Dwarves, as I know it. (ver. 1.1)

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What is there to say about the dwarven race that isn’t already known? Most know they are a short race of humanoids around 4-5 feet tall. Most have a love of gold that is so great they would rather die than leave behind a single gold piece.

An odd thing about dwarves is the one with the longest beard is always looked to for what to do in a time of a crisis.

Being a race filled with fierce fighters and powerful miners the dwarves are widespread... underground at least. Defending their homes and clans from anything that would threaten them.

Dwarves have very few solder types and one is feared and respected more than any other. That type is the dwarven berserker. Stout warriors with thick builds and even thicker beards, they charge blindly ahead the front lines with axes or hammers overhead yelling obscenities and war cries.

A berserkers weapons are made differently, in place of sharpness they had durability. In place of practicality they had more durability. And in place of looks they had even more durability. Most dwarven berserker weapons looked like oddly shaped hunks of blunt steel. It was required though. A normal made weapon would crack and break after the 1st few blows.

A dwarven berserker wears little to no armor, it gets in the way after all, and no matter what hits him he doesn’t falter, pain and fear are completely banished from their minds, replaced by rage and fury instead. It is said the only way to kill a berserker lost in his rage and fury is to behead them. Broken and missing limbs only seems to increase their blood rage.

The one armed berserker Glenn Strongarm proved that point. He was famous for his skill with a 2 handed greataxe. When he lost an arm fighting against hordes of goblins and orcs, he simply picked up his greataxe with one hand and finished the fight.

He was lucky a dwarven healer saw it happen and quickly stopped the bleeding of his missing arm. The healer had a hard time telling him to hold still so he could stop the bleeding, Glenn wasn’t about to let the fact he was missing an arm stop him from defending his home and clansmen.

Respected for their battle powers and relentless assault, and feared for the same reason. No one wanted to be near the berserker on the battle field if he fell into the dreaded blood rage. Not many were washed away by the blood rage. Taught to ride and direct the rage or fury toward their enemies. The banning of enchanted armor with the berserker runes greatly reduced the number of friendly fire deaths.

But in the heat of battle one can lose himself. No longer distinguishing between friend or foe. Swinging only to keep the blood flowing, that is the blood rage.

And if there was one thing that all dwarves are famous for...

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A small group of miners had just broken a wall that led into what appeared to be a natural cave formation. Hoping they had broken into some kind of hidden vault, filled with gold and riches instead of goblins and orcs again.

They sent a runner back to fetch more torches and some fighters just in case.

“I dun like it in here Bob, It be far too warm. This might just be another volcanic lava tube...” the dwarf with the longest beard snorted

“Boy grow some more hair on your chin and toughen up. Even if it is a lava tube that just means gems or a gold vein should be nearby.” They walked a ways farther and saw a faint red glimmer in the distance.

“I hope that red glint is a ruby vein and not magma oozing in...” The dwarf named Bob ran over to the glint and began to dance in place

“We struck pay dirt lads! Lets get started!” The dwarfs began to dig away extracting the raw rubies from the wall and mining away other nearby walls in search of more.

After a time one miner spotted a blue glint in the distance, but this time what they found wasn’t more gems, but a stone gateway of some kind with two blue flames above it.

After a few hours the runner returned with torches, 3 fighters and a berserker. They were disappointed in the fact is was just a normal natural cave with only a few gems inside. But the odd inactive gateway gave rise to some questions. It had a light blue fire on both sides. Dwarves being unable to use magic were at a loss for what to do with it. Holy healing magic from their gods is a different story.

“Should we perhaps contact the humans? Maybe they could send a mage. Maybe it leads to a treasure trove!”

“If it does, I don’t want to share it with some crummy human, I say we figure this out our selves.” All the dwarves nodded in agreement. Clearly this gateway was dwarven make, it was crafted of stone. So there must be a way to activate it.

The small group of dwarves spent about an hour looking around it until they realized it had dwarven writing along the rim of the gateway. They weren’t exactly looking for writing, they figured it would have a lever or a button of some kind to turn it on. What they read was shocking, and disturbing to a dwarf. The dwarf Bob yelled in a rage

“It wants a Ruby or Emerald to power it self?! What kind of self respecting dwarf would make such an evil creation?!” the runner decided to speak up from the back

“Well we did find that vein of ruby, perhaps we should just toss one of the reject gems into it? Maybe it does lead to a treasure vault.”

The thought of a huge treasure trove for the price of a single flawed ruby seemed like an incredibly good deal. So after 20 minutes of hesitation they tossed a small red gem into the blue flame above. The flames turned red and the stone gateway began to shimmer a blood red color, and a layer of red filled the once empty space.

“Does anyone smell sulfur now?” before the other dwarves could answer a flaming whip shot out of the red gateway and hit a miner across the face. They all turned to face the portal and witnessed a huge demon step out holding the flaming whip and a flaming great sword at its side. Its muscled body and horned head just looked down at the dwarves in glee.

“BALROG!” The 3 fighters and berserker wasted no time and rushed at it. The runner turned tail and ran down the tunnel, hopefully to get reenforcements, and the miners just stared in awe.

“DON’T JUST STAND THERE! FIND AN EMERALD AND TOSS IT INTO THE RED FLAMES YA LAZY GITS! THE RED GATEWAY IS OBVIOUSLY HELL IT SELF!” Bob the dwarf with the longest beard shouted at the top of his lungs,

While the fighters kept it busy he and his fellow miners could work on changing the gateway before any more of those foul beasts could get through.

The 3 fighters made a semi circle around the Balrog while Glarin Ungard the Berserker fought it.

Glarin was your typical berserker, using two dwarven berserker made battle axes and a simple chain shirt.

He hadn’t done anything great like Glenn Strongarm yet, but perhaps he could get the title Balrog Slayer.

Glarin stood in front of the Balrog and could feel the heat emanate from it. He smiled and dropped his head down inhaling and exhaling rapidly. He grit his teeth, inhaled and looked up at the balrog, eyes filled with a rage.

Rage activated

“I’M GONNA TEAR OFF YER HEAD AND USE IT AS A PUPPET!” Glarin bull rushed at the Balrog and body slammed into him. The balrogs natural body heat began to sear his flesh and the creature just looked at him confused until an axe caught it off guard.

The Balrog jumped back in pain and lashed out with its greatsword. Glarin parried the blade away with his left axe and struck it with his right axe cracking the blade of the sword.

The balrog quickly retracted his sword before it could be broken and brought the whip up bringing it down with a loud snap around Glarin’s arm that he used to keep it from hitting his face.

The balrog smiled at the dwarfs foolishness and tried to pull it back, knocking him off guard. The Balrog was shocked to find himself being pulled instead. With a mighty tug the flaming whip was pulled bringing the balrog tumbling down on its face.

The demon of flame was mad now, if it couldn’t beat him it would simply have to dominate his mind. It began to cast the spell when one of the dwarven miners yelled out.

“I couldnt find a flawed Emerald! Do we really wanna use this to close the gate?” Bob wasted no time in taking it from him and tossed it into the red flame. It soon turned green along with the gateway entrance.

”KILL THAT BLASTED THING” The 3 fighters began to close in and Glarin rushed at the balrog once again, axes above his head as it tried to cast the spell.

The Balrog finished its spell and sent a shadow of its mind directly at the Berserking Dwarf. Time seemed to slow to a halt as the Balrogs shadow entered Glarins mind.

When it was inside it was face to face with a giant red dwarf foaming at the mouth. Its muscles rippled and flexed as it brought its fists up into the air and swung them down making a gust of wind that was soon followed by a vicious shout from the giant dwarf.

The Balrog yelled in frustration as it canceled the spell, only to find the dwarf flying at its face. The monster dodged backwards to keep its head from being split in half from the dwarfs rage fueled axe swing. The Balrog tumbled backward with the weight of the dwarf landing on his chest and they were both pushed through the gateway.

As they tumbled through the gateway, the flameing monster lashed its whip out in an attempt to keep itself from falling too far from the gateway. The whip wrapped itself around the top of the stone gateway, but they both proved too heavy and the gateway collapsed with Glarin on the wrong side...

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Fluttershy was in the Everfree forest because a family of bunnies had asked her for help. She wasn’t about to turn down a relative of her little Angel bunny. So she followed the little bunnies back to their home. Luckily it was just a simple cold they had gotten and Fluttershy gave them some herbs and a few other things to eat so that they would recover.

It wasn’t until she was about to leave when she heard shouting and the sounds of a fierce fight happening.

‘Was somepony being attacked by an animal?!’ she thought in a panic. She rushed over to where the sound was coming from and stopped, she hovered slightly in the air staring in shock and awe at what she saw.

On the right side stood a creature that was at lest 8 feet tall and looked to be made of flames. It kind of looked like a Minotaur except the legs weren’t as small, and it looked far more deadly than Iron Will ever had.

On the left side was a creature no taller than she was, it had a red mane that stood up in what was called a Mohawk she believed, not many ponies sported those. On its chin was a huge beard that had several braids in it.

The smaller one appeared to be severely injured as it was covered in burn marks and had blood dripping down its arms. Was that big flaming Minotaur hurting the smaller creature? Fluttershy opened her eyes in fear and disbelief as the smaller creature raised what looked like an axe in each hand over its head and began charging at the flaming Minotaur. She was even more surprised by what it said.

“DIE YOU FILTHY DEMON” The smaller creature leaped into the air at what she now knew as a demon, and landed upon its chest with both axes digging into the monsters collar bones. The monster yelled in pain and rage and ripped the small creature off its chest and blew flames from its mouth into his face.

The smaller creature didn’t even flitch at the flame or yell in pain, it simply reached down and ripped an axe from the balrogs collar bone. Then without hesitation lifted it up and brought it down upon the top of the monsters head ending the spout of flames. It collapsed to the ground and began turning into ash.

Fluttershy stood in horror at what she had just witnessed. She knew the flaming creature was a monster of some kind, but she didn’t know of any creature made of flame like that. The smaller creature stood back up, seeming to ignore the obvious 3rd degree burns all over its body. It picked up both of its axes and began to walk in a direction, only to stop and fall backwards.

What was she to do? She wanted to help the smaller creature, the urge to nurse it back to health was growing, and she couldn’t live with her self if she left it out here to die from its injuries. But what would happen if it attacked her when she tried to help?

Fluttershy gulped and slowly flew over to the smaller creature and hovered above it looking down. Her eyes began to fill with tears as she looked at its face, both the beard and hair she had seen before had been burned away and its face was nothing more than a giant blister with black scorch marks.

As her tears landed upon the small creatures face, it opened it's eyes...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Glarin was having trouble opening his eyes and everything he saw was hazy, the fire had damaged his eyes for sure. He could feel a coolness landing upon his cheeks and what he saw was a yellow and pink blur with wings. He could hear crying and assumed the water landing upon his face to be the tears of some angel. If the red gate had lead into hell, than surely the green one was a heaven of sorts.

This angel must have seen him fight that Balrog demon, and was now mourning over his soon to happen death. Why that gateway led to the human gods and not dwarven ones was a mystery to him, but none the less. With a raspy voice he spoke

“Do not wet your eyes over my death pure of heart Angel. I die knowing I stopped that evil creature from harming anything in your realm.” He suddenly heard a gasp

“No...I don’t want you to die...” Glarin let out a raspy chuckle

“I never thought my death would bring tears to an angels eyes...” Glarin closed his eyes and before losing consciousness he could hear the word no repeated several times over until all was silent.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Glarin opened his eyes in a state of shock to find himself covered head to toe in bandages. He felt around and saw that all his limbs were still attached and he even had a decent sized beard growing back already. He was glad the balrogs flame didn’t burn him so badly his hair wouldn’t grow back. The guys back home would think he was a short human woman if he couldn’t grow a beard.

He looked around the room he was in and noticed it seemed to be a decent sized home. Surprisingly the bed seemed to be made just for him. Surly this was that angels home and she had somehow healed him back to full health.

Must be some of that divine holy magic he heard those humans talk about so much. He briefly wondered how long he had been there to have this much hair grow back. When he turned to the left he noticed a yellow animal of some kind with wings laying in the bed next to him sound asleep. It reminded him of those Pack Horse's humans brought into the city for trading.

But it was smaller than he remembered, was he a giant in this place? Also it had wings, was it a mutant?

“So the angels have pet pack horses ehh?” What struck him as odd was this pack horse had the same color scheme that the angel had, with the yellow and pinks. Maybe they just like having their pets match them in colors?

Glarin shuffled himself out of the bed and tucked the blanket around the sleeping horse and walked around the room looking for something to wear. He couldn't find his pants, but his axes and chain shirt were on top of a nearby dresser.

After a moment he turned around to the sound of shuffling and saw the horse standing next to the bed looking right at him. He smiled and waved at it as he put on his chain shirt. When the chain shirt was around his head so he couldn’t see, he heard a soft feminine voice

“I’m so glad you’re awake, Twilight had come by and did her best with some healing spells, but they wouldn’t take very well for some reason. So we had little Daring cook up some healing ointments. You were asleep for 2 whole weeks...” Glarin finished bringing the chain shirt over his head and looked around the room. It was still him and the yellow mutant horse. ”...I had to funnel feed you soup as you slept to make sure you wouldn't starve. I’m sure you're famished though...” That’s when it hit him, the angel he thought he saw was a talking mutant pack horse. A talking pack horse with a wing mutation, or perhaps it was an angel horse, angels were supposed to have wings right?

“Hold up Lass, you’re saying you were one of the ones that helped heal me? Brought me back from the brink a death?” The angel horse nodded her head

“And you’re an angel horse right?” She looked at him confused.

"I’m not an angel or a horse, I’m just a Pegasus pony.”

"And a pony is...?"

"A small equine..."

"And an equine is...?"

"um...a pony, horse, zebra..." Glarin had no clue what a Zebra was, but he knew what a horse was. And ponies were just small horses? His idea of being a giant among angels was quickly being destroyed.

"So then, I'm not a giant?"

"um, well, I'm not sure... Are you supposed to be?" Glarin felt a pang in his chest. One of hurt and sadness, the kind of pain one feels when their hopes and dreams are stomped upon in a brutal and cruel fashion.

“Urgh, so then, you're a talking Pegasus pony?” She looked confused

“Don’t all ponies talk though?” That’s when it hit Glarin like a ton of rocks, he wasn’t on his own plane of existence anymore. He never heard of the humans talk about flying talking ponies before.

Sure when they got drunk in the beer hall they would spin wild tails, but never anything like this.

That blasted gateway took him someplace crazy with crazy talking ponies. But then again, maybe the humans had a thing for talking ponies and this was indeed a heaven.

“Not where I’m from lass...” Glarin used a hand to rub his forehead for a moment “Tell me Lass what’s your name?” The pony seemed to blush at the fact she had forgotten to introduce herself.

“Oh um, m-m-my name is f-f-fluttershy...” Glarin smiled at her sudden timidness

“Well for what its worth, thanks for saving my life. My name is Glarin, Berserker of the Ungard Clan. From what I remember it would seem the gateway that brought me here was destroyed and I’m stuck here for now.” Glarin put a hand to his chin and stroked his stubble for a bit then his stomach grumbled.

“Oh, of course you’re hungry! Follow me downstairs and I’ll get you something!” Glarin held up a hand

“1st things 1st lass, you know what happened to my pants? I would have to get those back before I get something to eat.” The timid pony nodded her head

“Oh yes, they are downstairs, follow me...you know, if you want too...” Glarin chuckled again

“I want to follow you lass, so lead the way.” Glarin followed her downstairs and saw all of the critters downstairs, they all stopped for a moment to stare at him, then went back to what ever they were doing.

Glarin saw his pants on the sofa with a furry white critter sitting on top of them. The white critter was all snuggled up cozy like.

“Oh Angel, our guest needs his pants back...” the furry white critter just looked up at the pony, yawned, then hopped off the pants without much of a fuss and went back to sleep. Glarin took his pants from the pony and put them on.

“I didn’t think Angel’s were so small, I thought they had wings too.”

“Oh no, Angel bunny isn’t an actual angel, that’s just his name.”

“Oh so that’s a bunny? I never seen one of them before.” Fluttershy tilted her head

“You’ve never seen a bunny before?”

“Nope, just heard about them, Dwarves live underground and rarely come above ground except to trade with the other races.”

“Oh um, well let me get you something to eat...” Glarin nodded his head and followed the pony to the kitchen.

Fluttershy went through her fridge and brought out a bunch of things. Apples, tomatoes, Pears, lettuce, Hay, eggs, bread, and even a muffin.

Glarin looked at all the food wide eyed and slowly picked up an apple.

“I never thought I would get the food of a king...” Fluttershy just looked at him confused

“What do you mean?” Fluttershy asked as Glarin greedily ate the apple letting the juice drip down his face.

“Normally food for the commoners like me is a mix of roots, grubs, Rock crabs, various rocks, and whatever else is left, or found, all mashed into a bland flavorless paste. Gruel we call it.” Glarin began to eat the tomatoes. He then looked at the bread in a bit of disgust, but when he picked it up had a confused look on his face.

“Why is this bread so soft? What kind of rock flour did you use?” now it was Fluttershys turn to look confused.

“Rock, flour?”

“Do you not use rock flour when you make your bread here?”

“We um, we use wheat flour...”

“Hmm, never heard of a wheat rock before. I’ll have to get me some of that. Anyway...” Glarin took a huge bite out of the bread and continued to speak with his mouth half full “...This food is normally reserved for the king and royals, bought from the human lands.” Fluttershy just dragged a hoof back and forth on the ground

“Oh I see...but this food is nothing special...” Glarin chuckled a bit

“Maybe not to you lass, but to me. This, This is far better than anything I have ever eaten in all my 300 years of life.” Glarin got to the hay and stuck it in his mouth and stopped for a moment “This reminds me of the tasteless gruel... what is it?”

“Oh that’s um... Hay...”

“Hay you say...” Glarin shrugged and continued to try and eat it, only to start choking as he tried to swallow it. Fluttershy went and got him a glass of water which he drank quickly to get the hay unstuck from his throat. When he finished choking he looked at the glass in a bit of confusion.

“What kind of clear ale was that lass? It was completely flavorless.” Fluttershy just looked at him in confusion again for like the 4th time that day.

“That was just water, and what’s, ale?” The dwarf just blinked and looked at her in his own state of confusion.

“Water as in...what you use to clean clothes and stuff? That’s drinkable?”

“Um... yes? But what is ale?” Glarin just looked at her some more

“Please tell me you have some kind of Ale? A Stout? Wine? I’ll even settle for a pint of that dribble the humans call beer.” Fluttershy just shook her head

“I’ve never heard of any of those before...” Glarin felt sick all of a sudden.

What kind of horrible place was this to not have alcohol? No wonder that gateway was abandoned. One led to hell and the other led to a world with not a drop of Ale to be found.

But which side was the bigger hell?

A side filled with fire and demons, constantly fighting for your own survival. Or this peaceful place... All the time in the world to drink, But not a single drop to drink. Both would be a dwarven hell, but this dry world seemed to be the worse of the two. At least the other one would end your misery after awhile.

Glarin fell to his knees and put his hands to his face

“No Ale...No pints...Only cleaning water to drink...I wish I would of taken that home brewing class now.” Fluttershy went over and put a hoof on his shoulder

“Oh... I’m sorry I didn’t mean to make you upset... Um, would it be ok for us to visit Twilight now? She would want to see you.” Glarin looked up at the yellow pony, she was giving him a soft smile

“Aye lass, I suppose we should, You said she was the other one who helped make me better again right?” Fluttershy nodded her head “Alright, so it would seem I owe my life to the two of you then, and the third one called Daring? Lead the way...” Fluttershy led him to the front door and they walked outside.

“This is a mighty big cave here...I can't see any walls...” Glarin looked at the trees then looked up “Where did the ceiling go?” Glarin’s eyes opened up in shock “We’re outside, above ground, aren’t we lass?”

“Um.. Yes, is that a problem? I remember you said your people lived underground...” Glarin shook his head.

“No its just... well you have wings, just make sure you catch me before I fall too far into the sky... I don’t wanna get lost up there.”

“Oh um... ok....” Fluttershy started walking next to Glarin to be sure she could catch him if he did start to float away.

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The walk through town was kind of awkward, all the ponies and griffins seemed to stare at the both of them. A small bipedal creature that was the same height as Fluttershy, except it was furless and obviously well muscled. The two axe looking things it carried over its shoulders were the cause of some alarm. If it wasn’t traveling next to Fluttershy the townspeople would assume they were under attack.

When they reached the library Fluttershy knocked on the door with Glarin standing behind her. A purple pony with a horn on top of her head and wings as well opened the door

“Hi Fluttershy what brings... its Awake!?”

“Um, yes Twilight, Glarin here woke up a little while ago... I thought it would be nice for him to meet the other pony that saved his life.” Glarin bowed in front of Twilight

“If I heard correctly, I’m to assume you were the one that used some of yer fancy healing magic on me. I thank you kindly for saving my life. Both of you...If you don’t mind, could I come inside?” Twilight was a bit stunned to see this small creature speak perfect Equestrian but quickly shook away her shock and let them inside.

“Oh um, let me get you some tea, I’ll be right back!” Twilight left to the kitchen and came back about 10 minutes later with some tea and set it upon a small table in the main room.

Glarin watched as the ponies horn began to glow with a purple aura along with the tray filled with stuff.

“Such a powerful display of magic! Are all ponies as adept at magic?” Twilight became flustered

“Well I, this is actually quite a simple technique, all unicorns can do it...” Twilight shook her head momentarily “... anyway tell us about your self, Fluttershy said she found you fighting some manner of fire Minotaur.” Before Glarin could get a taste of the tea he set the cup back down.

“That was no simple fiery Minotaur lass. It was a Balrog, surely you have heard of them before?” Twilight just shook her head and Glarin rubbed his small growing beard for a bit. “Well let me put it this way, a Balrog is nothing but an evil demon of fire that delights in the suffering of others.”

“What were you doing fighting such an evil monster?!” both ponies seemed to ask simultaneously, Glarin raised his eyebrow at the question.

“My job of course, some miners had found some old abandoned dwarven portal and we turned it on. Turns out 1 way led to the Balrog’s home plane, while the other led to this plane. That creature and I were fighting when we stumbled through. Then that blasted monster went and broke the gateway with its whip...” Glarin took a deep breath

“So you’re stuck here...forever?” Glarin just sighed and picked up his teacup again

“So it would seem that way lass...” Glarin took a sip of the tea and shuddered “Is this dirty water lass?” Twilight got a confused look on her face.

“No its tea, I admit I’m not very good at making tea...but I didn’t think it was that bad...” Glarin raised an eyebrow at the purple pony who now looked sad.

“Oh no Lass, I’m sure its wonderful tea... I’ve just never had any tea before... or heard about it until 2 minutes ago.”

“Then... what did you drink where you come from?”

“Dwarven Ale, or a dwarven stout.”

“Strange, I’ve never heard of Ale or stout before, I wonder if its some exotic drink...” Glarin just gave a hearty laugh that ended with a pout

“Don’t you worry your pretty little head over it lass, I suppose I will just have to make due with, water and tea...” Glarin gave a sigh and drank some more of the tea with a shudder. After which he made a low whine noise

“Um Glarin, do you remember anything after you finished fighting that demon?” Glarin thought for a moment and just shrugged.

“Can’t say that I do Lass, But I do remember having a dream where I protected some cute dwarven angels from some manner of shadow Warg’s. But that was probably just my mind going crazy from my near death.” Twilight and Fluttershy blushed a little for some reason, but Glarin didn’t seem to notice or care

“Well ok then, but I guess you have a few questions, so how about we trade a question for a question?” Glarin nodded his head, a trade of information for information seemed good.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Glarin, Fluttershy and Twilight spoke in length with each other about the difference in cultures, Twilight learned a great deal about dwarves in general and Glarin learned a great deal about ponies in general and the pony lifestyle.

Glarin was greatly depressed that nothing of conflict ever really happened here except the odd bit of trouble, or some lost fillies in an ‘evil’ forest, but that hasn’t happened in a year or two now. The evil forest did intrigue him and could provide some entertainment if things got dull, Also the aggressive nature of the griffins seemed like a good way to pick a fight for some fun. But no killing, how would you know the winner of a duel?

“So your saying...Magic is common place around here?” Twilight just nodded her head.

“Well I guess it’s a good thing dwarves are resistant to magic then. Well, and a bad thing if your healing spells are arcane based and not holy...” Glarin shook his head and smiled “ You both saved my life, and for it I owe you a debt of which can never be repaid. So I offer my allegiance to you both.” Glarin took a low bow in front of both ponies who just looked at him with a bit of shock

“Well you don’t have to do that... I mean it's not needed...” Glarin shook his head

“I won't take No for an answer, I’m also making you honorary members of my Clan, if you ever need help just let me know. And um... You wouldn’t happen to have some kind of tether so I don’t float away when I fall up do you?” Twilight just shook her head with a light chuckle

“For the last time Glarin, you won't fall up, gravity doesn’t work that way.” Glarin just nodded his head

“Well if you say so Twilight. But if I start falling up, I just hope someone’s around to save me.” Twilight and Fluttershy just chuckled a bit at the dwarven superstition.

