Chapter 25
Agroth POV
"Yes Arthur, I'm back to normal." I say.
"Well, good. Did you kill Solaire as well? I see Joshua's still here."
"Yes, I did. I don't know what came over me, I saw the ponies all acting so horribly to each other. I just became so angry." My fists clench up, then I release. "Can you all ever forgive me?"
"Well, I'm back, Joshua's still here, and so are the ponies. I forgive you."
"You were under Discord's spell, we forgive you too." Twilight says, speaking for the Elements.
"I forgive you of course." Joshua says. "And you know Solaire will when he finds you're back to normal."
"Thank you all." Solaire walks down the hill and meets the entire group.
"Hello, is he...?"
"Yes, Solaire. I am."
"Well good." He turns to the ponies. "I know how much you have probably come to love Lordran, but we must go." He says sarcastically.
"You probably don't hate it as much as we do. We've had to spend years here, many of which were spent rotting in a cell." I say.
"Can we leave now?" Pinkie asks.
"Yes, let's go." I respond. I'm glad to be on the way back to Equestria. We walk up the hill to the bonfire, then warp to the Undead Parish. We materialize at the bonfire, the only sounds are the crackling flames and consistent tinging of Andre's hammer on the anvil. We all walk downstairs and slip past the old smith, who is far too busy working to notice us. We walk in a group through the room where the Titanite Demon was. All the undead, myself included, are on guard with shields up and weapons raised. The ponies happily walk through this new land that they blissfully don't know as we do. We enter the shadowy forest that is Darkroot, the ponies slow down and look around.
"Don't worry, we won't let anything get you." Joshua says. We sure will try anyway. A thundering noise shakes the ground and the trees. It was like a beat, like my hammer hitting the earth. We hear it again, and it repeats. Uh oh, it sounds like a beast charging at us. The other three know as well, and brace for a fight. We aren't even close to the hill leading to the basin yet, cone on! This is just inconvenient. We see the white head of a lion in the distance, its piercing red eyes stare at us with hatred. Its horns are like that of a goat, and it has four large birdlike wings on its back. The monster raises its tail, which is covered in spines and has a stinger resembling that of a wasp's at the end, with a fierce barb on the tip. A Sanctuary Guardian? These are supposed to only exist in ancient Oolacile! We turn and run back to the beginning of the woods, I'm not fighting it in a corridor, I want space to move. The guardian roars and chases us, the ponies lag behind. I stop, turn, and drop my weapons. The ponies rush past me, save for Rainbow Dash. She looks up at me with confusion.
"Agroth? What are you-"
"Go! I'll hold him off!"
"You can't just-"
"Get out of here Rainbow!" Solaire runs back and picks her up.
"No! I'm not leaving you!" I ignore her. I now stare the charging beast in the face. It lowers its head as it nears me, going for a headbutt. Before it can send me flying with its skull, I grab it by the horns. My feet slide back, creating large marks in the ground as I slide. I firmly replant my feet and push the beast with all my might. It slides back slightly at first, but the momentum causes it to slide back with greater speed. Finally, I shove the creature away from me.
"Agroth, come on!" Solaire shouts.
"You have to come with us!" A very distressed Rainbow Dash shouts. I turn. Fluttershy calmly walks closer to me as the monster gets to its feet behind me.
"Fluttershy? What are you doing?! Get with the others!" I turn just in time to see a giant horned head about to hit me in the stomach. I react to late and the horns connect, sending me flying back past Solaire and the blue pegasus. I struggle to regain my breath, Rainbow flies to my side and Solaire rushes to Fluttershy. Soon the other four ponies join Rainbow Dash, and the other two undead join Solaire. I take a few short breaths of air and attempt to sit up. About halfway, pain shoots through my back and ribs. I lie back down. Twilight says something, but everything is silent to me. I reach for my estus flask and painfully bring it to my lips. As my ribcage and spine are healed, and my hearing returns. "What was that?" I sit up.
"I said 'Are you okay?'"
"Well, better now."
"Ah thought we were gonna lose ya for sure!"
"Honestly? I won't be killed that easily. Wait!" They stop. "Do you hear that?" They shake their heads. "Neither do I." I get up and run to the fight. The guardian is lying on the ground, Fluttershy is stroking its head with a hoof. The other undead stand there with the same look of immense confusion that I have. Eyes wide and mouths agape, we stare at the yellow pegasus, wondering if we've gone hollow. I pick up my hammer and shield. "How does she-" I whisper.
