7:00am, 11th of Viglyd, 6 Days After the Tirek Incident – Canterlot Castle Guest Suite – Twilight’s Room
Twilight had barely finished the silence spell on the door before her friends had started arguing about what the Princess had just told them.
“I say we go find this Artemis guy and blast him with the elements before he can do anything to the Princess. I know the princess wants to handle this herself, but Equestria needs her. We can’t let some guy kill her just because she wants to 'accept responsibility' for what she had to do,” announced Rainbow Dash proudly as she adopted a fighting stance.
“Woah there I’m not so sure about zappin him with the elements, remember what the Princess said? They might not work on him, and that would leave us in a whole heap of trouble. Rainbow is right though, we have to do somethin,” said Applejack as looked over worriedly at Twilight who had been oddly quiet.
“I think we should tell Princess Luna, I know we promised not to repeat anything said in the room, but there are other ways to alert her without telling her what we know,” suggested Rarity. “After all she is largely at the center or this, and surely she would want stop the love of her life from killing her sister I know I would.”
“That’s as close as you can get to breaking a pinkie promise without actually breaking a pinkie promise, and I should know. No pony breaks a pinkie promise, but maybe we should tr-”
“Pinkie I swear if you suggest throwing him a party I’m gonna lose it.”
“Well duh that wouldn’t work, I was just gonna suggest we actually make a plan to find him before we start making plans about zapping him or whatever” said Pinkie as she rolled her eyes surprising everyone with the actual plausibility of the idea.
“Well before that we need to decide on whether or not we are confronting this fellow, honestly I’m inclined to trust Celestia’s warning about starting a fight with him,” stated Rarity. “Of course I will if it comes to it, but I think we should try to avoid it.”
“What you don’t want to risk getting your hooves scuffed for the princess?” teased Rainbow Dash as she landed to lounge on the bed.
“Well as much as I don’t want to ruin my hooficure, this Artemis fellow fought both princesses back in their warrior days. That is no easy feat, and frankly without the elements I’m not sure the six of us could even match one of the princesses excluding Twilight,” said Rarity as she too noticed the lack of comments from Twilight.
“Well maybe we should try talking to him,” suggested Fluttershy during the lull in conversation. “He was hurt by one of the ponies he trusted most, he probably just wants to know why. Celestia made it sound like he wouldn’t be angry towards us as long as weren’t angry with him,” said Fluttershy in a quiet but unusually steady voice. “What do you think we should do Twilight?”
Twilight didn’t answer right away, she couldn’t, her mind was racing through every scenario possible to find a solution. She couldn’t let Princess Celestia be killed, but she didn’t want to disobey the Princess. Plus she would be risking the lives of her friends by attacking without knowing if the elements would work.
“I-I’m not sure, the Princess wants to handle it on her own, but I don’t want to risk anything happening to her,” said Twilight with glazed eyes as she continued to run possible solutions through her mind. The more she tried to think of a solution the more her thoughts were interrupted by flashbacks of when she was a filly spending time with Celestia, and as the memories popped up with increasing frequency so did her pangs of panic. Every rejected solution only increased her worry and brought her closer to the verge of a panic attack. She had to do something, but nothing seemed likely to work without a huge risk.
“TWILIGHT!” yelled her friends as they looked at her, worry written plainly on their faces. It seemed to snap her out of her cycle of increasing panic.
“You alright there Twi? You don’t look so hot,” said Applejack as she moved to put her hoof on her friend’s shoulder.
Twilight could see how much her friends cared about her, and it only made her more reluctant to put them in further danger. She nearly lost them to Tirek, and that feeling of helplessness wasn’t something she wanted to feel again.
“No, I’m not alright. No matter how hard I try I can’t think of a plan that doesn’t put everyone in danger,” explained Twilight sadly. “I don’t want anything to happen to Princess Celestia, but I don’t want to put you guys in danger either.”
“Twilight sweetie while I’m sure we all appreciate the thought, we aren’t the ones you should be worried about. While I don’t doubt Princess Luna’s ability to rule, but Equestria needs Celestia and if we don’t do something we may lose her. “
“Yeah Twilight, this is no different than any other time we risked our flanks for Equestria, and we’ve always come out on top before,” said Rainbow Dash proudly as she moved off the bed towards Twilight.