“So where are you going to stay Glarin?” Glarin rubbed his beard in thought again and just shrugged his shoulders.

“I don’t rightly know... That forest does seem like a decent place...” the door to the library opened and in walked a purple dragon that stood eye level with him followed by a small pink pony. Before Twilight could say anything Glarin shouted at the top of his lungs

“WYRMLING!” The purple dragon jumped up in fright and began to run out the front door as some strange bipedal creature rushed at him.

“TWILIGHT HEELP!” Twilight ran out the front door of her library to see Spike being chased in a circle outside, She then used her magic to amplify her voice

“STOP GLARIN!” Glarin tripped over his own feet at the loudness of her voice. He then began to float up into the air. Little did he know it was because of Twilight’s magic.

“Someone save me, I’m falling UP!” Glarin began to make swimming motions toward the ground while Twilight just sighed and chuckled at his panic.

“Glarin calm down! I’m just holding you in my magic, I don’t want you to attack my number one assistant.” Glarin froze for a moment and then realized he was indeed covered in a purple aura. He looked over to the smallish purple dragon and saw it was hiding behind his new clansmen Twilight.

“By Moradin’s beard, you tamed a wyrmling Twilight?!”

“I don’t know what a wyrmling is, but this is Spike, a baby...” Twilight quickly corrected herself and cleared her throat. “...I mean young dragon. He is my number one assistant, and I won't have you attacking him... Or anyone for that matter.” Twilight gently lowered Glarin to the ground and looked around to the ponies and griffins that had gathered around to see what all the screaming and shouting was about.

“Spike here is like a little brother to me...” Twilight nuzzled Spike. The townspeople seeing that whatever conflict seemed to be over, went back to their daily lives.

“I have made a mistake, Any friend or family of Twilight is a friend to my clan as well. The same goes too you Fluttershy.” Glarin nodded his head at Spike who just kept a watchful eye on him. Glarin looked over the pink pony who was thinner than a stick.

“Who’s this cute little pink lass? She the wymlings girlfriend?” The small pink pony suddenly had a look of rage on its face.

“I. Am. Not. Pink! Nor am I a Filly! And what are you supposed to be? Some hairless ape? What’s that short scruff on your face supposed to be? Dirt?” Twilight, Spike, and Fluttershy both dropped their mouths wide open, half expecting Glarin to fly into a rage and attack him, instead Glarin broke down almost into tears.

“It’s true, this short beard of mine. I’m like a human woman! Look at me! No hair on my head anywhere!” Daring was shocked himself, he didn’t realize what he said was that mean. He approached Glarin who sat on the floor moaning to himself.

“Hey, I-I didn’t mean it, really. I just get upset when I’m called pink. I’m really just light red. But being mistaken as a filly is a first really. But you aren’t a pony so its an honest mistake I guess.”

“Light red laddy?” Daring nodded his head.

“Yeah, we got off on the wrong hoof I suppose, Names Daring Star, what’s yours.” Glarin mumbled to himself for a bit.

“Daring? As in my 3rd savior who made some healing ointments?”

“Those were for you? Fluttershy had just asked me if I knew how to make anything for severe burns so I made ointments for her.”

“Well, Zecora didn’t have anything for severe burns, but I remember you getting that book from the nurse, so I thought, maybe...” Twilight shook her head

“Never mind all the details Fluttershy, lets get back inside now. We need to figure out where you’re going to stay Glarin.” Glarin just raised his eyebrow a bit.

“Stay?”

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After they all got settled back inside the Library they had a somewhat heated discussion on where Glarin was going to be staying. By a vote of 2v2v1, then a vote of 2v1v1v1 Glarin was going to stay with Daring until he could get a home built himself.

Glarin had insisted they just give him a shovel and pickaxe. He would just get to work on digging himself a home. It felt strange to not have any walls after all. But Twilight and Fluttershy insisted he just stay with one of them. Spike voted against letting him stay in the library and actually voted for him to stay with Fluttershy. Until Daring said he wanted him to stay at the farm, saying he could help out around the place and what not, so Spike switched his vote.

Glarin had to give up on his idea to just dig a new home as both mares refused to let him do as he pleased. With a sigh he agreed to stay at Daring’s home until he could get himself a proper home first.

With such a peaceful land he hoped he could find work with the local blacksmith. He may not of been a master smith, but he was a dwarf. He would be damned if some pony could out smith him. Metal work ran through a dwarfs blood, next to ale and pride.

Although with time, it would seem the ale in his blood would be replaced with water and tea. Hopefully it wouldn’t make him any weaker.

Never the less Glarin had decided to stick with Fluttershy for the rest of the day as she said something about going to the market. Twilight had other plans, something to do with sending a letter to her teacher. Daring had to head back to his home with Spike to tell them the news. Glarin shook his head and turned to look at Fluttershy who was just watching him as they walked toward the market.

“So Fluttershy, could we perhaps visit the local blacksmith? I was hoping to get some work, maybe even teach him a thing or two.” Fluttershy nodded

“Yes of course, I need to do some grocery shopping so I can keep my animals fed... The blacksmith is nearby anyway.” Glarin nodded his head and they continued along unhindered

Many of the ponies seemed to give them a wide berth as they walked by. The griffins didn't seem to care either way. Some would stare while others tried to act like nothing was wrong. Glarin didn’t mind or really notice for that matter. He was fixated on what the ponies and griffins used as currency.

He knew they used something called bits from what Twilight had told him, but he had no idea the bits were gold coins, He had assumed it was something a pony would want, like a sugar cube or something. He heard about how humans gave their horses and ponies sugar cubes and carrots as treats.

“I see you use gold coins as currency, do you use copper and silver as well?” Fluttershy just looked at him for a moment then shook her head.

“No, and our bits are no longer pure gold, they’re a mix of silver and gold...you know...” Glarin shook his head to say he didn’t know “oh well... I don’t actually know why they changed it... don’t be mad at me...” Glarin just chuckled

“I couldn’t get mad at you Fluttershy. It’s fine, I’ll probably figure it out later.” When they got to the 1st stall it was for tomatoes...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After some well-done haggling and fondling of his axe handles along with some menacing glares when Fluttershy couldn’t see, she had filled up her saddle bags to the brim with food thanks to Glarin. Fluttershy couldn’t believe her luck with the shopping list this week. Glarin seemed to be really good at the haggle game, even if he did seem outraged at times.

She had heard him talk about the dwarven love of gold, but the way he haggled to save as many of her bits was a shock.

They were outside the local blacksmith now and away from the market. The Market had never been haggled in such a way before. It would need time for them to recover.

Glarin opened the door to the blacksmith and noticed how empty and unused everything looked.

“By Moradin’s beard, is this place abandoned ?!” At the sound of his shout, a black earth pony came out of the back.

“Well what brings...” he stopped momentarily to look at the small biped standing in his smithy next to the towns well-known animal caretaker Fluttershy. “Can I.. Help you?” Glarin snorted

“By the looks of this smithy it looks like you’re the one that needs help.” The black pony sighed

“I guess you could say that, I was never much of a Smith, but Ponyville really needs very little done besides the sharpening of kitchen knives or farm tools. I tend to get rusty from the lack of work.” Glarin just shook his head in disappointment

“Aye times ‘O peace can make a blacksmith rusty, unless of course, that Smith was a dwarf, or taught by one.” The black pony raised an eyebrow

“Am I to assume you are such a creature? A dwarf as you say?”

“The very same lass. Now, Let me show you the masterwork known as Dwarven Steel!”

Glarin had told Fluttershy to head on home, he would be fine, but he had to teach this smith some of the basics of dwarven craft work. He was no master smith, but he had learned enough to keep his own weapons and armor in top shape. He learned the ponies name to be Hammer Strike. Odd at that. And he also learned he was male, a Stallion. He kept forgetting ponies don’t grow beards, he had assumed the town was filled with females. They all sounded the same to him as well.

After a good 3 hours Glarin had the smithy up and running at full capacity once again. He had shown the pony the basics of dwarven craft work. Hammer was shocked to learn such techniques. How the steel had to be heated until it had a certain glow, then hit until that glow faded a few shades then heated again.

He had always thought you heated it as hot as possible and beat it until it became a dull grey color. Glarin had told him that will only make the steel weaker in the long run.

Glarin had convinced him to give him a few bits in exchange for his help around the smithy, and even more bits if he could continue to teach him dwarven smithing techniques.

Glarin was a bit troubled at 1st, handing out dwarven secrets, but shrugged when he realized he was stuck there for good. If he had a smith capable of fixing his stuff it was worth the risk.

He left the smithy a few bits richer. Holding gold in his hands felt good, even if it was tainted with silver. He hoped he could get even more as time went on, perhaps he could amass a nice pile. He was sure this world had gems, he just had to figure out where to get them...

Rewind, then back again.

View Online

*Quick rewind to what happened before Glarin woke up in Fluttershy’s Cottage. Just in case you were wondering*

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“No no no nonononono!” Fluttershy began to panic, the small creature seemed to know it was going to die.

Why would it fight so hard? Why did it call her an angel?

Fluttershy tried to move him but the small creature was far heavier then it looked. She needed help, and Twilight would definitely help!

With a speed that would put even Rainbow Dash to shame, she bolted through the forest straight to the Ponyville Library.

Fluttershy busted the front door down and zoomed through the Library until she found Twilight in the basement with Spike, Star Rider and Daring Star.

“Fluttershy wha...”

“No time, he might die! We have to hurry!” Twilight dropped her paper and quill and stood up with a worried look.

“Tell me about it on the way then!” Fluttershy spun around and bolted out the door. Twilight had never seen Fluttershy move so fast before, she teleported to the front door to see her waiting outside.

Twilight was galloping as fast as she could to follow Fluttershy, but had to use her teleport spell a few times just so she wouldn’t get left behind. Even after being an Alicorn for years she could never match Rainbows speed, or Fluttershy when she was in a hurry. Twilight also had a hard time understanding what Fluttershy was saying, most of it was lost as the wind in her ears muffled it.

The only thing Twilight understood was that somepony was attacked by a monster and was now on the verge of death. So she tried to remember as many healing spells as she could.

As they rushed their way through the forest they reached a small clearing. Twilight immediately noticed how the area looked like it had been burned as multiple trees in the area were covered in scorch marks. It was then she saw a small bipedal animal also covered in scorch marks... It looked a lot like he did. Fluttershy was floating above him with tears in her eyes.

“Twilight please! Look at him, you have to help me get him back to my house!” Twilight quickly trotted up to the small humanoid creature and immediately winced at how badly hurt he looked.

But was it really a human like he was? What could do this to him? The only creatures she knew of that made flames were a dragon or phoenix, but a phoenix would never attack anything to this extent...at least she thought they wouldn’t.

“Hang on Fluttershy, I’ll cast a minor healing spell with a stabilizing spell on him, it should give us some more time.” Twilight began to cast her spell, but soon realized she was having more trouble than she should of had. She wiped a bit of sweat off her brow as she finished her spells.

The small human creature’s breathing became steady, and some of the damage was healed. He looked better already.

She had to put a lot of power into the spell just so it would work. Was it because of the damage he had sustained? Or maybe he was just resistant to magic. Ether way she had a feeling levitating him to Fluttershy’s Cottage was going to be harder than she thought.

“Is he going to be ok now? H-h-he wont d-d-die now right?” Twilight nodded her head

“Yes he should be fine now. He will still need more healing and actual rest, but he’s not going to die now... What happened?” Fluttershy released a breath she didn’t know she was holding and sighed.

“I was tending to one of my Angel bunnies relatives when I could hear some fighting, I thought it was a pony being attacked in the forest, so I rushed over. That’s when I saw him fighting some Minotaur looking creature made of flames. It was so scary, this smaller one called the monster a d-demon...”

“A demon?!” Twilight had read books about demons before, but she thought they were just monsters of myth and pony tails. Twilight looked at the smaller creature with a bit of respect and awe now.

Were there more like him? Kept hidden from pony view as they fought the demons? Some kind of secret organization that kept Equestria safe from evil threats? Surely Celestia should know something about this.

Twilight was lost in thought about the possibilities while Fluttershy was busy watching him breath steady breaths. Both of them failed to realize a group of Timber wolves closing in upon their location.

The smell of blood and sounds of a fight had attracted the pack, and they liked what they saw. Two ponies and an almost dead thing between them both.

They circled around so they had them surrounded on all sides. Now was the time to jump into action. With snarls they leaped from the bushes at the 2 ponies. The yellow one screamed a shrill cry alerting the purple one. Without hesitation a purple shield erupted around them both. Deflecting the timber wolves that had leaped at them.

The wolves that hit the shield shrugged off their daze and joined the rest of the pack in circling around the shield. It wouldn’t hold forever...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Fluttershy’s scream of fear had caused Glarin’s mind to stir. He flashed back to when Orcs had somehow tunneled their way into the main chamber and released Cave Wargs. The Wargs had cornered some pretty dwarven women and begun attacking them. He could hear two feminine voices shouting to each other in a panic about what they should do.

Fury engaged

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Fluttershy and Twilight looked over as they felt a dangerous aura coming from behind them. They saw the creature stand up holding an axe in each hand. His eyes were glazed over and unfocused, yet they burned with such a fire that it frightened them.

The timber wolves looked inside the shield with a bit of confusion, they were sure that the creature was on the verge of death. It still looked like it would topple over any moment, why was it standing?

Glarin walked to the edge of the shield and stared at one of the wolves through the purple shield. The wolf stared back and snarled at him. Glarin gritted his teeth as he inhaled though his teeth.

“TOUCH EM AN’ I’LL SKIN YA ALIVE!” As Glarin yelled in the face of the timber wolf, blood splatters came out of his mouth and hit the shield. He then quickly swing his right axe at the wolf.

With a loud shattering noise Twilight’s shield had broken, the wolfs head was split, and the skin on Glarin’s arm had ruptured, opening his wounds again.

Twilight fell back as her shield spell broke. Fluttershy put her hoofs up too her mouth as she gasped. The creature just broke though Twilight’s shield spell like it was nothing, and was now attacking the pack of timber wolves.

The timber wolves were in a bit of a panic, the almost dead thing had just broken the shield they couldn’t, and even killed one of their own, and it was showing no signs of slowing.

As soon as he killed the 1st one, Glarin jumped to his left swinging the other axe down onto the back of the next nearest wolf. The skin upon his left arm ruptured opening the wounds that had been closed only moments ago.

The timber wolves were starting to back away from the small creature. They have never felt this feeling before from prey, the feeling of fear. The alpha of the pack had to bark and keep his pack in line and to not engage him directly, He would handle it.

The alpha wolf ran toward the raging creature from behind and leapt at him.

Glarin turned around just in time to have the huge timber wolf land on him, knocking him down. Glarin dropped his axes and was on his back as the Alpha tried to bite him. Glarin brought his hands up and used one hand to grab the top of its jaw while the other held the bottom. He was holding the timber wolves head back. At least that’s what it looked like at first.

Glarin released another blood filled shout, and opened the wolf's mouth farther than its supposed to go. With a loud snap the bottom half of its jaw broke off. Using his now free hand Glarin shoved it down the panicked Alpha timber wolves throat, grabbed something and pulled it out.

He pulled out what looked like a red flower, and crushed it. The timber wolf fell into pieces allowing Glarin to stand up and grab his axes again.

To Fluttershy and Twilights shock the creature that was on the verge of death raised its head up into the air and released another loud heart stopping roar. The timber wolves that were not discouraged by the death of their alpha went on a full scale attack, he was quickly surrounded.

Twilights mind was running in overdrive, what could she do? If she didn’t think fast that creature would die. He should run away. He needs to run away and escape so they could escape. Soon it would realize its situation was hopeless and turn around to run...

...Why isn’t it running away?! Twilight watched in absolute shock as the bipedal creature she had just seen on the verge of death, leap at the nearest timber wolf. Was it not running because they were in danger?

Why would he fight so hard? Was he really some kind of pony defender living in the shadows of Equestria?

He had struck the timber wolf upon its back with both axes. The timber wolf literally exploded into hundreds of wooden splinters, followed by more blood sputtering from the wounds on his arms and new ones opening on his back and shoulders. The wolves took their chance and all of them leapt at the same time.

Suddenly a flurry of purple bolts hit each wolf, knocking them away from Glarin before they could land an attack.

“Leave him alone!” Twilight unleashed a barrage of purple bolts until the timber wolf pack that was surrounding him eventually fell apart in multiple pieces of timber all over the forest floor.

The remaining members of the timber wolf pack tucked their tails between their legs and ran as fast as they could from the blood covered bipedal creature. That was no prey, that creature was a monstrous predator, and with the purple pony shooting magic at them, they couldn’t win.

Glarin let out another heart stopping blood filled roar as they fled.

He turned around to face the two ponies who had just watched in horror and fascination at what just happened.

“Dwarf Angels...” Glarin fell to his knees and onto his face, axes still clenched in his hands.

Fluttershy and Twilight just looked at each other and back to the smaller creature.

Did it just save them? Even though it was on the verge of death? Why did it say dwarf angels while looking at them? Where did it find such strength to smash through HER shield, of all things, and then proceed to attack the timber wolf pack without fear or any sign that it had just been on deaths door? Twilight had run up to him with Fluttershy and grimaced at the sight.

None of the timber wolves had been able to land a successful attack, but he was pushing himself so hard. He was killing himself. He was bleeding all over from blood vessels that had burst in his skin. The wounds Twilight had mildly healed before were open and bleeding again with new ones everywhere.

Twilight cast a scanning spell and noticed several bones throughout his body were fractured and the muscles throughout his upper body were all badly torn. Both arms had hairline fractures in several places. The rest of him wasn’t looking so well. His eyes were damaged and he had lost a lot of blood. She had to be quick. So she put all she had into the best healing spell she could muster.

A major healing spell she had learned just in case of a serious emergency. A white globe shot from her horn and hit him in the chest. His skin slowly began to heal over and she sighed a breath of relief that he probably wouldn’t die from massive blood loss anymore.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Twilight had spent a better part of her remaining strength levitating the creature and its weapons out of the forest. By the time she reached Fluttershy’s house she was exhausted and glad she could drop him on the bed and his stuff on the nearby dresser.

As she rested she inspected his weapons, she has seen axes before, but none like these. They were thick and blunt, the blade edge had to be at lest a quarter inch thick. The rest of the axe head was at lest an inch thick and the whole thing weighed close to 20 pounds. How was he using two of them so effortlessly? Was he using pure brute strength, instead of relying on a sharp cutting edge?

Twilight’s attention turned to the bipedal creature as it coughed up some blood and Fluttershy began to panic.

“The angels! Are the, dwarf angels, safe?!” Glarin was speaking between coughs not opening his eyes. Fluttershy responded

“Yes, we are safe, thank you...” she wrapped him in a hug and Glarin sighed. He didn’t respond back and seemed to just sleep peacefully after that.

“Before I go, I’m going to recast that healing spell on him again, just in case, but he should be fine otherwise Fluttershy. I’m sure you will do a good job of taking care of him.” Fluttershy nodded

“Just let me know when he wakes up, I have some questions for him. As I’m sure you do as well.” Fluttershy just nodded her head as Twilight sighed and began to recast her spell.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

*Fast forward to the present*

If Glarin was going to be stuck on this booze less, above ground nightmarish world, he was at lest going to have some massive treasure trove. If he amassed enough gold and gems, it might be able to fill the void he felt about never having a cold Ale again... Or maybe he could just sink all of his riches into some smart pony to make it for him?

The only thing he knew about making a good dwarven ale, was that you had to let a special type of deep mushroom rot in a barrel with some rocks, a bit of cleaning water and other stuff for awhile, after some time it becomes the godly elixir known as dwarven ale, hopefully the one he hired could figure out the rest. Otherwise, they wouldn't get a single gold piece from him.

Glarin began to trudge his way over to Sweet Apple Acres, Twilight had told him which direction it was from the Library, so he had to make his way back to it so he could find his bearings. He felt so lost above ground. How does anyone tell which way was north, south or west up here?

Seriously though, How could they tell? There were no walls with glow moss growing on them to indicate west, or any yellow north pointing mushrooms, let alone purple south pointing mushrooms. This above ground life style was going to be one massive headache.

As Glarin walked the ground no longer had cobble stone and became a dirt road. He inspected the ground for a bit before continuing to walk.

“Does that lad live in the poor district or something? These ponies are so poor they can’t even afford to cobble the path past the main town.” Glarin sighed as he continued his steady walk. After awhile he started to see more trees, at least he thought they were trees. They fit the tree description at least. A large brown stick with green on top, but what were those red things in them? Were they sick?

Not only did that Daring lad live in the poor district, all the trees had ugly red spots all over them. He was starting to dislike the choice of place he had to live at. That was decided with a vote no less. He stopped in front of a large red building with one of the oldest ponies he had ever seen before sitting in a rocking chair looking out into the distance. Strange, the home didn’t look that run down for being in the poor district.

“Oye! Lassie!” called Glarin as he approached the elder pony who was rocking back N forth in her rocking chair. He saw the elder pony get out of her rocking chair and wave at him.

“Oh heya Merry, I haven’t seen you in years! Did you get shorter?” Glarin put on a confused look

“Sorry Lass, I think you have me confused for another dwarf... or pony I guess. Names Glarin, A lad by the name of Daring told me to come live with him at his house until I can build my own. You know where he is?” the elder pony got a confused look on her face.

“Daring you say... why does that name sound so familiar...hmm.” Suddenly the door to the home opened up and the pink... Light red colt from before walked up.

“Oh you’re here just in time for supper Glarin! I see you’ve meet Granny Smith already.” Granny Smith looked over to Daring then suddenly remembered

“Oh that’s right, Daring lives here, I keep forgetting. It would seem I’m getting old. Ho-ho-ho.” Granny Smith just chuckled to her self as she went back to her chair. Daring just sighed and shook his head.

“Come inside and meet everyone. I already told them you were coming. And my Mom’s told me a lot about humans as well. We have a room upstairs for you set up already.”

“Hold on a sec laddy, did ya just call me a human?”

“Um, yes? Thats what my mom said you were.” Daring stopped walking and looked up at Glarin

“Odd, thats what the purple one thought I was as well, but let you tell you something laddy, I’m no frail human. I’m a Dwarf, and single Dwarf is worth at least a thousand humans.”

“A Dwarf?” Daring looked at him with interest

“Aye, I’ll tell ya about it sometime later, but my room is where again?” Daring sighed and pointed up stairs

“Upstairs on the right side. Its across from my sisters room.” Glarin swallowed hard.

“Up, stairs? As in away from the ground?”

“Well yeah, that’s usually what it means to live upstairs.” Glarins looked around nervously for a bit.

“You wouldn’t happen to have an underground room would you lad? That I could live in?”

“Uhh, not that I know of. Why?”

“I don’t feel safe being away from the ground is all laddy. But I guess because we are indoors I won’t float away too far.”

“Float, away?” Daring looked at Glarin with one eye half open and the other wide open.

“Aye Laddy, that Twilight said I can’t float away because Gravity don’t work that way. But I don’t even know what this gravity is, and if I don’t know it, I don’t trust it. Therefore, I don’t trust this gravity fellow to keep me from floating away into the sky.” Daring just looked at him with a look of utter disbelief. But then thought to himself. That Dwarves must be different from everything else he knows. After all, he’s never heard or read anything about humans, let alone a dwarf before.

“Well, we have a bunch of rope in the barn outside, perhaps we could set you up with some kind of tether just in case.”

“Blimey lad you’re a real life saver. With a rope around my waist I have nothing to fear when Im out in the open again. Been sweating buckets all day watching my feet so I won’t trip. Bet if I tie the rope to a big enough rock that I can also carry, I’ll be able to walk around town without fear as well.” Daring just imagined Glarin walking around town carrying a huge rock around and chuckled.

“Well come inside and have some dinner with us, you came by just in time.” Glarin followed him into the kitchen and half expected to see a meager meal. This was the poor district after all, couldn’t even afford to pave the roads of this area properly, let alone keep the odd red spots off the trees.

When he looked at the table he was shocked to see a feast like no other he had seen before. For such a small gathering in the poor district he expected to see the table half empty, he couldn’t find a single open space on the table. He didn’t recognize any of the foods on the table as well, besides the shiny red apples in a bowl sitting in the middle of everything. He ate one of those at Fluttershys today after all.

“Lad is today a special occasion or something?” Daring thought for a moment then shook his head.

