Lived on an island for years. Lost everything but my skill in burning, blowing things up and making insane devices.
I had it all, money, a girlfriend, and a sweet hot rod. Yet on one random day, a dragon flew over our volcano and it started to get all active. Through and through, my life was turned upside down and I now have to fight for a living. Of course I would invent things to either kill easier, or get money to get gear to be able to kill easier. I decided to invent something so awesome and clearly never tried before, so I can get rich and never have to worry about burning or blowing up things to make a living. Don't think I'll stop burning things or blowing things up, that'll be a hobby after I get rich.
I know what you’re thinking I’m just another insane Goblin who been using his mind control hat too often and long; but I’m not joking I really did go to another world. No, I’m not talking about that burning hunk of rock flying through the netherstorm known as Outlands. I’m talking about a world that isn’t on fire and well... intact. This is a world with talking Ponies and other creatures I never seen before.
I bet you’re wondering how I got there and got back right? What was that? You don’t care that I got back? No wonder why I killed you. Well I’m going to tell the story anyway.
“Gah, why doesn’t this fit?” I said finally after trying several times to fit the last tubing to my new and most impressive device.
“If you heed my past warnings, you would stop tampering with the transporter device before you blow up... again” a robotic voice spoke.
I turned around and looked at the owner of the voice. It stood on two legs and had two arms. The body was brown with orange markings all over. The arms and legs were not attached it the body, the parts floated slightly away from where the joints would normally connect. and where the stomach should be a orange crystal is in place. It is the sunreaver Micro-sentry that I... liberated from Haywire.
“I’m almost done Qira. Once I finish my master transporter I’ll be able to go anywhere I please. I’m going to be richer than the Trade prince when I sell this design” I said with pride.
“Which one?”
“I... Gallywix of course. It’ll show him for taking all my life savings, and trying to sell me into slavery. Also... yes I completed it!” I said once finally pushing the last part in its place.
Taking off my goggles and putting my scope with the green lens over my right eye. I stepped back to observe my invention with awe.
The device took shape of a rifle, but had several wires and gems on barrel and stock. On the end of the stock, there were several levers and buttons. The most notable thing about the device is scope or what should be a scope on a normal gun. The scope glowed in several different colors at once and repeatedly sparks. I took one more look at my greatest creation and then decided to pick it up.
“Why give it a shape of a gun? You are a horrible shot, even if it was usable like one” Qira questioned.
“Hey, my father was a great hunter” I defended.
“The same one who was killed by a bunny rabbit and then exploded?”
“That was no ordinary rabbit, it was a monster... Though I never found it after that day. Why did I even tell you that story?” I asked no one in particular.
“You told me all your stories, despite the fact that I did not want to listen”
“Well time for a test run”
“You just completed it, aren’t you supposed to check it over several more times before trying to rip the fabric of-”
Without listening anymore to Qira’s insane worries, I flip several of the switches and then typed in a coordinate on the keypad: 7, 3, 19. After not checking the coordinates again, I pulled the trigger. Nothing happened.
“What?” I said to no one.
“Looks like another failed attempt sir” Qira said with little emotion. Then it looked at the coordinates I had put in, “lucky for you, because that input would’ve thrown us right at the Maelstrom and surely we wo-”
Suddenly a flash of light appeared where the duo was and then they vanished. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Once the flash worn out of my eyes I noticed three things. One, I was falling; two, I was above the maelstrom; and three, Qira was on my back. Before we fell any further I cast slow fall on myself to give me time to come up with a perfectly good reason why it is not my fault.
“I warned you sir” Qira simply said.
“This isn’t the first time a porter went wrong. You remember when my evil twin appeared next to me” I defended.
“I don’t want to be reminded of that incident”
“Also back before I found you, I got turned into a trogg”
“Well maybe you shouldn’t go mixing your spells and gadgets together. ESPECIALLY when it is fire spells”
“I didn’t use any normal spell for this thing, I mean I only used arcane stones used for teleporting to certain locations”
With the slow fall finally wearing off, our speed started to pick up again. As I was about to recast it, a loud voice rang through my ears, disrupting my concentration.
“I AM DEATHWING! THE DESTROYER! THE END OF ALL THINGS! INEVITABLE! INDOMINA-”
Before the rest of the insane rant could be heard I crashed into the swirling vortex.
I jolted awake after what felt like I was being zapped. I looked around to see who zapped me and soon my eyes set upon Qira. The Micro-sentry seemed disappointed that it didn’t cause any permanent harm, but him being a ‘micro’ sentry he would never be able to kill anything bigger than a little critter. I soon realized that I wasn’t dead or in chains to someone I owe money too. I am in a park, of what I found strange as I wasn’t allowed in parks after blowing up the last one. The blowing up of the last park was also strange because there wasn’t anything explosive in that one.
Taking another look around, I noticed I was in a town of some sort, much more colorful at that. There is another, quite important, detail that I saw. There is a horse staring at me. It has a yellow sort of color with a pink mane. The horse is far shorter than it should be, actually being able to look at me in the eyes or I guess eye and scope, to eye and eye in this case. What struck me as odd even more so that that it wasn’t a blank stare like what I dealt with when I sometimes walk into Alliance towns. I concluded on ignoring the horse... thing to look around for my transporter device.
After several seconds I found it lying on the ground behind me, broken in several pieces. This would have been a problem if I didn’t always carry my tools and other things in my black hole bag. The real problem is that it is on fire.
“No! Nonononono. I used fireproof everything, I even excluded blazing powder this time” I exclaimed.
“Everything you touch eventually catches flame, I question how I am still functioning after being melted, blown up, trampled, smashed, cleaved, eaten, disintegrated... and blown up” Qira listed off.
“You said blown up twice”
“I know” Qira deadpan. “Stop complaining, this is my greatest creation I’m talking about!”
“Your greatest creation? Your greatest... We are lucky to not have been turned inside out! You should start counting the creations you made that didn’t exploded, burned up, melt, or just ended up to be plain useless like that equine translator of yours. Why an equine translator? There are none that even reach your kind of intelligent”
“I thought it was a good idea at the time... Wait, do you think it would work on these things?” I said motioning to the small horse that is starting to make annoying sounds.
“You can try. Maybe you’ll actually have something useful this time”
I open my bag fished out my translator device. Once I finished my quick inspection for any unusual damage, I flipped the switch and clipped it to my belt.
“-okay?” the small horse said.
“It works!” I yell out with excitement.
The horse thing jumped back at my sudden and comprehensible outburst and ran off. I stared at the empty path for a moment until Qira started to walk off in the same direction.
“Hey! Where you going?” I ask.
“I’m getting the heck away from you. If I’m lucky you’ll never find me. I had enough of your insanity and it must have been affecting me” Qira said without stopping.
“What makes you say that?” I questioned while attempting to catch up.
“I haven’t built a self-destruct device for myself yet”
“You got arms, but no hands. It wouldn’t be possible”
“You create devices that explode without the possible explosives or anything of the sort near or in them. Though I just assume that some sort of divine powers do it to you and are cruel enough for you to not die with them”
“You know I don’t believe in that nonsense. I mean this happened to half of the people I know back on the island”
“That doesn’t surprise me” Qira mutters.
“What are you?” a female voice came from above.
I turned my head upward and there is a winged-horse. I am not kidding you. There is a blue, winged-horse with a multicolor mane above me. Did I mention it had WINGS? Anyway, considering whenever I see strange things such as this; I tend to get tied up, attacked by dark magic, or ruin a good chance of negotiation. Since this is clearly the work of demons, I formed a fireball in my hands.
“Hey demon-spawn!” I yelled at the winged horse, “You forgot your daily dose of fire!”
Finishing the cast I threw the fireball at the winged-horse. The horse thing swiftly dodge the fire, did a loop and come speeding down at me in a blur with hoofs out in front. It would’ve hit me if I didn’t blink forward (Teleporting 25 feet).
“Why does this demon-spawn have to have wings?” I muttered to myself.
Jumping around to face the winged-horse, I saw that it crashed into the ground where I just was. I took advantage of the moment and start to cast another spell. The winged-horse stood up and went in charging at me, right into the frostfire bolt.