“Except last time when Tirek held you all captive, sure everything worked out bu-” Twilight stopped before she could finish. Even all the power she had at the time, there had been nothing she could do to protect her friends.
“Yeah last time was a bit of a close scrape, but that was cause Tirek got to us when we weren’t all together,” insisted Applejack. “As we all saw, even against all the magic in Equestria nothing can stop all six of us when we work together.”
Suddenly Twilight found herself pulled into a reassuring group hug, while she loved her friends dearly she could only wonder when or if they would face an enemy they couldn’t beat together. She didn’t like it, but they would have to take the risk to avoid losing everything.
“Alright then, I think we should use a part of each of your plans,” started Twilight with her confidence returning. “We need to search the city and try to intercept him before he gets to the castle, the various wards should prevent him from just teleporting inside. Fluttershy is right though,we should try talking to him first. If he can’t be reasoned with we have to try to stop him, and if we can’t stop him then we have to tell Luna.”
Before Pinkie could get the words out to protest Twilight added, “We can tell Luna without breaking our promise to Celestia as long as we aren’t specific about what the danger is.”
It was a solid plan, one that the girls all agreed with. However the task of combing the city wasn’t going to be easy to do, but they had to find Artemis before he found Celestia.
“We should search in pairs, while we might cover more ground separately it would be dangerous to go alone,” suggested Rarity.
“Yeah and if you find him, wait for all of us before you talk to him,” said Applejack.
“Applejack go with Rarity and Rainbow Dash go with Pinkie, that way if you find him Rarity can send us a message with magic and Rainbow Dash should be fast enough to find either Rarity or myself with this spell,” said Twilight as she cast a spell allowing them all to track each other. “We only have two days according to the princess, and we have to be careful not to panic the public either".
"All right girls we have to find Artemis before it’s too late," rallied Twilight. "Keep an eye out everywhere, and be careful out there. Good luck and be safe."
8:00am, 11th of Viglyd, 6 Days After the Tirek Incident – Octavia’s Luxury Apartment
Her scream was like nails dragging down the blackboard of his mind, and he could only wonder why his passenger had screamed. He looked behind him and as astonished to see what looked like a murder scene. He appeared to be covered in blood, and his passenger was equally bloodied with a knife buried halfway in her chest. Considering he didn’t feel or smell the wetness of blood, he knew it was an illusion, but the mare finishing opening the door certainly didn’t.
“Vinyl! WHAT DID YOU DO TO HER YOU MONSTER?” Octavia screamed as she reached for her Cello Case which was more deadly than any baseball bat.
Artemis could only sigh, for he knew something bad was going to happen beforehand but this wasn’t what he imagined. “This isn’t what it looks li-,” as he was interrupted by a cello case hitting him square in the face.
Octavia was stunned. A good smack from her cello case had knocked the largest of stallions to the ground, but this one didn’t seem to even flinch and much worse he returned her blow with a fiery glare that could melt ice. It was there for only the briefest moments, but she got a glimpse of the inferno of rage beneath the calm exterior. However she didn’t get the feeling that the bulk of it was directed at her, but even so she was too scared to move any further.
“Don’t you think this has gone far enough?” grumbled Artemis as he looked towards the mare on his back. “Or do I have to remove the spell myself?”
“Pfffft fine I couldn’t hold back my laughter much more anyway,” laughed Vinyl. “You ok there big guy? I didn’t expect Octy to actually take a swing at you.”
It took Octavia a few moments to process the fact that Vinyl was in fact fine, and that she had been the victim of yet another prank. “Vinyl that wasn’t funny or in good taste, you terrified me and nearly hurt uhhh your new friend.”
Vinyl thought about it for a moment before responding, “It wasn’t the best I could come up with on the spot, but I didn’t really expect you to try to hit Orion. The dude is like twice your size, I expected you to faint or something.” Vinyl was shocked when she noticed Octavia was shaking from the experience, and only then did she realize she had gone too far. “Listen Octy I’m sorry, I didn’t think it was a big deal. I would never want to hurt you, would you forgive me?”
“As long as you promise never to do something like that again, I was so afraid that I had lost you,” said Octavia as embraced Vinyl tearfully.
