A Hero's Fantasy

by ReaperofSouls42

First published 2nd of September, 2012

Follow Hero on his epic advanture to save equestria and become like his father.

Equestria, a magical land filled withall kinds of mythical creatures and beasts of all shapes and sizes. Among them are Humans, griffons, dragons and ponys. these four great races live in harmony thanks too two rulers named Celestia, the princess of the sun and Luna, the princess of the moon.

Together they rule over Equestria and it's people. However, darkness is upon them. Will Equestria hold fast or will it fall?

Rated Teen for mild language, violent themes, blood and some sexual themes

The Beginning

Equestria, a magical world full of myths and legends that go far beyond the realm of reality. A place where beasts of mythical proportions exist; such as dragon kind, griffon kind, human kind and pony kind. although different in manyway all share the same biological structure and most with the same goal and life as they alltry to live together in harmony, thanks to two rulers that transcend time itself.

Celestia, the princess of the sun, and Luna, the princess of the moon; both governing over the land protecting and serving their people. Of course, even powerful rulers need Royal Guardsmen to help aid in the protection of Equestria. Hence the Royal Guard Tournament was made, to scout for inspiring youths that are the best of the best and to fight for the well-being of Equestria and her people.

This is where our Hero’s tale begins….

“Hero! Are you still in bed!? Get up or you’ll miss the opening ceremony!” Hero’s mother shouted from the kitchen.

A young man around eighteen years of age came walking groggily down to the kitchen yawning loudly and stretching.

“What are you yelling about so early in the morning now mother..?” sleepily asked the young man.

“Did you forget what today is?!” his mother asked irritated at him.

He thought for a moment, letting his still half asleep brain catch up to him. When it finally dawned on him, he slapped his head in shock.

“Oh no! Today’s the day of the tournament!” He franticly ran up the stairs to his room grabbing his clothes and armor and put them on. Once on, he examined himself in a mirror.

As he ran his fingers through his hair, he noticed his messy black hair hung just past the top of his ears matching his fathers. He had a brown leather vest that strapped together on the front with a shoulder guard and arm guard on his left arm.

His pants where a dull black making his shin guards stick out even more with their metallic sheen reflecting the sun. Before leaving, he reached for one last item, his father’s sword. It was a two-handed sword that inspired him to take after his father’s fighting style. The sword had a long shimmering blade with a black hilt and the princesses’ emblem on the butt of the sword. The emblem was a sun with a crescent moon resting in the middle of the blade itself. It also had a phrase below the sun and the moon, written in old Equestrian writing, that he couldn’t read it. His father died before telling him its meaning. He knew it meant something powerful in its own way. He slipped the sword in the leather strap on his back, while holding the guard in place.

He decided that was enough prepping and ran down the stairs.

“Bye Mother! Wish me luck at the tournament!” he exclaimed heading for the door.

“Hey wait! At least eat and give me a hug!” His mother shouted at him.

“Oh sorry mother!” he called turning around, and ran back into the kitchen and hugged his mother.

“Sorry Mother, but I got to go now. This will be the last time you see me for quite some time until training is over.”

“That’s if you make it past the recruitment test that is.” His mother exclaimed and chuckled as he made a pouty face.

“Aw come on Mother! You have so little confidence in me, don’t you?” he stated slightly sulking.

“I only joke. I know you can do it, my son. Just promise me you’ll be careful.” She looked up at him with a smile.

“I will, I promise!” He turns and grabs an apple before running out of the house and towards the castle. A few of the town’s folk stopped to wave and wish him luck as he ran past them. He waved at them and then turned towards them while running backwards.

“Just you wait! I, Hero Fysher, will become a knight of the Royal Guard of Equestria!” He proclaims taking a bite out of the apple and sprinting faster towards the castle where the princesses reside.

After an hour or so of walking, Hero finally made it to the castle bridge. He stared at the magnificent structure in awe.

“This is incredible!” He exclaimed walking towards the gates.

“I haven't seen the castle in so long… It’s beautiful!” The castle was brilliant white with a tall and wide tower in the center and four smaller towers standing on the corners of the castle walls that surrounded the center tower.

Hero walks up to the gates and sees two tall guards at the in front of the massive metal doors.
One of them was a white pony kind and the other was a griffon kind with light brown feathers.

The white stallion looked at Hero with a bored expression. “State your name and your purpose of entering the castle.” he asked in a monotone voice.

“Hello, my name is Hero Fysher. I’m a participant of the recruitment tests for becoming part of the Royal Guard.” He stated to the guard, which now looked at Hero with some interest.

“Ah, I see. A new recruit. Well best of luck to you. Head to the center tower and tell the guard there that you are a new recruit. He’ll tell you what you need to do.”

The two guards turned and opened the gate for Hero, letting him walk past the gate. Hero noticed just how much bigger the city was from his home town as he looked around. He began walking down the main road, looking at all the different houses and market stalls everywhere. There was an assortment of races in the city, from human kind, griffon kind, pony kind and even a few dragon kind. Though it was mostly comprised of pony kind, the variety was quite something.

Hero observed that there are different sites and smells from the different food and other items displayed by the market stalls.

Hero continued until he reached a big water fountain at the square of town. He stood there admiring the sculpture when something bumped into him, almost causing him to lose his balance. He quickly recovered and looked over to see a figure on the ground. Upon closer examination, you see that it is a young mare pony kind that is roughly the same age as him. She had purple fur and her hair ran down just past her shoulders and was indigo in color with a purple and pink strip running down the length of her hair.

Her outfit consisted of plain purple leather pants and shirt with straps along the front of it and a design shaped like stars surrounding a bigger star on the front torso.

She looked up at Hero with an apologetic expression on her face.

“Oh I’m sorry! I wasn’t looking where I was going.” She stated as she got back off her hooves while dusting dirt off her butt.

“Ah no it’s fine. I should pay more attention to my surroundings, my apologies.” He says while noticing she dropped a book. He bends over and picks up the book and gently dusts off any dirt before handing it over to the mare, who takes it thankfully.

“Thank you very much, but please excuse me I must be going, thanks again!” She says as she starts walking past Hero in a hurried manner.

Hero watched her walk away thoughtfully. “Well the city is full of beautiful girls I see…I’m going to enjoy being a knight a lot more than I thought I would..” Hero smiled to himself before walking on to the castle.

Hero made it to the castle and, not long afterwards and signed up for the try-outs. The guardsmen then promptly showed him where the waiting room was. As he walked through the doors he noticed quite a few participants were also waiting as well. Among him there were a few humans, ponies, griffons and one dragon. He was surprised more so by the dragon that was standing off into a corner. There aren’t any dragons that would want to fight under another’s rule other than their own. Most dragon kind is usually far too prideful of their strength to do so. In fact, the only reason the dragons are loyal to Celestia’s rule is merely for resources that she offers to them.

As Hero walks into the room further in, he notices they were all staring at him. Some looked like they were sizing him up, and others just seemed to look at the new recruit before turning back around to their own devices. Hero decides to just wait it out, until it is time for the tournament to start.

He waited around for about ten minutes while getting a good look at everyone, before a stallion guard walks in with a box in his hooves.

“Alright, every participant must draw a random number from this box, and wait until you’re number is called. Then walk through the doors and pass through to the arena.” The stallion guard gestured to the doors behind him before calling everyone up to pick a number.

As Hero walked up to the box, he looked at the guard and then down at the box before reaching in and pulling out a number. “The number eight…” Hero mentally states to himself before he walks back to his spot, thinking of who his opponent will be.

A few more minutes pass before the first two participants are called slowly one after another until….

“Numbers seven and eight, come to the arena for your duel!” a loud voice sounded making Hero snap out of his thoughts.

“Well I wonder who my opponent will be...” He wondered walking towards the door, but before he got close he was half shoved aside. A unicorn stallion dressed in a fancy outfit with a rapier on his side walked past him.

“Please make way for royalty, human. We royal must be the first to make a grand entrance after all. And I, Prince Blueblood, will not allow one of no royal status get in my way.”

Hero paused for a moment watching the unicorn walk past him. Hero looked at the stuck up unicorn and smiled slightly.

“Oh I will enjoy taking his royal ass down a few notches.” Hero clenched his fists as he walked through the doors into the arena.

The arena itself was quite large; a few rows of seats outstretched in a full circle around the arena and almost completely filled with spectators watching. Looking around, he noticed two thrones at the highest row. One throne had the emblem of the sun and with the Princess Celestia sitting on it. Next to her, was an equally large throne with a crescent moon over head with someone sitting on it as well. Hero saw what he can only guess was Princess Luna.

There were six seats around the princess’ and were all filled except for one. From what he could tell, they must be either top ranking royals or someone important. He couldn’t quite make them out but they must be powerful to be next to the princesses like that.

Hero saw a guard walking up to the middle of the arena, where Hero and Prince Blueblood was standing.

“Alright! This duel determines who is suitable to join the ranks of Royal Guards under her majesties, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna! Fight with all your strength and prove your worthiness of the title!”

The guard walked away, leaving Hero and Prince Blueblood there.

“Well tis a shame that you, a lower class, were forced to fight a high class royal like me. Hohoho! … Why, you won’t be able to last a minute with me. I have trained under a very famous trainer you know? It’s a wonder what money won’t buy you, after all, you’re only as strong as your connections are.”

Celestia sighs out loud. “Oh there he goes again. I do hope he learns that money isn’t power. It never is.”

“Yeah! Who does he think he is, gloating about stupid stuff like ‘money is power’? I hope that other guy pounds him!”, one of the other voices exclaimed.

“Now calm down there Rainbow Dash. I’m sure he’ll get what’s coming to ’em soon enough. Just look at his opponent, he looks like he can handle that hothead Blueblood with ease.”

“If you say so Applejack. But he is still quite skilled, regardless of his annoying pretenses.” another voice spoke up.

“Ah you gotta know when to just go with yer gut sometimes Twilight. Not logic.” Applejack spoke up.

“U-um I j-just hope they don’t get hurt too b-bad. I mean no one deserves to get hurt after all….” a timid whisper came from the other side of the princesses.

“Oh relax Fluttershy! We have the best medics in all of Equestria. There’s no chance of anyone getting too badly hurt…” Rainbow Dash spoke up over Fluttershy.

“Sister…” everyone turned to look at Luna.

“Yes sister? What is it?” asked Celestia.

“That human boy, there is something familiar about him…” Luna said as she looked curiously over at Hero.

“I believe you’re right Luna…He does look similar to someone we knew. What is his name?” asked Celestia to no one in particular.

Without missing a beat, Twilight spoke up. “His full name is Hero Fysher, Princess Celestia. Come to think of it he seems familiar to me as well, I think I’ve seen him before… but I’m not sure where.”

“Could it be that he is the son of…him?” Celestia asked herself.

“The human that helped in returning me to my senses with Twilight and her friends, when I became Nightmare Moon you mean?” asked Luna looking over at Celestia.

“Yes I believe that is his son down there. He looks almost identical to his father.” Celestia smiled to herself at the thought.

After all it was with the help of Hero’s father that Twilight and the others could make it to the ruins in one piece. Sadly after the long fight, He came down with a sickness and that sickness eventually got the best of him. He passed away not long afterwards, luckily seeing his friends and family beforehand.

Twilight spoke causing Celestia to snap out of her train of thought.

“Oh I remember now! I bumped into him on the way to deliver a scroll…I didn’t think much of him then though. Who would have guessed it was him.”

“Well this shall be an interesting engagement then.” said Luna as she looked down at the arena.

Hero drew his sword and readied his stance preparing for the fight. Of course his opponent wasn’t taking this as seriously as he was.

“I say I could go for some tea after I win this little farce. I suppose it shouldn’t take too long to dispose of this lower class human.” Blueblood nonchalantly said as he chuckled to himself.

“That’s tough talk coming from someone who probably can’t even tie his shoes without a servant to do it”, Hero blurted out obviously annoyed by Blueblood’s attitude.

“When I give the signal, you are to begin the fight. So be ready! “ A voice yelled out.

Blueblood slowly unsheathed his rapier and took his stance. “Why don’t you surrender now and save yourself the embarrassment of losing to me?” Blueblood said twirling the tip of his rapier around.

“Stop talking, your voice is getting on my nerves…” Hero says, almost in a bored manner.

“Well I’m certainly going to put you in your place.” Blueblood seethes.

All of a sudden, the guard exclaimed “BEGIN!”

Blueblood was the first to strike, starting off with a quick thrust at Hero’s chest. Hero parried the strike and spun on the spot swinging his blade around in a sweeping motion. Then Blueblood ducked out of the way and while striking at Hero’s legs. Hero saw this and jumped back just in time to avoid the strike all together.

Few moments past and Blueblood was starting to pant heavily from exhaustion; even though Hero was just getting warmed up.

“What’s the matter Blueblood…? Tired already I see.” Hero stated, smiling.

“Shut your mouth, human! You won’t get the best of me! I have been trained by a world famous swordsmen, I will not lose to you!” said Blueblood while panting trying to catch his breath.

“You’re wrong, Blueblood. The only thing that trained you was your money. When you let money rule over everything else you become soft and weak! That is absolute, Blueblood.” stated Hero with an air of wisdom.

Celestia giggled slightly at that statement Hero made. “My my, his father taught him well enough. I believe Hero’s father used that same line before.”

“Tis a good sight to see that this new generation seems fruitful.” stated Luna.

Hero had easily blocked strike after strike from Blueblood’s assault, and occasionally tripping Blueblood up, causing him to stumble.

“Blueblood, just give it up before you humiliate yourself even more. I mean, you know you can’t win against me by now.” states Hero letting his guard lax a bit.

“Shut your trap you lower class scum! I will beat you even if I have to use underhanded tricks to do so!” Blueblood angrily glared at Hero before reaching his free hand forward.

Hero stood there slightly confused, trying to analyze his opponent.

“I call upon you, element of fiery rage and destruction…Fire!” A huge fireball roared out of Blueblood’s hand, straight at Hero. Hero’s eyes widened, but just had enough time to block it with his sword as the fireball slammed into him. A large burst of flames spread out around him causing smoke and dust to cover Hero like a thick blanket.

“Hahahaha! What was that, you lower class filth!? You were going to beat me right?!” bellowed Blueblood as he watched the site where Hero stood.

“What!? That cheater, how can he do that!? Isn’t that against the rules?” an angry Rainbow Dash yelled.

“Afraid not, Rainbow Dash. Although underhanded, he is allowed to use magic…” a worried Celestia said while looking at the blanket of smoke.

The smoke slowly dissipated and everyone looked at it in suspense, except Blueblood, who was gloating.

All of a sudden a figured appeared in the smoke, standing and not moving. Celestia breathed a sigh of relief at the sight. Blueblood however, looked at the figure in shock and surprise on his face.

“How is this possible?” There is no way you could be standing after that attack!” exclaimed a worried Blueblood.

The smoke completely cleared and Hero, who still had his sword in front of him, was standing there with his eyes focused on Blueblood’s.

One of the characters on Hero’s blade lit up in red. Hero could hear a phrase echo in his head as if it wanted him to say it. Hero slowly took a deep breath held his sword out towards Blueblood.

“Holy fires of the sun I call upon you…Release!” No sooner did Hero say the words, fire poured out from the swords blade completely engulfing the blade with fire. Hero was slightly taken aback by this as he almost dropped the sword. But then he noticed that the flames were not hot, nor did they burn him or the sword.

Blueblood was terrified by the predicament he was in; he had never seen a human wield such powerful magic. As far as he knew humans couldn’t hold a candle light to unicorns, but this human was using a strong fire spell he never seen before. Blueblood quickly regained his composure. He wasn’t about to let a human beat him.

“Well that’s an interesting magic trick you have there. But you are still no match for me; I will defeat you.” His words fell on deaf ears as Hero raised his blade into the air and swinging it in a downward slash causing a fireball to launch. Blueblood managed to dodge it but the burned his sleeve.

“Ah I see…it all makes sense now…” said a calm and collected Celestia, who was smiling widely.

Twilight was the next to speak. “How is a human at his age able to use such powerful magic!? It doesn’t make sense to me at all…”

“Well my faithful student, to be honest he isn’t using magic at all. It is the sword he is carrying that is.” said an all knowing Celesta.

“Is there really such a weapon that has the ability to allow someone to bring out there magical ability to its fullest like this…?”

“Indeed it was a weapon forged from the sun by me as a gift to Hero’s father. This is quite a turn of events, but to use it without knowing how it works that is truly skillful.” Celestia said looking thoughtful.

Back down at the arena, Hero was still testing out the swords ability by launching Blueblood’s fireballs back at him.

“I think it’s time to finish this, Blueblood…” said Hero as he charged and Blueblood could only raise his rapier in defense.

Hero swung his sword upward connecting with Blueblood’s rapier and shattered the small blade and striking Blueblood. Hero left a cut across Blueblood’s chest, making him fall backwards and yelp in pain. Blood oozed out of his chest as Blueblood lay on the ground, defeated and humiliated.

“I told you, Blueblood. When you train with money, you only become weak. Learn and become stronger.”

Hero sheathed his sword when the guard voice spoke up. “Hero has won the first round and will advance to the final round!”

Medics ran over to Blueblood to look him over.

“Don’t worry, I held back so it is merely a flesh wound. He should be just fine.” Hero stated before walking back to the waiting room.