The spell simultaneously set the winged-horse on fire and freezes her wings in place. The effect caused the winged-horse to come tumbling to the ground and came to a stop at my feet. With the fire already burned out, I quickly froze her legs in place to prevent any movement aside from talking.
“Any last words demon-spawn?” I asked
“I’m not a demon-spawn. What is that even?” She replied back with anger.
“Likely story, everyone knows what a demon is. To not even heard of one... You gotta be from another planet, and isolated. Give me some better last words; rant how us mortals are going to suffer or something like that.”
“You’ll never get away with this you monster! Princess Celestia will stop you!”
“As much as I hate you sir, I believe it is in our best interest not to kill this equine. Also considering it hasn’t ranted any insane thing yet, I believe it is not a demon” the Micro-Sentry spoke as it walked up next to me.
Suddenly a golden aura appeared around me and I floated up in the air, away from the winged-horse. As quickly as the aura appeared, I became sleepy, very sleepy.
Cold. I woke up to a cold jail cell. The entire cell is made of stone, with a metal door leading out of the cell, but it is locked. The only other thing in my cell is a wooden bed. Since I had slept on stone before, I decided to set the bed on fire to keep myself warm. Focusing on a weak fireball, I failed to hear the door from behind me opening until I already sent the fire on its way.
Turning around, I saw another of those horse things. Unlike the other two I seen, this one is actually the right size. Its coat is pure white with a multicolored mane that seemed to blow in some wind that doesn’t exist. While the mane is scientifically impossible, well until you consider magic. I had to admit it was downright stupid to have a mane or any hair that long. After throwing my thought into the ‘burn later file’ I saw that the horse have wings and a horn. Oh and did I mention it seemed to be mad?
The horse thing spewed out a line of gibberish, clearly trying to communicate with me. I glanced at my belt for my translator, but it and my black hole bag is missing. Letting out a sigh I walk closer to the white horse.
“Without the translator I will never understand you. I’ll just assume you’re talking about how great you are and why I need to die” I deadpan.
The white horse gave a confused look when I gave my guess and walked out of the room. Since the door wasn’t shut, I followed it out of the cell. I had nothing better to do.
Beyond the cell is a stone hallway lined with doors similar to the cell I was just in. At one end there is a spiral stairway going up with two horses with horns in gold armor. The other end has a table with my black hole bag and translator device on it. The white horse is sitting near the table looking at me.
Deciding that it wouldn’t do me any good to blast the guards and run. I took the 4th best option. I walk to the table, picked up my device and then activated it.
“Now that I got my translator back, I can ask the one question that been stuck in my head. Where in the nether did you demons come from, and why am I in one piece?”
Now thinking back to that, I remembered Qira saying something about them not being demons or something. I thought he was lying. All magical and metal constructs tend to either run from me or destroy themselves after a week with me. Although I didn’t quite know that at the time, it would explain why that old water elemental ran off into the Molten Core. Now shut up, I rather not talk to myself. Why you think I keep you around? What is that? Ya think that talking to what is basically a corpse means I am crazy? Na, that doesn’t mean I’m crazy, it only means that my listener doesn’t run off. ______________________________________________________________________________
“We are not demons creature” The white horse said in a voice that would make a grown orc cringe
“Well I never seen a horse with wings, and the ones with horns are a special breed. Either this is some sort of fel magic, some sort of insane illusion of an old god, or... I suppose I could be dreaming” I list off.
“First of all, we are called Ponies. I can assure you this has nothing to do with any dark magic, unless you used some to get here”
“Old god illusion then”
“I do not even know what an old god is”
“In that case, I need to punch the bar keeper when I wake up”
The white… pony? Gave a large sigh and spoke in a calmer tone “can you just accept that this isn’t a dream?”
“This gotta be a drunken dream. There is no way I normally would dream about anything that involve bad negotiation or general negotiation in most cases” The pony just sighed and muttered something about this conversation going backwards and then raised its(her?) voice a little “either you accept that this isn’t a dream so we can discuss your actions, or you’re going back into that cell” “Prove that this isn’t a dream” I challenge.
“Gladly” the white pony lifted a hoof and slapped me in the face, sending me to the ground. Not that it was far away anyway.
“What was that suppose to prove?” I spoke while getting back to my feet.
“Pain doesn’t feel like that in dreams” the pony said with a smirk on its (her?) face.
“Blah. Alright I’m listening” I continued to rub my cheek.
“Good” The white pony’s face became neutral, “I am Princess Celestia, co ruler of Equestria and you are?”
“Uhh… wouldn’t that be a queen?”
“It is just how it is done here. Now please state your name”
“Fine.” If she is going to state some title I suppose I should. “I am Korrxx the Insane.” From the look of that face I think I should have went with flame keeper.
“Korrxx” Celestia said as if saying the name is bad luck, “do you understand why you are here?”
“Uhh… did I burn down another park?”
“Try again”
“My ex came from the grave to backstab me again?”
“No. Wait, what you mean again-”
“Demons?”
“There are no demons involved”
“Well I’m out of ideas. Unless, I’m going to be forced into slavery… for the 3rd time”
“We do not enslave anypony here or in your case, anyone. You injured one of my citizens, intentionally.”
“Whoa, whoa” I said while holding my hands up defensively. “Isn’t clear that you all made me think of demons?”
“I don’t see how you would draw that connection, but I can’t let you go for that. I’m going to assign a guard to you since you’ll never learn if you stay in the dungeons”
“So let me get this straight. You’re going to let me walk free, but only with some uptight guard following me around all day?”
“Yes”
“Great this will already be better than Qira. Well, that welding beam is going to be missed, and that 8 language translator. His nagging will not be missed, ‘take it slow, that’s highly explosive’ or ‘don’t poke the acid’” I ended with a mock of Qira’s voice.
“If your referring to the construct, it is in its own cell. Though it went dormant a few hours before you woke”
I would have said something if I didn’t notice that the hallway is starting to get really stuffy. Turning around I see smoke pouring out of the cell that I was in. As any sensible Goblin would do, I ran towards the fire and looked in. The bed is completely in flames and billowing smoke in all directions. I considered closing the door, but that is too easy. So I decided to throw frost lances into the fire.
It took over 70 lances to get that fire out, exhausting my mana. So I found myself on the ground breathing heavily. Seeing Celestia’s head appearing on the corner of my vision, I could only let out a grunt.
“I am starting to see why you are called ‘the Insane’. You first start a fire, left the fire alone and after that made it very difficult on yourself on an action that could have been simple” Celestia pointed out.
“Tired. Sleep. I sleep now.” I sputter out.
“I’m going to get a guard for you now. Don’t go anywhere”
Letting a grunt escape my form, I crack my eyes open to see my surroundings. I am still in the hallway as before. Except there is a difference, instead of the Princess, there is a guard looking down at me. This one is white, like Celestia, but a duller tone to the coat. I could see folded wings at its side and a light green tail. The rest of the form is covered with golden armor.
“I see you’re awake” A feminine voice came out of the pony.
“And I was hoping I wake up with a hangover” I said with disappointment
The pony rolled her eyes and held a hoof out to me. I grabbed the hoof, and she pulled me up to my feet.
“We are going into the barracks so I can drop off my armor. Then we will talk more details” She announced.
Apparently the armory is just up the staircase at the end of the hall. I really questioned the logic behind that, what if there was some jail break. The weapons and armor is right there. I mean, what if I decided to melt the door and make a run for it before? Or perhaps, a demon? In the end I guess it didn’t matter, most armor and weapons had to be specialized for me to use them.
Well it turns out that the guard armor is enchanted to change their coat colors. When that guard removed her armor, it changed to a very dark shade of blue. Why a green mane though? I’ll never know. Maybe that princess wanted to relate to my own epic emerald green hair.
“Are you going to stop staring in space creature?” the guard said, knocking me out of my trance.
“Huh? What were you saying? I lost focus” I responded
“The princess expects me to deal with this? What did I do to deserve this punishment?” The guard muttereds.
“Hey whats up man?” a voice in my head spoke.
