Sjelekval

by Frozenfistt

The New Guy

The new guy
By Frozenfistt
A/N - I just want to say thanks to the people who’ve read this story so far and their encouragement to keep writing. After giving some thought about how I want the story to go I’ll be adding the romance tag for much later in the story.
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As Luna trots through the halls of her castle, having woken up not long ago, going about her duties as the co-ruler of Equestria, she can’t help but feel a certain joy for simply being alive. Initially she was confused why she was suddenly so cheerful after having such a horrible dream the night before, but she just can’t help herself. It’s as if the heavens themselves had forgiven her of some great secret and lifted the guilt from her heart completely and she’s able to go about her life without this deed weighing her down. After a few hours of this she simply let it be not caring and enjoying this feeling.

Celestia seeing her sister since her little episode picked up on her joyful nature quickly and decided to talk to her. “So Luna it seems that you’ve gotten over that dream of yours rather quickly, and may I ask why you seem so happy all of a sudden? Not that I’m not happy to see you like this I’m just curious with the sudden swing in emotions.”

“Oh, hi Celly. No I just suddenly feel as if I have been forgiven of something I’ve done or a great worry has been lifted from my heart, and no I don’t know why I’m feeling like this after that dream. I’ve felt like this ever since I woke up and honestly I don’t care. I can’t remember the last time I’ve felt this good to be alive.”

“Well that’s good to hear and I’m happy knowing that that dream hasn’t caused you any grief. I’m going to go rest for a bit and leave you to your duties. The griffins are giving us more trouble with our territory along the eastern mountains again. They’re trying to gain more land for whatever reason, just though I’d give you a heads up for when you go to court.”

“Thank you Celly, and have a nice rest. I’ll see you later then.”

“Any time Lulu.” Celestia said with a smile.

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Lounging lazily on a left over cloud after having cleared the skies over the town, Rainbow Dash decides to take a nap in the warmth of the afternoon sun. While slowly drifting off into her own world she feels a sudden chill run through her body, now unable to get comfortable she gets up to take a quick look around to see if there is anything to do in the town. With her initial she quickly comes to a conclusion. There is absolutely nothing to do. Seeing as it just a few hours after ponies would have eaten lunch Rainbow decides she can see what her friends are doing later and thinks of a way to kill some time. Front legs hanging off of the edge of her cloud Rainbow just stares at the ponies walking by below her. Getting some enjoyment from pony watching she uses this to pass the time.

After a while Rainbow spots a peculiar sight, what appears to be a pony dressed from head to hoof in the most badass armor she’s ever seen and carrying a mace that even the largest of the royal guard would have issues lifting. Normally Rainbow would be all over this guy trying to find out everything she could about why he’s wearing that armor and how he’s able to carry the weapon as if it was nothing, but she can’t bring herself to even expose her head over the cloud out of fear of this pony. She first notices that the ponies armor has blood splattered all over it, not knowing if it was his or otherwise, that alone brought great fear to her not knowing how friendly this pony is if he’s been in a fight recently. Second as the pony starts walking through the streets of Ponyville everyone he passes gets the same reaction, they stare at him with fear in their eyes are appear to be visible drained of energy while being near him, as if his very presence instilled the effects of Fluttershy’s stare to everypony around him. Once he’s a certain distance away from the bystanders they go back to normal as if nothing had happened. They keep looking over their shoulders to see if they can spot the mysterious pony but they get back their energy and move on with their day hoping they never have to feel that ever again.

After having watched this strange pony for half an hour Rainbow notices one more thing that makes her blood run cold. His eyes. She’s not even sure if she can call them eyes. What she saw while hiding behind a corner of a building while the stranger was walking around she took a quick peek to see what he was up to. That one look, in that instant Rainbow was filled with something she never thought possible. Absolute terror, while staring into the void which she called his eyes she felt he very soul fill with dread. They were blood red and glowed so that all you saw was the glow of where his eyes should be. They were filled with a confidence and hatred of everything around him that would put the most ancient dragon to shame to try and match.