Upon walking into the room Hero is confronted by the dragon that everyone was avoiding earlier.

“Hey that was an impressive match you had! I was kind of hoping you would beat that royal pain Blueblood.” said the smiling dragon.

Hero was a bit shocked that a dragon was talking to him in such a cheery tone. Most dragons can’t stand humans or any other race for that matter. They usually won’t even bother talking with anybody except other dragons, unless they had to.

This dragon was different than most dragons he has seen as well. He had purple colored scales and yellow scales on his abdomen and stomach with long green spikes running from the top of his head to the tip of his tail, his eyes were a deep emerald green and he was a few inches taller than Hero was.

He had a blue shirt made of silk and thick leather pants with a deep blue chest plate on it and with, what looked like metal, layered over top of one another coming to a point in the middle and running down to his diaphragm. A long spear was attached to his back, the blade was long and had the royal emblem of Celestia’s Alliance, etched into the blade.

“What’s the matter, cat got your tongue?” the dragon asked smiling at Hero.

“Uh sorry, I just wasn’t expecting a dragon to talk to a human is all.”

“Ah well, I guess you can say I’m a special case. The name’s Spike, what’s yours?” asked Spike extending his claws.

“My name’s Hero, Hero Fysher and thank you but that Blueblood guy wasn’t very difficult to beat.” He stated, extending his hand.

“Speaking of which, how did you use magic that high level? I mean it takes a long time for most humans to obtain magic like that, right?” asked spike curiously.

“Well to tell you the truth, I’m not sure. It was like my sword did it, not me. First time it did that to me, it was quite a shock.” Hero says as the next announcement came up.

“Numbers nine and ten come to the arena at once!”

“Well that would be me! Wish me luck Hero.” Spike smiled as he started walking past Hero.

“Yeah, good luck, Spike!” Hero looked over at Spike’s opponent out of curiosity. It was a Griffon and from the looks of things, a strong one at that. Hero looks back at the direction Spike was going.

“You may need it…. Don’t lose, Spike!” Hero turned away from the door and started to walk away. But before he could he heard the announcer yell begin and a loud ‘CLANK’ of metal on metal followed by a loud explosion and then a loud ‘CRASH’. Hero turned back around to see a triumphant Spike walking back to the room.

Hero’s eyes widened, in shock. “Incredible…he won so fast…I didn’t know dragons were so strong, makes me question whether or not I want to fight him…” Hero thought to himself as Spike walked through the doors.

“Looks like I won!” laughed Spike.

“That was incredible, Spike! I never would of guessed you were that strong!” Hero said in amazement.

“Nah, I’m not all that great I just train a lot is all…” said a modest Spike.

Hero chuckled at that comment and smiled at Spike. “Well that just makes me want to fight you all the more.”

Spike looked at him for a few seconds before smiling. “Heh! Fine by me, you won’t win though.”

The next round went by easily, both Hero and Spike passed easily; one participant cheated and injured his opponent too badly so they were both out. That left only Spike, Hero and two others in the last round.
The four remaining fighters were standing in the arena as everyone else watched in anticipation.

“The last round will be done as follows; the remaining numbers will fight each other according to how close their numbers are!” said the guard closes to the four in the center.

“I’m the number eight, so that would mean my opponent is….” Hero looked over at Spike, who looked over at him, both realizing their fight was going to be sooner than expected.

The first fight started then finished soon after as the clear victor was made. This was because the other guy was too exhausted to fight, and lost promptly. Which meant that the last duel was about to start, Hero and Spike stood a few feet away from each other looking seriously at one another.

“Well, although I don’t want you to lose, I will beat you and knock you out of the tournament.” Spike said a little uneasy.

“Heh, you won’t win so easily Spike! Besides I made a promise that I would become a Royal Guard no matter what! So you better come after me with everything you have or else.” Hero stated smiling over at Spike.

“You know, I’m happy we are going to fight now because I also promised someone that I would become stronger!” Spike said with a new resolve.

They both readied there weapons and took their positions. Both of them looked at the other, and were ready to strike.

“Ready..? Let the match…Begin!” yelled the guard.

Spike was the first to move with a blindingly fast thrust forward with his spear, aiming right at Hero.

Hero managed to block the thrust, holding it off. “U-unbelievable strength and speed…!” said Hero through gritted teeth.

“Thanks, my fighting style allows me to use strength and speed to its fullest!” said Spike as he broke away and slide back a ways.

“‘Your fighting style’, what do you mean by that?” asked Hero while trying to think of a way to win.

“Dragoons use their strength and speed to defeat there foe's. A skill that only a Dragon can properly use to its full extent!” said Spike, readying his stance again.

Hero was momentarily dumb-struck. He never thought he would fight a legendary warrior class like a Dragoon; the thought excited and terrified him.

“Oh, the poor dear! He would have made it if he didn’t have to go against my Spikey Wikey.” A voice spoke up.

“Jeez Rarity, that pet name you give Spike so isn’t awesome.” said Rainbow Dash to her overly fashionable friend.

“Oh, come now Rainbow Dash. I like it very much and I know Spike Wikey isn’t bothered by it whatsoever.” said Rarity.

“Yeah whatever… Although I think you’re right about one thing, Spike has this in the bag.”

“Don’t be too hasty to judge a situation so quickly you two. You may just be surprised.” said Celestia looking down at the two fighters.

“Hey you guys! I brought some of my cupcakes and popcorn to snack on! You would not BELIEVE the traffic getting here and I couldn’t help but make new friends along the way.” a voice spoke gleefully and sat down in the sixth chair that was previously empty.

“Pinkie Pie! You are cutting it close. Spike’s final fight is just starting!” Rainbow Dash says in a slightly annoyed tone.

“Oi! Spike’s already had his first fight! How was his first fig- o well that is a silly question of course he did great I mean he is in the finals this is just soooooo AWESO-!” everyone except Fluttershy shushed Pinkie Pie and turned back towards the battle.

Hero was barely holding Spike off from doing any damage. Hero managed to get by Spikes defense’s only to have his sword rebound off Spikes scales.

“My scales are almost as hard as steel, so you’ll have to try harder than that!” Spike yelled as he stabbed at Hero who blocked the thrust and pushed Spike back a few steps.

“Ok Hero this was fun, but I need to end it now…” said Spike in a matter of fact tone.

“What do you mean ‘end it’?” asked Hero confused

Spike smiled to himself. “I’ll show you one of my more powerful attacks, due to respect for you. “

Spike took a deep breath and held his spear up at Hero.

“Twisting energy of the sky, let loose your power and destroy my enemies….Lightning!” Spike generated lightning from nothing and enveloped his spear with so much power, that stray bolts ripped through the ground burning soil as it went.

Spike leapt through the air with incredible speed with his spear thrusted down at Hero.

Hero’s eyes widened as he looked up just in time to see Spike seconds away.

“Too fast, I won’t make it!!” Hero thought as the attack got closer.

A big explosion erupted from the arena as lightning shot through the air and dust filled in around them.

Hero had nowhere to run; the attack came down on him far too quickly.

Spike stood over Hero, who was in the dirt. A cut oozing blood on his stomach indicated he was hit.

Hero slowly looked up at Spike walking away. “Dammit! That was too big a hit… I don’t think I can get up…Dammit! I have to win so I can make my parents proud…No, I’m not done just yet!” Hero thought.

“O MY GOLLY GOSH! That was like CLANK ZIIIIIIIIIING ZIP then KABOOOOM!!!” exclaimed an awestruck Pinkie Pie.

“Well I suppose the match is over then. Don’t you agree?” Rarity said nudging Rainbow Dash.

“Yeah I guess… Poor guy though, he wanted to join pretty badly it seemed.” Rainbow Dash spoke up.

“Well like Princess Celestia said, it isn’t over until the referee calls it.” said Twilight.

Celestia looked over and smiled at her student.

“Well I hate that it happened this way but it least I made it in-” Spike stopped when he heard a grunt coming from behind him, causing him to spin around with a shocked look on his face.

“Hey, who said…that I was done fighting you yet? Don’t think I would give up from an attack like that!”

Hero slowly rose to his feet, holding his side. Though blood was still slowly oozing down his stomach and hand, he still manages to get to his feet and raise his sword in defense.

“No way! He should not be able to stand after taking a hit like that!... No human should be able to do that.” stated a shocked Rarity while Pinkie Pie loudly gasped.

“I guess there really is more to him than meets the eye” said Twilight looking down at Hero.

“He sure is somethin’else aint he?” said Applejack looking over at Twilight.

Hero took a slow deep breath and the strange words echoed in his head once again. They were different this time, upon looking at his father’s sword a different character was glowing a pale blue.

“Oh raging, twisting lightning, I beckon thee; give me the power to destroy my enemy…Release!” All of a sudden, an electric aura surrounded Hero’s body filling him with a strength he never felt before. He gripped his sword tighter as electrical energy licked the ground around him.

“Spike, I hope you’re ready. Because I’m not sure what I’m capable of just yet!” Hero looked over at Spike with a fierce determination.

Spike immediately pulled his spear up defensively and dug into the ground to prepare. He knew what was going to happen next from watching Hero’s previous fight with Blueblood.

Hero sprinted forward, faster than he normally could move; it was like the new spell was recharging him.

Hero slashed at Spike who blocked it and flung the attack backwards.

“That attack was so much stronger than it originally was! Is his spell doing this!?” Spike only thought of one thing to overpower Hero with, so Spike jumped back and recited the same spell he used last time. Afterwards, he leapt far into the air and charged with a powerful electrical aura surrounding his body. He flipped around and landed on a pillar before using his new found strength to jump straight at Hero colliding with Hero’s sword at full swing. A large explosion erupted from the two spells colliding together, bolts of lightning swirled around the arena.

Everyone paused looking over at where they collided, waiting for the dust to clear.

When the dust cleared, there were two figures with their backs at one another. Both Hero and Spike had their weapons lowered looking down one another.

Hero was the first to speak. “Heh looks like, I’m out of luck this time…I don’t think I can….” Hero trailed off before coughing up blood and collapsing onto the ground.

“Dammit to hell…I was so sure… I would beat you too.” Hero uttered before fading into unconsciousness.

Spiked looked down at Hero slightly out of breath. “That was an amazing fight… I never would of thought-” Spike was cut off by the feeling of something wet on his cheek. Spike went to wipe it away and noticed the area hurt a little, so he looked at his claws and noticed a small amount of blood.

“Wow, no one has been able to cut me before….” Spike stated, impressed with Hero.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

A few hours have passed since the tournament ended. Hero awoke in a white room filled with beds and medical supplies. He guessed it was the castles personal medical center. All of a sudden he heard movement.

“Oh you’re awake! You must be very resilient.” spoke a surprised and childlike voice.

“Ugh…where am I?” said Hero drowsily.

“You are in the castle’s medical center. My name is Nursery Rhyme, Redheart’s assistant. Nurse Redheart left you in my care while she is seeing other patients.” She points out Redheart close to the other side of the medical center, tending to the recruit that was badly wounded. “You have nothing to worry about!” she smiled at Hero.

Hero looked up at her. She was a young mare with a traditional white nurse cap and outfit on with off-white fur and a curly brown mane. She was quite cute as well. Hero couldn’t help but stare at her until a sudden thought crossed his mind.

“So I guess I did lose after all…” Hero thought for a moment before putting his hand up to his stomach. Hero paused when he felt the bandages but no pain.

“Oh don’t move too much! You’re still injured; Nurse Redheart gave you a powerful sedative to neutralize the pain.” Nursery Rhyme explained and then thought, “Come to think of it, I wonder why Redheart left me to tend to him after she gave him a sedative.”

All of a sudden, a knock came from the door and a large guard walked inside the room.

“Hero Fysher, your presence is required in the throne room. As soon as you are able, I will escort you there.” He said before exiting the room.

“Oh my, sounds important. You should go right away!” said Nursery Rhyme, looking over at Hero.

“Yeah I suppose…I wonder what it could be…Thank you Nursery Rhyme and tell Nurse Redheart thank you as well.” Hero sat up, tossed the blanket, and proceeded to jump out of bed right in front of Nursery Rhyme. He noticed it was very cold in the room. He also saw the shocked expression on Nursery Rhyme’s face and the light shade of red on her cheeks.

Hero looked confused at first until he felt an odd breeze in an odd place, making him look down.

“What the-?” He didn’t have much time to react to a flailing Nursery Rhyme, kicking him in between the legs. Hero cried out and fell, grabbing his now bruised ego. Nurse Redheart heard this and ran over Hero and Neursery Rhyme.

Nursery Rhyme opened her eyes to see Hero in the fettle position and tears in his eyes… Nurse Redheart said with a disappointed tone, “I was hoping that by letting you have a sedated patient, you would not have any trouble… You should have known better that the standard procedure for treating a badly wounded patient is to take off anything that might hinder us helping them. Not to f-flail and kick him in the g-gro-oin...” Redheart tried her best to keep a straight face and not to laugh at the situation.

“I didn’t know that would mean he was naked …. ‘down there’! But I am so sorry; I should not have done that….” She smiled sheepishly. Hearing that conversation, Hero was still on the floor crying from their insensitivity and the pain, lots of pain.

After Hero was able to walk again he quickly dressed, making sure Nursery Rhyme wasn’t around of course. He walked out the door, thanking Nurse Redheart again and telling Nursery Rhyme that he forgave her. He then turned around and saw that the guard was still waiting for him. Giving a nod, he began following the guard to the throne room. As Hero made it to the throne room, he noticed the princesses and a few others were talking among themselves.

“Oh good. Hero, you have arrived just in time! I hope you are doing well with your recovery.” Celestia spoke up making all the others turn to look at Hero.

“Uh yes, thank you Princess Celestia. I am doing fine, but what do you acquire me for?” Hero asked confused.

“You see Hero, though you did lose your duel, your fighting prowess and your strong heart made me think of something. Your father was a great man and it seems his strong heart has passed on to you.” Celestia smiled at Hero who was still confused by the turn of events.

“You personally knew my father..?” asked Hero

“But of course! He was an exceptional man and a powerful warrior; he was also the man who helped save my sister along with the elements of harmony.” Celestia got out of her seat and walked up to Hero.

“And that is why I have decided that even though you lost; you showed a type of strength that few have. Thus I humbly ask you to serve me as a Royal Guard of Canterlot.”

Hero’s eyes lit up at those words and almost started to jump for joy, but he managed to suppress his excitement with a big smile and a deep bow.

“Yes Princess Celestia, I accept this offer and promise to do my best as a Royal Guard!” proclaimed Hero.

“I have faith that you will do well. And please, there is no need to bow.” Celestia smiled gently at Hero.

“Congratulations on getting recruited Hero!” a familiar voice called out to him and patting Hero on the back.

“Spike! It’s good to see you.” exclaimed Hero.

“Hehe! Looks like we’ll be training together for a while, huh?” proclaimed the happy dragon.

“I guess we will….” said Hero smiling at his dragon friend.

“Hey let me introduce you to my good friends.” Spike said dragging Hero across the room, making Celestia giggle and return to her seat.

“Hey everyone, what’s up?” Asked Spike to his friends sitting at a table.

“Hey Spike, so this is that new recruit huh? I have to say you really were a great fighter and you beating the stuffing out of Blueblood was pretty funny to watch. Oh! My name is Rainbow Dash by the way.” Rainbow Dash said as she walked up to Spike and Hero.

“Thanks, he just talked big that’s all, and my name is Hero Fysher, but Hero will do.” He said smiling at his accomplishment.

“Anyway you just met Rainbow, the rest are Applejack, Twilight, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie and then Rarity.”

Everyone waved, except Fluttershy who just shied away.

Spike proceeded to stick next Rarity’s side mostly as he talked about today.

Out of nowhere, Pinkie Pie puts a cupcake inches from Hero’s face and asked “Cupcake?”

Hero, shocked from the suddenness of the pink mare, said “U-uh it looks delicious. But no thanks.”

Pinkie Pie shrugged then shoved the cupcake into her mouth and grinned / with blue frosting covering her teeth before walking over to Rarity and Fluttershy. Hero was surprised and confused about Pinkie Pie’s sudden outburst. Applejack saw this and chuckled a little bit, “That’s Pinkie Pie for ya! She’s just full of sparkle and pop like fireworks at summer time.”

Twilight walked over to Hero and smiled at him. “Hello, I just wanted to say sorry for earlier today.”

Hero looked at her for a moment until it hit him who she was. “Oh I remember now! You were the girl who bumped into me earlier today.” Hero stated.

“Yeah I apologize for that. By the way, that sword… I would love to study it sometime if that is ok with you? You see I am a mage here in Canterlot and I have a fascination with magical items of any sort since I’ve never seen a magical item like yours, I would enjoy looking it over!”

Hero stood there for a moment trying to soak up her long explanation on why she wanted to examine his weapon but He understood the gist of what she was saying.

“Sure no problem, I don’t mind. However, if we could do that tomorrow I’d appreciate it because I’m exhausted.” he stated, ending with a yawn.

Twilight seemed to pout a bit but understood; she wished him a good night’s rest and went back to talking to her friends.

“Hey if you’re tired I’ll show you our room” Spike chimed in.