“No, No. Not you, why do you have to come back… I hate you” I responded outloud.
“We never met” The guard stated.
“I’m not talking to you. I’m talking to the stupid voice in my head.”
“Way to secure your sanity bro, you want a medal?”
“No I don’t want a stinking medel. I thought I got rid of you after that teleporter incident. You know? Killing you while you were not in my head?”
“You did, but I found a way back in. You know you love me bro.”
“You are not related to me! You are just some mind corrupting demon that happens to look just like me in a physical form with a evil mustache.”
“You need your eyes checked. I do not look like you at all… Why am I even bothering with you. You even earned a title about being insane.” The guard said.
“I like her. Would you kindly tell her that I want to dance on her heart while freezing your own?”
“No I will not tell her that. I want you to go back to that burning hunk of rock where I killed you.”
“Hmmm… I think not, but I need to go see what you been up to for the past few years. See you later bro.”
“Curse you evil twin thing…” I turn back to the guard who seems to be writing a letter, with her mouth. When you don’t have hands I suppose you have to get creative when you want to write. “Whatcha doing?” I ask her.
“I’m writing a letter to the princess stating just how insane you really are” She responds.
“If you’re talking about the voice in my head, I’ll say that it controls none of my actions. That thing is like an evil subconscious. I think he killed my old one, would explain a lot in that case.”
“Do you even hear yourself?”
“Can we go? Not that I don’t like standing around piles of armor and weapons you can use on me, but I like to keep my little blade in my ba…I just told… dang it”
“Hand it over. You're already dangerous enough with your magic.”
“Uhh… can I get a do-over?”
“No. If you resist, you will have more problems to deal with besides your apparent insanity.”
I reluctantly pulled out a sword hilt has an amber gem encrusted at the base and no blade. I hold it out in front of me.
“Are you seeing things too? There is no blade on this.” The guard states
“Only when you fuel arcane energy into the hilt. It cannot be stronger than the user or it’ll blow up.” I demonstrated by channeling some energy into the hilt, creating a flaming blade long as my forearm. I stopped and put it on my belt.
“So it cannot be more dangerous than you already are. I suppose you can keep it.”
“Now thats out of the way. Lets go to wherever it is that I have to go. A gathering mission perhaps?” I hated those.
“We are going to head for Ponyville, so you can apologize for your actions. After that, I am just to make sure you stay out of troub… what are you doing?”
When the guard said something about apologizing I got hungry and conjured up some food. What? I don’t think I have eaten since yesterday. “I’m eating… you want some?”
“Your form of magic is very strange. I fear what is going to happen when Ms. Sparkle discovers you in town.”
“You speak of a magic sucking demon? A Fel Hound? Once we arrive tell me where the demon is and I’ll get rid of it.”
“If you touch her or any other pony, I will beat you to a pulp.”
So she isn’t a demon… and here I was getting my mind ready for some slaying. The guard stopped talking to me and start walking off, I followed. We ended up going into some city, I’ll not bore you with the details of how I almost destroyed one of the parks we passed along. Lets just say the voice came back and leave it at that. Apparently the ponies have trains, I asked the guard if I could try my hand at making the thing faster and add a few cannons. She only glared at me as a response. What’s wrong with adding more speed and cannons? Other than the fact that cannons means explosives and explosives means possible chance of exploding train when it is steam powered. I mean if the voice in my head agrees with me, how could it be a problem? Oh wait…
“Get off the train” The guard spoke after some hours of silence.
I did just that. I stepped off of the train into the town I was in yesterday, I think it was yesterday anyway.
“We are going to the hospital and you are not to get side tracked again”
“I hope it is a mental one, those are always fun.”
“Be quiet you, I need to find some inspiration for my next invention.”
The guard just shakes her head and leads me to the local hospital. _____________________________________________________________________
Did I mention my fear of doctors? That might have been important considering I’m now surrounded by them and freaking out.
“Keep away from me you doctors or do I have to use this adorable nurse as a weapon?” I yelled while pointing at a random nurse who is at the other side of the hallway.
“Only one doctor even passed you and you freak out five minutes after that?”
The guard punches me in the shoulder, hard enough for me to stumble. “Rainbow Dash’s room is right there”
I turned left and there is the room in question, along with the mare spoken of. She have bandages covering the points where my fire impacted. Other than that she seems alright, although the glaring eyes is getting annoying.
“What are you doing here” She said with great anger.
“Oh I’m just having the time of my life, evil doctors everywhere, the voice in my head returned, and I got a guard following me around.”
“What a nice summary of your day.”
The guard punches me again “That is not what you’re suppose to do.”
“Fine fine” I mumble. “I, Flame Keeper Korrxx the Insane, yes I was keeper of the flames back home until that dragon decided to reactivate the volcano, causing me to loose my home, my money, my girlfriend to betray me, and was going to be sold into slavery. Uhh ahem… anyway, I apologize for mistaking you as a demon-spawn.”
“Ah, an apology and general summary of the largest lost you faced, and here I thought you would stop dwelling on that.”
“Shut it you stupid voice, You try going through all of that while being taunted by a demonic voice in your head. Wait, you’d probably love it demon.”
“Who is he talking to?” Rainbow dash asks the guard.
“Some voice in his head, I would have him in the dungeons if I could” She responds.
The door behinds us opens and a doctor walks in. I screamed at the doctor, casted frost armor, jumped out the window and ran along the street panicking.
“Calm down already, I can’t focus on the surroundings.”
That shut me up. I saw that there were no doctors around me, the hospital kind anyway. That and the guard pony found me. I thought about asking for her name. Guards really are not appreciated I think since no one ever ask their names. I met what? Hundreds of guards and soldiers and only know a handful of names.
“How noble of you, learning a name of your stalker.”
I approach the guard pony, “hey, what’s your name?”
She seemed almost surprised that I even composed a legible question, I wonder why. No way was it because of my not random screaming earlier.
“Midnight Storm” the pony answered.
“Maybe she is related to that flaming unicorn vampire horse that you heard about.” ______________________________________________________________________________
Unlike many goblins I knew from my home, I actually traveled off that island a few times before it went boom. So I had a few contacts outside my home to get better details of what been going on the mainlands. I always returned rather quickly; and it wasn’t because I got tied up and sent back, obviously.
Now if you keep saying that I am lying about the ponies I’ll set you on fire… Although I rather not be dealing with a pile of ashes. Now now, why you have to go say that, no… no… fine I’ll show you some poof. See the details? The amazing uniquely of this item? No it is not just a rock, it is a rock from their world. Just perform a spell to see where it was last week, you’ll see.
Why you have to be a spoil sport… Saying that you’re dead and have no mana. That is a horrible excuse. Do I need to get my better proof? Hey now, don’t go complaining. I need to save the better stuff for later. Now where was I? Oh yeah, learning Midnight’s name.
"Nice name, so should I call you Midnight for short? Storm... MS, Midstorm, Stormy Nigh-?”
“Midnight, only Midnight” she interrupted with annoyance.
“Alright ma’am. You know where the nearest blacksmith shop is? That and a jewel shop? I need some materials.”
“Why?” Midnight asks with suspicion
“So I can make another of these” I tapped my translator.
“You made that? I find that hard to believe.”
“Hey! I’m very good at my crafts. If you can’t believe it, I’ll prove it!”
“Even so, how you expect to pay for these materials? I’m not paying for them.”
“With money, I’m not broke” I answered while holding up a gold coin.
“You’re only mostly broke.”
“Wrong currency, looks similar but clearly not a bit. So what you expect to do now?”
“That is only a minor setback; I can perform a show and make some money. You can be my assistance.”
“I’m not helping a crazy… whatever you are. I’m keeping you out of trouble, not assisting you.”
“Whatever, I didn’t need your help anyway” I turned my back to her and cross my arms.
“Half of your acts required an assistance, and a fourth of those have a high chance of horribly harming the said assistance. Not that I’m disagreeing with the horribly harming part.”
“Shut up voice, no one asked you” I whispered.