“Not that I know of, why?”

“Because lad, there’s an abundance of food here.”

“We always eat like this though...” Glarin looked back to the table in shock. Perhaps these ponies were poor because they had banquets for every meal. Glarin chuckled to himself and took a vacant seat between a large red pony and a small dark blue one with rather large wings for her size.

Glarin looked at the large red pony who simply looked down at him and nodded it's head.

“Are you Daring’s Mom? He is after all light red, is that how pony coats work?” The large pony cleared it’s throat

“Actually Ah’m his dad.” Glarin grumbled to himself for a moment.

“Sorry lad, I’m still not used to seeing males without beards. But at least you sound like a man.”

“Well I uh, keep it shaved actually.” Glarin looked at him like he had committed horrendous acts of murder several hundred times a day and was now admitting to it. But then murder is probably number 11 on the list of horrible things to a dwarf, while beard shaving is number 1.

“Why would you shave off your symbol of wisdom and masculinity?!”

“I uh... Didn’t think it was needed.” Glarin sighed at this ‘male’ pony.

“You should let your beard grow laddy, I can’t wait until mine grows back, but I won’t have anything decent again for another 50 years or so.”

“You’d have to wait that long before it’s decent? I didn’t think humans grew hair so slowly.” asked a light blue winged pony from across the table. Glarin looked at the pony who had just spoke, the voice seemed a bit masculine, but without the help of a beard he couldn’t tell for sure. And all of its brightly multi-colored hair threw him off even more. He decided not to question gender and figure out why they kept calling him one of those weak humans.

“Ok lass, I already told Daring this, but I ain’t no filthy human. I’m a Dwarf. We’re completely different.”

“Different how? You look almost like he did, except your like 7 inches shorter than him. And one of your arms is probably as thick as one of his legs were.” Applejack cleared her throat as she watched their new guest and Rainbow converse.

“I would hate to interrupt your little conversation, but the foods getting cold now. You can tell us all about Dwarves when we finish eating, now dig in.” Glarin nodded in agreement

“Aye, this food does look good, but what’s this brown circle thing in the steel pan? And these brown sticks? Looks kind of like a sandstone cake, but it doesn’t smell like one.”

“Well the circle thing is an apple pie, and the brown sticks are apple fritters, I’m sure you’ll love em, all the apples are grown here on site.”

“You have apple plants around here?”

“Uh, yeah, well actually they’re Apple trees. Didn’t you see them on your way here?” Glarin grabbed a fritter and looked at it.

“I did see a lot of those tree thing's on the way here, but they all had a bunch of sickly looking red spots.” Glarin bit into the Fritter while the entire Apple family just looked at him with 1 eye half way closed and the other wide open. Daring was the one to respond to him

“Those sickly red spots are Apples Glarin... This is an Apple Orchard, or uh, apple farm.” Glarin just looked at the apple fritter in amazement then shoved the rest into his mouth and grabbed a second one. After he finished chewing and swallowed he looked around at the family of ponies and just shrugged

“Sorry, this is my 1st time being above ground, so every things new. Also, this Fritter thing tastes like it was made by a culinary god.” Glarin finished his sentence by shoving the entire second fritter into his mouth. Applejack just smirked at his comment.

“Glad you enjoy mah cookin then.” Applejack herself grabbed a fritter along with everyone else as Glarin was shoveling them into his mouth as fast as he could.

Everyone else just shook off his last comment about the Apple trees and dug into the food. At the rate their new guest was eating, they wondered if they had made enough food. Then Glarin picked up his glass that was filled with a yellow liquid and looked at it with a bit of scrutiny then took a sip.

“What is this sweet elixir?” Glarin stared at the glass some more before taking another taste.

“That’s Apple Juice, You really don’t know anythin do you Mr. Glarin?”

“Apple, juice? So there’s more to drink than cleaning water and Twilights bitter tea then. How does one turn an apple into this drinkable juice?” Big Mac looked down at the Dwarf and cleared his throat.

“How about we just finish eating before we explain how things work up here?” Glarin nodded in enthusiasm.

“I agree, this food is too good to let it get cold.” Glarin continued to shove food into his mouth, while his plate was simply used to catch the crumbs falling from his face. Rainbow dash just laughed as she watched him eat.

“I bet Rarity is going to love you Glarin.” He ignored the comment and continued to shovel food into his mouth.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The rest of the night was filled with information exchanges on both sides. Glarin learned they weren’t exactly poor, that’s just how they lived because they lived on a farm. Also he was expected to help out at times when they needed an extra ‘hoof’ as the orange one with godly cooking skills said. Daring’s dad said they wouldn’t need a helping ‘hoof’ until harvesting season. Then the lightish Blue one, who happened to be Daring’s and Stars mom said that if he did anything that brought harm to anyone, she would kill him. Although with a lot more colorful words and away from the children.

The older pony who went by the name Granny Smith told him that she had plans. She was working on something that he might like, but the old lass kept calling him Merry for some reason.

The young oldish yellow one by the name of Apple Bloom told him that if he had a nightmare he could go to her room and sleep in her bed. Her room was down the hall and the second door on the left apparently. Twas the strangest offer he ever had, but then it was from a yellow talking pony wearing a bow. So perhaps it wasn’t that strange at all. He had failed to notice how red in the face she was when she told him that.

The Apples had learned that Glarin was...

Stupid.

In the ways of everything that wasn’t Dwarf related at least. Which pretty much meant that if it didn’t have to do with rocks, metal, gems, fighting, or drinking. He really knew nothing about the subject in question. Everything he did know, was based on superstitions and untrue facts he heard from other dwarfs, random gossip or visiting travelers.

Which explained why he didn’t know it was apples that were growing in the trees. A human had told him Apples grew underground, and their color was based on the soil that they grew in.

Or perhaps they did grow underground, but in this world they grew on trees. Its not like he could go back and confirm which was the truth and which was the lie.

Either way Glarin had a lot to learn while the ponies had very little to learn. He had tried to convince them to give him a room on the ground floor or lower, but they said it would have to wait until tomorrow. So with a cautious step he went upstairs to the room. The worst part about it was the bed was raised off the floor as well.

What really bugged him was that the bed had 6 blankets on it. Did they think him a delicate human female that would die from the slightest bit of chill? He would show them, he tossed all the blankets to the floor and jumped into the bed without anything covering him. He laid in the bed for a bit and felt uncomfortable. He looked over to the pile of blankets on the floor and sighed.

“Hmm, perhaps just one blanket then, to get me in the mood for sleep.” Glarin grabbed a blanket off the floor and wrapped it around himself until he resembled a mini burrito. As Glarin slept he had a strange and terrifying dream, one he wouldn’t soon forget.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“So where are we going Daring’s mother?”

“Just out to this field, I need talk to you for a bit, its important.” Glarin was happily carrying his large rock on his back that he tied his life line to. After they were in the middle of the field Daring’s mom had stopped walking and turned around to face him, So Glarin put his rock down.

“Soo, what did you want to talk to me about exactly?” Her face contorted into a look of rage.

“My little colt and filly told me you were mean to them! So I’m gonna get rid of you so you can never hurt them again!” Glarin opened his eyes wide and slowly backed away

“What! I did no such thing!” She got closer to him eyes burning with a fire of female fury.

“I don’t believe you one bit!” She then bucked him into the chest and Glarin began to float up into the sky.

“Ye gods save me! I’m sorry it won’t happen again! I swear on me beard!” Glarin began to grab at the rope to try and pull himself back down to the ground.

“You don’t have a beard worth swearing on!” She pulled out a sharp knife and cut the rope that was keeping him from floating off into the sky. Glarin looked on in utter horror as his only lifeline was cut, and he began to float off into the sky with Daring’s mother looking at him with a look of complete satisfaction on her face.

“I’m sorry Lass! It won’t happen again! I promise!” Glarin just watched as she walked away, and he kept floating off higher into the sky.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“NOO!” Glarin woke up yelling and fell out of the bed. His face hitting the floor woke him up right quick. He struggled to get out of the blanket and stood up in the dark for a moment, his dark vision quickly adjusting itself so he could see within the blackness of the room. After he calmed himself a bit he heard the sound of those pony hooves walking down the hallway followed by his door slowly opening.

“Are you ok Mr. Ungard? I heard you shout followed by a thump.” It was the little lass Star Rider, she did sleep in the room across from him. His night terror and screaming like some little girl must have woken her up.

“Aye I’m fine Lass, sorry to have woken you up...” Glarin sighed and looked over at her. “...If I float off into the sky, would you save me?” Star took a deep breath and giggled lightly after a yawn.

“Of course I would silly. You’re funny, and Daring seems to like you for some reason.” Glarin released a sigh “Are you gonna take up Aunty blooms offer and go to her room now?” Glarin just looked at her with one wide eye and a bit of confusion.

“I’m no child, I don’t need a sleep buddy to get back to sleep after a nightmare...”

“But I’m sure Aunty Bloom does.” Glarin raised an eyebrow at the pony.

“Then why don’t you go?”

“Because I don’t have big strong arms to hold her in...” Star just looked up at him with a huge smirk on her face and Glarin just looked at her with uncertainty on his face.

“Yeah, I’m going back to bed, you should too lass.” Glarin crawled back into bed and pulled the blanket all around him burrito style again as Star sighed and went back to her room.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In the morning Twilight came by with a carriage and two pegasus guards in armor at the Apple Family home. Celestia had sent a carriage to take him to Canterlot as soon as possible as she and Luna were both eager to meet him.

“So let me get this straight Twilight, your king wants to see me because they wanna know more about me or something? Why can’t you just tell em everything I told you yesterday?”

“Well no, not a king, but Princess Celestia and Luna wish to speak to you in person. After all, you are the 1st of your kind to come here, and I’m sure they would want to hear all about you from your own mouth.”

“You keep saying Princess this and Princess that, I don’t wanna speak to no royal child. Why won’t the king see me?”

“We Don't have a king Glarin, only Princess Celestia and Princess Luna.”

“Well, then, what about a Queen? Is she off someplace?” Twilight was getting frustrated, for some reason Glarin couldn't understand the concept of not having a king or queen and only princesses.

“No Glarin, there is no Queen or King of Equestria. It’s just Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. I’m also a Princess myself but, its kinda awkward still being called that though.”

“Hmm...” Glarin put his left arm across his stomach and rested his right elbow on his left fist and stroked the stubble on his chin with his right hand. After a moment of thought he extended his right arm down with his index finger extended toward Twilight as he spoke the next careful thought out question.

“...So who has the longer beard then, Celestia or Luna?” Twilight put her hooves to her head and screamed in frustration.

So things are decided by height then? Thats Dwarfist

View Online

Stupid Twilight.

Stupid ponies.

How were you supposed to tell who the oldest and wisest was without a beard? Let alone who was in charge? Did ponies have some other system in place to determine such things?

And they wouldn’t let him take the rock he had just found to tie his life line too. He spent an hour looking for that masterful rock, Twilight, and those pegasi looked at him funny when he came back with it. It wasn’t until he put it into the back of the chariot did they question why he wanted to take the rock with him. When he told them why they laughed at him. It was the perfect rock, easy to hold and smooth. Yet heavy enough to hold him down if he began to float away. Yet they laughed, and told him to leave it behind.

He didn’t want them to hit a bump in the road and cause him to fly out the back without anyone noticing though. He figured he would settle it by tying the rope to something inside the chariot instead. He grabbed the bundle of rope from the barn Daring had told him about yesterday and went over to the chariot with it.

“What’s with the rope Glarin?” asked Twilight with a puzzled smirk on her face.

“Going to tie myself in, as I see no seatbelts or harnesses of any kind. Seems rather unsafe to me.” Twilight shook her head side to side.

“I suppose so yes...” Twilight watched as Glarin began to tie himself into the chariot, first he tied it around his waist, then he looped some rope around one of the hoof rails. Then around his waist again, and around a hoof rail on the other side, then circled around a leg and back to the 1st hoof rail. He repeated the process until he was out of rope and could barely move, He finished by tying the end into a knot around the second hoof rail. “...Are you sure that’s going to be safe enough?” Twilight said in a joking manner, and without missing the beat Glarin responds.

“I could probably use a bit of extra rope, or my rock.” Twilight just shook her head and sighed. Glad he was finally in the chariot to head off to see the princesses. She had arrived in the morning and had hoped to get him there before lunch, at this rate she would be lucky to get him there before dinner.

“So, how long is this ride gonna take before we make it to the royal castle?” One of the pegasi responded as they started to strap themselves in to begin pulling him.

“About 30 minutes or so if the wind is on our side, hour and a half if were flying against it.” Glarin raised an eyebrow, wondering what wind had to do with a pony drawn chariot.

“Why would the wind be a factor?” As Glarin was asking his question they began to move.

“Because were gonna be riding the wind or go against it, if there’s no wind it takes about an hour or so. This is a flying Chariot after all.” Glarin got wide eyed as he looked behind him at the ground and saw as it started getting farther away.

“By Berronar’s braided beard! Let me offa this flying death trap!” the pegasi ignored him and kept going as Glarin began fumbling at the knot he made until he realized he was too high already, and began to retie the knot even more and grab hold of the ropes around him.

“Good news Glarin of the Ungard clan. We have the wind on our side.” Glarin stopped praying long enough to respond

“Thank the gods! But fly faster anyway!” Glarin closed his eyes and began to chant again.

Glarin chanted the entire half hour to the castle and when they landed he quickly untied and untangled himself out of the ropes and began kissing the marble ground.

“Praise Moradin and Berronar, I’m alive!” the pegasi just shook their heads as a white unicorn pony wearing a pair of glasses walked up to them.

“You’re late you know, we were expecting you to arrive 3 hours ago.”

“We apologize Ms. Canto, Glarin had a few, uh, things to attend to before he could come.” Ms. Canto sighed and waved them off.

“Its fine, but Princess Celestia is busy attending to some other duty’s at the moment...” She sighed “...dealing with those aristocrat nobles and their small complaints about trivial things.” Glarin had finished kissing the ground and came up to the white pony unicorn and bowed his head.

“Glarin of the dwarves at your service. Am I to understand you are taking me to see your mighty Princess?” Canto looked at Glarin with a raised eyebrow and over at the pegasi guards who simply shrugged.

“Uh yes, but I think she would prefer the term benevolent ruler in place of mighty though.” Glarin nodded his head in understanding.

“Ah, good to know, I would hate to make a bad impression upon royalty. Anything else I should know? Besides the normal formalities and such, like bowing and only speaking when spoken to. I’ve meet with royalty a few times before in my younger days.” Canto put on her thinking face for a moment before shaking her head.

“Well not really, I think that covers it quite nicely actually.” Glarin sighed

“Good good, lets hope I don’t earn my self a death penalty by mistake. Hahaha!” Ms. Canto looked over at him horrified.

“I don’t think there’s anything you could do that would warrant her wanting you... dead.”

“I suppose so.” Glarin looked around a bit confused.

“You know, I’ve been wondering what those things with beaks are for awhile now. I saw them in that other town before those flying lasses came to get me. They remind me of overgrown tunnel chickens.” Glarin pointed over to a griffin walking down the street.

“Those are Griffins, after the Griffin nation collapsed due to a disease known as Slimy Doom. Princess Celestia took all the griffin refugees into Equestria. Also, I think she and Luna also own the Griffin nations due to a certain treaty between her and the last Griffin King. Details on the whole event were sketchy and shortly after they inherited the kingdom, a deadly disease begins to run rampant with some monster roaming around? Sounds fishy to me, but its not my place to question what royalty do.”

“Aye Lass it isn’t our place to question those higher than us. Just live as they tell you, it’s always for the best. They always place the kingdom as a whole ahead of everything else. Ruling is a hard thing to do if no one listens to you...” Glarin looked around for a moment then sighed. “... look at me, talking bout polo-tics N’ stuff. You’d think I was one of them wise dwarves with a huge beard.” Ms Canto just sighed as Glarin chuckled to himself.

“Well, lets just head to the Castle, hopefully she can see you sometime soon. Last I saw, the line for entrance was rather short. I suppose there isn’t a lot of nobility today requesting help.” Glarin nodded his head as they continued their walk through the city.

Like usual, Glarin had failed to notice the looks the ponies and griffins were giving him. He had left one of his axe’s at the Apple’s house because, why would he need both weapons to visit royal’s? Besides bringing both of his weapons to see them would be extremely rude and symbolize he didn’t trust them. By only bringing one it would show he was a warrior and ready to fight if need be. He left the other one on his bed, the bed that was on the dreaded second floor of that home.

The guards gave them entry into the castle and Glarin looked around at all of its whiteness.

“Is this entire city and castle carved entirely of White Marble lass?”

“Yes, this mountain is actually made almost entirely of white marble stone. So this capitol city known as Canterlot was crafted right out of the side of it.

“That explains why I feel so at home here.” Glarin sighed a warm sigh with a huge grin on his face. “This city is a dwarven dream. A mountain made of marble and the capitol city carved within it. Your Princesses sure know how to build a Capitol.” Ms. Canto just nodded her head with enthusiasm.

“Well yes, they have been alive for over a millennium, I would think they have the best decisions.”

“A Millennium you say? Hmm, they must both be extremely powerful and wise ruler’s indeed, I would love to see them.” The rest of the walk was rather silent, besides the occasional hello or nod to a servant pony cleaning up the castle by dusting and what not. There was even a servant griffin, looked kinda funny wearing the maid outfit, but then so did the ponies.

The fact ponies even wore clothes here baffled Glarin and figured it had something to do with status or something. After all he never saw any of the ponies or griffins wear clothes in that other ponytown... It suddenly occurred to Glarin he never got the name of the town that Twilight, Fluttershy and Daring lived in. He figured he should find out once he got back. Ms. Canto stopped behind a line of ponies wearing fancy looking outfits.

“This is the line to enter the royal chamber to meet with Princess Celestia. I’ll go ahead and inform her of your arrival, perhaps she will move you ahead of the line as you were supposed to be awhile ago anyway.” Glarin nodded his head and crossed his arms as he stood behind one of the noble ponies in front of him.

The pony in front of him just kept looking forward with her snout up in the air. After a few minutes the doors to the royal chamber opened and out walked Ms. Canto with some other noble. She looked at Glarin and nodded her head.

“The Princess would like to see you Glarin, you can skip ahead of the line.” the other nobles were upset at that.

“We’ve been here at least 20 minutes.”

“I say, and I am next in line, why does this... rough looking character get to go before I do?” Glarin just gave a hard look to the pony who was next in line.

“Well I don’t mind if he comes with me, I mean, he did wait here all day and I only just arrived.” Ms. Canto looked to the door guards, and they shrugged causing Ms. Canto to shrug as well.

“Alright then, both of you go in. Just don’t cause any trouble.” Glarin Saluted Ms. Canto by placing his fist on his chest over his heart and bowed his head.

“Of course Ms. Canto.” Glarin walked up next to the noble pony who was giving him an incredulous look, ending it with sticking his nose into the air and walking ahead of Glarin. Glarin simply shrugged and walked in behind him.

He walked into a large open room with white pillars and golden banners on the walls with windows as tall as the wall itself. Such a magnificent throne room. If a dwarven king lived here he would be proud of the magnificence and beauty it displayed here. He walked up to the bottom of the long set of stairs with the pony next to him, and they both stopped near the bottom in front of the guards.

He looked at the pony sitting on the throne, and it suddenly occurred to him. Ponies don’t use beards to decide who was on top, it was their height! This white pony princess must of been at least 6 feet tall, not including the added height of her horn. She was a good 2 feet over every other pony he had seen. It all made perfect sense to him now. Ponies didn’t go by beard length, they went by height. It made perfect sense, Big Mac was the man of the household as he was the tallest as well, He probably just let his sister Applejack take charge so he could laze about until something big happened.

Glarin was standing in front of the tallest pony in Equestia now, so now was the time to bow, he did so without a fuss. He got on one knee and bowed his head down, closing his eyes.

“You may rise, Glarin the Berserker of the Ungard Clan, and so may you my little pony. But may I ask, why did you both come to me at once?” Glarin heard her soft motherly voice and felt at ease, no wonder she liked being called the benevolent ruler. Glarin was about to answer when the pony next to him spoke first.

“I was next in line your highness before this ruffian came along. And I must say it was rather rude of you to have him skip everyone else in line.” Glarin looked wide eyed at the pony. How could he speak to her in such a way? Calling the Ruler of his country rude? Glarin looked over at the princess expecting her to become mad. But she didn’t, she chuckled instead.

“I apologize, but I had been waiting for Glarin to arrive since this morning. It seems he came a little late though.” Glarin was awestruck.

She apologized, royalty apologized to a common noble? She is far too kind, unless she’s planning some dark dastardly deed and was just keeping an airs about her. The pony spoke again

“Yes well, I was hoping you could take a look at these investment options I have here. If I could get your approval and some funds I think Canterlot would be for the better.” Celestia raised an eyebrow. Glarin glanced over at the pony next to him, was he blackmailing her with something?

“Let me see what you have and I will look it over then. Glarin, I’m sorry, but it will be just a moment more before I can speak to you.” Now she apologized to him!? By Moradin’s Beard what is going on here?! Was she mad at him as well? What did he do to incur her silent wrath?!

“I believe it would be in your best interest, Princess, to accept my offer.” Now this Pony was making threats at her! She must be mad at him because he hasn’t done anything to put this insolent noble in his place! If that’s all it takes, then so be it. He didn’t want to be beheaded on his 1st visit with the Ruler’s of Equestria without saying anything. Glarin turned to face the pony next to him and placed a finger to his snout.

“Was that a threat?!” Celestia glanced up from the paper she was reading

“I say, it is most certainly not a threat you little ruffian.” Celestia raised an eyebrow at the commotion that was occurring in her throne room at the moment.

“And what’s with your tone as well?! How DARE you speak to Royalty with such a tone! You insolent whelp!” the noble was clearly upset at being called an insolent whelp. The guards nervously shuffled as they stared at the two arguing.

“How dare you! Accuseing me of threatening the princess and calling me an insolent whelp! If anything you’re the insolent whelp!” Glarin looked up at the pony princess who sat still on her throne with an unamused look on her face. She would clearly have them both killed at this rate. Glarin had to act fast.

“By Moradin’s Beard! I will handle you myself then!” Glarin roared and grabbed the pony, picking him up and holding him up over his head. The guards and Celestia just gasped.

“Oh Celestia! What are you gonna do to me!?” The noble just had a scared look on his face as he was held up into the air.

“I’m gonna throw you out the window and into the street where disrespectful trash belongs!” Glarin got near the window and chucked him as hard as he could. Before the pony could hit the glass he stopped in mid-air with a golden glow around him.

“That is quite enough Glarin.” Celestia set the frantic pony down on to the ground where he promptly wet himself where he stood.

“Now he’s gone and pissed in your magnificent throne room! Such disrespect! I say we behead him. That should learn him his lesson, yup. A beheading sounds good.” Celestia sighed as she signaled a guard.

“Could you escort him...” she pointed over to the pony who had just wet himself “... outside to the bathroom where he may clean himself up. And send in a maid to clean up his little accident as well.” the guard nodded his head and left the room escorting the pony out.

Glarin was about to wet himself as well. The Princess herself had come off her throne, used her fancy magic and was now walking directly toward him with a look on her face that was none to friendly.

“What made you think throwing him out the window was a good idea Mr. Glarin?” Glarin got down and one knee again and bowed his head before he spoke. He continued to look at the ground as he spoke, not wanting to look her in the eyes.

“He was clearly trying to Blackmail you princess, then he went as far as threatening you and the kingdom! His tone was none to friendly as well. I figured it would be in your best interest to have him thrown out. I apologize.” Glarin couldn’t see her face, but her tone sounded displeased.

“Twilight told me all about you Glarin, how you seemed to of had a violent attitude with no regard for your own safety. And I must say, I am rather upset about it.” Glarin was sweating buckets now, did she not like warriors?

“But I...”

“And how you slaughtered creatures in the forest with out a single care in the world. Simply because they were threatening you and my little ponies.” Glarin hung his head even lower, he remembered how Twilight had told him that killing was a taboo here. But he couldn’t remember killing anything besides that Balrog and a few insects, were those bugs not to be killed as well?

“Princess if I may ask of you one thing?”

“Hmm, I suppose, what is it you ask of me?”

“After you have me killed, could you perhaps bury me with both of my axes and the 10 bits I have to my name?” Celestia looked at him with a bit of shock.

“Why would I ever have you killed? You saved Princess Twilight Sparkle and Fluttershy from a group of Timber wolves even though you yourself were on the verge of death. And I have seen Balrogs before, but I thought I had them all banished to Tartarus or their own plane of existence. You have my Thanks Glarin.” Glarin looked up to see Celestia bow her head slightly at him. He stood up wide eyed and pissed his pants from pure shock. Celestia opened her eyes and giggled a bit.

