The Origin: Part 4
When Somber began to slowly wake up, the first thing he noticed was the warmth of another body against his chest and belly. When he opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was the blue mane. Looking a bit down he could see Wind Dancer with her head nestled against his chest, her warm, steady breathing felt slightly tickling against his coat. For a second his mind began to panic, then the memories of the previous night returned to him.
The celebration of autumn equinox, his story telling… the dance with Wind Dancer. Then his memories began to blur somewhat, probably he drank too much. However his memories gained clarity when he thought about where he was, and who was sleeping in his embrace.
His late night activities with the cream colored pegasus sent his mind into another panic attack, as Somber tried to grasp the idea of his… first time being with a pony. His pony body and ex-human mind were at odds in that matter. For some time now he believed that he had come to terms with being a pony… but now it became obvious that he still had some issues.
“Somepony’s thinking hard…” A husky whisper followed by Wind Dancer nibbling his ear, startled the dark gray unicorn out of his thoughts. Somber couldn’t hold back the goofy grin that appeared on his muzzle.
“I’m probably overthinking some things…” He answered nuzzling her neck. His panic attack interrupted, Somber decided to just enjoy himself for once in his life.
Two hours later, when the sun was already high in the sky, Somber found himself sitting at a small porch Wind Dancer’s house had. He was observing ponies finishing cleaning after the party and setting up their usual stalls. Everypony that passed by, greeted him with a smile and a wave, and he responded in kind. The spirits in Trottingham were high after the party, and the mostly cloud free and still warm autumn day probably helped.
When he heard hoofsteps coming from the inside of the house, he turned his head around to look at the lithe mare that walked towards him with a fruit bowl held with her wings. Wind put the bowl down before him, when she sat at his side and leaned against him.
“You know that I can’t stay here in Trottingham, right?” Somber asked quietly after he ate an apple, sharing bits of the juicy fruit with Wind Dancer. He felt the mare shift a bit against his side. When he turned his head to his right, he came nose to nose with her.
“I understand that.” When she spoke their noses rubbed against each other, making him smile a bit sadly at the thought of leaving her. “But… Nopony said I can’t travel with you silly.” Wind finished with a quick kiss.
“Wait… What?” Somber blinked rapidly before he leaned back and rubbed his forehead with his hoof. “Well, if you want to you can… But are you sure? This is your home you plan on leaving.”
“It’s not like I have too much to leave behind.” Wind Dancer admitted with a bit of sadness in her voice. “Also, if I… if we plan on doing it… I would join you after a few weeks, by the time you will hopefully find a place for us to stay and a way to earn a few bits.” She turned her nose up at the end, when she used her best posh tone, a large grin was spread on her muzzle.
Somber chuckled lightly and shook his head. After the last two weeks they spent together he was used to her antics, but he still couldn’t understand her mood swings sometimes. Anyhow he played along, taking a step back and mock bowing before her.
“As my lady wishes.” He was rewarded with a bout of giggles.
They ate some more fruits and after that went to do their daily chores. For Wind Dancer it was patrolling the sky around the village, for Somber it meant helping Keeper and Summer at the fields.
When he reached the fields, he quickly spotted the two earth ponies and approached them. Keeper noticed him first.
“Well hello there Somber.” The burly earth pony said with a mischievous grin. “For a moment I was worried that you got lost in Wind Dancer’s bed.” Keeper laughed when he saw the other stallion blush fiercely.
“Keeper!” Summer looked up sharply at her husband. However she too had a small smile on her muzzle when she turned around to look at the dark gray unicorn. “Forgive him Somber, I think that not all of the hard cider he drank… flushed out of him.”
“It’s alright Summer.” Somber stammered slightly, warily watching the earth pony stallion, waiting for him to drop another comment about his last night. “Well there is one thing we should really talk about… Me and Wind Dancer…” He almost stopped when he saw the light brown coated stallion raise an eyebrow in half questioning, half humorous way. ”It’s just that, well… after some thinking we decided that from now on I should live with Wind Dancer.”
Keeper was opening his mouth to say something, but then he noticed Summer glaring at him.
“What? I just wanted to say that it’s his life and he can do whatever he wants.”
“That’s… Good then.” Summer said slowly. “And Keeper is right, it is your life Somber.”
The dark gray unicorn felt surprisingly touched by their words.
“I still plan on helping you, you know. Otherwise I wouldn’t know what to do with myself…” Somber said with a smile on his muzzle. He knew that they wouldn’t have anything against him moving out, but he felt that much better now that it was kind of official and they approved.