I went to find the market district of the town with Midnight trailing. it was a mere block away, so I didn’t have to ask for worthless directions. Now that I am in the center of the district, I pull a short fused dynamite out of my bag, lit it and threw it into the air. The explosion got their attention in my general direction, and some of them ran off in panic.
“Now that I have your attentions ladies err… mares and stallions, I shall give you a show! One like you never seen before!”
“Go away, we had enough of show ponies!” shouted one of the ponies.
“Whoa there, cool your baaing” I casted polymorph-sheep on the pony. “Now where was I? Oh yeah, I was about to perform some magic.”
“What did you do to him? Turn him back!” a mare screamed at me.
I turned her into a baby polar bear, “will you stop interrupting me? I am abou-”
Something hit my back and pinned me down on the ground, “change them back now” Midnight’s voice came from my attacker.
“What? Polymorph is incapable of hurting anything, and only lasts a minute at most, even heals them!”
“It doesn’t matter. You cannot go around transforming everypony, just because they interrupt you. Fix it now.”
“I can only dispel curses, anyone of you can remove a polymorph. Just slap them or something and it’ll brake. I don’t harm things for no reason, geez.”
“Way to go, using a line that will inspire confidence in everyone you meet… not.”
Midnight lets me back up to only twist my arm around and glare right into my eyes. “Do not even perform any magic again unless you tell me exactly what you are casting and what it does, got it?”
“Tell her that I’d love to hang out in her mind some time, I’d love to see her personal thoughts. Don’t you agree bro?”
“Shut up demon voice.” I turn my gaze back to Midnight, “hey Midnight, if I can’t perform a show, nor use my own currency… and I can’t pickpocket at all, how you expect me to get materials for my inventions? I really want to repair my flying machine too…”
“Flying machine? There is no way you can make something that sophisticated.” she scoffs.
Giving Midnight an evil eye, I opened my bag and pulled out the shrunken down machine, along with my shrink-ray. Setting the machine down I stepped back, flipped the shrink-ray in reverse and fired. The flying machine grew back to its normal size, about thrice my size, the damage to the main propeller became very obvious. The blades are bent in several places with chunks torn out of them. The boosters fixed on either side have many dents and even some black scales sticking in them.
“It looks like it had a fight with a Hydra and lost. What happen?” Midnight asked, astonished.
“A black drake that was trying to eat me ended up getting caught in the main propellers and fell onto the boosters, thus crippling any potential way to fly. I have to replace the propellers, patch the holes, and bang out the dents. The dents I can do, patching the holes is easy, but a tri-blade propeller set? I don’t carry sturdy metal in that kind of quantity.” I set out my tools and start prying open the panels on the left booster.
“Did you just make a completely sane sounding sentence?”
“I know my craft. Now look away, I’m not trusting you with my secret of getting this thing to go one percent faster than normal models. Not even the grass!”
“And there goes the slice of hope I had…” the guard muttered.
It took a while, but I managed repair what I could. The base mechanical workings of the propeller system been repaired, but I as I had no replacement for the blades, a total repair job could not be performed. Midnight seems to be quite interested in my machine, So much that she seems to question if I’m just acting insane or not, that’s what I thought anyway.
“So… does it work?” Midnight asked me.
“I’ll run and move, but not fly. Too much weight for the boosters to keep it beyond a hover” I answer.
“Again, you sound sane again. How do you do that?”
“How do I sound sane? What kind of question is that?”
“You…” she eventually just sighed, I’m causing a lot of that lately. “What now?”
“Well I’m going to find a way to make some money, I need those parts. Maybe you…” I looked over to Midnight with an eager look to my eyes.
Blue mare backed away shaking her head, “no, I’m not going to pay for the materials.”
“What?” I said innocently “No... I was going to ask you to help me with a show.”
She groans in frustration, “fine, but you do not do anything that will even change one hair on anyponies body.”
“It is not my goal to harm, unless you're a demon, undead”-a few exceptions on the undead thing.- “old god minion, or The Killer Rabbit.”
“Dare I ask... The Killer Rabbit?”
“It killed my father, I tried hunting the thing down, but it completely disappeared.”
“You better not go throwing fireballs at every rabbit you see.”
“No of course not, I would know those blood lusting eyes anywhere. Those claws… the teeth.” I shudder.
“Before we do this… show, what is your plans for it.” Midnight eyes me wearringly.
I walk up to the mare and whisper my plans into her ear. ___________________________________________________________________________
Ten minutes later we find ourselves in front of the town hall. Like before, I used an explosive up into the air to get the ponies attention, but instead of a dynamite, I used some fireworks. Again the explosion startled many of them, but far fewer ran off in a panic. No, some of them just glared at me and left the area.
“I bet you 10 gold that they are getting the torches and pitchforks”
Ignoring the voice, I jump into the air while unleashing my dragon breath spell straight up. When I landed, I find even less ponies in the crowd. Not letting that get me down, I pulled five wooden rods out of my bag, lit the ends and start juggling them. By juggling, I mean throwing them up into the air casting slow fall on each one, and kicking them back up every time they came close to the ground.
The crowd stops booing me, and starts giving faces of awe. I gave the nearest mare my best smile and winked. She seemed weirded out by the wink and steps back a little. Since that didn’t work, I winked at different one.
“What are you even doing? I’m in your head and I don’t understand your goal here”
“I’m trying to gain a loyal fan” I answered with a whisper, then I spoke up “Midnight!”
The Guard came up to me with a bucket of water. Where I found that bucket, I’ll never say. I take the bucket from her and let the torches drop into it. After that I drop it to the ground and casted flamestrike around the bucket. The ground bursts into flames circling around the bucket. The water bubbles and releases steam as I walk over to it, my fireproof shoes keeping my feet from burning. Once I got to the bucket, I called upon an ice storm to hail over the flames.
I took the bucket in my hands and threw the water up into the air, burnt out torches hitting the ground. The water bursts into a thick mist. I used the mist as cover to blink behind the crowd and perform a slow clap. As I hoped, the ponies start to clap err...stomp along, so I blinked back into the dispersing mist.
“Thank you, thank you!” I said while bowing to the crowd. “I call that Boiling Mist.”
I kicked the bucket towards the crowd in hope that they’ll toss in their bits. There was many clanking sounds as they came up to it and left. I walked up to the bucket and found many golden coins, but like Midnight says, there is a clear difference between a bit and the coins I traditionally use. They had an image of the sun on one side and the moon on the other, whereas the coins I used were basically a chunk of gold in coin shape.
I turn around to Midnight and spoke: “So, where is the blacksmith?”
Apparently, many metals that exist back on Azeroth did not here. Normally that probably wouldn’t be a problem, but of course it had to be the metal I wanted to use, Elementium.
“Fine if you don’t have no Elementium, what is the strongest metal you got?” I asked the blacksmith.
The blacksmith was a large pony. He was taller than me, very brown, and looked like he could rip me in half with a sneeze. The voice repeatedly expressed that it really wanted to control that body and go on a rampage. It liked a bloodbath more than a fiery explosion into ash it seems. I ignored the voice as fire is way better than a bloody mess.
“The best I got is Mythril” The smith states.
“That’s it? I have screws stronger than that! Do you at least have Cobalt?”
“Not at the quantity you’re asking. That material isn’t cheap, so I don’t order much of it.”
“Can you mix it with the Mythril?” I pleaded.
“It would cost you most of the bits in that bucket of yours and I will charge you more if you don’t collect the results in a day.”
“How long would this even take? I don’t know if I’ll even be in town tomorrow.”
“Heh, I forgot that you normally get ran out- oops... I mean leave town within a three day period.”
“Hey! I been doing better since I got rid of you two years ago. It is your fault, all you do is taunt me and taunt me. Shut up so I can conclude this deal” I say to the demon voice.
The blacksmith just kept a neutral face the whole time and when I concluded my short rant, he then spoke up “ignoring whatever that was... It will take me a day to complete the order.”
“Deal.” I hold out my hand for a… he doesn’t have hands…Before I could lower my hand back down, the big pony grab it with a hoof and shook my hand. I ignored how strange that felt and decided to just leave the shop.