Though Rainbow’s mind kept telling her to run as far away from this pony as was physically possible, her body simply would not respond. Rooted to her spot around the corner all she could do was stare into the strangers eyes as to walked closer to her. Each step the pony took made time seem to slow down, the closer he got the slower time seemed to crawl along. Strangely enough the only things to go through her head was not what she feared he could do to her, no all she could think about was all the horrible she had done in her life. Skipping Pinkies most recent party because she simply wasn’t in the mood and lie to her friend that she had paper work to fill out that night. Berating a co-worker for her inability to do the simplest of tasks concerning the weather knowing full well she has a mental disability and has been trying her hardest the moment she landed the job. Bullying poor Fluttershy with Gilda while in flight school day after day after day…

Reliving all of her worst moment in life she failed to notice exactly why the stranger had passed her by. Quickly looking around she saw him continue down the street not too far from her acting as if nothing had happened. Rushing up to her nap cloud Rainbow spends the better part of the next hour trying to calm herself down and figure out what had just happened and why. Once she calmed her heart down, which had been beating so fast she thought she might have a heart attack, Rainbow was suddenly filled with sorrow for her past actions. Yes she had apologized and made up for everything she had ever done to anypony, but after reliving all of it she couldn’t shake the feeling that she had to just go beg for forgiveness from every one of them and even then it wouldn’t be enough to feel better about what she had done to them.

After calming down enough Rainbow decided it was a good idea to finally go see Twilight about this new pony in town. Quickly reaching the town’s library Rainbow knocks on the door. A moment later Twilight appears with a smile on her face expecting anyone but Rainbow Dash to be there at the door.

“Oh! Hi Rainbow Dash. What a pleasant surprise to see you using one of my doors rather than one of the windows.” Twilight smiles while teasing he friends usual entrance methods.

“Ha ha, very funny Twilight. Nice to see you too, how have you been today?”

“Oh not too bad. I had Spike help me with a few spells I’ve been working on, nothing too serious although Spike might have a different opinion.”

“NEVER AGAIN! YOU HEAR ME TWILIGHT, NEVER AGAIN!!!”

“Oh quit being a baby it was only a small growth.”

“Small! SMALL!! I had a second head on my back!”

“While I hate interrupting this warming family moment this is a reason why I came over Twilight.” Rainbow said after getting her laughing down to a respectable level.

“Sure come right in, I’ll put some tea on for us.”

Twilight goes back into the kitchen to get some tea going while you sit down in one of the couches in the living room trying to get comfortable with the memory of what she had just gone through fresh in her mind. A few minutes later Twilight comes back out of the kitchen holding their tea and various snacks in her magic. Setting everything down and getting comfortable in her own chair both take a quick sip of their tea.

“So what is it you wanted to talk to me about?” Twilight starts.

“Well after I was done clearing the sky for the day I was going to take a nap, unable to get comfortable I decided to pony watch to kill some time before seeing if any of you guys wanted to do something fun. While I was watching I saw a new pony walk into town.”

“Well that’s nice, did you go welcome the newcomer to Ponyville?”

“I thought about it at first but after watching him for a while I couldn’t bring myself to even get close to him.”

“Rainbow… What in Equestria could cause you to not greet this new pony? He probably thinks we’re all rude an inconsiderate since no pony ever greeted him properly.”

“We both know I’m the bravest pony there is in Ponyville.”

“Right…”

“But this guy… I’ve never felt this scared of anything in my life before. Just being near him caused my blood to run cold. All I could do for the longest time was hide behind my cloud and just stare at him.”

Twilight more than intrigued at the prospect of this pony’s ability to instill fear in her friend captivated her attention. Griping her tea cup as if she were watching horror movie where the most intense part of the movie was happening right in front of her.

“Ever where he went ponies would just stare at him. Every single one of them acted as if they were being subjected to Fluttershy’s stare at once. Not once did he ever look to the side at these ponies too, he just walked right down the middle of the street without a care in the world.”

“Before you continue could you tell me what this pony looked like? This is rather interesting and I want to hear the rest of your story, but you never told me what he looked like.”

“Ya, sure. Sorry I’m just really shook up by this guy. First the guy is covered from head to hoof in armor. You know how the royal guard armor looks plain and practical? Well the stuff this guy is wearing is nothing like it. The only gap I ever saw was for the guys eyes and even that wasn’t very big. His armor was so dark and elaborate my first thought was that he had to of been a part of some secret section of the military meant to intimidate any potential threats. He was covered in blood when he came into town; I couldn’t tell if it was his or something else’s. After watching him for a while I assumed it wasn’t his since he didn’t stumble around like he was hurt. He was carrying around a rather large mace thing with spikes all over it. The thing looked like it could knock a house down and he was holding it as if it have any weight to it.”

“That would be a morning star. Although, I have to question you about the size of it, it can’t be physically possible no matter how strong a pony is to wield such a weapon of that size.”

