved those feats in air.” Coughing for a moment to herself Luna switched her mode of talking realizing that most there were friends. “What I mean to say is that it seems like your wording leads us to believe that you have achieved faster in some way.”

“That is a bit of a tricky question without answering a couple of things first.” Dustan switched to a different folder to project things. “For my world, our Sun and Moon do not need to be controlled. Our planet orbits around the sun and our moon orbits around our planet thanks to gravitational forces keeping them there thanks to the sun being so much larger then my planet and the moon being smaller then my planet.” A couple of ponies looked astonished at that, Luna and Celestia looked more intrigued then anything. “That being said now you know a bit of the basics for what I am to say. As you all may or may not know, there is no air in space.” Some were surprised by that and looked to want to ask questions. “Humans have developed technology, while still rare and not available to common folks, allows us to go into space with a type of vehicle we call the Space Shuttle. It can go to the moon, it can orbit around our planet, of which needs to exceed speeds of over seventeen thousand miles per hour to do in order to make sure Earth’s gravity doesn’t pull it back down.”

“That is…incredible. It sounds like your people are much more advanced than our own as you have said. Soon you will tell me that thine- that your people can travel to the stars and planets.” Luna remarked which only made him smirk. Her face looked shocked to say the least.

“We have not physically landed on another world, but we have put a remote controlled machine onto a nearby planet if that counts. Also we have technology that allows us to observe nearby galaxies and more. Truth is Luna-” The human remarked as he pulled up stars and galaxies for photos. “Stars are just very far away suns. Of which are all various sizes and colors. Celestia may control this sun, but you control STARS.” That fact seemed to make the Alicorn of the night swell up. “But that is my world and my universe. I am not sure how the stars work here as was mentioned before that you two control the sun and moon here. Stars might be different, but who knows.”

Celestia spoke up then. “Hmm I think that answered a question I had as well so I will not raise my hoof coming up.”

“That is fine though if you think of something feel free to ask.” Clearing his throat he looked around. “Who’s next?”

“I would like to know about Earth Fashion.” Grinning Dustan merely pulled out some magazines for Rarity and held them out. Seeing them the Fashionista simply gasped and floated them over in her telekinesis and started to look through them. “Tre Magnifique!”

“In fact since Rarity spoke up so soon, I do have a few things for people here.” Pulling out a book he would whisper to Twilight who to levitate it to. “Fluttershy, that is a book that has pictures and studies of various Earth animals.”

The shy pegasus nearly squealed as she got her hooves on it clutching it to her barrel. “Oh thank you Dustan. I can’t wait to read it.”

“That being said, you should know something.” He really hated to break the pony’s heart like this but he didn’t want her to find out on her own or question why certain things didn’t work. “Earth animals…aren’t aware. They can’t speak to people like Equestria’s animals do; they act only on instinct with very, very, VERY few exceptions.”

“Oh.” The mare looked down trodden for a moment before looking back up with a smile and hugging the book. “Still, I very much look forward to reading about the animals of your world.”

“Next up.” Pulling out another stack of magazines he whispered who they should go to. “Is Pinkie Pie.”

“OH OH WHAT AM I GETTING!” Making grabby hooves at the magazines the Squire laughed.

“Those are various backing and pastry recipes that I am sure you will make use of to make people happy.” As soon as the party pony got a hold of them she pronked back and forth in excitement and stowed them away in her mane. “I have a couple of more gifts to give but let’s see some questions first so it’s a bit broken up.”

Side Winder had his hoof raised and was called on next. “Can humans teleport?”

“No, we are not capable of that. It’s a matter of Science Fiction for us.” The answer seemed to disappoint the Unicorn. The next hoof that came up was Mystics, he knew what was coming but still didn’t look forward to it.

Mystic smiled and adjusted his Black Mage hat. “What kind of magic can humans use beyond Neutral Magic?”

Sighing, he pulled up a folder of images. “Humans can’t use magic. For us it’s a matter of myth and legends even if some want to believe otherwise. I am the only one capable of it. Merlin is the most famous mythical figure to wield magic that most know of and he didn’t exist, or if he did then his legend has been muddled so much by time that no one knows anymore. Everything I have been telling you about humans, it has all been the sole product of technology, science, math, and ingenuity.”

Steel Brilliance took that moment to speak up without raising his hand. “I am very hard pressed to believe this until I see proof. Can you show us some of what your people are capable of math wise?”

Nodding, he smiled as he had been prepared. “Yes I can. From what I understand the Minotaur are currently studying Algebra correct?” Pulling up an equation in case the name wasn’t the same Steel smiled. “Ok good, this is the next step above that. You will find that after that is calculus, of which my own personal education didn’t cover.” When he showed the string of numbers and letters the Minotaur turned pale. “Of which this even the highest level humans can do, there is more but honestly I don’t know them well enough to explain it properly. Does that cover your question Steel?” The Minotaur general, a bull who considered himself most studious was clearly shaken by this and sat down just nodding in response.

“What about weapons and tactics?” Seems Tremor, slightly unnerved by the other elder teacher, spoke up next.

Sighing and taking a deep breath Dustan closed his eyes. “Humanity is not nor has really ever been a peaceful race. We have fought with ourselves for as long as recorded history and even now. There was once a point where many nations of our world were fighting against each other which was dubbed the second world war or World War II.” Opening his eyes he pulled up a picture of the Fat Man. “This is a weapon we created. I won’t go into the process behind how it can do what it can do as I rather not go into how horrible it is but let me tell you this. We dropped two of these on a nation that was against my particular country. That country surrendered after as these two bombs, each destroyed a city by themselves. One of those cities called Hiroshima had three hundred and fifty thousand living in it.”

As many went pale and gasped at that Dustan pulled up pictures, showing shadows burned into walls and a few others of the horrors this weapon caused. “That is, I can’t even begin…” Tremor stated but couldn’t finish his thought as his legs gave out, the pride of a dragon as the strongest race, whose might could only be challenged by highly powerful magic users had to admit that even they were not capable of something like that in one fell swoop.

“Humans have other devastating weapons but those were some of the most devastating that we used. It was so devastating in fact, that their use was wholly banned by the whole world after that which as you can imagine, is a feat and a half.” Dustan gave a bit of a sad chuckle. “A whole world all of whom has largely been man vs. man the entire time suddenly we had developed a weapon that is capable of wiping us from the face of the world if one were to drop but a few handfuls as the resulting radiation from them renders a place uninhabitable for a time after amongst other problems.”

“Great Dragon above, I am glad that your race is not on Equis now.” Tremor spoke clearly spooked by what he had been shown.

Coughing a bit, Dustan smiled and tried to get the talks back to positives. “That being said, humans are capable of building wonders.” Showing off various cities, land marks and more Dustan would have Twilight levitate a book to Sturdy. “In that book there are some of the techniques used to create those structures that you just witnessed Sturdy. While some may not work for you or those around you, it might give you ideas on how to improve and become an even greater builder then you are now.” Seems like the sights were helping getting others minds off of what was previously shown as Sturdy took a moment to look over a couple of pages before closing the book with a smile.

“You have shown us wonders, but what about culture. Music is the lifeblood of the soul.” Octavia called out now curious, though it was clear what her thoughts were.

Dustan didn’t need to be a mind reader to see that she thought humans were monsters and needed proof, but that want for them to be monsters was shaky, she needed it to not be true and he was ready to help her believe they weren’t. “We have many styles of music, of which I have a small playlist. Let’s start with something you will like Octavia, Classical and one of my personal favorites: The Hall of the Mountain King.” The buildup, slow and methodical seemed to draw in not only her but nearly everyone even Vinyl though the later had her mixer table out and had a button held down. Grinning he knew what Vinyl was up to and he was going to beat her to it. “And here we have that same music remixed into what Humans call Dubstep.” Playing that music had various effects, some ponies started to move more with the beat especially Vinyl who had was nodding her head and moving her body. Even Octavia seemed to enjoy it more knowing its source. “However my personal favorite genre, though there are MANY, is rock. Here are two of my favorites.” The first came a classic that he hoped they would all enjoy from Queen: Bohemian Rhapsody. After that he gave them a bit more with a bit of a harder sound from rock with Metallica’s Enter Sandman. The first song had the unicorns all lightning up their horns and waving back and forth which he snapped a small clip of secretly with his phone. The second had many there head banging including the likes of Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Spike, Luna, and surprisingly Eden who seemed to get into it quite well.

As the music came down Octavia was busy scribbling notes on some parchment as was Vinyl though it was the latter that asked. “~And you said humans can’t use magic but clearly the Music of Harmony works well with them if they can produce that.~”

Laughing at that Dustan shook his head. “Nope, like me the Magical Music of Harmony doesn’t happen with humans at all. All those songs and more are created through imagination, hard work, and emotion.”

“How much do those laptops store Dustan?” Twilight asked clearly curious as she seen many folders on it though that did make others curious.

“Not sure how much it will mean but each of my laptops is able to hold one Terabyte of memory.” Clearly most had no clue. “It’s a lot more then I could show you in a day for sure.”

“With humans not bein’ able to use magic, it must mean all of y’all rely on hard work or those machines of yours right?” Applejack asked from her seat looking rather pleased that humans did things like Earth Ponies.

Grinning and chuckling, the next book went to her. “To be fair Applejack, humans have gotten to the point where we are genetically altering our foods to grow bigger, faster, and more plentiful. That being said I can honestly say our apples are nowhere near as tasty as what you produce. Regardless you may not be much for reading but here is a book for you about various farming techniques and such that you may or may not get any use out of.”

“Your right, Ah may not use it. Won’t hurt to read though, plus it would be awful rude of me to turn down a gift from a friend.” Applejack put that into her saddle back that she had brought with her, smart and practical of her for sure.

“That being said, the next gift is for you Eden, a book on the various plants and how they survive on my world.” Levitating the book via Twilight’s assistance he handed it to her. “While it may not do good here there are some similarities so who knows.” She smiled brightly and hugged it close to her barrel just like Fluttershy had and it was easy to tell she was eager to read it.

“Do you have anything on dragons?” Spikes question, came out of nowhere, clearly he wanted to know more about his heritage, and sadly it wouldn’t be here.

“Sorry Spike, in my world, Dragons, along with other species are myths and legends just like magic. Among those included are Pegasi, Unicorns, Alicorns, Griffons, and more.” That shocked all present except the two that knew a bit about him already and his past. “In the myths and legends we have all of those creatures tend to be noble and work for the good of others, though dragons and griffons have been known to not be quite so nice depending on the story. Of course any myth and legend that is popular is converted to more and more stories that differ from their base origins so it’s hard to say what the original myths were even like.”

“Before, you said you had various nations of your world correct.” The Princess of the Sun asked as he nodded. “While war happens, I am wondering what your princesses think of such actions.”

“Princesses, Princes, Kings, Queens, Dictators, Presidents, we have many different types of leaders just as we have different many types of governments. They all have pros and they all have cons.” Dustan told her as he did his best to explain the democratic nation he was a part of and how their government worked as well as a bit on the history and how the forefathers of his country separated from a monarchy. “In the end, many nations do not have leaders for very long.”

“Sir, if I may ask.” Faithful asked having been silent and stoic this entire time. “I have noticed when you speak you often use male terms and denotations amongst the things you speak of. Does that mean your gender ratio is more male based?”

He shook his head to that honestly not expecting that to come up. “It’s mostly even to be fair unlike in Equestria here. About fifty, fifty, though we are more male centric in that males tend to be the ones to do the courting, the ones whom various things are expected of which is the opposite of Equestria.”

“That explains it!” Rarity called out. “I had always wondered why you seemed never to notice anything, but so many mares have given you the moves Dustan and you never seem to notice. I thought it was biological differences before, us being ponies and you being human, but it’s also the fact that males are your world are the ones supposed to be doing that!”

Chuckling and giving her a nod. “Part of that is right yes, part of it is also because I have…honestly never been good at picking up those signals even amongst my own race. It took…” Swallowing a bit and taking a deep breath, he let it go and was…surprisingly calm. “It took my last girlfriend to practically spell it out for me before we got together.”

Dustan was looking at Rarity as she finally was happy with the answer she got so missed a couple of pondering looks thrown his way. “Thank you Darling and sorry for my outburst there.”

“Its fine. I am sure with how I am it might not have ever come up unless someone brought it up.” He told her with a laugh as his fingers brushed through his short hair. Pulling up his note cards on his laptop he looked over what was said and done and found a few more topics, but only one that was personalized. “Zecora.” The Zebra looked up surprised as he pulled up some things. “In my world there are places that use Shamans that work just like yourself as well as have many artifacts like what you own in your place. So I have a book for you that will go into details on them. Some…aren’t pretty but most are very mystical or so they say. While I can’t say that you should practice any of them from this book, it still might be good to give perspective.”

The book was floated over as the images on the wall were changed to more of a screen saver of stars. “Thank you very much for this book. Surely in the near future I will be giving it a look.”

Sighing a bit it now came to something else he was worried about. “Now that you all know where I am from. It’s time to talk about HOW I got here the specifics of my powers and something else I have been keeping a secret.” Pulling the pack that he had pulled the laptops from he kept it close to him as he looked to all present before unsheathing his sword. The blood red blade gleamed in the light as he set it on the table for all to look at. “In my world there is a place called a convention, different types of conventions celebrate different things. This particular one was for gaming and a type of animation. At this convention, or as I will refer to it from now a con, I ran into a being called The Merchant. In my world there was a rumor in some circles about this Merchant, someone who is dressed as a figure from a game, who will make people vanish and send them to other worlds.”

“So let me see if I understand.” Zecora called out as it seems she picked up on what he was saying. “This Merchant did as was rumored and sent you to this land?”

“Yes, but there is more to the story.” That caused a few of his guests to mutter to themselves but it was too low for him to hear. “Typically a Merchant mysteriously does what they do in those stories. This one was different though. This one wasn’t going to send me it seems, he was rather nice and we were getting along, until another Merchant showed up and seemed to either make it so people couldn’t notice us, or we were outside that space from there as well as completely paralyze me. He proceeded to lecture the former Merchant before using the wooden weapon of a sword I had made as a prop for the con and then changed it to steel or some other metal before he preceded to pin me to the counter of the stall by stabbing me through the chest. I watched as this sword drank my blood and life force becoming what it was and though the memories are faint the previous Merchant must have been the one to save me as he gave me another item, which I will talk about in a moment, and sent me here to heal me. When a Merchant sends someone to another world various things can happen: They can show up in a new body, gain new abilities, lose their previous history or name, regardless of what happens, typically the person isn’t who they were before. Same goes for me, I now possess the abilities I have been teaching others here, the abilities of Neutral Magic as well as Classes and Jobs.”

“So are you telling us that you are sharing secrets that were only meant for you?” The companion to his world asked as she had been taking notes this entire time almost like a stenographer.

“Yes and no.” Gathering his thoughts for a moment Dustan stretched and looked at them all. “First off, I think that there was some parts of this world which were already here even before I showed up. I was first convinced that the Merchant somehow altered this world however thanks to the Coral Sword that Merlene gave me, as well as talking to the Espers, I realized things existed before me. So unless they can alter the past as well I came to Equis that had elements similar to the game where I gained my powers. What is more, though I am helping to unlock these powers in others, their power and my own are not the exact same.” Looking to Mystic he asked him a simple question. “Tell my Mystic, when you first obtained the Class of Black Mage, you did so when you went to what we refer to for Neutral Magic as The Classroom correct?”

“Yes.” The speckled stallion answered. “I went to it in my dreams where there are armor stands fitted with various outfits, when I became a Black Mage I touched that stand and gained its primary abilities. Though I do retain other abilities I have learned though most are in a bit of a weakened state, which in my thesis I theorized was due to the connections being weakened between each stand when one is chosen but not completely eradicated.”

“So tell me Mystic, could you change right now while you are awake?” Dustan asked curiously though he knew the answer.

Shaking his head, the Earth Pony looked to him. “No that is impossible. One has to have the ability to tap into the Classroom it seems.”

“True, that is how it is for you and the others that learn.” The Squire let that sink in for a moment to Mystic who had nodded along with others who followed the question, though he could see Twilight’s eyes widening just a moment before his friends. “However, I do not have that restriction.” Switching to Black Mage mentally he noticed more than a few ponies twitch around him. “I can mentally make the switch between classes as I want. As some of you may have just noticed, I am now a Black Mage instead of the Squire I was a moment ago.” Moving around the room he gestured to a few. “However I am restricted in some ways the same as you are Mystic. I cannot learn abilities unless I get them in the Classroom. That being said, I have come to realize the Classroom can be summoned via a state of mind, of which I am not exactly sure what it is. I am close to it though, I can visualize and have the stands appear before my eyes while awake but I cannot interact with them and haven’t went to the Classroom in my dreams for QUITE a long while.” Shifting to Ninja, which made those that had twitched before relax, to move around easier he hopped back over to his spot at the head of the table. “I also have another ability which I KNOW others do not possess.” Looking to Rarity he asked her. “Rarity, did you know when you made this cloak and this tunic for me that you recreated some equipment of which I derive my powers?” That seemed to shock not just her but everyone gathered. “This means even though you don’t have a class, you performed Neutral Magic to do this.”

“What, but how?!” Both Twilight and Rarity called out loudly.

Smiling at both of them, he would explain. “Twilight, you have a hard time with Neutral Magic starting points as it requires such a minute level of magic that you can’t actually control it because of how much power you have.” Pointing to the fashion pony he smiled. “Rarity only possesses twenty five Mp in total, nowhere near you one hundred and twenty.” He couldn’t help but grin at seeing the confusion on their faces. “Twilight Mp stands for Mana points. A measure of one’s magical pool which they draw power from.”

Not only Twilight, but Mystic, Rarity, Eden, Celestia, Luna, and Faithful all looked at him surprised though it was Celestia who spoke. “You can measure that how? It takes very finely crafted instruments and a bit of a testing program to determine a Unicorn’s magical pool. Are you saying you can determine it in some way?”

“Yes and by sight alone.” Pointing to his eye he looked at each and everyone. “I possess a unique ability called Tactical Eye, of which is still growing stronger and stronger. I can use it to see the names, classes, health, magic, and status condition of others as well as a few other tidbits.”

Luna moved for a moment while he explained this and went to the door and soon she came back with the Knight of the Dusk. “Dustan, if possible and what you say is true. Would you give us a demonstration? No pony but myself and my sister knows the identity of our Champions.”

Looking to the princess he raised an eyebrow. “You sure, if I prove my ability it means that secret will be let out to everyone in this room.”

Thinking about this for a moment Luna seemed to want to say otherwise but it was her sister that came up with a solution. “Whisper it to the Knight’s ear if you would.”

“Yes that will do.” Looking to her Champion, who nodded as well, she smiled. “Our Champion agrees.”

Taking a quick look over said champion Dustan approached them and whispered. “Regal Gloom, Male, Knight of the Dusk, Zodiac Sign is Gemini, should I go on?”

The stallion in armor backed up quickly horn glowing as his sword was drawn. “This one speaks the truth princess and thus has a very dangerous ability.”

Standing up straight Dustan could see the Princesses looking at him wide eyed and a bit slack jawed. “There you have it. I can see Health as Hp or Health points, Mana as Mp or Mana points, and so on. I can look at everyone here and determine how big their reserves of magic are. Class changes in Neutral Magic also help to change that as I am sure some of you felt when I switched classes earlier in how my magic seemed to spike higher.” Moving back to the head of the table he chuckled and looked to Twilight. “As a Black Mage I actually have more reserves then you Twilight, the difference is you are a Harmonic Magic user so while might pool might be slightly less than your own, you likely would vastly beat me when it came to using magic as you also have Equis to draw from for your powers.” Rubbing his head he sighed. “That being said my ability is not infallible. Seems like some magic can hide and obscure some info from me, or maybe it’s because the person I am trying to examine is much too high level, a statistic we use here for determining base potential of someone’s abilities.”

“Oh, does that mean I have a level?” Pinkie Pie asked as she smiled.

Nodding he smiled with her. “Level twelve. Pretty impressive.”

“Oh, do me!” Rainbow Dash called flapping into the air to hover.

“Phrasing.” Dustan called instantly even before he realized what he was trying to say but laughed when the Pegasus turned red and flopped onto the table causing everyone to laugh. “Level nineteen, likely do to martial arts lessons. Which is…rather sad in some ways Celestia, as the guards being turned out of your program come out to level one or two. Literally Rainbow Dash alone could statistically take down a whole squad of new recruits without breaking a sweat.”

“Sister, we are definitely going to need to talk to the trainers when we get back.” The younger sister told her elder one.

“Indeed.” She remarked “If that is the case then a change is needed.”

With that settled Dustan reached into his bag for the other and last item of business. “Well now that my unique ability is settled comes the last order I had for the meeting, oh for anyone curious my level is fifty four. I need to tell you about the other item I was sent here with.” His tone, the seriousness which he spoke of caught everyone’s attention right away. He set down a blue teardrop looking stone with the astrological sign of Virgo buried within it. Dustan took note of everyone’s reaction, of which it was curious except for one which made him have a slight sinking in his stomach for. “This item is called by many names, the Holy Stone, The Zodiac Stones, Auracite, no matter the name it doesn’t matter as these stones posses very astounding abilities. Legends state it is capable of reviving people from the dead with no ill effects, while others claim they only are used to house demons, as well as other stories of which I won’t get into.”

“Dustan are you sure about that?” Celestia’s horn glowed for a moment covering the Auracite before she let it drop. “I sense some power in that stone but it is nowhere near the level of what you describe, nor do I feel any presence.”

“Really?” She would nod which confused Dustan a bit as he could definitely feel power in that stone. “Maybe it’s because of my connection, regardless, the reason I told you about its powers, is cause…they are true, both sides. Ones with pure hearts using them without selfish motives can perform miracles. While those who crave power-”

“Summon demons.” Luna finished for him.

“Yeah.” Tapping the stone he looked to everyone. “And this stone is likely the most dangerous of all as it contains the spirit of a being called Ultima.”

“NO!” The Princess of the Night called out and jumped back pressing herself against the wall of the meeting room. “That is the one she was looking for!”

“Sister, calm yourself.” The elder of the two went and gave her a nuzzle which did help to alleviate the situation. “What do you mean?”

Still Luna was shaking although she did move towards the table before she reached under her peytral and withdrew a violet stone that looked like it was two diamonds conjoined at the side with one slightly raised above the other and embedded inside was the symbol for Gemini. “This is where Nightmare Moon came from.”

The feeling in the pit of Dustan’s stomach dropped even further. “Zalera.”

That spooked his favorite princess as she went wide eyed and her already pale coat went even paler. “That is the true name that was told to only me. How do you know it?”

“As I told you Luna. I know a lot about the connecting source where a lot of this crossover to one another.” Tapping the Gemini stone he could feel the power within it flare up for just a moment before it died down.

Seems Luna noticed the little flare as well. “How did you do that?”

“Do what?” He called back to her only to see her shake her head for now. “Anyways continue with what you were saying about Nightmare Moon.”

“Right.” Sighing she seemed to think about a good long ways. “It was years before my fall, I had received this stone as a gift from an admirer, one who had looked at historical records and found that my astrological sign was that of Gemini. They did not say how they came into possession of it or if they had made it, but it didn’t matter as at the time I was just happy to receive a gift. As time went on and I grew more and more upset with my situation I noticed…the stone, Auracite as you called it, started to talk to me, whispering sweet nothings and promises of power. It asked only that it be allowed to share itself with me and that I promise to do one task for it. I would need to look for the other stones bearing marks like that one, the most important being Virgo.”

Sighing and looking at the stones he nodded. “Yeah. The evil in the stones have a base want to gather themselves together all to try to revive The High Seraph Ultima.”

“Yes, but I only learned the names of it after I had given in to Zalera. Our combined form was a result of…incomplete fusion.” Luna picked the stone back up and seemed to consider it for a moment before putting it back into its hidden spot inside her peytral. “When I felt the evil filling my body, I tried to use my powers to resist and reject it, and while I was somewhat successful, it wasn’t entirely. As a result Nightmare Moon came to be born a mix of our natures a true child of that demon.”

“They are called the Lucavi.” Sighing as he picked up his own stone and put it away “Demons of that order are called Lucavi. Thank you for telling me that Luna, it confirms that I am not wrong in my want to guard this stone from those that may wish to use it for the wrong purposes.”

At this point though Lunch had arrived, to which the conversation turned pleasant once more, all there talking about what had been happening, Celestia and Luna talking with Rarity about a possible commission for guard uniforms, though Dustan did add his own stating he would like possible clothing for his own guard or at least cloaks like the one she made him. Twilight and Mystic were busy talking about Neutral Magic and the Classroom and how she could go about trying to get better at it. Sturdy and Eden kept to themselves, though they did announce their engagement to all present of which got many congratulations sent their way. Vinyl and Octavia wished to talk to him later about possibly getting a few songs to copy and distribute for sale, and while Dustan wanted to, he had to deny them and instead said that he would give them to both of them if they promised not to sell it. They were songs that belonged to other musicians after all and it wasn’t right for him to make money off of them. They understood completely and whole hearted supported that decision stating ‘~Yeah, if it was me I wouldn’t want someone selling my music for their own profit either without letting me know.~’

Overall it was nice, everyone seemed to get along, though Tremor and Steel did leave after lunch was done without saying much, he kind of expected it though, what he didn’t expect was Applejack and what she was about to tell him. “Well Dustan, Ah’m glad you explained more about that Classroom and Magic and such as it makes a lot of what Bloom said clear. Ah mean just this morning she was saying a bunch of jibberish and held out her hoof. Next thing Ah know is that Ah am putting out one of our apple trees that she set on fire. Guess you will have to teach her how to control that partner.”

“Right of course I will Applejack.” Dustan smiled as he heard that glad that her work was paying off. ‘Nice, Apple Bloom can cast Fire.’ That thought barely finished crossing his mind before he stopped in his tracks. ‘Oh shit, Apple Bloom can cast Fire. I have unleashed magic using Cutie Mark Crusaders onto the world. That can’t be good.’

Author's Notes:

So I have to say this. I am sorry for this taking as long as it has. Too many things popped up all at once to mention so I wont even bore anyone with the details. This is on me for taking this long. Sorry, now back to your regular end credits card with your host...me.

Hey hey Dustan is finally back in Equestria and it seems he is doing quite a bit better. Lots of things were resolved, hopefully for the better, but knowing me its not likely.

Pinkie Pie: "Don't worry Noxxy, I am sure it will be alright in the end."

Oh...right, forgot you were in my head Pinkie. You know what, you can handle this one. *Leaves*

Pinkie Pie: "OH OH! Ahem, let me try to find the right tone." Clicks on a link to music.
The music starts.
Pinkie Pie in epic narrator voice: Next time on My Little Tactics. Dustan tests a new product with some explosive results that he got from a friend. Information is revealed, actions are taken. But a strange visitor catches someone off guard. What could that mean who could it be? Find out next time on MY LITTLE TACTICS Z!

Um Pinkie, where did the Z come from.

Pinkie Pie: "Shhh shh shh, its fine its fine."

Chapter Thirty Nine: Guns, Goblins, and Samurai.

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My Little Tactics

Chapter Thirty Nine: Guns, Goblins, and Samurai.

Paperwork: the bane of anyone’s existence everywhere. No matter what one does there never seems to be an escape from such a task. Here The Lord of The Everfree was, signing away at various documents so that his castle could function. Everything from yearly projected income, which was nothing save for charging a small fee for any kind of classes beyond beginner for Neutral techniques and magic, as the castle didn’t really trade all too much and it was mostly self sufficient a lot of the food was either gathered or farmed from the surrounding areas, especially the latter in recent days as some Earth Ponies had moved in and were now working with the Buffalo to produce various products. Dustan ran his fingers through his short hair, summer was here in proper form and force and he was glad for the hair cut he had gotten when he was home though he still got surprised looks now and then from those that had not seen how he looked currently which still made him chuckle now and again.

Standing up and moving away from the dreaded paper trail of existence, the sole human of Equestria smiled as for once he didn’t have anything on his mind to worry about. Going back and forth from his former home to here was steadily being worked upon to make it more viable, his inner council as well as the Mane Six and the Ruling sisters had been informed of his true world home rather than the fib he had been holding onto for so long, and the burden of leadership had gotten even lighter it feels without the weight of those issues pressing down on him. As such of course Dustan would frown as a sudden thought came to mind.

“Something is about to happen now that I have questioned things isn’t it?” The human couldn’t help but mumble to himself almost silently. A sudden knocking on his office door of course made him groan. “Fuck, I jinxed myself.” He barely heard himself say before calling out for whoever it was to come in.

Looking to see who it could possibly be, he found one of the newer recruits that had joined up with the Luminary Guard from the Buffalo. “Sir!” The female voice called out from under her blue armor as she saluted with her cloven hooves. “We have a situation in the square! We need you to come immediately!”

‘FUCK! I did jinx it. Fuck you universe!’ Giving whoever heard his thoughts a mental middle finger, Dustan grabbed his weapons and strapped them onto his belt, specially designed for his three weapons that were now worn over his casual tunic. Grabbing the newly made blue cloak that Rarity had made him and throwing it around his shoulders Dustan looked to the guard. “Alright, show me the problem.”

Once more did the Buffalo salute before moving quickly causing the human to pick up the pace slightly to keep up with her as his boots padded off the black Norite stone flooring. Proceeding from his office, one could see that no one was in the castle proper; well no one was staying at least, as many were rushing outside towards the commotion. As Dustan got down there, he could see a ring of his guards around something as he thought to push through the crowd to get to them only for his Buffalo escort to do that for him making a way. The closer and closer he got the more he could see bits of color and cloth that the ring was guarding.

A simple, ‘Oh.’ came from Dustan as he looked over what it was. There were two of them, a cat and one of his guards. The guard was down and groaning which was unusual as it was one of the rare dragon guards that were in his employ and it seemed he was currently injured. The Abyssinian on the other hand was sheathing his katana as his dark green and black hakama made very little noise. Said cat was pure black with green eyes shining through though they currently looked a bit bored.

“I had heard the guard of this place was better trained, and while it is true, I still find myself disappointed.” Dustan was about to interfere and call out the cat when said creature pulled out a first aid kit and tossed it to the dragon. “It is a shallow cut and will heal if properly tended to.” The dragon growled but took the offered kit and moved to the side. “Does anyone else wish to test me?”

Dustan started to move and the ear of the Abyssinian, which had a small cut in it though from long ago it looks like, flicked to him. “Hello there. I am the Lord of the Everfree, I wish to know what happened here seeing as I caught the tail end of that.” His eyes looked at the green of the shorter feline as he activated his ability finding that surprisingly he was high level, almost as high as Shining Armor, and his class was Ronin. ‘Well that explains his get up. Didn’t think they existed here.’

Looking over the Squire right away felt the cat sizing him up as if determining if it was even worth answering or not though judging by the smile on his face he came to a conclusion. “I am known as Chikara. I travel the lands in search of those that can challenge my strength. While traveling through the pony lands here I heard of your estate and how it boasted some strong warriors. I do say while your average guard is far and above a step ahead of the other pony guards, however they still didn’t pose to challenge me, which is a shame.”

“I am sorry to hear that, Shard here is a standard guard yes and does good work so I would appreciate if you don’t harm my people.” He was hoping that by saying the word ‘standard’ that it would both boost up the ego of Shard the dragon as being a standard meant he was something to be looked to achieved and for Chikara it would show there were more guards above Shard in skill.

He wasn’t sure if it worked or not but before the black cat could say anymore his stomach growled. “Haha, seems fighting him has worked up an appetite, a compliment indeed Shard. Most pony guards in the land could fight me all day and I wouldn’t work up said appetite. I don’t suppose you would happen to know of a place where one could stay as well as eat good Lord of The Everfree?”

Smiling at the question, Dustan did indeed know where he could stay as with all the new business to the castle an inn had been built. “Actually yeah. Follow me but first.” Looking over to Shard he would call out. “Cura.” Letting his guard be healed up most of the way with the quick chant, enough that he would still be sore and need to change his bandages but would hopefully not negate the lesson the dragon learned. “Now we can go.”

The crowd cleared and slowly went back to their daily routines as Chikara looked to the taller human. “I can tell you have seen battle with how you carry yourself. Is it your strength that has caused you to lead this gathering of difference species?”

“I would like to say no, though I won’t say it’s not part of the whole.” The Squire said as he kept walking, his boots tapping against the paved stones of the town. “I work to make sure people can be taught unique things, to have them better themselves, and have a place where race and species doesn’t matter.”

“Hmm I can respect that answer but only because I have already witnessed several species cooperating. If it had come from any being else in this land, I wouldn’t have agreed. The usages of dialogue amongst pony kind suggest an inherent racial barrier that most might not be aware of or if they are do not care.” Pointing his left towards a Griffon and a pony working together he smiled. “I have seen many here use the term anyone, no usage of anypony, anyfeather, anyclaw, or anything of the sort. It’s pretty remarkable and very rare to come across in these lands and many lands in fact.”

That fact slightly hurt to hear, knowing that those terms were so widely used in what was supposed to be a very friendly world. “It could be worse I suppose. Those terms might exist but as you said, most don’t realize they might be using it or even aware of how dividing it is.” Pointing to his clothing he had to ask. “Sorry to ask, but it’s been on my mind. Where are you from?”

“Originally, Abyssinia.” The cat told him as he stretched. “However I was not the most…noble of individuals and found myself on the run from the law. Several countries later I found myself in Neighpon owing a debt that was about to be collected with the removal of one of my paws. This old man Minotaur saved me and said he would pay for the debt. I almost ran but something about that act stopped me, I wanted to pay the old man back. Turns out he was an old world type that studied some kind of practice which I never really understood. However that didn’t matter as he soon taught me other things, specifically how to handle a blade and trained me up from there. While I can’t say I am better then who I used to be, I can say that he gave me a new outlook on life. On his deathbed he asked me to go on a journey, one that I would determine the end result of. For such a journey I was to leave my old name behind and take a new one, one that would relate to my goal. Thus I took the name Chikara, meaning Strength.”

Dustan honestly wanted to hear more about the Ronin but sadly the talk had caused the walk to go on faster then he thought as he found himself at the inn. “Lets pick this up again as I would love to hear more, some of your travels, what you have heard, but as I promised, here is the inn. If I recall they serve a pretty good roast.”

The cat had to wipe his mouth as he smiled. “I can’t tell you how good that sounds considering the ponies never want to serve meat. I will tell you another story sometime later as thanks for this, until then I will go get lunch now.”

Nodding to him, Dustan turned and started to head back when a thought occurred. ‘Shit, I should have examined his sword. Time for that later I suppose.’

A few hours would come and go, and while it was getting closer and closer to dinner time, as was getting obvious by the smells in the air, it seems that it wasn’t what was on the minds of a few individuals at the moment. There was a small crowd forming at the arrow range along with a few individuals. Steel was there, his hulking aged form standing near Tremor, and Merlene with a few of the guards. The most notable of the figures though were Dustan himself along with the Forge Master of the castle as well as his apprentice.

“You sure you don’t need it anymore Burly?” The Lord said before taking the offered item.

The stallion chuckled and shook his head. “No sonny, I don’ need it anymore. We have mapped this fierce beauty up and down, back to front, and every which way in between. I have one replica already made and am working on the next. My apprentice fashioned the ammo you needed though, he is good with that sorta thing.”

Looking at the young colt, he could have only been around sixteen, maybe seventeen but if Burly Bellows, smithy extraordinaire, gave the seal of approval then it was good enough for him. “Alrighty then. Let me show you all a bit about human engineering.” Opening the box, inside was the large single shot pistol that he obtained from Durin during his little venture in his world as well as about a dozen bullets. Checking the item with his Tactical Eye proved it to be functional as well as the ammunition to be viable. Dustan popped the gun’s chamber free and loaded in a shot before flicking it closed with an audible click. “Test fire number one!” He called out loudly before aiming with just his left hand as he didn’t trust his right to be of help with this. The man slowly squeezed the trigger with a bit of a smile as he hoped this worked but couldn’t wait to show off what humans could do without magic.

A loud bang echoed through the range as many ears folded back in surprise as Tremor and Steel almost looked surprised as they leaned in from the seats they had brought. The round punctured through the straw dummy and against the back wall with a ping noise as it buried itself in the wall.

“Clearing chamber!” Dustan called out, popping the gun open once more before pulling out the shell. “Setting up test fire number two.” With that he sank another round into the gun and clicked it closed once more before aiming now towards an armored target. “Test fire number two!” Another loud pop echoed through the air as this result got the attention of both Steel and Tremor who were now moving closer to Dustan.

“Sweet Celestia! It perforated that armor!” One of the guards called out only making Dustan question who used that word in conversation like that. However it was true, the second dummy had been set up in unenchanted armor equal to that of the royal guard and it had chewed right through it. Then again the royal guard used gold with a ton of enchantments but gold in of itself was not known for its defensive capabilities.

“Clearing the chamber.” Dustan called out as he repeated the same process only this time looking at a fully enchanted piece of royal guard armor. “Test fire number three!”

The pop this time came with the tell tale sound of a ricochet but a flash of a barrier set up beforehand by one of the guards flashed showing that it had stopped the bullet, though not without the guard in question yelping from the force. The bullet had not gotten through the armor though it did indent it quite heavily. As Dustan cleared the chamber for this round and reloaded it he could feel the two tallest residents of the castle now watching him closely.

“Your people, is this a common weapon for them and your military?” Steel asked frowning slightly at the type of damage it had done. The human’s answering laugh didn’t make him frown any less either.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to laugh. This weapon is trumped by a weapon that can do this but with thirteen shots without needing to reload, plus there are weapons of better calibers then this that can do more damage for civilians. The military...well let’s just say that they have much better weapons.” He told them as he set the weapon down on the stand and focused on what was to come. “Setting up Special test fire, please give room.”

The aged Dragon and Minotaur both stepped back as did many as Dustan slowly moved within the barrier that had been set up just in case what was about to happen backfired. Many were watching with bated breath and no doubt the unicorns could feel their hackles rising a bit as Dustan started to summon a bit of his magical power. Whatever he was going to do, well it was going to be different for sure. Taking up the gun now as he loaded it Dustan focused and chanted.

“Strip away the ground with glistening blades! Thunder Blade!” Focusing it on the gun he would fire. The resulting pop was not so much of a repeat of said sound so much as a loud crack as the force caused the gun to recoil and push Dustan’s arm back unexpectedly. The bullet fired from the gun hit the enchanted royal guard armor and then promptly detonated in explosive electricity. “Holy shit!” There was nothing left of the stand and it was only by some happenstance that none of the fragments of the destroyed armor had come to hit Dustan but the shield spell behind him had registered quite a few hits from shrapnel.

“That...might need to be classified as a forbidden weapon Lord Warner.” Steel Brilliance, former General of Minos told him, wiping his forehead some with a shaking hand.

“Agreed. Then again it felt like it took as much power as one of your spells normally and it's still draining you for a minor amount.” Tremor noticed surprisingly.

“Seems like it, normally I would use this spell for my melee weapons coating them in the element for a small drain but that took up the full power. Weird. Anyways, clearing the chamber!” The shell casing for the bullet was smoking and hot to the touch when it was pulled out.
As he did so, the sound of feet padding the ground was heard and the jostling of a sword as the samurai cat from yesterday showed back up. “I was coming to have a conversation with you today when I heard a loud boom, is everything ok?”

“Yeah, I was doing a test fire for this gun, a type of weapon. Then I got the bright idea of mixing a bit of magic with it.” He points to the remains of the dummy and armor. “It...umm…works.” He chuckled, still surprised at the result. “It definitely works.” Muttered the lord of the Everfree as the gun was stowed back into its case. “Going to have to get a holster made for this.”
Taking a look at the remains that had busted apart, Chikara looked surprised. “I was going to test you today to see if you wished to have a match between us, but honestly I am not sure if I want to if a weapon of yours can do this much damage to…is this enchanted armor?” Giving a nod to the ronin feline he stood up with a frown. “Hmmm. I might have to rethink a strategy if I want to fight you with this then.”

Dustan gave a nod and mumbled, “Makes me kinda scared to see what would happen if I used the Thundaga version, if I even knew the Blade version of that.” While he knew the spell of the same name the Spell Sword ability of said name wasn’t one he knew at the moment and he was rather glad he decided to just go as low tier as possible. “Like having a fucking RPG in my hand.” Was another muttered statement that Dustan made before looking towards Chikara. “You were wanting to fight me though?”

“It was a thought, I had fought your guard if you remember.” The Abyssinian said casually examining a shard of the enchanted armor he had found. “I got my stomach full, I had a small nap to feel rested and was hoping to catch you in an amiable mood to work up a hunger with a match. However now I have to rethink my strategy.”

Dustan was about to tell cat that he wouldn’t use it if that made him feel better as honestly the thought of stretching he legs with a good match sounded nice but sadly it wasn’t to be as Fading Dawn appeared and looked to have ran the entire way there from wherever she had been before. “My Lord! A giant alpha Timberwolf has been spotted in quadrant three, we request your assistance!”

“An alpha? Why would it already be in its giant form? Did something irritate it or make it desperate?” The deer answered that with a look of someone who was as clueless as he was as he sighed. “I will go take care of it. Boko!” The white Chocobo quickly surprised him by moving her neck under him and tossing him onto her back. “So you heard. Alright then, lets ride!”

“KWEH!” The mount called loudly before taking off with a follower trailing behind them in the sky’s as Merlene followed, as well as another.

The shadow moving quickly behind the Chocobo and flier turned out to be Chikara himself wanting to see the riled up wolf himself but mostly on the promise that he might get to view the Lord of The Everfree in action instead of just hear tales of what he could do. While he was nowhere near as fast as the mount that carried said lord he didn’t find himself lagging as far behind as some might. True he had clearly gotten to the fight late, but nothing serious had been done it seems. In a clearing was the giant alpha, raging with bloodlust rolling off it as clear as a cloud in the sky. The sight of a creature like that got his blood pumping as he knew he could kill it with much time and effort as he had no sort of fire ability on him, but that just made it all the sweeter.

Facing down the wolf of lumber was The Lord himself, a curved weapon drawn as it occasionally cracked with lightning. Behind him was the white bird mount of his, flapping its wings over a pony in lighter armor and occasionally having a magical light come from said bird over to the wounded equine. Said wounds looked to be moderate for sure and would likely need to be looked at, but that couldn’t happen at the moment.

The giant wolf roared loudly right in the face of the lord himself, spittle and mucus coming from the creature as the human stood there and simply said. “You need to back the fuck up before something bad happens to you.”

Chikara was excited as he heard that, to not flinch from the bloodlust and the creature’s intimidation tactic and in fact not seemed to be phased by it at all. He had hoped it wasn’t an act and the human truly felt like that and wasn’t putting on a brave act. For sure none of his guard could singularly take out the wolf, least by judging by the ‘standard’ that he himself considered. When the wolf seemed to back off a bit the man put away his weapon but reached into his pack instead pulling out a case the same one he had witnessed him put up before as he pulled out something about the size of his forearm again and opened it up, inserting an tapered object into it and clicking it back.

Taking the stance change as a sign of him backing down though the wolf tried to assert its dominance again with another roar this time as close to the human as possible. “Well, too late now!” The Abyssinian heard the call over the roar as well as something else however right after that was a loud bang and Chikara watched as a flash of flame was shot down the mouth and neck of the wolf before there were suddenly chunks of timber and vegetation everywhere that constituted as the wolf’s body and insides.

Turning back to the Lord himself he seemed to be rubbing his arm and the light of magic covered. “Note to self, the recoil on this thing is a bitch at higher strengths.” Putting the weapon away and the case back into his pack he looked over to his mount. “Merlene, fly back ahead of us and notify the medics that we have a wounded mare incoming.” Chikara had honestly forgotten about the flier as his eyes flicked upwards and caught her saluting before flying off. Speaking of heading back, Chikara himself had to reconsider a lot of things as he too started to head back.

Once at the castle the noble showed his nature by calling for a medic, while Boko and himself could heal, it didn't hurt to make absolutely sure he was ok. He also made sure that someone was sent to inform the medics beforehand but still caution and all that. Informing the medic that here wounds were treated but to run a scan anyways, Dustan transferred the unconscious mare onto the stretcher and handed here over to his staff.

