//------------------------------//
// Chapter 3- The Erector of Fear 
// Story: Thief of Redemption 
// by One Tin Soldier 
//------------------------------//

My first thought was: Is it dangerous? This, of course, was obviously the case.

The dragon twisted his head back and roared. Its might echoed throughout the cavern and waves of fear crashed over me. However, I wasn't really afraid of anything in particular, so it didn't do much to my stance.

Stormy, on the other hand, was parylized in position. His mask probably hid his cowering expression, but he was visibly shaking. Crap. 

"STORM!" I yelled. "STORM, MOVE!"

The dragon was bearing down on him. He didn't budge.

Crapcrapcrapcrap. I ran at him and tackled him out of the way. The dragon's head crashed into the ground where he existed not a moment before. Pieces of the ground came flying out everywhere and one hit me on the chin.

Storm finally seemed to snap out of it. "W-what do we do?"

"We get out of the way whenever that thing tries to kill us. A good example would be RIGHT NOW."

I jumped over the dragon's oncoming tail. Storm failed to do this and was smacked across the room. He landed on the far-side floor and didn't get up.

Guess this was up to me.

Let's see, what do I need to accomplish?

I dodged the dragon's massive head again.

I needed to literally steal his eye.

The dragon seemed to smart up and I saw the inside of his mouth heat up.

So that probably meant killing it or doing some really slick manevour.

I started running the moment the dragon released his fiery wrath, a burning trail of death following right behind me.

And I needed to get out with Stormy.

Now I was right next to him, his unconciense form barely breathing.

All without weapons. Great.

Ah, wait. There was that giant sword hanging from the ceiling. By a tiny. Little. Cord.

The dragon looked like he was getting ready for another bout of flame. I ran over to the nearest wall and yanked an old looking sword out. It handled surprisingly well, for a probably x amount of years old.

I leaped away from my spot just as flame bathed it in fury. I ran across from the dragon, baiting it forward. It did just that and lifted one of its front feet to try and crush me. I dodged backwards and sliced off one of its claws at the same time.

The dragon roared once again, but I was over the constant terror now. Instead of addling me, it only fueled me further.

I yelled back in return and dodged out of the way once again as its other foot came down. The dragon recovered quickly and started running straight at me. Its size in comparison to the chamber caused it to the crash into the walls with its head, wings, and tail as I ran for my life.

Pretty much my only hope would be to cut that cord. I'd just have to get lucky enough for it to land on the dragon. How I would get up there was my problem.

My answer came in the form of a massive claw crashing into the ground under me as I jumped.  I landed on the back of it, and the dragon seemed surprised at this for a moment. I wasted no time in whipping around and scrambling up its forearm and clinging to one of the spines on its back.

The dragon shrieked and flapped its wings, throwing itself into the wall in the hope of shaking me off. I hung on. Barely. The dragon repeated this action and flew up into the ceiling , then the floor. Pieces of the walls, ceiling, and ground flew everywhere in the dragon's desperate attempts to fling me off.

Then, at the perfect time, I flipped off of the dragon's back using its own momentum and landed on top of the massive sword's hilt. The dragon noticed I was gone and crashed to a halt in the center of the room. It looked up at me and roared once again. Its mouth heated up to shoot a wave of fire at me.

Only to be impaled straight through as the gargantuan sword crashed down on top of the dragon. It smashed all the way through its mouth, body, and even part of its tail before crashing into the ground with a tremendous BOOOM. A fourth of its blade had sunk all the way into the ground.

I had rode down on the hilt but had flown off when the collision happened. I landed roughly on the ground, hard enough that I was knocked out.

I don't know how long it was before I came to, but Stormy was standing over me and prodding me awake.

I sat up and immediately groaned. My head hurt like the dickens. I put my hand on Stormy to help stand my body up. I got up and leaned on my sword and Stormy for support.

Then I beheld what I had done.

The whole place was a mess. Shattered bits of stone were everywhere and there were gouges in the walls and ceiling and floors. In the middle of the room stood the impaled dragon, rising up from the floor with its mouth wrenched open by the sword's irregular blade. The light from the earth shard still shown, though only on one side of the room, with the other side cast in shadows.