“You should have told me you needed to use the bathroom Glarin. I don’t know much about dwarves, but from what Twilight told me, you resemble humans a lot, but are much stronger and resistant to magic.” Glarin was abut to shit his pants when he realized what he had just done in front of Royalty. He stood their silent unable to speak as his brain had shut down.

“Come with me, I’ll take you to my private bathroom and we can get you cleaned up. My sister Luna will be waking up soon to have her breakfast. You are welcome to join us as I am certain she would love to meet with you as well.” Glarin did the only thing he could possibly do in the current situation. He followed like a brainless sheep to the slaughter.

“Aye.” Is all he said and followed her to the bathroom with his shoes squishing and leaving a wet trail as he walked.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Glarin sat at the royal long table wearing a towel while barefoot. He stared at his plate still in a state of shock. This table was full of ponies, not just the Princess, but 30 some other ponies of all various colors. They all looked to be around the same age. This other Princess, Luna, has yet to show up.

He wondered what she would look like, from what he understood she took over the night duty. And if Celestia was a white and benevolent white princess, then perhaps this Luna princess would be the dark and fearful ruler that kept everyone in check.

It made sense, how could you rule a country with kindness alone? How would you handle the threats if you were too kind to kill them? Surely that rude stallion had it coming to him from this night princess. He just hoped he wasn’t on the list as well. There was no honor or glory in a death brought on because you upset royalty.

Glarin looked side to side at all of the ponies who were sitting at the table. Were they family of the princesses? Their colors were nothing alike, from black to white and pink to purple. They were also a mix of horned, pegasi, and normal ponies. Was the wing horn combo some rare occurrence? The green normal pony next to him was staring at him intently. Glarin nodded his head at the lass and grunted.

“So Aunt Celey tells me your not a human, but a dwarf. What is a dwarf?” The rest of the nearby ponies who heard him ask the question ceased talking and looked to hear the response as well.

“A Dwarf is a proud devout race that never breaks a promise, no matter the cost. We are strong as dragons and twice as fearsome. We can mold metals and stones with our bare hands, and if given enough time, we can create works of art that are both beautiful and functional. And that’s just our women.” Glarin finished his sentence with a smile on his face and a heavy chuckle. Celestia smiled at him and spoke up next from across the table.

“And what of friendships Glarin?”

“It takes a long time for a dwarf to pass out such deep emotions. But when we do, the emotion lasts a lifetime.”

“Mhmm, and what of Twilight and her friends?”

“The only ones who I consider my friends are Fluttershy, Twilight, and Daring. They saved my life, so I am not only honor bound to them, but I am in a debt that I could never repay. As such, they are a part of my clan now.” a brown pegasi pony from across the table asked the next question.

“How many are in your clan Mr. Glarin?”

“Four, including myself.”

“Only four?”

“Aye, I was never married as I’m infertile, and my parents died about 30 years ago. My other brother’s and sisters died in a glorious battle to save our King 67 years ago during the great Orc invasion and goblin migration.”

“So then, you mean...”

“Aye, its 4 including Fluttershy, Twilight, Daring and myself.” Glarin remained stone faced though the conversation, voice never faltering without a single trace of emotion to be felt. He spoke as if he was stating facts of life in place of telling every pony that his entire family was dead.

At everyone's silence the doors opened and in walked Princess Luna. Glarin turned around to look and fell out of his chair at her sight. He quickly placed himself into a bow. She was a dark blue color with teal eyes that radiated a tremendous power. While Celestia had obviously hid her strength, this princess Luna clearly had no such qualms about showing off her terrible might.

“Stand Tall Sir Glarin, You need not bow before us.” Glarin widened his eyes in shock. This dark and foreboding Princess has just giving him one of the most admirable and respectable compliments to a dwarf. Not only did she not want him to bow, but to also stand tall while among them. Surely she was waiting for him to slip up.

“As you wish Princess.”

“Might I ask why you have a towel around your waist?”

“My uh, pants got dirty. The nice ponies in black frilly dresses offered to clean them for me.” Luna nodded her head, taking his answer for what it was worth.

“Come sit, and let us eat, I wish to know everything about you and dwarves.” Glarin happily got up and went back into his chair and began to grab various things on the table. He hasn’t had to eat a single rock today or yesterday. It felt strange not having any crunching, crackling and crumbling of some limestone or basalt with a meal.

Glarin had absolutely zero table manners. He spoke with his mouth half full, laughed with his mouth full, sputtering food everywhere. While he was drinking some grapefruit juice, he spit it out over the table in front of him with a disgusted look on his face. None of which seemed to offend Celestia or Luna, they simply chose to ignore his horrible table manners or just accept it.

Even though his table manners were probably the worst throughout Equestria. The tales he spun of dwarves kept everyone entertained to a level that everyone would giggle or gasp at what he chose to tell them about when answering a question.

“Do you mind if I ask a question on a more personal level Princesses?” Glarin had been feeling like these princesses were perhaps as good as the other's kept telling him. That its highly unlikely he would be killed, and their laugher brought on by his dry humor and rough jokes made him think they weren’t so bad.

“Yes Glarin, go ahead and ask your question, you have shared quite a bit with us already, it would only be fair.” Glarin took a deep breath and exhaled.

“From what I’ve been seeing, Ponies don’t have beards like us dwarves do. So you obviously don’t use them as way’s to tell who’s superior, but I did notice one thing.”

“Oh? And what would that be?’

“Your height, Both of you Princesses are much taller then everyone else. So things are decided by height then right? Because if so, that's Dwarfist.” Celestia and Luna just looked at him with the other 30 ponies just looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

“Things are not decided by height Glarin. Celestia and I just happen to be taller than everypony else, that is all.”

“If you say so Princess Luna.”

“Before I retire for the night Glarin, I have one last question for you.”

“And what would that be Princess Celestia?”

“What exactly is a Berserker? You told many tales of them and what they have done throughout dwarf history. But it never truly explained what they are, you are one yourself yes? And the blood rage you spoke of, why is it feared when I thought rage was your source of strength?” Glarin took a deep breath as he sat back in his chair.

“A berserker is a warrior that has trained for a minimum of 6 years. You train the body until it is harder than steel and under the harshest of conditions. Training the body until a broken bone feels like a light pin prick. Rage and Fury are our sources of strength. We are taught how to control our rage and fury, making it an asset instead of a liability. Turning it into a weapon of temporary invincibility. A berserker can invoke memories or thoughts within him or her from any time period and use it at any point in time. The more memories that cause that particular berserker to become angry, the stronger rage we can evoke.”

“You speak of rage and fury as if they were two separate things, are they not the same?”

“To the untrained they probably are. Rage is brought on by anger or extreme displeasure. The average rage will increase a berserkers natural strength by 4. Fury on the other hand, increases a berserkers strength by 6 on average. It’s a dangerous power to use, as fighting to long while in a fury will cause a berserker to lose the use of his body. The body can’t handle that kind of power for long. Fury is commonly brought on by the black feeling of revenge. Its commonly called the Black Rage.” Glarin began to nibble on some bread until he realized it was soft like the bread in that pony town and bit a huge hunk out, continuing to speak.

“The Blood rage is most commonly done by new berserkers who get flung into a fierce battle as their first. The Blood rage is when a rage consumes the berserker, he begins to delight in the feeling of his axe or warhammer hitting flesh, the sounds, the color. It’s easy to see when one falls into the blood rage, his or her angry scowl is replaced with a grin of delight. Fighting enemies and allies alike once it sets in. Once the battle stops it takes a few hours of no combat before it dissipates, and they return to normal. Unless they wander into a lived in area and are eventually cut down by the shield dwarves.”

“That is, truly terrifying... would you ever?” Glarin scoffed in a hasty response.

“Of course not, I’ve been a Berserker for well over 200 years now. It would take a feat of unimaginable stupidity for me to fall into such a beginner mistake. The Black rage though, that’s a Different story.” Glarin looked into his bowl of soup with a distant gaze before slurping it down. One of the ponies from down across the table spoke up as he finished the bowl of soup.

“If the rage and fury are different, can they be used at the same time?”

“Ho-ho-ho, You wish you hear the legend of Barroth Lord of the Flame and how he was brought down by Dorn Firebeard?”

“Another legendary tale Glarin?”

“Aye Princess, would you care to hear this one as well?” Princess Celesta looked up in thought.

“I suppose one more before bed wouldn’t hurt.” Glarin gained a huge grin on his face

“Alright, listen well, It all started when we broke into a cave looking for treasure.”

“Does every dwarf story start like that?”

“Yes.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“His Scales are too thick! Our weapons keep cracking on them!”

“Flee little dwarves, you shall not have my treasure, and I shall take your lives for disturbing my slumber.” The huge red Dragon released another cone of flames that filled the entire cave, dwarves began fleeing from the flames or hiding behind their tower shields.

“I’ll take care of those dragon scales with my trusty Darksteel Maul. You make sure to kill him after I’m done.” Dorn the Younger walked to the front of the line with his massive darksteel maul slung over his shoulder.

“Dorn, What are you doing?!”

“My job.” The red Dragon watched with a bit of amusement on its face as it saw the single dwarf walk up in front of him. Nothing but a 2 handed mace over his shoulder.

“And what you doing here little man?” Dorn opened his eyes and looked up to the red dragon directly in the eyes.

“Not only do you kill my fellow dwarves, but you call me a Little Man?!” The dragon laughed at Dorns anger.

“Ha-ha, yes Little Man.”

Dorn Gritted his teeth and roared, then swung his Maul into the ground directly in front of him. A tremor was felt by everyone within the cave.

Rage activated... Fury engaged

The red dragon suddenly felt an aura it didn’t like coming from the dwarf. It would be best to kill him quick. With a quick inhale and exhale a stream of concentrated flames enveloped Dorn.

“Foolish dwarf, what did he hope to...” From the flames jumped Dorn the younger, his cloths and beard were bright with the flames. He ran with a lighting speed at the red dragon and hit him on the exposed underside with his mighty Darksteel Maul. The hit itself was so powerful the air around his maul could be heard moving out of the way. The mighty red dragon bellowed out in pain for the 1st time during that fight.

The scale the hammer hit shattered and fell to the floor in pieces, but Dorn wasn’t done with that. With an unnatural speed he pulled the hammer back and hit the red dragon in another spot breaking another scale, and another, and another. Dorn kept machine gunning the dragon’s belly with hammer blow after hammer blow, breaking scales as the flames that covered his body began to die.

When the flames had died, So did Dorn the Younger. In the end the dragon was slain thanks to the scales that Dorn had broken. A statue was made in his honor, and he was re titled Dorn Firebeard.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“What a sad story, Dorn Firebeard died fighting the dragon?”

“Aye he did, but he died a good death, he opened the path for his fellow dwarves and clansmen to slay the dragon. Not only that, but the mountain of treasure we acquired because of it was a tremendous boon for us.”

“But he died, he didn’t get anything.”

“On the contrary, just because he died doesn’t mean he got nothing, His share of the loot was given to his family and clansmen. He earned it, and since the dead can’t use money, it was given to his family.” Celestia and Luna sighed. Dwarf culture was vastly different from their own, but they had been through a lot recently, so they were both battle hardened you could say.

“Well Glarin, that was an, interesting story again, but I must be off to bed now.”

“Princess, you mind if I ask 1 more quick question?” Celestia sighed with a light smile on her face.

“Yes of course.”

“Is there really no king or queen?”

A Knight Berserker? or a Berserking Knight?

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Sure was nice of those princesses to let him stay at the castle for the night. He couldn’t refuse an offer from royalty. He just wished his room wasn’t on the top floor of a tall tower. Did ponies not have any underground bedrooms? Perhaps he could convince them to let him stay in the dungeons, that should be underground right?

Anyway, Glarin wasn’t comfortable in his room and had taken to wandering down the halls. Even though it was becoming dark outside the halls were plenty bright, with a little more inspection he noticed that the halls had runes all around that seemed to radiate light in areas that didn’t have wall torches.

As he walked silently along the hallway he saw one of those griffin maids dusting the top of a large picture frame.

“Oye lass! What you doing cleaning something that can’t be seen?” The griffin turned around and looked down at the dwarf, finished dusting and then flew down.

“Because the head maid, a pegasi, said so.”

“Orders from above then ehh? Mind if I ask you a question?”

"Of course not, we were all informed to help you in anyway should you ask of us.”

“Well that’s mighty convenient don’t you think?”

“Well, its common place. We are always informed when someone new is staying at the castle so that nothing comes as a surprise on our end.”

“I see, well I was wondering if you could direct me to the location of your princess of the Night, Luna I think her name was.”

“You wish to see Princess Luna?”

“Aye, Pretty sure that’s exactly what I said, but with less words.” The griffin maid nodded her head

“This way then, I will take you as it is quite a distance from here.” Glarin nodded his head and walked in line behind her, at lest he was sure it was a her. He didn’t know of any male maids.

As they walked through the mostly empty halls, Glarin was memorizing the castles interior inside and out. A dwarf that would get lost in a castle made of stone would be a laughing stock. As they traveled Glarin realized they were heading back to the throne room of the day princess. Were their throne rooms next to each other?

Nope

They shared it, they just changed the tapestries when one or the other took over. Can’t say he was impressed or surprised, after seeing how poor that 1st town was and the fact they probably spent most of their money making this one castle, they couldn’t afford a second throne room.

Why were the ponies so poor? Did they just spend without any planning involved? Or maybe it had to do with the cost of living. Even in the dwarven mines 3 tomatoes for 2 gold coins was outrageous, they were worth 36 silver each at most... But then they didn’t have silver or copper coins here... hmm.

“So Princess Luna and Celestia share the same throne room huh?”

“Yes and no, Luna is really only in here at night till morning, then Celestia takes over until nightfall.”

“Uh-huh, well thank you for bringing me here. I’ll see you around I suppose.” The griffin nodded her head as Glarin walked to the throne rooms door. He noticed the guards themselves were different as well.

They were dark blue or a light black color and had bat wings with bright yellow eyes. Except their slit eyes reminded him of some monsters he had meet in days of old. They looked at him with a bit of prejudice before nodding at him and opening the throne room door.

Just like he thought, the inside banners had been changed just like the banners outside the throne room door as well. He walked with his head down until he reached the bottom of the stairs and kneeled at the bottom of the stairs silent.

“Glarin, I am surprised to see you, I had thought you were to retire in your room for the night. Was their something you wished to speak to me about?” She spoke with the same power behind her voice as she did during dinner.

“Well your Royal Highness, I was wondering if I could perhaps get a different room? Perhaps on the ground floor?” Luna raised an eyebrow at that.

“Was the pent castle suite not to your liking? We can have it adjusted to however you want to make your stay more comfortable.”

“No no! The room itself was grand your Royal Highness, but...” Glarin took in a deep breath. “...I’m afraid of high places.”

“I thought Berserkers had no fears?”

“On the battlefield yes, but in day to day life. It’s a different story your Royal Highness.” Luna Raised an eyebrow at being called your Royal Highness, repeatedly.

“Please, just call me Luna. There is no need for the formalities Glarin. And as for your room change, You shall have it, in exchange for a question that I have been pondering for some time.”

“What would your question be Your Royal Highness Luna.” Luna sighed that he had decided to just add her name to the end of it.

“The tale you told of Dorn Firebeard and his Darksteel Maul. What is Darksteel?”

“Darksteel is an Alloy created by the Ironstar Clan. Its exact composition is a well kept secret by the Ironstars. It was created to be as hard as adamant, and it almost is.”

“So then, you do not possess the knowledge to create it then?”

“Alas I do not your Royal Highness Luna. The IronStar Clan is thought to exterminated or scattered throughout the realm after the fall of one of our great kingdom's Khazad-dûm.” Luna was getting a little frustrated by Glarin continuing to call her that. He still remained with his head bowed and looked to the floor. The fall of the dwarven kingdom was something that shocked her though.

“You lost your Kingdom? How did that happen?” Glarin Spoke the next line with obvious anger in his voice.

“Durin’s Bane. A Demon of the ancient world. It killed the king of that realm, Durin VI, and his only son Náin a year later along with thousands of dwarves. After that the once great City was lost, and the remaining dwarves scattered across the realms, but that was long before my time. We later learned that Durin’s Bane was nothing more then an oversized Balrog Warlord.”

“But you defeated a balrog in the Everfree already didn’t you? What made this one different?”

“Your Royal Highness Luna, the one I defeated was but a simple foot solder, it only stood at 8 feet. They average 14 feet in height and Durin’s Bane is around 18 feet.” Luna sighed to herself. She would of thought such information wouldn’t be shared so willingly. Perhaps it was because she was royalty that he answered her truthfully with everything she asked of him.

“Please, just Luna is fine Glarin. Why don’t you look up to me?” After a short pause Glarin spoke again.

“As a commoner of the warrior caste, it is not my place to look upon Royalty...” Glarin paused for a moment again. “... Luna.” The Princess of the night smiled, one wall has been broken down.

“Is that why you refused to make eye contact with Celestia and I at the table earlier?”

“Yes it is, Luna.”

“Glarin, look at me please.” Glarin blinked a few times realizing her voice had softened, then raised his head. Luna was looking directly at him and he at her.

“That’s better Glarin, Do not be afraid to speak to me and my sister as equals here. I will have my colt Ozzy escort you to your new room, he had wanted some time to speak to you at length about the stories you spun at dinner.”

“Your colt?”

“Yes, one of my colt’s. Though not by blood, I love him and his brothers and sisters as if they were my own, all 30 of them.”

It suddenly occurred to Glarin, that those 30 other ponies he saw at the table were also Royal’s as well. And all of them looked to Luna as a mother? How did that happen exactly? He’s never heard of Royals taking in commoners or the like before. What could of happened to make such a thing possible?

And wasn’t she supposed to be the hardcore mighty ruler of the night?

“Well of course I shall entertain him to the best of my meager ability.”

“Good, I summoned him through my magic telepathy while you were busy studying the tile upon the floor. He should be waiting outside the...” Suddenly the throne room doors opened because a unicorn flung them open as hard as possible.

“Mom, is it true Sir Glarin would speak with...” He stopped mid sentence and came to a halt when he saw Glarin in the middle of the throne room. Glarin looked a bit confused with the title of Sir.

“Sir Glarin? Princess Luna?” Glarin was looking up at Luna who simply nodded at him.

“Did we forget to mention that you were to be knighted for saving Princess Twilight and the bearer of Harmony Fluttershy?” Glarin’s brain turned off once again as he gave her a blank stare.

When were they going to tell him of this? There was no hint of him being knighted, let alone a commoner becoming a knight was unheard of without marring into a noble family 1st. That and defeating a dragon also helped you become a noble. And what did they mean save? Were they both nearby when he fought the Balrog? It wasn't like he couldn’t deny it, it would be extremely rude to deny a gift offered by royalty.

“I thank you Princess. Knighting a simple commoner like me.” Luna simply nodded at him while Ozzy moved forward with excitement clear upon his face.

“Hi Sir Glarin! Do you mind if I call you Sir Glarin? Or should I call you something else?”

“Uhh, Glarin is fine laddy. How can I help you?” Ozzy began to lead Glarin out of the throne room as he waved to Luna.

“Well I was just wondering...” He seemed to hesitate about his next sentence “Would it be possible to teach us to become Berserkers as well? I know you said it takes at least 6 years, but my brother Kratos and I loved your stories, We always wanted to be fierce warriors who fought for Equestria!”

“You wish to become a Berserker laddy?”

“Well, not just me and Kratos, Hannibal and Lector also wanted to learn as well, but, well...” He sighed before looking back at Glarin with a fire of determination in his eyes “We just weren’t sure if you were able to teach us or not. We always loved the art of war. Some of us are into music, while others like politics, but then there’s us. We dream to be on a great battle field taking down massive opponents so we can win the battle.” Glarin closed his eyes and stroked the stubble on his chin.

“I’m pretty sure your mother would have me killed if I taught her youngins the ways of the berserker.” The pony sighed to himself as he continued to walk along the path to Glarin’s new room.

“I understand. I guess we’ll have to settle for the guards then.”

“I’m sure that would be best laddy. If you succeed at becoming guards, then maybe I can teach you a thing or two. But you aren’t dwarves so I’m not sure how well training will go through.”

As they walked through the halls Ozzy continued to converse with Glarin about his past battles and tried to pry out some information about his training process. After awhile Glarin decided to ask him a question that had been bugging him as well.

“Ozzy my boy, would you mind if I ask you a personal question?”

“Uh, no go ahead.”

“Well, its something your mother said, She said you and your other siblings weren’t related by blood. Does that mean you were all adopted?” Ozzy just nodded his head and chuckled

“Yeah, we were all orphans at the wayward foal orphanage and she came to visit us with that guy Merry. I don’t really remember the orphanage very well, I can’t seem to remember anything about it really. The only thing I do remember was we were all standing around in one of the rooms, and he would place his hand on us, then after a little bit he would say Princess Luna was outside waiting for us.”

“Really? Just like that she took all of you in?”

“Yeah, She said she took a liking to all of us and decided to keep us all. But...”

“But what laddy?”

“...Just some rumors that went around for awhile. But its nothing you should be concerned about Sir Glarin, that’s all in the past now. Besides we’re at your new room as well.” Glarin looked at the door, it was just as fancy as the last rooms door, but it was on the ground floor.

He could feel it within his dwarven senses. Good solid dirt and marble was under his feet instead of a thin layer of marble followed by nothing. He opened the door and it was just as extravagant as the tower room. The colors were a bit different, but the same layout overall. These ponies must not like variation in their room designs. Damn bed was too high off the ground for his liking as well. As Glarin was settling himself inside his new room, Ozzy looked around for a bit then decided to ask Glarin one last question before he left.

“Would you like a mare escort Sir Glarin?” Glarin furrowed his brows for a moment in thought.

“Escort to where laddy? I’m already in my room.” Ozzy was a bit confused at his reaction and got a light blush on his face as he asked the next question.

“No I meant like, a Mare of the night.” Glarin looked at the boy with confusion still on his face.

“Why would you send your mother to my room lad?” Ozzy became flustered

“Ack, No I meant... Do you want a Call Mare Glarin?”

“Why would you call one over? You don’t need to call some mare over when I'm perfectly content with you here.” Ozzy thought for a minute then nodded his head in understanding with a blush on his face

“So a stallion then?” Glarin spun around from the bed that he had been fiddling with.

“Lad, I just told you, there’s no need to call for anyone. I’m fine with just you here escorting me. Your mother said you would do just fine.” Ozzy began to blush intensely

“M-m-my mom did?”

“Yeah, Now get over here and get on the bed.”

“Well I-I...” Glarin looked at Ozzy with a bit of worry.

“Lad, what’s gotten you so nervous all of a sudden?”

“It’s just, my 1st time and I didn’t...”

“What? Your 1st time doing some manual labor? Hate to break it to you laddy, but life requires you to do work. Although what I’m asking you is quite a simple task, and frankly not that big of one, I’m sure you will come across much bigger obstacles if you want to climb the ranks within the guards. You even have to do the things you don’t want to. It’s just how life works, now get over here.” Ozzy gently walked further into the room and closer to the bed, unsure of what would happen to him. He was both nervous and excited. Glarin seemed to be indifferent to the whole situation. How often has he done this?

“Good, now get on the bed...” Ozzy climbed up into the bed and laid down closing his eyes. “... Ok now pull out the blankets on the side over there near the wall.” Ozzy peaked his eyes open and pulled the sheets until they were no longer tucked in.

“Thanks lad, you can get off now.” Ozzy opened his eyes again and got off the bed. He watched as Glarin yanked the bed sheets off cleanly. He then wrapped himself up in a blanket and rolled under the bed with them around his body.

“The sheets were tucked in so tightly I thought it might have been held together with nails.”

“Um... Glarin?” Ozzy peaked under the bed and looked at Glarin, he looked like a mini burrito.

“What is it lad? I’m finally comfortable.”

“I...” Ozzy sighed “... Nevermind, goodnight Sir Glarin.”

“Night Lad.” Ozzy sighed to himself in relief as he left the room.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Glarin had a decent sleep this time around, no night terrors of any kind. Although he did have a dream about talking with the Princess of the Night while they looked at something she called the moon and stars. What was that about? He couldn’t quite remember it exactly, He kept having the reoccurring thought that she was waiting for him to slip up while they spoke at length about just life in general.

He woke up to the sounds of what sounded like a few ponies running around his room. Judging by the low amount of light in the room, it was probably early morning, otherwise they had brought a small light source with them.

“Where did he go? We’ll be in so much trouble if we don’t find and take care of him soon!” Assassin’s? Well that’s to be expected, this was a royal castle after all.

“He couldn’t have left the room, no one said anything about him leaving! He’s gotta be hiding in here someplace.” So they had him tagged this whole time huh?