‘Still weird to think this is all MY staff.’ The Displaced Squire really still had trouble coming to terms with the fact that he was a noble sometimes and that all of these people trusted him. ‘Question is SHOULD I increase patrols? Hmmm, best send out an extra one every other day just to be sure. What were the wolves even doing in that part of the woods anyways?’ Then again considering how far away it was Dustan mused that maybe the repelling herbs were weak over there and went to consult his map.

After reaching the room where it lay, he opened the door and went straight towards the map. Looking to where the castle was and to where he had found the alpha wolf it was clear, that area should have been guarded so it begged the question once more of ‘What were the wolves even doing in that part of the woods anyways?’ He would have to consult with Zecora later to have her double check to see if the herbs were still there or if the creatures of the Everfree were developing a resistance to them. No matter the answer though it was bad. If it was the latter, it would mean that he and his teams might have to go on a hunt to wipe out native species to make sure that they were safe, or at least thin the numbers greatly. If it was the former, it means either there was a species in the woods smart enough to recognize what the herbs did and remove them or it was sabotage.

‘Seriously, why can’t things be simple and calm around here?’ Stretching after being hunched over the map for a while Dustan frowned when he realized something. Frantic knocking at his door interrupted his thought process; honestly Dustan was a bit glad for the interruption as it meant he didn’t have to look at bleak possibilities like he was a moment ago. Giving the signal to come in the Squire made sure to take note of a few things before putting the map away and sitting down.

“Where is she?” A mare asked, coming into the room like a whirlwind. She seemed to pay little mind that she was still breathing heavily, sweat covering her body.

Dustan already knew what she was talking about. “Before you go rushing in, she is fine, though we are having some doctors look at her. She is still unconscious though. Seems she had a run in with an alpha Timberwolf in the area. As for where she is, in the medical bay getting looked over. If you want I will take you there.”

A sigh escaped the young mare. “Thank you,” she replied, looking up at him. “That would be appreciated.”

Standing up and putting his cloak back on, he would sigh and hope his suspicions about the wolves were wrong. “Alright, follow me.” The walk from the office to the Med bay wasn’t that far. It was just outside the castle proper as when asked where to put it originally that is where he chose; to show that caring for the people was top priority. After all the closer something is to the power of the land the more important it is right?

The mare followed along quietly, stumbling and wincing every now and again from a smell or two that caught her nose. No doubt her silence was leading her mind to wander, going from one scenario to another, each one worse than the last as Dustan watched emotions play across her face. He had no clue what this mare was to his scout but it was obviously someone important.

As they entered an attendant met with the two and bowed. “My Lord. The patient is still unconscious but the good news is there seems to be no injury.”

“Good. Do you mind leading us to her room? I am sure her companion will take great comfort seeing that she is ok.” The pony would nod and lead them to the room. “Sorry, I couldn’t introduce you in a better fashion but I have no clue to your relationship with the injured.” The mare didn’t seem to hear him and instead seemed to be in a world of her own. The makeshift hospital was one that clearly took inspiration from various other hospitals as it was the only building he knew of that made sure to make its interior white with colored lines to show anyone where to go. The scout’s room was not the biggest, but it was a single room so it was just the mare inside, still unconscious and with her gear nearby packed up. “Do you know if she has a spare set of clothing or anything she will need?”

Instead of answering, the mare he was accompanying burst into tears at seeing the other on the bed and ran over crying and started to kiss the other all over trying to comfort them, though that did answer the question of what was the mare to her.Relaxing now that he knew what was going on but feeling a bit like a third wheel, he would look at her rubbing the back of his head. “Guess that means you don’t need me. Well if she wakes up let a doctor know so they can let a guard know to let me know...that is a lot of people that have to know. How do I shorten that list up?” Dustan mumbled to himself as he walked out.

The clack of wooden swords, the scuffling of boots on the ground, the hard breathing of one who would find themselves being countered at many opportunities; all of this and more could be heard as Dustan smiled towards Scootaloo as she kept moving slowly around the other in a circle, many of the castle guard and the other Cutie Mark Crusaders watching on. The Lord of the Everfree had one hand behind his back, his right hand and thus his disabled hand so that he couldn’t block, as he was trying to teach something to Scoot. This would make his right side considerably weaker but he kept his right angled away from the pegasus.

“Come on Scootaloo, I know you have more in you, don’t be afraid to hurt me with a wooden sword. Best you can do is knock me out flat and someone will heal me.” Dustan was using a wooden longsword for this training, a typical type of weapon one would go against. Not the best of reach but not the worst.

Scootaloo, however, had asked for a heavier styled blade like of a broadsword, as it was more what she considered what she should use as a Knight. Yes that was right, seems like Mage Apple Bloom, Scootaloo had succeeded in changing classes from Squire to Knight, a frightening thought for sure as it meant more things the Pegasus could break, but what could you do? Thus, she was panting as she kept her blade held in front of herself with both hooves on it as she stood on her hind legs. “Celestia...How do you fight like this?” With that, she dashed forward, making to strike Dustan’s neck...only to reverse halfway through the swing and swing upward. Right between the legs, she had been told to use any tactic on him to land a hit and she knew stallions were weak if struck there.

To anyone in the crowd it would look like Dustan would move and just be not where the sword was trying to hit, but it was possible Scootaloo might be able to see that in the moment that he flicked his swords direction around the Squire’s eyes widened, having been taken off guard by the movement and put some of his real speed into the action and moved out of the way. A close call for sure but one that required Dustan to move fully.

Smiling at the filly, Dustan would put his wooden sword over his shoulder. “Not going to lie, that was good. Took me off guard for sure and anyone slower than me likely would have been finding themselves crying out in an octave higher.”

Scootaloo chuckled, rubbing the back of her neck. “Guess that was a bit of a dirty move.”

“No such thing in a real fight. In a real fight it could mean the difference between life and death if you play by what is widely considered fair play. Use sand to the eyes, poke their eyes, blind them, do what you need to live. Because in the end, it is your life that will end if you lose in a real battle.” Dustan could see Rainbow Dash off to the side frowning slightly as she didn’t like the thought of her pseudo sister dying like that, nor did he have the heart to tell her that she had already once.

“I will have to try to remember that.” The small winged Pegasus said as her legs shook for a moment and she had to drop her sword before landing on all fours once more.

Dustan grin comes back and out of his own thoughts as he saw that and tells her honestly, “That might be hard. You are level ten, Though not sure if that means much to you or to anyone else. I have no doubt that you will be able to do that. It’s been a while since I have been able to speak like that and I doubt even those that know me will have completely understood what I just said.”

“Indeed my Lord.” Merlene called from her spot, watching. “You have mentioned levels and such to me before as a rating for raw skill and potential but it honestly never made sense to me.” The falcon patterned griffon would then nod seemingly at random. “Though I will agree with you in that if someone not as quick as you had been there they would have gotten quite the rude awakening with that last attack.”

Giving her a smile, Dustan just took the sword from his shoulder. “See Scoots, don’t look at this as trying to hit me but improving your skills. So far you have been doing that, catching me off guard shows that, but I am also working one handed here. Normal opponents won’t be like that. For those with more skill than you, you have to think, be creative, and sometimes improvise. Boy have I ever done a lot of that haha!”

Scootaloo rolled her eyes and flapped her wings. “Geez, no need to go full basics on me, Rainbow Dash already does that a lot when we spare.” She said with an easy smile, though that did explain why her level was higher then Sweetie Belle’s six or Apple Bloom’s own with her nine. “I know the basics of combat, silly, just now with standing like this for a long time or holding a sword like that.” She would rub her hoof with the other and massage the frog a bit as she did so.

“Still it was a good run. Think about how to use your weapon a bit more in relation to others.” Walking up to her, Dustan gave her a pat on the head. “Anyways, let’s take a break. Besides, I think I have to go teach a class soon.” Worry shot over his face as he mumbled out. “Apple Bloom can cast Fire now. That isn’t worrying at all.”

"Don’t you have wards or something to keep the spells in the classroom safe?" Rainbow Dash asked as she walked up. “Also gratz squirt.” That made the purple maned pegasus blush and chuckle at the praise.

“We do, Twilight saw to that when the classes first started becoming more advanced after the Exhibition match but it’s not relied on much as only one person other than me could cast spells. Now more and more are going to be coming out as Apple Bloom was one of the first class of students as well. The only reason she didn’t go for it was because she was focused on the Chemist Job.” It was clear though with the smile on his face that Dustan did enjoy teaching people his type of magic as he thought about others starting to cast Cure and Thunder. “Anyways, I have to go teach Magic Studies now, have a good day you two.”

“Oh, I want to learn some things!” The voice of course came from the resident magister and purple pony of magic herself.

The resident human of this world just looked at her then to the crowd. “I just scanned around in the crowd and didn’t see you there. Do the words ‘Magic Studies’ summon you?”

For her part the unicorn blushed and then chuckled. “Come on, please!”

“Fine, but only if the other students in the magic class agree.” Dustan took a towel offered by Merlene. While the fight wasn’t hard, it was Summer and working up a sweat was getting easier and easier.

Rolling her eyes Rainbow Dash grinned. “Alright, see you two later. Don’t forget Twi about that thing we talked about.” She said, gesturing to the unicorn.

The Lord of the castle would wave to the both of them as they left, as well as a couple of other individuals to follow from the crowd before getting to a rather moderate two story building. There had been an official building made for the classes instead of always having them in the lobby of the castle. It had several rooms inside with desks and chairs like one would expect of a school as well as a chemistry lab, but a large area in the back with various practice dummies would throw anyone off of thinking it was a school normally. The place they were heading towards was one of the normal classrooms on the first floor with a plate that read ‘Magic Studies’.

As the blue cloaked man entered many were already in their seats, or talking to one another next to them. “Afternoon class.” To which the class quickly got up and bowed, a practice he wasn’t sure how it got started, before they all replied with ‘Good Afternoon Teacher’. “Today’s class is going to be a slight bit different. I have with me a guest who wishes to learn and take notes. She will hopefully be quiet if she does so and not ask questions as it will disturb the flow of class. You all don’t mind if she listens in do you?” The class all knew who Twilight was and it seemed none had a problem with it.

For a good half of the classes Dustan went about explaining various feelings in how they relate to how he casts magic as well as asking others who can do the same to explain their thoughts. Seems while the trigger was all around the same, a burst of emotion causing the first bit of spell usage from there, emotions and such had nothing to do with it for the others they relayed how the spell forms are in their minds and they use that. It was an interesting bit of information that had Twilight scribbling notes upon notes as Technically Dustan knew the spell forms as well, but never actually used them, he casted from feeling he told them.

Waving to the students they would all go outside to the firing range for the next part of the class, the same one that Dustan had used the day of the alpha wolf attack. “This area is specifically designed to withstand low grade magicks and shrapnel though it can be reinforced by outside magic users to enhance the effectiveness. So far we have three students who can use magic effectively but I still want others to try, if nothing else then to try to feel their mana. Like always, I will demonstrate first with my own magic since it is stronger and can more easily be felt so many of you can in turn get a feel for a similar energy which is inside you.” Pulling up a bit of his power Dustan continued his lecture. “Since we have some here who are new here I will repeat this next part again even if my students have heard this before. There are three basic magics for Black Mage and three for White Mage. The first is Fire, Blizzard, and Thunder for Black Magic and Cure, Protect, and Shell for White Magic. Chanting with those spells helps focus and thus increases the power behind them,” Calling out the name of the basic Fire spell without the chant, Dustan filled up his palm with the fire before throwing it at a dummy. “Mystic, you are up first as the Senior magic user of this class.”

The speckled yellow and black earth pony would move up and put on his now signature Black Mage hat. “Destruction of nature, gather in flame! Fire!” Holding out a hoof towards the dummy instead of throwing a fireball at it, the target just seemed to combust for a moment with lingering patches of fire that steamed before being smothered by safety spells.

“Very good. Apple Bloom, it’s your turn.” Dustan was worried, even if he had seen Bloom do this a few times already a part of him feared the curse of the CMC and hoped it wouldn’t ever show up at the wrong time.

Apple Bloom had taken to her role as a mage pretty seriously as her bow in her hair had shown, now sporting both a black outer lining on the bow then a white one showing she wanted to be both types of mages. “Strip away the ground with glistenin’ blades! Thunder!” Even with her accent it didn’t matter on the wording so much as the focus the wording gave as shown when a bolt of lightning struck the target from the sky. “HAHA take that!”

“Good job, next up.” The Squire smiled at the familiar brown coat with spots reminiscent of a deer as Still Eden came forward next.

Eden didn’t want to harm anything so even though she said she had the ability to be a Black Mage, she never used it, instead looking to the target and calling out her spell. “Precious light, be our armor and protect us! Protect!” Four blue-green diamonds formed around the dummy before they would vanish and a larger blue one appeared around the target before collapsing.

Nodding proudly Dustan looked to the rest. “Everyone take up a dummy down the range and continue practice for as long as you can. After a bit there shall be a half hour of meditation to try to pull out your mana and use it like you have seen these three. Don’t be in a rush let it flow and come to you. Same with casting at the dummies here.” Pulling out a simple hourglass Dustan made sure to set it down with a nice thunk.

Twilight simply smiled, and, to the surprise of some, sat down herself, closing her eyes as she too tried to meditate. However, a few minutes into the meditation, she seemed to frown and get frustrated. He should have known she would try and likely was trying too hard to get it to flow which is what he had just warned about, but oh well. Hopefully she would come to understand in time.

Sitting down against a wall Dustan didn’t take up a formal sitting stance instead relaxing and getting comfortable so that he could feel things better within his body. He could feel the tranquil feeling slowly encompass him and knew that if he opened his eyes he would be able to see the classroom. Problem was seeing still wasn’t touching and he could not for the life of him figure out what he was missing. Opening his eyes, he did indeed see the checker boarded ground overlaid with the dark Norite of the castle and could see the armor stands mixed in with his students. It didn’t matter, whatever he was missing was still eluding him and thus progress with any new spells. His last new spell was Dispel Magic, and he had obtained that long ago now so he was sure he had plenty of points to spend. He wondered if he had mastered any more jobs or unlocked any new classes yet as he knew the new armor stands would not show up until he was fully immersed in the classroom once more.

Dustan would even pull up a menu or two even though he knew he couldn’t touch and looked over things. There were still the few unknown skills he had last observed but knew the menus wouldn’t update at all. ‘What is that glowing skill that kept changing letters in Squire?’ His musings were brought to a close though as one of his students managed to cast a small Blizzard spell prompting him to get up and congratulate the little filly. It was one of the fillies from Bloom’s class which he didn’t recognize, then again the class was a bit bigger than in the show that he could remember.

“Lord Warner! I have a report.” The deer of the castle scouts, Fading Dawn, said as she bounded over to him as her multicolored coat that went from black at the front to purple at the end came into view with her green fetlocks easily the color of grass to help her to blend in. “We may have discovered the source of the herbal pots and plants being misplaced and uprooted.”

That got his attention fully however especially when he heard what it was that had been doing so and it made him frown. “Tell Merlene to get together a flight team, then to inform Side Winder to get together two teams of his own. We will have to stop them before they try what they did before.” With that Dustan dismissed the doe as he looked towards the class. “Class dismissed.”

As Dustan was heading to get ready he encountered the Abyssinian ronin once again. “Seems like something is happening. I see guards shuffling around quickly and gearing up. Is something the matter?”

“We have a bit of an infestation going on in the area where our scout was attacked. That shouldn't have happened normally, least by a pack big enough to form an Alpha Timberwolf like that. The herbs that normally keep the more dangerous creatures away were moved and uprooted from the area. I sent some teams into the area to scout it out and they reported that they have supposedly found the source and I am inclined to believe them. So our job is to go there and exterminate them. We are not sure about how many there are but that is why I am organizing a few teams.” Dustan said though his demeanor was more rigid than normal and his face a bit more guarded.

“Sounds like a fight is brewing. Count me in.” The Cat smiled with his teeth gleaming.

Dustan nods and waves for him to follow. “I can’t promise to equip you too well, mostly cause what armor made here is made for other species as you are the first Abyssinian we have seen.” Dustan himself went up to his room to gather some of his supplies, things he might need as well as things he thought might be useful and stuffed them into various pouches or in a few select potion holsters.

“I am fine, I have my katana and that is all I need. Well that and the clothes on my back.” He chuckled at the human as he was asked.

“With that, I would suggest grabbing a snack as we are likely to march as soon as we gather so grab a snack and head to the gate after.” The human told the smaller biped.

Chikara rubbed the back of his neck. “Uhh, sorry? Don’t really know your place that well. Can’t recall where the heck the kitchens are to even go about grabbing a snack.”

Dustan face palmed at that and nodded. “Right right, sorry about that. I am used to people knowing the layout around here too much I suppose.” The brown haired man waved to him to follow as he escorted them to the main dining hall. “The kitchen isn’t too far from here.” In fact there was a space cut out of the wall where one could see the Chef’s working as well as smell the food being cooked there at times. Though at the moment there wasn’t much going on. “Go ahead and ask them for something and tell them I told you to put it on my tab. I will sort it out later. I have some jerky already on me so I can snack along the way or while waiting for everyone. The gate we are to meet at is straight forward after leaving the castle.”

Chikara nodded. “Thanks.” He said, walking over to a chef. The chef took the cat’s order and quickly started to hand him a few things

Dustan for his part would wait for him since it was just snacks that Chikara was grabbing all the while munching on some jerky of his own. It would only take about a few minutes for him to finish, and a few more for them to head back to the castle gate where several full squads had been rounded up, Side Winder and Merlene present and armed quite readily for what is to come. All of the Luminary Guard saluted the one who commanded them as he came to stand in front of them.

Taking a deep breath, the Squire would look to each and everyone. “Not too long ago, we found that something or someone had been messing with the herbal plants we have been planting around the Everfree, the same ones that help keep the more dangerous creatures from crossing paths with visitors. Because of that one of our scouts was harmed from a large pack of Timberwolves that had transformed into an Alpha. True while sometimes creatures still come into our territory, it's not in any kind of numbers that could form the large Timber like what attacked the mare. So I sent Fading Dawn out to explore and investigate the surroundings for clues. What she found was evidence of creatures that had been in the forest before, but were thought to be utterly annihilated: Goblins.”

A few guards sucked in their breath and Merlene looked rather upset to hear about that. All of them had heard about the Goblins at this point, Dustan’s Lordship being partially tied to it and thus common knowledge especially with the tale of Logistics Trail’s utter lack of Equinity. All of the guard stood at attention, eager and ready to hear the plans of the one they served.

“Some of you may or may not know that we had a huge problem in the Everfree sometime ago with Goblins. They are rather mean, sadistic, and have killed inhabitants before. I learned later that the tunnels they were using were not their own but ones that they seized from Diamond Dogs that they later enslaved and consumed at the same time.” Dustan looked rather angry at this and did a motion similar to Chikara slamming his right fist into his left palm. “So our job is simple. Eradication. We are going to find them and wipe them out of the forest for good.”

The guards all gave a nod and some gave a cheer wanting such a blight gone from their home. For normal guards they might have been nervous, but the Luminary Guards assembled here at this time were all veterans of the first batch or two and all had been active patrollers of the forest and thus had gotten into plenty of scraps. Many were looking eager to remove them, some focused, only a rare few looked angry, likely for personal reasons or a sense of righteousness.

“The plan is simple. Merlene and her team are going to go up into the sky to be overwatch, she will send out dispatches of her own forces to cut off any that try to retreat.” The human said pointing to the Griffon first then to Side Winder. “Your team is going to hit the flanks and pressure them while Fading Dawn is to take some forces and apply them to their backside to make them think there is a heavy force there waiting for them, as well as to pick them off with crossbow bolts.” He told the unicorn and deer as they both nodded. “I am going to be frontline, they will know me and thus either wish for revenge or be cautious of me from last time considering what I did to their forces while I was down there. Our goal: Box them in and grind them up.”

The Ronin among them spoke up though at this. “I hope you don’t intend me to be part of those groups as I have no previous training working with them.”

“I figured.” Dustan said, stretching a bit. “It’s why I intended for you to group with me. You will mostly be my backup if I need it or to help relay orders if there is a change of plans. From what I’ve seen when you took down Shard you are better trained then my standard guard. Honestly I had no intention of putting you directly into the fight unless needed. There are a couple of reasons for that one being I honestly haven’t worked with you before so I am not sure where else to send you and Two: you just showed up, but from what you have told me so far, you would likely go there to fight anyways won’t you?” That got the cat to grin and nod making the human sigh. “Yeah that is what I thought, so I rather have you where I can see you and possibly get you to help out.” Dustan nods to him as he looks over the plan once more before adding. “As I said, at best you are my backup if something goes wrong with me. I intend to go in there and scare them, hopefully make them run so that the teams can pick them off from all sides while they are disorganized. If they want revenge it means they will be solely fixated on me allowing the other teams to come in and hit them while they are unaware as well. Either way you are basically my backup plan if things go pear shaped.”

“I think that just about covers everything for my plan. Anyone see any faults or issues?” Asked the Lord as he looked around, it seemed no one really had a problem, except Merlene.

“Excuse me My Lord,” The Griffon said as she looked over all who were there. “Say they want revenge, the one chosen for your party you have wished to remain more as support, if that is the case then you will be virtually on your own. Shouldn’t you have more for your party?”

“Maybe, but I am not sure how good Goblin scouts are.” He told her honestly as he looked around. “Nor how sharp their senses are. If they smell more than just the two of us they might scatter and we might lose them. I rather them attack me head on as one force, or try to leave all as one force and only attempt to scatter when things for all of their group look dire, but at that point it will be too late.”

“I have fought my fair share of creatures lately as I have made my way across the lands. He will be fairly safe with me unless these creatures are each on part with an Alpha, then we wont have to worry.” The ronin said confidently as he crossed his arms.

“Then it will be your job to make sure I don’t get in over my head Chikara, thank you.” Looking over towards all gathered he pointed to the Everfree. “Alright, if that is it, lets march!”

The forest was calm, deceptively so compared to the atmosphere around the castle. Birds seemed to be scarce and noises from them were even rarer than that. The background smell of the forest had changed, becoming more wild as a certain scent seemed to have lessened from the air, likely that of the herb used. The groups had separated meaning that Dustan and Chikara were alone though the first of the group barely said anything except to point out signs of movement or as a rustling came from a bush before discovering it was merely a pheasant. The Lord of the Everfree was clearly losing himself in his thoughts at times, his face occasionally growing darker than before and though it always lightened back up, the times it kept shifting were becoming more frequent. As signs of others movements became more noticeable even to the naked eye, the bones of animals, old small extinguished camp or cooking fires and ashes were seen, signs of gathering wood and stone, and more came up.

The problem that came up most of all was one simple fact that Dustan couldn’t help but mention. “I keep seeing hoof prints, but they don’t really look like ponies tracks at all.” The spacing was a bit too far out as he pointed, and the shape wasn’t right. “Did they find some kind of...pack animal? If so what kind? Or maybe it’s a tracker for the plants as the hoof prints only show up around where the plants were. This shit doesn’t make any sense.”

Chikara frowned as he crouched down, observing the tracks for himself and mentioned one fact. “I don’t recognize these types of prints, they are similar to some I have seen before, but if they are then they almost look malnourished for that species if so, which doesn’t make sense as they are omnivores and the Everfree should be plentiful for them so I don’t think its them. I honestly have no clue either. All I can say for sure is that the tracks are light, which means either the creature itself is light, or its trying to hide its tracks. Of course if its an animal, it might just mean its owners are the one trying to hide its tracks, but why its tracks and not their own?”

“Hmm strange.” The Squire tapped the ground a few times himself before standing up. “Any sign of how close the goblins are and whatever this thing is?”

Crouching down again, Chikara inspecting the camp. “Animal bones, lots of broken branches, twigs, and cut down bushes and shrubs…” He looked towards one direction, then around them. “These are pretty dense woods, too, but over there.” He pointed northeast. “It’s lightening up. Likely a clearing.” Chikara frowned as he saw that. “My only question is where the water is. Everything flesh and blood needs water to live, so why aren’t there any sounds of water nearby, or discarded makeshift canteens?” He looked to Dustan. “I’m starting to wonder if these things came out of somewhere much closer, eliminating the need for a long trek’s basic essentials such as water canteens.”

Pulling a map from his pack the brown haired human took a moment to get his bearings. “From what it looks like, there should be a river about thirty to forty minutes from here. Maybe an hour.” Dustan told his companion as he double checked to make sure he had the right place. “Though you look like you would be right about the clearing, should be one maybe fifteen minutes from here. If I was a betting man and your analysis is right, I would guess the Goblins are camping in the clearing.”

“So what’s our plan?” The ronin asked, his paw coming to rest on the hilt of his blade. “Guerilla tactics, or dive bomb?”

“Scouting.” Dustan told him simply. “We start sneaking, get a read on how many there are, then decide. Going into a force whose numbers we don’t know tends to be...a bad plan most of the time.” The displaced lord said as his stance seemed to shift becoming lighter on his feet after he spoke.

The trail, just like predicted, became cleaner, more clear as the woods and trees grew thinner. Bones were more commonly seen, old cooking fires, tracks some even being fresh. It was around that point that the Lord among them started to crouch down and started to move slower, watching his step, trying to miss errant branches and bones to avoid making any noises. He also refrained from talking and instead tried his best to make hand motions to alert his companion about where they were stepping. Coming to a bush a little before the clearing proper Dustan quickly ducked his head back down as he spotted them.

Chikara glanced through the bush’s leaves, managing to make out some of the numbers. When he did, he turned to the Lord holding out all ten of his digits once, then three of his claws, then a wobble of his paw, as if to say, ‘give or take’.

Dustan reached into the ground to upturn some dirt and wrote on it as he looked them over. ‘Most of them around level five. I see a handful that are stronger but the common levels are between five and ten. The strongest is around thirty though but they are by far the only one there with that level, the next highest is barely twenty. Honestly this shouldn’t be that much of a problem.’ For a moment it looked like the host of the castle wanted to say more but seemed to look at the goblins for a moment longer. ‘Honestly I could do this myself but best not take chances. If they look like they are going to attack, back me up.’

The Goblins themselves looked like a ragtag bunch, most of their forces wearing little more than rags with only a few wearing proper Goblin attire. The high level one had the black attire of the Black Goblin but most of the others looked like they belonged in the red capped regular Goblin class if that. Some were sitting around a camp fire eating or cooking some kind of meat from an animal, whose carcass sat nearby but was too mangled to actually tell what it was. A boar maybe? Others were laughing at a joke in their own language while others were sleeping. Clearly the camp was disorganized and barely had a semblance of intelligent thought put into it.

‘You ready?’ Dustan wrote in the dirt asking his question.

Chikara wrote back with a grin. ‘Just give the word and I will come in with katana brandishing.’

Breathing in deeply, Dustan stood up and strode forward towards the camp. Dustan’s cloak billowed out behind him, his short brown hair clear as he kept his hood down and he drew his sword causing the blood red blade to ring out in the air as if it was its cry for what was about to happen. At first the Goblins didn’t even see him and it wasn’t until he was about ten feet away at that point when one of the Goblins at the fire spots him, dropping their leg of...whatever it is that they were eating and drew a dagger. Its cry of alarm signaled others who stood up, most of which were unarmed except for their hands. The Black Goblin however had a short sword, looking to be made of gold.

Breathing out the Lord of the Everfree spoke clearly, calmly, and more than a tad chilling. “You have three choices. Face me and die. Run and Die. Or you surrender now and you will have a chance to speak up for the crimes you have committed during the slave tunnel incident.”

The Black Goblin seemed to be struggling with his words before in of itself spoke in a harsh guttural butchering of the language. “We eat, you die. We ate you, we ate all.” At that point it thrust its short sword forward as if commanding troops, though it took a second for all the other Goblins to even understand what it was he asked before the leader spoke again. “ATTACK!”

With that they started to move, though the human speaking to them simply smiled a type of smile that caused a shiver to go through the observing ronin. “Not going to lie. I was hoping that was your choice.”

Seeing that a fight was starting Chikara jumped from behind the bush his black and red katana drawn and him rushing forward quickly. He was not the only one as Crossbow bolts came flying in from the back as well as spells from the sides. The flying team came in and occasionally snatched one up into the sky to do who knows what as Chikara couldn’t see at the moment.

The Goblins looked startled at the sudden blasts, bolts, and dives and it was that shock that let Dustan move, quickly closing the distance and going amidst their ranks, buckler extending as the first strike cleaved one of the monsters in two at the hip. The sounds of fighting were noticed some goblins trying to leave as well as the sky team quickly took aim and started firing when they got into position, crossbow bolts soon hitting the outliers on the edge so as not to risk hitting the friendly in their ranks. The ones meant to flank were a little farther out but the feel of hooves hitting the earth could be felt as they were charging all except a few far flung spells that raced out in light, heat, and other elements to carve into the ranks.

The leader tried to issue orders, tried to keep the Goblins from panicking but it wasn’t going well for him to say the least, worst was Dustan flowing between kills as he bisected one only to lop off the head of another as he speedily dispatched them while heading towards the one in charge. “This is our forest and none of you belong here!” The voice of the Lord called out, more than a surprising amount of rage behind it which showed even more as his attacks became more ferocious, though this meant putting unneeded force behind his attacks now as his swings were going a bit wide after the hits he was dealing.

Chikara remained at the edge of the fighting picking off those that put up resistance quickly but during the lulls of the fighting he noticed Dustan’s fighting style. It was interesting for sure but also…not complete, something he felt he might need to talk to said lord about later. His movements were fluid, flowing from one target to the next, dodging and relatively graceful in his movements allowing him to take the lead in the archaic dance that was battle. His attacks, well, they were the opposites. They were barbaric, forceful, erratic, and clearly relaying more on brute force rather than technique. While it was working currently, the feline couldn’t help but frown at how badly an effect the habit could have on his future.

“Rend Weapon!” The Blood Sword took on a dark red glow as Dustan called that out, the blade turning ethereal as the Goblin tried to block the next attack only to have his short sword shattered. “Rend Helm!” Again another red glow as this time the Black Goblin tried to dodge back only to feel his cap shredded, the symbol of his ranking among his fellow monsters. “Rend ARMOR!” The rage seemed to be reflected once more in the strikes as the follow up to the last attack came before the Goblin even had time to steady himself from it, shredding the tunic he wore as the cloak of the Lord of the Everfree flickered past him. With Dustan posed behind the advanced form of monster it was clear by how the monster looked left and right that he had lost sight of his opponent. Exactly what Dustan wanted as the Blood Sword gleamed in the light as it appeared through its chest. The surprised look clearly told the story of the monster who was with the slavers before, how it couldn’t have thought this could happen. As the Goblin fell Dustan found his sword stuck having to release it for now to draw his Coral Sword.

The fighting, if one wanted to call it that, was winding down as the last batch of goblins met their end, with rage from the lord, a smile from the visitor, and a grim platoon bent on their destruction. The battle was over and done with in less than a few minutes. The walk back was in relative silence for the most part, only broken by the occasional questions like from various members of the squads as they had grouped back up questions like ‘what did you see, did any escape, would Goblins be a problem in the future’ things like that as well as trying to give advice where he could as he wanted to be a helpful host to the Ronin. The mages of the group reported that some of the detection spells they had set in place before hoof remained undisturbed and it meant none had escaped of which Dustan was grateful to hear. When they got back to the castle he told the leaders of the squads to give those that participated a day off and to fill rotations accordingly as they deserved to have some time to rest, clean up, recover, and relax.

Sipping on his tea for the morning that Faithful just gave him Dustan took a moment to reflect on yesterday's battle. He had been trying to do that more and more to figure out if he had done the best he could and while thinking back on it, one thought did creep into his mind that he didn’t feel comfortable confronting just yet, though hopefully he was mistaken. That is why he was currently waiting on his guest, he hoped he had points of view to share and he wanted to make sure no goblins escaped, though with the spell scan that the unicorns performed that seemed unlikely. The tea was nice and chilled as it was summer and summer for Dustan always meant iced tea no matter how many people said that tea should be pure. SCREW THEM! AHH cool tea.

The knock on his door interrupted his thoughts though as he looked towards it. “Come in!” He called waiting to see who it was.

Soon after those words, the hakama wearing cat walked in, looking a bit tired still giving a loud and long yawning. “Hey.” He greeted gently, giving a small wave.

“Morning, how did you sleep?” He would look at his pitcher of tea and some extra cups nearby and ask him, “Want some ice tea?” He motioned and indicated the cups.

Shaking his head, Chikara declined. “Thanks for the offer, but I’m not a fan of iced tea. Hot tea is more my style. Green tea especially.”

“Ok then. Take a seat. I was hoping to go over yesterday’s battle with you, see if any details were missed and just overall making sure that the whole picture was seen as you are an outsider not beholden to me so I figure I could get your honest opinion about things and if you saw anything that was lacking in what we did.” The lord asked gently as he relaxed sipping his tea, though had some paper and a pen nearby.

"Well." Chikara started, helping himself to a glass of tea after all as if he was going to talk he might as well have something to drink even if it wasn’t his preferred. "The goblins were certainly a lot less organized than I expected ... Honestly, I expected at least a few stronger ones. It unnerves me that there weren’t any.”

Dustan muttered to himself before shaking his head. “Their levels combined with the fact that they tend to be lazy and unmotivated makes sense though. There was a high level there, level thirty, but I am a much higher level than him, otherwise he would have been a problem for most of my forces. However we were organized, had a plan, and...and they weren’t the ones pulling up the plants.” Dustan sighed. “My scouts found another area with plants pulled up this morning, done last night and more of those hoof marks, so...I might have sentenced those goblins to death for...revenge at this point. I keep trying to tell myself that they are malicious creatures that would do what they did again, and their statement when I showed up supports that, but...I still feel guilty.”

"Don't." The statement was sharp and clear, Chikara pausing only long enough to take a drink from his glass. "Guilt causes hesitation. Hesitation will get you and anyone under you killed. Especially after what I saw on the battlefield yesterday."

The Lord of the Everfree shook off his thoughts as he heard him say that. “What do you mean?”

"Your swordplay." the Cat continued, coming to sit down. "It needs work. Lots of it. You move with the grace and precision of a trained dancer, but when you actually attack, all that goes right out the window."

Dustan thought about it for a moment and what he said made sense. “Yeah, I can see that. Problem is not exactly many people around who can teach a biped. Plus with most of my opponents being shorter than I am, most things end up becoming a chop regardless of what I want it to be. However, thanks for letting me know. That is definitely going up there on my list of things to work on.” Though as he said that he briefly wondered if there was anything on the laptops he had that would help, but he doubted it. “Any advice on how to fix it?”

"I could give you a few tips before I leave." He said with a smile. "My time with my master gave me enough training to be decent. I'd leave it with you to study but…" He looked away a moment before clearing his throat. "I write slow and can’t really help too much with just words."

“Thanks, it does mean a lot.” Laughing a bit, Dustan looks at him. “Honestly it does mean a lot. I haven’t known you very long but you are way better mannered than some of the nobles that have sent me mail.” Holding up a letter he had on his desk he waved it around. “Like this one. This noble is trying to say that his great great, and so forth grandmother owned the Everfree forest and deserves ten percent of all income because of it. I wrote him back saying, take it up with the princess they owned it before me and no one else. They wrote back saying, calling BS and in polite wording said, ‘I don’t care give me the money. I deserve it.’” Dustan shook his head. “The balls on some people seriously.”

“The greed of others is not limited to species just souls.” Chikara said and was honestly a good honest truth. “I don’t remember who said that, I think it was a pony scholar but I always liked that saying as a younger cat. Anyways let’s get to training, I would like to leave by tomorrow honestly.”

Chuckling a bit the human couldn’t help but ask. “I thought you wanted to have a match with me?”

“I do when you are at your best. You aren’t there yet. I can’t wait for you to be.” The cat said and soon strode out hoping to give him a few points for the day. Dustan honestly would be a bit sad to see him go, he was an honest person and carefree, something about the cat was light hearting in a way.

The next day Dustan was sitting in his office thinking over yesterdays training with the cat as well as the events of the goblin destruction. “Well, least you can’t say my life is boring now can y-”

A knock on the door and a subsequently appearing Merlene sticking her head through. “The appointment that was waiting for you can be sent in. I will see them sent up.” Merlene vanished from sight as the Ninja went to look at his appointment book to see who was booked.

“A trader huh. I mean if we can get some good deals, sure.” Dustan muttered to himself for a bit. Seems what the trader wanted was to discuss products and possible deals, or at least that is what he wrote. A few times already did he catch someone trying to slip in a sneaky bargain or even worse in talks like this. “Well hopefully it won’t be so-” A knock on the door let him know his guest was here. “Come on in!”

At his call the door opened and closed revealing an earth pony heavily covered in robes and cloth, head to hoof with only the slit of his eyes revealed. The gait of the pony was sure and steady though instantly something was off. The hairs on the back of Dustan’s neck stood up, something was wrong and his mind didn’t process what it could be while his instincts had already sounded the red alert. It was weird, but each step closer Dustan’s instincts screamed at him to run, to attack, to blast this trader, this seller, this dealer, this-

The instant Dustan’s mind put it together he was on his feet reaching for his sword, sweat broke out across his face when he found himself clutching at the Blood Sword but not able to draw it as he was frozen. Slowly the pony before him began to glow his gait switching as his form did, the four clops of hooves changing to the heavy steps of two boots under a large trench coat. The man took a seat in one of the seats and looked at him.

“Good to see you again Dustan.” The smirk of The Merchant clear in his voice.

Chapter Forty: Murray and Magic.

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My Little Tactics

Chapter Forty: Murray and Magic.

He had to run, he had to escape, he had to protect, he had to attack, he had to do something, but Dustan couldn’t. He was unable to move by the power that the Merchant had used. The displaced man was helpless, he couldn’t stop the man in robes sitting in front of him anymore then he felt he could move an inch even if he wanted to. This was literally his worst nightmare come to life so much so he did feel something move. Sweat as it poured from his head.

“Dustan.” The tone of the voice said, almost sounding a tad hurt. “I understand your reaction to how I appear, but you must remember, you have met more than one of my kind before. I am not the one who harmed you.”

Dustan’s panicked mind slowed, trying to comprehend what it was the being before him said before it slowly dawned and his muscles relax, now able to find himself able to speak if nothing else. “You…you are the one that healed and sent me here?”

Nodding The Merchant slowly reached up and pulled back his hood and pulled down the cloth mask covering his mouth to reveal the graying hair of an older man, though the grey was only at the sides making him look rather distinguished. His eyes had bags and crow’s feet either from old age or stress it was hard to say which. His nose had a slight bend in it looking as if he had broken it at some point. It was the man’s eyes however that were the strangest as they were glowing with an inner power now as they constantly and slowly were shifting colors from ordinary eye colors to ones that were not possible at all.

“Look I am going to release you now as we need to talk. It’s important.” On cue Dustan was freed and stumbled a bit forward though catching his self before grabbing a cloth to wipe his forehead down and reluctantly sat down. “Good, I have been monitoring you as it’s my job but I need to explain a lot of things.”

Reaching out with a shaking hand, clearly not having his nerves cleared as of yet Dustan sipped his tea. “O-okay, go on.” The displaced had to admit, he was a bit curious because as far as he could remember no story from his former life actually explained any of what The Merchant or rather Merchants did and why.

Sighing and looking at him it was clear that he wasn’t happy with things as they were. “Look, call me Murray. It’s a bit simpler I am sure and might help you distance yourself from what my former job was.”

Seconds ticked by before Dustan’s mouth finally opened. “Former?” Trying to use Tactical Eye one Murray just caused a headache as he could only see gibberish.

“Don’t try that again, it will only keep resulting in a headache.” Murray would sip on a cup of tea that the human was sure that wasn’t there a moment ago. “I quit being a Merchant. When you are chosen, you are made into something more, so my race now will always be one of them, which I can’t tell you as you honestly couldn’t pronounce it. I can never go back to what I was before, not that I would want to. However I am going to tell you what happens to someone who becomes a merchant.” Dustan wouldn’t lie, he had never read any story that mentioned this nor gave an explanation leaving it really only to mystery. “Merchants are beings who feed off change, specifically the energy that the ripples from it causes in the universe. We aren’t sure who the first of us was, but we know that we do what we do for two reasons. To feed and to grow.”

“Grow? Into what?” Dustan honestly couldn’t comprehend it. “I mean don’t you bend reality and the like? Also what happened to your accent?”

“We can but I will get to that and the accent is more for show.” Another sip of tea though it was slightly slurped. “We send people to other universes to cause a split in reality, one where things go as they would have before, and one where you exist. That split causes the first burst of change which is the greatest source of change energy that we get and where most Merchants stay their hand as expending more resources tends to be bothersome as change will naturally happen from what the universe intended for that particular shard, shard being what we call the branch we created when we sent someone somewhere.” Setting the cup down Murray looked at him, the blue eyes shifting to green before then to yellow. “Some stick around to the end, poking and prodding thinking of each place as an investment. However there are others who set things up in advanced, like the one who stabbed you. We will get to that one in a second as well. Regardless the energy we eat, we don’t need all that much to survive as we can still sustain ourselves off normal food. The energy instead goes to our ‘reserves’ of power. This is how we have the power to do many things, install powers, change people, and alter realities, though the last is only for those with an excess amount of power to spare. It’s usually more convenient to find a place that suits ones needs and then create shards from there which is what I did here for you. That and honestly I was having to work quick so you wouldn’t bleed out and die. He did a number on you when he stuck that sword in you: Two broken ribs, punctured lung, nicked the wall of your heart, as well as more.”

Dustan couldn’t help but raise his hand to his chest where the invisible scar of his wound seemed to almost burn. “Yeah, I could feel myself dying.”

“In a sense you did die, its why the Blood Sword was created. You just didn’t die enough. I put more vitality into you and had to make sure the sword finished feeding before removing it from you to close your wounds. Because you ‘technically’ both lived and died, the sword was complete but also recognizes you as part of it.” Murray told him which explained why he didn’t feel any weirdness coming from it but others did. “Careful about letting it eat too many people, slashing is fine but don’t let it stay in a being. Anyways I altered you, I am sure you can tell, letting your body become more akin to a malleable planer being that draws its source of power from the knowledge and such from a plane of existence like you have been.”

“Final Fantasy Tactics and the armor stands?” Dustan could feel his eyes widen as he say Murray nod.

“That is right, though they existed here in some form already. You just kind of…mainline it so to speak.” A wave and roll of the Merchant’s hand showed that he was being vague. “It means you channel it way more efficiently than any being on this planet could without visiting it in their dreams.”

“Which is why I can switch classes at will?” Once more the visitor nodded. “So why does it feel like I could visit it without dreaming. I feel like I am so close to being able to use it whenever.”

“That is because you can, then again that particular feat isn’t yours alone. Anyone could reach a state of mind to access what you call the Classroom whenever they wished technically. You just have to be in the right mindset to do so.” Sighing and sipping his drink again the Merchant looked him dead in the eyes. “Which is why it hurts to see you not understanding some of your abilities fully nor what the Classroom is meant to be, but for me to tell you starts dipping into rules that I cannot break.”

This was news to him, he thought he had been handling things well with the job system as well as his abilities but seems he wasn’t quite doing so. “You have rules?”

That caused the nigh omnipotent being to laugh. “Of course. We can visit all we like, we can influence, we can even offer up powers in exchange for things. However we can’t interfere with free will we can suggest, demand, coerce and flat out tell someone, but we can’t actually remove free will meaning if a Merchant does something to try to make someone do something, that person still doesn’t have to do so. That is why when we first find we make sure to appear as the Merchant, as it’s just too easy to get someone to buy something and accept a deal that is too good to be true.”

“Because it is.” That got the grey haired man to nod. “What they are buying isn’t whatever item, but the change that comes with it. You just never tell them fully.”

Shrugging to Dustan the man set his cup down and looked at him. “Technically, no one ever asks to see an item record beforehand so it falls under buyer beware and to read the contract fully.”

