Shirou looked around with some confusion trying to understand his new environment. He recalled the words spoken as the light had engulfed him, they brought back memories of his lessons with Rin. Specifically her lectures on the Grail War, if he remembered correctly those words sounded a lot like the chant to summon a Servant. Those thoughts ran through his head as he assessed his surroundings, noting the shelves full of books and weird horse themed decor, as well as the large window that made up most of one of the walls. Aside from the two small beings before him he sensed no one else and definitely not any threats. Feeling that whoever summoned at least wasn't in any danger he decided to introduce himself using the same phrase his Servant Saber had once spoken to him.
"I ask of thee, are thou my Master?"
He was treated to an amusing series of emotions as the small horse before him went from surprised, to apprehensive, and finally settling on excitement at the results of the summoning.
"It worked! Oh sweet Celestia it actually worked! This is simply astounding! I have never seen a being like you, what's your name and what is your species called?!" Twilight became a spitfire of questions as she processed her success and tried to sate her curiosity. She had never expected to summon such an odd looking being, but now that she had, there was no way she was gonna miss an opportunity to learn about them and their kind. "Oh, I'm sorry I should probably calm down a bit, it's just so exciting to meet somepony from a species not yet known in Equestria. So uh… what exactly are you?" Twilight cringed a bit realizing how boisterous she'd been for her first impression. She did notice that instead of laughing at her the being only smiled wryly before answering.
"I'm the Servant you have summoned, I am an Arc-huh? That's strange, I wasn't expecting to be summoned as a Saber." Shirou's confusion was brief as he considered he would qualify for the Saber class, though EMIYA proved Archer was a better fit. "I am a Servant of the Saber class, and you have summoned me, although I don't sense the presence of anything like the Holy Grail around, how strange. As for what my species is, I'm a human and my name is Emiya Shirou, although you can just call me Shirou." Normally being from a Japanese culture, allowing a stranger to call you by your given name would be far too familiar. But Shirou had gotten used to living amongst westerners in his time at the Clocktower and he still felt at odds with the name Emiya after his run-ins with Archer, even if it was their dad's family name.
"Servant? Saber? Holy Grail? Oh no, I forgot to introduce myself!" Each word only added to the thousands of questions running through Twilight's mind, but she had to amend her lack of manners. "My name is Twilight Sparkle and I'm a student of Princess Celestia. I'm sorry that I forgot my manners in my excitement."
Her introduction was followed by the noise of somepony clearing their throat making her realize she'd forgotten about the third individual in the room. "Oh, and this is my most trusted and reliable assistant Spike!"
"Hi!" Spike waved at Shirou as he made his way to stand by Twilight having recovered from the buffeting winds of the summoning ritual. "I help Twilight with her studies and have been by her side ever since she hatched me from my egg."
Realization dawned on Shirou as he connected the small being to one of the strongest Phantasmal Species ever known. Spike truly resembled a small dragon, even the magical scent he picked up was similar to Saber's own dragon core. His small stature must be due to his young age, but considering his species he'd probably grow grand and powerful long after Shirou's lifetime.
"My master must truly be talented to have a young dragon as a faithful companion." Shirou couldn't help but smile as Twilight beamed at his compliment.
"Ah, I still have plenty of questions and I'm sure you have some of your own so how about we each take turns asking and answering?" proposed Twilight finally regaining her bearings.
"That sounds like a solid plan, Master. How about you begin considering you are my Master after all."
"In that case, why do you call me Master, it's weird!"
"Normally a Master would be a magus who has performed a Servant Summoning through the use of a catalyst such as the Holy Grail. Said magus would then form a contract with the Heroic Spirit summoned to be their Servant. A Master is in charge of ensuring their Servant has enough mana to perform optimally in combat and provides as much information on enemy Master and Servant pairs as possible. Although the Master can tell a Servant what to do, it's up to the Servant to follow through, thus the command seals now located on your, erm hoof, come into play. You are given 3 command seals that are absolute orders a Servant will be compelled to follow irregardless of their own will. The more specific the command the stronger the compulsion of the seal, commands that are too broad will fail to elicit a major response though. Another purpose for the command seals is to allow a Servant to use their Noble Phantasm at full strength or even more, as well as allowing a Servant to teleport to the location of their Master. I know it's a lot to take in but I hope this is a good enough summary, Master." Shirou had to make an effort to recall as much from Rin's lectures on Masters and Servants as he feared he may have missed a few details.