Glarin felt it was a good thing he liked sleeping on a hard surface over the soft fluffy mattresses. He never did trust human inventions over dwarven ones. He would of surely been killed in his sleep otherwise. He peaked out from under the bed to get a better look at his assassin’s. They were both wearing maid outfits.

The perfect cover. They could easily walk out and away from the scene as if nothing happened.

“Ohh, Princess Celestia and Luna will be so cross with us if we lost him.” So the Princesses did want him dead. Them being nice was all a clever ruse to get him to lower his guard. As he inspected the maid assassins he couldn’t see any form of a weapon upon them. Was the blade hidden inside their feather dusters? Or perhaps the feather duster would shoot out some kind of poison?

Assassins were always tricky, Dwarven ones even more so. With all of their gadgets and deadly tricks. Perhaps pony assassins would be easy to deal with?

“Did you check under the bed?”

“No I haven’t...” it was now or never, as the assassin closed in on his location, he got the blanket ready to throw and blind her. Right when she lowered her head a blanket hit her in the face blinding her.

“Gahh!” She quickly stepped back, but the blanket continued to cover her head. Glarin quickly crawled out from under the bed and went to the dresser to grab his axe, but it was missing. Of course it would be missing.

“You may have taken my axe, but I won’t go down without a fight you maid assassins!” The maid with the blanket over her head quickly got it off to look at the other maid, they simply giggled at each other.

“Glarin you silly Dwarf. Princess Luna and Celestia sent us to help you get cleaned up before your knighting ceremony. Your axe has been sent to the castle smithy to be polished.” Glarin kept his fists up in a fighting stance as he looked between the two of them.

“Truely? The talk of ‘Taking care of me’ wasn’t about killing me then?”

“Of course not Glarin. Now if you would come with us to the royal spa, we can get you cleaned and suited up. Your axe should be done when we’re done polishing you up as well.” Glarin gave them both a hard glare, but they didn’t falter their gazes at him. He lowered his guard and stood up straight.

“Lead the way then, but I’m watching you.” The Ponies just shook their heads and giggled.

“You can watch all you want Sir, but no touching.” Glarin raised an eyebrow at their odd choice of words. He shrugged it off and followed behind them. Perhaps the Princesses were really benevolent as everyone kept telling him.

He did remember Twilight telling him nothing really ever happened in Equestria that could surmount to a terrible tragedy. No wars within the last thousand years, and it was all thanks to their current Princesses. Did they already wipe out every other nation that would pose a threat? And that griffin nation collapsing after they took control... they must have been some kind of master schemers. Causing entire nations to crumble without ever declaring war.

A freighting prospect indeed.

“Here we are, the castle’s Spa.” Glarin looked at the door and saw a strange writing above the door. He assumed it said Spa, but not in any language he’s ever seen. But then, he's only ever seen Dwarven and its several other dialects. He never understood why dwarves from different regions all wrote slightly different and pronounced some words differently.

“What exactly is a Spa?”

“It is a place of relaxation that will allow you to beautify yourself. However, we have attendants inside that will cater to you.”

“You mean like a public bath house?” Glarin looked at himself and lifted an arm to smell himself. “Ye gods that’s ripe. I suppose a bath will do me good.” The maids nodded their heads and pushed the doors open to let Glarin walk inside.

“We will be waiting out here for you.” Glarin nodded his head at them and wandered inside.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Glarin came out after an hour, two shades lighter and with his skin all shined up and oiled. He walked out of the Spa with a glint in his eye and looked over at the two maids. He had banished the thoughts of them being assassins mid way though that herbal bath and the back massage. Even with the hooves, they did a damn fine job. Heck they even gave him breakfast as he bathed.

“I am a Handsome Dwarf. Even without a full beard.” Glarin smiled at them and kept the glint in his eye. The maids nodded their heads with a smile on their faces and presented Glarin his axe. It was almost as shiny as he was.

“There’s my precious, I’m gonna have to shine up your brother back at home now aren’t I?” The maids raised an eyebrow at his comment and shrugged it off.

“Come with us Glarin, the Princesses will want to meet with you now.”

“Aye Aye.” Glarin slung his axe over his shoulder and put his free hand into his pants at the waist line, fingers deep with his thumb hanging outside. He began to strut down the halls, with a smug grin on his face.

He was sexy, and he knew it.

They had been walking to the outside courtyard and little did Glarin know that they had been waiting for him to arrive. The maids quickly ushered him outside behind the three Princesses. Luna looked behind her and smiled at Glarin, who simply bowed his head when she looked at him. When Twilight looked behind her at Glarin he gave her a shy smile. He had no idea she was a Princess as well, he had acted with no such manners around her back in that town.

When Celestia had finished her little speech she looked behind her and directly at Glarin with a smile.

“Rise Glarin, come closer so we may begin with the knighting ceremony.”

“Your royal Highness, I, I don’t know what to do or say for the ceremony.” Celestia smiled at him and chuckled

“Just repeat after me then or answer yes to our questions. You will be fine.” Glarin nodded his head and got down into a kneeling position. Celestia, Luna, and Twilight each summoned a magical sword that floated above their heads. Celestia’s glowed a radiant gold, while Luna’s was a deep blue color with what looked like stars within its pattern. Twilight’s was a purple hue with pink streaks running through it. Celestia spoke first

“Glarin of the Ungard Clan, Do you promise to always defend a Lady, be charitable and defend the poor and helpless?” Glarin wasn’t sure about the Charitable part, he hoped it didn’t involve giving away his hard earned wealth.

“Aye Princess.” Luna spoke next.

“To always be brave and never avoid dangerous paths out of fear?” That’s easy, he’s been doing that his whole life.

“Aye Princess.” Twilight was next to speak.

“And do you promise to always tell of your escapades while only speaking the truth?” That ones easy too. Well telling to truth to every stranger might be hard.

“Aye Princess.” The three Princesses nodded at each other and brought down their 3 swords of light over his shoulders and began to announce his knighthood simultaneously.

“We hear by dub thee Sir Glarin of the Ungard Clan to be known as the...” The three of them had different titles in mind however.

“...Knight Berserker.” Said Celestia

“...Berserking Knight.” Said Luna.

“...Knigh-serker.” Said Twilight.

All the Princesses scrunched their face in thought for a moment before looking at each other.

“I thought we all came to an agreement this morning on what his title would be.”

“As did I.”

“The letter wasn’t quite clear on what it would be exactly.”

The scrunching of the Princesses began to intensify.

“Why don’t we just let Glarin decide what he likes more then?” Now Glarin was in hot water. He didn’t want to offend any of them. So he had to think of something. He stayed in his kneeling position with his face scrunched as well.

“Well Glarin?”

“Yes Glarin, tell us.”

“Who has come up with the better title?” He decided to go with his Twilights title, it sounded cooler to him, and she was his honorary Clansmen after all.

“Well honestly I like Twiii...” Twilights smile got bigger while Celestia’s and Luna’s faces scrunched harder. “...I mean Luu...” Twilight went back to scrunching and Celestia was beginning to shake with her face scrunching. “...what I meant was Celll...” Celestia began to smile while Twilight and Luna went back to scrunching intensely. Glarin cleared his throat.

“I meant I don’t like any of them!” All three Princesses ceased scrunching and sighed.

“So then you’re fine with the title of Sir Glarin, Berserker of the Ungard Clan then?”

“Aye, besides, I’d rather not have the title of knight, that’s for humans, and I won’t wear heavy armor. It restrict’s movement too much.” The three Princesses nodded their heads at him.

“It’s fine with us Glarin.” Celestia and Twilight both just smiled at Glarin while Luna held a hoof up to her mouth and took a deep breath.

“NOW LET THE GAMES BEGIN!” Glarin winced a bit at how loud her voice was and stuck his pinky finger into his ear and began to twist it around.

“What games?” Glarin stood up and looked around him at the huge crowd that was cheering in excitement. In the front he could see the Apple family. Did everyone know of this whole knighting business except him? Celestia lowered her head to whisper into Glarin’s ear.

“We didn’t always have Nobles and knights you know. I created them well over a thousand years ago. They were picked from ponies that knew how to fight and defend Equestria, but because of this thousand years of peace. They have all grown weak, fat, and prideful. Thinking they are entitled to everything simply because they were born as a noble. Even though none of them really deserve it. You are the 1st real Noble in over 900 years that I will actually respect.”

“Princess what are you...”

“Show them Glarin, show them what it means to be a true Noble. You told me dwarf royalty and nobility were picked by their ability to fight, just like how my sister and I hoof picked the nobles over a thousand years ago. Show them what it means to be a Noble, the Dwarven way.” Glarin got a huge grin on his face. Finally, something exciting was going to happen. He could stretch his poor muscles now, its been a little over 2 weeks since he’s done anything major. Including the time he spent sleeping at Fluttershy’s.

“Aye Aye Princess.” Glarin saluted the Princess and walked down from the platform to go and greet the Apple Family, little Daring in particular.

“Oye! Apples family, how have you been while I was away?” Glarin noticed Big Mac seemed to have a slight orange beard growing on his chin.

“We’ve been doing just fine Sir Glarin. Twilight told us of your knighting ceremony and to come along, Fluttershy and our other friends also showed up, they should be around somewhere.”

“Fluttershy is here as well huh?”

“Yeah she’s someplace, But hey, my colt Daring had something he wanted to give you, as an apology of sorts for how mean he was when you guys 1st met.”

“A gift? For me?” The Apples all moved aside to let Daring through. He pulled a small bottle out of his little saddle bag and hoofed it over to Glarin along with a thick piece of cloth.

“I made this for you, use the cloth to rub it on your face where you want hair to grow and within minutes you should start seeing significant hair growth. Its magical based though.” Glarin opened his mouth and eyes wide in astonishment.

“If this stuff works lad, You will have my eternal gratitude!” The Apple Family began to chuckle together as they all looked at Big Mac.

“It works Sir Glarin, tried it myself. I shaved this morning and used a tiny bit for a test. This was the result.” Big Mac showed off his short beard while he spoke. Glarin looked at the bottle in his hand with the cloth.

“I need a Mirror!” Rainbow pulled a Mirror out of Big Macs saddle bag and held it up in front of him.

“Here ya go!” Glarin folded the cloth up and poured a large amount of the bottle onto the cloth and began to rub it on his face where his beard was still trying to grow back. Being magic resistant he figured he would need a lot.

“How much of the bottle did you put on that cloth Glarin?” A group of ponies had gathered round to see what he was up too, along with the Princesses. The games were supposed to start soon after all.

“Just about half of the bottle, why?” Daring and Big Mac made faces of slight fear.

“Oh god! My dad only used 3 drops worth and it gave him so much he had to trim it before we left!” At hearing that Glarin slowly stopped rubbing it on his face and looked at the cloth again. Then back to the mirror. He tilted his head back and forth looking at his neck and chin waiting for it to start growing.

“Hmm, I don’t think it’s gonna work for me laddy.”

“Why is that?”

“Well dwarves are resistant to magic you see and...” Suddenly the beard on Glarin’s face began to slowly grow out, he could feel it and it felt so weird, but glorious at the same time. “...IT WORKS! IT BLOODY WORKS!”

Glarin watched it grow in the mirror that Rainbow was still holding up in the middle of the crowd. After awhile he began to dance around in place. After about 2 minutes the hair stopped growing and the beard itself reached all the way down to his knees. The three Princesses had been watching the entire time and giggled at his antics.

“How are you going to show us your martial powers with such a long beard Glarin?” Questioned Luna

“Long? Its barely half as big as it was before it was burned off, But this length will be just fine. Now I just need my Mohawk back and I’ll be normal. Once I have my new luscious beard braided a bit, I’ll be combat ready.” Celestia and Luna nodded at that.

“Very well, the games shall be postponed until you get your new beard in order. I know how precious it is to you. From the way you spoke of it during your stories of the past.” Glarin looked at the bottle in his hands along with the thick cloth.

“Here princesses, I think you should use some and get a beard as well. It will help show what powerful and wise rulers you both are...” He looked over to Twilight as well. “...You should grow a bit of one as well Lass. Our dwarven Queens commonly had beards you know.” Celestia, Luna, and Twilight all raised an eyebrow at Glarin, along with every nearby pony and griffin that heard him say it.

“I don’t think that’s...” said Celestia before Luna interrupted her.

“Sister, I think you would look quite Ravishing with a majestic beard.”

“I whole heartedly agree with Princess Luna, You would look good with a beard like mine.” Glarin just held the bottle and the cloth out so she could take it from him.

The "Games"

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Luna ended up taking the bottle from Glarin and teleporting it to her room for future use. After about 30 minutes Glarin had successfully braided his beard, and it no longer went to his knees. Instead, it stopped short of his waist line.

He was ushered to a large open area that was normally a park. It had been reformed into a temporary stadium using magic to replace the trees and bushes so they would have more open space for the rare event.

“So what games are we going to be doing first? The Axe throwing competition? Or maybe Rock hurling, haven’t tossed a rock in a good while.” Twilight was leading Glarin to the 1st event that they had planned for the day.

“Actually, its going to be archery. Have you used a bow before?”

“Can’t say that I have, used a crossbow once, wasn’t my style.”

“Well you will be issued a recurve bow along with many other nobles and you will compete along side them. You will each fire 3 arrows only and who ever has the closest to 3 bull’s-eye’s will win.” Glarin nodded his head.

“Sounds easy enough, I won’t win though, Never shot a bow in my life. If this was axe throwing, I might stand a chance.”

“Well just do your best Glarin, we will be watching from up there in the stands.” Twilight pointed her hoof up to what he assumed was the VIP section as only Princess Luna and Celestia were sitting inside the large booth area with 30 some other ponies. Their lack of beards confused him. He was sure they took the bottle from him.

Glarin walked himself over to the tent where he saw some other ponies getting what he assumed to be a bow. When he got to the tent he waited in line behind some of the other ponies. Turns out he was the last to get in line. The griffin behind the counter looked him up and down and rummaged through the bow’s he had until he pulled out a decent sized one.

“Here, never seen such muscles on an archer before, give that bow a few pulls and tell me how it feels.” Glarin looked the bow up and down.

“How do I use this thing? I’ve never used a bow in my entire life.” The griffin gave him an incredulous look.

“Are you serious? Pony nobles flock to archery cause its an easy ‘sport’.”

“Well, I’m not a pony and being a noble through knighthood is new to me.”

“Yeah I saw you get knighted, funny thing the princesses couldn’t decide what to title you. Anyway, let me show you how to use a bow at least. We don’t have any gloves for hands like yours, but maybe the ones we use for griffin claws might work.” The griffin grabbed one of the griffin claw gloves and tossed it in his direction. Glarin tried to put it on, but it was far too small.

“Bah, gloves are for weaklings that are scared of getting rough hands from honest work anyway.” The griffin laughed at Glarin’s comment.

“True that, but for griffins its so our claws don’t cut the strings when we draw it back. Now watch me, I’m going to dry pull it so you can see how its done at least.” The Griffins stood on his back legs and faced away from Glarin so he got a side view. He grabbed the string and pulled it back while pushing the bow out from his chest, He did so until his arms were fully extended. He repeated the drawing of the bow a few times then stopped.

“Just do that for me and tell me how it feels. If its too hard or too easy, let me know.” Glarin nodded his head and gripped the bow the way the griffin did and pulled on the string as far back as it would go. He then heard a crack and then brought the string back to its original spot.

“Is it supposed to crack?” Glarin looked at the bow and the top limb had a large visible crack going through it.

“By Celestia, You overdrew an 80lb recurve bow and cracked its limb. You're gonna need something bigger and stronger then.” The Griffin moved to the back of his tent and opened a large chest. He pulled out a slightly larger recurve bow that looked to be made of metal instead of wood.

“Here, this is the latest in bow tech. Its classified as a War Bow and its made from...” Glarin interrupted him with his eyes going wide.

“Spring Steel, correct?”

“How did you know?”

“I can tell by how it glimmers in the light and the way its tinted. We use spring steel for our Ballista’s instead of flimsy wood.” Glarin picked up the bow and pulled the string back. This bow was a good 2 inches longer then that wooden one. And it offered more resistance then the wooden one did, but nothing he couldn’t handle.

“Yes, this one feels much better than that wooden toy you handed me before.” The Griffin laughed.

“You know, you're probably the only one to draw that type of bow who isn’t a unicorn. It has a draw weight of 190lbs. Even the unicorns that are trained to use it take years before they can draw it as easily as you just did. Let me get you the arrows you need.” The griffin went back to the chest and pulled out what looked like steel arrows.

“These are the only arrows I have that are long enough to go with that bow draw size. Although they are made from a light steel alloy, they are still a bit on the heavy side, but with that bow they shouldn’t be a problem.” Glarin nodded his head at the Griffin.

“Thanks for the help. Lets see if I can at least hit the target.” The Griffin laughed again and waved him off.

“Good luck Sir Glarin!” Glarin made his way to the Archery tournament with the rest of the pony nobles and stood in the back as he watched some of the other ponies shoot the bow off.

It was funny to watch the different ponies shoot the bow. Normal ponies seemed to have the hardest time. They had special things on one of their hooves to hold the arrow and pull the string back while another special contraption held the actual bow to their hoof. Pegasi used a combination of the earth pony style or their wings to hold and draw the bow. Unicorns had by far the easiest way. They used their magic to hold and draw the bow.

The unicorn before Glarin had gotten 3 bullseye’s. The competition was practically over already and the last competitors needed to at least tie with her to start the tie breaking competition. Glarin was still going to give it his best. Twilight had told him to do so after all. Glarin stood behind the line like all the ponies had done before him. When he brought the recurve bow up and began to draw it, one of the nobles shouted out from the sidelines.

“Hey! Why is he using a different bow!? That isn’t fair!” Glarin ceased drawing his bow and was about to answer him when Celestia spoke up over the crowd.

“Yes Glarin, why do you get to use a war bow made from spring steel when everypony else used the wooden ones?” the crowed began to murmur among themselves

“The Griffin handing the bows out gave it to me after I cracked that wooden toy.” The unicorn noble that had just scored 3 bullseye’s scoffed.

“As if, he must of just been trying to give you the upper hand. Use my bow instead.” The unicorn levitated the bow in front of Glarin along with some arrows and Glarin just shrugged and grabbed them.

He got back into position and began to draw the bow as he had done before. As he pulled it back the same cracking sound he had heard before was evident, and when he released the arrow, the snap back caused the upper and lower limb to snap off completely and send the arrow straight into the ground. The string lashed it self across the arm Glarin was holding the bow with and drew blood. Glarin looked over to the Unicorn and shrugged.

“Sorry, I broke your toy bow.” The entire crowd was in shock along with the unicorn pony.

“That bow had an 80lb draw. And you snapped it into 3 pieces after overdrawing it with a single arrow.”

“Is that what I did? If it wasn’t made to go back that far, then why does it?” Glarin picked up the metal recurve bow he had gotten from the griffin and notched one of the metal arrows in it and drew it back. Celestia smirked as she watched Glarin draw the bow.

“He’s overdrawing that war bow as well. If it wasn’t made of spring steel it would of snapped just like the wooden ones. It’s a good thing a building is behind the archery targets. The arrows will just bounce...” Celestia watched as Glarin loosed the arrow. It completely missed the target by a good 10 feet and imbedded itself into the marble of the building she thought would deflect the arrows that missed. The crowd was wide eyed and silent for a moment before bursting into wild cheers.

Through the cheers one pony shouted “My house!”

“Why are they cheering? I completely missed.” Glarin notched the second arrow and spent a little more time aiming then he did before and loosed the arrow. It grazed the target this time and embedded itself into the marble wall just like the last arrow.

“By Clanggedin’s hairy arse! I didn’t get a single blasted arrow in the target.” The crowd cheered again.

“You still have one more shot Glarin.” Glarin furrowed his brow at the noble who said that.

“No, the arrow I fired from the bow that broke also counts. I was told we can only fire 3 arrows. Even though the bow failed and the arrow hit the ground. It still counts as it gained some distance. Rules are like laws and must be followed. No exceptions.” Glarin took his bow and walked over next to the other ponies that had already finished shooting.

Glarin sat down in the grass with the bow next to him. The crowd stopped cheering and went silent again as the next noble got up and began to take aim. Some of the nobles came up to him and just looked at him.

“That bow has to be enchanted, let me see it.” Glarin simply handed the bow over, and the other nobles began to inspect it.

“Must be here somewhere... there’s no way it could have that much power.” The noble began to become frustrated at his inability to find the enchantment runes.

“Give me that!” A unicorn snatched the bow from the pegasi’s hooves and looked it over as well. After a bit of frustrated searching Glarin cleared his throat.

“If you’ll excuse me, I have to go return the bow to the griffin who lent it to me.” Glarin held out his hand and the unicorn was dumbfounded that he could find no enchantments of anykind. As he began to walk away a pony with a red cross on her flank ran up to Glarin with a med kit.

“Hang on sir Glarin, I was finally able to find the med kit, let me patch up your arm first.”

“My arm?” Glarin looked at his arm and finally noticed it was bleeding. “Oh you mean this scratch? Its fine lass, no need to fret over it.” The pony rolled her eyes

“No need to act macho, just let me disinfect it and wrap it.” Glarin sighed.

“Fine.” He held out his arm and let her bandage it up.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Glarin had returned the bow and the griffin had a good laugh about what happened. By order of Celestia, Twilight herself came down to inform Glarin about the next game that was to take place.

“What in the underdark is a joust?”

“Well after you suit up, you are given a lance with a shield, or no shield, it just depends on how you want to go at it, most ponies have a shield though. Anyway, you then charge at each other as fast as possible and aim to knock each other down with the lance, of course if you have a shield it can be used to deflect the lance and help you stay standing. If you both fall then a 1 on 1 combat will begin and the 1st one to land a successful hit with the provided weapon will win.” Glarin was in thought for a moment then asked an important question.

“By successful hit, does that mean drawing blood or...?”

“No!” Twilight thought for a minute and realized he could probably cleave through armor with any weapon they gave him “We will decide what a successful hit is, but any attack that lands will count. As long as it wasn’t parried with the other weapon or blocked with the shield, if the shield is still intact.”

“In that case, you should just give me a stick or a small pole or something. I wouldn’t want to kill anyone.” Twilight figured as much.

“I’ll check and see what I can do.” Glarin and Twilight went over to the outfitter and he looked Glarin over.

“I don’t have any plate mail that would fit you, however I can give you a shield and lance, The ones for griffins should work. You will also be issued a sword or an axe, blunted of course, to reduce the risk of injury if a 1 on 1 is required.” Glarin just nodded his head while Twilight just thought for a moment.

“You wouldn’t happen to just have a short iron or steel pole laying around, would you?” The jousting outfitter just looked at her funny and went to the back and began to rummage through some stuff in the back. He later came out with a short steel pole.

“Will this do princess?” Twilight looked it over and nodded her head.

“Yes this should do just fine...” She levitated it over to Glarin who took it from the air and put it into his empty axe sheath, it bounced around but seemed to work just fine for temporary purposes.

“Just hand me a lance lad, I wont need a shield, never liked them anyway.”

“Are you sure? I don’t’ think that flimsy looking chain shirt will...” The pony stopped talking when he felt a cold chill run down his spine with Glarin giving him a look that could kill.

“Did you just say my clans, my Father’s metal work. Was. FLIMSY?!” Glarin took a step toward the pony while he stepped back and Twilight herself stepped back, never seeing Glarin this angry before. Besides maybe that time in the Everfree forest with those timber wolves.

“D-di-did I say f-f-flimsy? I m-m-ment to say fabulously great!” Glarin gave out a low growl as he stood up straight again.

“That’s what I thought you said.” Glarin grabbed the lance off the counter and stomped over to the waiting area.

“What was that about princess?” Twilight just looked over to Glarin and sighed.

“Probably because that chain shirt is the only thing he has left from his family...” The pony lowered his head.

“I didn’t...”

“It’s not your fault, you didn’t know. So don’t worry about it too much.” Twilight went out to go see Glarin before it was his turn to go up.

“Glarin are you alright?”

“Hmm? Yeah I’m fine, just worried a bit though.”

“Worried about what? Losing?” Glarin chuckled

“Losing is the least of my worries Lass, I’m just afraid of getting knocked up into the sky and disappearing before one of you can save me.” Twilight sighed and rolled her eyes.

“Are you still worried about that?”

“Of course I am! Isn’t there some magic spell you can cast to keep me grounded?” Twilight furrowed her brow in thought

“Grounded? Yeah I think I can do that. Show me your flank, I’ll give you a ‘special’ enchantment.”

“My what now?”

“Your flank, rear, posterior.”

“Oh, you mean my arse. Ok.” Glarin dropped his pants and turned around so Twilight had a clear view of his arse, it was quite hairy. She concentrated her magic and a red symbol began to glow on his left arse cheek.