“Then you’re more than welcome to help.” Keeper, now with a more serious demeanor, walked towards him and slapped him on the shoulder, making Somber stumble. “Now then, that the brake is over we have a field to plow and this one to inspect…”
During their work, the trio, or mostly the more experienced couple talked about their relationship making the dark gray unicorn blush many times…
**********
He was sitting near the stream that flowed not a half an hour of a trot behind the village. Glimmer was laying on a blanket, and was covered with another one she brought with herself to ward of the morning chill that lately dominated the mornings. But that was the way things were, five weeks after the autumn equinox.
With critical eye she was observing her student performing the hardest exercise she could came up with. Holding up multiple spheres of water, in varying sizes. The smallest one was apple sized while in the largest, Iron Hoof could have bathed easily.
“Very good, there are only small ripples on the surfaces this time.” She said with pride in her voice. She had introduced him to this exercise almost two months ago, and right now he was ahead of any average unicorn, if one compared them after those two months. “You can let go now.”
With a weary sigh, followed by five splashes of the cold water, Somber looked at the older unicorn.
“It’s still hard to keep myself so focused.”
“I would be surprised if it wasn’t.” The older unicorn stood up, an action that was accompanied by several of her joints popping. She grimaced. “Winter will be starting early this year, I can just feel it in my bones…”
For almost a week now Somber knew that Glimmer was avoiding a certain topic in their conversation. This water sphere exercise, was lately the only one he had been doing. He had read through majority of the older’s unicorn small library, even copied some of the books… And it was no small achievement, requiring him to copy the book word after word. The speed of the process just depending on his ability to focus, on reading and writing with a quill held in his magic at the same time.
He knew that he had learned everything Glimmer had to offer. And she was stalling.
Somber didn’t hold that against the older unicorn. With each passing week of his life with Wind Dancer, making the decision to travel to the capital was harder to make. However he had a late night talk with his marefriend about it, that just left Glimmer and Summer’s family, the other four ponies he felt close to in this world.
“Glimmer.” He said to get her attention, as she was folding her blankets. That meant they were ending for today, far sooner than any other times.
“I know Somber…” She responded after some time, with the folded blankets resting on her back. “It’s time for you to go, if you still want to.” She finished with a small, sad smile.
“You know I need to.” He answered falling in step beside her, on their slow return trip to the village.
“Then listen well Somber.” Glimmer began talking, not really looking at him. “Everfree City is far different from our village. And I don’t mean the obvious things like size.” Her eyes narrowed. “If you step on the wrong pony’s hooves, they could make your life very difficult. But it’s the political heart of the Kingdom, one couldn't expect any less there I think...”
“So on who should I watch out? Nobles?” Somber in his time in Trottingham heard quite a few stories of vindictive, young noble families that sought out power and influence.
“Them but not only.” She looked at him briefly. “Tell me, you saw Princess Celestia weeks ago, what do you think of her? Of the Alicorn that controls our Sun?”
The strange question made him stop and look at her with narrowed eyes.
“That she was the most magnificent and powerful being I have ever seen. But what does that have to do with anything?” He decided to tell the truth.
“Everything. For over two hundred years now, ponies looked up to the Royal Sisters, writing down their deeds, forming opinions… and legends.” Glimmer now too stopped and turned to face him. “That inevitably lead to forming of cults. The worst thing is that the Princesses didn’t discourage them. When I was leaving the city more than ten years ago, grand temples of both Day and Night were being finished, I shudder at the thought of how much influence the so called priests have now.” The older unicorn looked quite sour while she talked.
“If such cults exists, how come I didn't see any signs of it in the village?” Somber’s head was spinning with the news. So it would seem that this world even had something like religion…
“Trottingham, like all new villages is poor, as such no ‘priests’ come by. Not yet at least. But given enough time there probably will be shrines build in honor of the Royal Sisters, and some naive novices will be sent over to watch over them.” She shrugged. “And besides, all of us here have a lot of other things on their heads. However I’m sure that if you ask around you will find, that all of the ponies in the village have some small token of their faith in Celestia. Especially after that storm…”
He was intrigued to such a point that he did as Glimmer told him. He asked Wind Dancer first, and she surprised him, showing him a small pendant made from false gold, shaped like the sun.
“Why do you not wear it then?”
“I would have lost it, with all the flying I do a long time ago. And it’s too precious to me. It was my mother’s, you know?” Wind Dancer said, putting the small pedant back inside a small wooden box.