“That would be nice, thanks.” Hero proceeded to follow Spike to their room that they had to share as they were short on rooms. Hero wasn’t too concerned about it, as long as he got a bed.

“Alright this is it, make yourself at home.” Spike said as they both walked into the room.

The room was simplistic, nothing to fancy or over the top besides the floor and walls made of marble of course. Hero went to the empty bed and placed his sword on the side of the wall before laying down, thinking of today events.

“So, I hope you know that tomorrow will be full of training and preparations, right?” said Spike yawning out loud.

“Yeah, but I’m ready for anything!” stated Hero

“Hehe I think you and me will become good friends, Hero.” stated Spike before turning over to sleep.

“Yeah I agree we will be great friends” Hero went back to thinking about today’s event before letting his drowsy mind to take over and pulling him into a deep sleep.

How hard could it be...?

Hero was sleeping peacefully in his bed when all of a sudden he was shaken awake by Spike.

“Hey hurry up will you and get ready? Breakfast is about to start and we have morning training afterwards, and I’m starving!” proclaimed the hungry dragon.

Hero slowly sat up in his bed and yawned; he rubbed his eyes and stretched while looking around.

“Alright I’m up, no need to shout.” Hero said, rubbing his head and walking to the restroom. After Hero took care of his business, he quickly got dressed and left the room with Spike and they headed to the cafeteria.

As Hero and Spike walk down the hall, they pass the medical office as a young filly walks out and looks up at Hero. Hero smiled at her, making her look away and apologize before running back into the room.
“What was that about?” asked Spike

“Uh let’s just say there was an accident yesterday” said Hero waving the subject off.

After a minute or so of walking they make it to the cafeteria. Both Hero and Spike walk through the door and hear fighting by the food stand.

“Now hold on there, cowgirl! That cider is mine, I saw it first!” yelled a familiar voice.

“I don’t think so Rainbow, I saw it first!” yelled another familiar voice shouted.

“Oh boy here we go again” said Spike walking along side Hero.

“This happen often I assume?” asked Hero.

“I guess you could say that” retorted Spike, piling various food items on his plate. Among the plate was a side of gems to boot, which Hero couldn’t believe how dragons could eat those things.

Hero followed close behind, loading his plate as well.

Hero and Spike walked passed Rainbow Dash and Applejack, who were still arguing until Pinkie Pie walked up. Pinkie Pie nonchalantly drank the last of the apple cider they were fighting over, causing them to nearly break down in tears.

Hero sat down and started eating, Spike followed in suit.

“By the way Hero, I almost forgot to give you this.” Spike handed over a small letter to Hero who promptly took it to read it, while biting into some fruit.

“Princess Celestia wants to have a meeting with me as soon as I am able…?”

“Sounds like you have a fun day ahead of you” said Spike chomping on a few gems.

“I suppose…” Hero trailed off noticing someone walking up to them.

“Hey Spike and Hero, how are you this morning, did you sleep well? I sure did, I had the funniest dream involving candy and cupcakes, and it sure was a delicious dream!” Pinkie Pie walked up, almost bouncing as she did so.

“Hey Pinkie, and to answer your question I slept like a rock.” Spike said through mouthfuls of food

“That’s super-duper totally awesome! Oops gotta go, bye bye for now!” And just like that, she skipped away.

“Uh… Does she do that often?” asked Hero watching Pinkie Pie walk off.

“Oh yeah she does that all the time but don’t worry you’ll get used to it.” Spike said, finishing up his meal.

“You say so…Well anyway I have to go see the princess. I guess I’ll catch you later, Spike” Hero got up from his seat, waved goodbye, threw away his plate and proceeded out of the cafeteria to the throne room.

As Hero walked down the hallway he felt another presence walking up to him.

“Oh, Hello Hero. Fancy seeing you here, but shouldn’t you be in basic training?” called out a voice.

“Hey Twilight. Princess Celestia has requested me again for some reason…” said Hero, letting Twilight catch up.

“Oh ok. So you have also been called to a meeting with her as well, I wonder for what.” pondered Twilight

“Well whatever, we’ll find out when we get there I suppose.” said Hero crossing both his arms behind his head

The remainder of their walk was in silence as they approached the throne room with the doors opened. Twilight waited for the guards to let them through and Hero followed her lead. Celestia was enjoying some tea and reading a book as she sat relaxing.

A guard walked up to Celestia and bowed to her. “Your majesty, Hero Fysher and Twilight Sparkle are here as you requested.”

Celestia looked up from her book and nodded at the guard. “Ah yes, very good. You may show them in if you would please.”

“Yes of course, right away your majesty!” The guard walked over to the two standing in the doorway and led them into the room before retaking his position next to the princess.

“Thank you two for coming. Both of you must be quite confused as to why I have summoned you here. You see, it all has to do with Hero’s becoming a Royal Guard and his father’s past.”

“My father’s past…?” asked Hero.

Celestia looked at Hero with a knowing smile. “Yes. You see, it is because of what your father has accomplished that you are here now. However that was not the deciding factor. Your father was a gifted soldier and I suspected that it was no coincidence of his arrival. At that time I knew my sister would come back to Equestria as Nightmare Moon soon. I desperately wanted to change her back to the way she was by purifying her with holy magic. However, I could not have freed her using holy magic; I had too much guilt inside….

"Holy magic? Never heard of it..." Said Hero

“Well, holy magic is the form of six crystals, each with the elemental spirit of nature, into one. Though it is the most powerful magic in all of Equestria, it takes nearly all of your power and concentration to wield, and no second chances. Just at the sight of my dear sister being corrupted by dark magic… I would blame myself for what she has become and hesitate…

“So I had to find others, that could use the crystals individually and all of them work together to form holy magic. I realized that I have already found one of the six, my student, Twilight Sparkle. Since each elemental spirit is attracted to one another, so are their wielders, and that is how Twilight and her friends found each other. Like my gut instinct that Twilight was one of the six, I also had a feeling that they would need your father’s talent to succeed.”

Hero stood there for a moment, soaking in the new knowledge as he pondered.

“Celestia, what do you mean when you say my father was gifted…?”

“Well as you know, humans cannot use magic to the degree of any other race can. Usually it takes a human a very long time to become efficient in magic. However your father was incredibly gifted in that aspect. He was more than capable of using high level magic in no time at all; which is why I gave him a gift to help him channel his energy.

Your sword, Hero, I had forged using the flames of the sun. And so, Hero I wanted to see if you have the same ability as your father did…” Celestia turned to Twilight who was waiting patiently.

“Now then my faithful student, that is where you come in. As one of the most powerful Mages I have, I want you to try to help him find out if he too has this ability.” Celestia smiled at Twilight who smiled back.

“But wait, I used magic when I fought in the arena didn’t I?” asked Hero confused.

“That was the sword itself, not you. The sword is a median, a container of magical energy that the wielder puts into the sword. None of that magical energy that you displayed yesterday was your own; which means that what you used was likely left over magical energy stored by your father. I’m sure you used all of the magical energy left in the sword with that fight you had with Spike.” explained Celestia.

“So what you’re saying is to study with Twilight and learn to use magic...But then what?” asked Hero looking up at Celestia.

Celestia just smiles at Hero’s silly question.

“Well as I said before, you being here cannot be a mere coincidence. As such I would prefer you to be at the best of your ability as soon as possible.”

“I understand Princess Celestia, I will try my best.” stated Hero.

Celestia giggled at Hero’s answer and turned to Twilight giving her a nod indicating that she may take over.

“Ok Hero, follow me to the library and we’ll start your training.” said Twilight as she motioned for Hero to follow her.

Hero did as he was told and followed Twilight to the library.

“Ok Hero. Lets start off with an explanation about how magic works. You see magic is just like the energy we use to go about our days while living, you have to understand it to be able to harness it however. Just like our normal physical energy, magical energy runs out and needs replenished in the same way and over using it will cause you to become mentally exhausted and even fall unconscious if used to much. So with that being said we will start off small and work our way up from there, are you ready Hero?”

Hero took a deep breath and nodded, preparing himself.

“Ok allow me to demonstrate what it looks like to use magic up close.” Twilight closed her eyes and concentrated for a moment. Her horn slowly lit up a purplish glow and her hair flowed slightly from up and down. She bends her elbows and cups her hands in front of her. All of a sudden a small flame appeared and slowly got bigger until it was the size of her two palms.

“You see it’s all about calming your mind and concentrating. Of course you must carry the right emotion and using an incantation makes using that specific spell easier and more powerful but it is not needed.”

Hero was becoming excited seeing this; he really wanted to try now. Hero mimicked Twilight’s hands and closed his eyes and thought of fire and tried concentrating on his hands. Although it took longer, Hero started to feel a strong energy flow through him, almost like a small camp fire. He focused on his hands and very slowly a flame appeared and grew until it was palm size.

Hero opened his eyes and to his delight, had figured out how to use magic, if only a little.

“You did it! The princess will be very pleased to hear this.” said an amused Twilight.

Hero wasn’t paying much attention to her however. Hero was manipulating the flame in his hand into various shapes and making it move through the air and dance. The flames grew more and started to turn into a sphere.

“Hero, remember what I said about how emotions control the power of the spell. Don’t do anything crazy.” said Twilight in a concerned tone.

“Relax Twilight I have this all under-“

Hero was cut off by the fire ball moving erratically and pulsating.

The fire ball burst, sending flames all over the place blowing Hero and Twilight back from each other falling on their backs. Hero sat up quickly and rubbed the back of his head. Luckily it didn’t seem to do much besides leaving some scorch marks on the floor. Twilight however wasn’t quite as lucky.

Twilight slowly sat up and rubbed her head and looked around. From what she saw, nothing was damaged aside from black marks on the floor which was a relief, she slowly started standing up.

“Hero I told you to be careful with your emotions. You’re just lucky nothing bad happened.” Twilight looked up at Hero. She noticed he was looking at her body instead of looking her in the eye and his cheeks had turned crimson. She slowly followed his gaze until she saw what he was staring at. The blast hadn’t harmed her at all. Sadly that could not be said about her silk robe, as it was burnt completely in the front section revealing her under wear completely which were barely hanging on.

Twilights cheeks almost instantly turned a deep shade of red as she looked back at Hero who was still fixated on her new look.

“D-d-d-d-don’t look at me you P-PERVERT!!” She kicked Hero square in between the legs causing him to warp the ground in agony.

After Twilight got a new set of robes, fire resistant of course, and Hero regained consciousness and pleaded for forgiveness, Twilight told him that in order to better control his magic he needed to study. Twilight had brought Hero several books that would help him and told him to study as hard as he could. She also threatened him that she would do much worse to him than just kicking him in between the legs if he did that again; in which Hero proceeded to apologize again for what happened.

Hero used most of his day studying and practicing his abilities with Twilight, who always stood a few feet away from him.

It was late in the evening when Hero passed out on the desk from exhaustion and boredom. Twilight walked up to Hero who was sleeping soundly.

She stood there and noticed he had read through most of the books she handed him. Looking closer she saw he was softly snoring and a bit of drool was on the side of his mouth.

“He does kind of look cute when he’s sleeping…” Twilight shook her head of her thoughts and proceeded to wake him up.

“Ok Hero. I think that was enough training for today. You should head back to your room.”

Hero groggily rubbed his eyes and looked up at Twilight. “Huh?…I guess I dosed off…Well I guess I better go then.”

Hero thanked and wished her a goodnight before headed out of the library to his room.

A few weeks had passed since Hero had started training in various magical and physical training. He had become efficient in using magic; he even learned to store energy into his sword. His swordsmanship had improved greatly as well. He had trained strength and endurance quite a lot, even Spike had to watch himself against Hero when they sparred.

Although between Twilights magic training, Rainbow Dash’s martial arts training and Applejack’s weapon training, Hero was very tired. It was worse because of Rainbow Dash’s and Applejack’s ‘who could train him the best’ bet; he wasn’t sure if he could even keep up anymore.

Hero had retired early to his room to try and relax from a hectic day of training.

“Why me..? I don’t know how much of the “Special Training” I can take anymore…And that is the last time I bet with Rainbow Dash…I thought those Timber Wolves were going to be the death of me…” Hero plopped down on his bed and laid there for a few minutes until he heard someone open the door and walk in.

“Oh hey Hero, what are you doing here so early? I assumed you would be off doing something since tomorrow is our day off.” asked Spike sitting on his bed.

“Well I would but I’m in too much pain to do much. This week of solid training has run me ragged!” exclaimed Hero.

“Yeah I know what you mean, I am pretty sore myself! Oh hey you know what? Me and the gang are heading over to the spa, maybe you can go too? I hear they have a great hot spring bath there that is great for sore muscles!” beamed Spike.

“The spa..? I don’t know I don’t have any bits to spare for the spa.” Hero sighed.

“Oh you don’t need to worry about that, the guards and castle staff get a discount on spa treatments! Half off on everything, it will be fun!” Spike smiled at Hero.

Hero pondered for a moment before replying. “Well I don’t see why not. I mean I could use the relaxation I suppose.” stated Hero slowly getting up off the bed.

“Awesome, then lets hurry up and head over there.” Spike said in an enthusiastic tone.

Hero and Spike headed over to the spa as fast as they could before it closed.

“Oh hey there are the girls!” spike said running up to them while Hero kept dragging his feet.

“Oh Spike, I wasn’t sure you would make it darling.” said Rarity.

“Oh yeah sorry about that. I had to make a trip back to my room then I found this guy half dead, so I thought I would get him to tag along.” Spike pointed behind him to Hero who just raised a hand and smiled.

“Well look who it is, you must be pretty resilient after Applejack got you to try and out run a pack of Timber Wolves, huh?” said Rainbow Dash as she laughed.

“Now just wait one second there Rainbow, it was you who tricked him into it! Besides you’re just lucky he made it, otherwise we would have been chewed out for it…and possibly got a cut in our pay checks.”

Hero stared at them with a blank look on his face. “I think you two shouldn’t be instructors in the first place…..” both Rainbow Dash and Applejack smiled sheepishly at Hero.

Twilight face palmed at hearing the conversation.

“Oh I think it is wonderful and positively delightful that Hero came.” Rarity chimed in, changing the subject.

As they walked to the door, Hero immediately smelled the different pleasant aromas that filled the air of the spa. The spa was quite big on the inside a multitude of rooms that lead to various spa treatments.

Everyone there had walked up to the front desk including Hero. The desk manager had aqua blue colored mare with pink hair. She smiled and greeted all of them.

“Hello and welcome to Lotus and Aloe’s Medicinal Spa, My name is Lotus and how may I help you?” Lotus asked.

“Well we are here to partake in the new hot spring bath. It just sounded so lovely and I couldn’t resist trying it out as soon as one could.” said Rarity.

“Ah yes, follow me please.” said Lotus.

They all followed Lotus to the end of the spa facility to the far two rooms; one room was marked for males and one for females.

“Please enjoy yourselves and call me if you need me.” Lotus smiled and left them.

The girls went to their side as Spike and Hero went to theirs. Hero undressed and wrapped a towel around his waist, Spike did the same.

Spike was the first to leave with Hero following close behind.

Spike and Hero walked over to the spring and slowly got in, making sure to adjust to the heat slowly. Once they got used to the heat they picked a spot to sit and relax a couple of feet away from one another.

“Ok this may have been worth the rest of my bits….” Hero sunk into the hot water further.

“Hehe well if you would stop buying so many comics and betting with Rainbow Dash and Applejack you would have more bits to play around with.” said Spike as he smiled a toothy grin.

“One of these days I will win…and I will rub it in their faces when I do!” proclaimed Hero.

Spike just laughed and went back to relaxing in the spring.

A few minutes past in silence as Hero and Spike sat there in the soothing water. Suddenly Hero heard voiced coming from the other side of the thin wall of bamboo stalks.

“Hey Spike do you hear that?” asked Hero.

“Yeah the girl’s side is next door after all, why?” Spike looked over at Hero curiously.

Hero sat there and pondered for a moment, a grin slowly crept over his face.

Spike realized what he was thinking and sat up. “Don’t even think about it Hero! What if they see you?”

“There’s no way they will see me. I can be pretty stealthy if I need to be.” Hero slowly got up.

“Are you crazy!? If they catch you, you’re a dead man!” Spike tried to talk Hero out of it.

“Oh come on Spike like you never thought of peeping at six beautiful mares before?”

Spike blushed slightly and looked down. “N-no I haven’t …”

“Oh I get it there’s a particular one that you like huh?” Hero’s grin grew more.

Spikes blush deepened more. “Well I mean I still don’t think we should do it…” Spike got up and slowly walked up to Hero, who was grinning from ear to ear knowing he got Spike to give in.

“So who is it..?”

“Like I’d tell you...”

Hero snickered as they got up next to the wall slowly peering through the stalks.

“Now this is simply marvelous, I can feel the tension leaving me.” Rarity slowly sunk into the water.

“Even I gotta admit this feels mighty good on a sore back.” Applejack splashed around a little enjoying the hot water.

“Oh yeah this is the life!” proclaimed Rainbow Dash.

“This is so much fun I can hardly stay still!” Pinkie pie was swimming around.

“Pinkie! You come to a hot spring to relax, not play around.” said Twilight trying to relax.

Fluttershy was sitting there quietly relaxing to herself as well.

Hero was trying to get a peek through the bamboo shoots when Spike nudged him.