“Oye lass, is it supposed to burn like that?” A moment later she stopped and a black mark was left. It consisted of a circle with 4 lines inside of it. The biggest line in the middle with a small one pointing up from the center of it.

“There, that should keep you grounded, so now you no longer have to worry about floating up into the sky Glarin.” Glarin looked at the bald spot on his arse and examined the mark.

“Well I’ll be a goblins uncle. Look’s like a proper rune to me.” Glarin pulled his pants back up and gave Twilight a hug.

“Thanks Lass, I have nothing to fear from heights now.” Little did Glarin know, she simply burned that mark into his flank using a bit of heat magic. She felt kinda bad about tricking him like that after the hug. But she shrugged it off and thought it was for the better in the long run.

Glarin was watching the other ponies go at it. As far as he could tell, they didn’t have a tournament system in place, everyone was just jousting for the fun of it. He assumed this game was simply to please the crowd, rather then to prove their martial powers. And the fact the lances had a big soft cloth ball at the end of them enforced the idea this was all for entertainment purposes.

The match before Glarin’s ended with a rather tame 1v1 as both nobles were afraid to hit each other after they viciously knocked each other down with the lance. Glarin chuckled to himself as he watched them fight.

“Such childish fighting.” Glarin watched them with a bored look on his face until the pegasi finally landed a ‘successful’ blow and was declared the winner.

The announcer called forth the next two contestants. One being Glarin and some other pony that went by the name of Fancy Pants. Glarin thought it was funny, he didn’t even have fancy pants, or pants at all for that matter.

The pony stood at the opposite end with his lance and shield set-up along with the platemail. Same as every other pony that had shown up that day. Glarin walked to his side with only his lance over his shoulder.

The competitions announcer commented on Glarin going with only a lance, saying they didn’t have armor for him and that he refused the shield as it wasn’t his style. The crowd burst into some cheers again.

“The crowd seems to love Sir Glarin sister.”

“Indeed they do Lulu, He surprised everyone with his bowmanship, even if his aim was a bit off.”

“A bit off? He missed it by a mile Aunt Celly. The only cool thing is that the arrows got stuck in the marble wall. I’ve never seen that before.”

“Yes, I admit he surprised me with that little stunt as well. I had no idea we made our war bows that powerful.”

“Oh its starting!” everyone hushed as the Unicorn sent off the bang to signel them to start.

They both charged at each other at full force, Glarin was obviously slower then Fancy Pants, but he was keeping a good pace nonetheless. When they came within distance of each other, Fancy pants’ lance was the first to connect. It hit Glarin squarely on the chest, making the wooden lance shatter into a million pieces. Only thing is, Glarin didn’t fall over nor was he pushed back. He continued to barrel forward as he thrust his wooden lance directly into fancy pant’s shield.

The shield itself held, but as the wooden lance broke on Fancy’s shield, his hooves were no longer on the ground as he was sent hurdling backwards. He landed a good 6 feet from where he was standing. The crowd cheered again as Glarin just watched the pony Fancy Pants get up. Fancy removed his helmet and walked over to Glarin.

“Good show my good man.” Fancy held out a hoof for Glarin to shake.

“Dwarf.” said Glarin as he took the ponies hoof.

"I’m sorry what?”

“I’m a dwarf, not a man. You weren’t so bad either Lad. Nice mustache by the way.”

“Well thank you. Your beard is quite magnificent if I do say so. I had been planning on growing one myself for some time, but the mare back home said it tickle’s her too much...” Fancy Pants sighed “... so I had it removed. However upon seeing yours I think bringing it back would be required.” Glarin gave out a hearty laugh

“Indeed, A beard is the best, no matter what the mare’s may think.” Glarin walked back with Fancy Pants to the waiting area. It was nice to see a pony with some facial hair. He was 100% sure this pony was a male.

Glarin and Fancy Pants hit it off quite well. Fancy wasn’t nearly as snooty as every other noble he had come into contact with. In fact, he was downright tolerable to be around. Fancy Pant’s was the 1st noble to welcome him into the ranks of nobility.

“So Sir Glarin, where were you going to set up your place of residence? Canterlot I assume? Or did you have something else in mind?”

“Well, I was actually going to head back to the smaller town I was at before this whole ordeal happened.”

"Smaller town? What was its name?”

“I never actually got it. I was only there for a day before I came here. Didn’t catch the name of it. Princess Twilight lives at a library there though.”

“Ahh you must mean Ponyville. You’re going to live there are you?”

“Yeah that’s the place. Gonna get myself a nice little home with an extravagant basement that I will expand over the years.”

“You know as a knight of Equestria, you are allowed to own a large plot of land and hire soldiers to defend it. You may even knight others that prove themselves to be worthy. Why, I’m positive you could make a veritable fortress if you wanted to.” Glarin went into thought for a moment.

“A dwarf fortress...” He shook his head.

“No, I don’t have that kind of money, a small home with a large basement is enough for me.”

“If you say so Glarin, but I’m sure the Princesses would be more than happy to help you get set up if you so desired it though.”

“Bah, I’ve bothered them enough as is. But these games are so boring. Isn’t there anything with actual combat?”

“You wish for actual duels Sir Glarin?”

“You bet your mustache I do. When I heard these were games where we display our martial powers, I thought it would be some big battle royale. Not what we’ve been doing.” Fancy Pants smiled.

“Well perhaps you will enjoy the next game then, it’s a series of 1 on 1 duels. I won’t be participating however, I’m not much of a fighter myself. Most of the younger nobles and bodyguards will be participating.”

“Bodyguards?”

“Yes, some nobles don’t actually participate themselves, but instead send their bodyguards. I never understood why that was allowed though.” Glarin laughed.

“Finally! Some real action!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Boring! All of the fights! The ponies couldn’t put up a single sliver of resistance, the only one that was a bit of a challenge was the griffin bodyguard. But even then Glarin had one hand tied behind his back to try and make things more interesting. Glarin called out in anger in the middle of the field unsatisfied with what was offered to him.

“Has no one the beard to give me a real challenge?!” Suddenly Glarin had a bright idea. He could fight Twilights Wyrmling slave. He looked up to Twilight who was sitting in the VIP section with the other princesses.

“Twilight! Can I fight your pet Wymling?” Twilight flew down with a look of shock on her face while the rest of the crowd was silent. They had never seen anyone fight so many battles in a row and still demand more. The fact he disarmed one of the ponies by grabbing the sword’s blade with his teeth was both horrifying and exhilarating. He was even fighting barehanded and denting their armor with his punches.

“You want to fight my little Spike? Why?!”

“Hes a dragon! A Purple one at that. He should be able to give me a real challenge, even with him as young as he is.”

“But, he’s never fought before! I don’t think he would even want to...”

“Go talk to him! Tell him I want to have a duel with him! I’ll go easy on him, so don’t worry about it lass.” Twilight sighed after thinking for a bit.

“Well, he did always want to be a knight, this might be an eye opener for him.”

“That’s my clansman!” Glarin gave her a friendly slap on her flank. “I’ll wait right here!” Twilight blushed before teleporting away to where she left Spike.

“Spike!” Spike came out from the bathroom at the Library.

“Is the knighting ceremony over already Twilight? I just finished cleaning up as well.”

“Well, were at the 1 on 1 duels portion, and Sir Glarin wants to fight you.”

“F-f-fight me?” Twilight nodded her head.

“Yes fight, he said he would go easy on you, but no pony was able to give him a challenge, even a griffin.”

“H-he beat a griffin?”

“Yeah, with one hand tied behind his back actually.”

“Oh Celestia, I don’t wanna fight him.”

“But haven’t you always wanted to be a knight? This is your chance to learn what being a knight is like!” Spike thought for a moment, and envisioned himself wearing plate mail with a sword and shield protecting his lady of choice. He suddenly got a gleam in his eye.

“I’ll do it!” Twilight smiled and teleported them both back to the center of the field for the fight to take place. Spike looked around him at the crowd that suddenly began cheering when they appeared.

“You came!” Glarin had his arms thrown up in joy at the sight of the purple wyrmling. Twilight nodded her head and flew back up to the VIP section.

“Yeah well I figured if I want to be a knight, I should at least try to fight a knight once. See what its like.” Glarin looked at Spike with a glint in his eye.

“Lad, You wish to be a dragon knight?” Spike thought for a moment.

“Yeah I guess I do.” Glarin grinned at him.

“Tell me lad, do you know how to use your magical breath yet?” Spike looked at him confused for a bit.

“You mean like this?” Spike inhaled a deep breath and released it into the air. A green mist enveloped his body and magical green platemail appeared on Spike’s body with a sword and shield in his claws. Glarin Burst into roaring laughter as the crowd gasped.

“Yes! Just like that! I’m gonna need both hands for this!” Glarin sized up Spike for a bit before asking another question.

“You wouldn’t happen to know how to transform your breath into arrows would you?” Spike looked at Glarin for a moment before turning away to face a blank wall. He inhaled, then released a barrage of green arrows, they all pierced the marble wall and stuck into it before dissipating. Glarin burst into a roar of a laugh again at the sight.

A lone pony shouted over Glarins laughter. "Not again!"

“I never even thought about doing that. I wonder what else I could do.” All the ponies that were watching just watched in absolute shock, They had no idea Twilights dragon assistant was so... Scary.

“Twilight, How long has Spike been able to do things like that?” Asked Luna.

“I-I-I didn’t even know he could do stuff like that!” Celestia smirked.

“Spike is certainly growing up, You think he can make Glarin fight seriously?”

“Glarin sure thinks so... I hope they don’t hurt each other.” Glarin pulled out the steel pole he got from the jousting competition beforehand, and held it in his left hand “Oh, no...”

“Come at me Dragon! Do your worst!” Spike looked at the sword in his hand and at the shield. He brought the shield up in a defensive position with the sword out to the side behind him a bit, just like he had always envisioned in his day time fantasies.

Spike ran at Glarin only to have his sword swing parried with the sword flying out of his hand. Glarin followed with a swift punch to the gut that pushed him back. His green armor deflected the damage, but he still felt the jarring impact.

“Stop trying to fight like a man! Fight me like a dragon knight!” Spike looked at Glarin with a bit of confusion.

“Well how does a dragon knight fight? And my name is Spike.”

“With the biggest weapon he can use and his breath! Hold back nothing Dragon! I want a challenge! If you manage to seriously injure me, I’ll stop calling you Dragon.” Spike thought for a moment and released his shield. It dissipated along with the sword that had flown out of his hand. He exhaled a giant 2 handed blade. It wasn’t anything like a normal two handed sword, it had a rough jagged looking edge.

“Now that’s what I’m talking about! Defend yourself!” Glarin rushed and jumped at Spike bringing the steel pole down at Spike's head. Spike ducked out of the way and tumbled to the left. He was unaccustomed to fighting with a large 2 handed blade, but his magical blade really had no weight. So he was easily able to make a swipe at Glarin as he got up from his tumble. Glarin was barely able to get the steel pole up between him and the magical green blade.

Something unexpected happened. Glarin had thought he would land safely after blocking the giant green blade. He was a little shocked to be sent flying away a few feet. After he skidded across the ground a bit he rolled back up onto his feet.

Celestia, Luna, and Twilight were all watching in absolute shock, They had no idea Spike was this strong. After all, they still considered him to be a baby dragon. Even though he stood as tall as every other pony now.

“Twilight, when did Spike learn to use his breath like that?”

“It was something Spike and Merry figured out about 13 years ago. We don’t know much about dragon’s, but apparently he was a dragon expert. He said something about Spike being one of the deep dwelling Dragon’s. A Purple dragon with an energy based breath that with enough practice can turn it into anything...” Glarin continued his attack as he rushed at Spike. Spike raised the blade up and tried to bring it down on Glarin’s head. Glarin put both hands on the steel pole and blocked it. They were stuck struggling for a moment before Glarin spoke.

“What’s the matter dragon? Afraid to use your breath?”

“I don’t want to hurt you...”

“Ha! You couldn’t hurt me if you tried!” Glarin flexed his muscles a bit more and let go of the pole with his right hand as he moved over to the left, allowing the blade to slide down the length of the pole into the ground. Glarin brought his right fist up and connected it into Spike’s face knocking him to his back.

“But Glarin seems to be even stronger. And he hasn’t even raged yet.” Luna was watching intently with the rest of them.

“It would seem that way, but I think Spike is still holding back, he hasn’t used his breath to attack yet. And during that exchange just now, it looked like Glarin was the only one struggling.”

“Well I think its because Spikes breath is also an extremely powerful acid as well. He can alter it so it isn’t, but he doesn’t want to risk killing him.”

“I thought dragons only breathed Fire?!” exclaimed Luna.

“So did I, but apparently they can breath anything from fire to a mist that makes you insane...” Celestia and Luna looked down as the two of them continued to clash with each other.

“We really need to open a treaty with the dragon nations and learn more about them...” Luna nodded her head at Celestia as they continued to watch the fight. They would stop it if things became dangerous, but this so far was the most exciting fight they had witnessed since, forever.

Every other noble that fought Glarin quickly gave up after the 1st punch. The griffin gave up once his plate armor was dented by Glarin’s fist. This fight is already lasting longer then all the other fights combined.

“Dragon, I know you’re better then this! Stop holding back!”

“I just don’t want to hurt you!”

“Hurt me?! What are you, a giant sissy crybaby dragon?! FIGHT ME SERIOUSLY YOU OVERGROWN BABY LIZARD!” For some reason, being called a big crybaby made him mad. So mad that he inhaled, and when Glarin called him an overgrown baby lizard. He released a barrage of green arrows directly at Glarin.

The attack came so quickly and covered such a large area, dodging would be impossible at that distance. Glarin just put his arms up to keep the arrows from hitting his face. The crowd gasped in horror as Glarin stood there covered in the green arrows. The only area without any arrows was his chest, being protected by his chain shirt. He looked like a giant pin cushion everywhere else however. Before the arrows dissipated into nothing, Glarin brought his arms down to reveal a smirk he had on his face.

“Atta boy! Now its my turn to get serious!” Glarin pulled his axe out of the sheathe and tossed it away. “Don’t wanna kill you now do I?” Glarin gritted his teeth and he inhaled and exhaled a few breathes. After a bit he released a roar that caught the crowd by surprise. Everyone felt a chill down their spine.

Rage activated.

“Celestia, we might want to stop the fight before anything really bad happens...” Twilight was just watching with Celestia, Luna and every other pony who just couldn’t believe what they were seeing.

Glarin broke into a full sprint as he charged at Spike. Spike swung his 2 handed blade out of panic more than anything else. Glarin jumped over Spikes sloppy swing and clasped both his hands together and then brought them down on top of Spikes head. Spike’s tail flew upward and smacked Glarin in the face, and they both fell to the ground. Glarin was the 1st to get up, and he grabbed Spike by his tail and began to swing him around in the air until he let him go. Spike was sent sailing through the air and skidded across the ground. His green armor and blade dissipated into the air.

Something was beginning to bubble inside of Spike, he was mad. He stood up and released a huge torrent of green flame into the air as he himself roared. Glarin roared back as they both broke into a sprint. They met in the middle and clashed with each other hand to claw. And they were both struggling to push the other back. After a bit Glarin reared his head back and pushed both of their arms open as he head butted Spike in the face and brought a leg up to kick him away. Spike inhaled and was about to release when a bright flash appeared between them.

Celestia had snapped out of her stupor and teleported down to the field between them both, and for the 1st time in over several hundred years, she used the royal Canterlot voice.

“ENOUGH!” Glarin and Spike just kept their low stances and after a bit of labored breathing calmed down. “Sir Glarin you are to see a nurse to tend to all of your arrow wounds and any others immediately. As for you Spike...” Celestia walked up to Spike “...I am disappointed in you Spike. I never expected such violent actions from you. You could have killed Sir Glarin!”

“OYE!” Glarin ignored the nurse that had come up to tend to his wounds. Despite Glarin looking like a horrible bloodied mess, he sure didn’t act like it. “How is he a disappointment? As far as I’m concerned, he’s Spike the Dragon Knight now. He was the only one that put up a REAL fight. Every other ‘noble’ I fought probably couldn’t fight their way out of a cloth sack!”

Celestia looked down at Glarin with a distinct lack of amusement on her face. “Um, Princess...” said Glarin as he was suddenly intimidated by Celestia. He got down on one knee as Luna and Twilight also flew down to the middle of the field.

“Sir Glarin, are you stating that Spikes actions of violence toward you should go unpunished?”

“If you remember princesses, I told him to do so. I was caught up in the moment and kept pushing him until he fought me seriously.” Twilight was next to speak up after Luna

“You could have been killed you know! And Spike, what were you thinking!” Spike was just fiddleing with his tail as he looked to the ground.

“Don’t be angry at him Lass, I remember telling you before that duels are often fought to the death within our dwarven community. I hold no ill will toward Spike trying to kill me. It’s what I wanted after all. There’s no way you can fight seriously unless your life is on the line, that’s how I see it anyway.” Celestia thought for a moment then looked over to Spike who had his tail in his claws. He was obviously worried about what would happen to him.

“Sir Glarin, Am I to understand that you see Spike worthy of becoming a knight?” Glarin looked up to Celestia and nodded his head.

“Very much so Your Royal Highness.” Celestia looked over to Twilight who had wide eyes, then back to Spike who was still fiddling with his tail.

“Sister are you going to do what I think you're going to do?” Celestia was silent as she turned around to completely face Spike.

“Spike, It has come to my attention that your ability to fight is noteworthy, and with Sir Glarin’s nomination. You are to be henceforth known as Sir Spike, The Purple Dragon Knight. You are going to be directly under Sir Glarins orders unless orders from higher up are issued. You will also report to Sir Glarin for knight combat training.” Celestia turned around to look back at Glarin.

“I hardly think putting him on me is a good idea Your Royal highness.” Celestia just smiled at Glarin with a chuckle.

“Just remember you brought this on yourself. But I think we should end the games for today and let you heal up. You look like a mess Sir Glarin.”

“These little pinpricks are hardly wounds! Can me and Sir Spike just continue our duel?”

“No, now get cleaned up. We will be having a banquet later tonight for our two newest Knights of Equestria.” Celestia and Luna both flew away to announce the end of the games. Twilight just looked between a stunned Spike and Glarin.

“I- I don’t know what to say Spike. But it looks like you and Glarin are going to be hanging out a lot more now. What with knight combat training and all.”

“I don’t want to train him! I wanna go dig for gems and gold!” at the thought of gems Spike spoke up.

“Well actually, I know of a place we can get gems. I go there all the time with Rarity when she needs more for her work.” Glarin shoved the nurse who was trying to bandage up his wounds aside and rushed over to Spikes side. The nurse became frustrated and began to stomp her way over to Glarin.

“You mean it lad? A place we can go and gather all the gems we can carry?” Glarin was yanked back by the collar from the nurse. He was slammed down into the ground on his back. She stuck her face directly into his.

“You are going to hold still and let me bandage you up, or I’m going to break both of your legs so you can’t escape while I do my job!” Glarin swallowed hard, the look in her eyes meant she was dead serious.

“Yes ma’am.”Glarin sat obediently while the nurse did her job. It would seem fierceness ran though females of all races and species.

The Boreing-ass banquet and The Bad-ass dream

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The Banquet was held inside the large ballroom of the castle. Many nobles and other high class society members were present. Along with some of the ‘low brow’ commoners, or as Glarin called them, Fluttershy, The Apple family, and their friends. Not to mention the demon of a nurse that was hounding him. Using the excuse that Celestia put her in charge of his health to follow him everywhere.

“Do any of ya’ll think we shoulda dressed up fer this?” Big Mac shook his head at his sister and pointed over to Glarin who was walking over with a mouthful of Hors d'oeuvre’s. He wasn’t wearing shoes and his chain shirt was missing showing off his hairy chest... And his pants were gone. When he came up to them he pointed at Big Mac and spoke with his mouth full

“Hey Apply Family...” Glarin swallowed the food he had in his mouth “...you know it just occurred to me that since I made Daring an honorary member of my clan, that pretty much makes all of you members as well.” Glarin tugged at the bandages on his arms for a bit. “Damn things tickle like crazy.”

“Any reason you ain’t wearing much tonight Glarin? Besides uh... underwear.” Glarin looked down at his chest and shrugged.

“Well I didn’t think it would be proper to wear my armor at a royal banquet. But I don’t have any casual cloths here. But then it occurred to me, you ponies are naked most of the time anyway, so it shouldn’t be a problem for me to be naked as well... Also the cool air feels good on these small wounds all over my body.” Applejack just shook her head while Big Mac laughed with Daring and Star.

“That might be true Glarin, but we ponies have sheathes and tails to hide ourselves. While you're just... exposed.” Glarin just gave Big Mac a blank stare, before he finally understood what he meant.

“Well that might explain why so many of you ponies can’t keep your eyes up here.” Glarin pointed at his face. “I assumed they were looking at the bandages on my legs.” Glarin looked down at his legs again. “They are turning a bit red again. That nurse is gonna get mad at me.”

“Why would she be mad with you?”

“She told me to use this chair with wheels in it. But I wasn’t about to use that, I can walk just fine.” The hair on Glarin’s chest suddenly stood up, everyone saw it and was confused if not intrigued by it, and Glarin looked over his shoulder.

“I gotta go, I’ll see you around!” with that Glarin ducked his head down and dove into the nearby crowd disappearing. Shortly after a white pony with a red cross cutie mark appeared before them.

“Have any of you seen Sir Glarin around? I found his wheel chair thrown out into the garden. Again!” Applejack pointed off in the direction Glarin went.

“He went that'a way Miss.”

“Thank you kindly Applejack.” The nurse nodded her head and snorted steam as she ran off in the direction Applejack pointed.

Shortly after they heard a shrill ‘shout’ followed by a loud thunk. Everypony in the banquet hall stopped and turned to look at the scene that was unfolding.

“Noo! Not the beard!” Everypony watched as that nurse pony was slowly dragging Glarin across the floor by his beard. “I wont ditch the wheeled chair again I promise!” She spit out his beard and gave him an icy glare.

“You won’t throw your wheelchair off the balcony and into the garden anymore?” Glarin nodded his head at her. “And you will use it until your wounds close up?”

“You have my word as a dwarf! Just don’t pull on my beard!” She squinted her eyes at him again then nodded her head.

“Wait. Right. Here.” Glarin nodded his head and sat on the floor cross legged. One of the nobles went up to Glarin and chuckled at him a bit.

“Pushed around by a wee nurse are we?”

“You don’t understand, her stare and ferocity remind me of my mother! My mother stared down a group of cockatrice once, then she beat them all with her fists!”

“Bah, impossible. No ones been able to look a cockatrice in the eye and walk away unstoned.”

“Its true! I saw it with my own eyes when I was just a wee lad, no more than 24 I was! We had broken into a cave full of cockatrices and the things were running rampant! They were turning every dwarf into stone. It wasn’t until they came at me and my sister did my own sweet mother come down upon them all like a dragon and killed them all with her stare and fists alone! How my father was able to tame such a fierce female is beyond me.” Glarin felt the hair on his chest rise again and turned around to look at the nurse. She had a shiny new wheelchair and was pushing it toward him. Based on the wheelchairs gleam, it looked to be made of mithril, but it couldn’t possibly be mithril could it?

“Now, get in the wheelchair, I’m sticking to you like honey now. I have to make sure you make good on that promise.”

“Yes Ma’am.” Glarin stood up to get into the wheelchair when she shouted at him again.

“Crawl into it! I don’t want you to keep agitating all the wounds.” Glarin got back down and crawled into the wheelchair. After that she got a smirk on her face and began to push him around. Then in the sweetest voice possible

“Where do you want to go Sir Glarin?”

“Do-uh... anywhere is fine...” She nodded her head and began to push him toward a random group of high class ponies.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So boring, all the nobles wanted to talk about was their wealth and large plots of land. None of which Glarin had or cared about because it wasn’t his. He would give his 2 cents, and they would politely nod and give their 2 cents.

So boring.

He looked around at all the different tables and noticed the only one’s that seemed lively were the one’s his honorary clansmen were at. Except he hasn’t seen Fluttershy. In fact he hasn’t seen her since Ponyville. The Apples told him she was here, and she even went to his knighting ceremony and the games.

Why hasn’t he seen her all day then? Could she be in some kind of trouble?

“Nurse?”

“My name is Rose White.”

“Uh, Miss White, could we go over to the table with the Apple Family?”

“Yes of course.” Glarin waved goodby to the nobles as she pushed him to the table with the Apple family. As they got closer Rainbow Dash and Applejack waved at him.

“What brings ya over here Sir Glarin? Bored of the nobles all ready?”

“Bah, they’re a boring bunch to begin with. All they do is talk of money and things I don’t understand.”

“I can see that, we’ve been to a few of these already. It’s always the same with them.”