I greeted Midnight whom was right outside the door, she simply nods in return. Before I could do anything more, I felt a snap in the back of my mind. This wasn’t like some random pain I felt some times when some other caster messes with my mind to stop my casting ability , this was a full on snap. It was like a wall getting destroyed and my body starts to feel stranger and stranger.
“Yes!” a voice that was not my own came out of my mouth. I think there was a little bit of black smoke too, but I couldn’t move my eyes to be sure.
“Korrxx?” Midnight said with a hint of concern.
“I’m not that idiot, you foolish animal. I have been trying to take control of this body for a long time. I had tried cloning this body, but its power ended up being pathetic comparing to this one.” It said holding up my hand with a burning fireball with black mist emitting from it. “The fool had no idea just how much power he had; and he use it for street performing? Idiot.”
“Hey!...Wait I can’t talk out loud… Beat this thing senseless Midnight!”
Midnight flared her wings. “What are you? Who are you?”
“Ha! I know what you are trying to do, getting me to rant about myself so you can destroy me while I’m distracted. I learned my lesson from last time. No, I am going to get rid of this nuisance” It started to cast a spell. _____________________________________________________________________
Now hold on there, I get that this maybe confusing. I know, I had no idea what happened other than that something took control of my body at the time. Clearly I got better, but thats besides the point.
This…thing, I’ll call it that for now cause I’m not spoiling it for you, was ranting already you see, but because of Midnight, it stopped. I hope you learn a lesson or two from my story, the number one lesson so far is that you do not rant to those who wants, or might end up wanting to kill you. That rant will get you killed and it did get you killed in this case.
Now where was I? Oh yeah the thing was going to cast some spell. _____________________________________________________________________
The spell, whatever it was, started to affect me. It was like I was getting pulled from my own mind and getting crammed into something else. Oh, he got a gem in his hand. How did I miss that? Must be what he is cramming me in.
Midnight beats her wings and charged at my body with her hooves out front, but before she could reach it, the thing blinked out of the way. Unfortunately for it, it dropped the blue gem it crammed me in along with the black hole bag and they wonder why I hold on the bag when I blink.
“I thank you for the little bit of fun I managed with you around pony” it said, “but I gotta run.” My body disappeared, I assumed it used an invisibility spell.
This stinks, I am completely aware of what’s around the gem, but I cannot interact with anything. Wait! An idea popped in my metaphoric head. Maybe I can send out a burst of energy or something, but… I don’t have my body anymore, I can’t use its mana. Ah whatever I can still try.
“Hey! Someone over here!” I managed to get a sound out apparently, wasn’t that much effort really… was this my mana gem? “Who’s the idiot now? You used a mana gem, sure you have my body… and I’m just… this.”
Midnight took notice of my voice, but at this rate she probably can’t understand me anymore, the thing took my translator too. The blue mare walks up to me… the gem version of me, mana soul gem? Ummm I’m thinking too hard aren’t I? I’ll just use “me”. Anyway she walks up to me and pokes me. I actually felt that!
“Midnight! Do you understand me? Please let some strange whatever magical property let you understand me. I’ll go insane if I can’t talk to someone, like demonic ranting insane! Like really, maybe bad as that warlock I ran into years ago. Oh no I’m already ranting. Help me! I’m ranting!”
During part of that umm rant, Midnight picked me up, had her ears fixate towards me and eyes were wide. I wasn’t really paying attention to that much, so what I know? I was too busy panicking about going into a rant about panicking. Oh please, please let this be a dream. I beg to whatever deity is out there.
“Korrxx?” Midnight’s voice sounded uncertain and a bit hard to fully understand, like a faulty translation, but it was enough to rip me out of my spiral.
“You can hear me? Yes! I’d hug and maybe kiss you if I could… umm ignore the last part please” I would be looking some other way if I could, but alas I couldn’t even block out half of what I see.
“What happened? Do you know where what that thing went?” Midnight asked me. I think she is getting some stares from some of the ponies emerging from hiding.
“ Um… it might have been that voice in my head taking over. I don’t know where it went…” my voice trails off into a quiet sob.
“Don’t cry now. As a member of the guard, I’ll make sure you get your body back.” Midnight promises, raising my hopes up a little. “Despite your… issues, I can see that you are mostly harmless against those who are innocent.”
“I’m glad you’re the guard I decided to learn the name of, but what am I suppose to do now? I can’t do anything. I’m going to turn into a bumbling mess, especially when the mana stored in this thing runs out. I wouldn’t be able to talk or even see possibly! On top of that, I think this is one of my pure….” If I had eyes, they be wide open now, “No… no, please no, no, why, why I’m going to die! I don’t want to die, but I’m going to. I never could recharge these. Why me, I really, really don’t want to die.”
“Korrxx, stop!” Midnight yells at me and I shut up. “What is the trouble?”
“This is a pure mana gem Midnight! When it runs out, it’ll just crumble away and I’ll die with it!” I start sobbing again.
“I’ll… I’ll take you to Twilight, she should be able to figure out something. How long do we have?”
“A day… at best.”
Instead of responding, the guard puts me between her warm wing and body and tossed the black hole bag on her back and start to gallop down the path.
Apparently considering this Twilight pony as a felhound was rather insulting, for the hound. The sparkle in her eye creeped me out to no end, it was like staring at succubus of knowledge. She made a bunch of odd sounds towards Midnight, like she was trying to communicate.
“Twilight, now is not the time to ask about that construct. We got to help Korrxx here.” Midnight said.
I was sitting there on Midnight’s back. I tried adding some comments earlier, but they fell on deaf ears. Like really, it seemed that only Midnight can even comprehend me now. Perhaps that is the reason, only those who hold me can understand each other.
“Hey Midnight, I think only those who hold this thing can understand me now” I state.
“How do you conclude that?” She ask.
“Cause I just said that sentence with bits of three different languages. Hey, don’t give me that look it is common to know at least two languages back home.”
Twilight lets out another incomprehensible sentence, seemed more like a question.
“Yes, I’m talking to the gem. I suppose Korrxx’s theory is sound, only the one who holds the gem can understand him” Midnight replies, “but that fact isn’t important right now. He needs your help so the gem he is trapped in doesn’t crumble away.” The guard gave a brief summary of what is going on
The purple unicorn frowns and says something, but again I can’t understand a word. I asked for a translation, and midnight said that Twilight doesn’t know anything about working with gems.
“I’m going to die… I haven’t even done half of my bucket list yet” I fall in metaphorical tears again.
“Twilight, are you sure you can’t think of something?” Twilight made a reply and midnight translated for me. “Twilight said she found a spot on your construct where the gem might fit in, do you know what it is?”
“Just try it now please! What I got to lose… besides my life.” I mutter darkly on the last part.
Twilight leads Midnight down to some basement of the house inside a tree. Who builds a house in a tree? Besides those Night Elves, they kind of hate me anyway. Where was I? We end up in the basement of the tree. It reminds me more of a laboratory than a basement and there it was, Qira’s inactive form in the middle of the room. Twilight was right about there being a spot in the center of the frame that the gem could fit in. I think that is where the sentry’s energy core was supposed to be. This might actually work, but… would I understand anyone here? I probably can’t make a new translator without having the original to duplicate some of the parts properly. Translator spells are very unreliable and I never bothered to learn any, if I can even perform any magic.
“Midnight, I might not be able to understand any of you when you put me in that. It is a little better than dying, but I’m not sure how long I can go without” I said
“What do you propose Flame Keeper?” Midnight asked.
“You… you used my other title!? No one ever does… Well I think I might be able to umm, leave a little of my essence in another gem for you to hang on to if it works like it does for this. Though that is really dangerous, especially if that gem is destroyed. It would be literally losing a part of myself.”
“It is up to you, I’m not going to make you do it.”
“Get an arcanite crystal out of my bag and have it ready.” I told the blue mare how to actually get anything specific out of the bag.
With the crystal at the feet of the sentry and Twilight standing in a corner cause I asked Midnight to tell her to cause she creeps me out, Midnight inserted me into the gap.
Hey I’m back. What why you so mad at me? Yeah, I know I left it on a cliffhanger, but it was for good reason. I mean, even if you’re a corpse I got to keep you here somehow.