Yeah, I had done that. Sweet.

I hobbled away from Stormy and got to the body. I found the inevitable strength to begin climbing up its corpse. When I reached its right eye. I stabbed my sword into its socket and pried the shard out of it. It fell to the ground. I sighed and half slid-half climbed back down.

Stormy was waiting for me. I walked over to the shard and picked it up. It was a lot smaller than it looked. I watched as it just melted into my hand.

"Is it supposed to do that?" I asked.

"Try calling it back."  

I did. It worked. The moment I lost focus, though, it melted back into my hand. "Well at least we won't have to worry about people stealing them. Hopefully this method doesn't have any negative effects, though."

"I'd doubt it."

"Well, let's get out of here, I guess."

"A-are you going to keep the sword?" Stormy asked, pointing a hoof at its spot in my hand.

"Yeah, and I'll try to find a scabbard for it also."

"O-oh."

"What's wrong?"

"Eh-nothing..."

"Okay, let's go."

And so we did. The entrance from which we had come in was partially blocked, but we were able to get through it.

From the rest of the way up, I realized that I was partially glowing a faint green light and was running off of pure adrenaline. Stormy and I didn't talk at all on the way up.

When we reached the hole in the ceiling, I picked him up and brought him high enough that he could grasp the edges and climb up. I followed after him by jumping and grabbing the lip.

We emerged in the middle of the night. Stormy had just taken a nap (by getting knocked out), but I really needed one. We got in the boat and he started rowing. I started sleeping. It didn't take me long.

I woke up as we were nearing the shore. I felt leagues better. My head had cleared and I sat up feeling refreshed.

"Oh , you're awake now."

"Yeah, I'm feeling a lot better. A lot of what I did back there kind of felt like a haze."

"I know what you did, but I don't know how you managed to pull it off."

So I recounted to him how I had slain the dragon the best I could.

"Wow. Have you ever used a sword before?"

"Well, not that I can remember, but I don't really remember anything before coming here."

"Only unicorns can wield swords like that. I wonder why there were so many down there..."

"No clue, man."

We arrived at the shore just as the sun was starting to stretch the horizon. We got out and left the boat where we had originally found it. Climbing up the stone stairs was annoying, but we managed. After arriving in the city, we kind of just stood there, wondering what to do next.

Some ponies that were walking the streets looked strange at me. I genuinely smiled at them. Most of them scowled and continued on their way, though some frowned, and one or two smiled back.

Then a little baby pony came up to me and Stormy. "Do you know where my mama is?"

"Uh... what, little one?"

"Do you know where my mama is?" The pony repeated.

"Uhh... oh hey, Stormy. Where's her mom?"

Stormy was looking down at the ground.

"Stormy."

Nothing.

I put my hand on his back and lifted his chin up to look him the eye. "Where is her mom?" Stormy just shook his head slowly.

"You don't know?"

Stormy looked away again.

"Dude, talk to me!"

The little pony was looking at Stormy with hope.

Stormy sighed and motioned for me to bend down. Then he whispered in my ear. "She's gone."

"Like, she abandoned the kid and left?" I whispered back.

"No. She's dead."

I took a step backwards. Oh.

I turned back to the little pony. "Look, kid, your mom's dead."

Stormy whipped around and looked at me in shock. The kid's wide eyes filled with tears and her ears slowly fell down.

Then she ran off, sobbing.

I turned back to Stormy. "Alright, so what shou- what?"

"HOW COULD YOU JUST DO THAT TO A LITTLE FILLY?"

I took a step back. "Uh..."

"YOU DON'T JUST TELL A FILLY THAT HER MOM'S DEAD! HOW CAN YOU NOT EVEN CONSIDER THE IMPLICATIONS OF THAT!?!"

"Well, it doesn't really affect us. And she asked."

"YEAH, BUT, YOU CAN'T JUST DO THAT! HAVE YOU NO HEART!?!"