“Uh Hero, maybe we shouldn’t do this I mean Rarity will kill me if she found out…”

Hero thought for a moment and grinned. “Whoa Rarity looks pretty good if I do say so myself…”

Spike perked up and peered through the hole Hero made.

“Just kidding can’t make out anything with the steam….” Hero received a glare from Spike.

“Hey back up a bit, I can’t see…” Hero said pushing against Spike.

“No you back up.” said Spike pushing back.

“Hey it was my idea first so I get to look more!” Hero was leaning against the bamboo.

“So!? You dragged me into it!” Spike started pushing against the bamboo as well.

Twilight snapped out of her daze and looked around. “Uh girls, do you hear something?” Twilight asked making all the girls looked around.

Hero and Spike pushed against the wall harder causing the bamboo give way and both Spike and Hero fell on the other side with a loud ‘THUD’ as they hit the ground.

A couple of very silent seconds past with Hero and Spike looking at the girls with shocked expressions and quickly changing to fear.

Most of the girls sat there blushing, except Fluttershy who fainted from fright and Pinkie Pie who looked more confused than anything.

“…U-uh this…isn’t what it…looks like!” said Hero fear ebbing from his voice.
Twilight was the first to react. “Y-you perverts!” she said through gritted teeth while a red aura poured from her body. Rainbow Dash and Applejack stood there cracking there knuckles looking very angry.

The Spa echoed with the sound of an explosion and screams.

Hero and Spike had been beaten badly by the girls. They both laid on there on the hot spring floor.

“Just so you know. I blame you for this…” Spike said as he slowly sat up rubbing his head where Rainbow Dash punched him.

“I know…ouch...but you have to admit…it was worth seeing them taking a bath…” Hero blushed slightly scratching his cheek, grinning.

Spike looked away blushing before replying in an annoyed tone. “Oh shut up…Though seeing Rarity wasn’t so bad…”

Hero laughed at Spike and then he received a punch to the gut from Spike for it.

Hero and Spike decided to leave before the girls, to make sure they didn’t get any more unwanted painful memories.

The next day Hero woke up early for once. He took a few minutes to do what he needed before deciding to head to the cafeteria. He figured he would let Spike sleep in and get an early bite to eat.

Hero made his way to the cafeteria as fast as he could since he wanted to avoid the others for as long as he could. He got to the door and opened it to see the whole gang there eating and talking amongst themselves.

Hero figured it wise to come back a little later on but before he could close the door Pinkie Pie popped out of nowhere scaring Hero.

“Hey Hero what’cha doing out here, don’t you want to get some yummy breakfast?” asked Pinkie who was smiling from ear to ear and dragging Hero along with her.

Hero decided to admit defeat and face the music early. He figured what’s the worst that could happen to him…Right?

Hero piled a plate full of various vegetables, fruit and eggs then walked over to a table away from the others. However before he sat down, he felt an arm wrap around his neck.

“Hey why aren’t you sitting with us over there?” asked Rainbow Dash.

Hero looked at Rainbow Dash in surprise. He wasn’t expecting this reaction at all.

“Uh….because I assumed you guys would still be mad at me…”said Hero.

“Aw come on these things happen and the past is the past.” Rainbow Dash said, dragging Hero along.

“Well you’re a male; you can’t help being attracted to a bunch of good looking mares right? said Applejack smiling to Hero.

“Hero, since everyone has the day off today, do you think you could help me, Rainbow and Applejack with something? Twilight asked Hero.

Hero looked at them suspiciously. “Ok there up to something, I better eat fast so I can get out of here before something bad happens to me….” Hero thought to himself.

“Oh and if you even think about running away, we’ll let Princess Celestia know of your little stunt yesterday….”Twilight said sweetly which made Hero flinch.

“Ok I get it, I have no choice right? I guess I’ll do what you want me to do.” Hero raised his hands in defeat. “Besides if I try anything or escape, I doubt I get far. ”

Hero ate his meal before getting dragged off to whatever hell they had planned for him.

Hero and Twilight walked into the Canterlot library. “Ok Hero, today is the day we usually do the shelving and reorganizing for the library. Since you so graciously offered to take our places, you will be in charge of handling all fifty shelves. Of course I’ll be there to make sure you don’t take any short cuts.” Twilight smiled at Hero.

Hero just stood there, mouth agape starring at all the shelves of books in front of him.

“All…of these, don’t you think that’s a bit much for one person!?” pouted Hero.

“Yeah that is a lot, so you better get to work quickly. Wouldn’t want you to waste your day off, would we?” Twilight smiled mischievously at Hero.

Hero whimpers and slowly starts working on the task at hand and was watched closely by Twilight.

A few hours have passed since Hero had started working on the library with Twilight and it was roughly around noon.

Hero felt bored out of his mind. Working in the library all day exhausted him and it didn’t help he wasn’t close to be done yet either.

“Only halfway done and its lunch time already? I’ll never get done at this rate….” Hero stomach growled, showing he was hungry as well.

“Ugh I’m so hungry, I wonder if Twilight will allow a lunch break?” As if on cue Twilight walked around the corner.

“Hey Hero are you hungry? I figured since you’re doing such a good job, I’d be nice enough to get you lunch.” Twilight held up a tray of various fruits and vegetables.

Hero started drooling over the food and looked over at Twilight with thankful eyes; that made Twilight giggle at his reaction. They sat down at a nearby table to eat.

Hero bit into a big red apple. “Thanks so much for the food!” he said with a mouth full of apple.

“It isn’t a problem but at least swallow before speaking. Sheesh!” Twilight said scooting her food away slightly.

Hero chuckled nervously and swallowed “Ah, sorry about that…Anyway what has Spike been up too?”

“Spike is helping Rarity in her dress shop today actually. Thanks to a certain someone, he is a model for her dress line.”

Hero chuckled at that. “I think he’ll like that more than it being a punishment…”

“Oh why is that?” asked Twilight.

“The poor guy has a crush on- Er, well never mind.” Hero looked away scratching his cheek.

“If it is about Spike liking Rarity I already know about it.” said Twilight as she started eating her salad.

“Oh ok that’s good then….” Hero just rubbed the back of his head.

“I mean, Spike and I are best friends after all how would I not know? Although I wish he would ask her on a date or something already, Rarity has been waiting forever now.” Twilight said thoughtfully.

Hero looked at Twilight in shock for a moment. “Wait Rarity likes…Oh that’s great! Maybe I should give Spike a push then?” Hero laughed.

“What? NO! You can’t do anything, I’m sure Spike wouldn’t feel very good being pushed into it… Promise you won’t say anything!” Twilight looked over at Hero .

“Ok ok you win, I won’t say anything to him I promise.” Hero raised his hand in defeat.

“Ok thank you Hero, you may be a big pervert and careless and have horrible money management skills…”

Hero cut in to her ranting “Thank you Twilight for naming off all my flaws…”

Twilight giggled mischievously “Ok then, I was going to say…. I know you still have a kind heart and care deeply for your friends and I just wanted to thank you for being friends with Spike….” She smiled sweetly at Hero.

Hero looked into her eyes then blushed at her words “ Sheesh, she made my heart nearly skip a beat…Get it together Hero, she meant it to be nice… ”

Twilight noticed his face. “Are you ok?”

Hero snapped out of his thoughts. “Uh yeah I’m fine thanks… I didn’t know you could be nice to others.”

Twilight glared at Hero “I couldn’t just let it slip that you tried to peek at us at the spa yesterday!”

Hero chuckled nervously “It was only a joke I swear! You’re beauty and knowledge is only matched by your kind and caring heart!”

Twilight blushed and turned away at his comment. “I-Idiot, you can’t get me to forgive you just like that...”

Twilight noticed a lone book sitting across from her, picking it up she read the title.

“The Knight and his Sword…? Why did you leave this book out Hero?” asked Twilight.

Hero stopped eating and turned to Twilight. “Oh that book! Well when I was done here, I was going to ask if I could borrow it for a little while…”

“Well yeah that’s fine but why would you want a children’s tale? Wait, you can read right?” Twilight jokingly asked.

It was Hero’s turn to glare at Twilight. “Of course I can read! It’s just that book has a lot of meaning to me. You see it was the book my father would read to me when I was little.”

Twilight looked at him thoughtfully. “You must care a lot about them huh?”

“Well yeah of course, it was because of my father and this book that made me desire into becoming a knight in the first place.” Hero stated.

Twilight smiled at Hero, “Ok I think we took a long enough break. We should get back to work and I’ll even help you with sorting them, so it will go by a lot faster.”

Hero was taken aback by Twilights offer to help. “Uh thank you Twilight, but you don’t have to do that…”

“It’s ok. I know what it feels like when you want to read a good book but can’t.” Twilight smiled at Hero again.

Hero smiled back, “You know Twilight, you can be a bit strict but, I truly enjoy spending time with you. It’s pretty fun.”

Twilight blushed slightly “Thanks… It’s fun spending time with you as well….even though you can be perverted…..”

Hero let his head drop. “Hey I said I was sorry!”

“Well you shouldn’t have burnt my favorite robes!”

“At least I went out of my way to buy you another pair!”

“True, at the very least you were a man of your word….” Twilight laughed as did Hero.

Twilight and Hero managed to finish reorganizing around five in the afternoon.

“Whew that took forever!” exclaimed Hero.

“Yeah but at least it was finished sooner then it usually takes me alone.” said Twilight relaxing in a chair.

“I would have killed over doing all that alone…” said Hero resting in a chair opposite of Twilight’s with his head resting on the table.

“Yeah it is hard to do alone. Thank you for helping and not running off or something.” Twilight said checking off her “To do” list.

Hero lifted his head off the table, “It’s fine and I’ll even help you the next time you need to do this. You shouldn’t have to do this all alone.”

“Sounds good to me. I’m always happy to have a helping hand around here.” Twilight spoke happily.

“Well I guess if there isn’t anything else to do, I’ll head back to my room. I have wanted to read this book ever since I found it.” said Hero holding up the book.

“Sure that’s fine with me. There isn’t anything else for you to do here and I was thinking of leaving soon anyway.” said Twilight.

“Alright I’ll be leaving then, I’ll see you tomorrow for training.” Hero said smiling as he started to head for the door.

“Ok then see you tomorrow, goodnight!” she waved him goodbye.

“Goodnight to you too.” He waved back before heading out the door down the hallway. However, when he rounded the corner, he bumped into someone knocking the figure back.

“Sorry about that I wasn’t paying attention to where I was going.” said Hero helping up the figure that fell.

“Oh don’t worry about it! I can see it was an accident.” It was a young maid roughly in her early twenties.

As Hero helped her up she looked at him and smiled. “Oh…? Your heart is bleeding with a new found love…how cute…”

Hero was confused by her statement she made and he didn’t know what she meant by it either.

“Oh don’t pay me any mind. I was just thinking out loud” the maid said smiling to herself.

“Uh sure well anyway sorry about that, but I got to go!” Hero started heading off down the hallway.

The maid turned towards where he was heading and smiled. For a split second, her eyes flickered an emerald green before going back to what they were. She turned back around and started heading in the opposite direction.

A Dark Power And A New Mission

Hero had suddenly awoken from an odd dream he was having. Hero sat up in his bed and looked around and noticed Spike was still asleep in his bed. Glancing over to the window, Hero noticed it was still night outside.

He thought about the dream again only to vaguely remember his father and a thick darkness surrounding him and a voice telling him to be wary of the darkness in the hearts of those close to you, whatever that meant.

Hero felt wide awake, so he decided to take a walk in the night air for a bit. Hero put on his shoes and left the room quietly, so he would not wake his friend and proceeded to head out into the castle garden.

“The garden sure is quiet at night…I wonder if its ok to be here..? Hero continued to walk around the garden enjoying the different smells and sites with only some lamps to dimly light up the pathways.

Hero wandered around for a little bit until he saw a bench next to some Rose bushes. He figured that he might as well sit down and rest before heading back.

Hero sat there thinking about what has happened since he became a Royal Guard. He has gotten stronger, met new people and made a lot of friends.

“The castle was kind of boring from time to time but it was also pretty fun at times. Well besides when Twilight gets mad at me…”

Hero was relaxing until a quick movement caught his eye, making him snap out of his thoughts. He looked over at one of the hallways leading out of the garden and saw a shadowy figure in dark colored robes pass by the entrance in a hurry. Hero stood up and ran after the suspicious figure.

The figure ran for a good minute or so before slowing down and entering the library. Hero followed closely behind, making sure not to alert the shadowy figure of his presence. He watched as the figure made his way to an open area in the very back with no bookcases and placed their hand on the wall. The figure chuckled deeply and then started an incantation, with his forehead glowed a deep red.

“Whoever it is, he must be a stallion… and something seems off about him….I better make sure not to lose sight of him. That magic aura is giving me a sickening feeling in my stomach just being close to it…..” Hero noticed a seal appear on the wall then quickly fade away and then the wall opened up into a secret room Hero’s surprise. The stallion moved ahead with Hero following closely behind. They both soon arrive to an old room full of very old looking books and scrolls sitting on shelves.

Hero watched closely as the figure walked up to one of the shelves and scanned the scrolls looking for something. Soon he found what he was looking for and slowly reaches out to grab it and open it, looking at its contents.

“What should I do, should I try to stop him now or wait…?” Hero slowly moved around the shelves trying to get closer.”

Suddenly the stallion spoke. “Yes, this is what My Queen has been searching for. She will be most pleased with this!” He started laughing in a low maniacal laugh.

Hero was still watching the Stallion laughing. “Ok enough waiting, maybe if I can get close enough to him and take him by surprise….” However, just as he stepped past the next shelf he accidently bumped into a stepping stool, making it flip over and bang on the floor. The hooded stallion heard the commotion and spun on his heels to look directly at Hero. Hero moved in the middle of the shelves to block the stallion’s way out.

“ Dammit to hell! I should have known that was going to happen with my luck. Oh well, I guess there isn’t anything I can do about it now.”

The stallion smiled a big toothy grin from under his hood. “Well look who it is. If it isn’t Hero, the new member of the Royal Guard….”

Hero looked at him confused. “How do you know my name? Who are you? And who is this ‘Queen’ you are referring to? Tell me now or else I will force it out.” Hero tightened his fists.

The hooded stallion just looked at him and laughed. “Well you are smug to be giving orders to me without your precious sword. This is perfect; I’ll kill you to celebrate me finding this scroll!”

He began to laugh more as he threw back his robe to reveal a sword that was seemingly black in color with a sharp teeth running down the blade coming to a sharp point.

He ripped the sword from his side and pointed it at Hero. “With this sword, I will shred you into pieces that no one will be able to recognize! Then I’ll take your corpse and use it against your precious friends…”

Hero was slightly taken aback by the mysterious stallion’s words. “What the hell are you taking about!? At any rate I won’t let you escape so easily!” Hero immediately took a defensive stance.

The stallion placed a hand on his head and began laughing louder. “You, hold me back? Please try; it will just make killing you easier!” But before he striked at Hero, the figure stopped and took a step back while he looked at the floor.

Hero noticed his voice seemed somewhat familiar despite the fact that the way he spoke wasn’t something he remembers, but he could not place it.

Hero looked at the stallion in confusion. “What are you doing…?” Hero trailed off when he saw him look up.

“Dammit! Consider yourself lucky Scum, I am needed elsewhere right now. But understand this, wretch. The next time we meet, I will kill you!” and with that he shot a fireball into the ground causing smoke to fill the room.

Hero quickly covered his mouth, trying his best to look for the stallion that was right in front of him. However when the smoke, cleared he was gone.

Hero was angry with himself for letting him get away, but that wasn’t important right now. He had to tell Princess Celestia about all that happened as soon as possible. He quickly left the library and made his way back to the castle. Luckily it was dawn and the Princess would be awake.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Celestia was sitting on the throne talking to a few guards when Hero walked into the meeting.

“Celestia, I have something I need to-”, Hero was interrupted by a hand placed on his shoulder.

He quickly looked over his shoulder and saw Twilight standing next to him.

“Where did you come from..?” asked Hero.

“Well I was just on my way to get breakfast, when I saw that you were in a hurry to get here so I followed you but that’s not important. Are you crazy?! You can’t just barge into the Princess’s meeting like this! And stop calling her Celestia; she is the ruler of Equestria!” Twilight exclaimed.

“That was the important thing you were referring to…? Well what I need to say is important! And besides if I remember correctly she told me to call her Celestia.” said Hero in a rushed manner.

Twilight sighed, “Yes, but don’t you think in this situation it would call for you to address her formally?”

“Well I never thought about that- wait this isn’t the time to argue!” Hero gestured at Celestia and the meeting.

By this time, Celestia had silenced the guards at the meeting and looked over at Twilight and Hero arguing.

“Ah Hero, so good of you to come. Please, there is no need to quarrel. I know why you have come.” Celestia then dismissed the guards.

“Huh, you know what is going on already? But how…?” Hero asked.

“Well I am a Princess after all. I am usually well informed. I heard you might have had a close encounter with the suspect?”

“Yes I did. But it was dark and he wore robes that covered his face well, so I couldn’t see much of him.” Hero lowered his head at his failure.