“Well I never did see him swing it around thankfully, but he walked around as if he was taking a walk through the park.”

“Hmm, well I’ll just have to get a better look at it and this pony later. Please continue.”

“After sneaking around watching him I ended up hiding around a corner of a building as he was walking down the street toward me. When I peeked around the corner at him I got a good look at his eyes.”

Rainbow trails off suddenly and just stares into her tea cup as if lost in thought. Twilight picked up on this soon enough and became a little concerned for her friend.

“Uh Rainbow? Are you feeling ok?”

“What? Oh ya, I’m fine what were we talking about again?”

“You were about to tell me about this strange pony’s eyes when you suddenly trailed off.”

“Right, right. Ya this pony’s eyes were something else. The only way I can really describe them as just pure red glowing orbs. That’s all there was too them, but when I looked into them they caused me to freeze up right then and there out of fear.”

Deciding not to say exactly what it was that scared her Rainbow finished up her description of the stranger. Twilight having been listening to her friend with bated breath was now more than eager to see this stranger for herself. Deciding that meeting this new pony would be a great excuse to get out of the library for a bit and to give Spike time to recover from the experiments, got up from her spot and cleared the area of their quick snack.

“I would love to meet this new pony. It seems that everything about him interests me, simply I can’t think of anything that is able to fill a pony with such fear as you’ve just told me about this pony and all of this from just looking at him from a distance. Since he didn’t seem to be out right aggressive, how would you like to come with me and try and talk to him?”

“I don’t know Twilight. Are you sure this is a good idea? What if the guy has some serious personal issues he’s just waiting to dump on the first pony to talk to him?”

“Well if that’s the case we can just ignore whatever he says knowing they’re just mean spirited words meant to hurt us. And if he is suddenly extremely aggressive I’ll still be able to deal with him while you go get help.”

“Well... I guess we could, but the first sign of trouble and I’m flying us out of there got it?”

“No problem.”

With that the two set off to find the mysterious new pony and try and talk to him.

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Taking his first steps into the town Sjelekval noticed a few things. This town, rather this world, is filled with bright colors almost to the point that it hurt his head to even be looking. He could see these pony things all over the place coming to the conclusion that they were the dominate species on this world. Lastly he noticed the lack of protection these ponies took in their lives. No guards, no weapons, no defenses, no alarms, nothing. Either these ponies wield great power that remains to be seen or they have no fear for their lives from any outside force. Seeing the latter being the most likely reason Sjelekval continued his stroll through the town. Hefting his mace back into a more comfortable position on his back he started to think about naming it. While going through possible names for his weapon of choice Sjelekval noticed a new sensation creep up on him. Finally noticing all the eyes staring at him he was overcome by a rather familiar sensation.

He could FEEL the fear and dread these ponies had from his presence alone, he could feel their insecurity as if he was feeding on it. It filled him with that joy he felt while killing the manticore not long ago, but at the same time it was different. Killing the beast filled him with a joy that he was able to continue on without needing to feel again, but this. This was completely different, it seemed to enter him completely and then disappear into him. He was feeding on the fear these ponies had of him. Not wanting this feeling to go away Sjelekval continued to walk around town bathing in their fear, feeding on their dread, wanting to bring them within an inch of their death to increase the sensation.

Much later Sjelekval started to realize something; the joy he was feeling from these ponies was starting to fade. Noticing that the fear in their eyes hadn’t changed he knew that he was getting used to the feeling and that it was leaving a void that begged to be filled back up, but how? You then notice a cyan pony with a rainbow mane sticking her head around the corner of a building staring at you, or more accurately staring into your eyes. Her expression is rather unreadable outside of absolute horror. You continue walking down the street toward the mare as she continues to stare into your eyes. Once you walk by her you’re suddenly overcome with that same sensation, you can feel the regret and pain this mare has caused to others in the past. This in turn fills that void that was left behind, knowing how you’re going to feed this hunger of yours you leave the mare behind you with a grin that would make a predator run scared, not that anypony can see it.

Comments

[StoneWard]

Wow, that was very descriptive for a stroll around town. I like your writing a lot and hope you continue writing!

[Frozenfistt]

193612
Well my intent is for people to truly know what it is this pony is going through and how these discoveries shape his future actions.
I've always seperated a good story from a great one by the amount of detail and character development the writer bothered to write creating a connection between the character and the reader.
Considering this is my first 'story' based writing in god knows how long, you saying that you like my style is a big boost to my ego and I thank you.