"Incredible, but this just adds more questions," Twilight responded while analyzing the command seals located on her right hoof, "I can't say I agree with the idea of bending another pony's will though so I don't think I'll ever want to use them like that on you Shirou. Well it is your turn now Shirou, and please just call me Twilight. It's really odd having you call me Master all the time."
"Certainly Twilight, for starters where exactly am I? You mentioned Equestria, but I've never heard of such a place, and to be honest I've never known of a Phantasmal Species that resembles a small unicorn."
"Well you are currently inside the Canterlot Library located within the city of Canterlot. This is the capital city of the kingdom of Equestria. And I am a unicorn, I might not be the tallest unicorn but I don't recall any ponies much larger aside from the Princess."
"Huh, where I'm from we had Phantasmal Species called Unicorns, but they were quite larger than myself. Must be a difference in worlds, unfortunately I was never very good at understanding things like parallel worlds." He had earnestly tried once Rin became a student of the Wizard Marshall Zelretch, but eventually he felt aiding Enforcers was a better use of his time.
"How interesting," mulled Twilight as she considered that Shirou might be from a completely different world, one without Unicorns and possibly Ponies, "oh it's my turn to ask a question. How about you explain what a Servant is, you mentioned something about Heroic Spirits?"
"A Servant is usually a Heroic Spirit who has been placed into a container which is the class of the Servant summoned, in my case it would be the Saber class. As for Heroic Spirits, they are beings of myths who have ascended to the Throne of Heroes through the power of their legends. This does bring me to an important point, I don't understand how you managed to summon me at all. I was near death, but aside from my now healed wounds I feel just like any other mortal being. Plus I don't believe my actions were ever enough to reach the Throne of Heroes. The connection between us as Master and Servant and knowing my own class are all that prove to me that I am a Servant. I do need to ask, do you know what empowered the ritual you used? As I stated previously the role is usually fulfilled by a Holy Grail, yet for the abundance of mana in the air I haven't sensed anything like a Grail at all."
"Well I used the spell written on this ancient page Spike found," answered Twilight as she levitated said page towards Shirou. "I don't know of any Holy Grails, and I can't quite say what did the heavy lifting as you put it since all I did was perform the ritual as instructed and it just worked."
Shirou carefully read the page while also considering the repercussions of being summoned by what seemed to be a Phantasmal with the sheer magical presence Twilight had. The page certainly listed the requirements for summoning a servant yet made no mention of a Grail. "I guess the specifics of this event simply lie beyond us. All that matters is that you have summoned me and thus I am bound to aid you as your Servant. You mentioned being a Unicorn, but also that Princess Celestia isn't quite the same as other Unicorns. Can you clarify what kind of people live in Equestria?"
"I assume you don't have Ponies in your world as we do. To start, Equestria is inhabited by various species such as Griffons and Minotaurs, but as you can tell I'm a Pony. We Ponies are made up of 3 subspecies, the Unicorns, Pegasi, and Earth Ponies." Shirou took a moment to process the fact that even more Phantasmals were present, had he not known better he might've thought he was in the reverse side of the world or even in the Age of the Gods. "Unicorns have horns like mine that allow us to use magic, Pegasi have wings and can control the weather, and Earth Ponies are the strongest and have a strong connection with the earth. As for the Princess, she's an Alicorn, and as such she has all the boons of each kind of Pony and is larger overall."
"This world is truly beyond anything I could've imagined considering back on Earth Phantasmals have not been seen in ages." Shirou couldn't help but think of how much a normal Magus would've been willing to give up to have access to so many magical beings.
"Oh, that reminds me! The reason I summoned you was out of part curiosity and part desperation. See there's this prophecy that has me worried, but there were no clear answers and no one would take it seriously when I told them, and ah! It's just so frustrating! I really need your help Shirou!"
"Hmmm, while I don't know the specifics I am more than willing to aid you Twilight as you seem to be someone well-intentioned." It honestly baffled Shirou a bit how open and honest Twilight had been so far to someone who should be alien to her. Especially considering how most Magi would've seen her as research material before another sentient being. Perhaps he had spent far too long in that den of snakes known as the Clocktower.
"Oh thank you Shirou! So you see, there's this prophecy that states that on the longest day of the thousandth year the monster known as the Mare on the Moon, Nightmare Moon will escape her prison and will try to bring about an eternal night!" Twilight felt herself getting a bit caught up in her relief at having someone finally take the prophecy seriously. "It just so happens that tomorrow night is when the prophecy is said to take place. Yet no one has made any mention of this event and are going about as if it were another normal Summer Sun Celebration."