“Hero, do must not be too hard on yourself. I know you did all you could do to stop him. That is all I ask of My Royal Guards.” She gives him a proud smile before continuing. “Please, tell me what happened.” Celestia spoke softly with a calm collected demeanor.

Hero told her everything, from the garden to the library. He made sure to tell her about this ‘Queen’ he spoke of, the sword he carried, and the feeling he got from the mysterious stallion’s magic. Celestia sat in her chair with her eyes closed absorbing the information.

When Hero finished explaining everything, she slowly opened her eyes and thought for a moment before speaking.

“I am not sure what is going on. However I have guards and scholars looking over the room. Any evidence of what scroll he has stolen and his plans to use it for will be uncovered in due time. We must be patient and alert until then.” Celestia sighed at the situation.

“Then what should I do in the mean time?” Hero curiously asked

Celestia pondered his question for a moment. “You should go about as if it was any other day.”

“But shouldn’t we be doing something more!?” asked Hero confused by Celestia’s answer.

“There is no reason to get worked up over this. When more information is gathered I will summon you, until then you must relax. After all I will need you energized and ready for anything. Please go with

Twilight and tell your friends that you all have a special day off.” she smiled at him with a reassuring look on her face.

Hero was silent for a moment but then looked at Celestia. “As you wish Princess Celestia, I will try to stay calm.”

“Oh phooey I wish my people would be less formal with me. It is quite tiring.” said Celestia slightly pouting.

Hero raised his hands in defense. “Don’t look at me Celestia; it’s your student that puts me on edge all the time.”

“Hey don’t blame this on me! I just didn’t want to interrupt the Princ- I mean, Celestia with her meeting is all.” Twilight looked away from Hero and Celestia, making them laugh.

Hero and Twilight both headed to the cafeteria, thinking that everyone would be there for breakfast. And sure enough, they all were; talking and eating at the same table they always sit at.

Twilight was the first to speak. “Hey everyone… Have you heard the news yet?” She asked while walking up to the table.

“Well we were told the gist of what has happened. Care to fill in the gaps Sugar Cube?” asked Applejack as everyone else looked over at Hero and Twilight.

Twilight and Hero proceeded to tell them all that happened from beginning to end, making sure to get all the details.

“What?! Why do we have to sit back and do nothing? We should be hunting down that jerk and showing him whose boss!” an angry Rainbow Dash yelled.

“Calm down Rainbow. There aint nothing we can do at the moment, so we should take this time to relax and wait for orders from the Princess” said Applejack.

“Yeah don’t worry about it Rainbow Dash. We’ll get that guy soon enough.” Hero stated.

“U-umm I also…agree, we s-should wait for the p-princess to give us orders” Fluttershy said shifting in her seat.

“Well of course we should relax and be happy! I mean, what would they do if we were all stressed out and then we would waste our energy then couldn’t beat up the bad guy or help-” Pinkie was cut off by Rarity.

“Pinkie is right about this, darling. We should just go through our day normally.” Rarity chimed in.

“Ok ok I get it, I’ll relax. Sheesh!” said Rainbow Dash flapping her wings in irritation.

“So what do we do now?” Hero asked everyone.

“Well I’m going out to blow off steam for a bit.” and with that, Rainbow Dash left the table.

“Meh, I think I will head off and take a walk myself” Applejack said before getting up to leave.

“Oh umm I’ll j-join you Applejack, if that’s alright with you?” said Fluttershy walking after Applejack.

“OH OH ME TOO!” exclaimed Pinkie Pie, bouncing off after them.

“I better get back to my shop and finish my latest project. Pardon me.” Rarity politely dips her head and walks away.

“Well I guess I’ll be going to my room to do some studying then… See you two later.” Twilight waved at Hero and Spike.

“So what are you thinking of doing, Spike?” asked Hero.

“Oh, I guess I was going to go do some more training. Want to join me? “Spike asked as he stood up.

“Sure! I’m game for a few rounds of sparring.” Hero followed Spike.

A few hours have passed since Hero had last spoke to Celestia.

Hero had tried to get his mind off of what happened in the secret room as best he could. However he just couldn’t help but think about it. He really wanted to do something other than relax and let someone else handle it.

“Ugh! I can’t take it anymore!” Hero yelled.

“Huh? What do you mean?” Spike stopped practicing his technique on a dummy and started to pay attention to Hero.

“I mean I can’t stand waiting around, that’s what! I want to see if I could dig up any info myself.”

“Why worry about it now? I mean it’s not like you have any particular leads... Wait, do you?” asked Spike.

“Well I… No I don’t, but that’s why I want to go find some!” Hero stood up and stretched.

“You’re really going through with this, aren’t you?” Spike stood up as well.

“Yes I am.” stated Hero.

“Your boredom is going too land us in hot water I just know it.” Spike sighed to himself.

“So you’ll be coming along then?” Hero smiled at Spike.

“Well if I said no you would just drag me along anyway.” Spike motioned for them to go, which Hero abided and followed Spike to Twilight’s room.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

“NO! I’m not going to help you go and do something possibly reckless just because you’re bored Hero!” Twilight nearly yelled.

“Oh come on Twilight, please? I’m sure you want to do more than just sit in your room and study?” Hero pleaded.

“The princess said to leave it to her and that’s what I am going to do. You won’t convince me to do otherwise.” Twilight stayed adamant.

“Oh come on Twilight, don’t be such a stick in the mud.” Hero pleaded some more.

Twilight just sighed to herself “If I go and we don’t find anything within the confines of the library, you won’t bug me about it and wait, understood?”

Hero just simply nodded and grinned at her.

“Ok then let’s get going. And if we get caught I’m blaming you.” Twilight walked passed Hero and Spike.

“Sure, that’s fine by me!” Hero then left for the library with Spike and Twilight following close behind.

Hero, Spike and Twilight stopped a little ways from the library entrance that was guarded by two guards.

“Ok Twilight, you have to get us in since you the one who works at the library.” Hero whispered over his shoulder.

“Ok, I’ll try.” Twilight walked over to the guards with Hero and Spike following behind.

“Halt, who goes there?” One of the guards asked.

“Hello sirs. I was just wondering if I could go in for just a few minutes to grab a few books. I shouldn’t be too long…” Twilight patiently waited for their reply.

“…Well since it is you Miss Twilight, we will let you through. However don’t take too long or wander around. They are strict on whoever gets in, especially since they are still not done with the room. ” the guard explained.

“What!? You mean they haven’t found out anything yet?” asked Twilight in a shocked tone.

“Afraid not, they are taking a break for now and going to try again, so please be quick.” The other guard stated.

The two guards moved out of the way, allowing Twilight, Hero and Spike through. As they pretended to search for books, they slowly made their way to the back of the library where the secret entrance was.

“Is this it, Hero?” asked Spike.

“Yeah this is the room alright. Say Twilight, did you know about this room at all?” Hero asked as they quickly walked in, after making sure no one saw.

“Well I knew it was here, I just didn’t know where.” Twilight quickly scanned the area.

“Wow! All of these are old scrolls and books. Can you imagine the knowledge they must hold!? I mean how amazing would it be to sit here and read through all of them?” said Twilight in a daze.

“Uh, Twilight? Did you forget why we are here in the first place…?” Hero asked.

“Huh? Oh yes of course I know that, I was just so excited is all.” Twilight said slightly embarrassed.

“Anyway, let’s look for something that may seem suspicious. Maybe something he left or something.” Hero began looking around for anything interesting.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“We’ve looked through this place for about ten minutes now, Hero. I’m not so sure we will find anything.” Spike said giving up.

“Wait you two, I’m feeling a weak magic trail here. It’s faint but if I concentrate I may be able to track where this culprit went.” Twilight took a deep breath and closed her eyes to concentrate on the magical energy.

“Ok from what I can read, the trail leads out of the castle into the city. We probably should tell the princess about this.” Twilight turned to Hero and Spike

“Wait how can you tell what direction by just concentrating?” Hero asked, puzzled.

“Well it’s just an easy sensory skill most mages learn early on.” Twilight stated nonchalantly.

“Then why didn’t you teach me that? It would have been useful you know.”

“Well to be honest, I didn’t think you had the ability to concentrate that long. You seem to be easily distracted.” Twilight said thoughtfully.

Spike started snickering at the comment making Hero grumble angrily.

“I don’t think this will be enough Information for Celestia to act on Twilight.” Hero stated

“I don’t know about this Hero.” Twilight said letting out a sigh

They decided to leave the library and head into town.

“I still say we should have told Princess Celestia about what we found so far…” said Twilight as she walked down the path.

Hero let out a sigh. “Well if we did, we would have been scolded for not doing what we were told. And besides, once we find out what is going on, she will overlook what we did to get the information.”

“It doesn’t really matter, we still need to do this quickly for our sake.” said Spike, walking next to Twilight and Hero.

“Hey we have plenty of time! Besides with Twilight here, we’ll find him quickly anyway.” Hero stated.

“It isn’t going to be that easy Hero. Haven’t you noticed that everyone uses magic here in the city? Which means tracking a faded magical trail, will prove difficult even for me.” explained Twilight.

Slightly disappointed Hero sighs to himself “What! Then what should we do now?”

“Well we just need someone who has a better ability at tracking energies...” Twilight says to Hero.

“Oh I know who! Rarity is probably the best at locating a peculiar magical energy due to her profession.” Spike proclaimed.

“Oh I nearly forgot! If Rarity came along we would do a lot better, I must admit…Well her shop is close by; we should go ask her if she’ll help.” said Twilight walking passed Hero and Spike.

A few minutes later, they arrived at Rarity’s dress shop.

Spike knocked on the door and waited for a moment. He heard movement on the other side then a voice that called out “I’ll be there momentarily!”

Rarity opened the door and to her surprise saw Spike, Twilight and Hero on her doorstep. “Well what a pleasant surprise! What are you three doing here?”

“Well Rarity, it is a bit complicated so let me explain.” Spike proceeded to tell Rarity what happened.

“I see. Well I would hate to go against a direct order from the princess like that… but since Spikey-Wikey asked how can I say no? Oops, I’m sorry Spike I didn’t mean to let it slip.” Rarity said having a hand over her mouth.

Spike was blushing with Rarity using that name.

Hero started laughing “Spikey-Wikey!? That’s too rich!” Hero said earning him a quick jab to the stomach from Twilight.

Spike scratched the back of his head sheepishly. “So Rarity will you help us?”

“But of course darling, I will try my best to help.” said Rarity as she took one look in a mirror before walking outside and locking the door.

Hero and the others proceeded to walk through the town, while looking out for anything odd. Rarity was using her ability to search out energy to find the one they were looking for. It didn’t take too long for Rarity to pick up the unique magical energy.

“This is quite strange indeed, I don’t think I’ve felt magic this volatile and erratic, ever. It almost feels like I may be sick just from being near it.” Rarity said still following the trail.

“Now you know how I felt when I was in the same room with the guy.” said Hero.

“Yes I can feel how vile it is, this is very troublesome indeed.” Rarity stated in a worried tone.

“Don’t worry Rarity. If anything happens, Spike and I will be there to protect you!” Hero smiled.

“I think I would be more afraid of what you would do and not the perpetrator.” Twilight giggled to herself when she saw Hero sulk.

“Well I for one would love to have my Spikey-Oops, I mean Spike to protect me.” Rarity chuckled to herself.

Hero and the gang had followed the magic trail for a few minutes now and it seemed to be leading to the back part of town. They were led to this old warehouse that had been abandoned for what seemed like years. It wasn’t too big, but big enough to store rations for troops and other resources.

“What would they be doing in such an old dusty place like this?” Rarity had a look of disgust on her face.

“I’m not sure, but we better scan the whole building just in case.” Twilight said looking around.

They split up to cover more ground, Spike and Rarity went left Hero and Twilight went right. As Hero and Twilight searched, they passed through a door that leads into a small room that looked as though it was just a plain storage room. They looked through the room and couldn’t find anything suspicious until Hero almost tripped over a dip in the floor.

Hero looked down and saw that there was a handle in the crevice. “Hey Twilight I think I found something.”

Hero slowly pulled the handle, lifting the trapdoor in the floor to reveal a hole leading into darkness with a ladder connected to the floor. Hero was the first to descend down the ladder.

He found a torch hanging near the ladder and he decided to light it on fire, which lit up the room fairly well. Hero noticed a door on the opposite wall.

“Ok you can climb down now, Twilight.” Hero said while looking around.

Twilight slowly started climbing down as Hero approached the door. Twilight got to the bottom, saw the door as well, and followed Hero.

As they got closer, Twilight felt a strong magical energy coming from the door. She saw Hero grab for the door. But before she could stop him, he was shocked by a spell and sent backwards landing on his back.

Hero cursed and grabbed his hand, waving it in front of him. “Ouch, that really hurt….” whined Hero.

“Well I tried to warn you but you grabbed it too quickly. You really need to be more careful, Hero.” Twilight said scolding him and then walked up to the door.

“There is a strong seal on the door to keep anyone out.” Twilight said, examining the seal.

“Do you think you can break it?” asked Hero as he was getting to his feet.

“Sure, it shouldn’t be too difficult for me. I will just need a moment to focus. Why don’t you go and get Rarity and Spike; I should have it broken when you get back.” Twilight started focusing on the door.

“Alright, just don’t go and wander off by yourself.” said Hero.

“Me? That is something I would tell you to not do. Now hurry up and get them.” stated Twilight.

“Fine. Be right back.” stated Hero as he climbed the ladder.

“I don’t get him sometimes, worrying about me like that. Twilight thought to herself before going back to work on the seal.

By the time Hero got back with Spike and Rarity, Twilight had just broke the seal and opened the door.

The area ahead was pretty dark. Hero and Spike grabbed a torch, Hero leading the group and Spike covering the rear as they continued down the path. It was a narrow pathway at first but soon opened up into a large cave system, with crystals coming from the walls of the cave. The crystals reflected some of the light from the torches, making a dim light move throughout the cave itself.

“I never would have guessed this cave system would be under Canterlot…”said Hero as he looked around.

“This must be one of the old mine shafts that lead to the crystal mines.” said Twilight as she looked around for anything of interest.

“What do you think that stallion would want here?” asked Spike.

“My guess would be that he is after what the scroll he stole was about.” Twilight hypothesized.

“Well the only thing we can do now is continue the search and hope we stumble across something that may be of value or interest.” said Rarity as she gazed at the crystals in longing.

They all kept on the path for a while and nothing seemed out of the ordinary. They continued until they came to a split in the path.

“What do you think we should do?” asked Spike.

“Well we could always split up.” Hero looked over at Twilight and Rarity.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea, Hero. Who knows how long these pathways go, and we could get lost. I think we should just stick together and pick one path.” said Twilight.

“I also agree with Twilight this one.” Rarity agreed.

“Ok then, what path do we take?” Hero asked.

But before he got a response Spike shushed them. “Hey did you three hear that noise?” Spike said in a quiet tone.

“No, I didn’t hear anything. Did you Rarity?” asked Twilight, listening for any more strange noises.

“Not at all, dear.” Rarity whispered.

“It sounded like a large door being opened… I think we need to head down the left pathway, come on.” Spike said walking down the path.

Spike, Hero, Twilight and Rarity quickly moved down the left pathway, looking for the door. It didn’t take them long to find it.

Part of the cave wall seemed collapsed showing another open area behind it.One large metal door that parted in the middle with hand carved images of the Princesses, each holding the sun and the moon. The door was slightly open and let out a soft green light. The light was probably from the crystals reflecting an unknown light source. The door was releasing a large amount of magic from them it as well.

“How could someone break a seal this powerful?” asked Twilight placing a hand on the door.

“They were sealed up?” Hero asked looking at the door.

“Oh my, yes. Dear me, the level of magic that would have been needed to create such a seal would be of the Princess’s magic level. Makes me curious as to who could even break this seal.”

“Anyway we better go inside.” said Twilight.

They all slowly opened the door and walked in, looking for any movement or anything out of place. As they entered, they notice a very large statue to the right of the doorway shaped like a stallion guard with heavy armor and a sword strapped to its side.

They also notice a smaller statue at the end of the large room. The statue looked like some odd creature with multiple parts put together. One arm of a lion, one of an eagle, its left leg was that of a goat, its right of a lizard. It had the tail of a dragon and a face of a pony.

“That’s a statue of Discord, the god of chaos!” exclaimed Twilight.

“He is the god of chaos…? He looks kind of funny.” said Hero.

“Well he is the god of chaos. Kind of entitles him to look funny if you ask me.” Spike stated.

“I think we have more pressing matters than the fact that Discord looks funny.” Twilight said with an annoyed expression on her face.

As they got closer they noticed that the top part of the Discord Statue was slightly ajar. It was so heavy to open the statue up that it took all four of them to move it. They looked inside and noticed it was completely empty.

“Do you think that whatever was inside the statue was what the guy was after..?” Hero asked.

“Quite possible… It seems to be the only reason to come all the way here. But now the question is what was so important that they broke into the Canterlot Castle just to get it?” Twilight asked in a thoughtful tone.

Just then the metal doors behind them shut causing the gang to jump in surprise. As soon as the doors shut a feminine laugh echoed in the room.

“Well well, what do we have here? Children shouldn’t be playing in a place like this, a lot of unfortunate accidents can happen that are unforeseen.” the voice seemed to come from everywhere.

“Who’s there? Reveal yourself!” shouted Twilight.