“Deal” agreed Vinyl as she moved to kiss Octavia, but she stopped when she realized Orion was still there. “Oh hey, uhhh kinda forgot you were there. Sorry about all this, you ok big guy?”
The exchange of emotions had sent Artemis’s mind into a storm, their concern for each other was obvious but Vinyl had said they were just friends. He could smell Vinyl’s scent coming from inside the apartment; she hadn’t been lying when she said she spent a lot of time here. Even without being inside he noticed their scents were entwined in one room in particular what he assumed was the bedroom.
Was it appropriate for mares to be together now? Had they stopped caring about relationships between other species? Had it only taken 1000 years for them to stop caring? He had so many questions he almost didn’t realize he had, and he needed answers.
“Huh? I’m fine. If I hadn’t been looking at her I wouldn’t have even noticed,” he said as he tried to calm the storm of questions in his head.
“Still I feel bad for all this, how about you come in and I make you breakfast as a thank you and sorry,” offered Vinyl.
“If you let her cook breakfast you certainly will be sorry. Since I was the one who hit him and I don’t feel like having my stomach pumped, I will cook” said Octavia as she turned to go inside.
Artemis weighed his options. Go to the castle according to plan and spend 12 hours alone with his thoughts waiting for Celestia, or have breakfast with two interesting mares while learning about this strange new future. The choice was obvious to him, “I’m in no hurry anyway, I’d love to take you up on your offer.” Unfortunately the mares had already gone inside without bothering to listen to his answer, so he just followed after them.
Octavia’s apartment wasn’t as over the top as he expected from the outside, the living room had two large leather seating cushions, one occupied by Vinyl, a small glass table, another one of the lighting devices in the corner, a well maintained cello on a stand, and a large black rectangle in the middle of the far wall. There were a few bookcases and various paintings on the walls, but it wasn't anything like he expected it to be.
While he was standing there taking in everything he vaguely heard Octavia speaking, “Vinyl said you picked her up after she was thrown out of Sal’s. Thank you for that, she has a tendency to be reckless, and not everypony is kind enough to pick up a drunken mare and bring her home unharmed.”
“It wasn't a problem, I insisted on helping her. Nothing can survive purely on its own, and it saddens me to see anything ignored in its time of need,” said Artemis as he jerked his head toward the stove at the sound of ticking. “You have a device that traps natural gas to use for fire?”
Octavia was slightly thrown by the question until she heard Vinyl call out, “He said he was from outside the country and had been living under a rock his whole life. I don’t think he knows much about modern technology Octy.”
With that Octavia felt a pang of pity and surprise, “Oh uhhh no. The gas is funneled in from an outside source, and the device is called a stove.”
“Interesting,” said Artemis as he began to explore the kitchen.
During the time that Octavia was cooking, Artemis kept himself busy analyzing and guessing the functions of most of the devices in the kitchen, much to the astonishment of Octavia. His lack of information on technology wasn’t a sign of stupidity, for he was very intelligent almost frighteningly so. It made her more curious about where he came from, most countries with a sizable amount of Ponies had fairly modern technology.
“So Vinyl mentioned you were here to see a friend,” Octavia started ignoring the sudden and blatant gestures from Vinyl to avoid the topic. “What’s the occasion?”
He noted that Octavia was ignoring the signals from her friend, but he wasn’t going to let himself respond like last time.
“It has been a long time since we last saw each other, and now is the first time since I’ve had the opportunity to come and settle our business.”
“Unfinished business is it? Which one of you is holding onto the past?” Octavia asked as she casually cracked an egg into a bowl. She knew how hard it could be to let go of a grudge, and if that inferno of rage she glimpsed earlier was directed at anypony she feared for their safety.
Artemis was so stunned by the directness of her assertion he hit his head pulling it out of the freezer he was investigating. He started to get angry at how casually she seemed to assume it was merely holding onto the past, but before it showed he calmed himself reminding himself that she knew nothing of his life.
“I haven’t seen or heard from her in ages, I have no idea if it is still as fresh for her as it is for me. I doubt she has changed much so she probably is ignoring her feelings about it honestly, but I’m the one who can’t let go of the past.”
“Well it already happened right? You should get over it and look to the futu-“ Octavia’s sentence died in her throat as she felt the anger radiating off of the guest behind her.