"That is certainly troubling, do you know anything else about this Nightmare Moon and the threat she poses?" Shirou began considering any blades within his Unlimited Blade Works that may help against a being related to the Moon.
"Aside from the prophecy I haven't found anything more than the possibility that Nightmare Moon might be Princess Celestia's long lost sister. And that the only way she was defeated was with something called the Elements of Harmony."
"Wait, you mentioned that Princess Celestia is the current Princess, are you saying she's over a thousand years old?" Shirou was bewildered, sure she must be a powerful Phantasmal but to be over a thousand years old was still an impressive feat.
"Well yeah, Princess Celestia has ruled over Equestria for over a thousand years, she is an Alicorn after all." Twilight winced as she realized Shirou might not have a deep understanding of Alicorns even if he mentioned knowing about Unicorns. "Sorry, I kinda forgot you aren't from around here. To clarify, an Alicorn is practically immortal from what we know since the Princess has been around for so long without having aged at all since ascending to the throne."
This gave Shirou pause as he considered how strange it was that a city called Canterlot of all things was also the home of an immortal ruler. He wondered if perhaps this was Fate's way of messing with him as he immediately thought of his Servant from the Fifth Holy Grail war, Artoria Pendragon the Once and Future King, his Saber.
"To have lived so long must mean Princess Celestia is quite powerful, have you considered asking her for help?" Shirou thought if anyone had an answer to Twilight's issue it had to be someone like Celestia.
"Yes, but all she tells me is that I should learn to enjoy my break and use this time to get to know other ponies better. I get that she wants the best for me but I simply can't rest with such a danger looming over us!"
Shirou tried his best to placate Twilight as she seemed to lose herself to her stress yet again, "well I will do my best to prevent the danger of Nightmare Moon from coming to pass."
"Thanks again Shirou, and I'm sorry for my outburst, it's just all so stressful." As Twilight breathed a sigh of relief she realized her assistant had been awfully quiet the whole exchange. Looking towards Spike she realized the poor dragon had fallen asleep, slumped over the floor. "Oh my, it seems Spike needs to be taken to bed, I did forget it was already quite late. Um, I supposed you will be accompanying us back to our place?"
"I don't mean to intrude but as your Servant I can't be too far from you in case of threats. Plus I can help out by carrying Spike for you, it's the least I can do after all." Shirou smiled at the fact that his first task as Servant was to simply carry a baby dragon home. It was a nice change of pace from his Enforcer work and what he usually saw Servants doing in the Grail War.
"Thanks! I'd really appreciate it, especially since I still have to carry the rest of the books we found earlier today." Twilight gathered her stuff while Shirou carefully lifted Spike, cradling him so as to not disturb his slumber. It was strange to Twilight that anypony wouldn't feel safe within Canterlot, but she just chalked it up to Shirou being nervous in a new environment. "Just follow me and I'll see if I can get something set up for you to sleep on. Considering your size a normal bed might just not work."
-{/}-
As Twilight and Shirou made their way to Twilight's dorm, Shirou couldn't help but look around in slight wonder at the colorful buildings and general atmosphere of Canterlot. Sure it wasn't as advanced as the cities back on Earth, but everything seemed so carefully constructed and the overall design was quite regal showing its status as the capital of Equestria. Yet it was oddly cute due to the buildings being pony sized, so for as regal as it looked it also had an adorable feel about it.
"So Shirou, I kinda got caught up asking about specifics and didn't really get to ask you about yourself. I was wondering if you have any hobbies or how it was back where you're from." Twilight figured if Shirou was gonna stick around for a while then she'd like to know him a bit better. Sure she didn't have much in the way of friends, but all she needed was Spike, Princess Celestia, and her studies to be content.
"Well I don't have much in the way of hobbies, but I do enjoy cooking as it lets me relax. As for back home, well it was quite different from what I've seen so far." Shirou's eyes wandered around noting the abundance of magical energy sources all around. "On Earth mana is not so prolific, so the idea of mysteries such as magecraft are hidden from the general public. During the ancient Age of the Gods, mana flowed in vast quantities. Now though, the Age of Mankind is dominated by technological advancements and as such Magecraft is only practiced by a miniscule part of the population."
"Wow, I could never imagine Equestria without magic. Sure not everypony can use it, but it has allowed us to accomplish so much from powering devices through magic gems and performing feats a pony would normally be unable to do." Twilight shivered at the thought of all her studies amounting to nothing if magic were to disappear from Equestria.