That alone was enough for him to know that Glimmer was right. But what he didn’t found was far more surprising, as only a few ponies had any token of their faith in Princess Luna... That only brought to his mind more troubling thoughts. What would he find in the capital? For the first time in weeks, he didn't sleep well as a long forgotten nightmare about his godfather dying in the Department of Mysteries returned to haunt him.
**********
The following two days were rather stressful for Somber. It was not that he had so much to pack, but rather that he had to leave the village behind. And even the knowledge that Wind Dancer will be joining him in the following weeks wasn’t as comforting as he thought it would be.
It was now late morning, and beside Wind Dancer, Glimmer, Summer, Keeper and young Golden more than a dozen other ponies was standing before him, to say their goodbyes. Golden Harvest was especially emotional, as she was hugging his leg.
“But you will write to us, right?” The filly asked looking up.
“Of course Golden, how could I not?” Somber answered petting Golden's head, and delicately prying the filly from his leg. When he freed his leg, he was assaulted by a creamy streak of colour with blue mane… again. “Wind, I’m not leaving you for good and you know it.” He whispered into his marefriend's ear.
“I know, I know… It’s just it will be a few weeks before we see each other again…”
He kissed her briefly, before letting her out of his embrace.
“I really should get going, it’s a long way to Everfree.” At the beginning he thought that he could make it to the capital in a few days, what with Wind Dancer reaching it in just over a day. But then he realized that by hoof at a moderate speed, it would take him more than a week. Possibly longer, if he stopped for longer breaks in other villages and cities. Wind admitted that she only made it in such a time at great cost to her health, of which everypony knew, and because she was quite the gifted pegasus when it came to flight.
He looked at the assembled ponies before him, and smiled. At least he was happy for a time, with a simple life. Somber put his traveling packs on his back, with a few of his copied books and some golden bits, along with some bread with fruits. He also had a water skin, which was a rarity but still affordable.
The dark gray unicorn turned around, and slowly began to walk away. Nopony said anything, as they all said their goodbyes earlier.
**********
Somber’s first major break was in Ponychester. He still had some bad memories regarding the mill owner, but when he took some time to look around he found the small town quite enjoyable as it was growing into a trading center for this part of the kingdom. When the cold rain began to fall, he was glad that he was in still inside the borders of the town, as he made a short detour to the local sew mistress to buy a heavy, black hooded cloak. He paid almost a third of his bits for it, as it was enchanted to be waterproof and somewhat warmer, but he didn't regret it.
In the coming days his new hooded cloak turned out to be invaluable as it was drizzling almost every day for hours, if not the whole day. However the roads turned muddy, making traveling that much harder.
During his fifth day on the road he came across a wrecked covered wagon at the side of the road. The sky was mostly clear and it didn't rain that day so he immediately knew that whatever happened here was recent, as the traces of fighting could still be seen.
Alerted and seeing nopony around he hastily trotted forward. He decided not to sleep in the open that night and just continued his trot towards the capital in the moonlight.
However when the next night came, and he found himself in a forest, and unable to go another night without sleep. He found a small grove with a large, hollowed, fallen tree. When he kaud down inside the slightly rotten tree trunk, he immediately fell asleep not minding the occasional bug crawling around.
He was having one of his more pleasant dreams about flying under the star filled night sky, with the full moon shining brightly.
“Wake up…” There was a serene voice carried by the wind. “Wake up.” He looked around trying to find the source of the heavenly voice. “Wake up or die!”
With a shudder and a gasp Somber woke up inside the tree trunk.
“Hey listen, did you hear that?” A stallions quiet voice asked, but in the middle of the night it could have been a shout.
“No brother, you’re sure the pony you followed is somewhere around here?” Another voice this time a mare’s, but cold and full of malice.
Doing some quick thinking, Somber cast on himself a basic illusion spell that made his coat’s color and whatever was on him blend in with his surroundings. And it was just in time as he saw two figures moving in front of the opening.
“Nopony’s here… Damn, we missed another one. Sorry Cinder.” It was the stallion.
“Eh, no matter there will be another chance soon enough, come on.” The now named Cinder answered, and Somber heard two sets of hooves moving away from his tree trunk.