“Get over it? Look to the future and try to make sure it never happens again? You were going to say something along those lines right? In one moment I lost the love of my life, my best friend, my family, my comrades, and my future. SHE TOOK EVERYTHING FROM ME!” He suddenly yelled before he slid to the ground his back against the wall. "Everything and everyone I ever loved, now gone because she betrayed me, but I'm just supposed to get over it?"
Octavia was shocked by the sudden outburst, but she more shocked that she thought she was starting to hear sobs attempting to be repressed. She knew she could be a little callous at times, but she didn’t expect this to be such sensitive subject. She was hoping to convince him to forgive whoever hurt him, she definitely wasn’t trying to bring him to tears, but as she started to open her mouth Vinyl moved past her towards the stallion. After shooting her a look that was a combination of “I tried to warn you” and “look what you’ve done”.
Artemis couldn’t believe he was crying in front of these mares he barely knew, he couldn’t help but realize how much being around the ponies and Tartarus had changed him. Weakness that he couldn’t allow to weigh on him before had crept into him over the centuries. Ponies never ceased to amaze him with their ability to influence anything they interacted with.
Before he could sink deeper into the tar pits that were his own thoughts, he felt a hoof land gently on his shoulder. He turned only to meet the eyes of Vinyl, without her glasses covering them she was surprisingly easy to read. Her compassion and empathy was obvious but beneath that was a combination of confusion, curiosity, and the slightest amount of fear. While he preferred most ponies to have a healthy fear of him, he didn’t like the idea that he was scaring either of these mares.
“’I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have yelled,” he said as he wiped away his tears. “I shouldn’t have lost control of myself, and it seems to be happening more often.”
“Don’t worry about it, Octy can be just as insensitive and stubborn as me sometimes,” said Vinyl as she shot a smirk towards her marefriend. “Your friend is a touchy topic, I get it. Bottling up your emotions isn't healthy though if you want to talk about it we will listen, and if you don’t we can talk about something else.”
Artemis nodded and took a moment to consider his options. “I’m not ready to go into detail, but she betrayed me and took the only things I lived for away from me. She didn’t have the mercy to end me as well, and since then I have been dead in every way except physically.”
Octavia and Vinyl were so stunned they could only stand there in the kitchen slack jawed and wide-eyed. However after recovering from their shock Octavia was the first to respond. Murder wasn't unheard of in Equestria, but rarity of it especially in mass still left them unprepared for the revelation.
“Words cannot begin to express how sorry I am for your loss and for my behavior,” Octavia repented. “I never imagined something so awful happened, and I didn’t mean to minimize your loss.”
“It is fine. You couldn’t have known, but I think you had good intentions.”
“So you are here for revenge right?” Vinyl looked more seriously at the stallion before her than she had before. “I mean, that’s the only reason I could see why you would come here, and I would be here for the same thing if I were you.”
Artemis noted the change in Vinyl’s demeanor, and how it seemed to be unsettling even to Octavia, before he responded. “I’m not sure yet. If I only wanted revenge, we wouldn’t be having this conversation, but I can’t guarantee I won’t attack her on sight. I’ve spent so long trying to hate her, but I can’t even fool myself into thinking that I do. I can’t tell if it is because of our past friendship or if I’m just so dead inside I’m beyond hate. However I do know that I want answers, and I will have them.”
At that Vinyl took a deep breath and seemed to return to her more aloof self. “Well take it from me, revenge won’t do you any good. It will only continue the cycle of violence, the ones who love her will go after you again and so on and so forth. Plus it is never as satisfying when moment comes anyway,” winked Vinyl.
“Wow, that was actually intelligent, thoughtful, and wise."
“Hey I didn’t sleep through every lesson somepony tried to teach me, just the ones at the university” laughed Vinyl. “Just promise me this Orion, don’t do something you will regret.”
He had already considered the possibility of his revenge against Celestia creating a permanent rift between the wolves and ponies, but he figured in the moment he wouldn’t care and could handle the consequences. Even so Vinyl’s promise was easy enough to keep, whatever he did he would commit to 100% even if he decided to end Celestia.
“I promise.”
“Good now let’s eat, all these emotions are making me hungry,” said Vinyl as she lowered her shades and grabbed her plate with magic.