"I will admit it's taking some time for me to grow accustomed to all the mana in the air." Shirou's nose had also been overwhelmed by the abundance of magical scents originating throughout the city. He did find Twilight's own magical scent helpful due to its more overpowering feel. He attributed it to her own large magical reserves and abilities.
"Aside from cooking, is there anything else you could tell me about yourself?" While she found talk of Earth very intriguing she did want to know Shirou better.
"Well I'm a magus, third-rate at best mind you, which means I use my magical circuits to perform magecraft. Although my condition only allows me access to magecraft related to swords, it kinda specialized me to just that." Shirou had considered revealing his Reality Marble to Twilight, but he felt that was a subject saved for when there was more time. He had a hunch Twilight's barrage of questions would return with a vengeance if she were to find out about it.
"Not to be rude Shirou but I wanted to know more about you as an individual." Twilight was starting to wonder if Shirou kept avoiding talking about himself in greater detail on purpose.
"Oh, there isn't much to say. I was orphaned by a fire in my hometown and can't remember much before that if anything at all. My adoptive dad raised me on his own, but he soon passed away a few years after adopting me. I did have an older sister who was my dad's biological daughter, although I didn't meet her until way later. My dad did mention her to me once, and I was quite glad to have met her no matter how brief our time together was." As Shirou spoke more about his past, Twilight grew concerned at the amount of hardship Shirou had undergone. To lose his parents when still a colt and then lose the person who adopted him not long after must've been devastating. Though Twilight wasn't all that used to comforting others, she did her best by getting closer to Shirou to try and comfort him.
"Shirou, are you okay?" It was then that Shirou realized how close Twilight had gotten and was surprised, he wasn't sure why she had such a thoroughly concerned look on her face.
"Yeah, why do you ask?"
"Well you looked somber Shirou, and I can't imagine recounting the loss of your family being anything less than saddening."
Shirou was unsure of how to respond to that, he had grown used to people simply not looking into the problems from his past all that much. Usually they'd apologize for his loss, though he always felt if anyone should be sorry it should be him for having failed to save those caught in the fire. Others had seen far worse and didn't dwell on past experiences when the now was more important to them.
"It's fine Twilight, while I miss my dad and sister I honestly can't recall my parents enough to miss them." His attempts to reassure Twilight only made her more worried.
"Shirou how can you say you're fine when you can't even recall your own parents?!"
"I simply don't dwell on it, no use grieving when I can't remember, especially after all this time. Anything before the fire doesn't matter all that much to me if I have no memories."
While Twilight was still trying to process Shirou's callous attitude on such a traumatic incident, she thought she may need help to truly get through to Shirou. He may not appear to care for his own mental health, but she couldn't allow another pony to suffer like this. And she was certain he was suffering, why else would he look so sad, it was almost like his own body knew how hurt he was far better than he did.
"Twilight are you alright? You stopped in front of what I assume is your dorm or at least the steps up to it, but you've just been spacing out," remarked Shirou as he looked at her with concern. While he wasn't well versed in equine nor Phantasmal anatomy he was sure it wasn't natural for them to space out for so long.
"Huh, oh, yeah sorry about that Shirou. This is indeed my dorm, just gotta climb all these steps, you sure you're fine carrying Spike all the way?"
"Of course Twilight, he's quite light and I'm used to far more tiring work than carrying a small dragon up a few stairs." Shirou smiled at her, yet Twilight noticed that much like his previous smiles it didn't quite reach his eyes.
As they proceeded up the stairs to her dorm, Twilight began considering how she was gonna handle Shirou's problem. She knew she still had to put a stop to Nightmare Moon's return, but Shirou was really concerning her. Hopefully Princess Celestia would have some better insight on both these issues.
Opening the door to her door Twilight proceeded to invite Shirou in, "here we are, my home away from home. The dorm I was given as Princess Celestia's student and where Spike and I spend most of our time." Shirou made his way inside, noting the proximity of her dorm to the large castle, which he assumed was the residence of Princess Celestia.
"This is quite the dorm, I can see that being a direct pupil to the Princess has its perks." As Shirou looked around he was quite astounded by the furnishings due to their quality and number. Even in the clocktower this dorm would be rather high end. "Now where can I place your sleeping assistant so he can get more comfortable?"
"Ah, follow me, his bed is over here," Twilight replied as she showed Shirou Spike's small bed located near her own on the first floor.
With Spike sleeping in his bed, Twilight proceeded to lead Shirou upstairs to put away the books she had brought along. She also planned to have this floor serve as Shirou's temporary sleeping area.
Shirou looked around noticing the various brimming bookshelves and the curious hourglass full of trickling sand. It appeared more like a library up here than a dorm, but he was used to the eccentricities of Magi so he just rolled with it.