I needed to go find some lunch anyway. Stop yelling at me, I wanted to actually eat something besides mana food. That stuff has like no taste and my bag doesn’t really do well at keeping food intact.
Now where was I? Oh yeah, I was getting pushed into that slot.
The sensation was really strange, my vision range was crunched down a bit, but I could see more magical properties. I wouldn’t even be able to begin to describe how it looked. Qira’s arms and legs or rather mine for now, I could feel them even though they are not attached. The most important thing I noticed was that energy was flowing into the form. While it was going in at a slower rate than my true body, it was probably enough for me to actually perform some basic spells and not run out, such as a fireball.
I heard Midnight say something, but I couldn’t understand her. This is why I asked for the arcanite, it is a strong crystal and very good at holding magical things. I lifted the thing up and focused my energy into it, enough to leave a trace in it, but not any further. I felt a small sense of loss when I cut off the energy, but there is a sensation that the crystal is a part of me. With that done, I start over to my friend, only to end up stumbling and near falling to the ground. It was kind of hard to walk on legs that aren’t exactly attached to your body, but at least Midnight caught my fall. She seems rather protective suddenly and I have no idea why. Maybe it was because something about possibly failing at being a guard before?
The mare said something, probably asking if I was alright. Well I would answer “no” I lost my body, have to be in a strange one that doesn’t need to eat, sleep, and whatever else in the world Qira didn’t have to do. It wasn’t really that I don’t have to do those things that bothered me; it was that I probably couldn’t do those things. On top of those things, that demon or whatever was doing who knows what with my body. It better not break my scope, I love that thing. If I find that thing broken, I would probably go berserk like one of those rage obsessed warriors. Those guys really should calm down and take a breather, maybe ride a raptor that didn’t have venom right underneath its skin. I did that once and let me tell you, never ever again. I couldn’t sit down for a week after that. It was worse than getting turned into a trogg that one time, especially since that was only for like five minutes. That gnome said it was an ultra-safe teleporter, how was that safe at all? Although danger didn’t stop that didn’t stop that Leroy guy from running into a room full of mature dragon eggs. Those people probably would’ve made it if that didn’t happen.
“Korrxx?” Midnight’s comprehensible voice snapped me out of my thoughts.
I looked up at her, sadly I’m like 4 more inches shorter than I was before, and saw that she grabbed the gem I was holding. How do they hold anything with hooves? I have no stinking clue. Hands are so much better because they make actual sense. I will not say magic and leave it there because magic isn’t like that last time I checked. I should know, I check that fact a lot. So with those ideas backing me up, I ask “How you hold anything with those hooves?”
Instead of a crazy answer, or an intellectual one, all I got was “I don’t know, I never really thought about it.”
“Well… at least you admit it. I can’t tell you how many times I just get an answer like ‘magic’. I’m a specialized mage and an engineer. I like knowing how these things work so I can craft better stuff, I’m tired of being broke” I say.
“I thought you said you weren’t broke before” Midnight said.
“Umm did I say that? I meant… I just don’t have much money at all… I lost my life savings just to end up getting shoved into slavery, well that was his plan. I gota thank the alliance for getting me out of that ship, even if it almost killed me. What did Thrall do when we finally caught up to Gallywix? He just gave him a freaking slap on the wrist and let him remain our leader. Well no way I was going to stand with that. I just went solo after that point.” I glanced down to the gem in the guard’s hoof. “I think I got something so you don’t have to hold that all the time.”
I went digging into my bag to see if I can find my old wrist bracer. Again, this limb was really weird. I could feel with it, but the sensation was a bit numb compared to what I was used to and… ahah there it is. I pulled it out with a simple levitate spell, the old bracer and examined it. To be honest, it was more like a wide bracelet than a bracer. I popped out the yellow gem in the socket and inserted the glowing arcanite gem in. It was a tight fit, but that was a good thing, don’t want it coming out do we?
Without giving a warning, I clasp the bracer around Midnight’s right foreleg and for whatever reason, the mare started blushing… through fur. How she do that? This makes less sense than the hoof thing. Then Twilight pony commented on something and… wow I totally forgot about her didn’t I? Well she does creep me out with those eyes, I mean I once saw a giant eyeball in my dream and it wasn’t that creepy. Well the giant eye was more disturbing and horrifying, especially that I later learned that it was something really bad. That was the last time I slept in that bed and house cause I burned it down in a panic. Well anyhow, that comment got Midnight blushing even harder.
Why does a simple bracer, that was more like a bracelet, with a gem in it cause so much blushing…oh… oooh…Oh boy…I should’ve thought this through. Well not like the mare is ugly or anything, but uhh… aw crap. You better not be watching this ex! You back stabbed me and tried to kill me like 3 times, so I killed you and asked a priest to smite your ghost when you haunted me. Uh whoops I got carried away there. So yeah, I couldn’t handle another relationship even if Midnight is able to look past my…randomness.
“So… How are we going to find my body?” I ask.
“Firstly, we are going back to Canterlot to address the problem to my captain and we will go from there.” Midnight says, dropping back into the guard attitude I know. “Since I can fly there faster than the train” she lowers herself to the floor, “get on.”
“Wait what? You want me to ride you? I umm…if say so.” I, as carefully I could with unfamiliar limbs and body, got onto Midnight’s back.
The guard stands back up and I hugged around her neck to keep myself in place. She waved a goodbye with that knowledge pit- I mean unicorn, went up those stairs and left the tree. If there was one thing I noticed on our way out, it was that there was a lot of books in that place, like a library or something. Though it couldn’t be, what kind of creep lives in a library?
“Are you ready Flame Keeper?” the guard unfolds her wings and turns her head enough to look at me.
“Wait just a moment, why do you use my title? Not that I don’t like my title, but near no one that even knows it does.” That title was basically forfeited because my home island where I was that keeper, was destroyed, but I’m not about to say that. How many can call themselves Flame Keeper insert name here, the Insane?
“You earned the title. Why shouldn’t it be used?”
“Well…you’re my friend! My momma always told me to keep formalies away from the friends with as much effort as we should with keeping the gnomes away from our rockets, if there were any at the island I should add. She said some other things with that, but I’m going to keep that out of this.” I would give this blue mare a friendly pat, but I was already hugging her neck, so it wasn’t really needed.
Midnight seems to relax with my words, but her wings tenses up again. “Hold on tight and please, please don’t distract me. I’ll hold a conversation if you want, but only small talk,. I need to be able to focus on flying.”
With a strong flap of her wings, we started to lift off and move towards the mountain with a city hanging off the side of it. Did I not mention that before? Well, because I already seen a floating city, what difference does a city hanging off the side of a mountain make? Still would need some powerful enchantments to keep half the place from collapsing and killing half of the beings in and below the place.
The flight so far has been rather calming, the view of the area was nice. An area with rolling hills, mountainous regions, a peaceful forest, and a spooky forest that reminds me a little of Ashenville, except a bit more overgrown, spooky, and corrupted looking. I’m… I’m going to stay away from that place, no way I gota go in there later right?
I realized that I never ridden a flying being bareback, or one at all (flying masterpieces for me, all the way). That thought made me hold on to Midnight tighter. I shift my vision to behind us, a sentry’s vision was not fix forward as I once thought, my eye-err… vision saw sort of marking on her flank. It was like some sort of dark cloud with lightning bolts coming out of it in all directions.
“Midnight?” I say.
“What is it Korrxx?” she replied
“Why do you have a mark on your flank?”
“You just now noticed this?” She seems genuinely surprised. “Well, all ponies eventually get a mark when they discovered their talent; and no, it isn’t necessarily our only talent. Since I know you’re going to ask, mine represent my ability to create storms. I don’t really do it all that much anymore since I joined the guards, sadly.”
“So umm… you change your name when you found out your talent or something? I mean, don’t get me wrong, nothing’s wrong with changing your name. I just see titles use as a substitute more often at home, crazy titles been given I’ll tell ya. I heard about this one title, a very long one at that, called ‘Slayer of Stupid, Incompetent, and Disappointing Minions.’” I paused a moment. “I think that insane dragon’s that caused the volcano on my home island go boom, son gave that-”
“I never changed my name; it is just that most ponies names ends up being similar to their talents, normally. Don’t ask me how that ends up being like that, I wonder that myself.”