"We don't know. I knew she was good with animals in Equestria but monsters in Lordran? Now I'm really impressed." Joshua quietly interrupts. Fluttershy quetly says something to the Sanctuary Guardian, it stands and flies away. We stare at her, surprised isn't a strong enough word. She blushes and smiles.
"I'm good with animals, and I've calmed a manticore before." We blink silently and say nothing.
"I haven't gone insane again have I? I'm not hollow?" Arthur asks.
"Either all four of us are or that really just happened." Solaire says. The ponies trot past us and we regain our senses.
"Well, I'm going to pretend that a Sanctuary Guardian never even appeared here today. I'm going to pretend that some of my estus is just gone, and I'm going to continue on to the white light that leads to Equestria." I say lightheartedly.
"Agreed." The other three chuckle in unison. We continue into Darkroot and walk to the top of the large hill, the bridge waits for us at the bottom. A little more than halfway down the snaking cliff, we see a faint glow about twenty yards away from us. I feel excitement from all four of us and we charge at it. We tumble over each other and struggle to be the first to get to the light, as the ponies still follow at the same pace, probably very confused. We reach the glow and we all attack it. My hammer misses, Solaire's stab and Joshua's combustion are both dodged. A crystal shoots up through the lizard and through the diamond on its back.
"Haha!" Arthur says. We groan at our foiled attempts to get the animal. He takes the lizard and rips the gem from its back. It turns to two Titanite Chunks and a glimmering stone of Twinkling Titanite. He puts the materials in his box and the ponies catch up.
"What was that all about? It looked like fun!" Pinkie says.
"Upgrade materials, these lizards commonly have rare ones." I say. "Let's move on shall we?" We drop down the ledges while Joshua leads the ponies down by walking. Eventually we all reach the bottom of the hill, and the wooden bridge that leads to the white light to the Everfree Forest. Solaire and Arthur lead and traverse. The ponies all traverse before Joshua and I.
"I'm glad Fluttershy's back to normal." He says.
"Did you end up under Discord's magic?"
"I did. They found me in Blighttown. We found you in Izalith. We all seemed pretty close together except for Arthur."
"Duke's Archives?"
"Where else?" He says with a chuckle. "You still staying with Rarity?"
"Nope, now I'm with Rainbow Dash."
"I expected as such."
"What do you mean?"
"She seems to have taken a liking to you. Almost as Fluttershy has to me and I have to her, you seem to be good friends almost. She didn't want to leave your side when you fought that guardian. I told everyone to stop so they could see your true strength, and to watch you kill the beast."
"And?"
"Fluttershy said she could get us past without harming it. Then I said that you could handle it. After I said that you got knocked quite some feet over us."
"Then Fluttershy calmed it, somehow."
"That night, before I left, before the gala, we shared stories. She told me of the day she met Twilight Sparkle and the others. I told her of the day I met you and Arthur. She said that she had calmed a manticore before with her kindness, I told her of when I had killed demons with fire. We are so different, yet so much the same. We get along so well for some reason. When I came back, the night of the gala, I stayed in her room. I showed her some of the things I could do with my new pyromancies."
"What did you show her?" I ask, genuinely intrigued by his story.
"I focused, hard. And I made a hummingbird of flames in my hand. A delicate creature made of fire. When I showed her, she smiled and her eyes glowed it seemed. I made the hummingbird fly up to her face and land on her nose. Then it disappeared." I remain silent.
"Why did you share this with me?"
"Because, it seems like you have that with Rainbow Dash. Don't let it rush past you like you let time rush past you." I pause.
"Thank you Joshua, I won't. Thank you." He pats his hand on my shoulder, then traverses. I stand there, thinking about what he said. Rainbow Dash and I are friends, but not quite as good of friends as that. That'd be nice though, for certain. I traverse.
I arrive to the six ponies and three undead anxiously awaiting my arrival. They sigh in relief that I arrive okay and on time, in spite of how long I stayed in Lordran to hear Joshua's story. Discord will pay. The guilty pay the price. Always.
"Agroth?"
"Hm? What?"
"You okay?"
"Yes, must have started daydreaming there for a moment. Let's go get Discord then." We walk through and finally out of the forest. We come to see a horribly chaotic Ponyville. Arthur and I stand surprised at the sight.
"Oh, right. After you two left things really went downhill." Joshua says.
"By the looks of it, I'd say downhill is not powerful enough to describe it."
"It's pure chaos." The mage says.
"Which is why we need to hurry up and get Discord out of here. So stop dragging your hammer and catalyst and let's get a move on."
"Agreed. Let's go Arthur." He tugs his robes off and transforms with the dragon stones.
"Now I'm ready, let's go." He snarls.