“I would love too. But you see, I’m late for an important engagement that it would be most rude of me to miss. After all taking over Canterlot is top priority to me…” the feminine voice started laughing maniacally.

“Princess Celestia won’t allow you to do as you please!” Twilight retorted.

“Oh we will see, wont we? I, Queen Chrysalis, will become the ruler of Canterlot and take over your castle so my army of changelings may become the strongest army in the world! And I will use my new found powers to do it.” Queen Chrysalis exclaimed.

“We won’t let you!” Hero yelled.

“Well it was fun talking to you children but I must go. However I’ll leave you with a gift, just a small portion of my new power.” Chrysalis laughed as a pitch black energy erupted out of the eyes of the giant statue next to the door, causing it to start moving on its own.

“W-What the…!?” Hero and the others started backing up a little.

“Have fun, now if you’ll excuse me I have a kingdom to take over.” and with that, Chrysalis was gone.

The statue slowly started moving more and more until it was free from its pedestal. Then it walked towards Hero and the others, its heavy steps shaking the ground.

“What do we do now!?” Hero yelled over the statues steps.

Suddenly the statue swings its massive stone sword downward at Hero and the others. They manage to move out of the way, but they were knocked down from the impact of the sword meeting the ground.

They quickly got up and start running behind the Discord statue.

“We need to destroy this thing fast and get back to the castle quickly!” shouted Twilight narrowly dodging the giant statues foot, the ground cracking under its massive weight.

“Wait I know, Rarity we need Tom!” Spike yelled out.

“But if I summon him we may collapse the room!” Rarity shouted back.

“I know but it just may be the only way!” Spike replied.

“Tom? What kind of a summoning do you name Tom of all things!?” Hero exclaimed confused.

“What’s wrong with the name Tom? I find that it is short and sophisticated, thank you!” Rarity stated.

“Not the right time to have an argument!” shouted Twilight.

“Oh yes quite.” She began summoning a large amount of magic, making her horn glow a bright light blue, Rarity then starts to chant.

“Come forth and destroy this foe that stands in my way, Golem!” The ground in front of Rarity started to break apart and split. Moments later a giant arm reached out of the fissure followed by another then the giant golem pulled itself up out of the hole, standing to its full height.

Compared to the statue, it was about even height. Tom’s body was made of a bunch of different size rocks thrown together. Its fists hit together and it roared at the statue, ready to fight.

“Tom, please be a dear and get rid of that atrocious statue in our way. We are in a hurry, but please be mindful of your surroundings.” Rarity spoke to the golem calmly.

Tom simply nodded at her. Then with great force, swings and hits the guardian statue making it stumble back into the opposite wall, cracking its helmet.

The statue got up off the wall and swung its stone sword at Tom who blocked it and punched with the other hand at the statue again. As the stature got up again, Tom charged it and slammed it into the wall causing several crystals and random debris to fall to the floor. The debris barely missed Hero, Twilight, Spike and Rarity.

“This is insane! I never would have guessed that anyone could summon that thing!” Hero stated dodging random crystals.

“Yes Rarity is a powerful Summoner; however a summoning that big takes an extremely large amount of magic. This means using Tom once drains nearly all of her magic and not to mention it fatigues her.” Spike said while carrying Rarity on his back.

“Don’t worry too much; I will be right as rain after a little bit of rest. “ Rarity stated.

The ground shook again, almost knocking everyone over. Looking up, they saw that Tom had stopped the guardian statues sword, shattering it into pieces. Tom then proceeded to rip one of the arms off of the statue and using it to crush the statues head into dust. The statue stumbled slowly forward until it fell and smashed into the floor, breaking itself into pieces.

“Alright, He did it!” cheered Hero.

“But of course he did! Tom is one of my most powerful Summonings I have.” said Rarity boastfully.

“Still don’t get why you gave it a name like Tom….”said Hero.

“As I told you it is a sophisticated and well-rounded name. I see nothing wrong with it at all.” huffed Rarity as she dismissed Tom.

“Whoa, he just disappears just like that?” Hero said stunned

“Why yes dear, did you think he would hang around here all day?” Rarity stated

“Well no but, where did he go?” Asked Hero still confused

“Well, there is a realm that we Summoners have contact with, that we can then contract different beings to aid us when needed. And when they are done they simply go back.

“Well I guess that makes sense I suppose.” Hero simply rubbed his head

“Honestly you should learn more about the different types of magic we can possess.” Rarity simply stated

“Ok whatever you say Rarity.” Hero stated as he scratched the back of his head.

“Uh guys I think we need to get back to the castle, now!” Twilight said in a hurried tone.

“Right we have to help the Princesses, hopefully our friends are ok.” said Rarity in a worried tone.

“I’m sure they are fine, we just need to leave the cave and we are-” Before Hero could finish, there was a loud cracking sound coming from the floor.

“What was that?” Spike was looking around frantically.

All of a sudden the floor started to break away quickly falling into a giant chasm. Everyone took off running to make it to the door as the floor started collapsing behind them. As they ran, a larger chuck slipped downward but got hung in a downward slope.

Hero, Spike and Rarity barely made it, but as they got to the other side they heard a scream. They turned to see Twilight sliding down the rock and couldn’t hang on.

“Oh no Twilight!” Spike yelled out. Hero jumped onto the slopping rock and was sliding downward as quickly as he could.

Twilight could see the edge coming up rapidly. She couldn’t think of what to do because she was so scared that there was no way she’d survive that fall. As the edge got close, she shut her eyes and felt herself slip off the edge and descend. One thought popped into her mind, “Please someone save me! I don’t want to die!” Twilight felt tears stream down her face.

Twilight found it confusing that she felt no air rushing past her and that there was a something tight wrapped around one of her wrists. She then slowly opened her eyes and saw that she wasn’t falling at all; in fact she was just suspended in midair. She looked up and saw Hero hanging onto a half broken crystal jutting out of the floor and Hero using his other hand to hold onto her.

“H-Hero, is that really you…?” Twilight asked, hoping it wasn’t some crazy hallucination.

“Well of course it’s me! Who else would I be?” Hero stated with a grin on his face.

Twilight could feel tears welling up in her eyes from joy, not from fright.

After putting Rarity down on stable flooring, Spike had slowly made his way down to the edge. To his relief, he saw that both Twilight and Hero were alright. Spike reached out and pulled them both slowly up and over the side of the rock Spike was on. After Hero caught his breath, he looked over at Twilight.

“Are you alright Twi-” Hero was cut off from Twilight embracing him into a tight hug.

“Thank you, Hero, thank you for saving me! I was so scared and I just didn’t know….” Twilight trailed off letting silent tears run down her face. Hero wrapped an arm around her to let her know she was safe.

A few minutes of silence later, Twilight lifted her head off of Hero’s chest. “Uhm… sorry for crying on you like that…. I don't know what came over me.” Twilight shyly said a light blush on her face.

“Don’t worry about it; anyone would lose it in that situation, besides I’m just glad you’re safe. That’s all I care about.” Hero smiled at Twilight.

“Thanks to you, that is.” Twilight looked down and noticed that one of his hands resting in his lap. Upon closer examination, she saw his hand was colored red.

“H-Hero what happened to your hand?” Twilight had a worried expression.

Hero lifted his hand; it had a few deep cuts with dried blood covering it. “I cut it when I grabbed that half broken crystal. It isn’t a big deal, I’ve had worse.”

“Of course it’s a big deal! It looks serious.” Twilight reached into her vest pocket and pulled out a purple handkerchief. Then she gently picked up Hero’s damaged hand and proceeded to wrap it up tightly making sure to cover the cuts well. As she finished, she placed her hand on his, making sure it was in place.

Hero watched as she softly caressed his hand, feeling her soft fur and fingers glide across his hand.

Hero gently pulled his hand away, a shade of red spread across his face. “W-we should get going soon.” Hero’s eyes averted away from Twilight.

“Oh yeah your right, sorry about that.” Twilight looked away as well.

Hero stood up and helped Twilight up. Then they all ran back to the room with a ladder as quickly as they could. As they reached the warehouse entrance they take no time to climb the ladder and walk through the small room leading out into the main storage room.

They noticed the sky was darkened as if there were rain clouds out. There were dark clouds covering the sky above Canterlot, it looked as though there was going to be heavy rain at one point but it was clear when they left.

They were running through the streets of the city heading for the castle.

“Hey where do you think all the citizens are all at? It’s like the city is completely deserted.” Hero said looking around.

“This is getting worse by the minute I just hope the Princess and the rest of our friends are ok.” Twilight said worrying.

“Well regardless we have to make sure we don’t run in blindly.” suggested Spike.

“Agreed, it would be most troublesome to be captured right off the bat.” Rarity stated.

As they approached the castle they noticed two figures outside of the main door that leads to the throne room. The gang ducked behind a wagon to check to see who they might be. The guards had black bodies with holes in their legs and arms, wings of a bug and sharp teeth. Their eyes were blue with a head of a pony’s.

“What the hell are those things? I’ve never seen them before.” asked Hero in a hushed tone.

“I think they are called changelings, they have the ability to change into anything. Or at least that’s what I have read anyway.” explained Twilight.

“That’s kind of cool…”Hero blurted out.

“Should you really be complementing the enemy, Hero?” asked Spike in an annoyed tone.

“Well wouldn’t you want to change into anything?” asked Hero.

“Well, I guess that would be kind of cool….” said Spike thoughtfully.

“Will you two stop and help think of a way to get in without alerting the guards!” Twilight said a little too loudly.

The guards hissed and started walking towards the wagon.

The guards walked around and saw Twilight and Rarity sitting behind the wagon. Immediately they hiss and place their hands on their swords, however before they could pull them out, they were blindsided and knocked unconscious by Spike and Hero.

“Well that was nicely taken care of.” said Hero as he dragged one of the changeling guards off behind the one of the buildings.

“That went smoother than I thought.” Spike said, dragging the other one behind the same building.

“Now we just have to go through the front door….” Twilight and everyone else slowly approached the doors and slightly opened it and peered inside.

“I don’t see anything inside, it is empty.” Twilight stated.

They slowly entered the throne room and walked to the middle of the room. Out of nowhere they hear Chrysalis laughing and then with a poof, she was sitting in the throne itself.

“Impressive that you four defeated that giant statue, a shame you will meet your end here.” Chrysalis chuckled to herself.

“What have you done to the Princesses and my friends!?” yelled Twilight.

“Oh them? As I said before I will be taking over Canterlot and so I have, much easier than I expected really. Almost boring in a way, but what can you do?” Chrysalis laughed more.

“No, that can’t be possible…” Said Twilight in disbelief

“Would you like to see them?” Chrysalis asked before snapping her fingers making six cocoons appear on the ceiling.

“No way…”Hero said in shock.

“How could this happen?” Spike looked shocked as well.

“All of them captured just like that? It doesn’t make any sense!” said Rarity looking up at the cocoons.

“Now, it is your turn to lose to my power.” With that, Chrysalis created a large ice shard above her head and hurls it at Hero and the others.

Spike had just landed when he saw a figured coming up behind Hero. “Hero, behind you!”

“Huh?” Hero spun around just in time to block a downward slash.

Hero’s eyes widened “It’s you!” Hero shouted as he pushed the attacker back.

“It is so good of you to remember the one who will have your head!” the Figure stated.

“Is that the one who broke into the castle?” asked Spike.

“Yeah this is the guy…” Hero stated.

“Heh, it is time we finish what we started Hero.” The figure lunged forward striking at Hero’s midsection, which Hero skillfully blocks. Hero then delivers a kick into the attacker’s stomach sending him to the ground making his hood fall back.

“What the…?” Hero was stunned for a moment and everyone noticed who the figure was.

“But why would you go so far, Blue Blood!?” Hero shouted.

“Blue Blood…you joined the enemy, why?” asked Spike.

Blue Blood was silent for a brief moment before responding. “For the sake of revenge, of course! The day I lost that match to you, I lost all of my peers’ respect and was treated like trash! It was as if I was nobody, so when my Queen offered me the power for my revenge, I took it. I have to say, I feel pretty good.”

Blue Blood stood up and grinned evilly. “Allow me to show you the power I speak of…a forbidden art that was lost in time, until now.” And with that Blue Blood’s horn glowed red as he said a spell.

“Spirits of the deceased I call on your aid to come and cause a never ending nightmare to my enemies!” Suddenly moaning was heard followed by shuffling.

Hero looked over to see a few of the dead soldiers walking, weapons in hand with cold and lifeless eyes with blood oozing out of there several wounds.

“Necromancy, that’s what you have been studying!?” Hero said disgusted.

“Blue Blood, that is insane to go so far for the sake of petty revenge.” Spike said with an equally disgusted face.

“‘Petty revenge’ you say? I had everything I could have ever wanted, and then this low life bastard showed up and took everything from me!!” Blue Blood furiously shouted. “So now I'm going to take everything from you…with that being said I have a question for you, Hero.”

“What?” asked Hero confused by Blue Blood’s response.

Blue Blood smiled to himself, “Tell me what you cherish most. Give me the pleasure of taking it away." He began laughing manically.

Hero gritted his teeth “Like I would tell you, you crazy bastard!” Hero charged at Blue Blood and they clashed with their blades.

Celestia had been unconscious from being over powered by Chrysalis; however the sound of fighting managed to wake her. She slowly looked around trying to find her bearings. She then heard the sound of metal clashing and spells going off, as her vision came back she saw that Twilight, Hero, Spike and Rarity where fighting.

She tried to move but was confined inside of the cocoon, she had to give them a message and get them to safety if they had any hope of winning against Chrysalis. She decided that she must gather enough power to aid them from another source, so she concentrated on Twilight.

Meanwhile Hero was not fairing so well against Blue Blood as he would have thought he would of. Tired and with his hand injured like it was he was finding it difficult to keep pace with Blue Blood’s attacks.

“What’s the matter Hero, tired already? I was hoping for more of a challenge from you!” laughed Blue Blood.

Hero was panting heavily by now. “Shut up I still have a few tricks up my sleeve!”

“Of course I’m bluffing, I’m not sure how much longer I can keep up with him at this rate. What should I do?”

Hero briefly looked over at Spike who was still trying to stop the undead soldiers.

“This isn’t going anywhere at all! No matter how many times I take them down, they get right back up. What should I do?” Spike thought.

Twilight and Rarity were almost exhausted from trying to keep Chrysalis at bay, which wasn’t working very well. She was much stronger than they thought.

Celestia had managed to collect just enough energy to make a telepathic connection to Twilight.

“Twilight Sparkle, do not be alarmed. I am speaking to you from my confinement. Please listen carefully to me. You must allow me to teleport you and the others to safety! Then you must stay low for a day or so before following the instructions I will give you.” Celestia said urgently. “You must collect the final spirit crystal if you hope to save Equestria from Chrysalis. I will use your magic to teleport you all to safety. Just clear your mind, my faithful student.”

Celestia began to draw some of Twilight’s magic.

“ I need you to focus on Hero, Spike and Rarity I will do the rest.”

“But Princess Celestia, what about you?”

“Don’t worry about me. I will be fine. Right now you must focus on the task at hand.” Celestia spoke in a calm voice.

“I…I understand Princess Celestia.” Twilight started focusing her magic.

Celestia then shouted out. “Listen to me Hero, Spike, Rarity and Twilight! You must defeat this threat at all cost. You must survive so you may save us all.”

And with that, Celestia’s horn glowed a vibrate pink and Hero, Spike, Rarity and Twilight vanished from the castle, leaving a confused and angry Blue Blood and Chrysalis behind.

“Please, you four must do your best, I know…you can do it.”” was her final thought before fading back into unconsciousness.

Hero and the gang had teleported out of Canterlot into a small and simple town close by called Ponyville.

“I can’t believe the situation is this bad!” Hero couldn’t help but feel angry for being unable to help.

“Twilight, did Princess Celestia give you any plan as to what we should do?” asked Rarity curiously.

“Yes, we must find the last spirit crystal and judging by this map, it will take a while to find all the pieces….”

“Pieces, meaning we have to put it back together?” asked Hero.

“Yes, the last time it was used it ended up getting split into three different pieces, and Celestia decided to give them to trustful individuals in three very different locations.” explained Twilight.

“So we better make sure we stock supplies and rest here then we will set out tomorrow morning.” Rarity stated.

“Sounds like a good idea.” said Spike.

“Let’s just hope we get the pieces together in time.” Twilight said worriedly.

“Alright guys we have a plan, so we should probably turn in early. Who knows what will await us tomorrow…” With that, everyone agreed and went to the nearest inn to get rooms and head to sleep, all of them praying they can handle what lies ahead.

Only Twilight had a long enough look into where they had to go first, making it clear why they have gone to Ponyville of all places. The Everfree Forest of all places, Twilight could only hope they could succeed for all of Equestria.

An Alchemist's Promise

Hero felt as though he was floating in a pool of water. It was completely silent as he drifted through the darkness. He slowly opened his eyes and tried to move. However something kept him from doing so.

As his eyes focused, he could see a small light slowly come into view. When it got close enough it began to speak in a feminine childlike voice.

“Hello, who are you?” asked the disembodied voice.

“Who am I? My name is Hero…” Hero wasn’t sure what was going on at this point, so he figured it would be easier to play along.