“But, I didn’t pay for anything, I didn’t agree.” Dustan was confused, didn’t it break the rules that Murray was supposed to follow when he got sent here.

“But you did.” This was where The Merchant looked a bit sad. “True it wasn’t money you gave me, but you didn’t want to die and was willing to do what was needed to stay alive right?” The Lord of the Everfree felt his blood run cold at that as he realized something. “Yeah, The Merchant that stabbed you…that tends to be his normal MO. He likes to put people on death’s door and makes sure to offer them a deal. If they do not take it well he heals them and erases their memory of the event making sure nothing was changed. However no one knows he can do that so most take the deal earning him a net gain of power for little loss.”

“Then…why was he there with you? And doesn’t that mean I would have been fine without being healed?” Dustan was a tad angry when he realized that he never had a choice that he could perceive. “Why was he even there if you were already going to make someone go to this world or at world, or whatever?!”

“Because I wanted to quit.” Holding up a hand an orb of pure white energy appeared. “When you become a Merchant, a certain amount of energy is expended from the recruiters, you have to pay that back with interest based on how long you have been a Merchant. I have been one for a VERY long time. Truth was, a long time ago I was just as eager for power as the one who stabbed you, but overtime I realized that I slowly lost who I was before for what seemed like godhood.” Looking to Dustan the man ran his fingers through his hair once more. “The reason us Merchants hunt your world, and worlds similar is because your realities tend to be right at a perfect nexus point. It’s why so many of your books, movies, shows, imaginations, turn into realities because either what you envision becomes real or because you are able to unconsciously tap into other worlds slightly. That is why when one of us sends someone away; we usually lock the universe they came from so there is no return.”

“But then, how did I-” Murray cut Dustan off before he could finish.

“You weren’t supposed to.” Leaning against his knees and holding his hands in front of his face the man sighed. “Honestly Twilight did the impossible, but then it’s the multiverse so it is always bound to happen and does occasionally.” Looking up he smiled. “I gave her a book and a device to locate the origins of objects and beings. Truth was, I had planned for her to read it and would occasionally nudge her thoughts towards communications. I figured she would over tune a portal so that you could talk to your world but in over tuning it would make her think the world couldn’t be accessed. Instead she ignored some of my prodding and went ahead with teleportation circles.”A grin came to the older man’s face. “Caused quite a stir in some circles as it means we cannot abduct safely from your world anymore so we have to give up on it.”

“Couldn’t you or the one who stabbed me erase Twilight’s memory though?” That got Murray to start laughing loudly. “What? Does it have to do with free will or something?”

“Yes and no, but mostly no.” Murray calmed down and wiped a tear from his eye. “Because the one who stabbed you programmed you somewhat making you malleable and basically setting up the typical template in order for me to make my move to heal you which would seal the contract, or to undo things if you wanted to die, well he caused himself to partly own what you do. However because he left it up to me, I also own what you do. Because of that, before he couldn’t completely lock something nor do something without telling me, and I couldn’t do the same. However it was his job as first contact to lock your world completely, he didn’t and left that to me as he is young. As for erasing Twilight’s memory, because both he and I own what you do, he couldn’t do that without my permission. Trust me he has already tried and he will continue to try for as long as you live. I won’t let him though, even if I no longer am a part of his association anymore, I was when it happened therefore he can’t undo it.”

“So then why can you do things. You said you gave Twilight the book and device right? He couldn’t have let you just do that right?” Dustan had to admit he was curious even as he realized that Murray had not answered his question his earlier question.

“I gave him some of my power, the equal to a bribe in my circle. In fact, the reason I am…not really that strong right now is because I bought the rights of this universe and you from him just recently which is why I can freely talk to you like I can now.” Shaking his head Murray continued. “Point is I own you and this universe for its change energy now and no one can interfere, not him and not others without incurring a penalty. However my power is now quite faded.” Pointing to Dustan and smiling. “Truth was, I was going to retire, live out a few universes time and just enjoy myself. Though beings who usually do that choose to take on new identities to wipe their memories from what they have done so they can sleep better or chose to become gods and create realities from scratch to enjoy. I chose not to because of you.”

“Wait, what? Why me?” The confusion apparently tickled the old man’s funny bone as he laughed once again.

“Dustan, you may have your dark spots and flaws, but you helped your friend and were willing to take on his debt, the one whom I was originally going to displace, without wanting nothing more than to help your friend.” Slamming his hand on the desk Murray looked on with a fire in his eyes and pointed at the human with his other hand. “THAT! That right there rekindled something inside of me. Especially as I seen you continue to do so here in Equestria. I am going to continue to displace people to gain power, but I am going to do so to help those worlds, taking those that I know can help them. But I have to follow some kind of codes to not ruffle others feathers, that is why I will be using up more energy than others to read minds, souls and make sure I get the right people for the job. Even if that means sending them to counter what other Merchants do. I am going to leave this multiverse a better place then when I entered it, even if I don’t get my returns on change energy used to displace someone anymore. I will admit, I will likely still be ruining some lives. I wish that could change but no one is perfect, certainly not me. I mean when you were dying, I had forgotten that the other Merchant would come to heal you if you died, and instead went through and gave something to you to heal you. We are Merchants sure but we are not infallible.”

Dustan wasn’t sure what to say, he wanted to be angry hearing the plans of the man before him but…he couldn’t. It was for a good cause right? Was it any different then what he himself was doing by trying to keep the timeline of My Little Pony intact? Honestly that question bothered him more than it should have and more than he was comfortable admitting even to himself.

“I will still have to think of a name. Maybe Artificer or something. I will workshop it later.” Murray was genuinely smiling now before it faded. “But that is off topic, I need to talk about your little meeting with everyone that happened recently. Because you were template’d and I was in a rush, I had to…do some things. These things are going to make your life difficult but I do believe you will overcome them. I can’t say what because rules and such again from when I was a merchant are still in effect and because as some of that information could affect your freewill as it is that…soul crushing in some ways. Sorry.” Dustan felt a bit pale at hearing that, what could be that bad. “Regardless I can tell you when you have done something. Telling everyone of your Auracite, that was a trigger. Sure they have been active in the past, but Nightmare Moon was the last to be activated for this world before you showed up. With you telling them about it, making them aware, that was a trigger to reawaken the stones.”

The arm rest of his chair squeaked as he gripped them so hard. “That means-.”

“Yeah, they are going to come looking for Virgo there and look to free Ultima from her Prison.” That sentence hung there in the air between the two of them. Dustan’s eyes widened and widened till they hurt as he slumped back against his chair with an exhausted sigh.

Bringing a shaking hand up to his face he gave a sigh that felt like years of his life left with its sound. “Do…do you know how long till then? Till they start coming here?”

Murray seemed to give a similar sigh before he shook his head. “That information would change how you act so no, I can’t tell you that. I can tell you that most are already looking for hosts now. Some are in places where others could easy be influenced and others are lost.”

A shiver ran down his spine and he looked to the former displacing master and could see those eyes held no lie. ‘He had to have known what he just said right?’ The clear look on his displacer’s face told him what he needed to know. ‘He said ‘most’ that meant some aren’t looking, or…some have already had hosts.’ The thought of those creatures loose, the ones that helped fuel The War of The Lions made him sick to his stomach.

However, his thoughts were derailed as Murray stood up. “Well, for now, that is all I can say. I don’t want to linger too long as the longer I stay the more that Merlene and the others are going to panic after you tell them who just visited you.”

“But I could just not-” Dustan was cut off by a look from the man. “Yeah…I suppose you are right. With how I want to be more truthful to them I would end up telling them eventually. How is it that Merlene hasn’t come in already or heard anything?”

“Simple.” The former Merchant said as he rolled his wrist and then looked to his fingernails. “She has tried already but her mind keeps slipping to other matters and keeps getting distracted for some reason. Also no sound seems to be coming from your office today for some reason. I am sure there is a reason.”

He had to admit that miffed him a bit to have his friend’s mind messed with like that, but at the same time, it was likely for the best. “And it’s just that easy for you? No wonder some Merchants lose themselves to that kind of power. I admit, even I would likely vanish for a good long time as my sense of self would do things with that power.”

“‘Power corrupts, but absolute power corrupts absolutely.’” Murray told him. “You have experienced bouts of said corruption yourself from having power but outside influences keep reminding you of who you are, which is a good thing. I have to admit, there were points where I was worried for your state of mind but you have mostly come back from each of those.”

Dustan caught that again, that ‘mostly’. That means something about him has changed, but he had not noticed it yet. So how could one ward against such a thing when they are not aware of it? He couldn’t. Dustan could only hope that the corruption that he had already taken on in some way was so minor it wouldn’t affect what he would do. As he looked up to ask another question of the graying man he found him gone all without a goodbye. Leaning back in his chair again for a moment he would then get up and go to a window to look out upon the world.

He wasn’t sure for how long he stood there but eventually the door to his office opened and the sky blue accented Griffon came in a bit hesitantly. “My Lord, I haven’t heard anything from your office in a while and was getting…huh, where is your guest.”

At first Dustan said nothing, trying to figure out a way to ease her into this, but in the end chose the direct method. “Sit down Merlene. I have something to tell you and honestly, it’s going to surprise you likely half as much as it surprised me.”

The Griffon just cocked her head as she closes the door and took a seat. Needless to say, the next week sucked with how close the catbird from Talonholm stuck to him after that. That week saw some significant changes the biggest was Dustan giving the official title of Everfree blacksmith to Burly Bellows, which while it brought him a lot more business inside and from outside of the castle as well as the Everfree itself, it means that the blacksmith was commissioned for something, both him and his apprentice specifically. It was a bit of a long term plan but Dustan wasn’t going to be caught with his pants down, he was going to go full force into a threat if it showed up. The human also started to think and write down other plans both short and long term of what he could do. Planning or not, many obstacles stood in his way and he knew it. Some would be monumentous, others would be-

“-annoying.” Dustan said looking to the tall white unicorn in front of him with robes.

“Excuse me Sir, but what did you say?” The posh unicorn from Canterlot said as the human was looking down at him.

Around the Lord of the Everfree, were the Mane Six as well as a few others the former set of which he had invited to the castle today for lunch as well as to ask a few things, only to be told he had an appointment that couldn’t wait. It turned out to be a unicorn from Canterlot who was leader of the board of education or some such though it was clear he thought himself important with that sash across his chest as well as his slick backed hair. His name, which was too much of a pun for Dustan to remember at the moment, had observed a few classes that morning and as the rest of the Mane Six had arrived had promptly told Dustan that there were no regulations used for these classes as well as no standards and wouldn’t be classified as a school and should be shut down.

The brown haired human had run his fingers through his short hair and sighed and promptly stated exactly what was on his mind which he now was repeating for the pony before him. “’This is annoying.’ I said. It’s not getting any less so either.”

Seems the unicorn was getting a bit flustered at the comment but took a deep breath and let it out before smiling once more. “Ahem, I understand you are used to getting your way as you do run this unruly land but as a citizen of Equestria you should know that you have to uphold its laws correct.”

“Yep, that I do to the best of my judgement.” It seems like that is what the pony wished to hear.

It sent him nodding and gestured as his horn took on a glow making a large thick text book appear. “Then you should know all teaching faculties for education or magic should follow certain laws.” When Dustan again reaffirmed that with a ‘yep’ The white unicorn smiled. “Good, so we agree that you will shut the school down.”

“Nope.” The plain faced way that Dustan said this seemed to anger the unicorn.

A stamp of their hoof an a glow of magic opened up the book to one of its pages. “Section Four, Section A states that quote: ‘Any school of magic will adhire to the guidelines in the following sections for as long as they wish to teach in the land of Equestria.’ End quote.”

Dustan waved his hand in a bored gestured. “Neat, so tell me, that is for all magic right?”

“Yes that is right!” The unicorn puffed out his chest.

“Cool, now go shut down ever farm in Equestria and every flight school as they are teaching magic as well. Pegasus and Earth Pony Magic, but magic all the same.” The human gave a bit of a smirk at this as the unicorn turned red.

It took a moment before said pony regained their composure before smiling. “The section of flight school is handled by the board of flight and weather, while agriculture has its own board. We are talking about magic.”

“So am I. Magic is magic, but since you are making the distinction between them it remains relevant. I am guessing that you don’t have anything for Chaos magic either huh?” The human thought he had won the point only for the pompous unicorn to smile.

“You would be wrong.” Opening up the book he pointed out a page. On the page it clearly said: Prohibited magical categories: Necromancy, Chaos Magic, Dark Magic, Demonology, and a few others that Dustan would have a hard time replicating the sound with normally without twisting his tongue.

“Cool. You got just about everything there.” The sash wearing unicorn gave a smug look to the human before catching what he said. “That is right, about everything. So where is the section on Neutral Magic?”

“Neutral magic is not a dedicated magical classification and thus until further investigation will be under general magic studies guidelines and regulations.” The unicorn thought he won only to see the human slam his face into his open hand.

“Tell me, would you have an Earth Pony try to handle a lightning storm by telling it to kick it? Or how about a Pegasus to try to feel the earth and buck a rock in half?” Trying to get through to this pony was setting him in a bad mood, but at the same time or so it appeared to those around him.

So much so that even Twilight tried to chime in at one point to raise up a fact. “Well to be fair Dustan, your school is classified as-”

She never got any further as the unicorn didn’t even seem to pay her any mind as he continued. “Of course not, that would be a fool’s errand.”

“Exactly, which is what you are trying to get me to do here. Now leave as I have more important things to deal with then some pony who doesn’t even know his ass end from his mane telling me how to teach Neutral magic when I am literally the biggest teacher in the world of it.” Seems that wasn’t the right thing to say as it caused the pony to erupt in a stream of curses.

When they finally settled down they picked up their book and turned. “You haven’t heard the last of this human. I am Chancellor Neighsay and I will make sure you follow the rules of a proper school for teaching unicorns magic.”

“Oh before you go you should know two things!” He called to the marching unicorn causing him to stop and look back. “One: I will teach who I damned well pleased no matter the race or species. All are welcomed to learn not just unicorns.” That turned the pony a bright shade of scarlet. “Two: I don’t have to listen to a damned thing you say. I filed for this school as a private tutelage school, meaning I make up my own rules for it. Under section seven of your fancy fucking book section B under classifications of school types. Look it up and look at my registration. You may wish to take a few educations courses yourself before you try to throw your clout around in a place that literally gives zero fucks about who you are. Bye bye now!” He gave the unicorn, who was now a shade of red so deep that he was turning purple, a friendly wave only to start laughing when he finished leaving.

“Wait…Dustan, don’t tell me-” The purple scholarship pony herself started only to be cut off by her speedster drop out friend of the weather team.

“You knew all of that beforehoof and were just baiting him to mess with him?!” Dustan was finishing up his laughter wiping away a tear as he nodded.

“WHY?!” Twilight asked taking her hooves to his shirt and shaking him causing the human to laugh a bit harder once more.

When she finally stopped shaking him and let him speak he smoothed out his clothing and looked to them all. “Cause fuck’em.” That caused half of the six to laugh, Rainbow Dash the loudest but Pinkie Pie right behind her as well as the southern sounding pony that was Applejack right behind them. Twilight and Rarity were less then pleased but Fluttershy just looked like she didn’t wish to interrupt them. “He came in here, asked to observe some of my classes, not saying anything during any of it. Instead he wrote down his observations in a note pad. He never once approached and asked me about the classification of school beforehand nor did he ask if Neutral magic had any special needs or restrictions. He didn’t consider the sociology behind the schooling area nor the needs of the students learning said magic since they are not just one age category but from all steps of life. He came here, literally looking to throw his weight around to make us conform without even checking as he already thought he knew better. Pompous assholes like that I am going to do everything in my power to make sure their day is ruined and life is not enjoyable till they learn that not everyone lives to reflect a perfect code that can be followed. No matter what you wish to hate on about Discord and what he represent but his element is an everyday factor of life.”

That made all six mares look at him as if he was crazy. “Are you crazy?!”

The fact it was Pinkie Pie who asked that hurt a little bit in a way but he smiled. “If harmony was the only force out there, nothing would exist in variety, everything would be the same, a blank sheet of paper with no indents, not splashes of color, nothing. Chaos is one element that throws random bits of things onto that paper to make it look different and more. Literally if it wasn’t for Chaos friendship couldn’t exist as the world would be nothing but ponies with no free will. Then again the opposite is true, if there was no Harmony Chaos would turn everything into a misshapen blob that couldn’t retain shape. It takes both and more to make up life, each and every one of us is made up a bit of those things, some more than others and it’s those differences you find in each other that let you come to understand one another and bond as friend right?”

Each and every pony looked at him wide eyed as if they had been told some great secret and were not looking at one another in a new found light and in some cases themselves. “Ah…never thought about it that way Ah suppose.”

“Me neither, though that does make Pinkie make more sense in a way.” Dash spoke up as if edging on some great truth.

“What me make sense? NEVER!” She then stuck out her tongue, blew a raspberry then twin party canons came out of her mane and fired.

When Dustan could see again he could hear the other’s coughing with Fluttershy speaking up first. “Oh my, was that really nessicary?”

“Yes Darling my mane is now positively disheveled and will take hours to recuperate.” It was true, the owner of Carousel Boutique’s mane had glitter and confetti all over it as well as being blown in many different directions from the force behind.

“Ah just wanna know why?” The orange apple farmer asked of her friend spitting out…was that a party streamer?

“Because Dashie called me predicatable.” Everyone looked at her when she said that.

Especially Dash who was busy spitting out her own…was that the pin from a pin the tail on the donkey party game? “I never said that. I just said that it helped make sense of you is all.”

“Exactly.” Putting on a detective hat and pipe, having been pulled out of her mane, she spoke after blowing out a few bubbles from said pipe. “If you can make sense of me, it means you can predict me. If you can predict me, it means I am predictable. So by the transitive property of words and actions, you called me predictable.”

“How do you even know what some of those words mean?” The sole human of the group asked as he looked at her only for Twilight to speak up.

“Wait, does that mean you listen to me when I lecture?” The magister of the group looked genuinely happy at that. “If so how come you always sleep through so much of it?”

“Oh Twi, just because I sleep doesn’t mean I have stopped listening.” Detective Pie told her as she wrapped her up in a hug, which while returned, didn’t solve the confusion on the unicorn’s face.

“No, but I have, and I am not thinking about this conversation any more. I am already confused enough as is and I am. Anyways could you six come to my office as I wish to ask you all something.” Clearly Dustan was done with this conversation and the confetti as he brushed himself off and made his way up to his office.

It took about an hour before the others would join him, each having done their own efforts to clean up, though it was clear that by the sounds of ‘Really?’ and ‘Come on, there too’ that glittery amongst other things were still being found. With everyone, relatively, cleaned up the human of Equestria smiled to each to each of them and thanked them for being there, to which all of them gave their on versions of either thank you or no problem. After that it was another hour for lunch before the actual discussion could get started in his office proper.

“I am sure each of you know this but the Crusaders are part of my program, for various things sure but all of them are showing great promise.” To which three of the girls nodded. “Truth is, they shouldn’t be the only ones. Anyone of any age can learn as I already stated. As such I would like all of you girls to formally enroll. I am willing to wave the fee cause of your ages if you wished to go beyond and into the advanced classes.”

The farm pony, whom he figured would be the toughest sell on this, was the first to speak up. “Ah don’t know Dustan. It doesn’t seem like magic is all that for me.”

“Oh, even me, I could join?” Pinkie asked practically vibrating in her seat.

Shrugging Dash smiled and chuckled. “I already sit in some of the classes as is with the squirt, though I don’t feel like going to school again so I am going to have to pass.”

“YESSSSSS~” Was all twilight had to contribute to the conversation

“Truth is darling…I already know some of what you are teaching.” If there was a record playing there would be a needle scratch as Rarity’s statement took them all by surprise, even the Lord himself.

“Wanna run that one by me again?” Blinking almost a bit owlishly Dustan stared at the unicorn as she fidgeted around.

“Well, truth is.” The unicorn sighed and eventually just looked defeated. “I tried replicated how I made Dustan’s clothing so special, but haven’t been able to do so. Remembering how he said it was made with Neutral magic, I may have snuck the notes Sweetie Belle has taken from your classes from her bags and copied them. I then procured some of the supplies for myself and have been trying my own hoof at making them. Eventually…well I got it. I am still only at the very start but…well I just don’t have time to attend regular classes and because of my schedule I really could only do a bit before stopping so I would fall behind more and more as I don’t look to make it a career only to enhance what I already have.”

“That is…actually a very fair point.” Sighing and leaning back chuckling. “You all have careers and lives that don’t always make it so you can get into these classes and there isn’t enough teachers at the moment to make it so anyone can learn anytime. I want more people to learn these things but I can’t cause I lack people who know.” Sighing again but smiling looking to each of them. “Know this though. No matter how fast or slow you can progress, or if you wish to make it more then what it is, that Neutral magic can help you in many ways. There are classes that I haven’t shown you all, classes that can do amazing things that each of you are sure to love. Things that can make the ground move in ways you wish, ones that can make you rethink the bounds of what is physically possible, and more.”

Twilight, for her part, was about to jump at him but suddenly…stopped. “Crud, I have things I wish to do as well before I can do more classes. Plus I haven’t even actually managed to do the initiation trial yet. I still also want to read and memorize the books you gave me, I am still going over the math one and I am finally starting to understand algebra really well to the point where I think I am either caught up or very close to the Minotaurs now.”

“I think I will withdraw my application too if that is ok with you Dusty.” It was clear as day on his face what he was about to ask so the pink party pony answered for him. “If its true ponies will be able to do all kinds of amazing things after that then, if I join and learn them, it will make some of the things I do seem less mysterious so nope. I want to keep my mystery and make sure every pony knows no matter what they learn even if it’s the same as the next, that every pony is special and that we all need to smile.”

“Very true, which is why I also can’t join as my animal friends all have different needs and take sooo much time to take care of that I simply don’t have time for other things.” Fluttershy told them making herself once more known as she had stood silent this entire time as they had spoke.

With that, six out of six ponies have declined and he stood up. “Well I am glad we could at least talk about this. Gives me a few things to consider about future classes for sure.”

The Friendship pony of the group smiled and looked at him. “Of course, what are friends for Dustan. Though we should all be going now.”

They all agreed with that as Dustan smiled and waved them out, though as the door closed Dustan’s smile vanished and a wave of guilt came over him as he sat back down. The Merchant’s warning had spurred him into action and while he was glad they refused, he was feeling very much ashamed that he even thought about teaching those six about skills to just use them in what might be a battle now.

‘So, I feel bad trying to use them but not others?’ The fact that Dustan didn’t have a proper answer for that bothered him more than the question itself did.

Chapter Forty One: Time To Be A Noble.

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My Little Tactics

Chapter Forty One: Time To Be A Noble.

A bright sun shining down over Ponyville with no sign of any clouds was a good way to know that the growing village next to the dangerous Everfree was experiencing a good day. It was as if the sun shining down upon them was smiling, well more so then normal as the purple unicorn stepped out to greet the day.

“Hello Mr. Sun!” The magister called out happily.

Two fiery arms came out with one giving an enthusiastic wave causing ponies shadows to shift and move. “Good morning Twilight!”

The sun then pulled out a book and went right to reading, as did ever other resident of the town as Twilight came around. They were all so studious and it was clear they were enjoying the topics. As she heard her hooves clopping against they ground she also was complimented on the fact she recommended some light reading to some ponies around town.

“Hey Twilight, thank you for pointing out this ‘Parenting for the less magically inclined’, it’s really helping with our little filly.” Mr. Cakes called out.

Part of unicorn questioned when they had the filly but instead just found herself smiling and waving back “No problem. Just remember to reread chapters two and four as they should really help!”

The pastry maker waved and smiled back before diving right back into the book. Twilight was to be interrupted, though politely, with a cough and excuse me from above.

“Hey Twilight, I’m sorry to bother you.” The raspy voice of her rainbow maned flier friend said. “But I wanted to thank you for the recommendation of ‘A complete aerodynamic flier second revision’ it has changed how I fly and now I am breaking records left and right.”

Giggling a bit out loud at this Twilight waved it off. “Oh that isn’t because of me, that is all because of your hard work and for studying well.”

Slowly the hovering pegasus was turning as she spoke. “Are you kidding? Without you pointing me to this book I would have never known. Thanks again Twi!” By the time the pony said that she was completely upside down, her mane staying as it was as if gravity wasn’t a thing, strange to be sure even as Twilight noted to herself that it should be impossible to fly upside down so casually like that. Oh well.

Her next stop came for some lunch and who better then to check on then her friend who just got her master’s degree! Said pony was next to her cart as well as a large chalk board showing off a formula next to some drawings of apples and apple trees and next to her was an apple the size of a pumpkin! It was amazing to see and to think this wouldn’t have been possible just a couple of years ago.

“So you see my most studious colleagues. By adjusting the substrate that you add to your fertilizer and then adjusting the ph levels in your soil, you too can achieve success.” The orange coated blonde pony said as she adjusted her glasses before her eyes and her scholarly square cap atop her head.

“Professor Apple!” One of the college aged stallions asked though only continued when he was properly given the go ahead with a nod from Applejack. “How did you come to this conclusion?”

The Professor was about to say something when she spotted Twilight and smiled pointing to her. “If my friend here had not told me about the wonderful knowledge I was missing out in a few key books, then I would not have gone on to do what it is I am doing.”

The use of ‘I’ in her friends sentence structure seemed wrong but the complement was so nice she overlooked it. “Aww don’t thank me, thank all the wonderful knowledge and science we got to explore just a few years ago. Without it I don’t think we would be even close to these as we are now. It might have taken another hundred or more years.”

“Indeed, if it wasn’t for this knowledge ponykind would be worse off for sure.” Celestia said, her tall self overshadowing a few buildings in Ponyville, as was normal. “Why, if you had not taken the time to study and learn all you could, we would all be worse off. Isn’t that right dear sister?”

Luna, in all her miniature glory as the little filly stepped out of the shadow of her sister looked around and then down at herself. “Huh, so this is what a pleasant dream is for you Twilight Sparkle?”

“What do you-” Twilight started to ask before looking around, noticing that the scene had frozen. In the distance, Rainbow Dash was in mid flap of her wings and mid turn of the page with a smile on her face. Applejack was using a pointer on the chalkboard to point something out mid blink or possibly mid adjusting her glasses. The sun was licking it’s finger to turn the page, and Celestia had a smile that just didn’t seem to twitch or fade in this frozen moment.

“Look around yourself Twilight. While the dreams intent is well off, you have to ask yourself, do you really wish to change your friends like this or to this degree?” Luna asked of her, still as her tiny filly self as she pointed out various things. “The rash nature of the Element of Loyalty? The blunt speech and accent of your friend the Element of Honesty? What of the others? How have they changed?”

Looking around it was strange, but all of her friends were around to be seen. Rarity was wearing a WONDERFUL costume of Starswirl The Bearded which seemed…familiar? Twilight couldn’t see what she was reading but seemed really nose to the book. She could also spot, not too far away, Fluttershy in a nice dress with a pseudo classroom where she was teaching animals all kinds of things. Dustan was relaxing atop of a pile of books with a sign in front of him that read: ‘I have read all these books more than one hundred times, ask me anything.’ There was a line to talk to him that she couldn’t spot the end of and she could swear she saw Derpy in the line to see him at three different points as well as ponies that she wasn’t even sure lived in Ponyville.

Finally came the last pony, the pink party pony herself with a book that read: ‘Party Basics 101, how to party’ and she was reading that while…walking?

“Oh…I guess I am in a dream. Pinkie wouldn’t be walking like that, she would be…what was the word for it again, Pronking thats it!” There was a flash of light as if somepony had just teleported but now Pinkie was bounding around as normal. “Fluttershy wouldn’t be teaching her animals like that, but instead caring for them and maybe giving them a light talking to if they did something bad.” Another flash and now the cream colored pegasus was escorting a herd of various animals across the road. Flashes here and there all came with ponies returning to normal, Rarity designing lovely dresses whose designs were intricate, Applejack selling her baked goods to a crowd of hungry ponies with her signature hat, Rainbow Dash was flying right side up again but with her forelegs in front of her as she moved quickly in the air doing tricks all while wearing a look of both focus and happiness. Celestia returned to normal size as did Luna, with Dustan the only one staying the same.

Looking around Princess Luna moved towards Twilight and pointed to the human. “Is that how you see him?”

It took a moment before the purple pony could answer. “Kind of? He knows all kinds of things and though he might not have read ALL those books, he must have all kinds of knowledge that he hasn’t shared right? We just need to ask the right questions to unlock it. Plus if we can’t unlock it we can always go back to the human world to retrieve more knowledge right?”

With a flash Dustan changed, no longer quite as he was. There were still books around him but now ordered into bookshelves as he stood before the chalkboard of the room he taught at in the castle. The black Norite flooring of the castle transferring over to the dream as well, though with it still outside there were no walls or roof to be seen. Twilight seemed satisfied with the changes as she looked around.

“I would still like to get more ponies to read. The library just doesn’t seem to get many checking out books at all.” She told Luna who had now grown back to her full size.

The Alicorn looked towards her sister’s student and smiled. “Twilight, everypony learns in their own way. A book might be the best way for some or with some instances, but it’s not the only way to learn.” Gesturing her hoof to the other Elements of Harmony the princess smiled. “Take a look at your friends, had you not experienced and learned of friendship on your own, not just by reading it in a book, I might have won and you wouldn’t have your closest friends with you.”

Sighing a bit Twilight looked up however she had a smile on her face. “You are right. Thank you Luna. May I ask what time it is?”

“It is no trouble at all Twilight.” The pony ruler then made a gesture and the sun moved to just peeking over the horizon. “It is currently dawn. I take it you are about it wake up?”

Giving a big nod she smiled and gestured to Dustan standing on that checker boarded patterned ground. “I wanted to let Dustan know what kind of progress I have made towards refining the cross world teleport Glyph. He or I should be able to go there and back with no problem’s by ourselves. We might even be able to take one or two others with us though we might need to recharge if we do that.”

“Oh really? That sounds wonderful. I take it you want to ask him, when is the next time you can visit his world?” This made the magister turn her head towards the princess and vigorously nod in agreement.

Almost bounding on her hooves Twilight answered her. “Absolutely, I mean I have a lot of the books he has given me and I have been bouncing around from one to the other, not quite finishing any of them off and instead working them bit by bits for the technical and science ones as each one give me a bit of a clue sometimes to the other and-.” Twilight talked for a good solid minute straight before she had to stop as Luna held up a hoof. “Oh sorry.”

“It’s quite alright, though it’s again time for you to wake up. Follow me.” The midnight blue mare told her as she started to walk away towards a doorway that lit up in the middle of the road.

Twilight took one last look at everything and started to walk towards to the princess of dreams except she stopped and looked back examining something. “Huh, must have been my imagination.”

As she resumed the walk heading to the door Luna inquired about that. “What must be?”

She stared chuckling and smiling she gestured with her hoof back the way from which they were walking away from. “I thought the floor to Dustan’s was some kind of checker board pattern for a second, but looking back its clearly that black stone he used for the castle.”

“Dreams can change rapidly in the blink of an eye if you don’t keep an eye on them.” She was informed as they headed through the doorway. The ground below dream Dustan flickering from black to brown and beige a few times before the dream vanished as its owner woke up.

Spring time a perfect time for ponies to go out and enjoy the weather while they can after all, it was only a matter of a couple weeks before Estrus week began. Twilight woke up that day after her visit from Luna and got to work as she had a lot to do for her day. First up, hot spicy coffee, she never understood why this type of drink wasn’t more popular but oh well, more for her to enjoy. Finishing up her chapter of the day from her chosen book, she grabbed a couple of things to put in her saddlebags and made her way towards Luminary Castle.

Today was a busy day it seems as there were individuals from the guard as well as others she didn’t recognize off hoof running around while Dustan himself was busy pointing and shouting orders. “What is the status of plot MR-01?”

A griffon guard saluted towards him as she spoke up. “Sir, it is proceeding on schedule, all will be made ready.”

“And the cages?” The griffon gave another affirmative answer to that and Dustan smiled. “Good…now we just have to fill them.”

“Fill them with what?” Spike asked from Twilight’s back.

Looking over and smiling, the Lord of the Everfree waved them over. “Hey there you two. Hope your morning is going well.”

Both of them nodded though Spike still was looking curious, and the unicorn had to admit, so was she. “What are the cages for and what is plot MR-01?” Rubbing the back of his head it seems this was a situation that might be a bit awkward if she was judging his posture by. Then again she was never sure about human movements like this. ‘Maybe that could be another book I ask for in the future.’

“Well.” That broke her out of her thoughts as she looked to him. “As you know, we have races and species aplenty here in the castle and its little surrounding town.” A nod came from the pony and dragon before he continued. “Well, truth is a lot of them, and me, need meat in our diet to actually stay healthy.” For a moment Dustan’s eyes flicked to look at something but she missed where it went thanks to an involuntary shudder at the thought of eating meat. “We are currently important all our meat from the Griffon kingdom and its starting to get pricy. Especially after a recent price hike, seems word has gotten around that we have no butchers here in Equestria so they are milking me for all I got. This can’t keep going.”

“I don’t see what that has to do with cages.” Spike said but Twilight felt her eyes go wide as she realized what he was getting at.

Her shock must have been obvious as Dustan waved his hands trying to dismiss her thoughts. “It’s nothing bad I promise. Recently I got a letter from a pony from Mareami in the southern part of Equestria. Seems her and her partner are Monster Ranchers. They take what is considered monstrous creatures, raise and domesticate them and we have worked out a deal. If I can capture and provide some creatures from the Everfree for her to raise, she will agree to breed them and supply the castle and its residents with things.”

“Does-” She swallowed trying to wrap her head around this development. “Does Fluttershy know?”

Nodding though it was clear he wasn’t happy. “Yeah, we got into a bit of a fight about that. I asked her if she knew of any trouble makers of the forest from her friends Cockatrices and the like that we could get. She was horrified at the thought of helping me capture creatures to breed and butcher.” Growling a bit in frustration. “So now I have a friend extremely upset at me when I am trying to keep everyone here fed and healthy, I have to spend the next three days helping to hunt down creatures before leaving the teams to carry that out as I have to head to Canterlot to attend some kind of meeting of Nobles. Plus my crops aren’t growing as fast as I would hope so I am not producing excess like I thought meaning I am draining money.”

Feeling a bit of heat come to her cheeks at that, she had forgotten all about that development and had to say something. “About money, actually Dustan I have some-”

His eyes softened and the Human shook his head. “I appreciate the offer Twilight but I can’t accept help for this from you.”

‘He thought I was offering to give him money. I mean he isn’t wrong, but-’ Shaking her head she was about to tell him her thoughts when she heard a guard call for him.

Turning to her she would feel his hand settle on her head and ruffle her mane. “Got to go, sorry we couldn’t talk more but life of a Lord I suppose. I will talk to you in a week.”

Her eyes widened as she had so much to talk to him about ‘quick fire off the first thought from your head!’ Her brain shouted at her. “I wanted to talk to you about that glyph!”

Stopping mid step for a moment seems Dustan was thinking quickly as he called out. “Tell you what, make some Salve and we can ok. See you later, I really got to go!” He ran quickly to the gate.

Giving a Quiet YES to herself, and by quiet that meant Spike on her back and several ponies around her all heard her, she smiled and had a happy little trot back to the treebary. At least until she remembered…she couldn’t make Salve yet. Spike got off her back and went to the shelf to start organizing things as Twilight looked to a nearby table. Determination filled her veins and she was about to proceed with making her first batch when suddenly a crackle snap and a pop was heard and a flash filled the room. Two figures stood in the smoke produced by the magic as there was a tall bipedal creature as well as a quadruped.

As the smoke cleared she could see who they were. It was Dustan, though he looked like he was very tired and worn out whom right away broke from the other figure and went to talk to Spike. Meanwhile the other figure was heading towards her, dressed in black, an eye patch and…was that herself?!

Three days hunting, a train ride, and maybe eleven hours of sleep between all that and he was here in Canterlot. He had opted to start leaving his sword behind as well as most of his more combat ready equipment or at least he had tried but Merlene had reminded him that being a Lord of the Everfree and a hero part of his image was tied to his weapons. He agreed but only because he was tired as he was hoping to one day no longer need to carry those weapons. Merlene was accompanying him today as well as Moonlight Hunter. The pegasus had been excited to be chosen and when asked on the train ride over why, he gave the tom-colt looking pegasus an excuse that it was a bit of a test. Truth was, he was tired and selected the first guard he seen which happened to be her.

They were not the only ones to come along though Dustan didn’t know at the time but Maya rubbed up against his side and he chuckled. “I have no clue how you hid from everyone but I am glad you are here girl.” Seems the Coeurl had missed him and wanted to spend time with him so she had tagged along. She was rubbing her head against his head affectionately as they walked the streets. His little entourage gathered some looks and some unkind words, which he expected, as well as a few darting away from them. He merely rolled his eyes at this and looked a bit bored with it all.

Least he was bored until a squad of guards all surrounded them and pointed their spears at his group. “Surrender the dangerous creature.”

Looking to Merlene and Hunter, whom both gave shrugs of not knowing anything, he turned and asked. “Excuse me?”

The snapping and growl of Maya alerted his sleep deprived brain of what they meant. “That creature, it’s a danger to the ponies of Canterlot. You have ten seconds to comply.”

“Excuse me, this creature is my friend and is with me.” The growl in his voice took on an edge that must have surprised Hunter as she stiffened up a bit while the Falcon patterned griffon tensed up.

“Five seconds!” The guard once more called out this time louder.

“I am too tired for this shit.” Muttered the human before he would move quickly hand flashing red to the guards who all was a bit slow on the reaction but eeped out when they could and backed up. “Don’t threaten me with sticks.”

“These are not sticks, these are bronze spears and you will respect-”

Dustan held out his hand showing a dozen spear heads. “You have sticks.”

The guard looked up from that hand to his spear only to realize that the tip of his spear had been broken off at the shaft removing the head. His gaze was interrupted by the gasps of his fellow guards as it seems they discovered the same thing.

The pony in gold gasp as they felt themselves lifted up and set aside and the spear heads handed over to them. “Now where were we?” Dustan and his crew left the guards standing there all bug eyed as they walked, the only sound from any of them was the satisfied purring of Maya as she was petted as they walked.

“Ok is it me or was that hot?” Hunter asked Merlene making Dustan stumble a bit and go red faced. Merlene wasn’t prepared for that statement either as she also went red faced. “What, it was right?”

“Hunter, just…shut up.” Dustan asked while face-palming.

“Fine.” The short maned pegasus called out though a smile still remained on her face. “Still gonna think it though.” She muttered causing him to groan.

Seems word got around about what they did as a higher ranking guard found them at the entrance to the castle and was apologizing profusely as well as other words but the sleep deprived mind didn’t registered them, Dustan waved it off with him telling the pony. “Sure, just don’t let it happen again. Mind if I get a coffee or something, extra strong?”

The guard saluted and said ‘yes sir’ and ran off, though Merlene looked over at him and asked him. “Don’t you hate coffee?”

“Yeah.” As they walked he saw the falcon griffon give him a look and he sighed. “I am tired Merlene, VERY tired. I spend the last three days hunting creatures with everyone, didn’t sleep too much, and then had a train ride, that you saw me mostly sleep on. I am tired. This meeting is going to start in about an hour. I need something to keep me awake and alert as I have no clue what is going to happen in this meeting. I rather have tea or something but I find tea soothing so it could put me to sleep as much as it wakes me up. I rather not take the gamble and just choke down some coffee.”

Seems that satisfied her as she went back to calmly marching with the two of them as a maid found them and handed off a mug of coffee: Black, extra strong. Dustan hated life at the moment but he could feel the effects working almost right away.

‘Stupid, pony coffee magic.’ Were his only thoughts as his mind woke up protesting the entire way as did his body for what he just drank. “There, I am ready for what may come.”

The doors to his room at the castle were flung open Dustan having rage and fury in his eyes as he came in. “Are you fucking kidding me? Did she REALLY call for funds to be diverted from a charity to invest them in a ‘social gathering to raise spirits?’ She wanted to short a charity for a fucking party!”

Merlene and Hunter had rooms next to his, likely able to hear his complaining as he closed the door and continued ranting. Tossing off his cloak and undressing, trying to get as comfortable as he could for the next couple of days, he knew, or at least suspected, that the rest of his time here was going to be just like this.

Collapsing into his bed he sighed at how nice of a bed this was. He missed his own, but damn was this was a good bed. Sleep claimed him quickly sending him into a black spirally void. The sudden sensation of his body called his attention to this dream as he looked around and couldn’t see anything in the void of blackness, though he had no trouble seeing himself nor the fact that he was standing on…water?

Calling out thinking Luna was trying to get his attention found nothing but an echo. The splash and splatter of his boots hitting this solid wet flooring was the only thing that sounded off in this dark space not counting when he would try again to call for Luna. He felt like he was walking for hours at this pace and it was honestly bugging him

“Luna this isn’t funny. Come on now, I want to get some proper rest please.” There came a glow in response this time, distant and faint. “Ok I can get a hint, I am coming.” Walking towards the glow, it was faint, a colophony of colors were surrounding some kind of boulder as a figure was kneeling in front of it as if resting. The light made it hard to see who it was as he got closer. “Ahh there you are Luna, now what did you want?”

The instant the figure moved Dustan felt the hairs on the back of his neck try to leave his body as the figure stood, bipedal in nature short hair and seemed to be wearing semi-loose clothing. He couldn’t tell their color or even shape completely, he couldn’t even tell if the figure was male or female, all that stood out to him were those silver eyes.

“I can finally see you.” The voice seemed not to come from the throat of the creature, but instead more that it was just…implied in the world.

Regardless the instant the being took a single step towards him Dustan woke up with a start sweat coating his body and pain in his neck as his collision with the floor woke him up. His tossing and turning was something to both thankful for and hate. As it woke him up from that nightmare sure, but now he was fully awake, even if his body wanted more sleep. Looking up at the wall, he had fallen asleep when he got back from the meeting around midnight and now it was four. Four hours sleep, not bad. Not great, not by a long shot but better then the last few days. With nothing to do Dustan made his way to the royal library/archives to do some research into some of the things that were more Final Fantasy in nature, to see if anything popped up that could help him at all.

The noble meetings for the second day were not much better than the first day; Celestia and Luna were at the head of the meeting room, or rather at the Center as the meetings were held in a building that had two floors, those on the rows of the floor. The hall looked like something he had seen in one of those debate rooms, the U.S. senate room maybe? Regardless he was way, way in the back and it was only thanks to this weird little stone on his desk did what the others have to say came to be heard by him. Dustan did seem to notice a pattern…or he hoped it was one. Day one held NOTHING but stupid inane brain melting stupidity in their requests but day two was actually better. The requests still had moronic notes to some of them, but there were actual issues in these.

Sadly nothing he could add to and nothing that pertained to him, so really he was just sitting there doing nothing the whole day. He had to order Merlene and Hunter to jab him in the ribs or pinch him if they saw him dozing off. They did so with more than a bit of enthusiasm as it seems he wasn’t the only one being bored to death by all of it. Maya didn’t seem to care as she had curled up at his feet under the desk, she was at purring away and warming his feet with her body as she lay on them.

His second night ended up the same way as he was in the dark water floored void. Only this time what woke him up was the feeling of being watched and the hairs on the back of his neck standing up again as he turned and saw those silver eyes in the dark. Thus with his night being ruined a second night and morning was spent in the royal archives. He thought he was getting closer to the time period he needed but records from that age were either spotty at best or jumped from year to year without much cohesion to things. Likely a result of the Discordian era

Day three saw him needing another cup of that super strong coffee to see him through things which was good as this time things concerning his people actually came up. Los Pegasus, Manehatten and other places had spoke up in concern as they had seen an increase of meat prices for the local predator species which he spoke up, saying that he had also seen this and was being hit hard. When he had spoken up about the prices Los Pegasus nodded in agreement as many went there to try new things or do things that would stay in the city, Manehatten admitted they were not hit as bad as the other two.