“Well I have a quick question if you don’t mind.”

“Not at all.” Applejack and Rainbow both waved their hooves as if to dispel any doubt.

“I was wondering if any of you have seen Fluttershy? I was told she came, but I have yet to see her at all.”

“Fluttershy? She’s probably out in the garden. She’s always out there when we come to these things. Cause she’s shy around ponies you know? She likes to hang out around the animals out there.”

“But... aren’t you all animals too?” Applejack and Rainbow just looked at Glarin with an eyebrow raised. The hair on the back of his neck suddenly stood on end as he felt an intense aura of anger right behind him.

“We ain’t animals, we’re ponies, thank you very much.”

“That’s right Sir Glarin, we are not animals. We are ponies, don’t forget it.” Glarin could feel the venom dripping from the nurses words. He wasn’t sure why, but this nurse seemed to hate him. And for the life of him he couldn’t figure out why.

Sure he had been dodging her every chance he got, while disposing of this abomination known as a wheelchair. But he just didn’t want to be bed ridden or look weak like she wanted him to. Rainbow was the last to throw in her 2 cents of the conversation.

“Well, Mac say’s I’m an animal in bed, but I didn’t know he told you about it.” Applejack gave a disgusted look at Rainbow while Glarin raised an eyebrow and shook it off, ignoring her comment.

“I apologize, its just uh...Can we go to the garden and find Fluttershy now Miss White? I would like to speak with her.” Nurse White nodded her head and spun Glarin’s wheelchair around. Glarin just waved them off again as they traveled down to the garden. As he was waving he saw Applejack and Rainbow get into some kind of heated discussion.

When they arrived they could see Fluttershy sitting by a pond looking into the water. She was by her self with no one else around. So naturally Glarin made his presence known.

“Oye!” Fluttershy eeped at his loud introduction but turned around to see it was only him and sighed. Followed by her turning her head to the side a bit.

“Glarin, why aren’t you wearing anything? Aren’t you cold?”

“Bah, if you ponies can handle being naked then so can I.”

“Yeah but, we have fur to keep us warm. Cloths are really just for fashions and harsh weather conditions.”

“I also don’t have anything else to wear besides my armor though. Not to mention my pants are riddled with holes now after what Spike did to me. Ha-ha!” Fluttershy looked at Glarin as he laughed and felt a small pang of anger and concern.

“How can you laugh at what happened today? Spike could of killed you! If Celestia didn’t stop it when she did, oh who knows what would of happened!” Glarin small laugh was brought to a halt as he looked at her, she was obviously upset. Glarin sighed and leaned back in his wheelchair a bit.

“I wouldn’t of died lass, not while the fight continued. Plus Twilight was nearby with her fancy healing spells. I admit maybe I did start to take things a little to serious when I began to rage. But its been so long since I had a good fight.”

“Is that all you care about Glarin? Fighting? What about making friends o-o-or getting a pet or a f-f-family?” Glarin sighed again as he looked at the big orange fish swimming in the pond. He briefly wondered if it tasted anything like those blind cave fish before he snapped out of it and answered Fluttershy.

“I already have some friends here, one of em is you. As for a pet, I’d have to get my little house going first. And Family is out of the question as I am the only dwarf here, not just that but I’m infertile. So I couldn’t have my own little family even I wanted one.”

“Y-you can’t? I’m sorry I...”

“Bah, don’t worry about it, about 5 out of every 10 dwarves born are infertile. Then 7 out of every 10 dwarves born are male, so the birthrate of fertile females is relatively low..." Glarin continued to look at the fish in the pond swim around. "...The Elders think its because of all the different alloys we’ve created with toxic metals and materials over the millennia’s. The toxic metals are within our blood now and makes some of us infertile or something. I don’t quite understand it, but that’s just how it is for me.” Fluttershy was silent for a bit but decided to continue the conversation from before.

“Hm, well, I still don’t think Spike should have been so serious with you, you didn’t even have a proper weapon.” Glarin chuckled

“Lass, If I had a proper weapon, it would have been a slaughter. I didn’t want to kill him, I just wanted a fight is all. Don't worry about a scratch on a solid stone wall Lass. Why not come inside?” Fluttershy was confused a bit by the dwarven saying, but somewhat figured it out soon enough.

“Oh but, I don’t know who I would speak too besides my friends, and I don’t want to be a bother.” Glarin raised an eyebrow.

“If anything, you are bothering em by being out here instead of inside with your friends. Just come with me. I saw a few spots at the table with Twilight and the princesses. She still hasn’t done the speech yet, I suppose we are still waiting for some nobles to arrive.”

“Oh well, yes I suppose I could accompany you if it isn’t to much trouble.”

“No trouble at all lass! But can I ask a bit of a question?”

“Um sure, go ahead...”

“Do you think you could push this wheelchair? I’m sure Nurse White here would like to take a break.” Nurse White looked at Glarin suspiciously.

“I could use a break, but If I find out you abandoned this wheelchair and went running around again...”

“You have my promise! Dwarves never break a promise no matter the cost.” Nurse White nodded her head and took her leave. Glarin released a sigh.

“Thank you kindly Fluttershy. Now that the perfumed demon no longer breathes down my neck I feel I can relax.” Glarin slouched in the wheelchair sprawling his legs wide open.

“Alright Flutter’s, lets head inside shall we? I was meaning to ask Twilight about a healing spell or two. I would hate to be confined to this blasted chair with wheels for longer than need be.”

“D-d-demon?”

“That nurse sure acts like one, but I’m sure she’s just a normal angry pony. Now lets go back inside, I’m starting to get cold.”

“Oh yes!” Fluttershy flew up and over to the backside of Glarin’s wheelchair and began to push him inside. Once they got inside Glarin pointed over to the table that Twilight, Celestia, Luna, and a couple others were sitting at. Glarin pointed over to the side with an open chair and told Fluttershy to take the seat while he just squeezed himself in next to her.

“Ah Glarin, good of you to join us at last, did you enjoy speaking to all of the other nobles?”

“Bah, Nobles. Your nobles here are worse then the ones back home. At least the ones back home could put up a good fight or at least boast of victory’s over a good drink. All these nobles do is talk of their land, money, and how many winks they get from mares.” Celestia and Luna raised an eyebrow at that.

“As if I care about stuff like that. What do I care if some mare winks at me. She’s not a dwarf, and big pretty eyes do nothing for me, she needs muscle!”

“Uh, eyes Glarin?” Celestia was about to explain what the nobles were talking about, but Luna placed a hoof on her shoulder and just shook her head side to side.

“Yeah eyes, I don’t care how many winks I get from a ponies big eyes, unless she’s a dwarf with muscles, I ain’t even interested. Yeah I like a good roll here and there but come on, a dwarf has to have some standards.”

“So only a dwarf would do Glarin?”

“Aye.” Celestia chuckled while Luna just smiled and shook her head

“I see, well now that you are here we can start with the opening ceramony and we can begin eating.”

“You mean all those tables weren’t the food?”

“No Glarin, those table’s are just full of appetizers and Hors d'oeuvre’s.”

“Order’s and what-a-tizers?”

“Something you eat before the meal Sir Glarin.” Glarin just looked at the ponies in confusion.

You eat food before you eat food? What kind of messed up meal system did these royals and nobles have? No wonder they were so poor. Eating two feast’s at every feast, and the lower class had a single feast every night. Was that the difference between being rich and poor? Two meals at every meal time in place of one? He’s had so much food in the last two day’s he thought he would get fat.

“Sister I think its about time we do the speech, Glarin, Spike, come with us.” Glarin looked over at Fluttershy who looked at him.

“Oh no, I can’t go up there I...”

“Oh come now lass, You’ll be just fine, I need your help you know.” Glarin gave her a big smile and Fluttershy just sighed.

“ok...” Fluttershy pushed Glarin up the small ramp onto the stage. They got on the right side of Celestia and Luna while Spike was on the left side.

“Ladies and Gentlecolt’s I would like to welcome you all to this...” Glarin zoned out for her speech, it was sooo boring.

It wasn’t until Fluttershy poked him on the shoulder did he come back from his day dream.

“Glarin, Celestia want’s you to say something...” Glarin went wide eyed

“Oh! Well I...” Celestia hoofed him a small stone.

“Use this to amplify your voice.” Glarin nodded and talked into the stone.

“HELLO?!” Everyone in the banquet hall covered their ears as he yelled into it. “Well would you look at that, it works...” random coughs and some throats were cleared through the silence. What was he supposed to say? He had zoned out and completely missed what he was supposed to talk about. Time to wing it...

“Ladies and uh... wait... Mares and Gentlecolt’s, Is that right?” He looked over at Celestia who had a bit of a confused look but nodded at him when he looked over for confirmation.

“Yes well, My name is Glarin the Berserker of the Ungard Clan, and apparently Knight of Equestria now, I’ll have to fit that into my title someplace...” Glarin sat in thought for a second in silence. “...Anyway hmm... oh yeah, for everyone’s information, I am a Dwarf. Not some puny Human that I keep hearing whisper’s about, oh and Princess Twilight, the entire Apple Family, and Fluttershy here are part of my clan. Even though they are honorary members, they are just as much a part of it as any other, so if you can’t find me, they might be able too...” Glarin had pointed to each one of them as he spoke. “...Any questions?”

All of the ponies and griffins looked to each other, not really expecting Glarin to give such a long introduction and then ask if anyone had questions. One lone pony raised his hoof and Glarin pointed him out.

“What is a clan?” asked the lone pony.

“A clan...” Glarin looked up at the ceiling and sighed. “...A clan is a group of close-knit families joined together by blood, marriage, or just plain heroism and good deeds toward other clan members...” Glarin took a deep breath and sighed before he got a serious look on his face “...And who ever or what ever brings harm to my clan or its members, in Any way, will receive no mercy from Me.” Everyone sitting and listening to him suddenly got a chill down their spine as they looked into Glarin’s eyes. “...Any other questions?” One pony in the back raised his hoof and Glarin picked him out.

“How can I join your clan?” Glarin burst out into laugher

“Prove you can be worthy of joining my clan, Twilight, Fluttershy and Daring saved my life when I first arrived here. By doing so they proved worthy, and since Daring is a son of the Apple family household, the entire Apple family joins as well. Their friends are my friends and vice versa.” Celestia cleared her throat and took the amplify rock from Glarin and began to speak.

“Yes well, that was quite an interesting introduction Sir Glarin. Spike, it’s your turn now...” Glarin just smiled dumbly as he realized all he was supposed to do was say hello and probably introduce him self, not that whole question answering deal. Spike took the amplify rock and was nervous at first until he seemed to steel his resolve.

“My name is Spike the Dragon Knight of the... Purple Dragon Clan, and my clan only has Princess Twilight and myself in it. But I’m looking to expand it! And anyone who brings harm to my clan members will also receive no mercy.” The end of Spikes speech wasn’t as impactful as Glarins, but he got the message across. Many of the ponies at the banquet had seen their fight. One pony raised his/her hoof, it looked like Glarin has started a trend, Spike pointed the pony out.

“How can Princess Twilight Sparkle be part of two clans?” Spike was at a loss for words, before Spike could bumble out some random words Glarin had raised his voice to where he didn’t need the stone.

“You Dare Question An Alliance Between Clans?!” The pony who had asked the question suddenly feared for his life. “Who Do You Think You Are!? I don't think you Piss GOLD!” Everypony in the banquet hall suddenly began to worry what he would do, it wasn’t until Fluttershy put her hoof on his shoulder did he calm down as he looked over at her.

“Glarin, I’m sure he didn’t mean anything by it, I mean, I’m a bit confused how Twilight can be part of two clans as well...” Glarin closed his eyes and sighed as he motioned over to Spike so he could hand over the stone. Spike did so without hesitation.

“Twilight can be part of two clans because she is an honorary member within mine, and a full member within Sir Spikes. Honorary members aren’t full members, but they receive the same benefits of being a full clan member. And even then seeing a single individual within several clans, either by blood, marriage or deeds wasn't uncommon within my Hold.” Glarin had finished his short explanation by handing the stone back over to Spike. His sudden outburst had caused some disarray, it was a good thing Fluttershy was by his side to calm the situation.

Spike just looked at the stone in his hand and shrugged as he handed it back to Celestia who gave it to Luna. Luna simply took the stone and smiled at she turned to face Glarin.

“What would I have to do in order to join your clan Sir Glarin? It would seem most beneficial to have such a powerful ally as you on my side.” Glarin went wide eyed and bowed in his wheelchair in front of Luna.

“Princess, It would be an honor to have Royalty such as you join my clan, You need but ask.” Luna Smiled at Glarin and moved in closer.

“I would like to join your clan Glarin, if you would allow it.” Glarin just bowed his head as he stayed in the chair.

“Of course Princess Luna, of the Ungard Clan.” As Luna bowed her head at Glarin with a gleeful smile on her face, Celestia turned to look at Spike and bowed her head.

“I would love to join your clan Sir Spike, if you will have me.” Spike was at a loss for words and just mimicked what Glarin had done, just like he did with his speech. Spike got down to one knee and bowed.

“It would be an honor Princess Celestia, of the Purple Dragon Clan.” The crowed cheered in unison at what they had witnessed. When the cheers died down Celestia and Luna both announced the end of the speech and for the banquet to begin.

Glarin had never seen such foods before. Sure he had lots of apple delicacies at the farm, but half the food he was getting he had never seen before. Like a Salad, what in the underdark was a salad, it looked like a bunch of green stuff. And it was covered in something they called Salad dressing. Which was still a relatively new creation apparently. The thought of eating uncooked green plants was kind of worrying to Glarin, but he did so anyway, the Salad dressing for sure made it edible, he would of spit it out otherwise.

Next a soup was brought forth and it was filled many different looking vegetables. All of which Glarin had never seen before. He leaned over to Fluttershy and whispered as he brought the spoon up.

“What’s this yellow stuff? It looks a lot like Nug poop.”

“That’s corn Glarin, and um, what’s a nug?”

“A nug is a small hairless nearly blind creature. We use em as pets and sometimes food.” Glarin put the spoonful of soup into his mouth, and his eyes lit up. He set the spoon aside and began to gulp the soup down.

When he had finished the soup the waiter brought out another plate with a lid over it. When he removed the lid a bright red fish was revealed upon the plate. Glarin looked at the fish with a bit of curiosity until Luna spoke up.

“We figured you would want something with a little meat on it. That is a Red Snapper, it is a popular dish among the griffins.” Glarin squinted a bit at the fish on the plate, it still had its head and everything. He shrugged as he grabbed the fork and stabbed it directly into the center of the fish and took a bite out of it, skin and all. He nodded his head as he chewed.

“Could use a bit of salt and limestone powder for flavor, but otherwise its pretty good.” Glarin continued to eat the fish, bones and all. There would be audible crunching sounds when he got to the bones, that crunching sound would make the nearby ponies shiver. Fluttershy however, wasn’t afraid at all. Probably because she has seen some of her pets eat fish before.

The rest of the banquet went by rather smoothly. More royal and noble talk that bored Glarin. It wasn’t until Celestia told him of the home she was giving him in Ponyville along with some money did he speak up.

“I’m sorry Princess, but I can’t accept that.” Celestia looked at him confused.

“You won’t take a free home or any money?” Glarin nodded his head.

“I’ve had enough hand-outs. It doesn’t feel right taking something I haven’t earned myself. The only help I’ll take from you is a shovel and pick axe. Along with permission to build my own home.” Celestia thought it over for a moment.

“Are you sure Glarin?”

“I am positive Princess.” Celestia nodded her head. While Luna spoke up next.

“You can build your home anywhere there is space Sir Glarin. How big were you planning to make your home?”

“Massive, but most of it will be underground so you won’t have to worry about space issues.”

“If that is the case Glarin, We shall also give you a map of the magical laylines within ponyville.”

“Laylines?”

“Yes, they provide power and running water to the homes of all our cities. It is obvious when you find one because they glow a deep purple color. Be careful not to break one.” Glarin nodded his head.

“I’ll be careful.”

The rest of the banquet went by rather well and everyone turned in for the night. Before Glarin would return to ponyville in the morning he would be staying the night inside the castle with everyone else. So he returned to his room with Nurse White pushing him along the way.

“Here we are Sir Glarin, your room. Would you like me to help you into bed?”

“Uhh... no thanks. I’ll be fine.” Nurse white nodded her head and left as Glarin went into the room. He rolled himself over to the bed and pulled the blanket off and wrapped it around himself while he sat inside the wheelchair. He made a promise to stay in the wheelchair until he was healed.

Dwarves never break a promise, he wasn’t about to be the 1st one to do so.

It occurred to him that he forgot to ask Twilight to heal him. He shrugged and figured he would do so in the morning, and just dozed off to sleep in the wheelchair.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Glarin awoke to a maid shaking him inside the wheelchair.

“Sir Glarin you must escape! Some green creatures have broken into the castle through some tunnel they created!” Glarin stirred himself awake wide eyed

“Green you say?!” the maid nodded her head.

“Yes, hurry and escape Sir Glarin!” Glarin looked down at himself and realized all of the wounds he had were gone. He grinned and looked at the maid

“I will fight.” Glarin looked at the maid who had a look of shock on her face.

And simply smiled.

“But you were just injured Sir Glarin!”

“No excuse! I have my axe with me, I can fight.” the maid bowed her head and lead Glarin outside the room after he got his chain shirt and pants on.

“They broke in through the lower levels of the dungeon. We have been able to hold them off so far. But we haven’t seen Luna since they broke through!”

“Leave it to me!” Glarin exited his room with an axe in his left hand and saw 2 Goblins. Needless to say, they were made short work of. The nurse shouted, after he had finished brutalizing the two goblins, on where to go next.

“Go down that way and take your 1st right! You should find a line of guards holding their positions!” Glarin nodded his head and began to run down the hall. Shortly after he found a line of guards holding their position against goblins and orcs.

Rage Activated.

Glarin rushed to the front of their line and cleaved through two goblins at once. He grabbed the nearest living goblin and threw it at the group. He followed behind the thrown goblin closely and decapitated an orc, then he ripped off the dead orc's arm and preceded to beat any random goblin’s and orc’s with the arm and axe until they all stopped moving.

“Thanks for the help Sir Glarin! We would move farther in but we have orders to hold our position here. We received word that the Apple Family is under siege and Princess Twilight is also missing with Luna.”

“WHAT?! My Clan Members are in trouble and missing!?” Glarin released a roar that frightened the pony guards. “Where are THEY?!” The guards flinched a bit

“D-d-down on your first left! Then take a right followed by a another left!” Glarin rushed down to the left hallway as fast as possible and came into contact with some goblins. Glarin gritted his teeth and yelled

“GET OUT OF MY WAY!” He plowed through the group crowding the hallway. Some were cut to pieces by his axe while others were gripped by his right hand and either thrown into the group ahead or had their skulls crushed by his hand. He trampled any others. He took the last left and saw a large Orc beating upon a door.

Glarin released a Piercing Howl that made the orc at the door among all the other’s flinch for a moment as he charged. As the orc turned to face Glarin an axe cleaved its face in two followed by a fist that grabbed it's lifeless body by the throat and flung it into the group of orcs right behind it.

“I’LL KILL YOU ALL!” Glarin followed up by lunging at the group of Orcs who had been waiting by the door. Big Mac opened the door shortly after Glarin had finished slaughtering them all.

“Sir Glarin! Are you ok!?” Glarin used an arm to wipe his mouth off and turned to face Big Mac.

“Yeah, I’m fine, how’s your family?” Big Mac looked behind him and shook his head.

“Daring was grazed by an axe, but everyone else is alright, we haven’t heard anything about Fluttershy though. Her room was next to ours.” Glarin looked down the hall and saw the door was missing.

Glarin stampeded down the hall and into the room Big Mac said Fluttershy was supposed to be in. When he got inside he saw Fluttershy cowering in a corner with 3 large orcs hovering around her. He released another piercing howl that made the 3 orcs flinch. He bull rushed the first one and used his right hand to smash its face into the ground while his left hand brought the axe into the other orcs gut. The 3rd orc snapped out of its daze and brought its weapon down upon Glarin.

The Orc struck Glarin on his right shoulder. Glarin had partly dodged out of the way to keep it from cleaving cleanly though him and then brought his axe up again to cleave through the orcs face. Fluttershy gasped in horror.

“Glarin! Are you ok!? Let me bandage you up!” Glarin shrugged off Fluttershy’s help and responded with a rough voice.

“No time, Twilight and Luna are missing, must find them! Go to the Apples next door for safety...” Glarin rushed out the doorway without a word more leaving Fluttershy wordless in her room.

Glarin pushed his way into a large room. He saw a ton of goblins and orcs blocking his chosen path further in. He looked at them all with a deep seated dwarven hatred beyond anything the ponies could ever conjure.

“DO NOT TRY TO STOP ME!” Glarin charged through the massive group throwing goblin and orc aside as he pushed through the massive group. Half of the goblins and orcs he pushed aside were dead, while the other half would die soon enough. Everything that wasn’t pushed aside was trampled to death as he pushed his way through. By the time he finished crossing the room he had left a trail of dead goblins and orcs through the crowd.

Glarin pushed his way through the hordes until he came upon a hole that looked like it was recently added. The tunnel they used to break into the castle with. Before he could jump down into the hole. Luna appeared at his side.

“Glarin! I am glad to have found you, this is such a horrendous nightmare!” Luna looked at Glarin and realized he was bloodied and wounded. "Sir Glarin, allow me to heal your wounds!" Through a raspy breathe Glarin replied

“Thanks, and I suppose it is, Princess Luna. And I am glad you are safe, You should head back to the main hallway where its safer. I haven’t found Twilight yet, but I think she’s down here.”

“Glarin, none of this is real, it is all a nightmare. I have the ability to enter dreams.”

“Oh you can? Well I knew this was a dream the moment I woke up without the bandages or anything on me.”

“You know this is a dream Glarin? Then why do you continue with it?” Glarin sighed

“Because I miss this life style Princess...” Glarin finished his sentence by jumping into the hole the Goblins and orcs had used to infiltrate the castle.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Glarin awoke much to his dissatisfaction to nurse White who had entered his room. He leaned over in his wheelchair to look at her.

“What do you want?”

“It’s time to wake up, everyone is preparing to leave. Luna is going to be setting the moon soon with Celestia raising it. I need to change your bandages and give you a bath before I send you off...” Glarin rubbed the sleep from his eyes as he looked out the window, it was indeed still rather dark out. “...Did you sleep in your wheelchair?”

“Yeah, I’m not supposed to leave it until I’m healed remember? I make good on my promises.” Nurse White cleared her throat. She had expected him to leave the wheelchair to sleep at least.

“Yes well, I will need you out of it to replace your bandages and give you a bath...” Glarin thought for a moment.

“No... Just get me in the tub with the wheelchair, the bandages should come clean as I get washed.” The nurses eye twitched, he was taking his promise a little too seriously, were all dwarves this stubborn?

The answer is yes, but she doesn’t know that.

“Glarin, its fine for you to leave the wheelchair to sleep, bathe and allow me to change the bandages.” Glarin shook his head.

“No, I won’t allow you or anyone to change the boundary’s of the promise that was made. I am not to leave this wheelchair until I am healed. That was the only reason stated that could allow me to leave, until that requirements is meet, I shall not leave this chair no matter what.” Nurse White tried to keep her smile, but it was fading quickly along with her patience. The hairs on Glarin’s chest began to rise again.

“You will get out of that wheelchair, or so help me I will tear you out of it myself.” Glarin looked to his left then to his right.

“Try it.” he braced himself inside the wheelchair, ready for anything that may come his way. But nothing came. She just glared at him, that glare.

That damned glare! It was making him sweat, but he would sooner die than break a promise, and even then, he would die in the wheelchair with his muscles locked so they would have to pry his dead body from it. Nurse White huffed.

“No point in beating you up. Wear your dirty bandages and be filthy, see if I care.” Glarin sighed as he relaxed. Still on guard however, until the nurse left the room. He completely relaxed and snugged himself back inside his blanket. Maybe he could get that lovely dream back before they had to go.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Glarin ‘awoke’ in a tunnel, but it looked a bit different. He was soon joined by Princess Luna.

“Ah Sir Glarin, you have returned, I thought for sure you had begun your day.”

“No way, this dream is as fun as striking gold, have you come to help me?”

“Yes, I shall accompany you until we find Twilight.” Glarin cheered briefly then stopped

“Excellant! But uh, can you even fight? I don’t think magic will be much of a help in a fight, its too erratic to be trusted in battle.”

“Ha! Are you calling my magic erratic? You shall be sadly mistaken Sir Glarin. I haven’t used offensive spells in... quite some time, but I am confident in my ability to defend myself. Especially in this dream world.” Glarin just shrugged

“Well alright then Princess Luna, Let us be off.” Glarin ran down the dark hall way, and Luna chuckled to herself.