The voice giggled at his reply. “That’s a silly name. My name is……”Her voice faded out towards the end.

Hero wasn’t sure what to think of the voice or why he couldn’t hear its name so he decided to just ask another question.

“What are you doing here?” he asked

“Visiting you of course, you might be the one after all.” The voice spoke playfully.

“The one? What do mean?” asked Hero confused.

“Oh that’s easy you are…..And it is……” The voice kept fading in and out for Hero to completely understand.

“What was that? I didn’t hear you.” asked Hero.

“Oh no, I’m growing weaker! You have to help me recover my body! It’s……” her voice faded again.

“Huh help you how? Where are you?” asked Hero in a hurried tone.

“Oh I’m…..and then……go too…..”And just like that, the voice was gone.

Hero’s eyes shot open from a deep sleep. It was still dark in the room, with moonlight flooding the room from the balcony window. Hero was lying on the floor looking up at the ceiling. Twilight and Rarity had paid for the room so they had rights to the bed and that left Spike and Hero on the floor.

Spike would of helped pay but he left what bits he had at the castle. Hero turned to look at Spike who was on the other side sleeping soundly. Hero figured he should try to get some more sleep so he turned over and sighed to himself and closed his eyes.

But before he could get comfortable, he started hearing noises coming from the other side of the room. Listening closely he noted they sounded like sniffles being muffled. Hero slowly sat up slowly and looked around the room. As his eyes moved to the balcony, he saw Twilight standing there looking up at the stars.

Hero merely sighed to himself and slowly got to his feet and walked over to the balcony door.

Twilight had been out gazing at the stars for what seemed like hours, her eyes were slightly red from crying. Suddenly the door opened behind her, as she looked over her shoulder she saw Hero standing at the doorway.

“Oh it’s you.” said Twilight turning away and hurriedly wipe her tears.

“Couldn’t sleep, I see.” Hero said walking up next to Twilight.

“Not really, I’ve had a lot on my mind since yesterday.” Twilight continued to gaze at the stars.

“That’s understandable, want to talk about it?” Hero asked, offering to listen.

“I don’t know. I usually don’t like to bother everyone with my problems.” Twilight looked down at the ground.

“Well the way I see it is if you just bottle it up it will eventually just explode onto everyone eventually and with an even bigger mess.” Hero stated, arms crossed behind his head.

Twilight giggled slightly. “Your quotes are so terrible.” said Twilight making Hero frown a little.

“Well at least you are well enough to critique me.” Hero chuckled.

“I suppose… Ok, I’ll tell you what is bothering me.” Twilight sighed, giving up.

Hero leaned against the balcony rail, facing Twilight.

Twilight took a deep breath. “Well it really isn’t anything that you shouldn’t already know. Seeing all my friends and the Princesses defeated like that really swayed my resolve. It made me feel like I would have no chance to help those precious to me.

“And when Princess Celestia told me that we had this big mission in order to save Equestria itself, it just kind of overwhelmed me. I’m so used to my friends being there for me…. I am afraid I wouldn’t be able to handle it very well.”

“Twilight no matter what, you still have me, Spike and Rarity. And besides, I’m sure we’ll get the crystal before Equestria goes to hell anyway.” Hero said with a genuine smile on his face.

“It’s the Spirit Chrystal, but I guess we never completely explained them to you?” asked Twilight.

“No not really now that I think about it…” Hero thoughtfully stated.

“Well I guess I’ll start at the beginning then. In total, there are eight Spirit gems that harbor the eight eternal elements of Equestria. Fire, Water, Wind, Earth, Metal, Lightning and then there are the two elements that govern over the them which are Light and Dark which are used to define and construct the others.

“Wait, Dark? I can understand Light being Holy magic, so does that mean Dark is Chaotic magic?” asked Hero a little confused.

“Well yes Darkness governs Chaos and is often used for offensive magic like my fire spell or Spike’s lightning attacks are a form of dark magic used to attack and harm our enemies. However Light magic or is used to cure ailments or to make one stronger, you get the idea. That being said there are variations of all magic of course. It just depends on who wields it and what they do with it.

“For instance I use Dark magic to help others and gain knowledge of the arcane arts; however Blue Blood who dipped into forbidden magic and used Necromancy is an evil and dangerous practice that can ultimately destroy and rot his own body.”

“But then if magic is made up that way, then can’t we just win as we are?” Hero said managing to keep up.

“Sadly that isn’t the case, although as I said Holy comes from Light magic, it cannot be reached by normal means. Remember Princess Celestia could only use it once. It is very powerful but that means we need a median to help control such power and that’s where the other 6 spirits come in. They help channel the magic so that it doesn’t over power the user.”

“But how could Light magic harm anything?” Hero was confused.

“Well too much of anything is never good right? Even too much Light magic can harm or even kill its user if the vessel cannot contain it all.” said Twilight knowledgeably.

“I think I’m following along so far. So where are all these Spirit crystals?” Hero asked.

“Oh well I along with all our friends have them currently. I was chosen by the fire spirit actually.” Twilight stated.

“Is it because of that fiery temper of yours?” Hero stated chuckling out loud.

Twilight grumbled angrily then let it subside with a sigh. “Anyway, everyone else got chosen as well, besides Spike. Rarity has the Water Spirit gem, Rainbow Dash with Lightning, Applejack with Metal, Fluttershy with Earth, and Pinkie Pie, oddly enough, with Wind. That made Rainbow a little jealous until I explained Lightning represented her speed and ferocity. Then she went on and on saying how ‘Awesome’ it was to be the holder of the Lightning Spirit.

Hero laughed at that last part, made him think of his friend’s outgoing and pumped up attitude.

“And of course just like how the elements are connected to each other, so are the spirits. That’s how I found all my friends. That was the first time I even bothered dealing with friends actually.”

“Deal with friends? What do you mean?” asked Hero confused by Twilight’s words.

“Well I was a major book worm when I was younger and, besides books, I didn’t find anything interesting in others. Then I found magic and Princess Celestia saw my raw talent for it and took me under her wing. That is also how I met Spike as well. He was the Princesses’ assistant and Princess Celestia brought us closer. And that is how I and Spike became friends. Ah, but I think I got off topic there, sorry about that.”

Hero laughed. “Don’t worry about it. I’m just happy I can help ease your mind.” Hero smiling at Twilight.

Twilight smiled back. “Thank you, Hero it helped a lot. This talk I mean. Anyway, back to the topic at hand, after the elements there is a Chaotic Spirit gem as well as a Holy Spirit gem. The Chaotic spirit is as you saw in the mines is Discord, God of Chaos and Disharmony. Which is what I believe Chrysalis got ahold of and why she has become so powerful as well.”

“Ok, that makes sense. And that means we have to find these “shards” of the holy gem, put it back together and use it to stop Chrysalis?” Hero understood the basics by now.

“Yes, however it won’t be that easy anymore. All of our friends besides Rarity and Spike are captured and I’m not sure how we can free them.” said Twilight going back to a depressed state.

Hero noticed. “Come on Twilight. We will think of something when we get that far, right now we have to focus on getting those Spirit Chrystal shards before Chrysalis figures out where we are.”

“I know that but I am still not sure if we can. I wish Pinkie Pie was here to play one of her cheering up songs…” Twilight sighed to herself.

“Pinkie sings? I didn’t know that.” Hero stated.

“Well there is a reason she is all over the place, she is a Bard.” said Twilight plainly.

“A Bard, really? I’ve never seen her play before…” Hero was curious now.

“Well yeah she was really busy since you showed up, with parties and all that.” stated Twilight.

“Ah, ok then. So does that mean she has the ability to manipulate different songs to do different things, like cause something to fall asleep?” asked Hero.

“Yep, that would be correct. She is actually very gifted at it as well. She even managed to stay a manticore’s rage enough for Fluttershy to capture its heart.”

“Huh? Fluttershy got near a manticore? ...Sweet, timid Fluttershy?” Hero was dumbfounded.

Twilight giggled at Hero’s question. “I know, most people think that after they see Fluttershy. Although she is very shy, she is also very kind hearted and compassionate to animals. This is why she was able to become an Animal Tamer.” Twilight stated, proud of her timid friend.

“Fluttershy, an Animal Tamer. Wait, most Animal Tamers I see use whips to help dominate over the animals…” Hero then thought of an assertive Fluttershy with a whip, which also lead to a very perverted and scary image pop into Hero’s head. He quickly shook his head of such thoughts.

“No, Fluttershy would never use a whip, she doesn’t need one anyway. She wins them over with her big heart and they will do anything for her.” Twilight stated.

“Uh yeah …Anyway that’s interesting. And I already know Rainbow Dashes and Applejack's skills are…”

“I’m sure that was fun. You got them both to help you with your training, which is quite the achievement if you ask me.” Twilight said.

“Training, it felt more like punishment! I never thought I was going to die from training before. I mean Rainbow Dash being a Warrior and Applejack a Knight. That and their constant rivalry almost get me killed half the time!” Hero blurted out.

Twilight laughed at Hero’s outburst. “Well they just wanted you to succeed. And besides you have gotten strong doing so, or at least that’s what Spike tells me.”

“I guess that’s true, I suppose.” Hero modestly said.

“I just hope we have all grown enough to save our friends and the Princesses.” said Twilight.

“We will Twilight, I mean come on; we have the most powerful Mage in Equestria, a Dragoon, a Summoner, and a first class Fighter!” Hero stated pointing to himself at that last part and smiled widely.

Rarity and Spike had woken up and heard their conversation. They sat there and went over the situation in their heads. They also had their own worries about what to do. But after hearing Hero, they knew that there was no reason to worry and proceeded to try to fall back to sleep.

Twilight had a slightly shocked expression on her face. “How do you stay so calm and collected all the time?” Twilight asked curiously.

“Well I want to succeed so I have another chance to go to the hot spring with everyone again.” Hero stated with slight blush and a smile.

Twilight was confused at first until it dawned on her what he was obviously thinking about.

Twilight slightly blushed then looked at Hero angrily. “Hero I was being serious, you pervert!” Twilight hit him over the head causing a loud ‘Ouch!’ in response.

“Ok ok sheesh, I was kidding.” Hero stated rubbing the back of his head. “If you really want the truth Twilight, I may be just as worried if not more then you are. I’m just good at hiding it is all.”

“But then why do you hide it in the first place?” asked Twilight.

“Well if I also showed you my fear and anxiety it wouldn’t of helped you out at all, would it?” Hero nonchalantly pointed out.

“Ok I see what you are saying; you’re a great friend to have, Hero. Thank you. Please don’t worry too much.” Twilight smiled sweetly at Hero.

“I’ll try to and anytime you need me Twilight, I’ll be there.” Hero boasted.

“There is one thing I definitely want to do when this is all done and over with though.” Hero crossed his arms and looked up at the night sky.

“And that would be?” Twilight asked curiously.

“Find a cute girl to ask on a date of course!” Hero blurted out.

Twilight paused for a moment, looking at Hero with a dumbfounded face. “What girl would want to date a careless pervert who tried to spy on mares taking a bath!?” Twilight almost yelled.

“That was only one time! And I apologized for it at least!” exclaimed Hero.

“Doesn’t matter I don’t care!” Twilight fumed.

Hero paused for a moment then grinned evilly. “Oh I get it now, you’re jealous aren’t you?” Hero asked.

Twilight blushed “W-What are you talking about jealous!?”

“Well jealous because not many guys ask you out.” Hero said.

Twilights face was of a dumbfounded expression mixed with embarrassment. “I am not interested in such things so why would I bother?”

“Well I guess so, oh I know! Twilight, will you go on a date-” He was cut off by a swift punch in the face and an angry Twilight walking away.

“Goodnight Hero!” with that she crawled into bed.

“Ouch that hurts; she should learn to take a joke…ow…” Hero dragged himself into the room as well to get a few more hours of sleep.

The sun had risen in Ponyville, and all the residents have begun there normal day to day routine. All was well until one resident noticed that Canterlot had dark clouds slowly forming overhead and spreading out. Soon most of them were watching this as lightning started flickering out of the blackened clouds.

Hero was shaken awake by Rarity. As Hero sat up he noticed that it was darker than he would have figured.

“Hero! You must get up and look at Canterlot quickly.” Hero noted she seemed nervous.

Hero got up and made his way to the balcony where Twilight and Spike were standing in horror, with Rarity following behind him. As Hero walked outside he saw the dark clouds over Canterlot.

“What’s going on?” Hero asked no one in particular.

“I’m not sure… It’s hard to guess with Chrysalis now in control of Canterlot and all.” Spike said.

“We need to hurry! Everyone, let’s gather what provisions we need then meet at Town Square, alright?” Twilight spoke up.

“Alright, Spike and I will go and collect any food rations and water pouches for our trip.” Hero suggested.

“Very well, Twilight and I shall find whatever medical supplies and other items we may need.” said Rarity turning with Twilight and left the room. Spike and Hero just jumped down from the balcony, almost making an older woman faint.

About an hour or so past and everyone made it back to Town Square with their supplies. After splitting them up and giving everyone their own bag to carry, they decided to set off for the Everfree Forest.

As they approached, they all noticed just how dark and wild the Everfree seemed. Trees and shrubs had grown in different directions and the only pathway in was covered with overgrown weeds.

“Oh my, what a dark and dreary place this is. And I was hoping not to get my new dress and gloves dirty too.” Rarity complained.

“I told you before we left, not to buy that dress in the first place, didn’t I?” Twilight sighed annoyed.

“How could you expect me to not travel in a fabulous outfit like this? And besides it was such a darling dress I just simply could not pass it up.” Rarity retorted back.

“Well it doesn’t really matter; let’s just go get that shard piece before this place gets even creepier.” Spike spoke up.

“I agree, this place is always so dreadful.” Rarity chimed in.

They all took a deep breath and headed into the forest to make their way to what they hope will be an easy mission.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Several minutes had passed since they entered the Everfree Forest. Unfortunately for them, Hero stumbled into something that would be make them run for their lives.

“HERO IF WE DON’T DIE BY THAT THING, IM GOING TO KILL YOU MYSELF!” yelled a panicking but angry Twilight.

“I’M SORRY, IT LOOKED LIKE A STRAY CHICKEN WHEN I SAW IT, DON’T BLAME ME!” shouted Hero.

“Guys this isn’t the best time to be arguing. Just run as fast as you can!” Spike shouted, jumping over a stump.

“Whatever you do don’t look into its eyes!” Rarity said nearly tripping over some brush; luckily Spike caught her and continued to run beside her.

A loud hiss was heard behind them, along with the breaking of branches.

“Over there! I see a hollowed out tree!” shouted Hero.

Everyone ran over to it, ducking in and tried to remain as silent as possible. As it passed by the tree, it slowed down and scanned the immediate area. It decided to head off in a different direction, leaving the area. A few sighs of relief followed soon after.

“I wasn’t expecting to run into a Cockatrice this close to the edge of the forest!” whispered a breathless Spike.

“Hero, next time be more careful!” Twilight angrily whispered at Hero.

“Like I told you it looked like a chicken! And besides we got away from it, isn’t that be all that matters?” Hero stated.

“Well I don’t know? Are we going to run into a Hydra or a Manticore while we’re at it?” retorted Twilight.

“Trust me, you’ll be the first to know…”Hero mumbled to himself.

“Guys we need to get moving, the faster we find the ruins on the map, the faster we can get out of this place!” exclaimed Spike.

Twilight sighed to herself before looking back at the map. “Ok from here, we need to take a slightly alternative course thanks to a certain someone, so I suggest this route as it is the easiest.” said Twilight pointing at the map

“Look I’m sorry, but it wasn’t completely my fault.” Hero argued back.

Both Spike and Rarity yelled “SHUT UP!”, making Hero and Twilight go silent.

As they left the tree and headed through the new path, they noticed it was very quiet and still. It took then about another two and a half hours to get to the middle of the forest itself from where they were. Oddly enough there was a decent size clearing along with some ruins in various places.

They also noticed a small dome shaped structure as well with two doors closed shut behind a few pillars of stone. They decided it would be best to waste no time and head inside. As Hero and Spike pry open the old doors, the doors opened up into a small room with a stair case heading down into darkness. Twilight pulled out a small lamp and with Hero and Spike leading, headed down into the darkness. When they all got to the bottom of the stairs they noticed that it lead into a long hallway.

They continued down the hallway, where they were confronted with two more doors. Again Hero and Spike pushed them open and walked into a large room. A stone statue in the middle with two rows of light stands on each side, dimly lighting up the room. There were also doors on the other side of the room as well. The statue was of Princess Luna standing with her hands pressed against her heart with her head slightly arched downward.

“So these are the ruins.” Twilight said looking around.

“Kind of dull don’t you think?” Rarity stated.

“Well, what do you expect from ruins in the middle of a forest?” Hero stated also scanning the room.

“Well we should be looking for that shard of the Light Gem shouldn’t we?” Spike interrupted.

“Ok so we should split up and look around.” Hero said looking around the room.

All of a sudden the doors that they walked through slammed shut. When they spun around there was nothing but a bit of dust stirred up from the doors closing.

“Ok, that was kinda creepy.” Hero said placing a hand on his sword handle.

“Um yes quite, shall we not split up then?” Rarity said a hint of fear in her voice.