“It seems like this type of price hike is targeted. I will have to send word to Griffonstone to ask why this is. If they are found to be price hiking for the sake of greed then we will levy a fine against them for the lost wages of all those that they have inflicted.” Celestia spoke calmly.

Luna though had a bit of a fire to her eyes. “Sister, with all due respect, you know as well as I that they will make an excuse and that will be the end of it. We will not be able to investigate properly as it would involve crossing borders. By the time permission could be gotten harm may come from those price hikes.”

“Not to mention that it might give those who are doing this for greed to cover their asses.” Dustan had said it almost offhandedly but it was picked up as heads turned towards him.

“Please explain your reasoning behind that Lord of the Everfree.” The rep from Los Pegasus asked him, a bit of a portly mare white in both coat and mane.

“Oh ahem.” Standing up to speak properly and giving another cough to clear his throat. “Well my people are more part of a free market, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t those that would abuse that. In my homelands one could hide behind the red tape of laws to buy enough time to hide evidence manufacture evidence or even make sure they could get things in place to bribe the employee coming to oversee an inspection just to name a few. Because of this those with power tended to be able to hide things easier than others as they had the means to do so. Since this is a border call and it’s clear that the prices are being hiked specifically for certain traders and routes then either this is a personal attack on those this meat is targeting, which I don’t think it is as the quality of meat is still quite good.” The agreement of the other two reps confirmed that. “It means the target of this is money, specifically whom they can get away with it the most with. My castle and its citizens are mixed races from all over; it’s a small community that can’t get meat any other way at the moment, though that is being worked on. As such we HAVE to pay.”

“Manehatten isn’t hit as bad as we have connections to other places like Bitaly.” The representative of the big apple told them.

The city of sin sighed. “That makes sense, my contacts mostly came from the griffon territories and as meat is a popular item to consume during many visitors time in my city then it is a big cash product that we would lose if we stopped. We can pay but if the prices hike much more then the prices are going to become too high to be affordable by the common visitor.” Then the Los Pegasus rep spoke to him directly. “Lord of the Everfree, you said you were working on something, may I care to ask what?”

Dustan was about to answer him except Luna cut in. “While possible trade ideas are interesting, this isn’t the place to air those so as such you may want to discuss those in private. As for the issues that was brought up regarding the delays and possible foul play. I have to admit, it is possible. As such we will send some of our most trustworthy to oversee things.”

“Agreed Sister.” Celestia smiled to her younger sibling. “I couldn’t have put it better myself.”

Sitting back down, not much more was to be had though occasionally he was called to answer a question or two about possible monster activity and if anything like some of the issues brought up might be due to them. From what he heard they all had possible activity but could also be explained as natural things like birds or rodents as well.

The third night of sleep was the worst so far. The figure and the eyes were almost on him as soon as h was aware that he was in the void. He was pushed to the ground and right away used the momentum to get his feet under the figure and push them off with his legs. Flipping to his feet he was ready for their next lunge, but even being ready he was surprised by its speed, it was hard to follow forcing him to throw a punch as well as a knee to make the thing back off. All the while the silver eyes were flashing as if they were lights from a car at night, streaking down a dark road leaving lines of light behind.

Dustan was tired of this, tired of this nightmare ruining his sleep, feeling himself focus up and start to draw upon his abilities he was ready to give this things a beat down it wouldn’t forget…except it stopped and backed away.

“I will be patient. It is only a matter of time.” The eyes would then vanish into the dark making Dustan shiver as now he couldn’t see them but could feel them on him, watching, waiting.

Day three of waking up early as a result of the dreams had his reading come across some passages, the lands of the north were home to a creature baring the resemblance of a graceful female pegasus whose shoes and peytral were made up of ice and who was not bothered by a blizzard raging around them. Another was of a unicorn with a great beard to rival that of Starswirl’s was spotted in a forest calmly reading, but when angered a storm came out of nowhere and lightning struck a tree. When the explorer focused back on where the elderly unicorn was, he had vanished. Dustan was of mixed feelings about those, they sounded like they were similar to things he knew from his world, or rather what he knew of Final Fantasy, but the fact they were ponies had him unsure. However Dustan had enough clues to find he could track these two down if needed with the pegasus being in the north, likely in the area where the Crystal Empire will reappear one day soon. The unicorn was to the west in the midlands of Equestria.

Day four and it seems that the topic that was slightly touched on day three came here full force. Monster sightings and other unusual activity of which nearly all of it was something Dustan could chime in on. Problem was, it wasn’t just Tactics monsters that were making appearances but Final Fantasy monsters in general. Ymir Snails, Goblins of all shapes and sizes, an Antlion, and more all of which Dustan tried to inform about and do his best to give useful information. Seems that was a mistake.

“Of course you would know how to defend against these monster wouldn’t you ‘hero’.” A stallion representative, some noble of some sorts spoke up almost backhandedly.

“Excuse me?” The comment had caught the human off guard and couldn’t help saying that.

The noble just sneered. “You heard me.” The next words he seemed to speak wasn’t just to Dustan but the whole gathering. “Tell me, why is it you are the sole creature in Equestria huh? A person who rose to power by defeating creatures like this that no pony but you knows about? Oh but I am sure it’s also a coincidence that these creatures also started appearing around the same time you were ‘accidently’ sent to Equestria right?” The next words he knew for sure wasn’t for him as it addressed the gathering by name. “My Princesses and fellow nobles. I suspect that the one who is now in control of the Everfree, who has been training soldiers of such caliber they can take on the most elite of royal guard has in fact been sent here by his home country to weaken Equestria for takeover. He knows magic that can be taught to anypony leveling out many nations grievances with our forces right there, he admits to his people using underhooved tactics to get their way just days ago and for some reason has been allowed to carry around a cursed object as he says its ‘safe’.”

That got many to muttering and Dustan was half tempted to move over there and slap the shit out of that noble, but instead it was Celestia who spoke up. “Duke Rampant, I will have you know that I am the one who inspected his sword. I found that the sword is indeed a cursed object but it’s contained making it safe for him to wield. Unless of course you are saying that he bribed me and that I mishandled the inspection.”

The human expected the Duke to flinch and mutter in shame, but he didn’t. “My apologies my Princess I wasn’t implying any fault on your end, I was implying it on his end. He admitted to his people using cover up tactics in other ways, he might have used some of his magic to hide the danger of the artifact from you or in some way.”

Both Luna and Celestia had to call to order the mumbling and discussion that came about from that and though the topics were still important after that, Dustan’s mind just wasn’t into it.

That night no dreams were to be had as Dustan didn’t sleep. Instead the Lord of the Everfree found himself just staring up at the ceiling unable to have sleep claim him. Grabbing his cloak he went to the archives early that day. Finding the book he was reading last time he continued where he left off. He only got one more possible lead that being a large Earth Pony that was said to be able to cause earthquakes with his hoof falls.

Sadly that was where the clues ended and Dustan got up from his table to go grab another book. As he was coming back he heard voices speaking to one another. The first voice sounded almost panicked and rushed while the other was trying to be calm and reassuring. The voices became more and more clear and distinct as he approached and it seems they were at the table he was using just a moment ago.

“Look, the answer has to be somewhere in the Starswirl the Bearded section. So much knowledge is here not just from him but history that couldn’t really be placed in any section thanks to the Discordian Era’s chaotic tampering.” The panicked voice said to the other as the clip clop of hooves were heard, obviously that one was a pony.

“Look I get it. The visit spooked you bad, but if there was some kind of disaster heading our way and was here, wouldn’t Princess Celestia have known about it?” The reassuring voice of the calm one tried to work its magic on the other.

By this point though Dustan had identified the speakers and turned the corner to see them. “Twilight, Spike, what are you two doing here?”

“DUSTAN?!” Both of them called at the same time looking to him curiously.

Spike seemed nervous and remembered something, digging through a bag while Twilight came up to him. “Dustan, do you know if there is a danger coming to Ponyville or maybe Equestria?”

That was a loaded question for sure as he did know about dangerous things coming but nothing he was willing to say. “What is going on Twilight, why are you dressed like a ninja pirate spy?”

Twilight was wearing an eye patch over her eye a black stealth suit, she had a short mane cut now, a cut on her cheek and had the same look he did about not sleeping very well. “It all started with a visit from well…me. She was trying to warn me about something happening in the future, some kind of horrible event or something that was to happen a week from her visit, WHICH IS TODAY!”

‘Ahh that time episode classic. Damn I missed it.’ The future but today unicorn went off ranting about how she and Spike had come there all the events from that day to now which Dustan remembered so fondly. Honestly he was happy to hear about the episode as it was a reminder of things happening and everything going as planned.

“Hey Dustan, I have this for you.” The little green and purple dragon said as he held out a folded up piece of paper. His confusion must have shown as the number one assistant clarified. “You came back with Twilight from the future, you gave me this note and said you would see us again before the week was up and to give this to you. Are you ok? I noticed it when you came back with Twilight the first time that you look like you haven’t slept much and now that I see you again it’s the same as then.”

‘He is a good kid.’ Reaching over and ruffling his little…spine? Fin? He would look into that later. “I am ok Spike. Overworked and overstressed though. So let’s see what future me has to tell me.”

“Oh, he told me that you shouldn’t read it out loud as it’s just for you.” Dustan had halfway opened the note when he was told that, glad to hear it for sure.

‘Dear me. I am writing this from the future, ignore paradoxes like bootstrap and thoughts of grandfather paradoxes for a moment-’ Chuckling at that as he would have thought of that given the chance. ‘In about thirty seconds after reading this note, you are going to hate yourself as you have fucked up the timeline. Don’t beat yourself up over it, it happened, you can’t change what has come to pass, only to make sure that things proceed smoothly from now on. Yourself-Dustan.’

‘I’ve what?! No that can’t be right. I mean nothing has changed at all. Twilight just got done with doing the time episode. But it seems I came back with her this time but I have been in a few episodes now.’ Dustan took a seat and held his chin in his hand thinking. ‘Twilight’s events of the episode are on par for the course as well. The cut, the mane, the suit, eye patch, she even sent Cerberus back to Tartarus where he came from chasing Tirek as he escaped. So now Tirek will hide away at-’ Going wide eyed at that Dustan realized what his past-future self meant. ‘No. No no no. FUCK! The castle was abandoned in the original timeline, a perfect hiding spot, but now its occupied and Tirek can’t use it. Tirek is a major event and if something fucks that up it might change everything!’

The next few hours were spent trying to think of something, anything to turn this around while Twilight and Spike read books around him. However like him they had found nothing to save the situation as the sun was rising. At this point Dustan had read over the note a few times now and went to grab a sheet of paper and something to write with. Making sure he got everything word for word, he burned the original and folded up the new note nicely. He knew what was coming.

“That is it, I will just have to go into the past and warn myself not to worry about any of this, which will fix it.” Not quite the wording of the original Episode, but it kept the spirit of it for sure.

Standing up and palming the note the tired human looked to Twilight. “Guess that means I am coming with you. I did appear in the past with you right?” Nodding she smiled and Spike got to witness the two of them leaving once more with a flash…only to reappear a second later in another flash.

“-don’t over..think…it.” she called out before her lip started to quiver. “I just went back to warn myself to not worry about the upcoming week, but I made it so I will end up losing a week over it.”

“Closed loop paradox.” Dustan called to her tiredly as he sat down yawning. “You go back to stop something from happening only to end up causing it. It is the same with future predictions becoming self fulfilling prophecies where you predict something is going to happen, try to change it from happening, but your efforts to change it are what make it happen in the first place. Many people think these are proof that fate and destiny exists.”

The unicorn looked at him both curiously and in wonder. “Wow, and what do you think?”

“I think-” A yawn interrupted his thoughts. “-that I am dead tired. Hey Spike do me a solid. See if you can send a message to Luna about letting me stay an extra day so I can sleep and if she can do something about some stress induced nightmares I have been having. It’s been keeping me from sleeping well lately.”

“Gotcha. I will do that right now as Twilight and I head back home.” Spike scrambled to get some writing supplies ready.

“Sleep well you two.” He called and grabbed some writing things of his own to try to slip a note to his two guards about the extra time. Hopefully Luna would help him with his sleep.

The breaking and entering duo got back home rather quickly as it just so happened that an express train was about to leave and they had gotten tickets. An hours sleep while not enough, was enough for both of them to get the library in order in prep for some much needed sleep. Spike’s head was dropping rapidly over and over again as he would head up to his basket, but not Twilight.

‘If I go to bed now then my sleep schedule will be disorganized.’ Even as she thought that she was giving a hefty yawn herself.

She needed something to keep her awake something that was easy to do and didn’t require much. Problem was organizing the books after her brief brush with temporal insanity was too big of a job for right now as was cleaning the floors of the library especially after her time travel spell had left her reserves running dry. Studying wouldn’t work as her brain wouldn’t retain any of the information. That left one thing, one thing she had yet to actually succeed in.

Heading over to the mixing bench she would get the various herbs and start to mix them in the bowl crushing them where needed with the mortar. ‘I might as well try this for a while.’ A while…was short lived as she nearly passed out over the bowl of Salve mix before even her organized brain decided that enough was enough. ‘You know what? Buck it. This is a problem for future Twilight. Hehe time pun.’

Heading upstairs she would wish Spike good night, even though it was daytime as she tucked herself in.

Chapter Forty Two: Estrus Escapades Part One.

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My Little Tactics

Chapter Forty Two: Estrus Escapades Part One.

Dustan was looking out his window and out to the courtyard as every female that was a part of his land was heading to Ponyville and every male that was a part of said town, as well as those too young to go into estrus, was coming there. Turns out many species went into estrus at this time as well not just ponies so it was pretty much an understood global holiday week. Thankfully the human’s mind was no longer plagued with nightmares for which he thanked Luna every morning when he woke up fresh and ready for the day. This year he had a few things planned to keep everyone entertained. However there were a few things that he had to check on. Thankfully he had people for that so all he had to do was read the reports.

The BoogyMash ranch, which was the monster ranchers name for her and her partners new area, would still be up and running. The ranch was far enough away from the town so it wouldn’t be a problem and the two newest residents of Luminary Town and Castle, which is what the local residents had now been referring to the Luminary areas as, were eager to get started. Weirdly the owners of the ranch: Boogy Bash and Monster Mash, even now Dustan couldn’t stop himself from rolling his eyes at pony names sometimes, got along with Fluttershy. The pegasus had come to meet the two, an Earth Pony and Pegasus respectively, and discuss her dislike of the idea with the two of them. Applejack had also come with her wanting to see what a ranch was like and see if she could be neighborly and offer any help or advice.

Fluttershy listed all her complaints, the idea about trapping the animals, about butchering them, raising them for this purpose and more. The two ranchers took it well and told her that beyond some safety measures the most that would happen would be the clipping of wings and feathers so some couldn’t fly, a few clippings of claws, and more all while they were out cold. They also had to be trained not to attack anything that got close to them so keeping them in pins for now was the best way. They had plans for free roam cases which is why a lot of their land was given to them for. The pegasus still didn’t like the idea and she made it known…until Applejack spoke up in defense towards the ranchers.

“You know sugarcube, Ah raise pigs right?” This fact had been forgotten by Dustan and was surprised when he heard that but all things considered it wouldn’t have helped his situation anyways.

Fluttershy looked at her a bit strangely. “Yes as pets.”

Shaking her head and laying a hoof on her friend’s shoulder the farmer told her the truth. “No. The farm has a few customers that like meat and though ah don’t approve, we raise fellas up to be shipped off and turned into some folk’s food. However we make sure they are raised with love and affection before they go. We may not do the butcherin’ ourselves but we have a hoof in it. Folks around here need meat to stay healthy they're born that way.”

The buttercream pegasus was in shock having not known these facts and had her lip quivering as she looked to the two ranchers. “W-will you make sure that they are h-happy.”

“That was the plan. Plus it means if we can get these fellas where they aren’t a danger to ponies well isn’t that all the better? Who knows if they get to be nice enough ponies might want to adopt some as pets.” Looking over to a cage where an Aevis was currently asleep. “Remember, all animals even dogs, were once wild. It took ponies a long time to turn them to our friends. We plan to do the same here, but until then, folks need help in other ways and they can help.”

“O-ok.” Was all she could say before Fluttershy took to the air, something she rarely did. It was clear she wanted to be by herself and get there quickly.

The ranch would run as it would before, though there were many signs for no trespassing just in case ponies came to their land, which was all fenced off. Which was a bit of a load off his mind and he could focus on other things. Construction would come to a halt as both Eden and Sturdy would head to Ponyville for two reasons. One Eden and Sturdy were trying for a foal, and second they wished to form a herd so would look for potential mares to join.

‘Good for them.’ Dustan supposed especially on the former reason though wasn’t so sure for the second reason. ‘If I ever start dating ponies then I might have to deal with that. Problem is, with the teleport Glyph being worked on to be easier, do I even want to try to date them. I have already determined I am going to live here, no reason I can’t pop into my world every now and then to try to date right? Hmm seems like it might be a hassle.’

Putting that out of his mind for now the Lord of the Everfree looked at the rest of his issues. Seems they were back in the black for money, which was good. He made a note to go see Finance later to see what swung it back in their favor, but she was currently in Ponyville now. His classes would still resume but only have the foals in attendance and the males that could attend, though many were now working as substitutes in various areas to keep the world running.

The squire would suddenly stop reading and his hand went to his right arm, the unfeeling limb was a reminder of last Estrus season, a year had gone past already. Only three individuals knew about his arm: Patrick and the Princesses, well two of them. Cadance didn’t know after all. Holding up his unfeeling arm he closed his eyes and slowly tried to push magic down his shoulder and into it. As always the feeling of magic, as well as everything else, stopped at mid bicep. Dustan had asked Celestia when he talked with her privately during his extra day at the castle recently if she had considered keeping Philomena’s feathers to make more Phoenix Down and she had told him no. Which means if someone close to him or around him were in need of a revive; until he could learn the spell properly, he had to rely on the two Phoenix down bundles he had left. What else would he have to lose to save them?

He suddenly slapped his face and shook his head to clear those thoughts from his mind. ‘Ok, now to put my plans into action. The foals are going to need entertainment. I have just the thing!’ He would have to set that up after lessons. First things first though. “Hey Side!”

Side, who was covering Merlene’s job, came through the door that he had been guarding. “Yes sir?” Side asked as he stood at attention.

“I wanna run a plan by you.” The pony raised his eyebrow at that as Dustan started to explain things to him. “What do you think?”

“Honestly…” Side seemed to take a moment before chuckling. “I think it wouldn’t just be the foals interested. Might just want to make it an open to the public thing and give the foals the best seats.”

Considering what he was planning it made sense, especially considering there were only males around. “Sure I can do that, though that just means I have to adjust where it’s going to happen. The dining area you think?” Getting a nod from Side he smiled “Alright then, its settled. Mind spreading the word while I go teach? There will be an hour of it at Lunch and Dinner time.” Saluting Side calmly walked to the door and closed it as Dustan sat down and smiled thinking that went over well only to hear the sudden sounds of hooves galloping down the hall making him laugh loudly. ‘Hopefully they all enjoy it.’

The classes went well, especially Apple Bloom who seemed to be getting stronger and stronger, able to cast all the basic abilities of a Black Mage. Sweetie Belle was faltering in the black arts but was excelling in the White ones. She was able to cast Cure, Protect, and Shell now. Scootaloo in her training was actually getting really strong, leveling up as a Knight had her on par with most normal adult ponies which, while slightly frightening, made him proud. She also had a handful of break techniques under her belt, though the ones she used most were Power and Speed rends.

When he asked her why those two she claimed. “Well, I figure even if someone-” it warmed his heart to hear ponies like her using someone instead of somepony. “-was wearing armor if they lost power and speed, the armor would weigh them down. Meaning not only would it make them easier to hit but might make it so they surrender when they can’t move or raise themselves or their weapon up.” He was very proud of her, though it was slightly weird when she put her sword and armor away that she could still stand on her hind hooves. Turns out she had been practicing that and was able to stay up all the time. “You wouldn’t believe how standing up like this makes some things much easier. I can grab two things at once and easily reach so many things.”

Nodding at that Dustan wiggled his fingers. “My people don’t normally have magic, it’s for that we evolved to stand on two legs and have fingers, makes it easier to grab things for sure as well as to use other tools that our brains invent.”

Moving to go back to all fours she smiled and nodded. “Yep, I can imagine.”

As Dustan went to put away his equipment he could have sworn he saw something out of the corner of his eyes a blur of color but it was so fast he couldn’t tell what it was. He only knew it was one color, maybe two. The human wiped the sweat from his brow and decided a soak was in order before lunch as he had just enough time. Heading into the castle he smiled, one of the latest adjustments to the castle was one that they were putting everywhere. Whereas before candles were used now it was magical crystals imbued with a light spell all controlled by a series of dials attached to a wall. Ponies had invented dimmer switches. With that checked off, he made sure to close every window possible.

Seeing that they worked Dustan went up to his room to grab the items in question before coming back down stairs to set up shop as well as to set up the ‘premium’ seats. His seat was far in the back away from everyone else though so as to control things properly. The blue clothed human smiled as he had just finished queuing everything up and running a test when people started to come in. “Welcome everyone, if you have heard we are running something a little special for Lunch time today for an hour and will be doing so again at Dinner time. So please grab your lunches and head to your seats. Children there are premium seats marked off for you that will give you the best spots for this.”

Not just the children but a lot of the adults too went to grab their lunch and take their seats. There were many chattering conversations that started, all pretty much asking the same things of ‘what do you think is happening’ or speculating on what it could be. Moving to the controls for the lights he dimmed them slowly nearly all the way down. Just enough light to see where one was going as well as any food in front of them. Making his way back to his little closed off area, technically it was a little bar that was closed off as the Mares who ran it were not around and all the liquor cabinets were locked up. Having pulled a chair behind the bar beforehand Dustan started the projection of his laptop.

“Pay attention to the south wall please.” Some chattering died off as they all looked as he had his word program pulled up and it read. ‘Please keep chatter to a minimum during the show. Also the show you are about to watch takes place on a fictional world called: Earth.’

He then switched to the program he had pulled up, hit play, and then let his computer screen rest as he focused on the wall as well just in time for the theme song to start playing. “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, heroes in a half shell, turtle power!”

“Oh that seems interesting.” A voice to his left whispered out along with the crunch of some popcorn.

Having not sensed anyone there a second ago it caused Dustan to jump a bit and look to see Pinkie Pie there munching the treat from a bucket. “Pinkie.” Dustan said in a bit of a strained whisper of his own. “What are you doing here. You are supposed to be in Ponyville.”

“Well you see, my Pinkie Sense went off this morning telling me something fun and interesting was going to happen at the castle today. As I wasn’t sure what time it was, I had snuck over here and been watching from anywhere I could. You almost caught me once before, though I had let my guard down then.” Munching another hoofful of kernels she smiled. “Oh I like the orange one, he is a party dude. So am I.”

Rubbing his nose between two fingers Dustan muttered. “Technically you would be a dudette-that isn’t the point I was trying to make here. Its Estrus season, you aren’t supposed to be here.”

She gave a wave of her hoof and made a ‘pfft’ sound. “That didn’t stop me last time to come peek at the stallions. I mean check on, I meant check on.” The blush on her cheeks said otherwise. “Besides, my times are almost always SUPER light which is why I can usually entertain all the mares over in Ponyville. It helps to keep their mind off things that way.”

Sighing as he knew he couldn’t stop the weirdly supernatural party pony. “Look, just make sure no one sees or smells you.”

Smiling, Pinkie held up a can of something. “Oh don’t worry, I have this. Madame Marvelous’ Mare Spray. This spray eliminates the smell of a mare in heat as well as most smells in general. It’s why no pony finds my secret stashes of things as I make sure they don’t have a smell to them. That and their hidden super well”

‘That has to be the most snake oily name I have ever heard.’ He thought to himself. “And you are sure it works?”

“Do you smell me right now?” She said that even as she gave a suggestive wiggle to her eyebrows.

Shaking his head he chuckled at her antics. “Nope, but then again a human’s sense of smell is far weaker than a ponies. I am not even sure if I could tell if a mare is in heat or not.”

“Really? Huh that explains a couple of things.” She muttered that so low that he couldn’t hear her over the show though. After that Pinkie quieted down to watch the show, but would whisper comments to him on which parts she found funny, and was holding a hoof over her mouth to cover her laughter if it got loud. She even gave a couple of cute snorting laughs when something funny surprised him which in turn made Dustan laugh with her.

It wasn’t just her either, the kids and even some of the adults were cheering for the turtles or laughing when they did something hilarious. By the time the hour was up they were clapping and some foals were pretending to be ninjas. However he made sure they paid attention to something. Pulling up his word program once again he showed a message.

‘Tonight at Dinner will be another show, a different one then this that way you all can experience two different things. This will happen every day this way for the next week while Estrus season is going on. Enjoy and remember to clean up your tables.’ With that he closed down the laptop and went to turn on the lights.

“I will be back at dinner time.” Pinkie called from behind the bar in a whisper as he turned back to turn the lights on. When he turned to look again, she was gone.

The turtles were the talk of the day after that, foals playing as their favorite turtle all mimicking ninja movies as they ran around defeating the foot. He couldn’t help himself in some cases telling the children to wait for him there as he ran into the kitchen and grabbed a few things, quickly turning it into a costume and came back out to play with them as the shredder. He had them giggling and running in ‘terror’. It took a team of thirty ninja foals to bring him down as he was dog piled by them as they defeated him with their ninja tactic. Dustan was really happy with having almost super human stamina as if he didn’t, he would swear that alone would have run him ragged. Feeling sweaty once again he took another soak storing his clothing in the little nook provided.

With that done he had an hour to do some paperwork, which considering the state of things was very light. He was done before the hour was up and went to work setting up for dinner. He tried to make the bar area more like a projector booth then before closing the little shutter from the top part of the bar down almost all the way leaving only a slit left and closed the little side door area as well. Dustan could still see the movie plenty well, but it was mostly for show. Plus this way there was a much lower chance of someone looking back and seeing Pinkie if she showed up again of which he had no doubt she would. His extra time prepping things allowed him to set up something that he had not thought of before and it was worth it. As along with dinner, there was now popcorn to give to everyone who came today. Or at least he hoped.

The children burst in through the castle doors into the dining room excited and eager as did some adults, though rushing in or not, everyone was moving quickly. Once more when everyone was seated, Dustan came out of the bar area and turned the lights down low which caused everyone to become hushed. It didn’t seem like he needed to this time but he still pulled up the low chatter sign.

“You there Pinkie?” He asked looking at the movie player on his laptop ready to switch over and press play.

“Yeppers. So what are you showing this time Dusty?” She asked in an excited hushed tone as she moved close to him pulling up a chair of her own.

“You are about to see.” With that he hit the play button and let his screen turn black to watch the show.

The show opened up with a sick guitar playing along with some drums as a desolate landscape was shown with two men in white suits walking funny as they went to this large ornate tube and removed the lid. “Ahh at last, after ten thousand years I am free. It is time to conquer earth!” A woman with a weird hat and questionable chest wear called out.

A large blue-white face in a tube appeared. “Alpha! Rita has escaped. Recruit a team of teenagers with attitude.” It then showed five teens being teleported away in different colors before the opening song started.

“Go, Go, Power Rangers!” The unseen singer called out.

“You are pretty good with foals you know.” Pinkie broke the slight noise of popcorn munching from both of them to say.

Turning to her he gave a confused look. “Huh?”

Giggling a bit she smiled and looked to him. “I watched you play with the foals. You played that shred head guy with kitchen wear all over you.”

“Oh that, yeah that was fun.” Dustan smiled remembering their laughter. “Seeing them laugh and smile like that, who wouldn’t have fun doing that?”

“You would be surprised.” Giving a raised eyebrow of his own this time Pinkie continued as she looked at him. “A lot of stallions, while decent with their own foals are not good with others. They don’t really look to make them smile like that.” Moving to reach over between their chairs she wrapped her hooves around him and gave him a hug “Thank you for that.”

Smiling and reaching up, he would return the hug and even gave her a pat on the head. “No problem Pinkie. I didn’t do that for thanks, but to bring a smile to their faces and have some fun of my own.”

Breaking the hug they both went back to watching the show, or at least he thought they did until Pinkie coughed a bit to get his attention. “Do you think you could pat my head some more?”

Giving a smile he would reach over to pull her chair close and then rest his hand on her head petting and rubbing it. A content smile covered her face as she closed her eyes. Dustan wasn’t sure if she ever got to watch the Power Rangers but as long as she was happy that is what mattered. By the time it was over Pinkie nearly fell over as she had been leaning into the petting so much that his missing presence wasn’t noticed right away. She had such a dopey smile on her face that Dustan couldn’t help but chuckle some. His chuckle must have embarrassed her as she suddenly sat up straight.

As he closed the door behind him the human thought he heard a ‘psst’ and came back to check on her seeing her curly bouncy mane swish for a moment. “What was that? I didn’t hear you”

“Oh nothing.” She smiled though she seemed to be also thinking about something.

Shrugging it off Dustan went to turn on the lights. “Thank you everyone I hope you will enjoy this tomorrow as well and the rest of the week.” The guests left to all go to where they were staying that night and as Dustan went to grab his equipment, he once again saw that the pink party pony of Ponyville had made her escape. In her place she left a cupcake and a note.

The note was simple and to the point saying. ‘Thank you for the nice time. I’m looking forward to tomorrow.’

Taking the cupcake and giving it a bite, it was nice and sweet, and…had a raspberry filling, double nice. ‘Wait would that make this more akin to a donut cause of the filling?’ Shrugging as he didn’t care, he finished off the treat and went to bed.

Same as the other night, he no longer had those nightmares, just a dreamless night’s sleep.

As he was having breakfast the next day Burly Bellows came up to him with a chuckle. “You know I am no wood carver right?”

“Right.” Dustan answered, though almost asked that same word as his eyebrow slowly rose.

Burly clapped him on the back as the blacksmith came to sit down next to him with his own food. “Well then, I will have you know that I have foals of all kinds and species coming to ask me for toy sword this, toy staff that, and other things from the things you showed them yesterday. I had so many request tickets in my inbox this morning I nearly spit out my coffee. That and I have overheard so many foals talking about going to Ms Belle in Ponyville to make them ‘Ranger costumes’.”

The grin on his face was a mile wide as he slowly ate his food. “Hearing that makes my morning Burly, it honestly does. Those shows were a generation before my time but my father had recordings of them and showed them to me as I grew up. I loved them.”

“So what is on the tally for our Lord today?” The smith asked with a smile.

“Well, after breakfast I have some paperwork to do.” The plate was almost empty as he said that taking a big drink of the fresh squeezed orange juice. “After that I have magic classes to teach then melee classes. Normally they aren’t this often but since my work load is a lot less during this week I don’t have a problem with it.”

The mood seemed to shift as it was just the two of them sitting there. “Aye, I reckon at this stage you are good for that.” The smith seemed to be looking at him with intent eyes now. “But eventually that filly you are teaching or anyone fighting like a biped is gonna figure out your right arm is a dud.”

Dustan nearly choked on the last bite of his food as he heard that. “W-” having to take a drink of his juice to swallow he looked to Burly only after making sure no one else was in ear shot. “What are you talking about?”

“Listen hot shot.” The smith poked his hoof against his chest. “I may not be as spry as I once was, but I have worked on armor long enough to know the proper shapes even for creatures I have never seen wear it. I have to know how they move, how they do things in order to make sure nothing pinches or catches. Your right arm, it’s a dud. I suspected for a while now but I have been too busy to watch you in action. Yesterday, thanks to estrus, I wasn’t busy and saw your fight.” Dustan could feel himself go a bit pale at that. “As far as I can reckon, I don’t recall you ever being hurt that bad. You were fine a while back maybe around the time you came back from Manehatten. You weren’t fine about a year ago when I reckon you first talked to me about a shield. I remember your fightin’ style, sword in one hand, those fancy magicks being slung in the other. You were happy with that style then suddenly you claimed you wanted a change. What happened and why are you hiding it.”

Finishing off his food he gestured for the smith to follow him, though the smith did carry his tray of food with him. Once they were at his office he had Burly take a seat as he sat opposite of him. Stacking his paperwork up neatly mostly as a stall tactic he sighed.

Hanging his head down and clasping his hands in a bridge to lay said head down on he spoke to the smith. “What we talk about here doesn’t leave the room, understand?”

“Aye.” The smith said and seemed to puff up a bit, no doubt putting it on his honor as a smith or some like.

“You remember the hydra?” That got a nod from the muscular smith. “It was then. Do you remember the filly you saw me sparing with?” again another nod came from the smith. “She is the reason.”

“Ahh, there is nothing wrong with sustaining an injury in defense of a young one.” The old pony said chuckling a bit.

Dustan shook his head and closed his eyes tight. “I didn’t save her.” The chuckling stopped as he said that. “She got poisoned when the hydra destroyed the cart her and her friends were riding. A sliver of its claw, poison and all, came loose and got in her.”

Hearing a hiss of air Dustan looked up to see the smith drawing in a breath as he was pale beneath his coat. “Sun’s sake. I heard that stuff is right nasty. But that doesn’t explain your injury.”

“I am getting to it.” Pulling out a Phoenix Down from his pouch he placed it in front of the smith. “Do you know what this is?”

Taking out an eye glass from his apron the smith used it to examine the feather. “That right there is a genuine bundle of Phoenix feathers. Used to have an old customer who had a plume on his helm made of these babies. I couldn’t get a hold of them myself but he brought replacements every time. He died of old age a few years ago.”

‘Damn, that spark of hope was quickly snuffed out. Thought I had a source of downs there.’ Pulling it back into his pouch he would tell the smith. “Well, it is like I just showed you, it is an item like my Salve or the healing Potions. Able to be used to do some neat things. For this one…it calls back the soul of the recently deceased.”

Dustan made sure to be looking right into Burly Bellow’s eyes when he said that. The reaction was slow almost none believing for a moment, but the slow steady realization dawned on the poor old stallion. His eyes went slowly wide, his pupils went small and his mouth hung open.

“No…you aren’t say what I think you are saying are you?” The smith gestured to him almost pleadingly.

Nodding a simple nod Dustan finished his explanation. “Yeah, though they do not work one hundred percent like I thought they did. They don’t bring a soul back. Instead it lets you negotiate with the entity that represents death to bargain for them back.” It was quick but Dustan caught it. The moment he finished that sentence, Burly glanced over to his right arm. “Yeah. A piece of my soul to return hers and give her another chance at life.”

“Tartarus colt.” Gesturing to his arm the graying pony asked him. “So he took part of your soul, the part that is in your arm or somethin’?”

“Yeah.” Holding up his arm and pointing to the midway of his bicep. “I asked him to take my arm from here down. I can physically control my arm still but I have to think about moving it. I can’t feel anything or channel mana properly down it.”

Holding up a hoof to his mouth the smith muttered. “So. You can’t sling your spells anymore through that arm since you can’t feel your magicks and you can’t switch to using your sword in that hand since it doesn’t respond like you want.” Nodding to that the smith sighed and leaned back on his haunches. “Which is why you asked for that strap on shield there. That buckler is literally the only thing you can use.”

“Yeah.” Dustan seemed to be saying that a lot today and it was barely after breakfast.

Getting up, the pony held out a hoof to shake. “If it makes you feel any better. I think you did the right thing.”

“So do I. Still sucks about my arm though. Literally has been a year now. You are the first person to catch on. The princesses know though, they are the only ones.” Standing up Dustan would see him to the door.

“You didn’t tell that filly you train. About her dyin’ and you giving up your arm to save her?” Burly asked as they were at the door.

“No, and I don’t intend to tell her either. I don’t want her feeling survivors guilt or anything.” Dustan said before holding up a finger to his lips and opening up the door. “Have a good day Burly.”

Burly looked back at him for a moment before giving him a salute similar to what the Luminary guard gave. “You too My Lord.”

Looking off to the side he saw Sidewinder there standing straight. “I am going to do some paperwork, be out in a bit.”

“Yes si-ahem, Yes My Lord.” Side also gave him a salute as he headed back inside his office.

His work was light enabling him to head towards the classroom early. Honestly it was rather eventful as Apple Bloom moved from beginner mage to intermediate. One moment she was concentrating hard on her ice spell Blizzard. The next thing he knew there was a burst of magic and she had activated Blizzara. Neither he nor she knew how it happened. When asked if she had learned it via the classroom she said no. Though he considered that its possible she figured it out on her own, he chalked it up more to being a Cutie Mark Crusader as no other student that has gotten to that point, Mystic and only Mystic, had been able to learn those spells via anything but the classroom. He was very proud of her and gave her a big hug knocking her large hat off her head for a moment. Bloom had taken to wearing black mages robes during training, hat included. The only difference is her hat had her signature bow on it and a small pin that had the logo of the CMC on it. In fact even when not training he had noticed she took to wearing that hat.

Now that he thought about it, all the Crusaders took to wearing something from their job even while not training. Bloom had taken to the aforementioned hat. Sweetie Belle had a white with red trim cape and hoodie that she wore with said hood having the CMC logo embroider on it so that whenever it was flipped on, anyone could see it on the forehead. Though said hoodie had room for her ears, it reminded Dustan of the cat ear hoodie several Final Fantasy characters would wear. Scootaloo took to wearing a short shoulder mounted cloak so as not to get in the way of her wings. The cloak also bore the symbol of the CMC splayed on the back.

While he enjoyed how well they took to their new roles, he did receive reports of how they used their abilities. Apple Bloom tried to freeze a small kitchen fire. Nice intentions of course, but the large frozen pan took hours to thaw and because of the rapid heating and cooling were later found cracked and unusable. Sweetie Belle tried to cast Shell on a pony who she thought was trying to keep a bed of flowers from hitting her by levitating it. Problem was the pony was trying to put it on a window sill. The magic surrounding her startled her causing her to drop the flowers right on her head through Shell as it was meant to protect from physical abilities. Scootaloo went full Link on a pottery shop because she was trying to kill a fly that was annoying her. He regrets giving her that wooden sword to this day.

Speaking of Scootaloo, her training was going well, though after that morning’s conversation Dustan was trying to move his shield arm a bit more to have it active in the fight. This was both good and bad as his defensive game was on point more than usual, but his offensive game suffered as a result. Not much considering how much faster he was then her by still a good bit. She wouldn’t be able to tell nor would anyone watching as he always took it easy on her, but Dustan could tell.

After that Dustan went to the springs to soak once more. He folded up his t-shirt and pants putting his shoes atop of them as he headed to the spring. His muscles, even if they were not sore, always thanked him when he spent time there making him consider naming it a town treasure. When his soak was finished he went to the little nook to retrieve his clothing and noticed something odd. He thought he placed his shoes on top of his clothes but it was his shirt that was on top. Shrugging, he gathered it all up, dressed and went to do the last bit of paperwork if there was any before setting up.

There was none so he went to setting up the little movie booth right away. Closing the shutters almost all the way, the door closed, making sure the south wall was nice and cleaned and that his laptop was set up properly. Heaven’s forbid he shows them Elfin Lied or something, that would scar the children and the adults considering this was Equestria after all. The next episodes of the classic TMNT were queued up in the play list and a quick run showed everything was working. Once more he set about getting some popcorn set up for everyone even grabbing two buckets for himself to put in his little stall, one for himself and one for Pinkie if she showed up same with a pair of chairs.

Lunch came and ponies quickly took their seats, a small bit of chatter in hushed tones came about, mostly from the children as they took excited guesses on what would happen today. It was like Saturday morning back when he was a kid and that was when all the good cartoons came on. Dimming the lights he came back into the booth and seen Pinkie in her seat with popcorn in hoof. This time the quiet sign was displayed quicker than normal since all were used to it and once more that fantastic old school theme song was played.

“Hey Dustan?” Looking over he saw the pink pony looking at him. The human merely responded with a questioning muffled ‘hmm’ thanks to his mouth being full of popcorn. “It’s hard to see from this seat, mind if I sit on your lap. Plus that will make it easier to pet me.”

Seeing no reason not to, plus petting that fluffy hair of hers was rather nice. “Sure, let me just move my popcorn.” Setting it nearby and making sure to wipe his hands off he would pat his lap and smile “Alright, hands no longer greasy and lap free.”

That sentence was barely over by the time that plump rear landed on him. It was hard to tell normally but Pinkie did have some weight to her that made her stand out to other ponies that were in shape. Not to say it was a bad thing, just a bit of extra padding around her belly and her flanks, haunches, he always forgot the specific term.

She had to wiggle in place for a minute to get comfortable but when he asked if she was comfortable she stopped and looked back at him. “Yeppers, best seat in the house.”

With that she would get the best treatment in the house as well as he started to pet her, gently combing through her mane and rubbing along the fur of her back. It was rather cute as she kept giving sighs every now and then and would kick out her leg like a dog being pet. All too soon though the show was over and Pinkie seemed sad about that. She got up and quickly gave a spray to herself with that anti-scent spray, and to him.

“Hey what was that for?” He was slightly miffed at that but was willing to see if she had a good excuse.

“Silly.” She told him storing the spray in her mane, how he didn’t find it before was a mystery to him. “You had a mare in estrus on your lap for an hour. Even if my heat is light ponies or anyone with a sensitive nose would smell it on you. I guess you are right, humans don’t smell it.”

He had honestly forgotten that part and quickly grew red. “Yeah, thanks.”

Shutting down for the time the lights came back on and he packed it up as the kids ran out. Many of them now sporting colored bands of cloth over their eyes with holes cut out each representing their favorite turtle. As before he became the Shredder and went out to play with the kids. He ran, there were twice as many wanting to play as yesterday. Too bad he purposefully didn’t run fast enough as the foals caught up to him and started to play beat him up with their various sticks and what not.

Getting his butt handed to him by children for a couple of hours works up a sweat and once again he was soaking. This time he made sure to put his shirt at the bottom of the nook. After his soak he was right to make sure as his shirt was now on top like before. Why though? He checked it and really couldn’t figure out why it was taken. Nothing seemed wrong with it, hell he didn’t even smell any of his sweat on it. Deciding that he would try to find out another time, Dustan went about the rest of his day before coming back to once more play the show for the evening.

Setting the Power Rangers playlist up Dustan did his light check, movie and sound check, before going to start popping the popcorn alongside Faithful and the chef’s working in the kitchen. “I am rather proud of you My Lord.”

Hearing Faithful say that, he looked to the personal butler and cocked his head to the side a bit. “Huh, why?”

“You are trying to entertain Foal and Pony alike as well as all residents in this time of stress. You are a good person.” Hearing the older pony say that, he couldn’t help but smile and rub the back of his head.

Looking at him with that smile the human shook his head. “It’s no trouble. My work load is a lot less right now and it shares something of me with them you know?”

The elderly butler simply smiled and nodded, saying nothing as he went back to cooking. Setting the buckets up, he brought back two once again but this time he also brought some drinks. He may not have had a lot of popcorn last time but he had wished he had the soda as the popcorn had made his mouth dry for that whole thing. This time Pinkie was waiting for him as she made grabby hooves at the tub of popcorn and her drink smiling as she did so.

The short haired human rolled his eyes before handing over the treats to her all around the time folks started to come into the hall. Quickly grabbing hold of the door to make sure no one could peek in to find Pinkie he shut it behind him as he waited by the dimmer for everyone to take their seats. He could hear the crowd coming before they actually arrived, the door coming open and everyone filing in, talking loudly up until the point where they sat. Once they sat down they became quiet though positively trembling with excitement. The lights would dim and there were a few excited squeals from foals that brought a smile to his face.

This time he came prepared, having saved a movie on his desktop of just the quiet screen that would play for fifteen seconds before the first of the two episodes scheduled to play. As he sat down this time Pinkie wasted no time to claim his lap as her own seat and wiggled around for a good bit. He supposed it took her longer this time since he just barely sat down and didn’t get a chance to get comfortable himself. Dustan had to move around a bit and adjust himself, even causing a couple of surprised sounding noises to come from Pinkie.