Midnight starts to slow down and I see her heading for some random cloud. What? What is so interesting about a cloud? Then… she just lands on it… Mind blown, reset needed. Reboot complete, confirmation of what happened required. I look down again to see that she indeed is standing on the clouds, her wings folding up.
“How on Azeroth you do that? I didn’t see you cast any spells, and I never heard or seen a cloud walking spell. Though I can believe those being possible, but you didn’t cast anything!” I yell.
The mare sighs and shakes her head softly. “Are you going to question everything that you never seen before? If I didn’t already know you a little, I’d mistake you for Twilight based on what I heard of her before. She is so eager to learn anything she can…” Midnight informed.
“I don’t try to learn everything! I like to know some things about magic, fire based especially; also, when it comes to engineering, I’m a pro. I’ll even tell you what I have on my work in progress list.” I lower my voice to a whisper to be sure that no one else hears it, though I was not even sure where the sound comes from in this body. “I’m working on a shredder that can fly. It will be my next best creation; and if I can sell it, I’ll finally have good money again.”
“Korrxx, you need to keep your mind on the task at hoof. You know this thing more than anypony; think about what it would do.” The guard extended her wings back out. “Hold on tight, this might be a bit more… extreme.”
“Wait, what?” My confusion was answered with Midnight jumping off the cloud and entering into a sharp descent.
Well, we finally got to city gates after some screaming and fearing for my life, in a manly way of course. Midnight apologies to me multiple times and now tells me that we got to walk through the city. Said that her wings were tired after carrying me that kind of distance. Better not be saying I’m fat, well… I am in Qira’s body so it wouldn’t exactly be calling me fat if she was saying that. Wait… sentires can’t even eat so...umm, let’s see what I am seeing.
While I been through Canterlot before, I never really realized just how clean and shiny this place is. There was also clearly a lot of magic enchantment. What was they trying to do here? Imitate Silvermoon? That place was always too shiny for me, needed more mechanical things. I suppose the stone work here is nicer, and clearly more overall enchantments. Though I suppose that happens when your city is on the side of a mountain. I really hope they don’t have some sort of magical addiction like those elves, they really got it bad. It was similar to the goblins that had one too many Kaja’Colas, except they tend to be more productive since the stuff gave you ideas.
A hoof grabbed me and started to push me along. It was Midnight’s and she seems to be a little annoyed. Maybe it was that I just stopped in middle of the street to think? Geez, I get stuck in my own thoughts often. Oh why you have to stare at me ponies? Have you never seen a goblin stuck in a micro-sentry whom is being near pushed along by another pony before?
“Will you please walk faster?” Midnight asked. “I swear, you’re moving slower than my brother trying to go to the dentist.”
“Slow? Slow? Ha this is nothing, I haven’t been to the dentist in years! Or a checkup from any sort of doctor” I say with pride.
“That isn’t something to be proud of Korrxx, we’ll have words about this later; but right now we need to get to the castle.”
Well I’ll tell you that some of my memories might have been scrambled between that time and my eventual recovery, but I’m not even sure of that fact. No, I don’t have memory problems. I just get distracted, and carried away often. What? Don’t you say that. That is very insulting, to yourself. I mean, if I get distracted so much, how did I kill you? Ha, who is the fool now? Aw be quiet you, I’m telling a story, don’t interrupt. No I wasn’t talking to you. Aurg, stop confusing me. Ow, why you smack me? I thought we were friends! Alright… Alright I deserved that. Wait…go back over there, make sure my better proof doesn’t disappear or something. What you mean there is nothing over there? Oh wait, I remember now. Just go over there and wait. Ah that’s better, now please forget what you just saw there.
Where was I? Something about going to the castle right? Yup, now I’ll do you a favor and skip right to meeting that captain guy. Interesting fellow he is. _____________________________________________________________________
We eventually find ourselves in some sort of office. It was your classic office feel. You had your fancy wooden desk over there with many papers on top. Got some shelves on the other side of the room with some awards, and memorabilia. There was also some big window at the back of the room giving a nice view of the city. The only thing that was missing, at least to my eyes, was a nice fireplace. No room is complete without some sort of fire. Contained of course, don’t need rooms everywhere burning down and then blaming it on me.
Though I think this unicorn’s mark makes up for it. It looks like a fireball and if I remember right, these marks speak of a pony’s talent. So it looks like he would be good with fire. He is also red, the mane is only like a darker shade of red. Something telling me that if I said something that remotely sounds threatening, I would be ashes. Luckily for me, he can understand me as much as I can of him. So that was why Midnight was explaining the case. The pony said something that, of course, I couldn’t understand. Midnight translated for me though. “What do you suppose this entity goals are?”
“I don’t know, but I’m sure it’ll be demonic or perhaps something bloody. Creep has a thing for blood or something. If there is some ruins or something around here, it probably will be drooling all over it… I swear, ruins attract demons and all sorts of nasty things” I say and my friend translated.
The unicorn nodded and then turned to ask Midnight some questions directly. At least I assumed.
“No, I don’t believe that Korrxx is a threat. I think the best way to go about with him is to remain calm and make sure he knows what not to do.” She said in that classic guard tone, though I think she snuck a look at me, what was that about?
There was a nod in reply and another incomprehensible sentence. The captain guy put a small smile on when Midnight’s face turned red. What did he say? I don’t like being left in the dark.
“What is going on here? Did a bug hit her in the face and I failed to notice it? I know that happened a few times to me when I went on my flying machine” I say to the captain, failing to remember that he can’t understand me.
Though the tone of my voice got through to him and he let out a laugh. He then said something else, I think it was some sort of advice. The tone reminded me of my father, he would give me all kinds of advice before that evil rabbit got him. My favorite went something like this: “Ignore any criticism on your methods; it’s only insanity when it doesn’t work.” Words to live by right there.
The advice the captain said must’ve been a bit odd considering that my friend clearly refuses to repeat it. She also had an even deeper blush. Isn’t it a little unprofessional to act like this around your superiors? Though, what would I know, I don’t have a steady job like this.
The red unicorn cleared his throat and then takes upon a truly serious face. Midnight even forced a straight face like all those guards I saw on the way up to this office. Clearly times for joking was over.
The blue mare translated what came out of the Captain’s mouth. “This case is definitely an unique one. From what you said, Korrxx, I am going to have you two go to the ruins in the Everfree forest. I have no ponies to spare to help though. You’re on your own there, but I’m not about to leave you two defenseless.”
The stallion turned around walked over to a large wooden cabinet that I somehow missed when I observed the room. He opened it up, revealing a folded up set of leather armor. At least it looks like leather, I been wrong before. Anyway, the guy hoofed the set to Midnight, for her to use presumably. Wait a second; if that armor belonged to the captain guy, then it wouldn’t have any holes for her wings. I addressed this issue and She just told me that the armor doesn’t actually belong to the captain. It been made with pegasi in mind, but was not traditionally for the guards. Because of that reason and that it is so rarely used, the guy personally hangs on to it.
Midnight got the armor on and I got to say it looks good on her. If I had to say, it looks a lot like leather from those nightsabers. It was dark brown and had several small pockets on the side portion, not unlike what a rogue would have. Oh and it comes with a cool lighter brown cloth hood. The hood even has holes in it for her ears. It is a good thing this body doesn’t have a heart else I be dead cause of how adorable the hood looks on her. I may or may not have let out a “squee”, but if you ask me, I’d deny it!
“Did you just squee?” Midnight asked me with her head tilted slightly. That unicorn over there in the background was chuckling.
“No” I answer with haste. I am glad for lack of eyes here, as the would be darting around.
“Deny if you want, but I know what I heard. We will be having a conversation about things later” there was a big emphasis on the will.
“Uhh… do I have to?”
“Yes and if you cooperate, it’ll hopefully be pleasant” Midnight finishes with a small smile. That smile…must… no, I shouldn’t. The mare turns to the captain and speaks “Sir, we will be heading to the Everfree forest now.”