“Oh there is no need to panic at all. It’s me.” A figured said in in the darkness

“That voice, there is no way…” Spike said with a shocked expression on his face.

“That sounded like Fluttershy?” Twilight along with the others turned around and watched as the figure walked into the light.

“Hello my former friends, it is good to see you losers.” Fluttershy said coming into full view.

“F-Fluttershy…? What happened to you, and where are the others?” Twilight stuttered.

“Why should I bore you with the details when you’re all about to die?” Fluttershy spoke harshly.

“Kill us, but Fluttershy don’t you remember us, your friends?” Rarity said with a hurt expression.

“The only friend I need is her majesty Queen Chrysalis! You couldn’t even compare.” Fluttershy snaps her fingers, all of a sudden a very large Timberwolf walks out of the shadows on the opposite end of the room, eyes were glowing a green color and had drool coming from its mouth as it glared at Hero and the gang. As it walked closer it let out a low, deep growl that seemed to vibrate the very air around them.

Fluttershy laughed as it slowly inched closer to Hero and the others.

“I found it chained in one of the other rooms and I figured it would make a nice addition to my collection of servant’s. And as an added bonus, I’ll use it to end you all while I find the light shard before you. Kill them all right now!” Fluttershy smiled as the Timberwolf leaped at the others, almost taking Hero’s head off. It jumped back next to Fluttershy when Hero swung his sword towards it.

“Whoa! That was a little close for comfort.” Hero had a bead of sweat drip down his forehead.

“It is very fast for its size! How do we take it out?” Spike asked.

“Well we can always burn it. Most Timberwolves are very sensitive to fire!” Twilight stated.

“I’m on it! After we kill the wolf we need to make sure Fluttershy doesn’t get to that shard!” Hero enchanted his sword with flames that roared up; surrounding the blade with bright orange flames. Hero held the sword above his head before swinging it downward sending a large fire blast at the Timberwolf.

The flames roared on the Timberwolf, spreading all over the place. That made Fluttershy hold her arm in front of her face to protect herself.

But just when they thought it was over, a very angry Timberwolf sprung out of the flames and charged into Hero; slamming a paw into him. Hero managed to get his sword in front to block, however he was violently shoved back into the wall behind them. As he contacted with the wall he spat up a little blood and collapsed onto the ground gasping for air.

“Hero!” the other three shouted in unison as the Timberwolf roared at them.

Spike took a deep breath and jumped into the air above the Timberwolf. Spike then spun around in midair until his body was completely turned upside down. When Spike’s feet connected with the ceiling; he pushed off with tremendous force propelling him downward onto the Timberwolf; slamming his spear into the shoulder of the beast. The Wolf then howled in pain and shook violently to try to shake Spike off. Spike then chanted a spell; feeding lightning down his spear into the Timberwolf’s body.

The Timberwolf howled and all of a sudden threw its body sideways into a rolling maneuver to try to smash Spike into the floor. However Spike saw it coming and ripped his spear out and jumped off the Timberwolf’s back and skited across the floor a few feet away.

Twilight and Rarity ran over to check on Hero, who was slowly getting to his feet.

“Hero, are you ok?” asked Twilight with concern in her voice.

“Oh yeah, just fine; just got knocked around like a ragdoll, nothing new. Being thrown into a wall does wonders for your spine.” Hero said sarcastically.

Whatever concern she had for her friend was gone. “Yeah you’re just fine. Hurry we need your help!” Twilight stated.

“Yeah yeah, I’m on it!” Hero stood up and ran over next to Spike along with Twilight and Rarity.

“Well I’m done watching you pathetic losers struggle and I did not find what I was looking for here so I must go. With that said enjoy your demise!” Fluttershy began to turn and run out of the ruins.

“Damn, what do we do? We can’t just let her go and possibly find the light shard!” Hero stated watching Fluttershy make her way to the door.

Spike looked at Hero, then at Fluttershy. “Hero, you, Twilight and Rarity go after Fluttershy; I can handle this.”

“I’m not going to leave you here by yourself!” Hero stated with an approving nod from Rarity and Twilight

“It’s fine, just go we can’t let her get that shard, if we do; we lose!” Spike retorted back.

Hero, Twilight and Rarity looked at each other with worry. “Fine, I guess you’re right. Just don’t do anything stupid.” Hero and Twilight ran after Fluttershy.

“Rarity you too!” Spike ordered.

“I simply will not! Hero and Twilight will be more than efficient I’m sure, and besides I just can’t leave my Spikey-Wikey behind!” Rarity stood next to Spike proudly.

Spike blushed slightly at her comment. “I guess I can’t really say no to you, can I?” Spike smiled to himself.

As Hero and Twilight got close to the door, the Timberwolf charged them; causing them to stop and prepare to defend themselves. However just before the wolf got to them, a spear slammed into the ground making part of the floor crumble in between the Timberwolf and Hero; lightning licking the air around it.

“I don’t think so, you oversized dog! We are your opponents.” Spike stated, standing next to Rarity who was summoning a being of ice with a powerful will that could freeze even a continent.

Hero smiled and nodded to Twilight, signaling to go. “Be careful you two!” and with that Twilight and Hero ran through the doors and up the hallway to catch up to Fluttershy.

Hero and Twilight ran through the hall and as they got closer to the exit, they saw a light shining through. They ran passed the stairs and through the exit. They looked around but they couldn’t find Fluttershy.

“Oh no! Where did she go?” Twilight asked looking around franticly.

“I had a feeling that you fools would follow me.” Fluttershy moved out from behind a pillar.

“Fluttershy, why are you acting this way? What happened to you and the others?” Twilight pleaded.

Fluttershy gazed at Twilight with a look of resentment. “Nothing happened to me or the others; we just came to our senses. Her majesty Queen Chrysalis simply showed us the winning side and we chose it.”

“Twilight, it may be best not to pay her much mind. Somehow Chrysalis must of put them under a spell or something and is controlling their thoughts.” Hero stated trying to calm her down.

“I know that, but it still hurts hearing Fluttershy talk like this!” Twilight showcased a hurt expression.

“Why don’t you both shut up and pay attention to your surroundings?” Fluttershy laughed.

Hero and Twilight paused when they felt a rumble come from the ground. As they started looking around, the rumbling got louder and louder until it stopped suddenly. A shadow loomed over both Hero and Twilight; they looked up just as the creature roared and lunged at Twilight.

Twilight tried to react but wasn’t quite fast enough; luckily Hero had managed to get between Twilight and the beast; holding it back with his sword. Blood trickled down the sword from where the creature’s mouth was cut.

“You have got to be kidding me! Why is there a Hydra here of all places!?”Hero shouted over the Hydra’s deep grumbles.

“Fluttershy must have called it from the swamp while she was escaping!” Twilight exclaimed.

Fluttershy smirked, “Well of course I knew you would try to follow me, so I called one of my other pets to finish you. Now if you fools will excuse me, I will be going now.” Fluttershy then whistled; as a fully grown Manticore ran out of the woods and kneeled next to her.

Fluttershy jumped into the Manticore’s back and settled into the saddle that was strapped to it. Just before she left she looked over at Hero and Twilight; laughing as she rode off into the forest.

“Great, now we have to deal with this.” Hero said as the Hydra stepped back.

“Well the good news is she couldn’t find the light crystal shard, so we should be ok for now.” Twilight stated as she prepared herself.

The Hydra then swung its tail around, just barely missing Hero and Twilight; whom jumped out of the way. Hero stood up quickly as the Hydra charged again and attempted to bite Hero in half. However, it was held back again by Hero stabbing it in the jaw; causing it to roar out in pain. Hero then ripped his sword from the Hydra’s flesh and then slashed at its head.

The Hydra however, avoided it and bite at Hero again. He managed to use his sword to keep himself from being mauled. Hero noticed his shirt was hung on one of the Hydra’s teeth and tried pulling it loose to no avail. The Hydra threw its head up; flinging Hero into the air.

“Hero!” was all Twilight managed to say as she watched him get thrown through the air.

Hero let out a yelp and looked down just in time to see the Hydra open its mouth and swallow him whole.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Spike had managed to injure the wolf pretty badly after Hero and Twilight had left. It had blood dripping from its side and shoulder, were he had cut it using his spear. However, this made the beast much more ferocious. Spike was forced to use his enhancement spells to keep them from being damaged.

Rarity had managed to freeze one of the wolf’s legs to slow it down using the Wendigo’s power though it was still too fast for the icy breeze to catch it.

“Spike, if you can somehow keep it from moving I will be able to freeze it completely!” Rarity stated to Spike.

“I’ll try my best, just be ready as soon as I stun it!” Spike twirled his spear around over his head before slamming it down into the ground. Spike began chanting a spell and with a burst of electricity; he dashed forward at the wolf that was staring him down. Spike threw his spear at the wolf, causing it to jump in the air from surprise. This was exactly Spike was hoping for.

With a strong push off the ground, Spike leapt through the air and placed his feet on the ceiling above the now vulnerable wolf that was suspended in the air. Spike then pushed off with great strength and spun around just in time to deliver a devastating kick to the Timberwolf’s throat. He then jumped off the wolf and grabbing his spear that was embedded into the wall; lunged for the wolf again and thrusted his spear into the chest of the wolf.

The wolf let out a blood curdling howl of pain. It violently thrashed around trying to get the spear away from itself.

Without missing a beat, Rarity ordered the Wendigo to charge the wolf and freeze it completely. As its icy breath reached the wolf, Spike pulled his spear free and jumped back, away from the wolf.

In one final effort, the Timberwolf slowly staggered to its feet and looked over at Spike as the ice formed over its body, and then finally freezing it completely solid.

Letting out a sigh of relief; Spike walked up to Rarity who had dismissed the Wendigo back to the Realm of Summons.

“Well, I am glad that is over and done with; Wendigo’s are very hard to control properly and can drain magic fast. The Wendigo would have frozen us all if we did not end the fight quick enough.” Rarity stated walking up to Spike.

“Are you alright, Spike? You are not hurt anywhere, are you?” Rarity asked handing him a rag from her small bag.

“No, I’m fine thank you.” Spike took the rag and wiped the blood that was on his face off.

“We need to hurry and go find Hero and Twilight.” Spike said putting the rag into one of his pockets.

Rarity and Spike started heading for the door when Rarity stopped suddenly and turned her head towards the frozen statue of the Timberwolf.

“Spike, did you hear that?” Rarity asked Spike as slowly walked over to the statue.

“Huh? No I didn’t hear anything. What’s going on?” Spike followed close behind.

As they got closer the voice echoed through both their heads.

“Warriors who seek the power of the light, hear me. The voice said.

“I think it is the Timberwolf, but they cannot talk…Right?” Spike asked.

“I am not simply a wolf, you at times call me…a homunculus.” the wolf stated.

“What? But you look nothing like one.” Rarity pointed out.

“A homunculus is merely the reproduction of a human or beings inner thoughts and ideals that have spawned from using another’s life. In my case, My “Master” used her own life to create me.”

“That would state that this “Master” of which you speak of was an Alchemist correct?” Rarity asked the wolf.

“Yes, an Alchemist. A being that uses different minerals and objects to create something else of high value, such as turning lead into gold for selfishness and greed as well as bringing the dead back to life. However My Master was different, as she used her skills to help cure and heal those in need and was very skilled in her art. Celestia chose My Master to protect a piece of what you desire.”

“A shard of the light crystal you mean?” Spike spoke up.

“That is correct. However, My Master was stricken with a devastating disease and not even Alchemy could cure. Thus knowing her fate, she decided that to help keep her promise, My Master created me using her own life force and chained me to a room and placed the shard into my body. Although I am her homunculus and bound to her will, I did not want to just stay here and wait. I detested what My Master did to me, so I became animalistic by nature. And when that young mare came and offered to free me; I took it. However, I was used by her to cause harm.”

“That is understandable, that would cause anyone great stress. But what does this have to do with what we seek?” Rarity asked the homunculus.

The homunculus did not speak for a moment as it pondered its own thoughts.

“Young mare, you are a Summoner correct? To apologize for my transgression I can grant you my spirit to do as you wish. In return, I request of you to allow me to come with you and be free from this place. Please, I want to see if there is a place for me in the Realm of Summons. ”

Rarity though for a moment before replying to the pleading wolf “I will do as you ask. I humbly ask for your future services to aid me when I see fit.” Rarity placed a hand on the glass as the homunculus began to glow and as it became smaller and smaller the ice around it began to crack and shatter around it. The light became bright enough the shielded their eyes from its intensity. It soon became a sphere and dissipated into the air.

“Hey Rarity, look at that by your feet!” Spike said pointing to the object.

Looking down Rarity could only smile as she leaned over to pick up the object and held it in her hand.

“I cannot believe it! It is the first piece of the Light Crystal!” Rarity squealed in delight.

When all seemed fine however, they both heard a scream off in the distance.

Looking at the door Both Spike and Rarity paused for a brief moment.

“That sounded like Twilight!” Rarity gripped onto the shard as she looked at Spike who nodded at her. They both ran to the exit hoping that the worst has not happened.

As Spike and Rarity made it to the exit they saw an adult Hydra looming over Twilight and Hero was nowhere to be found. They both raced over to Twilight as fast as they could.

As they reached her, they took noticed that the Hydra was swallowing something. They look over at Twilight who was just standing there, frozen in place staring at the hydra. It leaned forward with drool slowly dripping from its mouth.

“Don’t tell me that…That thing ate Hero?” Spike slowly mouthed.

“Y-yes.” was all Twilight could say as the Hydra leaned in further and opened its mouth wide.

Suddenly the Hydra withdrew its head and started making an odd coughing sound, followed by it thrashing its head from side to side. The Hydra started staggering around and thrashing its head as it started writhing in pain as it tried desperately to hack something up from its throat.

They all watched as a part of the Hydra’s throat expanded about half-way down. Suddenly, something pierced through the Hydras neck; as a mixture of blood and saliva poured from the hole the object began making a circle around its neck. As the Hydra made one last bellow from shear pain, collapsed; as its head fell off onto the ground separate from its body; a pool of blood and other liquids quickly filling the immediate area.

Spike, Twilight and Rarity got closer to the now dead Hydra laid out in front of them. As they leaned in an arm shot out of the neck of the Hydra; causing Spike to jump back a bit, as Twilight and Rarity screamed and fell backwards. They stared as a sword slowly slid out and fell onto the ground and another arm came out of the hole and pulled a weary and breathless Hero falling to the ground. As he slowly stood up and looked around, he noticed everyone shocked expressions on their face.

“We… NEVER talk about this….Ever.” Hero picked up his sword and ran it through the strap on his back then walk out of the puddle of blood.

Twilight was the first to speak “Are you alright, Hero?”

“I was eaten by a Hydra, so not really. Ugh, I need a bath.” Hero stated trying to wipe off some of the Blood and whatever else was on his face.

“Well at least you are alive, right? Even though you smell really bad.” Spike stated covering his snout and trying not to laugh.

“You try being swallowed then coming out smelling like roses!” Hero said irritated.

“Hey come on now, everything is fine now, we even managed to get our hands on the light crystal shard, see?” Rarity held out the shard for them all to look at.

“This is great! We’ll be able to make great time to the next place now. Of course we need to make another trip back into town. To rest and get Hero clean and not smelling like digested food.” Twilight giggled while staying back.

“Will you guys stop with that already!?” Hero whined.

“Hero, you walk behind us so we are not downwind from you.” Spike laughed.

Hero just face palmed “By the way Twilight, I thought Hydras had multiple heads; not just one?”

“O well this is a young adult, they typically don’t grow other heads until a few years after adulthood; one every five or so years I believe.” Twilight stated.

“Well I guess we are lucky then, huh?” Hero asked wiping more of the drying liquid off of him.

“There is a bigger problem though, how did Fluttershy know we were here?” Rarity spoke up.

“Something tells me it well Chrysalis that told her, which I think it, is safe to bet she knows that we are looking for the Light Crystal Shards and she wants to stop us. If fact, we probably should assume she knows where the others are as well.” Twilight said in a serious tone.

“Which means we have to get to the second shard as soon as we possibly can, right?” Spike asked.

“Looks like it, I just hope we stay clear of any trouble along the way…” Hero said.

“Well we could always let your stench ward away any trouble we find?” Spike stated with a smirk on his face.

“Spike, don’t make me hit you…” Hero spoke in a threatening tone.

“Come on, you two. Let’s get back to town, I’m tired.” Twilight stated as they all left for Ponyville with Hero following in the back.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Elsewhere in Equestria, two figures were sitting in a small room filled with books, drinking tea as they discussed certain matters.

“So it is agreed then? The one is coming to take the sacred Light Crystal shard and destroy your city. Alamontyr must be stopped at all cost correct?” A tall pure white figure said to the other.

“Yes Princess Celestia, I understand your request and I will stop these evil beings at all cost. I will not allow them to take the shard of sacred light from us.” The other figure stated.

“Excellent, I am sorry to make you handle this, but I have other pressing matters to deal with. You understand I am sure.” Princess Celestia said standing up to leave the room.

“Yes of course, I wish not to keep you for more than needed. I shall bid you a due, Your Majesty.” The other figure said in a deep calm voice as he bowed to the Princess.

As Celestia walked away an evil, toothy grin spread slowly across her face. She shut the door behind her and left the building.