Shrugging that off thinking maybe she enjoyed being shuffled around he was tempted to play horsey with her but decided against it as it might be racist…he actually wasn’t sure about that and wasn’t going to ask. Devoting one hand to petting and rubbing her back the other would be exclusive to popcorn and his drink. Pinkie must have been a fan of Power Rangers as he could feel her excitement around the time the first episodes big battle came around, she was practically trembling on his lap. It only got worse around the time the second episode was happening as she was practically wiggling around at that point. Tensions were getting high in the show and he could tell as Pinkie’s trembling got worse and she was gripping his pant legs rather hard now but he didn’t want to interrupt her enjoyment of the show so he just let it be.

The theme song started to play as the Megazord powered up its sword and it seems Pinkie was happy as he could hear her whisper. “Yes, yes.” Then the zord struck and the enemy was cut down causing some of the foals in the crowd to cheer even as Pinkie gave a bit of a jump bouncing down on him making him grunt out from the force as he heard her sigh quietly. “Yeah~.”

Patting her head caused her to give a start as he asked her. “You were really hyped for the battle there. Enjoy the show.” For a second in the dark he saw Pinkie turn to him and her eyes grow wide for a moment.

She quickly went for her drink but in her hurry ended up dumping it out all over them. “Oh sorry sorry, here let me clean that up.” Grabbing one of the bar towels she quickly went to wipe her legs and the floor before going to his pants. “Oh darn now you are going to smell like soda, plus mare from where I was sitting. Let me just-” Quickly he was sprayed all over even got some in his eyes making them close as he coughed and heard the spray continue to go. When he opened his eyes she was spraying herself and giggled. “I may smell like sugary treats normally but I am not supposed to be smelled at all today.” She told him as she was fanning the mist of the spray away from her face.

“No problem, I am going to go change really quick before the show is over, it has a couple of minutes, I can make it back before then.” He told his fellow booth operator who gave him a bit of a sheepish and apologetic smile.

By the time he got back, the show was over and he turned off the laptop, Pinkie must have already made her exit though not without leaving another cupcake and letter. “Thanks again. Sorry about the mess. It won’t happen again.” The letter was closed off with a lipstick covered kiss. When did she have make up on? Chalking it up to Pinkie being Pinkie he stowed the letter away and led the guests out.

Another weird day down five more to go in estrus week.

Chapter Forty Three: Estrus Escapades Part Two.

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My Little Tactics

Chapter Forty Three: Estrus Escapades Part Two.

Day Three of estrus week. Said to be the start of the toughest three days of the week as the first two are the warm up and days six and seven were the wind down. The peak came at day four but days three and five were nearly as bad supposedly. He never looked at it up close, nor did he want to, so he had to take it at face value if it was true or not. Today breakfast’s had no one joining him, which he was thankful for, yesterday’s surprise guest had given him a revelation that he was being too noticeable, well really just barely noticeable enough, to tell that his right arm wasn’t quite right. So being able to eat in peace was fantastic as far as he was concerned today.

Finishing up breakfast he went to train with his class though did notice something that made him call out. “Diamond Tiara, you seem to be having trouble meditating today. Everything ok?”

“Ugh, I am fine, just…bored ok.” She rolled her eyes as she finished saying that.

‘Ok be a bitch then.’ Shrugging and pointing towards the door. “If you need a break take five minutes and walk around, but if you aren’t back by then I will mark it in your record. Three of those and I talk to your parents and possibly suspend you.”

“Whatever.” She got up and walked out taking Silver Spoon with her.

Meditation continued though Dustan pulled out his phone and put it on a timer as he waited. Almost five minutes to the second Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon came back though he was tempted to mark it on their record as the timer said five minutes and two seconds. Still two seconds, even if one is a bitch, isn’t an excuse to put it on their record, plus he would have to mark it for Silver as well who was normally a good student.

“Please take your seat you two.” Moving back to the board he would write down a couple of phrases thinking maybe it might help his students to meditate if they had a line to repeat in their head.

Magical practice was nothing out of the ordinary beyond fillies throwing fire, lightning, and ice at targets, the regrets were still high about what he had unleashed upon the world. Deciding to put off paperwork till dinner today Dustan let the squires fill in the extra time at the start letting them all know class could run an extra hour longer. So the Squire foals got to try their hoofs at combat practice as well. By the time it came to Scootaloo’s turn he was feeling the heat of the spring air having him take off his shirt.

Apple Bloom was concerned; she had been since meditation class. Normally Diamond Tiara was decent at the activity but the last couple of days she had been out of it. She wasn’t one to worry about her bully but still, not having the bragging ‘I’m better then you’ attitude of her's around was throwing her off. She was strangely quiet and more loner than normal. Then there were times like this where her attention was unwavering as she watched the combat practice that their teacher was putting on.

“Diamond Tiara, are you ok?” Bloom must have caught her unaware as she jumped a bit and looked around as if she was caught doing something.

Frowning when realizing who called her she growled a bit. “What do you want blank flank? I am a bit busy. Tell her Silver.”

“Y-yeah, she's busy blank flank.” Silver repeated from her friend though it was clear her heart wasn’t in it.

As Bloom got closer she thought she picked up something on the wind but it was faint, very faint, perfume maybe? “Look Ah just wanted to make sure you were ok. You have been off the last couple of days since we got to the castle and Ah was worried ok. We may not be friends but it doesn’t mean Ah don’t worry.”

For a moment Bloom thought she got through to her as her gaze softened up before it almost winced and she turned away to gaze back at the fighting. “You know what, leave or stay. I don’t care, just don’t bother me.”

Standing up and moving next to the Farm Mage, Silver called out. “I’ll take care of it Diamond. You just…enjoy yourself.” She then motioned for Bloom who looked at the pampered pony whose tail was now wagging back and forth as she watched the fight.

As they walked away a bit Bloom noticed she was being led to a place where no one was but them. “What’s going on Silver?”

Sitting on her rear Silver adjusted her glasses and looked back the way they came. “Diamond…she…she is in heat. Her first one.”

It made sense to her now, that smell wasn’t perfume at all but her, well perfume still was a good word for it she supposed. “Ah see, so why didn’t she stay with everyone else?”

“She didn’t want to for some reason, saying that she was above all that and could handle it. She isn’t handling it well at all.” A sad look crossed over her fellow fillies face.

“Oh, is that why she got you, so you two could…you know.” Bloom was trying to dance around the words but seems like it just caused Silver more pain as she visibly winced.

“No. I just guard the door to the bathroom so she can…take care of herself.” Again as she said that, the same pained and sad look came over Silver and Bloom had a single thought.

That single thought didn’t remain a thought as her lips spoke it before her brain could them to shut up. “Do you like Diamond, Silver?”

Silver Spoon looked away and was suddenly blushing making her entire face red. “Y-yeah.”

“So do you want her to…invite ya?” That just caused the blush to rush down her face to her neck and made the filly start to rub her hoof against the ground.

“M-maybe. But…she won’t.” The red faded quickly as she said that almost looking like on the verge of tears.

Cocking her head to the side Bloom again had her lips call out her question before her brain said no. “Why not?”

Silver gave a heavy sigh looking back to the way they came. “She is doesn’t like fillies that way.”

“Really, that is strange; most everyone likes both colts and fillies, like me” She thought to herself…except her thoughts were not kept private as her brain hit the broadcast button to her lips for some reason. The instant she registered what she said she clamped her lips shut and her hooves over her lips.

That made Silver giggle a bit but keep looking in the direction where Diamond was left. “Same. She isn’t though. It…hurts. It really hurts you know?” AB caught sight of a sparkle of light that fell from her classmate’s face only to realize she was crying. “I have to hear her call out for stallions names whenever she takes a break for relief. Its whoever catches her attention, if she doesn’t know their name she makes up names. She has even called Mr. Warner’s name a few times and even talked about sneaking to the colt’s side of the spring to watch him bathe but I have talked her out of it…I think we usually have to split up at that point to check in with relatives who we are with here at the castle.” Turning back towards Bloom the tears were flowing heavily making the Farm pony’s heart hurt. “I just…just wish she would call out my name once.”

The hat wearing pony gave Silver a big hug as she soon felt the filly cry on her shoulder.

This time Dustan was prepared. As he was laying his clothing in the nook he had planted a trap. A small packet of incredibly foul smelling flower petals were stashed in his folded shirt. These petals were only odorous after an hour or so from when they were plucked up to ten hours but if they fell off naturally from age or withering then they had no smell at all. If someone took his shirt and unfolded it too quickly, it would release the packet and them in turn and make a noxious odor that would be sure to make anyone gag. Dustan soaked and waited and waited and waited. Nothing. By the time he had gotten out of the spring he was sure that either the trap didn’t work, or the individual in question had the resolve of a steel wall.

‘Or they took my whole FUCKING SHIRT THIS TIME!’ Dustan glared at the nook seeing his pants, socks, belt, and shoes there but no shirt. ‘Sonva BITCH!’ Dustan grabbed his pants putting them on quickly and went to grab one of his socks only for his eyes to widen slowly as he saw the pack that was his trap fall out and open. “Motherf-URP.”

Thankfully one of the unicorns that were part of the guard still around was able to use a scent removal spell from the spring, himself, and the clothing, otherwise it would have been closed for hours. Dustan had to walk back bare-chested but at least he didn’t smell of Elderberries and sewage to put it politely. Though it did leave Dustan questioning on who could have known it was trapped. He had told no one of his plans and rigged the trap right there in the nook. The only explanation was that someone saw him doing it before he got in the spring. Dustan made a mental note to watch for anyone looking at him more than usual and to see if he was followed at any point.

Since he had made time for the squires, and had to search out the guard in question to clear the air of the spring he had to rush to get his equipment ready, as such Pinkie was already in the booth waiting for him. “Hot day right?” She asked him fanning herself in the booth.

“I know right?” He chuckled heading to the counter.

Smiling he ran a quick set up as quick as possible, but didn’t have time to start making the popcorn early. The foals would either have to wait for their treat a bit later than normal or only deal with one episode for lunch. Thankfully the universe showed him the hidden third option of having Faithful on the task as he was late.

“You are a life saver Faithful.” Giving the old man a hug he helped set out the popcorn that was already in buckets as the butler was busy filling the other ones.

“No problem My Lord.” The butler gave a smile and puffed out his chest a bit. “It is a butler’s duty to anticipate his lord’s wishes and to help mitigate disasters where possible.”

Hearing the doors open he gave a smile. “Just in time too.”

Setting out the buckets, and drinks that were now coming as well, Dustan would bring his pair back to the booth handing them to Pinkie as he then set about turning down the lights. Running the program to let it play the TMNT for today, Dustan got to his seat and gave out an ‘oomph’ when he felt something land on his lap and heard an ‘Hmf’ from Pinkie as she must have dropped to quickly on his lap.

“You ready for the show today Pinkie?” As he went to pet her he found that she was already wiggling to find a good spot and her coat was damp. “Pinkie why is your coat damp?”

“Hot day remember?” She sounded a bit off saying that but she was right. “H-hope you don’t mind a wet mare.”

Dustan almost choked on his drink as she said that. “Was that your estrus leaking through?”

Right away her rocking stopped and she turned back to him wide eyed. “What?”

“The joke. That was a pretty dirty minded joke if you think about it.” Dustan laughed quietly as he said that.

“Joke? Oh the joke, right haha.” Pinkie said reaching over to grab a drink quickly and go back to fanning herself for a moment before stopping and trying to get a good position on his lap again.

Eventually the wiggling died down about a few minutes into the show though her excitement about it still leaked through with wiggling. The mare just couldn’t sit still. As he was petting her though she seemed to really enjoy that though it was hard to pet her with her mane and fur damp like it was, so he tried a light scratch. It got a reaction from her alright.

“Mmm.” He stopped and looked up to her at that as she had her hooves clamped around her muzzle.

Dustan started to chuckle. “That nice huh? Hands are nice as they can scratch places like this you never likely thought you needed to scratch or at least not without a back scratcher. Want me to keep going?”

“Yes please.” Pinkie’s voice was almost desperate sounding. She really had an itch she needed scratching.

Smiling at this he kept up the scratching causing those cute noises to start flooding out of the pony. It must have made other places start to itch as she started to wiggle more and more till she was practically moving around like back at the start trying to find a good place to sit on him. Problem was she was starting to rub him just the right way to, but not in a way he thought was appropriate.

When he noticed it he moved his hands to Pinkie’s flanks and touched them this caused her to give out a bit of a louder version of that pleased itching sound. ‘Wait. The movement was rhythmic not the erratic one that would be looking for a good comfortable spot. It was rhythmic yesterday too. She was shuddering and now I can smell…cotton candy?’ Giving a cough Dustan’s mind finally put it together, or at least he hoped he was mistaken. “Pinkie…are you grinding on me?” The movement stopped right away as he said that and he waited for an answer. Seconds ticked by then a minute. No answer. “Pinkie?”

Then the movement started up again, this time no longer subtle, no longer trying to hide what it was. It was a back and forth motion centered squarely on something sensitive of his. Pinkie was no longer trying to hide anything as a needy moan also escaped her throat when she did that.

Dustan’s eyes went wide at this as his grip tightened to stop her. “Pinkie, we-”

“Dustan, please.” She called him by his name, not her little nickname she had given him, she was serious. “Please, I need a friend right now. Help me please.”

The shuffling and grinding got harder, faster; he could hear the fur rubbing against his pants loudly in the booth seemingly like it was too loud. “Pinkie I-” He would be lying to himself if the sound of a female in need like this, rubbing against him for pleasure didn’t set the male part of his mind a flame.

And it seemed as if the part of his body that went with it also agreed as he felt dampness from the mare on his lap as she started to focus more on it. “Dustan, please.” He thought she was going to beg him once again but instead she voiced a different issue. “Your hands. Lower. My cutie marks, hold them.”

Every part of his mind that dealt with logic said this was a bad idea. That if he did this it would cause issues and problems down the line. The part of his brain that was dealing with repressed sexual urges dropped kicked that part of his mind into a coma. His hands went to those balloons and gripped tightly shortly after hearing that request.

Nothing was said, least not in words. Actions were the only thing speaking at the moment as Pinkie picked up her movements. She wasn’t the only one now as Dustan found his hips moving with her giving low sounding grunts that he was surprised to hear from himself. Pressed up against his pants he could feel that they were slowly becoming more and more soaked and as such he could feel more and more detail around himself specifically the winking of the mare on his lap. It was a strange and alien feeling for sure soft yet with an urgency all its own a counterpoint to the hurried and harsh grinding movements of their owner.

Even more when the pink mare atop of him shuddered and he could hear her cry out a bit as she must have been biting her lip. The feeling along his pants, that wetness increased as Pinkie jerked a few times before calming down and leaning against him giving a happy sigh. She nuzzled up against him as she gave a big breath in.

“Thank you.” Seems the mare was content with that minute or two of rubbing.

Problem was that someone else wasn’t. Pinkie’s eyes shot open when the movement didn’t stop and gave a bit of a yelp. The grip on her marks had increased as did the grinding from her partner and normally she might comment on sensitivity and the like, but her estrus addled mind just kicked that part of her brain like she was apple bucking. It was all so she could focus on the bucking that was happening right then.

Pinkie was not a virgin; she had a few times where she went to an adult party and made a mistake or two. They were short lived and didn’t last a minute. Most she had was two, which was a bit above the normal for a Stallion. Dustan didn’t stop. The estrus part of her mind was definitely happy, sure it wished it could have actual sex, but with how much of this there was it certainly wasn’t going to complain.

It had been over two years since he had time to ‘appreciate’ himself in this way, he was always too busy. If one didn’t count what happened in Manehatten with Cadance, which he didn’t, then he had been celibate for a long time. Nearly after the robbery, his brain just kept getting reminded of his past and he couldn’t go through with it. Two years in Equestria though had battle hardened him, taught him skills no human ever has known in his world and most of all. It gave him time, time to recover, time to heal and have those old wounds scar over.

Because of that the human might have gone overboard with his desires just a bit. By the time he felt his release happen he had a puddle of pink happy pony in his palms only accented further as he bit her neck making her hooves clamp over her mouth as he could hear a loud muffled squeal happen as she shuddered hard. His pants, such a casualty in this battle, good work soldier you will be remembered. Were a thought that came through the haze of pleasure as his hands slowly let go of Pinkie. He was worried as she almost melted off his lap and collapsed to the ground of the bar area still shuddering and from the looks of her eyes nearly rolled back into her head she was a bit out of it.

There was just a bit of an issue. The time it took for him to realize what Pinkie was doing, it was about ten minutes. Their ‘activities’ took about thirty five minutes. There was only fifteen minutes left of the showing and his pants were swimming in the aftermath.

“Pinkie, Pinkie wake up.” He rocked her gently to try to wake her up but she just kept shuddering. “Pinkie. I have to go change but I can’t leave the bar as I am pretty sure I smell like I have been bathing in you, which at this point might not be wrong. Where is your spray?”

The shuddering pony said nothing, did nothing. Her mane though seemed like it opened up and the can rolled out. Seeing it was the same spray he started to spray himself, his crotch and pants, Pinkie, the air, everything. He quickly rushed out of the booth lights still dark and went to change.

As he was changing his boxers he looked down at his still excited self and glared. “Traitor, that was not the time nor place to do so. We basically just took advantage of a friend in need there.” Quickly putting his clothing on, Dustan made his way back down the stairs with five minutes to spare. Inside the booth Pinkie was still giving off spasms occasionally but nowhere near as frequently. ‘Still?’ Dustan was a bit amazed but he couldn’t help smiling as his male side felt its ego swell a bit at a job well done. Before he went out of the booth to turn the lights on, he gave one more spray to make sure nothing leaked out. The lights would come back and thanked everyone for doing such a good job at the screening and to look forward to dinner time.

As they were leaving a stallion walked up to him and asked. “Hey, if it’s not too much trouble, mind making enough cotton candy for others. A few of us could smell it coming from the booth back there and we wanted to see if that could be added.”

Dustan’s mind was chanting ‘Think unsexy thoughts, think unsexy thoughts.’ All the while he tried to keep from blushing and simply nodded to the stallion. “S-sure, I will see what I can do, no promises though. I didn’t think the smell would be that strong.”

“I will also have to see if one of those fillies is in heat and send them to Ponyville. I could swear I smelled one during the show.” The stallion mumbled as he walked away.

Once they were out Dustan rushed back to the bar turned booth expecting Pinkie to have pulled her vanishing act but no. She was still there, now passed out on the floor with a goofy smile on her face and eyes closed. That was a disaster, he had no way of sneaking her out without it being obvious and if he went to put a mare in heat into bed people WOULD talk.

Trying his luck again he was shaking Pinkie once more. “Pinkie wake up.”

For whatever reason, this time it worked as the mare’s eyes slowly fluttered open letting those baby blues look back at his brown ones. “Hello there Dusty or maybe I should call you Muddy from that?”

His face flared hotter than the sun as she said that and the fact she gave him a rather seductive smile as well. “Look um can I ask you a favor? Meet me up in my office; we need to talk about what just happened.”

Stretching for a moment like the cat that just got the cream, she missed it only by some cloth though, the smile turned back to friendly as she gave her signature. “Okey Dokey Loki.”

“Good.” He turned around to collect his laptop. “If you could do so stealthfully like you do a lot of things lately that would be-” Turning around, she was already gone. “-great.” As head went back to his office he closed the door only to turn around and see Pinkie in the guest see. “Ahh.” Jumping a bit he felt his heart thump in his chest. “You know, I called you here, I should have expected you, but for some reason I didn’t.”

That made the mare giggle and stick out her tongue playfully. “Silly Dusty.”

Setting his laptop down and taking a seat he sighed and leaned back in his chair. “I’m…sorry.”

“Huh?” Her simple response confused him as she tilted her head. “About what?”

Opening and closing his mouth a few times to speak it took him a moment before words actually formed. “For taking advantage of you back there.”

Erupting in laughter Pinkie fell off the chair and rolled around on the ground turning the worried look on Dustan’s face to a frown. “Is that what you think happened back there? Is that what you call putting to shame any coltfriend I have ever had?”

“Y-yes?” His confused answer just spurred her to laugh even more. “Ok then, I am guessing you don’t feel the same way?”

Getting her laughter under control, which was hard for the pony that represented that element, she got back in the chair. “Not at all. That was wonderful and just what I needed.” Looking at him with a bit of a sheepish smile to herself. “You see, I told you the truth the other day. I almost always have super light heats. Problem is a keyword there. ALMOST.”

Tick, tick, tick, DING. “OH so this time-”

He didn’t get to finish that sentence as Pinkie did for him. “is not super light no. I would say it’s about average to a bit heavy.” A bit of a dopey smile came to her face suddenly. “I have to say, you don’t have much of a scent normally, but when you really get going like that, oh boy do you. Not to mention when you cu-”

“That is nice to know Pinkie and will keep that in mind.” It was Dustan’s turn to cut her off with his face flaming as it was. “Still though, that was a bit of a mistake. You are in estrus so aren’t thinking clearly and I…have gone a LONG time without.”

Pinkie tilted her head at that and looked to him. “What are we talking about a couple of months or-”

“THAT!” Dustan said as his neck ears and basically some of his chest turned red in embarrassment. “IS NOT THE ISSUE!”

“Oh wow.” The party mare said almost in a whisper. “Years then.”

Groaning and face-desking Dustan wasn’t winning this one and he knew it. “Look, let’s just, agree that this won’t happen again.”

“I-” Pinkie stopped and for a moment looked like she was about to say something else but shook her head. “I will try.”

“Good. See you at dinner time I guess.” Dustan waited a moment for an answer but nothing, looking up he noticed she was gone. ‘Ok brain, on a scale of one to ten, how badly did we fuck up?’

‘Yes.’ His brain responded without wasting any time.

Except for another part of his brain which was currently off in a corner smoking a cigarette with a satisfied smile to its fake face. ‘I don’t know what you are talking about, we did great.’

‘Shut up part of my brain that controls my dick, I didn’t ask for your opinion!’ Dustan called out to the recesses of his mind. ‘And stop that, we don’t even smoke!’

‘First off, you don’t need my opinion, you have Pinkies and she said we did JUST FINE.’ That part of his brain then proceeded to flip him off. ‘Second, whatever, I can do what I want.’

‘…did…did I just Cartmen myself?’ Frowning at that Dustan never hated himself more than he did at that moment.

Moving to continue on with his day though a bit later than normal, Dustan dressed up as the Shredder once more. This time there were many foals there, some he had not seen before all ready to give him the business. Hell he even seen Diamond Tiara among the group with a smile on her face, though he half expected it was more to beat on him then from the enjoyment of his company. She led the charge against him and this time he met it head on, which lasted as long as the word charge before he was piled upon. Even the pompous little pony was part of the pile right at his neck giggling and rubbing at him.

Dustan thought that was a nice surprise and seeing a happy smile on her face made him ‘fight’ even harder which seemed to be what she wanted. The fight lasted a good while back and forth through about a dozen pony piles but each time he could make out Diamond Tiara’s face somewhere close to him always giggling. He was a bit worried for her when things were winding down as she looked a bit dazed and overheated from the day. He was about to ask her if she was ok when Silver came around the corner and saw her taking care of her right away and thanking him for looking after her.

As he got back to the kitchen Dustan was putting the pans back to be washed and noticed that one of the foals must have spilt juice or something on the handle of one of them, as it was only on one side. But it was positively soaked. Giving a quick sniff of it he pulled back and was confused, it was stick like juice but smelled like…sparkling water? Shrugging he washed the pots and pans like he normally did before heading to the bathing area. This time he said fuck it and kept is clothing within sight and off to the corner of the spring. His shit wasn’t going to get stolen this time! By Celestia’s solar sized ass, it worked! His clothing was spared, kept in order, and under his command as he went back to his office to catch up on any paperwork he had. Surprisingly he had none, allowing him to once more come down a bit early.

This time though without as much blush as he could asked the butler. “You think we could make cotton candy this time?”

The elderly stallion took a moment to think but then nodded. “I think we can add it since you asked early enough.” Turning to his fellow chef’s he called out. “Gentlecolts, you think we can give the foals a sweet treat?” Amazingly the chef’s called out with great gusto ‘Sir Yes Sir’. “There you have it My Lord, it will be done.”

With that not only was popcorn and sodas given out, but now cotton candy. He was just starting to set the treat out alongside the others when the doors opened and the first foal went wide eyed at seeing what was there. Dustan had to make an emergency dive out of the way as a stampeded came towards him. He had to count his fingers to make sure he got the right count and panicked as the first time he counted nine but remembered that for some reason he counted his thumb as a finger the first time. Instead he counting them as digits he got the appropriate number of ten the second time around.

With everything set up, the children all enjoying the new treat, Dustan dimmed the lights and was greeted by the smiling face of Pinkie as he closed the booth door. “Hey there, I see you got something sweet for everyone.”

He had brought a tray with him this time with all the things on it and would hand over her half of the items, though she declined it for now before setting the episodes to play and moving to his chair. “Oof.” He called out as he sat down and so did Pinkie, right back on his lap, though this time facing him, nuzzling her face right against his neck. “Pinkie I thought we agreed we wouldn’t do anything.”

“Well we aren’t right? Snuggling is ok though right, it’s just petting but better.” Even though it was Pinkie, and he didn’t want to risk another instance of things happening, he had to agree that she wasn’t wrong on that front.

Sighing and petting her head, she was not damp this time. “Ok, but no funny business.”

“Right, no jokes.” She said though had a smile on her face.

There was no wiggling this time either, Dustan was just petting her and she was giving pleased little sounds in response. “This is nice.” He couldn’t help but add.

Pinkie gave an affirmative little ‘mhm’ before she would then lean in and takes a sniff and ask. “Hey Dusty, how come you smell better at your neck?”

It took a moment to realize what she was asking and another second before his brain went back to biology class. “Oh, that is one of the places humans emit stronger pheromones and musk. There, the armpits, behind the ears, and at their crotch.”

Leaning up she smelled near his ears and smiled. “I like your neck better.” She held her hooves on his shoulders as she leaned back some.

Her eyes looked into his, blue meeting brown once more as a soft sigh escaped her lips as her hips moved forward. A sigh of pleasure came from Dustan’s lips as well as he looked at her not saying anything for a moment. Truth was, remembering what happened at lunch didn’t make his lap the most comfortable place at the moment but she had not said anything even though she likely felt it from the start.

“We, we really shouldn’t.” He shuddered a bit as her hips moved more meaningfully rubbing up against him in a way that until early today his body had been deprived of. “Plus, didn’t you promise?”

“I didn’t.” She said sighing and rubbing down more intensely and Dustan realized she was feeling his shape against her. “I couldn’t. If I tried to Pinkie Promise then I would have lost a friend.”

His hands went down to her marks making her whimper some as he helped her increase the pressure against him and he in turn started to move. “Then you knew you would do this?”

She shook her head quickly causing her curls bouncing back and forth. “No. But I knew at the same time that it might and didn’t want to risk the chance. You can’t just do what you did to a mare and not have her wanting another go.”

“I-” His words caught in his throat as they moved.

This time it wasn’t the frantic of lunch, but a more calm and collected movement. Each time Pinkie would orgasm, the look on her face as a content smile came over her and her eyes fluttered shut, though not before he saw her eyes moving upwards. The cotton candy scent that he now knew was Pinkie’s personal scent had grown strong from that point and only grew stronger as time went by. Time ticked by, marked occasionally with whimpers, sighs of pleasure, and pleased shuddering. By the time he was close the episodes were almost done.

She must have sensed how close he was as she looked at him and whispered. “Do it, bite my neck like last time. That felt really good.”

Moving quickly, both with his mouth and his hips, Dustan quickly got to his orgasm as well. Though the moment he bit her she seemed to get one last good one if the choking sound she made as she shuddered harder than ever before was any indication. The afterglow was great especially holding the plushy pink party pony in his arms and he had to admit, he would have loved to stay there longer. But looking at the time he slowly lifted her up causing her to groan a bit in need.

“Pinkie, we got to spray off and I got to change. Pinkie-” He was cut off as she slammed back down for a moment and if it wasn’t for his pants well he would be very much very deep inside Pinkie.

His reaction caused her to giggle a bit as she lifted back up. “There. Feeling better now.”

Though her giggling never went away, just died down to allow her to speak as it seems she had a bit of a fit coming right now as she pulled out the spray and started to give the air a good cleaning as well as them. Watching her walk around though he did notice she was a bit wobbly in the legs inflating his male ego another good bit. With that solved and the lights off, Dustan quickly ran upstairs changing just as fast.

His brain though came up with a comment as he was running. ‘Were you expecting and hoping that would happen again?’

‘No why would I do that?’ He responded to his internal thought process.

When the answer came back, he wasn’t happy to hear his thought. ‘Why would you ask for cotton candy then unless you were hoping to cover up the scent?’

‘I…I wanted to give the kids and those adults that wanted some a bit of cotton candy?’ However even as he thought of that he knew it was an excuse. He just wasn’t sure if it was a true excuse or not.

Making his way back down he made it just in time with about a minute to spare. He left his player going for a bit longer as he turned on the lights and let everyone out wishing them all a good night. The adult from earlier today thanked him and patted him on his shoulder. With the guests gone he went to find Pinkie only to find her splayed out on the chair relaxing.

“What if someone else other than me walked in just then?” He had to know what she would do, what kind of cheeky answer would she give.

“Well I knew it would be you, otherwise my Pinkie Sense would warn me.” Yep there is the cheek, though likely it was the truth as well. “So I was wondering.” She hoped out of the chair and looked at him hoof rubbing across the tiles. “If you want, I don’t have to be back at the bakery if I am staying over at a party. Do you want to have a bit of a two pony party in your room?”

If his eyes grew any wider he would be an anime character, his brain chanting ‘YES YES YES!’ but his mouth opened and said. “No.” ‘YOU FOOL!’

“Um…why?” Pinkie asked as her ears flattened and her tail curled up against herself. “I mean, you liked what I did right?”

“Yes…I did Pinkie.” That brought her smile back. “But that is why I can’t accept that invite.” Her smile faded to a look of confusion. “If we set this ‘party’ back to my room. It won’t stop with what we did.”

That dopey grin came back to her face. “I mean if you wan-”

“No. Pinkie no.” Sighing and looking to her. “I feel bad as it is as it feels like this is your estrus talking. I am not good at reading signals, you all know this. But, if I did this, went further with you, and it turned out it was your Estrus talking and you regretted it after. That, that would hurt so much not just me, but you as well I think. Our friendship wouldn’t be the same after. Hell I am not sure it will be the same after this but it can be very close at the least. If we cross that step though, it will change, I just. I rather make sure the change is wanted you know?”

Seeing those big eyes widen before shimmering with tears he thought he fucked up somehow but she just stood up and gave him a hug. “Ok.” She gave one last squeeze before he felt her lips press against the side of his face. “Um, same time tomorrow for more of the smaller parties?”

She dropped down but his face showed his shock, was she asking what he thought she was. “Wait are you saying-” His answer came from her looking over her shoulder as she flagged her tail up letting him see everything. She left with a wink and not from her eyes.

Dustan had a hard time sleeping that night; he was still convinced that once everything calmed down from Estrus that Pinkie would hate him and what he did. The other part of him was sure it would be ok just with how she acted. The stress the two sides of this conflict caused were horrible on him though eventually sleep did claim him.

Chapter Forty Four: Estrus Escapades End.

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My Little Tactics

Chapter Forty Four: Estrus Escapades End.

Day four of estrus week saw Dustan waking up a bit groggily from his brain keeping him up later then he wanted. The human looked at himself in the mirror as he got ready for the day and gave a solemn swear, if things continued like they were he would, he would allow it. However if Pinkie tried to go even further he would put a stop to it. The Lord of the Everfree knew he couldn’t cross that line because if he did there would be no coming back for either of them. This was also forcing him to look at things a bit closer. How did he feel about Pinkie?

He viewed her as a good friend for sure, funny, weird but in a good way, she always was good to cheer you up and was there if you needed it, her baking was on point with a master, and she knew how to throw a party to every ponies needs, though she was still working on that for him. Chuckling to himself he still had managed to not tell her when his birthday was, at this point it was more of a game for him then it was to keep the info out of her hooves.

Shaking his head as he got off track Dustan looked at his reflection and asked himself a big question: ‘Can you see yourself with Pinkie in the future?’ He stared at the doppelganger for a good long while but no answer came for either positive or negative. Another question came to him after that void of response. ‘Can you see yourself with ANYONE in the future?’ The same as last time and honestly the response was a bit worrying to him. He gave it one last try though he already had a feeling he didn’t like the answer. ‘What can you see for yourself for the future?’

This time his brain did conjure up some thoughts, mostly to do with the castle, training ponies, guards, and…that was it. There were no specifics, there were no goals, no future he had in mind for his little slice of Equestria. This disturbed him more then he wanted to admit however when he tried to think of his future in the human world, his answers were lab rat or some kind of show man using the powers he had gained here to do so but then the faces of the friends he had made over here appeared and those thoughts vanished.

‘I need to find my future. I can’t see it right now but some day right? Will I know my future when I come across it though?’ Those thoughts were for later for sure as it was time for breakfast.

In the dining hall he had a few individuals pop by as they were finishing up their meals to say hello but for the most part he was left alone. Meditation and spell practice were not much better but for a different reason as he had to remind Diamond Tiara to pay attention and try to meditate, but for some reason her eyes kept wondering back to him as if trying to gain…something from him. Deciding to check levels Dustan chuckled to himself as he saw AB and Sweetie had leveled up, making their levels comparable to many of the Elements of Harmony when he had first examined them with Scootaloo topping both of them.

Speaking of the orange filly she strode confidently into the little training area spinning her wooden sword as she was already on two hooves. It was a bit absurd how her level had risen, but then again personal combat training with him must have counted for something and what is more because of the last few days training he noticed her level had increased a few times. When she charged in to attack him her speed was still lacking compared to other job classes but when their swords clashed it surprised them both that when Dustan blocked with his own sword that both their swords shattered.

The clinking of wood against the ground stopped the fight for a moment before Dustan called for some replacement weapons. The training swords were a lot less resilient then the wooden sword that he had given Scoots as a present a while back but that was the point of the training swords to be quickly made and disposable if need be. So seeing that straight blocking wouldn’t work with his sword he relied on his training shield though it was barely holding on any better than the sword. He heard it creak against the blows which if he could feel in that arm he was sure that he would feel it as well.

Backing up Dustan smiled and called out to her. “Honestly Scoots, I think training with you like this doesn’t really help you anymore. You have a good grasp of what it means to fight another knight after all and your own skills.” The filly was about to protest when he grinned “So let’s change it up.” He switched his class. “It’s time for you to fight against something else. You are used to going against another power type, so let’s see you handle a speed type.”

The speed increase from Knight to Ninja was quite big as he started moving around getting used to his speed once more but he knew he could go faster and held back on purpose. The reason became obvious when Scootaloo went to strike at him after getting used to his speed and trying to predict where he would be next. A burst of speed at the last second caused her big issue as she went from nearly hitting him to finding his sword at her throat and confused how it happened.

“Again.” She called out which made him proud to see that she wasn’t giving up. Sadly the results ended up the same again and again and by the end of their training Scootaloo had to ask him. “How am I supposed to hit you if you keep moving that fast. I can’t keep up.”

He booped her nose causing it to scrunch up as Dustan told her. “Right now you are thinking with what you have, while nice and refined now, is very limited. You should think about expanding things. Also instead of trying to chase after me, you should make me come to you.”

That caused her to frown and think about something and then suddenly ran off as if she had the answer heading towards her friends. Regardless of what it was it was time to bathe and like before he brought his clothing in with him except this time was different. He heard the sound of clips and clops from two sets of hooves as it seems like someone was coming to join him in the springs today except they stopped. They came no further then the nook prompting Dustan to try to get out of the water. Problem was that when he did the sound of water running off him caused the twin sets of hooves to gallop away. He was tempted to go chase after them and while nudity was allowed for all species, he still wasn’t about to cross that barrier just yet if ever.

Finishing up his soak Dustan got out and dressed before going to check on paperwork, if it was not within acceptable levels he would work on it some and if it was then he would put it off for later. It was the latter so he went to help with the popcorn and cotton candy before going to set up his equipment. This time when he set up his equipment he brought some extra things with him though he felt guilty for bringing them. Pinkie was waiting for him with a smile on her face but in his chair only having the one in there this time. She knew what she wanted and honestly it scared him a bit but he knew that he did too. Setting up everything, running the wireless speakers the sound tests, visual check, light check, everything was running smoothly.

Everyone got to their seats to watch the show, though when Dustan got to his he felt himself almost tackled as Pinkie wasted no time in starting today. “Can you take off your shirt?”

He almost wanted to ask why but honestly he had been around many shirtless before so it didn’t bother him at all. The party pony seemed to appreciate it though as she practically rubbed her face all over his chest and ran her hooves over his abs. Once she had her fill of that she pressed her chest and barrel against him as she once more started up her movements. There was no uncertainty in either one’s movements as they were both ready for this, hot and heavy.

Well the uncertainty only lasted so long though as the human felt his belt and zipper being undone. “What are you doing Pinkie?”

“Getting your pants off. I want to feel more of your skin.” She said breathing heavily against his neck.

He was of two minds for that, though eventually told her his answer. “Ok, but my boxers stay on.”

“Kay.” Was the only thing she said as both human and pony worked to push his pants down his legs and off him, causing him to kick off his shoes in the process. When she sat back down she gave a pretty loud moan that she muffled against his neck. “Oh this is so much better and your cloths here are so much softer.” She then came up and whispered to his ear. “And I can feel you so much more.” She told him causing his face to grow a bit more red and for him to give out a bit of a moan himself as her lips sealed around his earlobe.

That feeling made him redouble his efforts making his partner voice her appreciation against his ear in a shuddering whimper. She didn’t let go of his ear not that time nor the few times after as she kept sucking and running her tongue along it as her needy sounds kept getting worse. Honestly he was enjoying himself quite a bit but his haze of pleasure cleared quickly as his brain sent out an alert. The button on his boxers was just undone and he was now in her hooves.

Her lips had left his ear and she was staring down at him with a smile on her face. “So that is what you look like. Its different but I like it.”

“Pinkie stop.” It took nearly all of his will power to get those words out and to her credit she did. “I…I have to draw the line there. Going any further is something I can’t do right now.”

“Are you sure?” Her ears canted back as her voice sounded so wanton that he couldn’t help but respond with a throb. “It doesn’t feel like you are sure.”

His voice caught in his throat as she rubbed the frog of her hoof over the tip of him only to watch that pony bring it up and lick the sticky residue that was left behind and shiver. ‘Did…did she just cum from that?!’

“Mmm, nice and salty. So much better than popcorn.” Her body moved to lift up some and he knew what she had planned.

It stopped her as his grip on her marks tightened. “No Pinkie. We either go back to what we were doing or we stop.”

She looked at him and again whimpered with her ears drawn back, but his face was a mask of resolve this time. “Ok.” He shivered as he felt her put him back inside his clothing and button it back up. Once that was done however did Pinkie resume her ride at double the pace of before.

She wasn’t the only one as Dustan bit down on her neck causing her to have to muffle herself against his neck as he also matched her pace. With the limits put in place Dustan’s mind let go and he gave into all his urges that he could even so much so that he moved from the chair and pinned the pony to the ground which apparently was a move that pushed her over the edge rather hard as her movements died down a lot after that one and it was clear that she was just barely avoiding passing out completely.

At the end he was laying atop of her holding her by his hands and the grip with his teeth at her neck, her limbs were noodles as they were limp and splayed out. It was like the first time when he started to do things with her a couple of days ago. She just lay there twitching spasming and giving the occasional whimper. He had kept the spray from that time as well so he used it well in spraying everything off, but this time he didn’t need to go change. The items he felt guilty for this time were an extra set of clothing which he changed into.

“That is a nice look on you.” Pinkie had come back as he was changing; currently wearing nothing but his Hearths Warming day present the pendant from Rainbow Dash. “The nudity not the feather. Though that looks like Dashie’s, oh wait I remember, that is from Hearths Warming right? The one that lets you walk on clouds?”

Seems she was recovering quicker than she did last time. “Yeah, I actually haven’t got a chance to use it to see if it works, but I wear it all the time. No reason not to after all, why risk falling through unexpectedly when you can avoid it right?” He was pulling up his boxers when Pinkie came over and stopped him for a moment.

She tugged down his boxers just enough and kissed his tip causing him to grow weak in the knees for a moment. “Thank you.” Raising up she then hugged him and surprised him. “And thank you.” It was unexpected and warm and he honestly felt his arms wrap around the mare and hug her before she pulled away from the kiss. “Mmm, will have to do that more too.”

Dustan’s brain had taken a vacation at that though it came back when he heard the end theme song of the TMNT playing. “Shit, shit, shit.” Quickly getting the rest of his clothing on he shut down the projection and went to turn on the lights. His guests left with a smile none the wiser at what had gone on in the booth. Heading back inside he found Pinkie was gone but there was an envelope waiting for him.

The envelop had only three words written on it: ‘Open in private.’ Taking his equipment and clothing up to his room Dustan put everything away and looked at the envelop before opening it. Inside clearly taken from the booth was one picture. It was of Pinkie on her back rear legs spread and her front ones holding herself open and written on the margin of the photo was ‘Will be thinking of you so here is something to help you think of me’ with a heart at the end. That was going right into his safe with the envelop with it.

More and more he was thinking this was a mistake, sure estrus didn’t stop the mare inside from being who she was but it put all her desires and wants for sexual gratification to the forefront of her mind above everything else, even worries and concerns they might have. Today was the worst of it too, so it should start to calm down after this right? Dustan really hoped so as more and more it was starting to hurt after it was done and those regrets kept flooding his mind.

Sadly he couldn’t play with the foals that day; turns out a few stallions got into a fight and ended up breaking a few things before they were broken up. He had to sign and cross check on medical bills, make sure to pay out things to cover the damages to the property that he owned and then put up the money to have things fixed for those houses that the stallions were staying in. Because of the shortage of space the local residents agreed to let many stallions into their homes as long as they didn’t go into bedrooms. Magical locks were applied and it worked out, but until those individuals came home he didn’t just want to leave them wrecked so fronted the money himself until the bills were sent out to the proper folks. Photos and such were taken to show the damage and to make sure no one called him on fraud. The Foals understood when he came out near the end to go for his soak about why he couldn’t and though they were disappointed they were still happy to see him, running up to give him hugs and such. It warmed his heart just about as much as the spring warmed his body.

No sound of hooves today, no sounds of anything, just him in the springs. As dinner time approached Dustan made sure to gather his gear, laptop, speakers, clothing, and spray, to make sure he was ready for dinner. Pinkie wasn’t in the booth just yet it seems as that let him set up quickly running through the program the checks everything before going to help with the food. All creatures in their seats, food served as well as snacks, a tray of his own headed to the booth as he dimmed the lights. He was greeted with the bouncy bubbly sight of the pink mare as he set the tray down. It was a waste of food sure as the last couple of days they really had not touched any of it except the drinks.

After he turned the show on, he turned around only to be met with the lips of Pinkie and felt himself tumble backwards onto the ground with her straddling him. “Much better.” She breathed out in relief more then said the words.

His body was definitely eating up the attention he had been lacking all those years as he kissed her back with as much energy as she was giving him, her hooves were all over him helping to remove his shirt and pants quickly as she set about getting relief as did he. It only got worse when Pinkie started to get creative and set about her dexterous follicles to join in with her hooves as her tail started to brush and stroke sensitive spots even going so far as to infiltrate his boxers to stroke him directly.

Her tongue joined in quickly making his mind slowly eek away from everything and let his body in full control of the situation. Her tail honestly was likely the main attraction at the moment for his mind. It was soft, wrapped around him like a glove and he could feel how wet she was at his tip.

It was her groaning that woke his mind back up as well as the feeling of something slowly working onto his tip that caused him to grab hold of her and stop. “Come on, just a little lower.” The mare broke the kiss to whimper out. “It’s almost in.” She was trying to wiggle her hips back and forth in his grasp and as he looked at her, the unfocused look to her eyes, his mind went sober.

“Pinkie we need to stop.” His brown eyes focused to her face as she couldn’t even look at him straight.

She tried wiggling with all her might and even her winking grew more intense. “Please, I just need it to go a bit more. Just a bit more.”