"WELL, you did say that before. Maybe it's true. Anyway, we should get a move on to try and find the next shard. What direction is it in?"

"No. We will go and help that little filly. After what you did to her."

"But why? There's no point."

"Because sometimes, we think about others instead of just ourselves."

"I don't see the logic behind that."

"Well then I won't be seen behind you!" And he ran off in the direction of where the filly went.

Great. Now I have to find him.

I didn't really feel like doing that quite yet, so I started to stroll through the city in search of a park. Maybe it would calm me. Then again, I wasn't really in need calmness. But whatever.

After an hour or so of not finding anything, I decided to find something to eat. 

I found an alley and wandered down it in search of some small bar or restaurant or something.

I found neither, but instead found the back door of a large manor. And it was locked. That meant there had to be something good inside.

I found a tiny length of metal and unlocked the door with it. Pony locks were terrible. Probably because only the ones with horns could be dexterous enough to unlock it, but even then, there were probably wards or something on the locks.

I carefully opened the door and slipped inside, closing and re-locking it behind me.

In front of me stretched an extremely garish hallway. Bright carpeting and exotic rugs covered the floor, and you could barely see the wall in between the ornaments adorning them. I heard nothing, so I carefully crept forward, ignoring a few doors on the right and one on the left.

The hallway opened up into a large living room, and I could see a balcony stretching all the way around it, with a large piece of glass making up the 2nd level wall in front on me. Random pony furniture dotted the room, along with a piano.

Wait, how were ponies supposed to play that thing? Wouldn't their hooves be to fat?

Whatever.

I quickly found a kitchen and a refrigerator, both of which were noticeably more empty when I left.

Instead of leaving right away, I decided to explore the second floor.

I climbed up the stairs and was going down another hallway when I heard crying coming from within the rooms down it. Manly crying. Not a common sound.

I sidled over to door, which was open a crack, and peeked inside. A stallion with a blue hide and purple mane and mustache was sitting on his bed, crying his eyes out.

I opened the door further and strolled inside.

The stallion was up immediately and scrambled off the bed to fall on the floor. He stood back up (slightly dazed) and looked at me fiercely.

"Who are you, and what do you want?" he asked.

"I'm Time, Time's Grave. I just happened to hear you crying and wanted to know what was the matter."

"Nothing's the matter! Now, get out of my house, intruder!"

"How about... no."

"I- I have security!"

"I doubt they could get up here before I could slice your head off."

He gulped.

"So, what's the issue?"

"Nothing's wrong."

"Alright then. So you own this place?"

"Y-yes."

"Cool. Think you could get someone to make a scabbard for this bad boy?" I waved my sword at him.

"Of- of course."

"How 'bout some armor?"

"That too."

"Cool."

"Is there anything else, y- you would require?" his voice shook in fear.

"Nah, that's all I need. No wait. Do you suppose you could get me a drink?"


~/\^/\~
Rules of my Descention
.II.

I will be like any other mortal, except that I cannot stay unconscious for more than 7 days.
~\/v\/~


I strolled down one of the many streets that interlocked throughout the city. I twirled a small pouch of bits around my arm before letting it slide down like a purse. Then I moved the strap over my head so it was more like a satchel. Satchels are more intimidating than purses.

According to the stallion's instructions, I was nearing the spot where I could commission a scabbard. Then I wouldn't have to have it unsheathed with me everywhere I went. You know, that was probably why a lot of the ponies directly avoided my path.

I looked around and waved my sword around more for emphasis. The ponies hurried along.

I made it to the shop in the next few minutes without any disturbances. I was feeling good, and entered the door in high spirits.

It was a home-owned thing, a wooden affair that for a moment reminded me of the burning orphanage. It had a little waiting room in front and stairs leading up to presumably living quarters. I sidled up to the counter and pushed the little bell I found on it. I heard someone yell, "Coming!"

An male orange unicorn came hurrying up to the counter. "Hi," he said. "What on earth are you?"

"Yeah, I'm a human."

"Oh. Right. What can I do for you?"

I placed the sword on the counter with a clang. "I'd like a scabbard for this."