They ate mostly in silence, but Artemis could feel the burning curiosity coming from Octavia. He knew she wanted to ask questions, but she was restraining herself to spare his feelings. After a while he figured it wouldn’t hurt to answer her.
“You seem like you have a lot of questions for me, and as long as they aren’t about my friend or that night I would be happy to answer them,” said Artemis as he made a note to find meat when he was out of the city. The battered bread with sweetened tree sap was delicious but unsatisfying. Most ponies were vegetarians, and while he could survive off of plant life he much preferred meat.
Octavia had many questions about that particular event, but she wasn’t surprised nor disappointed to hear that stipulation. “Vinyl said you were from outside the country, but what is your home like?”
“It was a beautiful land that I fear only knew peace for too short a time,” began Artemis sadly. “The inhabitants were mostly friendly as long as you weren’t seen as a competitor, and each of the seasons had a beauty all their own. It had great expanses of plains, lush forests, and even frigid tundra to the north. We had nothing like the technology and tools you have now, but life was simple and amazing none the less.”
“You talk about it like something changed, what happened?
“I don’t know, and that’s the scary part. I’ve been away a long time. I don’t know what happened, but I fear the worst,” Artemis shuddered as he thought of what could’ve happened to his country after 1000 years without him.
“He said it was a place called Lupinia or something, we should check out it sometime eh Octy?” laughed Vinyl as she noticed her marefriend’s brow furrow. “Octy?”
Octavia merely repeated the name but asked no further questions on the matter much to Artemis’s relief. Thinking about home was almost as bad as thinking about Luna, and he didn’t need to start crying again. Though it did remind him of a question he really wanted answered.
“Vinyl, Octavia, do you mind if I ask you a personal question?” Artemis hoped he wasn’t about to cross a line, but still he needed to know more about this time.
Octavia had gotten distant since the talk about his home, but Vinyl was more than willing to answer for her.
“Sure, what’s on your mind?,” asked Vinyl as she took another bite of french toast.
“Are ponies still ostracized for unusual romantic relationships?” he asked knowing that the answer would only bring him pain regardless of what it was.
Vinyl turned bright red as she nearly choked on the French toast she was eating.
“Uh wh-why do you want to know?”
“Well long ago I had a special somepony, but she was of a different species. As a result we spent much of the time hiding our relationship from the public even though her sister was ok with it,” Artemis said with pain obvious in his voice. “Seeing you and Octavia gave me hope that things had changed, but you seemed to be trying to hide it from me so I wasn’t sure.”
Vinyl looked to a distracted Octavia for help, but found none as her marefriend had left her plate and was currently rifling through her bookcase.
“Well I guess I’m bad at hiding it, but uh things are better than they used to be. It depends on where you are really. Most large cities are pretty ok with it, but there are still places in the country where it can get you killed. The regulars of Canterlot are pretty ok with it, but a lot of the snoody elite don’t like it. That’s with filly foolers and colt cuddlers though, I don’t know how bad it is for the others. It’s not something that happens very often, and I can’t tell you what happened. Sorry,” Vinyl looked at his disappointed face and felt bad for him. She could tell he had been through a rough life, but she wasn’t sure if she should ask about it. “Was it the same mare you brought up before?”
“Yes it was, and don’t be sorry. It doesn’t really matter now anyway,” said Artemis as his eyes started to tear up slightly. “Anyway thank you, you both have been excellent hosts, but I must go before its gets any later. Before I do though Vinyl may I give you something?”
“Uh sure,” Vinyl said nervously as she looked to her marefriend who had found whatever book she had been looking for and was frantically searching through it.
Sadly all the previous recipients of his blessing had passed long ago, but this mare was somepony he wanted to keep tabs on. His horn’s glow matched his eyes as he started casting the spell, and by time he was finished a small oak leaf had appeared on Vinyl’s flank the opposite side of her cutie mark before it faded from sight.
“That mark is my blessing, if you are even in danger or your emotions go to the extremes it will alert me, and I will come to help as soon as I can, and if you focus on it you can talk to me no matter the distance,” explained Artemis. The mark did other things like give her an innate sense of direction while in more natural environments, increase her lifespan, no wild animal that enjoyed existing would ever consider harming her, and she would always be able to find food, water, and shelter, but those were less necessary to mention. “May it always keep you safe. I enjoyed the time we spent together, maybe we could do it again sometime?”