Pulling her up and off him now he knew what he had to do, cruel as it was to both of them. “We are done here Pinkie.” He told her stuffing himself back in and reaching for his clothing.

That seemed to jump start her brain back to awareness as she suddenly went over to try to stop him. “I-I’m sorry I won’t do it again.”

He felt sad at what he had to do but he had to. “Pinkie, don’t lie. We both know you will and what is more, I don’t think I will have the will power to deny you a second time. I don’t want your mind clouded by need and just getting it from me for a time only to realize you didn’t want it when your brain returns to normal. I care for you and our friendship too much to risk that.”

The look on her face would be one that would be scared into his brain for a good long while. The look of realization followed a bit by horror and sadness came quickly as did the tears that threaten to overflow from her eyes. She did the only thing she could do in this situation and threw a smoke bomb down causing him to cough and wave the air clear only to see that she was gone.

Changing his clothing and spraying the room just as a knocking came to the door. “Everything ok in there, we see smoke.”

“Don’t worry about the smoke, had a small issue but hopefully it’s solved now.” Even if he didn’t know the other pony, it still felt wrong to lie about the situation. There was a problem and he doubted it was solved.

The next day came and it went. Everything was normal and he still half expected Pinkie to show up at Lunch, though he made sure to not bring any extra clothing with him as he meant it when they had to stop. She didn’t show though and that hurt him a bit though it was for the best. Same story at Dinner time, Pinkie was a no show. As he went to bed that night he hoped beyond hope that Luna wouldn’t see into his dreams if he dreamt about the details of the last few days. Lucky for him he experienced no dreams that night.

Day Six of Estrus week was where things were starting to calm down in Ponyville and some of the mares that had light seasons this year were clear headed enough and practically scent free enough that they came to visit though it was to be outside the gates just as a precaution. Many were happy to see their families, brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers, anyone. Day six for Dustan was a lonely one though as his routine would be cut and dry with nothing happening that was different than normal.

Day Seven of Estrus week, it was determined that some mares were out of their season completely and were allowed to come rejoin the castle while waiting for the day to end for most every creature else out there to finish up with their seasons. The mares were playfully jealous of their families being able to watch TMNT and Power Rangers like they had been without them and many were asking to turn this into a regular thing. The Lord of the Everfree tried to promise them something but in the end told them it would depend on his schedule. It likely wouldn’t be any time soon as after Estrus Reports would need to be done then back to his normal filing.

More than a few ponies were a bit shocked to hear how much paperwork he actually did by himself and told him that he should get a secretary to help him with things. It wasn’t a bad idea honestly and he would have to ask Finance if she knew anyone that would be a good fit. In the little time that he had known her Finance had been a big rock of stability and helpfulness in the sea of money issues. Beyond that though, the day passed and no sign of Pinkie anywhere.

The day after Estrus season was a solitary day that was spent mostly in his office. Taking breakfast there as well as lunch and dinner as the fight he had already filed wasn’t the only one that belonged to his people. A few mares ended up breaking things as everything from rage induced stress throwing, to hoof fights. Then there were the more…questionable breakages. Things he really didn’t want to read too far into by had to in order to file it properly. There was even one unfortunate event involving a Stallion that thought he was hot stuff and snuck out to go to Ponyville only for him to end up in the hospital broken, bruised and battered.

His last quote before he was put under to help him heal from a nearly broken pelvis, or the pony equivalent of it as he wasn’t sure if they had one or not, was. “The spirit is willing, but the body and spongy and weak.”

Though he didn’t experience the same thing, two hours for a couple of days was a good amount for just one pony, he couldn’t imagine more than one creature like that all day everyday for that week. “Death by snu snu.” Dustan nearly wrote on the paper before erasing it and laughing. Laughed all he wanted at that thought Dustan suddenly found himself with a case of blue balls. Those few days were nice and intense and had made his body remember that feeling and thus he was aching in a way that he didn’t think he ever would in Equestria.

Paperwork day came and went without as much as a peep from anyone. The second day after Estrus week was very much the same with only Faithful appearing to bring his food. Involved with insurance, bills, and more he eventually called out some choice profanities and asked Merlene, now back as well, to find Exemplary Finance and ask her to come see him. Seems she was a bit busy or hard to find, either way it took an hour before she showed up. She seemed well rested and had a spring to her step of someone who got laid recently.

However she became all business the moment she opened her mouth. “Yes Sir? How may I help you?”

Gesturing to the paperwork in front of him with a sigh he asked her almost pleading. “Tell me you know someone we can hire to help me with the paperwork here.”

“Buck I lost the bet.” She blushed when he raised his eyebrow at that. “Sorry, forgive my language and…unprofessional behavior. You see, some associates and I were in a bit of a pool, how long you would go before you would ask for help. I lost.”

Hearing that, he gave a bit of a smile at her. “Sorry to hear that. I hope that the winner got a decent pot at least.”

She shrugged at him. “I wouldn’t know. I wasn’t keeping track of others days only my own. As for a secretary I can have several interviews lined up for you within a week. As you know, we had been anticipating your need for help for some time now.”

“Thank you Finance. This helps me out so much.” He sighed and looked to the mountain in front of him. “Still got a week more of this. Ugh.”

As she went to leave she did stop and look back to him. “If it makes you feel any better Sir. You outlasted our initial projections by quite a lot.”

She left before Dustan had a chance to say a confused thank you. Activities and schedules were more or less fully back to the way they were with a few exceptions but most of those were ponies who were looking to start families as a few went about planning as they were convinced they had conceived. Dustan wanted to make a comment about not counting chickens, but that would be in poor tastes to dash some families hopes.

Speaking of Dash, she paid her first visit that day to ask him how his week went, and about how she expected to see what he showed everyone else during that week. She made some flashy martial arts movies and laughed. He promised that in a week’s time if he hired a secretary he should have a lot more free time so that might be doable. Rainbow Dash at first seemed shocked then really excited giving out an ‘Aww YEAH!’ as she did a flip in his office. He should make time for Dash; she was one of his best friends on this world along with Mystic, whom he had not had much time for sadly. Speaking of not having time for others, Maya and Boko had been needing attention so hopefully in a week he would have time for them as well.

Applejack came by looking right as rain as it didn’t seem she was bothered this year as she made a mention of catching up on some back log work she had been meaning to do. He had seen Fluttershy out and about when he looked out his window once but she had not come to visit him, Dustan guess she was still mad at him. Rarity came in at one point as well looking to gossip but he wasn’t that much into that though he did ask if she designed the Crusaders new equipment they seemed to be wearing.

“Ahh you noticed those things huh? I was feeling inspired so I went about designing them for the girls. Though I did initially make Scootaloo’s cape longer, she didn’t like it though as I quote ‘messes with my wings’. So I turned into a shoulder mounted accessory and it looks tre sheik.” Dustan had not examined the items with his tactical eye so wasn’t sure if they were actual pieces but shrugged and figured it didn’t matter at the moment.

A huge surprise came in the form of Twilight, who avoided the subject of Estrus completely as she told him about her refinements to the teleportation glyph as well as something else. “So by reducing the arcane friction here and here for steps five and twelve I was able to cut it down by another three percent making the total almost exactly fifty percent from last time. Oh while I am looking over some notes to make sure I said everything, mind looking at this.”

“Sure, but only if you look at some plans of my own.” He pulled out some blueprints and handed them over as he took the pouch and looked at it. He was definitely surprised and looked to Twilight with a sigh.

“Another failure, I thought so. So what are these plans-” Twilight stopped as Dustan held up his hand to quiet her.

Then suddenly he was laughing hard. “Congratulations Twilight, you finally made Salve.”

So surprised she dropped his blueprints and could only mutter. “W-what?” Looking at the sample of Salve she made she took it back and went over it. “Bu-but, I was so tired coming back from the archives and drained from the time travel spell that-”

“That you put the absolute minimum that you could into the making of this and it was exactly the amount you needed.” He told her and gave her a nice pat on the head. “Good job.”

“It needs so little. No wonder.” She whispered to herself holding the item in question as if it was sacred. “When you kept saying a very little amount, I thought little…for me I suppose. But you meant little for an average or even young pony. Well I know you said that but I suppose it never registered for me. My little is…a lot to say the least compared to the average.” Suddenly she jumped up and smiled looking at him with a huge grin.

He didn’t like that smile “Twilight. What did you just think of?”

“Well~” She took a hoof and poked his chest. “Someone promised me we would talk about the teleport glyph when you got back and if I made Salve. We got back but then estrus week hit so now we have time to talk. So let’s talk.”

Purplesmart ended up getting him to agree to schedule sometime in the human world after he got a secretary but it was definitely a thing that was going to happen this time. What is more she decided she wanted to show some of the others so they had agreed to two others, but that was it. She also agreed to look over his blueprints to see if his idea was something that could be done.

Beyond Fluttershy not wanting to visit, that just left one of the Mane Six that he had not seen since Estrus week ended and she didn’t appear until near dinner time that night. “My Lord.” Merlene called out to him after knocking as Dustan looked up from his stack of work. “Ms. Pinkie Pie is here to see you.”

He could feel his back straighten up as he heard that, it was the moment he was dreading. “Send her in.” Bowing the falcon griffon left before a moment later the pink party pony of Ponyville walked, not pronked, into his office.

She sat down as the door closed and looked over to him. “So…yeah, I guess we need to talk huh?”

“Yeah.” With the stress of paperwork, as well as this hanging over his head, Dustan took the blunt approach to his feelings. “Do you hate me for doing all that?”

Blinking and not seeming to process what the human said for a moment she quickly shook her head when her brain caught up. “What, no! I should be asking that of you.” She rubbed her hoof around in the chair as she looked down. “I wasn’t exactly a gentlemare back then. You were right; I was letting my hind end do the thinking for me. I mean at first it was fine, the fun, the shows, and then you started to look nice for some reason, then there was the petting. Oh the petting, I think that is what did it. When I felt you touch me it was like it opened up my mind to more than just touching and after that well, I started watching you more moved to your lap ended up…well petting the kitty so to speak with your leg.” She chuckled a bit at that one and looked away even more. “I didn’t even realize at first what I was doing till after I had already finished and you spoke to me. I had to quickly hide what I did so I ‘accidently’ spilt my drink all over us. Can’t notice a wet spot if all of your pants are wet right?”

“Ahh that explains that. I honestly just thought you were shaky after it when I realized what you did that day.” His smile seemed to help assure her things were fine.

She giggled with him and nodded “Oh boy was I shaky like an apple in Sweet Apple Acre.” That got them both to laughing before she would calm down and look at him. “So does this mean we are good?”

“Yeah.” He replied to her feeling that weight lift from his shoulders.

Moving around the desk she reared up and gave him a hug. “Thank you for not going further.” She ended that with a rather sweet kiss to his lips which he did return. “For what it’s worth to you, if we had gone further, I don’t think I would have regretted it. There are worst people to do that with and I would have been happy to make you happy like that. Dating though? Not sure about that, you tend to be a bit stuffy at times for me.”

“Thanks, that does mean a lot Pinkie.” He booped her nose with a smile on his own face causing her to giggle as well as to move away from him. “You are a bit too much for me to be fair. I don’t think I could keep up with your energy and trust me, I did think about things a good bit that week after things started to happen. I tried to picture who it was I could see myself in the future with and honestly I drew a blank. When I asked myself what it is I wanted in the future it pretty much was blank as well.”

“Really? Huh.” For a moment Pinkie looked like she was debating something fiercely as she bit her lips before asking. “No pony at all?”

“Not at the moment.” That caused Pinkie’s face to hit the desk as she pulled out a few balloons from her mane.

Blowing them up she quickly wrote on the white one with a black marker. “Look normally we aren’t supposed to talk about this sort of thing, unofficial mare code and all that, but you don’t really know things and how they work so I am breaking it to help you and them out. You have two ponies super into you. I thought there was a third but she seems to only see you as a friend and responsibility so unless she can start seeing you differently I am not marking her under this.” Getting back on track she twisted the now black marked balloon into a pony shape. “This pony right here, she has known you a long time and for a while she seemed up in the air about things. However lately I have noticed that when I see you two she is giving you ALL the go ahead signals.”

For a moment Dustan looked at the balloon and took in its colors. “That is-”

She cut him off. “No names, I am breaking rules as it is. Keep those names to yourself.” Turning to the other balloon she blew it up and it was a nice cool blue color as she smiled to him. “This one I personally think is a bit cute. See this pony doesn’t know she likes you that way yet. She keeps giving you the signals but doesn’t realize but it’s only a matter of time. Problem is, with her personality it could go either way of she will be more open and try more, or deny it and hide it. There won’t be a middle ground with her.” The party pony then drew on the blue pseudo pony on its sides.

What she drew was the shapes of wings on both sides making Dustan give a simple. “Oh.” Then he held his hand over his face. “Oh…so…what do I do Pinkie?”

Bringing the white and black balloon she put it in front of him. “Date this one. Then when the other realizes her feelings and talks to you date her as well.”

The Lord of the Everfree’s eyes nearly bugged out from his skull as he heard Pinkie suggest that. “What why, that would be cheating on Z-I mean the first mare.”

That only caused her to tilt her head and chuckle as she looked at him. “No silly billy.” She booped his nose like he had done to her earlier. “You see in Equestria that is normal dating. Until you decide on a Lead Mare for your herd you can date multiple ponies or creatures. It’s honestly expected. So you wouldn’t be cheating on them. You would have to have one as a Lead Mare first then sleep with a pony outside your herd to do that. If it turns out you like both ponies you have to still make one Lead Mare and the other one can be brought in a bit later, but give it about a month before you do that so you can spend time with your Lead Mare exclusively for a bit. Why how are things done in your world?”

For a second he forgot that Pinkie was at the meeting where he told people he was an alien from another world or universe. “Well, I was unusual in that the person I was with before was the one who initiated things. Usually it’s the guys who do so where I am from.”

“Huh, weird, it’s the opposite here. It’s why the first Mare was giving you all the signals, telling you she was ok with dating and was waiting to see if you picked up and were ok with them. Though I think she is getting tired and going to end up asking you very soon.” Pinkie started heading to the door after she said that. “Anyways I have to start preparing some possible congratulation parties for some ponies and some possible baby showers. If they aren’t pregnant then I can turn those party dates into something else and just swap out some things. But I am going to be busy for a bit.” She only got a few steps, halfway to the door before she looked back blushing a bit. “Um…you can keep the picture by the way.” She then hastily made her way out.

‘Brain, how fucked are we on a scale of ten?’ He asked his brain hoping for some helpful feedback.

A series of alarms went off in his head ones he recognized before a voice called out to him. ‘Tactical Nuke INCOMING!’

“Yeah, that is what I was thinking too.” And his face impacted the desk once more.

Chapter Forty Five: File it under Human.

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My Little Tactics

Chapter Forty Five: File it under Human.

It had been a little over a week now and Dustan was facing an enemy he thought he would never beat. Paperwork! The search for a secretary wasn’t that bad, it was just the fact that they had to weed through individuals. Turns out a lot of Finance’s choices, once looked at under a magnifying glass wouldn’t be a good fit for one reason or another. Some were obvious in that they didn’t work well with other species, others couldn’t move that far for a job as they were happy in the location they were in and commuting such a far distance was not something they would do either.

Finance of course had apologized after a few of her choices dropped like that saying she should have considered these factors and about two things. Trimming the rest of her list down herself as well as reaching out to the local area for applications. That was a different kind of disaster. Turns out working at the Everfree Castle was a big opportunity, who knew right? As such when the word got out he was getting applications from almost two towns away that Dustan had to work through as well which was why it was taking so long, which was a problem as the Lord had other things to do as well other objectives to complete.

A good example of that was Twilight wanting to set up a date for her friends and him to all meet up to discuss who should go to the Human World. Something else he wanted to get up and running was the project that he sent Twilight to ok, which she did, the split was negotiated on quite a lot and he wanted a forty/sixty in her favor on his insistence but she wanted an eighty/twenty in his favor. They settled for seventy/thirty in his favor as while she claimed she only supplied a piece of the work while if he was financing it and building it, most of the work came from him. The human couldn’t deny her logic.

Financing, money not the pony, as he didn’t have enough of it currently and was thinking on how to fund raise his project was the other issue. Dustan knew what he wanted to do, but couldn’t do it till things around him were straightened out so he could ask Finance the exact amount they would need. Dustan had honestly done a good bit of research on the subject and knew what he would need total as well as what his little project would run and likely the biggest issue would be personnel needed to staff things. That latter part though was up in the air as he needed to talk to Twilight as since it was her work he needed to have some specifics, even if he wouldn’t understand some of the metrics used in it.

The good news, which was punctuated with a stamp, the human was down to one possible candidate from the local level and Finance had just dropped off her list, a total of two ponies. The Interviews were set up for the next day as that was when all of the ponies could attend, though one of them would be quite late into the evening as the train ride for them was quite a ways. Looking over the list the candidates all pretty much had the same skill sets, great at organizing, history in their respective field, work history and recommendations while different all amounted to the same though one candidate did excel in this faction as she was a middle-aged mare. That already put her in the lead in his mind as experience often translated to competency. Why else would you get consistent work or stay on to some places for so long if you weren’t good at what you did right?

“Enter.” The Lord called out from behind his desk. First up on the interviews was from the local level. The pony who entered was a hot pink color for her fur and a vibrant red for her mane coloration whose eyes were a type of green between forest and emerald he couldn’t decide which. The pegasus’ cutie mark was that of a cherry with a long stem that was twisted around into a fancy heart shape. “Welcome Wild-Cherry Stem. It’s nice to meet you and thank you for coming in for this interview.”

The mare smiled giving a small bow as her wings ruffled and fluffed out. “Thank you Lord Warner for giving me this opportunity, it is an honor.” As she rose back up she smiled at him and puffed out her chest. “Working in a place like this is a bit of a dream of mine. A castle, somepony important, even if the work I do isn’t important it still supports the important going on’s right?” She took a seat after that and got comfortable.

“Rightly so. A small piece of a big picture.” So far so good-ish. Her body language wasn’t making him comfortable but this was normal right?

Since his talk with Pinkie of her informing him of the two mares directly interested in him as well as his previous talks with various ponies about body language, he had something to go on. Before just knowing about positions of parts, actions, and such were all well and good, but without something to connect it to, it was just all gestures in his mind. Going back, looking on his interactions with those mares, and seeing in his mind the replay of things and their body language, Dustan now had physical representations to go on and he had to admit. He was blind as fuck. The Squire could see the gestures everywhere, not just towards himself either. He liked to pony watch from his window or when resting outside on occasion and now the gestures were everywhere, he couldn’t unsee them. Like with this pegasus, the fluffing of her wings, the sticking out of her chest, they were signs as she tried to make herself look soft and inviting and he hoped it was just her trying to add charm to her interview as he wasn’t blind to his world, ladies did it a lot to help give them an edge so why wouldn’t it be a thing here too.

Dustan had in his hand her résumé listing her experiences and by far she was the most fresh from all of them. “Alright Ms. Stem.”

“Please call me Cherry. I am not so old to be called Ms. Stem just yet.” She said putting her hoof to her chest.

The gesture was seen by Dustan and again he couldn’t unsee them now. “Well Ms Cherry.” Seems she didn’t like the middle ground compromise as he could see her pout as he was looking down to the papers in his hand. “It says here you worked for a firm in Manehatten called Big Buck’s Financial but were let go, it doesn’t say the reason though you worked there for three years. Then you worked in Canterlot for a private lawyer firm called Suit’s Suits for two years and again you were let go and it doesn’t list the reason. I tried to get in contact with both these places, but I have not gotten a response yet from either. Would you mind enlightening me on the reasons you were let go?”

“Ugh those two.” Standing up in the seat she looked towards him and asked. “Do you mind if I come over there and tell you. It’s a bit embarrassing and I don’t want this to be overheard.”

“Sure come on over.” Dustan pushed his wheeled office chair back and moved to the side of his desk as she jumped down and trotted over her tail switching back and forth, he didn’t like that sign.

“Ok between you and me, I worked in Big Buck’s Financial under Big Buck himself. I mean that literally.” She said and gave a grin. “Problem was, his name doesn’t really fit with him in that area if you know what I mean. He heard me talk with a few girlfriends when I was out and about and had gone to the same place we were eating at. He then found an excuse to let me go after that stating unsatisfactory work even though I always made sure he was satisfied. He could learn to lose some weight though, it always felt nasty when he moved as his grunting always sounded like he was hurting himself every time.”

‘Oh god she is one of those secretaries. Fuck me. No wait, she might, shit different phrasing.’ His face betrayed his embarrassment at this revelation. He was almost afraid to ask but he had to, the door was opened and he couldn’t close it. “And Suit’s Suits?”

“That one was fun.” She smiled before giving out a giggle her eyes glancing off to the side as she recalled something and blushed a bit. “Suit Case was a twig of an earth pony who went into his own law business. He was looking for somepony to help organize his files and such and I got the job. The stallion barely looked like he could lift up his own body and honestly at first I wasn’t looking forward to being mounted by him. But once he showed what he was packing and the fact he knew how to use it.” The mare shivered as her tail started swishing back and forth quicker. “I miss that job, but his wife came in one day and saw me face down with him over me and well, he was finishing filing at the time if you know what I mean.”

Groaning, he would cover his face with both hands not out of embarrassment but out of the innuendo’s the mare had used there. “So, the wife caught you and demanded you be let go?”

“Yep.” He heard her hooves on the stone move closer. “Which brings me here. I now have a chance to work under you. I am very good at what I can do as you see I found my special talent to be working with my tongue when I twisted up a cherry stem into a knotted heart shape. So it can be put to great use.”

Dustan pulled his hands away from his face and gave a bit of a start when he felt a hoof on a spot that shouldn’t be touched by a mare he just met. “Ahem.” The clearing of his throat must have caught her off guard as her hoof jerked back. “I appreciate your candid nature and honesty but I am not looking for a pony for stress relief or fun. I need work to be done here as I am honestly swamped.” The man told her this as he rolled back to his desk and under it. “I need someone who can get work done.”

“Oh trust me, I will work it.” Yep that was it. That was the final straw.

Putting her file away he looked to her. “That will be all. You may go now.”

The pony suddenly looked confused and tilted her head. “Um, not to be rude, but are you gay? I mean look at me, I'm hot! I am young and willing. And you just want somepony else that can file papers the right way?”

Yep Dustan was one hundred percent done now. “I am not gay, and yes I am looking for someone who can do that. It’s the reason I am looking for a secretary and not a slut who is willing to bend over for a paycheck and perks.”

Her face went as red as her mane as she heard that. “Buck you, you bucking monkey. Bet it’s tiny anyways.” She said storming out.

Dustan made a note in her file that he was going to send to Finance about what she did and said and to try to get the word out. If she was going to act like, he supposed the word in Equestria was, Whorse then that is what she would be hired for and he wanted her to know that. That wasn’t the most irritating thing about that interview though.

No that honor came after when he was alone and looked down under his desk at his pants. ‘Seriously, is everything going to make you say pop up and say hello now? It’s like I am a teenager again with you.’

The next interview was from the middle-aged mare that was in the lead to get hired before. The mare in question had her mane pulled back into a tight bun like what one might expect on a librarian or a personal assistant which came complete with a pair of glasses. Said mare was an earth pony gray in for her coat but black for her hair, though there was a streak that was going gray betraying her age. To be fair she didn’t seem upset by it but instead it was done up in her bun in such a way to make a swirl pattern. It took her adjusting her glasses to be able to see beyond their glare to see that her eyes were a soft blue and her cutie mark was that of a clipboard with illegible writing on it. She was the first of the two recommended by Finance.

“Welcome Meticulous Management, come in take a seat.” Dustan tried to be friendly despite that morning’s interview and the fact it was now around lunchtime. He had to admit, he was hoping this interview would go quick to get some food.

“Thank you Lord Warner.” She quickly took a seat and adjusted her glasses once more. “I see you have my résumé so you know my extensive history. However if you had not had a chance to read it, which I doubt, I will give a summery.” Her tone was quite curt and to the point. “I have worked in this field since I got my cutie mark at age thirteen, though at first it was as an intern. I did not go to college until later to refine my abilities though it was unneeded. My first big break, as one would put it, came when I was in Canterlot and worked somewhat under the princesses, though really it was so far down the chain that I do not think they even knew my name. Point was I was noticed for my work and was transferred to Manehatten to work under the local law enforcement agency. I stayed there for eight years before I was replaced when the new chief of police hired a young mare to bend over his desk. A lot of good it did him as I last heard she got knocked up and he was fired for inappropriate conduct. Of which I do not tolerate which is why I even relayed that bit of information to you Lord Warner.”

Yeah she was the type of secretary whose office was her domain and she ruled it with an iron fist, or hoof in this case. Her tone brokered no argument and her stance, beyond the bit about the former chief, never strayed from anything but professional. Her attitude though, was that of someone needing to get laid though Dustan wasn’t one to talk about that sort of thing. Meticulous went on to continue listing her work history and went about ‘summarizing’ it by listing it out to him. The mare was indeed middle-aged though just barely, she was forty seven and wore it well. The fact she had been working in that field since she got her cutie mark at thirteen meant she had thirty three years in the field total not just the twenty eight he had previously thought.

“However I understand that me simply listing my work experience isn’t enough that is why I brought these.” From her saddlebags she pulled out a folder. “That is a list of reference all notarized and listed by date given.”

Opening up the folder it indeed contained what she said, and just about every place she worked at left her a professional recommendation except the ex-chief of police. That was made up by the retired police chief giving her one. She was almost everything he wanted but one thing. It was an important thing, but so far she looked to be a shoe in.

“Well thank you for coming in for the interview. I have one more interview today for the position and once I have examined all possible applicants I will then get word back to you if you got the job or not.” He stood up and smiled to her walking her to the door. “You should be informed by the end of the day or early tomorrow morning at the latest.”

Lunch was fantastic, BLT, though because of cutbacks it was actually Faken instead of the real thing. The advertisement said it tasted just like the real thing for all those ponies that wanted to eat like a predator. It was a lie, he could taste the difference. Still though, bacon being a ten out of ten, this was a solid six. It couldn’t compare but wasn’t bad, he would eat it again. It might have been the reason why he got three of them.

The final interview came just after dinner in a way he didn’t expect. As he was approaching his office Merlene was standing by his door looking worried. The instant she seen him that worry grew even larger as she ran over to him and held up her talons.

“My Lord, I am sorry I have failed you. I have no clue how he got in there, but…it’s just the papers are everywhere.” Merlene sounded honestly apologetic and he wasn’t quite sure what was going on, but he had a hand on his hilt for his Blood Sword and came into his room to see…well a storm of paper.

Everything was held up in an aqua colored grip of a telekinesis spell all being swirled around a weirdly patterned pony. His main coloration was green but he had black swirls all over him, his mane was a purple color with white strips in it. Dustan could hear the unicorn mutter to himself as a paper flew in front of him and he pointed towards one of the filing cabinets. Speaking of filing cabinets that was what his cutie mark was, a three tiered cabinet which had its locks replaced with question marks.

“Excuse me, but what are you doing?” Dustan was a bit irritated at the unicorn right now and really wanted a good answer.

“Oh sorry, didn’t hear you come in. I am Out of Order. Nice ta meet cha.” The unicorn came out and held out a hoof. Moving his hand off his sword for now he went to shake the offered hoof. “I won’t lie, when I heard about you, I was expecting something a lot different. Oh wanna see, I drew it.” Suddenly a picture came over of a monkey in a suit with fluffy tufts of fur sticking out of the sleeves and pant legs as well with almost a lion like mane of fur around its face.

His brain was still trying to comprehend the fuck was going on around him as he shook it and again gestured to the room. “What are you doing?”

Laughing he gestured. “Your system is like my name, it’s out of order. Weird name right? My mom and dad were all like what his colors are out of order when I was born. Oh I should mention, my mom was a Unicorn and my dad a Zebra and so the name just kinda stuck.” The flow of his sentences was a bit hard to follow but it made sense…weirdly. As for his parentage that explained the weird black swirls and white strips in his coloration. “Oh see like this one. One Pinkie Pie was organizing a party and this was listed in P for either Pinkie Pie, or Party, not sure which, when instead it should be in F. You know for Favors, party favors ya know.”

‘Critical levels of ‘the fuck’ detected, will shut down soon.’ As his brain was twisting in on itself from levels of insanity his body couldn’t help but watch the swirling of paper as the level of control the unicorn displayed was rather impressive.

All at once every paper went stock still and shook before seeking out others and bunching up and then all sinking down into the filing cabinet. “There, done. Only took an hour but I had to learn how you filed things so that was the hardest part.”

‘Critical levels exceeded, shutting-wait did he just say he finished with ALL my files?’ Looking around Dustan was surprised as it just wasn’t the papers in his files, but on his desk as well and a small two neat stack was left on his desk of papers. “Wha-what?”

Smiling and patting the small pile “Ok, I put your papers in two stacks, ones that you need to sign after reading them, and others that are reports. Not sure if you want to read those or not. Oh wait hold on.” The papers picked themselves up and shuffled and were now three stacks. “There, that third stack is for reports and signatures that go together. Like the top one, which is about your guard and their uniforms, mostly about the cost it takes to repair them and that they are looking to hire someone named Rarity for a contract to have her service their uniforms exclusively as part of a deal to cut down on costs and time. Normally you could have your secretary sign off on these for you then inform you but I am not that so I can’t do that.”

Blinking as his brain started to catch up with the madness he had witnessed. “Wait, so are you telling me, you just read everything in my files, organized it to your fittings, and then organized my work with in the space of an hour while I had my dinner?”

“Yeah I am sorry; normally it doesn’t take me that long.” Pulling out a small rag Order went and buffed out a small little spot on his desk and smiled.

“You are hired.” Dustan said right away after hearing that.

It must have surprised the stallion as he turned and looked at the human. “Wait what, really? But I didn’t tell you about where I worked, or told you about my references, though not many are good ones. They don’t like how I do things.” The swirl patterned pony looked a bit down at that.

“I don’t care about that. You did what should have taken weeks to months to do in the span of an hour. Your abilities spoke for themselves. Plus you are friendly. I want those that come to my office seeking resolutions to problems to feel like they can speak to me and if you are my secretary you are going to be expected to talk to those people first. So far you have been nothing but friendly, a bit of a brain hurt but friendly. As long as you are around to tell me where something is when I am looking for it, then I don’t see an issue with your filing system. Actually thinking about it I kinda like it as it makes anyone who tries to steal copies less likely to do so as they won’t know where to look haha.” Dustan broke out in laughter.

The stallion came up and gave him a big hug. “Thank you Mr. Warner, I mean Lord Warner. I promise to be a great Secretary.” Looking around suddenly he asked. “So where is my desk? I need to get started putting things in place to make it easy for ponies and creatures to start talking to me.”

Blinking for a moment Dustan realized things. “Oh, its being ordered. I wanted to make sure that the seat and desk fit the person I hired as I wasn’t sure if they would be pony or some other species.” His brain however let out his true thoughts. ‘Yes lie, lie like you mean it! Don’t tell him you honestly didn’t think about getting your secretary a desk of their own.’

“Ahh of course, good idea. For the moment I will work inside your office as well if that is fine.” Giving him the nod and pointing to those papers Order smiled. “I will go ahead and sign off on things that it seems like you would sign off then give you the list in the morning. If you want you can head out early as I will have this all taken care of and give you a summary of the readable papers as well.”

‘What kind of witchcraft did I use just now to summon you here? You know what, I don’t care, not questioning a good thing.’ Dustan gave a wave and a chuckle. “I do have one thing to do before leaving. Got to sign off on a paper for you to be hired.”

The aqua glow that came from his horn took out a file from the cabinet and there was a pop before it floated over to Dustan. “There I made a copy of one of your other hiring forms and just removed a few things. You just have to put my name in the spaces and I have to sign and so do you. Then you take it to Finance, who I need to send a thank you gift for giving me a chance here, to sign off and she should take care of payroll for me after that.”

Dustan never signed a paper so fast that he could remember. “Finance is down the hall to the left, third door. Go ahead and take it to her, I trust you. I am going to take off early for the first time in…Oh wow the first time that isn’t a special circumstance like Estrus week or an emergency.”

The stallion smiled and trotted away with a bit of a skip to his step. Dustan’s lift got a bit easier after that point, only taking a day for Finance to now have the breathing room go through reports and tell him how much they would need. It wasn’t as much as he thought, but still a good bit. He still needed to ask her at some point what swung in their favor to increase profits, but was an issue for Future Dustan. Present Dustan was currently standing in front of a building with a particular sign, one that he had not been involved with for a while but had been hearing about good work from for a while now. The sign was a blue amorphous blob with stars inside that he smiled at. Inside there were creatures of all types of species waving at him as he passed and headed to the counter where he found a Moogle working, ok that was new. This Moogle was not like Mogri who was more bipedal, this one was more of a floating fluffball with wings whose eyes were closed.

“Hello how can I help you Kupo?” Unlike the other times with Mogri he could actually tell that he was being spoken to in English…Equish, he forgot which it was around there.

“Hello there, nice to meet you, didn’t expect to see a Moogle here but it’s always nice.” The little white puffball smiled as their pom bounced in the air. “I am here to see Scale Allure, I heard she was around and was wondering if she was in and free to see people.”

The puffball of a Moogle floated a bit sideways as they tapped the side of their head. “Let me think, I believe she is in Kupo. I can see if she can see you, what is your name Kupo?”

“Dustan Warner.” The man spoke to the puffball that was taking all his willpower to try not to reach out and touch. ‘He, or she I can’t really tell, looks so fluffy, I just want to touch!’

That made the Moogle float right side up again and seemed to straighten their back. “Oh you are Dustan Warner, I will have to remember your voice Kupo. Let me if she is in right away Kupo.” Floating quickly away towards a door on the side the Moogle disappeared.

‘I will enjoy your fluff one day.’ Dustan silently promised to himself. While he was waiting he got offered to have a few drinks later from a few guild members as they all seemed to praise him in some form for letting them build their new headquarters there. The location was great as it was a short distance from Canterlot but had easy access to other places like Ponyville and Mudsdale as well.

“She is available to see you now Mr. Warner.” The soft voice of the Moogle called out to him from the door and pointed towards it as they floated there.

Giving them a bow he smiled. “Thank you very much; I didn’t catch your name sorry.”

The Moogle seemed to suddenly realize what they did and shifted a few times uncomfortably. “Oh my I'm sorry. I am Mogfi.”

“Nice to meet you Mogfi, it’s nice to see other Moogles around.” The Lord said to them as he headed towards the door.

“Oh, you have met others? I didn’t think there were many like me that spoke pony language.” The fluffball said as she tilted her head some.

Nodding and chuckling he went inside the door though let them know. “Yeah, I don’t think he does. I can understand him because I am a summoner.”

As he was closing the door he thought he heard a confused ‘Huh?’ behind him. Beyond the desk was the half pony half dragon herself, the kirin of the hour as her koi fish patterned body of pink-red, black, and white was just as he remembered. She grinned as she saw him enter and instead of a greeting came up and reared up to gave him a strong hug.

“Nice to see you again big guy. Haven’t seen you in so long, I thought you forgot about us.” She laughed and went back to all fours as she trotted to her seat. “No, no its fine I know you have been busy. But I am glad to see you have a secretary now. Sometimes it took forever to get something to you. Also thank you for the money.”

“No problem and so am I, though I am confused. What money you haven’t heard about my idea yet.” For a moment Dustan didn’t know where to sit as the seat was too small for him except as he got closer it resized to fit him. ‘Not to self, order lots of chairs like this.’

“You have an idea? Huh can’t wait to hear it.” She then smiled and waved her hoof. “The money I was talking about was from the pool. I won it.”

“Oh you mean for how long it would take for me to get help for paperwork.” She nodded at that and he rolled his eyes.

Again giving a hearty laugh and tapping her desk with her hoof she smiled. “I knew you would be stubborn about it and want to do it yourself, so I made sure to book a lot of time at various points where things would get tough and I also booked it for after Estrus week as I knew, if you saw how light paperwork was during that time compared to your normal work load and the gush of work after, you would end up wanting help. I got two thousand bits for it. I will take you to eat some time to celebrate.”

For a moment Dustan looked at her, seeing if there were any signs there, but nope none. “Might take you up on that.”

For a moment Allure looked at him and seemed confused and then smiled. “For a moment I thought you were looking me up and down, but seeing how relieved you look I get it. You are finally seeing body language, about bucking time! Darn, I don’t think I won that pool and that one was a bigger prize then the paperwork one. Then again there were a lot more creatures betting in that one.”

“How many betting pools about me are there?” To be concerned or not, Dustan wasn’t sure which he should feel at this moment.

Grinning and winking she told him simply. “You don’t want to know. Just know that since you are the only one of your kind that many of us know, you have a lot of betting pools going on and have had them going on for a while. But enough about that, tell me about this idea of yours.”

Finally to the meat and potatoes of what he wanted to do today, pulling out his folder he handed it to her. “Look that over and tell me what you think.”

It got the kirin curious as she opened up the folder and started looking at the blueprints. Having to read the notes for a moment she seemed confused. “Ok, I get the idea of the function of what I am looking at, but, I don’t get the why of the application.”

He felt a bit bad but he couldn’t help the grin that formed on his face, bad because it must have triggered a bit of her pony instincts as he saw that instinctive shiver that ponies get when they see a predator do something predatory. “Those are modified teleport Glyphs. That is a blueprint for a building that has nothing but them in it. I intend to place buildings in every major city in Equestria and beyond. The idea is to get specified locations coordinates, assign glyphs to them in each of those places, and have instant access to the place in question. It won’t be cheap as say the railroads, but with it being instant I suspect people will pay for it.”

For a moment Scale said nothing, and instead reached over to grab a tissue to wipe her forehead. “Ok first things first. One, don’t do that again, that grin, some might be turned off by it, but some will find it REALLY sexy. I fall into the latter of that and that doesn’t happen often for me with a grin like that. Second, we might have to turn our little date into a private one as that idea is so good I honestly think I might be turned on more than I was in Estrus. What you are proposing will not only revolutionize travel for commercial reasons, but also for public ones as well. With how your blueprints are put out most of our over under will come from paying the staff. We could charge based on size of transportation, time, even number of creatures heading from one place to another if they made reservations and more. The amount of bits this will generate…Dustan, you could get only ten percent of the profits and still be set for life.”

“I figured, though I will want more of a cut then that. We can talk about that later.” He pointed out the blueprints again and smiled though tried not to make it as toothy or big as last time. “What I need you for, is I need financial backing, someone to front me the money to get this going, for which I am willing to let that person become a business partner and share in on the profits with me.”

“I am in.” She declared and went looking through some files that she had in her office. “And I don’t mean as a Guild Leader, I mean as me. I have a pretty good nest egg saved up and am willing to bet it on this.” She pulled out a piece of paper and was writing all over it with a smile. “I want thirty percent. For that I am willing to give you any amount you need.”

“I am looking to start up at least four places, Manehatten, Canterlot, Los Pegasus, and of course here in Luminary. From there, once word gets out, we can expand further.” Dustan looked over the paper she was writing, it was a contract.

“Add in two other locations, Mareami and Horsten, Mareami is a popular vacation spot and Horsten is big on trade as well. We get them in on this and we pull in some big time players to start using our services. Speaking of, did you have a name for this business?”

He couldn’t help it, he had a grin on his face that was both predatory and one that knew he was about to make a joke. “Equestrian Teleport Agency.”

It took a second, mostly as once again Allure shivered before she suddenly realized what he said and laughed. “Or ETA for short. I love it; our slogan can be ‘Your ETA is now’.”

“Yep, I also figure with your connections to the guild here, you would know a lot of individuals that could be hired for security or even the actual operates for this as well as those that could help schedule teleportations.” Dustan was very excited about this, he had been for a long time and had been refining his plans since Twilight first teleported him.

“Sign here please, or if you want to read it, go ahead take it to Finance I can wait.” She told him but was a bit surprised when he started to sign. “Oh, not going to read or get advice that is a bad move normally.”

“Scale, if you were the type to screw people over, you wouldn’t be the guild leader you are. You are someone who cares and wants to work to better things and give people better lives. You were the only person I had in mind for this I hadn't even considered anyone else yet.” Dustan smiled as he finished up signing only to look up and see Allure blushing.

“You are so lucky I was not in the castle during Estrus week. Keep sweet talking like that and I will schedule our date for right now and make sure to lock that door to ensure that no one interrupts.” It was Dustan’s turn to blush at her words before she grinned. “Of course, I wouldn’t do that, very tempting though. Mares of all species like honesty and you have it in spades. There is also the fact you are exotic which a good thing is and for some like me, the predator thing is a turn on. Ponies won’t admit it but about seventy percent of them are turned on by it. Most don’t even realize it’s a turn on and just think it’s them being frightened, which in part it is. It’s when you look past it which most cant that they get there. So combine that with sweet talking, a kind person, and someone who can grin like that, you have a safe predator and that…that just works. Now, I need you to leave my office, I won’t lie. I need some private time after this meeting. Tell Mogfi I won’t need her for a bit and to make sure no one interrupts me.”

Dustan left the office a bit quickly after that, much to Allure’s laughter, mostly because at first he thought she was kidding, but then she pulled something from her desk that he DEFINITELY shouldn’t see to show that she wasn’t kidding about the private time. On the bright sides, he learned two things. The size difference for ponies to humans in Equestria wasn’t as big of a difference as he thought it might be cause of equines and all that, and two, Mogfi was a girl. No more questioning in his mind on male or female so that was a plus.

Overall it was a good day. He did have one other plan today and that was taking place at the Carousel Boutique. Twilight had set a date to talk to all the Elements and discuss travel plans to the human world and wanted it to be private. Sweetie Belle was with her friends and Spike was there to make sure they were distracted or to warn them if they were coming back. Dustan had promised her and she had come through on her end so he would do it. Plus he honestly was looking forward to heading back to Earth for a bit just to de-stress from Equestria and the hectic run around the last couple of weeks he had been under. It should be fine…right?

Chapter Forty Six: We aren’t in Equestria anymore Or Truth or Dare: Wildcard Style.

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My Little Tactics

Chapter Forty Six: We aren’t in Equestria anymore Or Truth or Dare: Wildcard Style.

Tink tink tink the sound of the bell of the uniquely shaped building called out as the door opening caused it to alert those inside. “I am sorry but we are closed today for a private gathering. If you wish to book an appointment, please refer to the calendar outside as I am currently booked up for a good while.”

“It’s me Rarity.” The Lord of the Everfree called out after hearing her voice. “I was told we were meeting up here, that still true?”

Entering the main foyer the Prim and proper pony smiled and waved him over. “Ahh the human of the hour, come on in dear, we are just waiting for one more to join us and then we will be ready.”

As he entered the living area of the seemstress’ home he spotted Twilight already seated next to a white board, Fluttershy looking sternly at Angel bunny, Rainbow Dash looking bored and tapping her hind hoof waiting for things to start, Applejack munching on an apple, that just left the one missing as Pinkie Pie as Rarity took up a seat on her fainting couch. “Seems like we are all here, except for Pinkie.” Dustan said as he started to take a seat.

“Oh I am here.” Pinkie called out appearing from inside of Dustan’s t-shirt, at the neck causing him to shout in surprise and possibly with a few curse words as she leaped up when he fell backwards. “Oh silly Dusty, I am a mare, plus I came from a pony not a dog.”

The fashionista went over to check on the human, or rather what he was wearing. “Must you appear like that darling, stretching the neckline of a shirt like that can positively ruin it though it seems like this material can stretch pretty well, what is it made of Dustan. I assume this is some clothing from the human world you brought back with you?”

Grumbling a bit at the surprise and because Rarity seemed more worried about his clothing then him, he sighed and calmed down. “It’s an expression where I am from Pinkie, and yes Rarity, it’s from my world. I would have to check to see what it’s made of but likely it’s a cotton blend of some kind.”

“Good, now that we are all here. Girls-” Twilight called out and flipped the board around where it stated the same thing the unicorn spoke of. “Whose going to the human world.” Flipping back over, the board now had the six names and a small drawing of each pony as well as a list of pro’s and cons.

“Wasn’t the other side just-” Dash started to speak only for Pinkie to cover her mouth.