He picked it up in his magic and looked over it. Then he set it down and looked back to me. "What kind of scabbard do you want?"

"I'd like a kind of light, but sturdy metal scabbard. Not too heavy, and an adjustable leather strap to go around my waist attached to it."

"Leather strap?"

"Yeah, my source told me you'd be able to make me a scabbard with a belt."

"Yeah, I can do that, but what's leather?"

"It's—" Oh wait. Ponies were herbivores. Or at least they were back in the real world. But better safe than sorry. "It's nothing. Use whatever you would use to make such a thing."

"Alright then. Should be good to go in about a day or so. It'll cost you sixty bits."

That sounded about right, based on what that rich guy had said. "Done." I counted sixty bits out of the bag and placed them on the counter.

"Come back tomorrow some time after noon to pick it up. Can I have your name?"

"Time's Grave."

"Bob."

I moved to shake hands, but stopped. "Your name's Bob?"

"My real name is really embarrassing."

"Bob it is." And we shook hands.

Or hooves.

His hoof and my hand! Shaking! In agreement!

After I exited the shop I looked at the city map that old twat had given me. I'd get some armor a few blocks from here.

Now that I didn't have that sword constantly in my grip, ponies were slightly less disturbed my presence. I put on a good cheery smile. They continued to scowl or just frown. Ponies.

I arrived at the blacksmith shop after a few minutes. The reason Bob was making the scabbard and not the blacksmith was apparently because Bob was better at making stuff like that and charged far less.

The blacksmith shop was a lot more official. It was only a shop and a forge, and was open from seven a.m. to nine p.m. The whole interior was metal for some reason and reminded me of that dungeon back at Doom's place. Like that, but a lot brighter and without bars and cages everywhere.

I walked up to the counter and rung the bell resting there. Another few seconds, and hey! Bob came up to the counter! No wait. This guy was slightly darker orange and was a normal pony instead.

"How may I help you?" he asked in a much more burly voice than Bob's. Why were all blacksmiths burly?

Burly was a fun word. Burly, burly, burly.

Oh wait, I should probably answer him. "Hi, I was hoping to commission a set of light armor for myself."

"'Kay. What kind of light armor?"

"Well, I was kind of hoping for some sort of open helmet, a solid cuirass, some smaller pauldrons, some vambraces, and some greaves."

"I can make a helmet. I have no idea what the rest of what yur talking about is."

So I spent the next hour explaining and showing him precisely what I wanted. Then another half-hour with him taking measurements and asking various questions.

All in all, it cost me a little more than the rest of the bits I had gotten. I forked them over with the promise that I'd get him the rest tomorrow along with a little tip. He grudgingly accepted and told me it would be done in five or six days.

After that was done, I decided to head back to the rich guy's house to grab some more bits.


<:---.'.---:>


Some days ago...

A white alicorn knelt next to a hospital bed. Why would he leave? This threat could not go unanswered.

Her star pupil stood next to her, anxiously rubbing her fetlocks together. "What are we going to do, Princess?"

"You are going to stay here and assemble the Elements of Harmony together. I am going to follow the human back to his source."

"Yes, Princess." Twilight left the room in a hurry.

Celestia laid her horn on the hospital bed, where she knew the human was at one point, before casting the pathfinder spell. "Where were you?" she muttered.

She opened her eyes and the human's path through time revealed itself to her. From his point on the hospital bed, it would trace his path back to its source.

She followed the afterimages, and navigated through town before seeing where his path led north, to Whitetail Woods. Celestia spread her wings and flew to and then above the trees. Her eyes followed the path, both real and magical, that the human had taken. There!

The trail stopped. Celestia circled down lightly and landed neatly in a gap between the trees. The human's path stopped in the middle of a small clearing. He had been lying on the ground for an undiscernable amount of time before getting up and following the path, seemingly without a care in the world.

How had this happened? She sensed the area and found no magical disturbances. Even the veil had not been torn or even bent here. That left her with one explanation left. She did not like it. Not one little bit.

With a loud pop she teleported to the gardens in Canterlot. It did not take her long to find her least favorite statue. A statue that refused to be anywhere else.

