Chapter 10
Joshua POV
I awake to the sounds of many animals. Fluttershy is feeding them all. Twilight Sparkle is here as well. "Good morning Joshua." Twilight says.
"Good morning Twilight." I say.
"Good morning Joshua." Fluttershy says, just now realizing that I woke up.
"Good day Fluttershy." I say.
"Breakfast is on the table, if you want." I get up and walk over to the table. I see a large dish of vegetables and a seat set for one. I sit down and prepare to eat.
"Why thank you Fluttershy, this looks delicious." It looks much beter than anything I ever had at the swamp. It's no welcome feast, but any food is good since the undead don't eat much anyway. I take one large chunk of the salad on my fork and eat it. It's amazing! Nothing I had ever eaten before tasted so fresh! I hungrily and swiftly finish the dish. "That was amazing Fluttershy! I had never had anything so delicious before. Thank you very much."
"Oh it was no trouble. You're quite welcome." I clean my dish and put it away.
"So, Twilight..." I begin.
"Yes?"
"Don't take this the wrong way or anything, but what are you doing here?"
"Oh, I just thought I'd check on you guys. Speaking of which, I'd better get over to Rarity's to check on her and Agroth."
"Is Arthur here?" I ask.
"No, he was still sleeping when I left the library. I figured it would be best to just let him sleep in. You all looked so tired yesterday."
"Alright, well goodbye then."
"Goodbye Twilight." Fluttershy says.
"Bye you two." she says as she shuts the door.
"So," Fluttershy starts,"what are you going to do today?"
"I think I'll practice my pyromancy, I still need to improve a lot. I'm the weakest of the lot of us undead."
"You're strong, I've never seen anyone do fire magic before."
"But Agroth is very strong physically, and Arthur has his sorceries which are immensely powerful."
"Even if you're not as strong as them, you're still my friend." she says, giving me a short hug, which I return. That was good to hear.
"I've never had a friend before." I say under my breath.
"How do you practice pyromancy?"
"Oh. Just perform the spell, but focus more on how the spell will perform and what the outcome will be. Or you can just visit a string pyromancer and he or she can improve your flame. Pyromancies are rather simple, but the better you understand them, the stronger they become."
"What an you do with pyromancy?" she asks me.
"Well, I can do many things. I can create things from Fireballs to Fire Tempests. Great chaotic fire spells. But I have yet to ascend my Pyromancy Flame. So my spells won't be as powerful as they can be."
"You can still defend yourself though, Lordran sounds very dangerous and scary. But you made it out." she says to me.
"By pure chance, yes. I placed my summon sign by a new fog door and Agroth happened to touch it. Fortunately, I am now here, in Equestria. With my new friend, my first real friend. But, just so you know, I will be going back to Lordran." She looks at me with a sudden sadness.
"But, you can't go! It's too dangerous! It's full of demons and hollows! You said yourself that it was a nightmare!" She says.
"Well I'm certainly in no mood to fight any demons today, but I must strengthen my pyromancies. I will go back. But I'm not leaving today." She wraps her forehooves around me in another hug, which I return. She buries her face in my robes and I can feel her begin to cry.
"Please don't go." She says. Then I feel something else. Like a tremor, the ground shakes violently. Fluttershy holds on tighter, I let go.
"Wait here." I tell her. I cautiously walk outside. I hope that isn't what I think it is. I see a gargantuan hairy monster in the distance, staring directly at me. It is holding a giant greataxe made of bone, covered in blood. The monster charges for me and I summon a Great Chaos Fireball. I hold the fire in my hand. I hurl the fireball at the demon and it explodes into lava all over the monster. Fluttershy runs outside to where I am fighting it.
"What's happening?!" she asks, her eyes still red from crying.