Knowing that he would not get any more sleep in this place this night, Somber grudgingly returned to the road and began walking, all the time thinking about the voice he heard in his dream that probably saved his life…
In the afternoon of that day, the dark gray unicorn saw the first signs of approaching the Everfree city. Ahead of him he saw several ponies working on paving the road with stone slabs, around him he began seeing fields of wheat and other vegetables along with lone houses. In the distance, to his right he could see the border of a dense forest
Not an hour later he saw the first armed patrol. They were earth ponies and pegasi in chainmail armor, with swords or some with spears. He could see that their chest pieces had a crest resembling a massive tree. They looked at him suspiciously and even stopped him to ask a few questions but allowed him to move along.
When he first saw the Everfree City he was amazed. It was created on top of a hill, and had a river running through it, if he wasn't mistaken. He could see a massive wall surrounding what he guessed was the oldest part of the city, but now there were too many houses too count build outside of the stone wall. As he approached he saw that they were made mostly out of wood, some were made out of stone. The closer to the wall he got the better were the houses, they even began to have a second floor. However every roof was covered with thatch.
The city’s narrow, cobbled streets were packed with ponies milling around. Some of the building's he realized were in fact proper stores or inns, and some were just magazines.
He realized that in the whole city, there had to be thousands of ponies living, majority of them living outside of the wall.
Near the inner city’s gate there was a large square with two massive two stories high, stone buildings. They were simple in design. But he could see that they had a massive walled of backyards.
“Excuse me, but what are those?” Somber asked somepony.
“Those? City and land guard’s barracks and administration, why? You need help from them?”
“No, no… just curious.”
After that brief talk he continued his walk, entering the inner city. Inside the wall, it was almost a different city. Every building was two stories high, decorated and painted with small front yards. The streets were wider and cleaner.
When he reached the first larger square on his left he saw a massive, C-shaped three stories high building built from white marble that looked like some kind of school, it even had it’s own clock tower with a sundial. At least he didn't have to ask what it was as the words carved in a stone arch above a massive set of double doors said it all. “Academy of Magical Arts.”
Deeper in the city he also found the building of the Royal Archives, built in similar fashion to the Academy.
When he reached what looked like the central square, he was once again amazed. Before him at the crest of the hill he could make out a massive castle with a bridge over the river leading to it. On his right and left there were what he supposed were the temples Glimmer told him about.
To his left, was one made from white marble with rows of slim columns on the outside that had golden inlays that depicted the sun, or Princess Celestia. In front of it stood a row of brightly burning braziers. He could see ponies in white robes with golden trimmings and clasps moving around. It brought to him the images of old Greek temples, or at least what he glimpsed they looked like.
On his right was a temple made from black marble, with onyx and silver inlays that depicted the moon, stars and who he knew to be Princess Luna. It was built in similar fashion but instead of braziers it had a row of obelisks made from highly polished obsidian, with silver runic cantrips engraved into them.
The ‘priests’ also were far different.
While the Celestial ones were running here and there attending to the temples guests, the Lunar ones wearing their black robes trimmed with silver, with their hoods hiding their muzzles waited silently and observed from the shadows until someone approached them. Which didn’t happen often seeing as the Celestial Temple garnered far more attention.
So it almost made him jump, when one of the black robed ponies seemed to materialize beside him.
“Yes, can I help you?” Somber asked cautiously and maybe even a bit coldly, but the robed pony didn't seem to mind.
“Maybe. However I see you are tired from your’s journey traveller, come. We have spare rooms for ponies like you, those in need.” The Lunar priest’s voice was polite and cultured, Somber guessed he had to be a noble.
“Not to offend you, but how come you know I’m… ‘In need’?”
“Our goddess spoke with our Soothsayer, she predicted your arrival. Just as she saved your life.” The robed pony leaned a bit forward and whispered the last part, trying to sound mysterious… But to the dark gray unicorn he sounded only a bit creepy. Nonetheless the last part got him interested, maybe it was Princess Luna that woke him up in that grove? She was the Princess of the Night, who was to say she couldn't invade dreams?
That thought brought him to a sudden stop. If she could… Then she knew of his origins. That demanded a bit of investigation in his opinion.
Besides, didn’t Princess Celestia herself told him she would be watching his progres? Maybe it was time to make a visit in the castle. He raised his gaze, to look at the castle in the setting sun. Not today then, he sighed.
“Very well then, show me that room… I will not lie, it was a tiring journey.”
“Follow me then, and cover your muzzle my friend. At the Lunar temple we value privacy and secrecy.”
Somber followed his guide through the squire filled with ponies, walking towards the Lunar Temple and possibly the first night of good night’s sleep in days.