Xander sat down at his designated chair at the table and waited patiently for the food to be served. As he waited he heard the door open and close behind him. His head turned slowly to see Equestria's night-time princess, Luna.

The human stared at Luna for a few seconds. 'Hot, hot, hot, hot, hot, hot, hot, hot, hot, hot, hot, hot, hot,' echoed in his mind, causing him to remember a brown-haired man in a green shirt labeled "Tobuscus." Xander then jerked his head away. 'NO! She's a pony, and you're a human. This isn't right!' he shouted to himself. He turned his head to Princess Celestia and asked her "Who might that be?"

"Oh, her?" she questioned. "That's my sister, Princess Luna."

As Luna passed by she looked at the human. "Looks like our guest is feeling a bit better," she stated.

"It appears so," Celestia chuckled. "His wound is not quite healed yet, however."

"I see," she said. "Why did he not remain in the infirmary?"

"I'm not going to get better by just sitting around," Xander replied. "I need to move about."

"We have not been properly introduced, have we?" Luna asked. "I am Princess Luna, the lord of the night here in Equestria."

"What is that... thing!?" somepony shouted from the other side of the room. Luna let out a deep sigh before Xander looked toward the direction of the voice and saw Prince Blueblood standing there on the opposite side of the room. "Guards, get that vile creature out of here!"

Two guards, who obviously did not have the situation explained to them earlier, ran into the room and made an attempt to tackle Xander. In one swift motion however, the human fell back in his chair, causing him to roll over onto his feet and the guards to jump over him completely, and grabbed the chair like a weapon.

"Halt, all of you!" Princess Celestia demanded. Still facing away from the table, Xander swirled the chair and placed it down behind him. "This human is our guest and is to be treated as you would any other pony I invite into the castle."

"But auntie..." Blueblood started.

"No buts," Celestia stated, which caused Blueblood to pout. "I'm sorry, Xander. That was my nephew, Prince Blueblood. He is a bit rude at times."

'No question,' Xander said to himself. "It's no problem," he said to Celestia.

"I doubt he'll be any trouble for you if he gets to much on your nerves," Luna laughed.

"Pardon?" Xander questioned.

"You must be rather strong to have walked three miles after being run through," Luna replied. "If you can stand up to that, you could probably stand up to Blueblood and a few guards in a fight."

"Luna!" Celestia snapped. "That is not something we discuss at breakfast."

"Three miles..." Xander echoed. "How'd you know?"

"I had my Night Guards see how far the trail of blood you had left goes," she replied. "That is about the distance."

"I see..." Xander said, seeming kind of spacey. "Um... anyways, why we get to eating? I'm starving."

After breakfast, Xander began to wander around the castle. After a few minutes he stumbled across a room filled with guards who appeared to be sparring each other with assorted weapons. The human slowly entered the room.

"Hey, you're that human from yesterday," one guard called. Unlike the two he met the other day, however, this one was a unicorn wearing purple armor. "You feeling better?"

"Um... yeah, a bit," Xander replied, sceptical. "Where am I?"

"This is the Royal Guard Training Hall," the unicorn said. "Here is where I raise my finest troops... Oh, by the way, I'm Prince Shining Armor. I'm the captain of the unicorn division of the Royal Guards."

"I'm Xander," Xander said. "Are all captains called 'Prince' or just you?"

"Just me," he said. "I'm married to Princess Cadence, Celestia's niece. We actually rule over a different kingdom as of Celestia's request, but we visit every once in a while."

"Neato," Xander said. "Y'know, I may be a bit hurt but I'm pretty sure I could whoop you in a fight."

"Oh really?" Shining Armor asked. "Why don't you step into the sparring arena with me, then?"

"Don't need to ask me twice," Xander laughed as he jumped off of the safety rail into the last available arena. "What weapons we got to pick from?"

"Spears, swords, shields, staffs, axes, etc." Shining Armor answered as he stepped over to the weapon shelf.

"Toss me a sword," Xander shouted. He caught the sword Shining Armor tossed to him. Shining Armor walked into the arena unarmed. "You sure you want to do that?"

"Trust me, nopony is stronger than my magic... except the princesses," Shining Armor laughed.

Xander acted like he was sheathing his sword (only acting since there was no sheath) and charged toward Shining Armor. He swung his sword out of his imaginary sheath, but Armor's magic conjured a force field to deflect the attack. "I told you, nopony rival's my magic."

Xander chuckled for a second. "Yeah, maybe no PONY," he said. "But I'm NO pony. I'm a human." He pivoted sideways, his head still looking at Shining Armor, and extended his arm with his hand in the air. "Destruction of nature, gather in flame..." he chanted. "FIRE!" Out of his hand blasted a large stream of flames that pelted Armor's force field, causing it to crack intensely. By the time the flame died out, the shield was on the verge of breaking. At that point, Xander struck the shield with his sword once more causing it to shatter. He pointed his training sword at Shining Armor. "I win," he laughed.

Shining Armor was astounded. He stood there staring for a few seconds before he finally spoke again. "H-how did you do that?"

"Magic," Xander chuckled.

"Can you teach me how to do that?" the confused unicorn asked.

"Not a chance," he smiled. "I have a very low reserve of mana and humans need moonlight for it to recharge. However, on full moons we don't run out of mana. It's an interesting, yet confusing, concept." Xander turned to leave the room. "Well, I've got places to be. Ciao!"

'Good GOD, I'm bored,' Xander thought to himself. 'I wonder if there's anything going on around here.' "Oy, guard!" he called to a random guard. "This place have a bulletin board or something?"

"Yes, just outside the castle," he replied.

"Thank you kindly," Xander replied before heading off. Upon arrival, he noticed a post on it that was written on a gold piece of paper that read:

GRAND GALLOPING GALA

June 13th

All ponies must have golden ticket to attend.

"You raised my hopes and dashed them quite expertly," he said to himself. "Bravo!" He started to chuckle when he remembered a robot called Tinny Tim off of a cartoon he used to watch. 'Hold on... maybe I can talk to Sally about it.'

Princess Celestia was merely sitting in her throne, attending her standard royal duties when she heard a knock on the throne room door. "Guards, open the door," she called to the two by the door. The door opened to reveal Xander, but he was not wearing his leather jacket. Instead he was wearing a denim blue one and his hair appeared to be cut rather short. "Hello, Xander. What brings you..." but before she could finish she saw both of the guards fall over, their sides bleeding. Xander was holding a small wakizashi rather than his large sword. Celestia's face turned to a look of sheer horror.

"I have come to usurp your throne," he said calmly. Xander laughed as he slowly stepped toward her.