“Shh, it’s a Twilight thing.” As she said that though everyone in the room looked towards her. “What? You can say it’s a Pinkie thing but not a Twilight thing for when weird things happen for me but not her? Double standards much?”

“Besides how right Pinkie Pie is about that subject.” Twilight pulled out her little extendable pointer and smiled. “Who is going to the human world. There can only be two extra as Dustan and myself both have to go.” Her horn lit up and simply put a check mark by her name but the marker did move to the other side. “The reason for me is because in case things go wrong with the circle, which I need to once more modify on that side as well, I can help fix it.” Everyone nodded to that. “So two slots are taken two remain. I will go down the list in Alphabetical order and we can see who can go and who can’t. However, remember we will be remaining there for a week, and will need about three days before to get ready so have at least ten or more days on your schedule clear.” The pointer went and pointed to Applejack. “A for Applejack, you are first.”

“Ah would love to go.” Twilight heard that and started to mark down a positive response on the board but was stopped. “You didn’t let me finish sugarcube. Ah would love to go, but with it being spring, the orchard needs some extra TLC to give it that giddy up and go it needs for later. Takin’ off ten days is just a no can do for me partner.”

“Ahh that is too bad.” Putting a line through Applejack’s name they were down to four. “That would mean Fluttershy, you are F so you are next in our names.”

“Oh so soon?” She called out as Angel bunny was now atop of her head resting. “I am so sorry, I can’t go. You see with it being spring time there are all kinds of new little animal friends that have popped up and I have to help them out. I can’t take that time off. Someone has to think about them and take care of them.”

‘Did…did she just hold a grudge?’ He couldn’t help but think but then again what he was planning really had hurt her even if he had not meant for it to be that bad.

Once more the over organized over achiever crossed out a name. “Two down three to go. That means Pinkie, you are next as P comes before R.”

“Normally, having a fun time in another world would be like, right up there at the top of my list.” Pinkie started only for Twilight to face-hoof.

“I can sense a ‘but’ in there.” She groaned a bit.

Nodding quickly Pinkie smiled. “Oh wow you knew what I was going to say. Sometimes even I don’t know that, are you psychic Twilight? What am I thinking now?”

“Ah don’t think Twilight is psychic Pinkie, if she was then she would have known our answers and wouldn’t need this meeting right?” AJ’s logic was flawless to where even Pinkie couldn’t Pinkie her way around it.

“Right right. Hmm what was I saying?” The group call of Pinkie made her giggle and smile. “Right, its just after Estrus week there are a ton of possible new ponies that will need parties, plus not to mention congratulation parties, baby showers, there might be some weddings as herds form and more. I have so much planning to do, I just don’t have time.”

Nodding Twilight turned to the board and went to mark her off as well as everypony was looking at the unicorn Dustan noticed it. Pinkie looked at him and slightly looked away when he met her gaze. Her ears went back and her hoof rubbed against her chair, she was still a bit embarrassed about things and wasn’t ready for a trip like that with him. That was a shame too; he thought that would have been fun with her.

“Alright Rarity, you are next.” Twilight called out but got a bit of an interruption.

“Wait hold on.” Dash called out and pointed. “Both our names start with R, how come she gets to go first. Wouldn’t I get to go before because R A I versus R A R?”

“If you think about it that way you are right.” That got a triumphant ‘ha!’ to come from the speedster as Twilight smiled. “Except that isn’t how I organized it. You name is Rainbow Dash, or RD for your initials. Rarity’s initials are RB for Rarity Belle.”

Crossing her forelegs in front of her the pegasus puffed out her cheeks. “Right, I forgot about that.”

“It’s ok Darling. I don’t use my last name very often as just having the name Rarity is kind of a trademark as well.” She flipped her mane back as she said that, as if posing for a camera that couldn’t be seen, she looked towards Twilight. “I am free for those days and have no plans Twilight. I would love to go.”

Tilting his head he held up a hand. “But when I came in you called out you were busy for a while.”

She waved him off and smiled. “Oh Dustan, I was busy cause I am going to the human world, didn’t you hear?” He held up a finger to say something except he never got the chance. “I already knew about Applejack and Fluttershy’s commitments. Pinkie was a wild card admittedly that I didn’t plan on, but I figured it would be her and I.”

“Wait why not me?” Dash called out flapping from her seat and hovering over to Rarity. “Why didn’t you consider me?”

“Because dear of what you are doing.” That got a confused look from almost everyone except for Twilight.

“I don’t get it, why would her pouting stop her from going?” Pinkie asked only to have Dash turn on her and point.

“I am not pouting!” She then proceeded to do her best pouting not pouting expression to ever pout a non pout.

“She means flying Pinkie.” Again all in the room were confused except Twilight and Rarity. “Magic on Earth is much weaker then it is here. Harmonic magic like what unicorns use to use their spells, earth ponies for their connection to the world and strength, and for Pegasi their ability to manipulate weather and their ability to fly. All of these are a lot harder there.” Looking to the full spectrum pony she told her. “Flying on Earth would be like trying to fly here with a full body weighted suit on.”

Rainbow Dash puffed out her cheeks again and looked at them both. “Well the others can’t make it and there is a free slot so I am going.” While not the best reason, she was right.

“Guess that solves things then, though I don’t know why you needed me here for that Twilight.” Dustan told her as he pointed out the board. “Seems to me you had it pretty well taken care of.”

Nodding the unicorn smiled and tapped her pointer to him. “True, for that part, but now we are moving onto the other part. Now that we know who all is coming, we can plan a bit better on what to do while there as well as ask you any questions we want.”

Rarity held up a hoof and shook her head. “Now now Darling, we already talked about some things didn’t we? We were going to keep them a surprise, but now that we know who is coming with we have to tell Dash what we had planned.”

“Oh right, guess we didn’t need you here after all. Sorry about that.” She told him sounding apologetic and with a blush of embarrassment on her face.

“Alright then, Imma head out, take good care to pack up and such but don’t bring too much.” He’d point towards the purple maned posh pony. “Looking at you Rarity.”

As he was leaving he heard one of the girls called out. “Oh, we should have a slumber party before you three go.”

“Oh, we should a slumber party before you three go.” Pinkie suggested with a smile. She may not be able to go but doesn’t mean she couldn’t spend some time with her friends in another fun way.

The cow-pony gave a smile and gesture towards her that Pinkie knew meant, good idea. “That is a good idea sugarcube. We had not had one of those in, Ah don’t remember.”

“Plus it means we can ask you three questions or for souvenirs since we can’t go ourselves.” Spoke the timid one of the group. “Oh if that isn’t too much trouble I mean. Don’t go out of your way on my account.”

“Not at all Fluttershy, and it’s a good idea. How about it, are you girls free tomorrow? We can have it at the library.” Twi told her as she looked to everypony. Pinkie nodded knowing she was free as did Rarity having made time for all that anyways.

“Ah suppose, might lose a bit of time in the fields but nothing that Mac can’t handle.” The apple tamer speculated.

Rainbow Dash pumped out her hooves as if throwing a couple of punches. “I have to clear a few clouds tomorrow and find someone to cover my shifts for a week, but that night? Sure.”

“I am sure Harry can handle any issues for a night.” Pinkie almost missed her shy friends answer with how quiet it was.

Pinkie got up at that as it seems that was it for the meeting, though she did half want to stick around to listen to Rarity and Twilight’s plans as they shared them with Dashie, but she supposed she would hear all about it anyways. She had some plans of her own to start working on. It went against some mare codes but again they were needed. She knew just how to do it as well, a sleep over meant games, she had just the one in mind.

The day, or rather the night, of the sleep over came quickly. Pinkie showed up wearing pajama’s themed like a bunny rabbit complete with long floppy ears, which she knew Fluttershy would just love. She had her sleeping bag, and a saddle bag of items all carefully planned. Tonight would be different, but hopefully in a good way for the long run.

Knocking on the door it opened with Spike carrying his own bag. “Go ahead Pinkie, the only one missing besides you is Rarity, who always shows up-”

“-Fashionably late of course darling.” The mare in question said as she had her own sleeping bag as well as saddlebag of items with her. “That means we are all here, let’s go in and have a good night Spike. Oh and thank you again for agreeing to watch the boutique and Sweetie Belle for me while I am gone.”

She gave him a kiss to his forehead and Pinkie giggled a bit as she watched the dragon break the laws of physics as he floated off with hearts in his eyes. ‘Note to self, either try to see if Rarity is holding out for when he is older, or make her see reason not to lead him on. That isn’t fair.’

Shaking her head as that wasn’t in the plans for tonight, she joined Rarity heading inside. All the other girls were already inside and all were either laying out their bags in the center of the main floor or already grabbing snacks that were being laid out. Pulling a bowl out of her own pack she proceeded to pour a ton of candy and junk food out as she smiled.

“Oh nice, trust Pinkie to bring the good stuff!” Dashie called out as she went and grabbed a few sour gummy fruits.

With that Twilight came back with drinks for everyone as Pinkie took up the Lemonade that was served to her, one of her favorite drinks. “Alright girls, do we want to talk about the trip first or games?”

“We can do both!” Pinkie called out with a smile and pulled out a bunch of blank cards. “While we are talking about the trip we can write on these.” As she handed out the two sets of cards to each pony going around and around till they were all handed out, leaving each pony with three of each set she smiled.

On the back was a word for each set, one that was known to all pony kind. “Truth or Dare? I am in for that, but why the cards?”

“Indeed, I am just as confused as Rainbow Dash.” Rarity called out just after the speedster asked her question.

“It’s for what I like to call Truth or Dare: Wildcard Edition. You see we all write down a truth or dare depending on the card we are on, and once we fill them all out, we shuffle them all together, keeping the truths together and the dares together. We then set up in a circle but leave a space open where the cards rest and something to represent the Joker.” She pulled out a teddy bear at that. “As we spin the bottle to determine who goes next its played like normal. However if you land on the Joker, any truth or dare you call out is applied to everyone, including yourself. Then when it’s the Joker’s turn to spin the pony who it lands on chooses a dare or truth card.” Pulling out a bottle she gave it a pretend spin and landed it on the Joker bear. “If I called out truth and said tell us your age. Everypony here would need to call out their age in order. Then after that I would spin and if it landed on you Rarity you would draw a truth card or dare card.”

“That…sounds awesome!” Rainbow exclaimed as she rubbed her hooves together. “I have some nice questions to ask everyone and some really fun dares.”

Fluttershy clapped at this as well. “Oh it would be nice to have everypony answer a question instead of just one being forced to answer.”

“Ah’m in as well. Ah aint no yellowbelly.” Applejack called out and thrust her chest out confidently.

It seems like that was the plan so much so that everypony got quiet when writing down their suggestions. No one even thinking about asking questions for the trip coming in a couple of days or making requests. Once all the cards were filled out, they were put in front of the bear and shuffled into their respective piles.

“Since this is wildcard edition, wildcard goes first.” Pinkie called out as they all formed a circle leaving room for the bear properly. Pinkie gave the bottle a nice spin and around it went.

As the bottle landed on its target, said target eeped out. “Oh me first, I’m so nervous.” Shy whispered out as she reached towards the teddy. “Excuse me Mr. Bear I need a truth card.” As she turned the card over she read out loud. ‘Tell everyone the name of the first creature you gave a kiss to romantically’ as she read that she went red in the face. “Oh my!”

“Fluttershy, if you don’t want to answer you can take a dare card instead, but you have to do the dare.” Fluttershy heard Pinkie and bit her lip.

Her hoof reached out for a moment but drew back. “It was Big Mac I am sorry Applejack.”

The farm pony went wide eyed at that “Woah nelly, say that again.”

Pinkie Pie also didn’t know about this as she looked to the now red faced pegasus. “I umm, I was new to Ponyville at the time having just moved in to my cottage, I had just met Big Mac and didn’t even know he had a sister or sisters at the time. We got along and ended up going on a couple of dates and I may…maybe have kissed him.” Everypony was shocked to hear this none of them had known, even Rainbow Dash who was her best friend had her mouth opened in shock. “It didn’t last long as I was too timid to talk at all and he doesn’t like to talk and the silence was a bit too heavy. When we did talk it ended up being about different or random things and we found we were just a bit too different.”

The party pony coughed a bit having gotten way more then she thought out of that card, as it was one that she wrote. “Wow-wy, that was a doozy of an opener. Go ahead Fluttershy, spin.”

“Oh right.” She gave the bottle a spin but it barely made one rotation before landing on Pinkie herself. “Oh Pinkie, truth or dare?”

“Dare of course!” She bounced up on her little rabbit feet as she did so.

Thinking for a moment the caretaker of animals finally called out. “Hop like Angel bunny until it comes back to you or it lands on the Joker.”

Ponking was second nature to her so it was no trouble. “Okey doki Loki.” She turned around and used her tail to spin the bottle, but this is where she may have cheated just a tiny bit. It landed on the Joker Bear. “Oh nice, I am the first one with the Joker, but that means I have to stop hopping, sorry Fluttershy.”

She took it in stride though and smiled to her friend. “Oh it’s no problem.”

It took Pinkie a second to think of how to word her question but she got it. “Ok, its truth. Name something you did during this Estrus Season.” Pointing to Twilight at the head of the group Pinkie smiled. “You first Twilight, then Applejack, and so on clockwise till we get to the joker.”

Twilight as well as some others went red in the face but it was her that caught the loophole that she left, as suddenly the red vanished as she became thoughtful. “Hmm I read through a few books honestly.”

Pinkie was looking forward to seeing Applejack lie as she thought the face she made doing so was funny. “Beyond bucking some trees, I spent time with my shower head.” She was not prepared as she spit her lemonade out in shock. “What? It’s got this nice rotating head with a pulsing water setting that just is nice for that time.”

“Darling how can you say it so candidly, what a lady does in the privacy of her bathroom is her business.” The fashion mare said her face also bright red.

“What, it’s the truth and that was the question. Nothing to be ashamed at we all do it, just in different ways.” Rarity sputtered and looked away.

“Well I snuck to the castle and watched the shows that Dusty put on for everyone.” It was true it was one of the things she did, which was the loophole. She didn’t have to say everything, just something.

“PINKIE!” several ponies shouted.

“Oh please, you all know me, I almost always have super light times.” Again true but not the full truth. It didn’t answer the untold question that was there.

Clearly nearly everypony was now thinking dirty thoughts so now their minds went to that particular time. “Well um. My time this time wasn’t light so I may have stolen a small bit of a thunder head and spread it out in the bedding of my cloud home so that when I umm…well rubbed, it gave this nice shock.”

For once no pony spoke all metaphorically shocked, to silence. Rainbow Dash quickly grabbed herself a drink and sucked down a good large bit trying to stem the heat in her face. It didn’t work.

Fluttershy broke the silence with her soft voice clearly heard with the absence of sound. “My time was really light so I didn’t notice much of a difference this time. Plus taking care of my animal friends took my mind off things.” Everypony in the room went red in the face except Fluttershy though it didn’t last long as she looked her friends curiously for a moment before going red herself. “N-no I don’t mean like that, I meant you know feeding and caring.”

“Well if we are all going to be embarrassing ourselves like this.” Clearing her throat Rarity spoke. “I have this roll of Neighpon silk tucked away out of sight in my basement that is sinfully soft to the touch. Emphasis on the sin part as you can imagine.”

Pinkie’s question had been more explosive in results then she had anticipated having not even come close to what she thought. She shrugged out of the PJ’s as they were suddenly too hot and stuffy to remain on. Since she had landed on the Joker she had to spin for the next pony. The bottle landed on the prismatic pony herself. This one wasn’t tampered; Pinkie was looking forward to it.

“I will take a dare after that last one.” Reaching forward for a card she pulled it up. “Aw really?” Rolling her eyes she then read the card out loud. “Paint your hooves in your least favorite shade.” Looking over to Rarity she asked. “Mind helping me out here Rarity?”

“Sure thing, what is your least favorite color.” She asked as she pulled out a makeup kit with all the essentials.

Looking to Pinkie she chuckled. “Its pink. No offense Pinkie.”

That made the party pony of that color curious. “Why?”

“Simple, it’s not in a rainbow. Rainbooms, working with rainbows, rainbow in my mane, I have learned to enjoy all the colors out there, but pink isn’t in a rainbow. Then again neither are black or white but you see those colors everywhere normally.” Rainbow’s answer was honest and she could tell that her best friend meant nothing bad by it, plus it made sense to her.

“Hold on Rarity, let me spin and you can ugh, paint me.” Spin, spin, spin, the bottle went, until it landed on Mr. Bear himself as the joker got pulled up. “Alright, I know just what to say too, but first Rarity finish painting these plus we can use a small break right girls?” Everypony was nervous as it landed on the bear, after what happened last time and the answers given out. “Oh and girls, as a heads up, I am choosing truth so be prepared.”

Not a single face didn’t blanch at that.

Dustan Warner, Lord of the Everfree, one of the largest singly owned lands if not the largest looked out of his window. His little town was growing and growing, spread out past the original ruins of the castle now he liked to imagine that in its hay day this is what it looked like for the area. After all a castle like this wouldn’t be just by itself, a town would spring up out around it because ponies flocked to one another and to power. It was just the way of things. Did this mean he was successful? No, not yet. Looking over the town his worry had grown since the time at the library as now he knew an answer to an issue of his.

What had uprooted the plants that kept beasts away. Tirek, Tirek was the answer. Goblins didn’t know about them and wouldn’t figure it out as they were not the brightest bunch. Tirek had a decent amount of intelligence to him and to hide away from ponies for so long while he built up his strength would mean he was observant to keep from being caught. He would have definitely noticed the plants it would also explain the weirdly patterned hoof marks. See that is where the problem lay. At the moment he should be very vulnerable, not able to put up much of a fight and looking to feed off the magic of anything he could to build up his strength.

Beyond the plants though there hasn’t been any signs of him. Dustan didn’t want to increase patrols more than they already had for two reasons, both of which he hated. The first was he didn’t want to put his people in danger more so then they already were in their patrols, he also couldn’t warn them as it would require him to put out knowledge that he knew and he had some questions about his Discord knowledge that so far had not come back. The second problem came with how trained his guards were. If he sent them out with how weak Tirek was there is a chance they would just take him down. Tirek was a major event in the show and Dustan was trying to judge if it was worth the risk or not He half considered going out himself and taking care of the centaur.

No, he couldn’t, he would let this play out, plus he didn’t know where to look. Tirek was good at hiding after all. No, this was something that would have to play out even if Dustan didn’t want it to as he didn’t have a choice.

The girls all got back from getting more drinks, the bathroom, and or just taking a moment to both calm and prepare themselves. Rainbow Dash now had pink hooves as she looked at her friends with a grin similar to a cat who had just cornered a mouse. She knew, oh she knew, that she had her friends squirming and she was happy to see it.

As the girls sat Pinkie was the last to be seated as was worried about possibly spilling out what had happened with Dustan she gulped. “Ok girls, you ready?” As Dash asked that she got various mutterings of yes though reluctantly. “Since we are already about embarrassing each other this time around, the truth I want everypony to answer is this. When you had ‘private time’ to yourself, who or what did you think about during that?”

Everypony in the room went red down to their necks, and even though it was her question Rainbow Dash wasn’t immune to sporting some red on her face. All faces turned towards the first in the order, of which was shrinking down in her seat some. She opened and closed her mouth a few times to answer the question but couldn’t seem to do it.

“Hey Pinkie, if someone doesn’t answer a Joker Question what happens?” It was AJ who asked but it was a valid question.

‘Oh, I didn’t think about that. Hmm.’ Thought Pinkie though she didn’t show her mistake on her face she called out. “We um…we can’t. If it’s told to the Joker, since it applies to the owner as well, it’s something that everypony has to do.” Pinkie had naturally just assumed everyone would do it so had not considered that someone might not, which would harm her plans.

“It was Starswirl ok, there!” Twilight buried her head down on the ground under her hooves.

The chuckle that got from Dash was a bit evil as she followed that up with. “I didn’t know you wanted to be filled with knowledge that badly Twi.” Twilight wasn’t the only one to groan at that but she was the only one that buried her head under a pillow.

Applejack, like before, had no shame on this one. “Ah didn’t imagine any particular stallion, more a kind of faceless stand in. Somepony strong, large, enough to make me feel small, and packing.” She shivered a bit at that last bit, Pinkie was learning that when it came to things like this Applejack was likely the one most open about herself weirdly.

“That’s boring, I wanted specifics. Fine, your turn Pinkie.” Dash called out.

Now it was Pinkie’s turn as ponies were turning and expecting an answer and suddenly her face was on fire. She realized who it was that she last thought about, and given the circumstances who wouldn’t. Remembering who it was also called back every image and feeling of recent time.

“It…it was um…” Pinkie firmed herself up. “It was Dustan, him holding and petting you is nice, or so I would think.”

“Yeah I could see that.” Dashie called out as her blush came on strong. “I mean he is big, strong, so having him holding you like, yeah, I could see that.”

There it was, there was Pinkie’s opening, it came in the form of two spreading wings. “What about you Dashie? Who did you last think about while you had your electric bed?”

“Oh I um…kinda flip flopped between a few, Soarin was among them though.” She knew it, because she had urged her on a bit quicker then she wanted and in the midsts of thinking of things, her prepared answer was forgotten.

It was time to press except it didn’t come from her as another pony beat her to the punch. “Oh, I figure it would have been Dustan as well. You liked Pinkie’s answer so much and you like to hang around him.” It was Twilight who started it, but not her who finished.

“Not to mention darling you often absolutely go red in the face talking to him.” Rarity commented.

“Plus your wings, they are often getting stiff around him, or so I remember you complaining to me before.” Even Fluttershy went in on it.

Laughing a bit and giving a knowing look to Rainbow Dash Applejack joined in almost giving the finishing blow. “Plus there is that time I caught you napping in one of my apple trees and I woke you up cause I heard you mention his name.”

The finisher didn’t come from Pinkie though, even if she was ready, no it came from the last source she thought it would come from. “Look you girls are reading too much into it!” Dash called out to them. “Sure as I said he is big and strong. He cares not just for ponies but everyone. He wants to protect anyone he can and is willing to get hurt to do so.” It was almost a bit sad that she did this to Dash but she had set it up for this to happen. Said Pegasus’ voice was growing softer as she was looking down at the ground drawing patterns with her hooves. “If you need a friend he has your back, wouldn’t do anything to harm his friends. The way his fingers feel when he pets you and how secure he makes you feel when he holds you. How there are days when you don’t think about him at least once.”

“Dashie.” Pinkie’s voice seem to break the little place that her friend went to there.

Suddenly looking up at Pinkie and the rest the Pegasus’ wings shot fully out as her eyes went wide and her lip trembled a bit. “Oh.” There it was. There was the realization Pinkie had set up the truth or dare game for. “I like him don’t I?”

Truth or Dare: Wildcard Edition stopped there and then as the girls all went to comfort a friend who realized a truth that many of them already knew or suspected. For friendship and comradely, the sleepover was a success as was Pinkie’s plan, even if she felt bad for bending the Mare’s Code for going out of her way to help Dash realize her feelings. After all it hurt to not realize one’s feelings till they were too late and no pony wanted that.

“Order, you have everything taken care of for the week?” He asked his new secretary as the Zebra hybrid just smiled and gave him the pony equal of a thumbs up from his new desk. It literally had just arrived that morning and the stallion was very much excited and was fawning all over it. He definitely was a weird one but who was Dustan to judge.

The only thing he had told the swirl patterned pony was that he was going away on a trip for a week and wouldn’t be back. Order had been happy to hear that which at first confused the Lord of the Everfree, but when Order said it meant he was trusted to hold down the fort, it made more sense. Especially because it was true, Order was likely one of the friendliest ponies he knew and greeted everyone that passed him. The Zebra hybrid was still getting used to the use of everyone, anyone, and no one, but he was coming around to it liking the connotation behind it more than the exclusive everypony, anypony, no pony, versions.

Having grabbed his pack of items, a normal pack as he still wasn’t sure if his bag of holding would work properly or even be ok with a teleport like this, Dustan smiled and gave a bit of a whistle for a tune along the lines of follow the yellow brick road. He was the first to arrive at the Library judging by the fact that Spike was still there, little guy had to watch two places for a week, he didn’t feel envious of him. Spike wanted to see them off but part of the deal of taking care of the house meant taking care of Sweetie Belle as well, so he was just leaving the treebary to go cook her breakfast for school as well as pack her lunch. The little guy had it bad for Rarity for sure and this showed it.

Speaking of, Rarity was the second to show up seeming rather miffed that she wasn’t last to claim fashionably late, though she did correct that. “I always arrive fashionably on time. Sometimes ponies just think that it’s fashionably late and who am I to change their minds.”

Dustan only heard excuses but chuckled regardless. For the final passenger on this trip across the multiverse she showed up thirty minutes later and had all the cuteness to blush when making her excuse. To be fair it was a valid excuse.

“Sorry I am late, I may have been too excited to sleep thinking about things and overslept as a result.” He found it adorable; she was blushing out of embarrassment and couldn’t even look anyone in the eyes.

Twilight smiled as she waved everyone with her hoof. “Alright, down to the basement we go everyone. I have adjusted the circle quite a bit, inlaid some things and engravings and more. I adjusted it since Estrus Week even more and for now I can confidently say Dustan you and I using this won’t have any problems, might feel a bit tired but it will vanish quickly. Though I will have to do the same for the other side, it won’t be an issue.”

In the, rather clean, basement Dustan could see what she meant as she now had an area dedicated all its own to the circle and its research. Before Dustan had to squeeze in a bit with Twilight to fit, but this circle was quite a bit larger and should fit four no problem. Five would need to squeeze a bit, for six and seven, would be how well they could squeeze together. That wasn’t an issue this time, but he could see where Twilight wanted to go with it for sure.

“Ok, is everyone ready?” The registered Magister asked as she looks to everyone who was climbing up to stand on the teleport platform.

“Ready here.” Dustan said shifting his pack once more.

Rarity’s saddlebags as well as two other bags, wheeling bags like one would see people dragging in an airport, gave a nod. “All ready when you are Twilight.”

Rainbow Dash’s embarrassment vanished as she stood up on hind legs for a moment. “Not being able to fly is going to suck for sure, but being one of the first ponies to go to another world, aww yeah I am ready for that.” As she settled back down she smiled as her bags jingled. “I asked Fluttershy to take care of Tank for me so I don’t have to worry about that.”

Twilight started to light up her horn. “Ok, on the count of three hold your breath, I think it will help. One, Two, Three.”

Of course, someone had to say it, that someone being Dash. “Wait, on three or-”

The four of them vanished from the face of the world.

Earth, Patrick’s house, specifically a shed built around the original teleport pad. From the outside only a flash of light would happen as if someone took a picture, followed by a crash and the sound of groaning. Voices could be heard sounding groggy but the worst one sounded sick.

“Rainbow Dash I told you to hold your breath that it would help.” Twilight ‘s voice could be heard.

“Dustan Darling, I think your elbow is pressing into my back.” She told him gently though sounding pained.

Groaning himself and trying to work out what was where. “Actually that is my knee, my elbow is currently propping up one of Dash’s wings and the other is I think at Twilight’s neck? I can’t really see so I am not sure.”

“I think I am gonna be sick.” A very displeased Rainbow called out.

“I told you to hold your breath, now hold something else in!” Twilight called out slightly panicked.

“Nope, too late Urp!” What followed were the sounds of a very displeased pegasus stomach and the upset sounds of her friends.

Chapter Forty Seven: The Plan.

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My Little Tactics

Chapter Forty Seven: The Plan.

The sound of the hose turning on was something to be thankful for as Dustan went about spraying himself off first and foremost as Dash had determined to aim away from most of her friends and thus hit him head on. Thankfully it was also a hot day out so a cool stream of water wasn’t the worst thing to feel at that moment.

“I am SO sorry.” The pegasus told him looking ashamed of herself at the moment.

Instead of telling her that it was ok, Dustan turned the hose on her causing her to squeal out from the sudden cold spray. “There, you hosed me with something, I hosed you. We are even.” Looking back to the shed though, the door had been ripped off its hinge and there was a spot in the grass that didn’t look good as Dustan had rushed out and ended up spilling his stomach as well. “I am more sorry that I broke down the door that was there.”

“I am sure I can fix it if it makes you feel any better, it…just needs to be cleaned out now before I want to be near it.” Twilight told him as she looked over the damaged door as it sadly hung on to the shed by a tiny bit of metal.

“Yeah, though you should all come over here to get clean as well, she may not have gotten you all directly but everyone has a bit on them.” As he said that Rarity was turning laps around herself looking for said spots before rushing over and taking the hose in her magic to spray herself. It surprised him how easily she did this.

Luckily Twiggles had the answer ready for him. “Rarity has always had the finest of control over her magic so she barely ever needed to draw on a lot to do things, so it actually makes sense that her magic functions almost normally.”

“Almost?” He didn’t notice any difference at all to be honest.

“Yes Darling.” Rarity called out from under the hose. “Where as it was like using a fine instrument to thread a needle, I now feel like I am wearing oven mitts while trying to do it. I am still able to do so but it is a lot harder to do so.”

A wet flapping sound came from his side and he saw Rainbow Dash struggling. “Urg you weren’t kidding Twi. It really is like wearing a sumo suit and trying to take off. I am awesome and can do it, but I don’t want to do so for long, though I think this might be some great training.”

Looking over to the patio Dustan told the girls. “Do you three mind rinsing the rest of the way off, I want to see if Patrick is home.”

Instead of answering Rainbow Dash took the hose from Rarity’s magic and started to spray them causing the two of them to run from her, well after they were clean at least. Rolling his eyes at their antics Dustan went to the backdoor and searched for the hidden key. Patrick had told him he would set one up and that it would be under a rock, no not a rock that was too obvious. What Patrick had done instead was set a starfish in the yard a little ways away from the door in honor of the cartoon character that shared his named. Finding it and the key, Dustan went to unlock the door.

He must have just missed a guest as he heard the sound of a motor revving away and the door opening as Patrick was looking a bit down. “Having a rough morning?”

His friend jumped at that and looked angry. “Nearly gave me a heart attack asshole.” The answer quickly changed to a genuine smile as he came over and gave his friend a hug. “Welcome back, though I am curious as to why you are wet. Look I know I am attractive but I didn’t think you swung that way.”

Rolling his eyes, he hugged his friend back. “Good to see you again too. As for why I am wet, well we had a bit of turbulence.”

That got the sandy blonde man rub his hair and look out into the backyard where he saw Dash chasing after Twilight and Rarity with the hose; she was managing to fly but not very quickly. “Huh, more than one this time. I take it that visits might be a bit more regular?”

“Looks like it, finally managed to get my work load down by a lot by hiring a secretary.” Dustan told him watching as it was now Dash’s turn to run away as Twilight had taken the hose from her and was chasing after her.

“Hope she is cute, maybe get a bit of extra service from her.” The designer noticed his friends wince at that. “She ugly?”

“It’s a he actually, and no. Just one of the ones I interviewed tried that, it’s the reason she was fired from her last two jobs. I rather not have someone like that be someone I stick anything into let alone my dick.” That got a chuckle from his friend though not for the reason he was thinking.

“I see.” Turning to him he saw a grin on his face. “Is Dustan going native? Sounds like you are considering ponies in a new light this time around.”

“Ugh yeah, finally. Then again, I never didn’t think of them that way, just-” Dustan stopped and searched for the words. “Apparently I am attractive over there and have been getting signals. I am only recently realizing that they have been there this whole time and seeing them as they happen is…a bit frightening honestly.”

“Dude you were considered attractive over here.” Gestured Patrick, motioning to the world itself. “You got signs all the time but you never saw them, so I guess some things carry over even into another world.” Then he started to laugh loudly so much even the girls outside heard him and looked to him curiously. “Oh my god. You get powers unique to you, you are strong, and you have woman liking you and finding you attractive all while you are in a new world. You are an Isekai protagonist.”

Dustan looked at his so called friend flatly. “I hate you, I hate everything about you right this instance.”

“I take it that we can come in right?” Twilight called out from the open door.

Throwing up his hands in frustration as Patrick continued to laugh he called to her. “Sure just ignore this asshole here and we will be good.”

That just made Patrick laugh harder. “Dustan, that is no way to talk about Patrick! He is your good friend.”

“Yeah Dustan, what about the magic of friendship?” The designer called out to him.

That caused Twilight to smile and nod. “See Dustan, Patrick gets it.” This only caused the laughter to return full force. “What?”

The flat stare from earlier came back as Dustan grabbed his pack. “I am going to change out of these wet clothes, Patrick mind getting the girls some towels to dry off?”

“That would be appreciated. As while it was refreshing and soothing outside, I find that while inside where it is seemingly much cooler that the water has turned from enjoyable while it clung to my coat to horrid and I would very much like to be warm now.” Rarity told them as she was starting to shiver.

“I don’t know what you are talking about, I am fine.” Though Dash did say that, she was shaking a little bit.

Moving to grab a few spare towels he would hand them off to each of the girls and smile. “I know magic is a bit hard so I will help out if you want.”

“I am fine.” Twilight said used to the magic tension in this world as she called it as she was drying herself off.

Dash said nothing as she went about drying herself off, Rarity hearing a male offer to wait on herself didn’t resist. “Well a strapping colt like you offering to help me out, I would be a nag if I refused such a thing.” The ponies in the room rolled their eyes as the blonde man worked her fur as best he could.

Dustan came around the end of the drying off and into an interesting conversation. “Wait why don’t you want me to dry your chest, actually what is that area on a pony called?”

“It is our chest yes Patrick.” Dustan saw Rarity drying her chest off herself as she made sure to be careful and then style out her fur. “I didn’t want you to damage my tuft here. A mare’s pride is her chest fluff after all.”

That got an eye roll from Rainbow Dash. “Please, you are only saying that cause you have a decent amount of fluff.”

“Oh really?” Rarity brought a hoof to the side of her face with a bit of a smile. “If you really think so why have I seen you sometimes puff our your chest to show off the bit of fluff you have there, though I do understand that you don’t have much so I can see how you would think more isn’t better.”

“I am a pegasus, we are made to be aerodynamic. Of course I wouldn’t have a lot of fluff.” Countered the prismatic pony as she was glaring a bit at her friend.

She seemed to have won but the tone of Rarity said it wasn’t over yet. “Right right, and Fluttershy’s tuft is so large why? Why it’s even larger then Pinkie’s and she has a lot of fluff.”

“Pfft, like she counts, she is weird in that area, taller than normal pegasus too.” Dustan wanted to interject but couldn’t get a word in edge wise from Dash.

Rarity once more countered that. “Oh, what about Slip Stream from your weather team, or even Derpy?”

It was clear Dash was getting upset now as her red blush was no longer from embarrassment as her eyes started to squint at her friend, this is where he drew the line and walked forward. Dash almost bumped into him as he got between them.

‘Ok that is enough.’ Though the displaced human. “So um…what kind of conversation did I walk into?”

“Rarity is trying to say a mare with a bigger tuft is more desirable and Dash is trying to say that smaller is better. I am just happy with my size, though I wouldn’t mind if it was a bit bigger.” Twilight told him though if it wasn’t a group of ponies in front of him having this conversation he would think they were arguing another point entirely.

Seems he wasn’t alone as behind the group Patrick made a motion to his chest and increasing in side before a confused look came over him. “You would have to ask a pony on this, I personally am not an expert on that type of thing. All I know is if a pony is nice to hug that is all that matters. You could have a lot of fluff or none at all.”

Rarity gave a rather wry smile at that. “Oh you hear that Dash, that is good to know right?”

He missed something for sure Dash blushed and was making a panicked motion for Rarity to stop while Dustan looked up to Patrick who was just as lost as he was. ‘Ok good, it’s not just me being an idiot.’ Ignoring the girls for a moment he looked to Patrick. “So what have you been up to since I last saw you.”

For a moment Patrick’s hand went to his chest where Dustan noticed he was wearing a necklace of some type. “Not much honestly, had a few contracts that I did. You just missed my…latest client I suppose since I will likely take the contract. I don’t want to but the benefits are hopefully worth it.”

“I hope so too, you deserve the best.” For some reason that got a reaction out of his friend that he didn’t expect.

Patrick just walked up to him and patted his shoulder. “You are too good for this world you know that?”

“Um…maybe?” Regardless of that confusing statement Dustan and crew made their way to the living room as he suddenly remembered something. “Oh you girls said you had plans already for what you wanted to do, I was curious about that.”

“Oh is it time already, Twilight is it time?” Rarity asked a bit giddy as she ran to her suitcases after Twilight nodded.

Rainbow Dash looked a bit nervous. “You sure about this, is it safe?”

“Absolutely, I have calculated it perfectly, though we are going to be staying inside today just to make sure.” As Twilight said that Patrick and Dustan exchanged another confused look.

Rarity came back and pulled out something from her case. “Tada!”

The unicorn held it out in her hooves and the human looked at it. “Ok, you have a t-shirt, though I don’t think that will fit me at all, it’s not the right size, same with the shape too.”

Grinning as Rarity looked over to her fellow unicorn charging up her horn. “Oh it’s not for you Darling.”

Before he could get a word in edgewise for more details Twilight’s horn exploded with light covering the three of them and creating a puff of cloudy smoke. “Hey are you ok in there?” Coughed out Dustan, he waved at the smoke trying to clear it out from his face though wasn’t having much luck.

“Hey don’t burn my house down here, I like living here.” Patrick called out though his voice was also laced with coughing.

Their voices weren’t the only one coughing as the girl’s could be heard out in the smoke as well. “I thought you said it was safe Twilight, what are you trying to do choke us to death?”

“I am sure there is an explanation, right Twilight?” Rarity voice tried to call out for reason as she too sounded a bit miffed.

“Yeah that is my fault, I was trying to compensate for the magical tension and put a bit too much magic into the spell and as a result the excess turned into harmless smoke.” Dustan was getting closer to them at this pace but it was slow going as he could see Twilight’s multicolored mane appear now and then.

A flash of purple here, a twinge of a multi-colored mane there as he got closer. “I don’t care just get me out of the smoke.”

Patrick left the room for a moment searching for something as Dustan went to give Dash her request and lift her up out of the smoke, except his hand came into contact with something he wasn’t expecting. ‘That…strange, soft and not fur, did Twilight blow the fur off Dash?’

As his thoughts raced there was a bit of a squeak from Dash as he surprised her with his touch no doubt. “I got you.” Patrick called out bringing out a fan he had in a closet for when the house was at that perfect temperature of not hot enough to turn on the ac but not cold enough to be comfortable. Plugging it and in turning it on the smoke cleared away quickly and what they saw surprised them all. Patrick’s started to giggling laughter bubbled up from his throat as he covered his mouth with one hand.

Standing there were not three mares, but three women, three human women, three NAKED human women, one of which had Dustan’s hand right on her breast. “Wha, huh, bu.” Dustan’s brain was flatlining at the moment for a response, luckily his friend had a response.

“Isekai, Protag.” His laughter couldn’t be held back any longer.

Dustan looked back to his friend with a glare then back to the tanned and toned woman whose breast he was currently holding and his hand resisted the urge to squeeze as he let go as if it were on fire. “You can put it back, it was nice and warm.”

Ruby colored irises looked back at him, her hair was the same multi-colored hybrid it always was but now laid flat and short on her body barely going down to her neck as it was still spiky from how short it was. She was toned and tanned, from the looks of it, if one were to guess she was definitely an athlete of some kind, track maybe, triathlon something. The breast that his hand had left was not a lot, a bit of a larger A-cup for sure with nipples that fit with her shape and size being neither too big or too small.

“Huh, I think your spell went wrong in other ways Twilight as this definitely weren’t what you showed me.” Rarity called out as she sat on the floor looking herself over. “Though I have to admit, I do not think I look to bad.”

“No you do not.~” Patrick called from the side.

He wanted to say something angry to Patrick but he agreed with him. The same purple hair that she always sported but it went down to the middle of her back and had natural waves in it that curled up at the ends. Her skin was what one could classify as creamy looking with how soft it looked as well as how smooth, she wasn’t pale either. She had the figure of a model but not runway those were too skinny, this was a model of a woman whose figure was curvy in all the right ways and worked hard to keep them in those curves. Her nipples and areolas were a bit small compared to the rest of her breasts but stood proudly atop of her C-cups.

“Huh, I didn’t think there would be that much variety between females but I should have guessed. I did account for it in my spell but seeing it versus theorizing is always different.” Twilight, the nerd showed off her nerd bod by sporting her multi-colored hair with colored stripes that now hung down to just the middle of her shoulders, purple eyes looking around questioning from her friend’s ruby colored ones to her other friend’s blue. The body which she sported was pale showing her indoor habitat as did it show her diet as she wasn’t fat, but she wasn’t skinny, she had a bit of playful pudge as some would call it on her. Her bust fit with her body shape though as she was a B-cup with nipples and areolas that seemed to fit her size rather well.

“Huh, your spell accounted for variety.” Patrick asked as the girls tried to stand up on wobbly legs, Dustan half wanting to help but not wanting to be mistaken for anything. “So, it made the curtain match the drapes, while neat, why did it trim you all to match your marks?”

Dustan’s eyes couldn’t be stopped even if he didn’t do it consciously, as he looked at the girls and found that they were trimmed yes, but not into shapes, more just hygienically. Looking over to his friend he seen him grin and realized he had been had. “Well played.”

The girls had not been paying too close attention to the comments but did hear the one about marks all of which were now on the upper thigh on the side relative to where they were on their pony bodies. “Ahh they are still there, good. Now girls, this is a timed polymorph spell. It should last three hours before I have to cast it again to return us to these human forms. That being said, while human we do not have access to our magic that naturally comes with us, I haven’t figured out how to make it work as of yet and I tried. It’s still there just can’t be released so don’t worry.”

Eventually they all got a hang of at least standing up, with some assistance from Dustan either helping to hold them steady, or them using his shoulders for balance and a few more differences came to light. The tallest of the bunch was Rarity at five foot six with one Twilight Sparkle right behind her being shorter by two inches. Rainbow Dash showed off her short pony stature even in this form though by being only five foot even. The second key thing was Dash’s martial arts training kicking in. Because she trained to stand on two legs while fighting she got the hang of her new balance a lot easier than the other two and was walking fine within a matter of moments. Patrick the entire time went without helping enjoying his friends uncomfortable positioning and condition. It also didn’t help that Dustan could hear the click of Patrick’s phone taking photos nor could he ignore the buzz of his own phone as he heard it receive some messages and knew what he was up to.

Twilight was the next to get the hang of it as apparently she had been practicing. “This was a lot easier when I had your magic helping me to stand up while you measured me Rarity.”

So that was it, which had been the plan and why Rarity was so sure she would be going, or at least partially. “Yes dear it was.” The former posh unicorn was bracing against a wall trying to use it to find her center of balance. “It’s hard to remain upright though when I have these things on my chest.”

“Oh those are the female’s mammary glands, their teets. They stay like that all the time; it’s to attract the attention of males, kind of like how we were talking about our tufts earlier.” She told them so in a matter of a fact tone.

‘Oh god that was basically what the conversation was wasn’t it?!’ Dustan regretted giving Twilight a basic biology book now as he had forgotten it had stuff about humans and some of their nature in it.

“Huh, so even as a human I am the bigger of us three when it comes to that. However mine didn’t attract a male as Dustan’s hand had found its way to Dash’s teet instead of mine.” Rarity looked smugly at Dash for some reason; he wasn’t sure why when she admitted to losing.

“Yeah, told you mine was better.” She puffed out her chest in response. Then a look crossed her mind as she went red and her arms went to cover her chest. “Hey I mean it was an accident I didn’t let him touch them on purpose and I wouldn’t have asked him to touch my tuft before.”

“Yes but you did ask him to put his hand back cause it was warm.” That smug look was shared by Patrick who could appreciate the set up job that Rarity had just played on her friend. “I understand though, a tuft is sacred but touching teets, that surely is a bit easier for you right?”

“That-that was before I knew what these were!” Looking at Dustan frantically the pony turned human asked him. “Tell them, it wasn’t like you enjoyed touching me right?”