"Stay back!" I shout. "It's a Taurus Demon! Very dangerous, don't go near it!" The beast recovers and brings the axe down, I barely dodge in time. The beast narrowly misses Fluttershy and hadn't even noticed she was there until now. It stares her in the eyes and I see her freeze up in fear. She is petrified. I prepare a Fire Orb to distract the beast. I throw it at the monster's shoulder. It turns and looks at its attacker, throwing another Fire Orb at it, hitting its face this time. The monster jumps towards me and the axe lands on me, slamming me to the ground. The beast turns around and swings the greataxe at Fluttershy. Everything stopped. I froze. Everything seemed to happen in slow motion. I see Fluttershy get knocked far to the side, blood coming from the fresh wound on her leg and side. I fell to the ground as soon as I heard two of her legs and many of her ribs snap from that strike. She falls unconscious from the pain. I stand up and charge at the beast and shoot flames at it rapidly. I catch a glimpse of Arthur jump on its back as a dragon. When he lands, the Moonlight Greatsword is thrust deep into its back, I take the opportunity to take a drink of my estus flask. Arthur breathes white fire on the demon as I bombarde it with Chaos Fire Whip, though I was very careful not to hit either of my friends. Arthur and I are blown off our feet by its next attack. He charges for Fluttershy, who I see now is conscious again and accompanied by Spike. Arthur quickly dashes towards them and gets there before the demon does. I see him holding Spike and Fluttershy as he jumps to the roof of her cottage. He places them on the roof and jumps down in front of the demon. He force pushes him in my direction and I have just enough time to use a Great Combustion. He breathes more fire on it and I strike it in the head with my powerful battle axe. The beast falls. We feel our bodies absorb many souls.
"Thank the Lords you got here Arthur."
"I heard the roar from the library. Where did that damned thing come from?"
"I don't know. But I will find out." I swear. He jumps up to the roof and gets Spike and Fluttershy down. He then uses a spell to return to his human form and puts his robes back on. We sit by Fluttershy and Spike. I now notice just how severe of a hit she had taken from the demon. Two of her legs are broken, the bones snapped in two, and one of her wings is hurt badly as well. A surge of guilt washes over me. I should have protected her better.
"You did what you could. It's okay." She says with pain, almost sensing what I'm feeling.
"I could have done better, and I should have. I don't have any estus left now so I cannot heal you that way."
"That's okay. I prefer to just allow my body to heal on its own anyway."
"Let's go back to the library." Arthur says. He turns to Fluttershy. "We can heal you back there" he says. Fluttershy winces as she attempts to stand. I immediately halt her.
"No, no. Here, I've got you." I pick her up off the ground.
"Thank you" she whimpers. We walk back to the library to be greeted by the worried looks of Rarity and Twilight Sparkle. The become visibly more worried when they see Fluttershy in her condition.
"Is Agroth with you?" Rarity asks.
"Afraid not." Arthur responds. "Shame too, he loves demon slaying."
"Demon slaying?!" Twilight shouts. "There was a demon here?!"
"Yes, there was." I say as a lay Fluttershy on the couch. "The beast injured Fluttershy quite badly. If Arthur hadn't shown up it probably would've killed us both." I could never thank him enough for his action.
"Oh, it's quite alright. I'm just concerned with where it came from and if any more will come." I grab some bandages from the closet and begin to wrap Fluttershy's injured legs, wing, and ribs in bandages.
"No more demons will come. I promise you Fluttershy." I whisper to her. I run out of bandages. I'm almost finished, so I tear a piece of cloth from my robe to use as a bandage to finish the job.
"Thank you."
"I will find these demons. And I will destroy them."
"So nopony has seen Agroth anywhere?" Twilight questions.
"No, he wasn't at the fight with the demon." I explain.
"Perhaps he's just in town somewhere." Arthur suggests. I'm still sitting next to Fluttershy on the couch, the others are standing nearby.
"We checked everywhere. Nopony's seen him." Twilight says. Just then there is a knock at the door. Arthur opens it to see Rainbow Dash standing there.
"Come in Rainbow." He says. She comes in and flies up to Twilight. "Good morning to you too."
"What's going on?" she asks.
"Rainbow, can you search for Agroth by sky?" Twilight asks.
"Sure, you can't find him?"
"No we can't." Rarity says. "We looked everywhere! When I woke up he was gone! I don't know what happened." There is another knock at the door. Rainbow Dash answers then bolts out the door and up to the skies. A grey pegasus with yellow eyes that stare off in different directions walks in. She is carrying a mailbag and pulls out three envelopes. Twilight takes them and the grey pony flies off. Not a moment after she places the letters down on the table, Agroth walks in with Rainbow Dash. He looks as though he had just been through a long battle. He collapses on the floor in exhaustion. That was quick.
"I found him." Rainbow Dash says.