Remember that spooky forest that I saw from the sky before? Well, our destination is in that forest. This shouldn’t be a problem right? I been in many creepy places, bug infested deserts, and plagued ruins to name a few. I got out of them alive didn’t I? That’s all fine and dandy except for one thing, I had my body and backup from other adventurers. What I got now? A body that is not my own, weakening my capability for my better spells, and a guard who is actually willing to be my friend and might actually like me. I am not sure what to make of that last part yet. Not to undermine her abilities, I know she is plenty capable with that short sword, but I am doubtful of us getting out of this without losing something important.
Now when we got to this forest, it was just very creepy and stuff. When we entered said forest, it was still just creepy. We did ran into these wooden wolves, but you know with me being skilled in fire spells, they died rather quickly, despite my weaken state. It was when we ran into demons it got bad. I mean, they were just imps, but many demons have a tendency of being resistance to fire. What did we do for these? I froze them to the ground while Midnight ran em through. She clearly doesn’t have any refrain from killing as I might have thought for being a herbivore, or it could just be because all demons deserve nothing other than death and she agrees.
“Korrxx!” Midnight shouts to me. “We need to keep moving before more come!”
“Oh, right!” I replied and followed after her, deeper into the forest.
We do start to see actual ruins, not the keep of the place, but ruins. You know what ruins mean when you already seen some demons? You find more demons. This time we got a pair of fel guards blocking some old wooden bridge. So naturally I chose froze the ground when the one on the right charged at us. The demon slipped on the ground crashing head first into the tree next to me. This enraged the other one, but it failed to notice the ground below its feet was also covered in ice. I decided to teach it what happens when you apply force to an object on ice, near a cliff. I forced the air in front of the felguard to combust. The energy that burst out pushed the demon backward. On top of that, the ice below its feet cause it to lose any good traction on the ground, causing it to plummet off the cliff. I turn to see what happened to the other guard when it hit that tree to find it already dead by Midnight’s sword.
“Good job-” I tried to say, but was cut off.
“So you seek to stop me?” I heard a voice from across the bridge. Turning to see what sort of demon we got to fight now, I find myself. My body stood over there, though there were many differences. For one thing he managed to grow an evil mustache where I know I couldn’t grow one in the time period that passed. My green scope is missing, and he put on a purple robe thing. I really hate having robes on. Like really, they don’t fit well to me, nor they look good on me. He still got the translator on him. Me? This is so confusing.
“Give me my body back!” I shout at him.
The guy just lets out an evil laugh before he said anything. “You can have it, I’m done with it.”
Suddenly my body just seized up and drops to the ground with some dark mist exiting it and going deeper into the ruins. I just stared at my body for what seemed to be hours and I would have just continue like this if Midnight haven’t grabbed me, the micro-sentry body, and flew to my real body.
“Can you get back in?” She asks me.
“I think so… I…need you to remove the gem from this body and place it in my hand” I answered.
My friend did just that. When I was removed from Qira’s body I suddenly felt a lot weaker, like I was going to crumble away any minute. Though, soon as I was placed into the hand of my real body I felt more whole. I felt for a true connection and then flooded my body with my essence. The mana gem crumbled into dust and then to nothing.
“Never… again” I croaked, using my true mouth.
My body ached all over. I tried to ignore it as I attempted to crawl to my feet. I wasn’t able to succeed at that though. Midnight grabbed me and pulled me into a hug before I even got halfway up. My thoughts went to that either she was trying to crush me, or that she does actually like me. For survival sakes at least, I hoped the latter.
The blue mare’s body must have acted faster than her mind considering that her eyes widened a bit when I patted her on the back. She quickly let go of me, making sure I could stand on my own. I was about to ask her about the hug, but she hushed me and said we’ll talk later. Ah… the ever growing talk later list.
I inspected my body a little closer now that I actually had it. There seems to be no permanent change. I had extra clothes in my bag; I quickly changed into that. It was actually my fancier set, simple blue cloth pants, and a white buttoned shirt. I got rid of the mustache with use of my Gnomish Army Knife. I knew I’ll have to replace my replace my prized scope, but for now, I could focus my frustration on its lost on the demon.
“Are you ready?” Midnight asked me as I got the last of my gear into place.
“Yes, that demon been in my life for too long” I replied.
We set off to the keep of the castle itself. There been several more imps on the way, but they were easy to destroy now that I am at full strength again. To think of it, the felguards back there were weaker than normal. I had trouble with them on a normal case, but I guess we just got lucky.
When we reached the entrance of the keep, we found a strange sight. There were actually already dead demons and they were facing the open door it seems. We heard sounds of fighting from within and ran in to see just what was going on. What we saw was a definite shock.
There was a tall humanoid with tusks, pointed ears, and a black robe, a troll, throwing shadowy fireballs at demons left and right, mainly imps, but a few felguards also. These demons were attacking him in return. One major thing I noticed was that near one wall there was a large scorch mark on the ground. If I know anything about burn marks, I’d say there was a portal placed there, but it collapsed violently.
“No, I command you! You will listen to me!” The troll yelled, confirming what I thought. He was a warlock, or some sort of dark caster. He did managed to finished the last of the demons that was attacking him and he then lays his eyes upon us. “You! This is your fault!”
“What? What I do?” I ask him.
“Because of you, I got stuck in your mind. I had to waste my time trying to gain control of your body. I had to spend my time acting even remotely friendly to you idiot, even some of your insanity got to me for a while.” The troll spat on the ground. “I once held an iron grip on these demons, I was going to take control of that pathetic island of yours. You and the rest of your kind was going to be our servants again, but what happened? You did, you came along and blindsided me before I was able to cast anything. I had a soulstone ready, but you crushed it. You didn’t even know the stone was there. So here I was forced to watch you time and time again managing to survive the impossible. All it took was one little death to get my spirit free, or the ability to tap into your power to recreate my own body.
“When I finally took over, it took too long.The demons I had control over got restless and doubted my power.” He continued on ranting. He really did not learn his lesson about ranting, did he not notice that Midnight wasn’t next to me? I mean, I know the mare was quite stealthy for a guard. So much in fact I question if she was more like an agent of the SI-7 instead of a true guard. I don’t even know where she was. Actually, I probably could find her, but I can’t give any hint to that troll.
“I spent every moment prying or a weakness in your mind” the troll continued to rant. “In fact there was hardly a true shield in your mind! It was just so erratic that finding a point of control took forever!” He paused for a moment, as if thinking. “My only question for you now is, how slow you want to d-”
He never was able to finish that question. Midnight managed to sneak behind the warlock while he was ranting and plunged her sword into his back going clean through. It wasn’t enough to kill him though, somehow. So, do to that fact, I decided to finish him off with my favorite spell combo.
I motioned Midnight to get to the side and she complied. The troll managed to stay up, but was clearly in too much pain to do anything else. I snapped my fingers and sent a wave of fire at him. The fire collided with the body, but it was not like a fireball. The flames just spread out on him, slowly burning. I then pressed my hands together to gather up the energy for my most outright powerful firespell, Pyroblast. I sent the big ball of fire at the troll and the ball exploded on impact, sending him hurtling backwards. Before his body reached the wall, the slow acting fire finally covered him and exploded as well, destroying half of the corpse.
“What, what was that?” Midnight questioned when she approached me.
“Living Bomb, it initially isn’t that threatening, but when that fire gets all around you, boom” I answered.
“I’m glad you’re on our side then.”
I didn’t respond, I just took out my army knife and went up to the remains. There wasn’t all that much left of the corpse. The entire lower half of the body been blown off and his left arm was missing. Some parts were still burning and I patted the flames out. I knew this idea was crazy, but it was something I wanted to do. I turned a dial on my knife, jammed it into the body and pressed the dial in. An electrical surge jolted out of the knife and into the corpse. It made a loud gasping sound and the head turned towards me, eyes wide. The soon to be corpse again asked me “Why… How could you kill and…” He tried saying more but his voice was just so weak.
I just looked at him straight in the eye and said “Well, it started on a sunny day back on Azeroth…”