Dustan’s eyes went wide as he heard that. “I have never heard a more loaded question then that one before EVER.”

Both Rainbow Dash and Twilight responded to that with a “Huh?”

Moving to catch Rarity as she nearly fell Dustan showed off a bit of his strength, making Rarity coo lightly as a result, by effortlessly picking her up and helping to steady her. “If I admit I didn’t like them, you will then realize what I just said and ask why I didn’t enjoy them and start making theories about it wildly. If I say I did well that could make me out to be a pervert which will upset you as well.”

She opened her mouth to try to counter him but…she failed. “Ok good point.”

Deciding to let loose his own set up, or rather finish it, Patrick called out. “Rarity, didn’t you mention before this all went down that you made human clothes for you all.”

It had been almost an hour now that Dustan was trying to help them, all while they strode around in the nude making him uncomfortable in ways that his imagination absolutely LOVED. “RIGHT CLOTHES! Let’s get you girls dressed.”

“Right, would you all help me get our ensembles out?” She smiled as she said that very much happy and looking forward to things. “I had to rush a bit with Dash’s clothing, which may be a bit too large and baggy on her as I had fit these all for Twilight’s size. Which means it might be too tight on me.”

Speaking of Twilight, since she was the most obvious to fit into the clothing, Rarity got her dressed. The top was a soft magenta color and was sleeved to her elbows, her cutie mark embroidered where a pocket would be normally. She also wore a skirt that was of a darker purple matching closer with her ma-hair color that reached just a bit past mid thigh. She then put on a pair of socks that were so dark of a purple they might as well be black, causing her to blush and giggle a bit saying something about how naughty it was, to which he didn’t understand. She ended up with a pair of slip on shoes as it was the best design and most comfortable that Rarity had ended up on.

Tying her hair up in a long ponytail before doing a twirl, Twilight letting her skirt flare up and out. “I think you forgot something.” Dustan couldn’t help but blush heavily even if he had just spent an hour with the girls while they were nude. Rarity looked over Twilight and couldn’t seem to figure out what he meant as he sighed. “Where are her panties?”

That lit up the former unicorn mare’s eyes. “Panties? Oh you mean the underwear right, I almost forgot those.” Dustan couldn’t help but glare at the almost part as she HAD forgotten. “Here you go Twilight.”

“Thank you.” Slipping them up her legs she smiled and wiggled though Dustan face-palmed as those weren’t panties but boxers. “Huh, these don’t feel like what I thought they would feel like.” Lifting up her skirt she showed herself off to everyone. “How do they look?”

“Um did you girls design your underwear after mine?” He asked only to get a nod and sighs. “Panties are what females wear, sometimes thongs, but boxers tend to be what guys wear.” He muttered and went to the kitchen needing a drink.

He was trying to slake the thirst he felt by slacking another type of thirst, it wasn’t really working. Dustan even went so far as to run his head under the water to cool off. Meanwhile his phone was buzzing again and again. Deciding he should look at what was sent just in case it was from his parents he was wrong. It was all Patrick showing the girls getting dressed, showing off, and even in one picture, which was the latest, were the girls groping themselves.

Deciding to give into the insanity he walked back into the living room to hear. “So it’s kind of like tuft you said right? Well I don’t think my tuft has ever been this sensitive, is that normal?”

“Try squeezing them, that felt pretty good to me.” He heard Dash respond to Rarity as Twilight was looking around for a note pad as she seemed to want to record things for her own posterity. Patrick, the good for nothing, was just enjoying himself and taking photos.

Rarity was now dressed in a white top with long sleeves that went to her wrists, a skirt that was slit up one side in the color black, and was wearing flats but no socks. Honestly she looked like a high class office lady if not for the fact everything was a bit tight on her, especially around her chest.

Dash was next and as expected everything on her was a bit loose. She had taken to a sky blue t-shirt whom she had knotted a bit at the front showing off her abs in the process and tightening it up to be a better fit. The pants she wore were more Yoga or Jogging pants as they had a pull string on the front-no wait she changed her mind. Apparently she was taking them off and she wasn’t wearing panties.

Patrick slipped up beside him as he was staring and whispered. “The panties wouldn’t fit, they slipped right off her.”

What could he say, the mare he knew had a crush on him was a human right now, bottomless and looking to change her clothes and she just bent over. Dustan felt his brain stop at that and he knew his eyes were boring a hole at Dash, but he couldn’t look away. As she was looking through the cases she was unconsciously wiggling her hips back and forth it was almost hypnotic.

The human lord thought he heard a giggle in the distance but it didn’t matter, the corner of his eyes registered Rarity whispering to Twilight and pointing at something before she too was giggling in on whatever the joke was. Wiggle hip, toss cloth, wiggle hip, toss cloth. The cycle went on for a bit before she gave up almost until she struck pay dirt judging by her cry.

“Aha!” Pulling out a pair of trunks that either looked to before exercise or swimming they slide up her toned legs as she grinned. “Better” She told them all as she pulled and tied off the strings. The trunks were a dark blue with light blue trim perfect for swimming, and colors he liked a lot and looked good on her.

“Um dear.” Rarity said while leaning against the wall. “I made those for Dustan. I was working on a few new things and brought them with me. I wanted to compare my work to human’s.”

Looking to Dustan she pouted a bit and lightly drew the shorts down just enough that her other tuft was peeking out. “Since they are yours I will take them off if you want, but it’s the only thing that fits so can I wear your shorts?”

“I need to go and…work out outside, right now.” Dustan said leaving the room and into the yard. He needed to focus on something else right now really badly. So much he went vertical to do pushups with one hand.

Seeing that, even Patrick was surprised. “Holy shit that is awesome.”

Looking to the human in the room the girls all agreed on the question in mind as Twilight asked. “Is that special for humans to be able to do?”

“Absolutely.” Patrick said as he watched his friend just blast through them as if they were nothing. “If you can do that you are likely considered in one of the most peek conditions you can be for a human. Even then it’s difficult for those that can do it. It requires not only a hefty amount of strength but balance and concentration as well.” The entrepreneur held out an arm and flexed. “I am considered a bit above the average person as I have a personal gym that I use regularly to keep fit and I couldn’t hope to do that.” As he said that Dustan simply hoped from one hand to the other causing his shirt to flip out from his clothing which he promptly tossed away. “Ok the scars are a bit much but damn look at my bro. He is fucking JACKED! I bet you could shred cheese over those abs.”

“Yeah I could.” Instantly all eyes went to Dash who went red in the face. “I mean yeah I could go for some cheese right now…right everyone ha-ha-ha…ha…”

That seemed to remind Twilight of something. “Oh right, I almost forgot everyone. While we are human we will tend to…think more human like. If you didn’t like meat before the smell of it might make your mouth water, you might find certain features, like abs, attractive more then you may or may not have before, basically things humans would like you are more prone to like now.”

Rarity pouted at that as Dash seemed to sigh in relief. “Oh yeah, it’s the transformation right.” Looking around the pegasus turned human asked. “Where is the little ponies room?”

“There are two, one on the main floor, down the hall second door on your right, or upstairs almost in the exact same place.” Patrick told her as she quickly nodded and fled after a minute.

Rarity grinned and looked to Patrick. “So, now that the foal is out of the room, I am guessing that Dustan’s need to go work out is the same reason in this world as it is in ours after starting at a mare that hard?”

Laughing to himself the normal human gave an affirmative nod. “Very likely. I am not sure how sharp your visions are now as a human versus a pony, but even a blind woman would be able to see what staring at that toned rear of your friend did to him.” Twilight left hearing that as she went to go check up on Rainbow dash.

“So if I were to, say bend over right now, you would stare at me?” Rarity said almost moving to bend over.

“That and likely give your ass a nice slap for good measure.” The former pony seemed to take offense to that. “Rude much. You don’t treat a lady like that.”

“Hey, I am an asshole if you had not heard.” He seemed proud of this fact as he pointed a thumb towards himself. “I know what I am, I embrace it. If you want a white knight he is outside, but given how he is, the white horse he will ride in on won’t be any of you, no matter how much you want to be ridden.”

A ‘Hmmph’ was given as Rarity turned her head to walk away, only to run into a red faced Twilight. “Ahh, D-don’t go that way.”

“Why not Darling? I would like to see more of this lovely home even if it does belong to a brute.” Her pointed glare went over to Patrick, he politely and playfully flipped her off with a smile causing her to turn her nose back on him.

Twilight’s fingers poked against one another and she looked down. “Dash is...taking care of her own stress in a different way.”

“Wait, what do you-” Then she got a grin on her face. “Oh is she, and how would you know?”

“Well I went to go check on her and as I neared the bathroom she was…quite vocal.” More fuel for the fire to tease Dash with she supposed. She wasn’t sure why she was teasing her so much, though if she had to guess it was because she had not known the tomcolt to be feminine and seeing her act like it at times made Rarity want to tease her.

“Really, I am surprised you can hear anything, I have notice it’s very much dull for sound.” She held her hands up to where her new ears where. “Either my…variable isn’t very good about it, or something is wrong.”

“That is actually normal.” That seemed to confuse the fashionista. “Humans don’t have as good of hearing as ponies do, but they have better Eyesight.”

“Oh, that does explain some things. I was watching Dustan a second ago and could notice he was sweating and how it ran down his body. I thought maybe it was just my brain focusing in on things that it wanted to focus on, but if I could see better that makes more sense.” She chuckled and looked to her friend. “Dash certainly was looking that was for sure.”

The girls once they had regrouped and Dustan came back feeling calmer decided that in a way Dustan had it right. Exercising would get them use their bodies so they started to discuss what they could do; Dustan said that a jog would be best to start out with since they were still adjusting to their bodies and how they move. That was where Patrick introduced him to his home gym a right piece of work for sure.

“Welcome to my personal home within my home. I went all out and paid for all kinds of state of the art equipment here, especially on the weight lifting since I don’t have anyone to spot me.” The blonde designer told them and then showed them to the two treadmills he owned, he owned two of everything just in case one started to working or if he was too exhausted to clean one off the previous day. The girls looked a bit unsure after hearing that and a bit grossed out. “Don’t worry, I always clean them off the next morning and all the machines are currently clean I promise.”

Feeling a bit more assured Twilight and Rarity went to the treadmills and were put on a walking setting for now. However before any of them got started they did make sure to stretch properly emphasizing how important that was which Rainbow Dash could only nod to. She was happy to see that stretching before exercising was universal no matter what species.

Since Dash could walk adequately already Dustan went to give her some light workout stuff, pushups, sit ups, squats, jumping jacks, anything to let her feel her body move and see how she did so it works. “Huh some of these are a lot harder as a Human and some are really easy. Then there are some that are just really different as you do them with two legs instead of four.”

Chuckling at that Dustan looked at her. “Well if you start going down the path like those in the castle with the class training, you will get a lot stronger. Look at me, at this point I am basically almost super human, right there at the edge of peek human in a lot of ways and if I keep training I could go there.”

“Then why have you slowed way down on your training?” Dash’s question honestly caught him off guard. “I get paperwork and all that, teaching, and more, but I hardly ever see you outside sparing anymore or training.”

“Honestly?” He asked her as he sat down on the mat and looked over to where the others were, out of earshot. “Between you and me I am a bit afraid.”

“Of what? I mean if you become super human wouldn’t that make you just like one of the Power Ponies or something?” She punched the air to emphasis.

The eyebrow on his face was felt raising as he looked at her. “I thought you didn’t like to read except Daring Do.”

“Pfft, comics are different.” She said moving her arms out to her side. “You don’t read them, they entertain you.”

‘Twilight might have an argument for you there if she hears about that.’ Regardless of his thoughts on that matter he would look down at his left hand. “I am afraid of what I might lose Dash. As it is right now, with my magic, with all that I can do, with what I have seen. I am afraid I am just barely hanging on to what keeps me human. If I go past that tipping point into super human will normal human issues not be a concern, will they bug me as they might seem trivial? Will I still be able to relate? Ponies are kinda the same way, though I relate less to them cause of the species barrier it doesn’t mean that I am totally disconnected from them. So if I move into this point where no normal pony or human can do anything to me, what will I do then?”

“So?” The blasé attitude startled him. “I am the fastest pony alive, I can do a Sonic Rainboom something no other pony can do. When it comes to speed none can match me, but do you see me going about things like I am above them?”

“You mean beyond the bragging?” He couldn’t help but throw that out there with a playful smile.

She grinned back at him and raised her arms stretching and he couldn’t help but note that it emphasized her small chest in a good way. “Hey if you have it flaunt it. Just don’t rub it in too hard is all. Besides, no matter how far you go into that super human area you are scared of, there is going to be something you can’t do better than someone else. There is also the fact that because you are number one at something doesn’t mean number two can come up and do something.”

That did make him feel better. ‘There are always checks and balances, no matter if I can’t see them.’ Looking up at her he gave a more confident smile. “Thanks, that helps out a lot. Still I am in no rush to push that envelop, I am happy teaching and really don’t feel like I need to get much stronger at the moment.”

“Be careful, that might come back to bite you.” She said a bit sadly. He wanted to ask her what she meant when suddenly there was the sound of shattering glass as each of the girls forms exploded in light before almost instantly reforming into their pony forms. This caused Twilight and Rarity to fall on the treadmills in an ungraceful fashion making everyone head over to them to see if they were alright.

“Guess the three hours are up. Wait, did we even have a timer to check to see if it was three hours?” The humans looked towards each other and it was clear no one thought to do so. “Ugh, no matter. I have plenty of reserves to cast it again and this time there should be no smoke.” The girls had all slid out of their clothing when they changed back as the clothing no longer fit on them properly.

Seeing that, Dustan turned around and pulled his buddy with him. “We will be in the other room so that you can get changed properly this time.”

“Hey I don’t mind watching.” Patrick called out.

Flicking his forehead Dustan told him. “Bonk, go to horny jail.”

“Excuse me?” Letting out a rather indignant response from him he replied with. “Says Mr. I got to go work away my wood.”

“I can probably throw you a mile away, you know this right?” Smiled Dustan.

Patrick opened his mouth to respond except he stopped. “Right, you win this one, but know you can’t always pull that excuse.”

Dustan flexed and grinned. “Tell that to me when I can’t throw you to the next county.”

That got a good laugh from the both of them.

Chapter Forty Eight: A Sight to See.

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My Little Tactics

Chapter Forty Eight: A Sight to See.

Beyond adjusting to the human form and exercising, one of the other issues that came up was bathing. Rainbow Dash had wanted to wait to try to bath while a pony but the other two said it would help them get used to them if they cleaned during the spell. With a two to one vote they all got to use the master shower in Patrick’s room, this prompted Dustan to ask his friend a question.

“Dude, why is your shower big enough to hold five people easily?” The brown haired lord of territory in another world ask him.

His friend simply scratched at his cheek looking embarrassed. “Ok, so it’s a bit of a guilty pleasure. Sometimes I just like to lie down while the water is going, you know stretch out, feel the warmth just coming down. It’s soothing.”

“Yeah ok I get it.” Dustan told him which shocked his friend.

“What really?” He leaned forward and gestured with his hand. “That’s not weird or anything?”

“Nope.” Then Dustan grinned. “I understand cause we have a public style bath at the castle it’s a hot spring. I sometime just like to soak and relax.”

Patrick sucked at his teeth. “Lucky dick.”

“Hey that thing cost a pretty bit I will have you know. Its maintenance isn’t bad as everyone pitches in to keep it clean, but I do have to order a weekly cleaning just to make sure it doesn’t get too dirty.” Lying back against the couch he sighed as Patrick turned on the TV which turns out was on the news.

“-ourists are flocking into the town to watch the annual air show that is happening during the weekend. Many are expected to take to the hills nearby as the show’s seats are already sold out. Local authorities are making sure to post where it is ok for visitors to camp out so that-” Dustan had forgot about the Spring Showcase, where many top private pilots come to show off their skills. Many ex-Navy and ex-Air Force are among their numbers.

“Hey that sounds like something the girls would like. Want to find a good spot for the weekend and show them the air show?” He asked turning to his friend.

Patrick simply grinned and nodded. “Holy shit I forgot that was happening this weekend. Yeah dude let’s do it. Show those girls what humans can do with tech.” Holding out his hand the two high fived. “Yeah, I will go to my computer to-” Dustan glared at him. “I mean, I will use your computer to look up places to set up for a good view.” The Lord showed his approval with a nod.

As Patrick left to go look up a place Dustan looked at the TV. “Wow, it’s been a while since I enjoyed TV like this. I do and don’t miss it. Equestria keeps me plenty busy for sure.” However that wasn’t what was on Dustan’s mind. They were there for a week so he was thinking about what he could do with the girls now that they could go out. It had pretty much messed with his already thought up plans, but this was a good thing. Much more they could do. ‘Rarity will be happy if she can go clothes shopping so that is an easy fix but that can’t be the only thing we do for her for the week. Might want to take her to a crafts store as well get some fabric and such that can only be gotten here. Still that is a day’s worth at best. Each girl deserves a day to themselves at the very least as well as some group days with everyone. Ok, so one day for each, not including the day to adjust to their bodies, this leaves three days for them. One of these is going to be the air show, so two days for group activities. One day should be a shopping day for them all, likely the first day to get them clothes that can fit properly instead of the accidental misfit clothing. This leaves one other day for a group deal. What can I do that they would like? I will think about that later, got to think about Twilight and Dash now as Rarity’s day is pretty much already thought out.’

So lost in his thoughts he barely noticed the shift of the couch. “Whatcha doing?”

He jumped at hearing the voice and turned to see Rainbow Dash in just a towel though it did cover everything. “I thought you were in the shower?”

“I was. But Rarity and Twilight are exploring everything that means to be human and so keep examining one another. I got tired of being poked and prodded so washed up quickly and came out.” She looked down at the towel and said. “I came out naked but apparently that isn’t good or so Patrick told me so he gave me a towel and tried to wrap it around my waist but he said it has to cover what it covers now.”

‘Thank heavens.’ Dustan thought to himself, having three S tier girls that tended to walk around naked was hard enough as it was having a wet one next to him might be a bit much. “Yeah, see Humans have issues with nudity and…wait…didn’t we have this talk…like several times?”

“Oh yeah we have, but you were talking about yourself. I guess it’s different for mares huh?” She said looking to herself and cupping her breasts. “Mares don’t have these and you stallions are a lot more muscle-y then girls it seems.”

“Typically yeah. Here its backwards, the males tend to do the approaching and the females are the ones that wait for invitations.” Dustan told her with a chuckle. “Back in Equestria it would be mares that do the inviting right?”

“Yeah normally.” Poking his side she asked him teasingly. “Hey you still didn’t say what it was you were doing.”

“I didn’t?” She was right, it had slipped his mind. “Honestly with you girls all humanized now, I am trying to think of what to do with you all. I had plans before, which weren’t the best but they made due, but now you are human so I am trying to make the most of it to make sure you girls will have fun and enjoy yourselves.” Laying his head back and closing his eyes. “But I am having trouble trying to come up with something to do for you and Twilight. Rarity is easy in this case as we already know she is interested in human fashion.”

A silence fell between them after that and even though his eyes were closed he could feel the couch shift as Dash’s voice was a bit closer. “Hey Dustan, do you wanna go on a-”

Whatever she was going to say was cut off as Twilight called out. “There you are Rainbow Dash.”

Dustan opened his eyes as he felt Dash shift away from him and turned to look towards the stairs. “Oh good, you also are wearing a towel correctly.”

She giggled and pulled out a piece of paper with a drawing of a woman and showed where a towel was supposed to go with the words ‘proper way to wear a towel’ and it also showed that one could be applied to the hair if it was long enough. “This was tapped on the door so we got the message pretty quickly.” She then looked to the pega-human. “Come on, let’s go get dressed, unless you want to be naked all day?”

“Fine, fine.” The short girl called out. “I have been told why, but I still don’t get it at times. It’s just us here, not like we are in public, why can’t I go nude?”

As Dustan watched her walk up the stairs he noticed that from his angle that he could see her-‘Nope, bad brain bad. That is why you can’t go around naked Dash.’

The sleeping arrangements were another issue though not much of one. The guest bed was large enough for two and Dustan volunteered his room for the left over as he would take the couch. For a moment there was almost a discussion on who would take what except Dash was already moving towards where his room was.

“Those two will want to discuss human things, maybe even change into human forms again to sleep with for a bit. I’m not going to get any sleep with either of those two so I will take the solo bed.” She said that as Dustan was setting up his blankets and pillows on the couch.

Since all three were ponies again by this point Dash was flying up the stairs as Rarity took one final chance to get a dig in at her. “Oh, all by yourself? You must want some privacy I get it; you needed that early today as well for some reason.” That head turned so fast there was a bit of a rainbow trail following her as the pegasus glared at her friend before she flew into the bedroom and shut it, not responding at all.

“I think you might be teasing her too much Rarity, what has been up with you?” Twilight asked to which Dustan agreed, even Patrick who was getting things set up by pulling out extra blankets from a closet.

“I don’t even know you girls and even I agree, you have been pretty much barbed up this whole time. What gives?” Patrick was showing his blunt ways with that question.

Rarity opened her mouth for a moment before closing it. “Huh, I have a few ideas but I will tell you in private Twilight as they are a bit personal. I suppose combine that with the fact that everyone can agree that she is rather adorable when she is pouty it is making my normal jokes a bit more often and slightly harsher as a result. I promise I will do my best to tone it down.”

“Ok then good. I am all for friendly poking, but you were throwing out some actual jabs there.” Yawning a bit and looking at the time. “Alright people and ponies, I am out. See you in the morning.”

“We are too, good night Dustan, and thank you again for bringing us.” Twilight smiled and lit up her horn carrying the remaining bags that they had not moved to the room as she and Rarity left.

Dustan would strip down to his boxers as he was ready to sleep yawning, he couldn’t help but wonder what Rarity’s problem was.

“Ok Rarity, what is your problem?” Twilight asked once the door was closed.

“Why darling, honestly I am happy for Rainbow Dash, she has a nice crush going on.” That didn’t seem to answer it at all and Rarity knew it. “Alright, I wasn’t lying earlier when I said she was adorable to tease. The fact that she gets even poutier and blushes more just makes me want to do it more.”

Twilight wasn’t buying it. “Rarity, I have seen when you want to be playful, this is more like those times you see mares who are wearing designs that are fantastic but you can't wear as it doesn’t work for you. You get snippy.”

Sighing as her fellow unicorn was right. “Sorry, truth is, when we were playing truth or dare I realized I was happy that she had a crush like this. I won’t lie in that I personally thought that she was a mare who only played for one side. Then I thought about it and realized she currently is crushing on an actual pseudo prince.”

Tilting her head the purple unicorn could only let out a confused. “What?”

“Think about it Twilight.” She gestured past the door downstairs. “Dustan owns a castle, large enough territory that if he wanted to be his own country he could, his own HIGHLY trained forces. He has capital especially from the tidbits you have told me, and what is more, in many ways once you get past the shape and hairlessness factor, he is what most mares would want in a stallion physically. Well almost everything, we all got to see a bit of him here and there when accidents have happened. True he isn’t as big as a normal pony but it isn’t that much smaller.”

Suddenly Twilight was blushing. “Actually about that. Last time I was here, and it’s backed up by some books, the mating time for a human on the short end, not counting inexperience and medical conditions, is about the upper end of ours.”

“On the short end?!” Twilight nodded at that and suddenly Rarity had to know. “What…what is the average or the longer times?”

Downstairs Dustan jumped when a loud. “WHAT?!” was heard.

“Yeah, umm and that isn’t all. You see, Patrick might have slipped in a few books for me to read of his own as a gift.” Just mentioning the books had her blushing up a storm. “They have a rather…extensive mating position roster. One of the books he gave me was called the Kama Sutra, and well, I only cracked it open once and never again. That thing is perverse and lewd.”

Rarity sighed at that and laid her head upon the bed. “That just makes me even more jealous of Rainbow Dash, now she has a near perfect Prince to woo.”

“Even more jealous?” The question rang there for a moment as Rarity’s eyes went wide.

Turning her head slowly she almost whispered out. “You heard nothing.”

“That is why you have been teasing her? You are jealous? Why?” It didn’t make any sense to the librarian at all.

Rarity bit her lips as her eyes filled up with tears. “I have been looking for my own prince charming for so long Twilight. I ignored Dustan except as a client to start with while Rainbow Dash befriended him. Then he started to get more and more popular and gain more and more support. Next thing I know he owns a castle, has servants, and is a Lord. Meanwhile I keep myself in lovely shape, make sure I look my best all to attract any stallion and it seems like the only one who even remotely thinks of me this way is way too young for me. Whereas Rainbow Dash doesn’t take care of her looks, focuses on training, fun, and pranks. She is a tomcolt, has a horrid manecut, and has a body like a lean colt’s. Yet, she is looked at, touched, and the one to make someone like Dustan have to distract himself. Am I ugly and no pony has said anything?”

There it was, that was the real reason. Rainbow Dash was the exact opposite of what Rarity felt should be attractive yet she clearly was the one being looked at. Sure Dustan had looked at all of them, but he was looking at her the most and it hurt the pristine pony’s pride. She pulled her friend into a hug as she started to pet her mane gently trying to whisper soothing words of comfort to her. The mare being comforted couldn’t hold back her tears at that and ended up crying herself to sleep that night.

“So, why are we here again?” The rainbow haired human asked. “Patrick has agreed to pay for everything sure, I get that, but I still don’t understand why.”

“Dash, you are in exercise shorts and a top too big for you.” Dustan leaned in close and whispered. “That combination, while ok to cover up with and is ok with me, makes you look a bit…trashy. No offense.”

She got a look on her face and stared down at her clothing and picked at them. “So you don’t think I look good in this?”

His experience with women was lacking sure, but even he knew not to tell a woman her ass did indeed look fat in that outfit. “Like I said, I think you are fine in it.” His brain chimed in. ‘Quick play up to her ego!’ to which he was thankful for. “But I think you could look a lot cooler if we got things that matched you and fit you know?”

That did the trick, crossing her arms over her chest she nodded as if it were sagely advice. “No, I totally get it. I clearly can make human fashion look a lot better if I want to.”

“Also Dash, humans are the only sentient species, so we don’t call it human fashion or human views, just fashion and views things like that.” That got an ‘oh’ from her and she whispered that she would join the others and to let them know about that as well.

“You did let them know that they aren’t supposed to change in front of others and that there were booths for that right?” Nudged Patrick from his side.

Moving quickly Dustan called out. “Girls!” as he went to take care of that, even if he heard his friend chuckling at him.

After relaying that bit of advice Dustan and Patrick were made to sit down as the girls and two reps from the store went around and helped them pick out things as well as to help them measure out a few things which included panties and bras. The girls at the desk looked a bit confused but he tried to explain that the girls were raised by a single father and that seemed to satisfy them. Watching them happily pick out clothing though it was easy to forget they were ponies, as right now they all looked like women in their early twenties.

What came next was a bit of a surprise, something he had seen in TV shows, movies, anime, manga, hell everywhere, but never seen in real life. “So what do you think?” The girls came out showing off their outfits giving them both a show. Part of him was very much embarrassed, and other parts feeling very alpha male as between them showing off he caught a few guys looking through the window to the front of the store where they were and looking very jealous.

In the middle of one of the displays, Patrick suddenly jumped up. “Idea. Need, to speak, with girls.”

‘Oh no. Either he just had a great idea or a stupid one. He only talks in the ‘Great need’ voice when it’s one of those…or both.’ Suddenly this was no longer about the show as he watched Patrick go talk with one of the store girls that had been helping them out and asked something that he couldn’t hear. The girl clapped and smiled before heading back to the back.

When Patrick came back around he was smiling. “Dude, enjoy, I also came up with what we are doing on one of our days.” It took a few more than a few minutes but when the girls came out, Dustan heard Patrick say one thing. Two simple words and he both hated his friend and felt his fist go and bump his. “Beach Episode.”

The girls each came out in a swim suit suited to them. Twilight had a once piece outfit that was closer to a two-piece as it had strategically placed holes to show off her sides but kept her front covered that came in a light magenta. Rarity had on the more classical two-piece tied bikini in a deep purple. Dash went off the traditional cuff wearing a bikini top but tight swim trunks that almost showed her form a little too well.

It seems that while Twilight and Dash were a bit embarrassed Rarity took to the show with ease. “Well boys, what do you think.”

Dustan couldn’t help what he said next, it would be a crime to say anything else. “Pay them, pay the counter girls now. If you don’t, I am going to go back to your place and break your pc.” He waved to his friend towards the aforementioned counter. He wasn’t sure if Patrick heard his threat or not as he was up and going as soon as the words ‘pay’ were said.

The flashes of a few phones went off as well. “I would say they like it girls but so do a lot of people it seems.” There were now about a dozen guys all standing at the window taking photos with their phones.

Twilight covered herself up a bit. “I don’t know. I don’t like being looked at like this.”

“I'm awesome so I'm used to being looked at.” Dash said hands at her hips and chest slightly puffed.

Rarity, however, looked a bit thoughtful for a moment before looking to the crowd and striking a pose herself, the multitudes of flashes that went off after that had her smiling and standing a bit taller then she had before now that Dustan thought about it.

Once the girls had their clothing paid for, as well as their swim suits, they came back in some of the new outfits they had gotten. Rarity was now wearing a royal purple colored skirt that was longer on one side then the other, going down to near her ankle. Her shirt, the same color as her previous one, had a much lower neckline but was near the same style as her last one the only difference was the cuffs were open and loose but now had a short cut long sleeved jacket the same color as her skirt all of which was completed with a pair of dark stockings to show off her legs. Dash was next wearing a short skirt slit up both legs that also functioned as a pair of shorts colored cyan, same as her new top which held no sleeves and showed off her shoulders with their straps. Twilight was last coming out in a lavender blouse that buttoned up in the middle with a white shirt under it and a knee length skirt to round out her look.

Dustan stood up as it was about time they leave, today was a group day that was for group shopping, so he planned to take them to a few places but also to sight see. As he did Dustan noticed one of the shop girls whisper to Rarity who then relayed it to the other two. He wasn’t sure what was said but Twilight looked unsure and Dash looked unconvinced. It didn’t last long as again she got a whisper this time from the store rep girl that made Dash blush slightly and rub the tip of her shoe against the ground before nodding. Patrick and Dustan shared a look between each other not sure how to feel about this.

That shared look vanished as Patrick was the first to feel the effect of things as Rarity held his arm and pressed against him in a bit of a showy way to which the blonde man didn’t seem to mind at all. Dustan was about to question things when he felt not one but two bodies press against him, one on each side. As he looked down to them Twilight looked as if she were more embarrassed at being seen doing so then actually doing this act. Dash however was refusing to look at him with a blush on her face.

Regardless of what they were told to make them do this, the Lord of the Everfree couldn’t help but puff out his chest some when he walked out to the jealousy of all the guys that had been taking pictures, even more so when he heard them mutter about what a lucky bastard he was.

The best part of this deal, the store they went to was in the mall, a good place for a day to just fool around and enjoy one’s self with the company of friends. First stop though, escorting the ladies some place private as the timer for the spell was getting close to running out. Dustan and Patrick had both set timers on their phones and they were cutting it close. The girls made sure a nearby bathroom was empty while Dustan and Pat remained outside the hallway leaning against walls to pretend to be waiting for them. Dustan was prepared to rush in to save them while Patrick was resetting the timer.

Both of them were happy to see the girls coming back out and smiling to them Twilight even giving them a thumbs up. Huh, she was learning. While that was a good sign he knew she would need more than just that for what was to come. They approached it, Dustan’s home away from home, one that was slowly fading away from many places but there was still one there. Flashing lights, thrilling sounds, bells, whistles, alarms, the sounds of tickets pulsing out, coins being distributed into machines and from them. It was the sounds of-

“Welcome to an arcade ladies. We have games of all shapes and sizes so we are sure to find something you all will enjoy.” Patrick told them gleefully.

Amongst the three the prim and proper purple haired human was the most nonchalant about it. “These do look fascinating, but are you sure there is something there for me?”

The other two ponies turned humans looked on with fascination though for two different reasons. “TECHNOLOGY! I need to see how they work!”

“GAMES! Imma win them all!” Dash called out tugging at Dustan’s arm.

Dustan on the other hand was holding Twilight by the scruff of her shirt. “No Twi, no taking apart things owned by other people. Bad purplesmart.”

The pouting face and big eyes made the twenty something year old unicorn in a human’s body look a lot younger as she practically pleaded with him. “But…but…technology. Look at it.”

“Think of it this way, would you want someone to come to your library to tear apart the books to figure out what words are in them?” A silly comparison sure but hopefully it would get the point across.

“GASP!” The unicorn’s face was of shock and rage at that. “What kind of monster would go to another’s home and start taking apart the things that-oh I see what you did there.” That face had switch to an instant bland look as she glared at him somewhat. “Well played mister.”

“Uh would you two stop talking about playing and let’s go actually play?” Dash said tapping her foot impatiently.

“You heard her.” With that they headed inside.

Every game was a different challenge, every game was something one of the girls had questions about, and every game no matter if single or multiplayer was tried. Twilight, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash all had different skill sets that made them rather uniquely good at certain games. Memorization skills made Twilight get nothing but perfect scores after the first few tries on the DDR games though tired her out immensely both from the concentration needed to make her body move at the right times, and because she was not used to exercise of any kind. Rarity’s eye for detail made her rather great with the fishing games as she could spot where the fish were once she learned a few details about fishing in general. She could flick that lure out and every time get a hit. Because of Dash’s reaction time those pop up enemy shooters were her bread and butter.

Patrick had his own niche as well which annoyed the speedster of the group as he was the racing king. “The fastest right here ladies.” That declaration caused Rainbow Dash to lose more than a fair share of her tokens trying to claim that title for her own only to lose every time.

Dustan found he was good at a lot of games because of how his body had changed so that did take some enjoyment out of many of those games, but then there was the skill based ones he had to try to control himself with like skee ball. Whereas other games like the shooters his own reaction time was enough, or the DDR where his speed could get him to the right position quick enough, games that required skill and control were where he enjoyed himself the most even if he wasn’t the greatest at some. However the trade off was that those skill based games tended to give the most tickets to trade in for prizes.

At the end he had quite a bit of tickets to share with the girls for when they were deciding on prizes. Twilight got a small stuffed bear that was hand held and a small little note pad as she had the tickets for them herself. Rarity didn’t really want anything but did get a hair clip she liked and then gave all the rest of her tickets to Dash. Patrick also didn’t want anything so he gave them to her as well and with Dustan also pitching in it meant she had quite a bit to spend ending up with a large turtle pillow plushy that was as large as her torso.

“Oh hey there is something we didn’t get to do.” Patrick pointed to a small booth. “Can only fit two normally, but if we squeeze in, three people can go in.”

“What game is that? You know what, don’t care, going to be it!” Dash called out rushing towards it.

“So what game is it?” Twilight asked her companions as they steadily marched towards it.

Chuckling as Dash held open the curtain and was trying to figure out the controls, he called out loud enough for her to hear. “It’s a photo booth. It takes pictures rapidly in succession and is meant to be one of those things you make funny faces for.”

“Oh…lame!” the disappointed pegasus told them before thinking about something. “Then again, unless we show other-” she looked around for a moment and seeing no one whispered. “-ponies our human forms, which is a lot of trouble to get Twi to do every time, they won’t believe us, so pictures would help. I’ve changed my mind, it’s not lame, come on lets go.”

Motioning for Twilight and Rarity to go in, Patrick told them how to activate it. None of the girls were prepared the first time and ‘eek’ed when the flashes startled them making them indeed make funny faces, but not intended that way. The second version was a lot better and more controlled with Dash making the weirdest faces she could, Rarity looking a bit embarrassed at her friend, and Twi just kind of shyly waving. Next the girls all took turns taking photos with the two guys in turn. Patrick went all in on every one of his Photos but Dustan never knowing what to do just held up the peace sign behind the girls heads to give them bunny ears.

“Think we can all fit in there?” Dash asked as she slipped back in.

“I don’t know.” Twilight called though she did join her friend. “It was pretty cramped when it was just the three of us not to mention when we were taking the photos with Patrick and Dustan, they are wider and taller than us.”

“Oh I know everyone out, I will organize this.” Rarity called out and then ordering Dustan to be the first on in the booth. “Now, Twilight, you slide in on the seat next to him and Patrick you next to her.”

That filled out the booths butt room fully between them as Dash pouted. “And where are we supposed to sit?”

Rarity held up a finger and ticked it back and forth. “Tisk tisk Rainbow Dash, we have two nice seats upon which to sit now, why don’t you go sit on Dustan’s lap and I will claim Patrick’s.”

That just caused the pegasus to look unsure of herself for a moment and give a tiny blush before mareing up and moving in. With this seating arrangement they were all able to fit even if there wasn’t much elbow room at all to make faces or poses. Didn’t mean that they weren’t tried causing groans as some moved around into others space or elbowed them, Rainbow Dash even getting into it again and bouncing around a bit.

Wanting a second set they went in one more time but as they were getting out both Dustan and Dash had blushes on their faces, which Patrick couldn’t ignore. “And what do you two have to be blushing about.”

“Nothing!” They both called out as Dustan was heading to the pictures that came from this one only to be stopped by Rarity who had already gone ahead to them as the first one out.

“Oh what do we have here?” She grinned as she looked towards the photos. “Oh I see.”

“Hey I am sure that we can talk about this Rari-” Dash never got a chance to finish.

“Yoink!” The pictures of that series were quite telling it seems as Patrick started to laugh once he examined them. The series of pictures began where the last one left off with Dash coming back from pressing the button and seeming to tell everyone to get ready, though she herself wasn’t so it seems. The next showed her quickly having shoved back to sit down on Dustan’s lap as the pictures were taken with only a second between them. It seems the press was a bit too much as in the next picture while Dash made a funny face and it continued into the next, Dustan’s face got red as he seemed to be trying to concentrate on something. It didn’t work as in the next picture it showed a confused Dash looking down, and then in the next it showed her looking at Dustan who looked away as she was now blushing as well. The pictures all after that showed no funny face from the pega-human as she just seemed to closer her legs a bit more and looked down blushing wildly.

“Look she bounced back a bit hard, I felt her quite well and well…normal guy reaction.” Said the Lord as he looked embarrassed at what happened.

“Yeah, normal reaction.” Dash muttered also embarrassed and red face before she looked at Rarity and Patrick. “What about you two, how come you didn’t get hard?”

“Oh I was, the moment she sat on me.” Patrick said unashamed only to have Rarity blush heavily and look towards him.

She seemed to want to say something at first but then smiled. “Thank you for the complement Patrick.”

The blonde just grinned as they headed back to his car to buckle up and head home. “Ok you all behave.” He had called that out after he opened the door and was heading back to the car.

Dustan looked to his friend curiously. “Where are you heading?”

“Look, you guys caught me off guard showing up like you did and while I had enough to cook something up last night, doesn’t mean I can do so again. I am going to the grocery store and pick up salad stuffs, vegetarian things, as well as meat items. If the girls are going to be in human forms, they can try it right?” His voice told them all before pulling out of the driveway.

The girls had changed back to ponies on the drive over so Twilight was stretching her body out while Rarity yawned. “I think I am going to take a quick beauty nap.”

“I think a shower sounds good for me. All that dance revolutionizing I did made me really sweaty as a human.” Twilight told her friends as Dash climbed onto the couch.

As she did she gestured to the TV. “Hey Dustan, show me some cool stuff on this thing.”

Chuckling and moving to sit next to her, the human tried his best to remember what stations showed what and to steer clear of certain ones. After channel surfing for a bit he settled on an action movie: Predator, a classic for sure. It was a tiny bit into the movie but not very far. Seems she was enjoying it for sure even the parts that showed the soldiers dying in horrible ways and often their bodies being displayed.

“Hey Dustan.” Turning his head he gave a ‘hmm?’ sound. “Thanks for today, it was really fun.”

Smiling to her he reached over and gave her a hug. “No problem Dash, anytime.”

“Good.” For a moment silence hung between them, nothing said, nothing done. Dash chose her moment. “Do you want to maybe do it again, just you and me? Not just here but maybe Equestria?”

There it was, the moment that could change from any friendship. “Dash, I won’t lie. I am very new to the idea of Equestrian dating.”

“Pfft, what I am not asking you on a-” The tomcolt tried to bluster her way out of what was said.

“I am not saying ‘no’ Dash, in fact I would love to go on a date with you.” Dustan said that with as much confidence as he could but he could feel how red his cheeks were.

What he said not only made the stunt mare blush but smile a bit shyly. “So…you would like to go on a date with me? That is what you are saying?”

“Yes Dash, that is what I am saying, I just need to say a few things first.” This is where Dustan knew that the tricky part came as Dash settled down and looked at him. “I am not from Equestria obviously. I have no clue about a lot of things, so if it seems obvious to you that something should have happened or been done then there is a good chance I am in the dark about it.”

“Well, I suppose that makes two of us.” She told him shyly rubbing her hoof on the material of the couch. “I was never good at the dating thing either. Mostly it was just me and Gilda hanging out and she ended up kissing me and I didn’t mind at all. I enjoyed it and came to really like it. But normal dating stuff, yeah, no clue.”

“Ok we are the same on that front, oh that is going to be awkward isn’t it?” He laughed a bit and looked to her.

“Oh it’s going to be a hurricane of weird for sure.” She laughed as well but looked happy too. “If we ever get another mare in its going to be worse they might have to help us through it.”

“No kidding, problem is there is another mare who wants to date me, and from what I know about Equestria it isn’t awkward to do so, but for humans normally dating more than one girl at a time is bad.” He told her and she nodded, which was good as Dustan though she would take it badly.

“Yeah that is normal; Gilda was dating a few other mares at the same time as me but stuck with me in the end.” Suddenly looking at him playfully she poked his side. “Don’t expect me to get all cuddly now that we are dating though, the Dash doesn’t do cuddles.”

“Oh really? So I should keep my hands to myself, no more pets, ear scratches, or anything?” Smirking as he said that he watched her eyes light up realizing what she had said.

Shaking her head rapidly she waved her hooves in front of her. “Woah no, no need to go crazy. I said I wouldn’t get cuddly.”

“Which is different than all that how?” He asked trying to stifle a laugh.

“Well you see…its…ok look here.” She tried a few times to figure out something to say before bursting out laughing. “Wow, I blinked and for some reason I am a cuddler, when did that happen?”

“Likely the same time you figured out fingers are awesome. Hands down beats hooves.” He would then wiggle said fingers and wave her over. “My lap is free right now though if you want to.”

Rainbow Dash looked at him, then up at the stairs then back at him biting her lip and going red. “But what if they see?”

“So?” Dustan motioned to his lap once more for her. “Offer going once, going twice-”

“Fine, sold.” She said moving quickly to plop on his lap spreading out over it before she sighed feeling his fingers at her ears. “Oh yeah, fingers are totally awesome.” She enjoyed those touches for about five minutes before asking him something. “You said another mare was interested, who is it?”

“Zecora. I haven’t told her that I have finally figured it out yet though.” He told her, combing his fingers through each separate color of her mane.

“Zecora huh?” Dash said eyes closed. “That's fine, Zecora is hot.”

That caused Dustan to choke on the air that he was breathing in. “What?”

She looked up at him and smiled. “Remember, I told you I am attracted to awesome not gender. Once I got past the whole evil enchantress thing found out how good she is with potions living out in the wild, and then saw her in that match you all had, I saw that she was awesome and thus hot. So yeah, good choice. Just you might have to explain a rhyme or two to me sometimes as what she says leaves me confused sometimes.”

Giving a ‘mhm’ sound Dustan looked up at the movie. “Same, but you just have to think a bit more to figure out what she means.”

Squirming a bit on his lap she looked up to him and asked. “So um, does this make us Marefriend and Coltfriend? Or is it called something else for a human?”

“Boyfriend and girlfriend, but means the same thing.” Dustan clarified for her as she moved from his hand and sat on his lap.

Looking up at him she blushed heavily and rubbed her front hooves together. “So um…I could kiss you right? If you want to I mean.”

Despite blushing himself Dustan leaned in as she got the message and leaned forward. “Aww would you look at that.”

And that is how Rarity caught them.