A cold breeze blew through the air, making Celestia shiver. Then she faced the despicable statue. "Discord."

"Oh, you called?" said a voice behind her. She turned around quickly but nopony was there. 

She turned back to the statue to find Discord, unstatufied, studying his lion claws before bowing elegantly. "How may I help you?"

"I'm not here to play games, Discord."

"Oh, you say that every time, but you never mean it."

"I always mean it. I do not want you harming my little ponies."

"Yes, yes, but you can't stop me from doing that, so why bother saying it?"

"I don't know why you pretend to be a statue when you know that both Luna and I know you're still around, messing things up."

He appeared behind her and put a hand on her shoulder. "Yes, and I could easily make you forget." He looked her right in the eye. "But I don't," he said before slithering away.

"Stop stalling, Discord."

"Oh, but my dear, you're the one stalling here."

"Did you make the human?" she asked bluntly.

Discord stopped the picture he was painting and turned his head a hundred and eighty degrees, whilst another head continued the painting. "While I will say that that fellow is quite interesting to watch, I couldn't possibly take responsibility for creating such a fantastic creature. Besides, if I was going to do something like that, I would've given him fish gills on his head."

"How do I know you're not lying?"

"Oh, you'll just have to take my word for it. Believe me, even I couldn't come up with something this interesting to watch."

"Do you know if he could be a threat, then?"

"Yes."

"As in, you do know if he could be a threat?"

"Yes." The other head had vanished and he was just busily painting now.

"And could he be a massive threat to my little ponies?"

Discord finished painting, then turned towards her. He repositioned his reading glasses before saying, "Yes." And then he vanished, the statue popping back into existence. All that was left behind was the painting.

It was of herself, her face twisted in confusion of what to do.

Equestria first.


<:---.'.---:>


When I got to the front door, I forgot that I didn't have a key, so I just pounded on it instead. 

One of the random servants that seemed conspicuously absent before hurried to the door and opened it. "Yes?" she said.

I ignored her and walked past into the house, despite her meek protests. Quickly finding the stairs, I made my way back to the rich guy's room. Imagine my surprise when Stormy was there.

Yeah, he was right there with that little filly from before, talking to the rich twat.

I knocked on the frame beside the door. Both looked up. The rich guy's eyes found me before dilating. Stormy just sighed. "What are you doing here?"

"Well, I kind of need just a tad bit more of money. About forty bits."

"Well, Poison Oak here just lost his wife. And little Cherry Oak lost her mother. And now you're demanding forty bits from them. And you took money before that?"

"Well... I didn't take it. He gave it to me."

"I gave it to him so he wouldn't cut my head off," Poison interrupted.

Stormy just sighed again. "Look Poison, I'm sorry for wasting your time. We'll just be on our way now."

I kind of felt bad now, after what Stormy said. And now I wouldn't get money for the blacksmith or Stormy would probably run away again. 

"Wait!" Poison called. "You two are together?"

Stormy and I glanced at each other. "Yeah," he said.

"There... there must be some way I can thank you, Whisper."

Hmmm. I could think of a few ways. "I–"

Stormy cut me off. "I'll only accept help if my friend apologizes for what he did to you and your daughter."

I gaped at him. You lying, stinky, traitor. I'll make you pay for this. Stormy prodded me forward. I glared at him openly before sighing. "I'm sorry for stealing from you. And rubbing salt in your wound."

"I- I forgive you. I have enough money that what you took mattered little."

"But it was still uncalled for. I am ashamed of it." Not!

"Tha- thank you."

I moved to step back, but Stormy wasn't satisfied. He blocked my retreat with a hoof. Then he motioned to the filly. I could still dried tear tracks on her face.

"I'm sorry for rubbing salt in your wound, too. That was really mean of me."

"You said that before. What does it mean?"

"I'm sorry?" Both ways.

"No, rubbing salt in a wound. What does that mean?"

"Oh. It means making that matter more painful that it already was. It's a truly dreadful thing to do."