"I see you feel most comfortable surrounded by books, Master. Perhaps you're more of a bookworm than a pony?" Shirou couldn't help but poke a bit of fun at Twilight to try and get her to ease up after seeing how worked up she got from their previous topic.
"I just find knowledge and books far too fascinating, Saber, though a self proclaimed third rate magus may not find such pursuits worthwhile." Twilight decided that if he was gonna get cheeky with her then she may as well bite back. She had a feeling he didn't mean anything with his remark so it was fine to play along. Plus it might be his way of getting used to others.
"I don't mean to presume but you wouldn't be planning to have me sleep on a bed of books?" Shirou did notice that there wasn't much up here that could serve as bedding.
"As funny as that would be, I'd never allow any of my books to be harmed by having somepony sleep on them." Twilight made her way to the far end of the room where she stored an extra bed for guests. Well her parents gave it to her in case she brought friends over for a sleepover, but it had largely gone unused.
"It might be a bit small, but you can use this guest bed for now. Sorry I can't provide you much else, but I can bring you a few pillows as well if you'd like."
"I'd appreciate a pillow or two, but this bed is fine. Compared to the conditions I had to deal with while on a mission with Enforcers, this is quite a luxury." Shirou smirked at the thought of any of the Enforcer's he'd met immediately choosing a pony sized bed over sleeping in the middle of a forest possibly full of deadly traps.
"Then I'll bring you two spare pillows while you make yourself comfortable."
As Twilight departed, Shirou decided to at least remove the armored portions of his gear, which left him with a tight fitting black undershirt and his black pants. He took off his boots as well, but decided to keep his socks on. He was still surprised how the summoning cleaned his clothes and healed him, yet he was still as mortal as ever. He knew he was Twilight's servant and his class, but nothing else had changed. It was strange, yet worrying about it when he had nothing to go off of aside from the strange page Twilight had shown him wasn't worth his time. He'd just deal with it if it ever came up again as a more prominent issue.
"Here are two pillows for my dear Servant, Shirou Emiya." Twilight couldn't help herself as she giggled while levitating the pillows toward Shirou. "I see you've gotten quite comfortable, but I do wonder, why'd you only remove part of your armor?"
"I can assure you sleeping with the armored areas on isn't all that fun."
"Then why'd you leave the rest on?"
"What do you mean?" Shirou was now a bit more puzzled as to Twilight's line of questioning.
"Well you're still wearing the rest of it aren't you? Do humans normally wear clothes to sleep? I wear something warm when it's cold, but I don't think my dorm is all that chilly."
"Oh, uh Twilight, how do I put this," Shirou was now a bit flushed at realizing that this whole time Twilight had been in the buff and it was possibly the norm for the Ponies of this world, "humans wear clothes to keep decent and because we have no fur to keep us warm."
"Keep decent," Twilight was briefly puzzled until realization dawned on her, "o-oh, I'm so sorry for asking. I should've known that not all species have the same customs as Ponies."
Shirou smiled once again at Twilight's slight blunder before reassuring her, "it's alright Twilight, I also understand that not everyone is gonna follow the same ideas as humans when it comes to clothing. Although I will admit I didn't notice the uhh, lack of clothing being a common trait for Ponies, it had been strangely empty while we walked here so you're the only Pony I've met so far."
"Ah, they've been preparing for the Summer Sun Celebration tomorrow night. It was also pretty late when we left the library so I'm not too surprised by the lack of Ponies walking about." Twilight hoped Shirou's appearance wouldn't spook the other Ponies too much considering how imposing his stature and strange looks could be. I should definitely try to get him to Princess Celestia as early as possible to avoid any problems.
Twilight's thoughts were interrupted as she yawned. It seemed the weight of today's ordeals had finally caught up to her. "Since you've got what you need I think I'll turn in for the night, goodnight Shirou."
"Goodnight Twilight, and thank you once again for the accommodations," replied Shirou as he did his best to fit into the small bed. Twilight just smiled lightly as she made her way downstairs to her own bed.
Hopefully tomorrow will bring better things, I sure hope Princess Celestia can help me out. I really do feel out of my depth right now. Thankfully Shirou has been quite the gentlecolt outside of his brief teasing. These thoughts passed through Twilight's mind as she laid down in bed, a grin on her face as she slipped from consciousness.
Unfortunately, Shirou had forgotten a crucial part of the Servant-Master contract. As Twilight entered the realm of dreams, what greeted her was a nightmare engulfed in flames.