“Sure thing big guy, after you take care of business though, and next time you have to listen to us play,” smiled Vinyl as she walked him to the door. “We are gonna blow your mind.”
The thought of his mind exploding wasn’t pleasant, but he was sure it meant something completely different. “I’m sure you will,” smiled Artemis as he walked down the stairs out of the apartment complex. Vinyl’s way of speaking would take some getting used to, but she would be a good way to be reintroduced to the world, assuming Celestia didn’t do anything to make him raze Canterlot to the ground of course. If that were the case Vinyl and Octavia would be spared at the least. The thought of Celestia refocused him on his goal as he started off towards Canterlot Castle. The sun told him it would be two hours till noon, and even better his detour had been closer to the castle than he was before.
As soon as Vinyl closed the door she heard Octavia calling to her. “Vinyl get over here quickly.”
“What’s up Tavi? Why’d you go mia part way through breakfast?” asked Vinyl not too happy about being left to entertain her strange guest now new friend alone.
“Vinyl are you sure he said his home was Lupinia? Absolutely positive?”
“Uh yeah he cast a spell on me to make sure I would remember where I was leading him, and the name kinda stuck in my head. Why? What’s up?”
“Vinyl did you pay attention at all at the university? Look, Lupinia hasn’t existed in nearly 800 years. It sounded strange so I had to double check, but history says that their leader disappeared suddenly 1000 years ago.” Octavia explained while showing Vinyl the history book. “Without him to hold them together, the wolves quickly descended into chaos as in-fighting broke out. The griffons saw the chaos as the perfect opportunity to strike, and they descended upon the already unstable country. Celestia tried to send aid, but the wolves rejected it while accusing her of stealing their leader from them. Without aid the country fell and the territory became a part of the Griffon Kingdom. Most of the wolves were killed, forced into hiding or made into slaves,” finished Octavia as she closed the book. “Don’t you see Vinyl there is no way he is from Lupinia, but he accurately described the landscape and the wolves even though nopony is allowed into the Griffon Kingdom and the wolves all hate ponies for the disappearance of their King.”
“I don’t know Octy, I don’t think he was lying. Did you see how sad he was? Plus he helped me, a completely random mare who needed help even though I tried to fight him off. He didn’t seem like a bad guy and especially not the lying type.”
“Well he was either lying or he is over 800 years old. What is more likely Vinyl?” Octavia didn’t want to think he was lying but there wasn’t really any other option. “Unless you think he is over 800 years old of course.”
“Maybe he is like one of those cave ponies in the movies, you know the ones that get frozen and then unthaw in the future,” said Vinyl only partially joking.
“Vinyl that has to be the dumbest,” the rest of her sentence died in her throat. It would explain his unfamiliarity with technology, unusually muscular body, and even his claims to have been from Lupinia. “No, no, no even though that might explain a lot I don’t think that is even possible, plus he said he had to meet some pony he used to be friends with. Shame he never did mention their name, but that was probably intentional,” thought Octavia aloud.
“Yeah I guess that wouldn’t work, even the oldest ponies only live to a hundred or so. Well except the princesses of course, but come on it couldn’t be one of them. But I still don’t think he was lying though Octy, I don’t think the best actors could’ve faked that much pain.”
Octavia was growing more and more curious about this new pony. It was far easier to think that he had lied to them, but the emotion he showed before was so genuine it seemed hard to believe anypony could’ve faked it. However there wasn’t an alternative story they could believe.
Octavia’s thoughts were interrupted by the ringing of her doorbell, it hadn’t been too long since he left but she partially hoped he had come back. As she moved to answer the door she heard Vinyl shout from the couch.
“What if he is a wolf slave in disguise that escaped and came here for revenge? Earlier when I was forced against his back I felt some weird scars,” proposed Vinyl as she was trying to think of any situation that solved the problem.
“That’s worse than the frozen in ice one Vinyl. You watch way too many movies, and besides wolves can’t do magic like that,” chuckled Octavia as she went to open the door.
Octavia opened the door, and was mildly disappointed to not find their intriguing new acquaintance. However she was more shocked at who was at her door, “Well isn’t this quite the surprise?”