"Okay. I forgive you then." She nodded, as if satisfied.

I smiled. Turns out this situation did affect me. For the better, if Poison would offer his services.

Which he did. He told Stormy and I that we could take guest rooms for the next few days and gave me those last forty bits. If we ever need anything more, we simply had to ask him.

All in all, it was pretty nice. Though I do think Stormy got the better room.

The next morning I woke up late and had to find my way to the dude's dining room. It wasn't that large of a house, but still big enough to get confusing.

Stormy and Poison were conversing. Little Cherry was wolfing down pancakes like nobody's business. I sat down at an isolated spot, leaned back, and scrunched up my face like life sucked, but I was going to suck even more. Then I snatched a pancake and took a bite out of it.

And abruptly spat it back out on the table. What was this stuff made out of!?! OATS!?!

This stuff was made out of oats! What is this?

Then I realized the three of them were looking at me funny.

"Well, yes, sorry about that."

Stormy and Poison went back to conversing, but Cherry kept glancing at me and giggling. I glared at her, but that just made her giggle more.

So I stood up and cleaned up my mess. "Is there something besides panc... uh... oat...cakes?"

"There's some fruit in the refrigerator and some flowers in a vase, if you prefer those for breakfast," Poison said. Flowers, too? Eww.

"And the kitchen is...?" He gestured behind him. "Behind you, got it.

I made my way to the kitchen and found a few apples in the bottom of the fridge. I grabbed three and didn't bother washing them. As I made my way back to my spot, I bit into one. Crap, these are good.

Then I shot down whatever Stormy and my new old man were talking about. "So, Poison, your name really doesn't fit you, but I don't actually want to talk about that. Instead, I was wondering if you knew any tailors who could make me clothes. And if you could let me have some money to go get some. I'm already going to be out and about today, and I think new clothes is really on my agenda." Last night was a testimony to that.

Poison just wrote down some instructions on a piece of parchment and handed it to me, then went off and grabbed the same bag that had those last forty bits it it and dumped a bunch more in. This, he also handed to me.

"Thanks, man. Your name really doesn't match. You're a really nice guy."

"You are welcome and I hope we can be friends in the future, too."

"Yeah." And that was that.

After breakfast Stormy asked me to meet him in his room. I just followed him there, since I had no reason not to.

We sat down at the table in the middle, he on one of those pony chairs, and me on the floor.

"So," he said. "How long are we planning on staying here?"

"Well, I have my armor being finished in probably four or five days, and I'm planning on commissioning some clothes, too, and I don't know how long it'll be before those are finished. Anddd, I'm also going to see if I can get this other guy to do some stuff for me."

"Gearing up for war, eh?"

You Canadian. "More like getting dressed for the day. That dragon back there was just pretty dumb to stand right beneath the giant sword. I'm going to want to be a little better prepared next time, I don't know, something happens."

"Well, that's probably a good idea. But in the meantime, what I am supposed to do?"

"Uh... relax, have fun?"

"I could, but I think we should consider locating the next shard much more clearly."

"You can do that?"

"I can locate almost any object or being, but I'll pass out for the next twenty-four hours. I have just enough time to say the name of the location before I go."

"Hey, why didn't you do that before, then? Oh wait, twenty-four... hmm. Well, if you're just going to be sitting there, why don't you do it now."

"That is why I wanted to ask you. I'd wake up tomorrow around this time."

"Sweet. Go for it, man." 

"Alright. Remember to listen to what I say right before I pass out."

"Got it."

Stormy re-materialized that mask back on his head and then bent down close to the table. I could faintly here him whispering weird sounding words, probably from some old mystical language, or something.

Then his head shot straight up, and his whole body started slumping to the floor.

"Canterlot," he gurgled before collapsing properly.

Canterlot. That's where the second shard was.

I left him to his slumbering and meandered outside again. Since it wasn't quite noon, I decided to find the tailor first. At first I thought the directions looked pretty easy, but I was wrong. I found myself wandering around, searching for a familiar street name. It took me nearly half-an-hour to find tailor, when it should have only been six or seven minutes.

In short, the business was owned by a brother and sister. They agreed to make some clothes for me. I told them I didn't want any designs on them, just normal clothing. It only took half of the bits I had, and they said they'd be done in three days tops. Handy.

By then it was noon, so I made my way to Bob's place, since the way kind of just seemed to open to me. This city was so weird! Like, everywhere I had already been was super easy to find, but finding a new place was pointlessly difficult. 

I got to Bob's place and rand his bell. A familiar voice called, "Coming!" And he did indeed come. "Ah, Time's Grave, nice and early." He reached below the counter and pulled out a black scabbard decorated with silver designs. "It's a beauty."

"Okay, I have to ask, how on earth did you make that so fast?"

He tapped his horn with a hoof. "I'm gifted in Malleus magic. I can adapt and bend things far easier than most unicorns."

"Huh. Cool." I snagged the scabbard. The black, leather like substance that made the belt hung off the side. I pointed at it. "You got more of this stuff?"

"Yeah. Viumin. Tough, flexible, slightly resistant to magic. Why?"

"Think you could make me some gloves and a tunic?"

"Hmm. Gloves maybe... tunic... maybe. Gloves I might be able to have done tomorrow, tunic might take a while longer. I'll have to get paid hefty for this, though."

He named his price, and it took almost all but the last forty required for the blacksmith. "Hey, by the way, do you know where Canterlot is located?"

"Well, it's the capital of Equestria, and right smack in the middle of it too. It's half of Equestria north from here."

"Ahh. So we're at the bottom of Equestria right now?"

"That's correct."

"Good, good. And what is Equestria, exactly."

Bob looked concerned. "You're really not from around here, are you?"

"Nope."

"Huh. Well, Equestria is by far the biggest pony nation in the world, ruled by Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. Canterlot's the captitol. We're down here in Brown."

"Oh. So that's the name of this city."

"Yeah. Not too fond of it, myself. I'm hoping to move out of here one day."

"Just not this day?"

"Not this day. You're a cool guy, Time. Enjoy your scabbard. I hope I'll be able to make what you want."

"Agreed. I'll see you in a few days! Thanks again!" I called as I walked out the door. Then I slipped on the scabbard. After a few adjustments, I had it on nice and snug. It felt good, and didn't chafe too much. I'd be getting better clothes, and armor, at that, too, so it didn't really matter anyway. I unsheathed my sword, relishing the crisp sound of such a thing.

The blade was mostly silver, with the center being black all the way down. The hilt was a simple affair, though it was reinforced with that viumin stuff. Still quite good, though. I whipped it around a few times before re-sheathing it. If I could really learn how to use one, that'd be fantastic.

I caught the blacksmith next and paid him his last forty bits. After that, my coin purse was empty, so I spent the rest of the day finding out more about Canterlot and ponies in general.

Stormy woke up the next day (hungry), and we talked a bit about the world, Equus. After that, the next few days went by in a blur.

I got the clothes I ordered, plus an enchanted bag which could fit an obscene amount of things inside. I wondered briefly what would happen if I somehow got stuck inside, but then waved it off. I also collected my armor, which I practiced the procedure for putting it on and taking it off several times. Since it was only a few parts, it wasn't too hard to get on or get used to the extra weight. Finally, Bob did indeed have success with making the gloves and tunic. The tunic was kind of like a dress on the lower portion, with the front half gone, and the back part split into three equal flaps. It kind of felt weird, but putting that and the armor on together gave me just what I was hoping for. I also had four pairs of black pants to put on with it, too.

Another day, and Stormy and I were preparing to set off North via train.


<:---.'.---:>


Two ponies, a pegasus and a unicorn, stood atop a nearby roof. The female unicorn's pelt was a pale yellow, while the pegasus stallion had a orange coat like the rising sun. The unicorn's horn glowed a soft pink.

"Target located, Captain," she said, looking down through a window at the unsuspecting human below.

"Good," her horn seemed to say back. "We'll be arriving shortly with backup."

Her horn stopped glowing. She met eyes with the pegasus.

This was going to be a bumpy ride.