“A Princess and her knight heading into battle, this is quite an exhilarating feeling I must admit.” Glarin said nothing as he kept sprinting down the hallway with Princess Luna following shortly behind him.

The tunnel ended as they entered a huge open cave. Glarin looked farther in and could see several large group’s of orc's and goblin's around a bonfire. Glarin was about to rush them when he felt a hoof on his shoulder.

“Allow me Sir Glarin.” Glarin raised an eyebrow, wondering what Princess Luna could possibly do to a group of 70 plus orc's alone.

Glarin watched as she slowly raised both of her front hooves up into the air and used her wings to lift her self off the floor. Her eyes began to glow a whitish blue color. Glarin looked over at the group of orc's and goblin's, the cave was filling with a wind and dark clouds began to appear above the small horde. A heavy rain soon filled the cave, but only above the small horde.

“Princess, I don’t think rain is gonna do anything...” Glarin looked back at Princess Luna. She had a scowl upon her face as her eyes continued to glow brighter.

“Tis not the rain they should fear...” A bright flash was seen followed by a thunderclap, Glarin spun around to see Bolts of lighting repeatedly streak down striking the horde. The rain water was causing each bolt to jump between them all. The entire small horde was effectively fried in a matter of seconds. Glarin watched as all of their smouldering corpses fell to the floor.

He huffed in frustration.

“Tis only 70! I had killed more than that on my way here!”

“But I killed 70 in a matter of seconds...” Princess Luna squinted her eyes in thought for a moment then smiled “...Are you making this into a game?”

“Yes, and the current score is 87-70. I’m winning.”

“I do enjoy games, it has been awhile since my last one. And I won’t know if my prank was successful until later.”

“Prank?”

“Yes, do watch for the newspaper’s later tomorrow, I had a camera set up just for the occasion. My dear sister said I can no longer use money from the castle treasury to pay for my hobbies, so I aim to make money using the press.”

“Sounds like an evil plot. It won’t harm her will it?”

“Of course not, tis a harmless prank, we always play such things on each other.” Glarin nodded.

“Alright then, onward! And no more cheating magic like that.”

“Tis not cheating!”

“I suppose, just try not to hit me with anything. Except maybe a lighting bolt. I can handle a few of those no problem.”

“You can handle lighting?”

“Sort of, when raging Lighting and electricity don’t do much to me, every other element however, does damage. In the end its better to avoid taking the damage all together though.”

“How does lighting not affect you? I do not understand.” Glarin just smiled

“Dwarven secret, I’ll just say its because I’m a child of the stone. Let us press on.” Luna gave Glarin an incredulous look.

What did he mean child of the stone? Is it because he eats rocks that he’s immune to lighting? That doesn’t make sense though. He doesn’t look to be made of stone. And why only when he’s raging? Their were still many secrets to unlock about this dwarf.

As Glarin continued to walk forward he began to hum a tune to himself.

"By the axe in my hands, I will conquer the caves..." Glarin just hummed the tune as he sang some unknown song to Luna.

Suddenly the dream world began to fade, and she watched as Glarin began to fade as well, he was waking up.

“NOO!! I wish to fight more! It must be that perfumed poetry-reading demon nurse again!” cried Glarin.

He who so sheds dwarf blood, by dwarf shall his blood be shed

View Online

Glarin peaked an eye open, the sun was up now, and Princess Twilight was right in front of him with a huge smile on her face for some reason.

“Good Morning Sir Glarin, I came to get you. Also, I don’t know why it didn’t occur to me until just now, but I should of cast a healing spell on you. I mean, there’s no point in wandering around hurt when I can just fix it up no problem right?” Glarin smiled

“Aye indeed. I didn’t want to be a bother, but I would much appreciate being healed. Then I can leave this crippling wheelchair.” Twilight nodded her head and began to cast her healing spell.

Princess Twilight was the 1st to create such potent healing magic’s. Before she altered the spells, they would turn weeks of healing into days, days to hours, etc. Twilight improved them 3 fold in the time she was studying them. Weeks of healing would be done in hours while hours would be done in seconds. Heck, they even brought Glarin back from the brink of death when he first arrived.

The white globe hit Glarin in the chest, and he sighed. After a bit he removed the bandages on his arms and cheered that the scabs easily flicked off showing pinkish white skin underneath.

“And I’m healed!” Glarin leaped out of the wheelchair and danced in front of Twilight. He then removed the bandages from his legs, much to Twilights embarrassment, as he was still pretty much naked. After which he finished getting dressed and slung his single axe over his shoulder.

“Shall we be off now?” Twilight nodded her head with a blush on her face as they headed out. Glarin had a somewhat distant look in his eyes.

“Are you alright Glarin...?” Glarin snapped out of it and looked at her.

“Yeah, everything’s fine lass, just thinking about that amazing dream I had last night.” Twilight cocked an eyebrow.

“Would it have anything to do with you yelling in your sleep? The door guards thought you were under attack at one point last night.”

“Ha-ha! Sounds like a classic case of sleep raging, but let us be off now. Spike said he knew where we could get loads of gems. I’ll be needing loads of gems so I can get to work on my own house and stuff.” Twilight just sighed and shook her head as they both left the room.

They both met up with the rest of the group and Twilight explained how she used a quick healing spell on Glarin to explain the absence of the wheelchair. Glarin had wanted to skip breakfast in hopes of getting on this train, so they could get back to Ponyville in a hurry. He had also opted out of any and all chariot rides.

Glarin was also introduced to the last two ponies of the group he had yet to meet. Rarity was a white unicorn pony who liked to wear fancy hats it would seem. She was wearing one when she introduced herself and held out a hoof that Glarin took and shook. Apparently that wasn’t what she expected but shrugged it off. She reminded him of those stuffy nobles, or she at least tried to act like one. Not a good first impression.

The next pony he was introduced too was a bright pink regular pony. He looked at her then at Daring and really couldn’t see the difference in their coloration. When he held out his hand for her to shake, she grabbed it with both of her hooves and gave him quite a powerful shake. An amazing first impression so far... Glarin smiled at her as she continued to ramble. Glarin just listened as his smile slowly faded. He kept grunting as she spoke to indicate he was still listening... He had completely forgotten what it was she was talking about in the 1st place.

When the introductions were complete they all debated if they should eat at the castle or have train food. Of course Glarin’s decision was vetoed out as everypony wanted breakfast at the castle.

While everydwarf just wanted to head back home. Like usual, the voting ended in the ponies favor.

It was a great breakfast, food was plentiful and everyone ate their fill. Glarin was just eager to get on the LAND train and get back to ponyville via LAND, and NOT AIR.

Never again would he enter anything that was pulled by ponies with wings, whom he didn’t know personally. But then again, perhaps even if he did know them he wouldn’t go with em anyway. Dwarves were not meant to fly as far as Glarin was concerned.

It was now early afternoon when they all finally left the castle and headed down toward the train station.

As they walked down the Canterlot roads to the train station, they noticed a large crowd in front of the Canterlot Royal Bank. Guards were posted all in front of it with random citizens all looking onward. Some of the unicorn guards had set up shields around them and nearby allies.

“Oh my, is the Canterlot Royal Bank being robbed?” asked Rarity as she tipped her hat back and continued to observe the scene with the rest of the ponies. Glarin just shrugged and continued to walk forward.

“Bah, even if it is being robbed it’s none of our business. The guards here seem to have everything under control anyway.” Suddenly some arrows and bolts of magic that varied in color shot out from the bank’s windows and open door, impacting the guards magical shields. One of the guards shouted in a panic.

“Oh Celestia! We just lost control of the situation!” Glarin mumbled to himself.

“Anyway, I’m sure they will call for back up. I just wanna head on back to Ponyville. The train station isn’t far from here right? Spike and I have some gems to gather.” Twilight moved forward so she stood next to Glarin.

“Well, yes it is, but don’t you think we should help?”

“Help? It’s the guards job to solve this situation not mine. Besides, I have no quarrel with them.” Fluttershy gently flew up next to Glarin and Twilight.

“I agree with Glarin Twilight, I mean, it is their job, I’m sure everything is fine...” another barrage of arrows and magical bolts flew out of the bank impacting the magical shields while a stray magic bolt hit Glarin on the shoulder. He looked at the impact sight and brushed the dust away.

That same panicked guard shouted again “Everything is NOT going fine! Oh Celestia, we need help!” Glarin just cleared his throat and continued to walk through the madness toward the train station.

“Ya see? Magic fit for goblins, the guards will be just fine, now lets go!” Twilight and Fluttershy were still following behind Glarin as he walked straight through the danger zone. The rest of their group just watched from afar as they looked for a path around the madness that would be safer. One of the guards saw Glarin with Princess Twilight coming closer. The guards face lit up with a big smile as he went up to them.

“Oh thank Celestia you’re here! Have you all come to help us!? A couple unicorns riding Griffins flew down and then blocked themselves in with magical shields! They seem to fire at us randomly with no provocation! We can’t get in to stop them as we can’t dispel the shield they put up! We think that about 10 unicorns are reinforcing the shield, we've never seen anything like it before. The situation is so out of control and totally not fine...” Glarin just grumbled while Fluttershy began to look around and nervously answered

“f-f-fire randomly?”

“Sorry no, this is none of my business, I would just like to travel home and...” another barrage of arrows and magical bolts flew from the bank. This time Glarin heard a familiar shrill cry come from behind him followed by a thud. He spun around to see Fluttershy laying on the ground with an arrow through one of her wings, she had tears welling up in her eyes as she looked at the arrow.

Twilight was the first to speak. The rest of the group, guards, and onlookers all gasped. Rainbow zoomed over and joined Twilight in inspecting Fluttershy’s wing.

“Fluttershy! Hold still, let us look at it!” Twilight, Rainbow, Fluttershy, and all of the guards suddenly shuddered in fear. Glarin was staring down at the arrow in Fluttershy’s wing.

“Twilight, Would you mind if I...” Some droplets of blood began to seep out of her arrow wound. “...Killed Them All?” His hands were balled into fists, his knuckles white while his teeth were gnashing together.

“K-K-Kill them?! Y-You can’t!” Glarin turned to face the bank and drew his single axe from its sheathe. He took a deep breath, arched his upper body backward and yelled up into the air.

“Then I Shall Beat Them..."

Fury Engaged

"...WITHIN AN INCH OF THEIR LIIVES!” Everypony and griffin within earshot began to cower in place. Everyone behind him was glad he/she wasn’t the main focus of his anger. They remember yesterday’s games all to well.

The griffins and unicorns inside the bank, knew that they were royally bucked.

Glarin crouched down and leaped from his position, landing in front of the shielded doorway. He raised the axe in his left hand and brought it down upon the shield. The hit with his axe caused the shield to visibly crack. With a roar he then sent his right fist into the shield shattering it. It sounded like 100 glass window’s shattered at the same time when the shield spell broke.

Everypony watched wide eyed as he leaped 20 some feet up stairs without a running start, then single handedly smash the magical shield spell the guards couldn’t get rid of.

Everypony and griffin outside could hear the terrified screams and screeches of the would be bank robbers coming from inside the bank. The same sound of glass shattering could also be heard with multiple solid thumps and cracks.

“Do you think we should...” just as one of the guards was suggesting they follow inside to help him, a griffin was seen running out of the front doorway, he began to flap his wings and fly away with a look of utter fear on his face.

He didn’t get far as all of the ponies watched Glarin run out of the same doorway and leap into the air after him.

“I DIDN’T SAY YOU COULD LEAVE!” Glarin grabbed the griffin by a hind leg, then slam him into the ground. Glarin wasn’t done with him yet, he continued to hold onto the griffins back leg and slammed him back and forth into the ground. Swinging him up into the air only to impact into the ground again, the griffin looked like nothing more than a large rag doll. By the time Glarin had finished, the griffin was foaming at the mouth with a broken beak and repeatedly mumbling he was sorry.

All of the onlookers got a good glimpse of Glarin. He had several arrows poking out of him, 2 in his left leg, one in his right leg. His left bicep had an arrow in it along with his right shoulder. It would appear his chain shirt was doing a good job at deflecting the arrows away from vital organs like his heart and lungs. The shirt he had on over his chain vest had several holes and burn marks in it. It would appear that the magical bolts just left light scorch marks on his skin.

Glarin released the limp griffin and ran back inside the bank. The screams and screeches of terror continued.

The onlookers and guards heard someone from inside start yelling.

“Oh Celestia he’s a monster!” the guards began to become curious as to what exactly was happening inside, so they all moved forward and looked inside. What they saw left them speechless.

Several of the walls had a few ponies or griffins embedded into them. It would appear Glarin had thrown or slammed them against the wall so hard, they got stuck in it. The griffins and ponies in the walls hung limply and moaned in agony. As they looked around some more they saw a few ponies and griffins had their faces firmly planted into the ground. The stone around the face planted ponies and griffins was broken as if somepony took a large sledge hammer to the floor.

They don’t remember any earth ponies being part of their gang, yet there were clearly 3 or 4 earth ponies unconscious inside the bank. It wasn’t until one of the guards spotted a lone horn on the floor did they figure out where the ‘earth’ ponies came from.

The guards ended up looking toward the vault, it would seem only 3 remained, two were unicorns while the last was a griffin. All 3 of them had looks of utter despair and horror on their faces. The two unicorns had enacted a 4 layered barrier around them, but it was clear by the look on their faces, they knew it was only a matter of time.

“You stupid unicorn! You said Sir Glarin wouldn’t come! You said he left already!”

“I didn’t know the information I got was bad!”

“Please Mercy! Mercy Sir Glarin!” Glarin was hunched over in front of their shield with his axe still in hand. Every haggard breath he released could clearly be seen as a puff of steam.

“Mercy? MERCY?! I HAVE NO MERCY FOR THOSE THAT HARM MY CLAN!!” He raised his axe and brought it down on top of the shield with a roar.

The guards knew a 4 layered shield spell when they saw one. It was one of the strongest shield type spells that can be done by 2 unicorns who didn’t specialize with shields. The 4 layer was a technique used even by the royal guards in order to deflect the strongest of attacks, both magical and physical. And it worked well, it had never failed to protect anypony that could use it... until now.

Glarin’s axe tore through the 4 layered shield spell, but at a cost. As his left arm and the axe tore through the shield, he could feel the bones cracking in his left arm. Shattering so many shield spells with only one axe was bound to cause problems. But that didn’t matter, the shield was down and both of the unicorns had fallen backwards from their spell being shattered so forcefully like that.

Before both unicorns could even finish falling, Glarin had barreled through the falling shield fragments and grabbed the griffin by the throat and charged at the wall, he then proceeded to embed the griffin within the marble wall as he had done with the others.

Once the griffin was up against the wall he quickly reared his right fist back and pounded them until they were firmly embedded inside the marble wall.

When he was done with the griffin, Glarin reached over and grabbed the unicorn to his left by the mane as he tried to flee. He preceded to use him as a makeshift weapon to pummel the other unicorn who had yet to recover.

The unicorn was finally ‘released’ when his mane ripped from his head. His body was sent sailing through the air. Glarin had failed to notice and brought down a fist full of hair on top of the other unicorn who was already unconscious.

Glarin released the fistful of hair and looked around. All he saw were the guards staring at him wide eyed. Most of them shocked beyond belief. The fury within him made him want to continue and beat them all as well. Why would they be looking at him with such stupid looks on their faces if they didn’t want a good beating as well?

Why Didn't They HELP?!

Glarin realized what he was thinking and had to shake his head. He then dispelled the rest of his fury through a channeled shout. One he had learned from his instructor long ago in order to end rages and fury’s early should the fights be over.

Everypony and griffin within earshot both inside and outside the bank heard his ‘calming’ shout as he released the rest of his fury harmlessly into the air. After some deep breathes he put his axe away and inspected the arrows. He walked out of the bank ignoring the guards and went over to Fluttershy, Twilight and Rainbow. Twilight spoke first.

“I’m glad you ended up helping, but I thought you said none of this was your business Glarin, why did you go run in like that. You’re all injured again!”

“The moment they hurt a clan member, it became my business, now lets start heading back once Fluttershy is taken care of. I would like to go enjoy a favorite dwarven past time, digging for riches... Since I can’t go have a drink.” Glarin sat down on the floor across from Fluttershy, Twilight and Rainbow. As Rainbow spoke Glarin dug his fingers into the arrow wounds, then Glarin snapped the feathered ends of the arrows off and angled the arrow shafts away from bones and major veins as he pushed them completely through.

Much to the disgust of the other nearby ponies.

“Well the good news is that the arrow didn’t hit the wing bone, she got lucky as it only passed through the layer of skin and muscle...” Fluttershy nodded her head at Twilight and Rainbow. They had removed the arrow and bandaged up her wing. “... she won’t be able to fly for awhile, but she should be just fine otherwise.” As Glarin removed the last arrow, he used it to point at Twilight. Some blood flicked off the arrow tip and landed on Twilight's muzzle, much to her horror.

“Why not just use a healing spell? I mean, wouldn’t it be silly not too?” Twilight panicked at having his blood land on her face and quickly magicked it away while making a scrub bush appear cleaning her face even more.

“Pleeeease don't fling your blood all willy nilly like that Glarin! But, you’re right. Hold still for a second Fluttershy.” Twilights horn glowed and a small white light flowed from her horn and onto Fluttershy’s wing. Shortly after Fluttershy began to flap her wing as the pain disappeared.

“Oh my, its all better now. Thank you Twilight.” Glarin stood up and tossed the arrow behind him.

“Now that everything’s better, lets head to the LAND train shall we? Can’t wait to get back to Ponyville, by LAND.” Glarin continued to walk down in the direction of the train station same as he had before. Completely ignoring all of his wounds and Twilight as she had also wanted to use a healing spell on him. The rest of the group quickly caught up to him, along with many of the civilians and guards who wanted to speak with him.

“Sir Glarin! Sir Glarin!”

“Sir Glarin can I get an autograph?!”

“Sir Glarin a photo for the paper please!”

“Sir Glarin have my foals!”

“Sir Glarin can you sign my flank!?” Glarin was starting to be overwhelmed by all of the ponies shouting at him trying to get his attention.

“Enough! I just want to go home. Take a nice dirt nap, and then go dig for some gems with Sir Spike!” The ponies from the press still didn’t stop though.

“Please Sir Glarin, a word on why you stopped those bank robbers!”

“Was is because you’re a knight of Equestria?”

“Or perhaps it was because you couldn’t stand to see such criminal scum act in broad daylight?!” Glarin gritted his teeth and looked directly into the nearby press ponies eyes.

“I beat them all to a bloody pulp because one of their blasted arrows hurt my clan member Fluttershy. Blood calls for blood and retribution in full kind.” The press continued to question him as he tried to walk away.

“Would you do that for any other pony!?”

“Is this pony Fluttershy your Very Special Somepony perhaps?!” unbeknownst to Glarin, Fluttershy began to blush and hide her face behind her mane. Glarin had no clue what they meant by very special somepony, regardless he gave his answer of the subject anyway. As far as he knew, they were simply talking about someone, who is also a pony, that was important to him.

Clan was always important

“Of Course she is! And so is Princess Twilight, Princess Luna, Daring, Rainbow, Big Apple and Apple Chef! All of em are my very special someponies! Heck, the entire Apple family is my special somepony!” Everypony froze at his claim. Some cameras were going off with the flashes and clicks being heard. Rarity shouted from the back

“What what Whaat?!” Followed by Pinkie Pie gasping

“Did you guys have a special somepony party without me again?! I wanna be a part of it next time too!” Pinkie bounded up to Glarin and gave him a big lick on his face. Glarin just got a smile on his face and chuckled.

“Aye sure, Pinkie. You can join my Clan if’n you wish it. You are best friends with Princess Twilight, Fluttershy and Rainbow.”

“Is a Clan like your herd? Oh, oh, oh! If so I wanna join!” Glarin thought for a second, the word herd as far as he knew was a large group of wild animals that travel and live together, that’s kind of like a clan... right?

“Welcome to my Clan then Pinkie!” Glarin grabbed her round the withers and gave her a hug twirling her around, and she gave out a big giggle and a laugh as she was spun around.

“Now, lets head on to the LAND train and get back to Ponyville, I tire of this ‘noble’ place.” The press seemed to be satisfied with his answer as they stopped following him and so did the large crowd of ponies. Except the main group of ponies that had been traveling with him since the beginning.

As they closed in on the train station Twilight came up to Glarin with a bit of a blush on her face.

“Glarin, do you... do you know what it means to have a very special somepony?” Glarin narrowed his eyes at her question. Her tone implied that there was something he wasn’t quite understanding about the situation that transpired.

“I’m assuming a very special sompony is some pony that you care a lot about. And I care for all of my clan members greatly, they just happen to all be ponies now...” Glarin sighed as he said that.

“Well that’s true, but its to care in a certain way...” Glarin raised an eyebrow at Twilight and looked back at the group behind him. Most of em just sorta looked around, except Pinkie, she was waving her hoof at him as fast as possible with the biggest grin he had ever seen.

“Care in a certain way?” Glarin looked at Twilight thinking about what she could of meant. It wasn’t until he noticed that she was blushing and avoiding eye contact did something click.

Glarin went wide eyed and looked back at the group. Back to Apple Chef and stared at her, It clicked again. Then to Big Apple, that same thing clicked a third time. Then he looked over to Rainbow, nothing clicked when looking at her though. They all blushed when he looked at them long enough. Then that something clicked again.

“Oye! I didn’t mean special like that! I meant like family! Brother, sister, and cousins kinda thing!” Glarin suddenly remembered what he had told those press ponies. While the ponies themselves released a sigh now that he fully understood what a very special somepony was. Except Pinkie who seemed kinda down now.

“Yee Gods! I told them Princess Luna and I are... By Berronar’s Beard what have I done!” Glarin began to frantically look around. He got down on his knees and clasped Twilights hoof in both hands.

“Princess Twilight I’m sorry! I didn’t know!” Twilight shook her head and sighed.

“It’s fine Glarin. As long as you understand what it means now.” Glarin had a smile on his face as he looked Twilight in the eye.

“You’ll help me smooth things over with Princess Luna then? There’s no telling what will happen to me once those gossip ponies spread the word!” Twilight raised an eyebrow at Glarin. In the back of her mind, she decided to play a bit of a prank on him. Glarin’s smile slowly faded while Twilight thought.

“I don’t know Glarin, Princess Luna is kind of hard to convince... I wonder what Celestia would think of such a thing. You pretty much did claim to be in a romantic relationship with all of us, and in public no less.” Glarin felt his heart sink at that. Not only would he have to face Luna’s wrath, he would have to face Celestia’s as well? He ran over to Applejack and Big Mac and got down to his knees.

“You gotta hide me! There’s no telling what Princess Luna will do to me once the gossip ponies reveal this blunder of mine!” Applejack and Big Mac raised an eyebrow

“Ah don’t think it’s that big a deal Glarin.” Glarin dropped his mouth in shock and looked over to Big Mac who simply shook his head.

“Please you must! She’ll send assassins out for me in the middle of the night! While Celestia sends assassins in the middle of the day, I know it to be true!” Applejack just sighed.

“Ah guess ya could stay in the barn then, if’n ya really feel that way.” Glarin got a smile on his face as he stood back up.

“I knew I could count on you! Thank you Apple Chef!”

“Mah names AppleJack, Glarin.”

“Oh uh, Thank you Applejack! Now lets get out of here fast!” Glarin stood back up and began to race off toward the train station. Spike looked over at Twilight with a raised eyebrow.

“Would Princess Luna and Celestia really do that? I thought they didn’t take what the press wrote seriously.”

“They don’t Spike, but Sir Glarins reaction was priceless. I wonder what made him think the princesses would send out assassins.” Twilight began to laugh while the rest of the ponies chuckled about the very idea.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Glarin had run out of sight and stopped at the end of the road. Twilight had described what a train looked like over breakfast so when he saw the multicolored train he jumped for joy and climbed aboard it.

Twilight had forgotten to mention that you had to buy a ticket, and that trains from Canterlot went all around Equestria, not just to Ponyville and back. But lucky for him there was only one train, and it was scheduled for Ponyville.

Glarin took a nearby empty seat and watched the rest of his group go up to a window before heading over to the train.

“Ahem, Ticket please.” Glarin turned around and saw a pony wearing a blue shirt with a square looking blue hat. This pony looked official and in charge. He had a beard.

“Ticket? Ticket for what? Transportation between cities isn’t free?” The pony raised an eyebrow.

“I don’t know where you come from, but if you don’t have a ticket, you can’t ride the train. You can go buy one at the window over there. Until you get one, you are going to have to leave. Also, you might want to clean yourself up, you look wounded.” The pony ended with pointing his hoof out the door. Glarin just dropped his head in defeat and walked out the door, only to meet up with Princess Twilight.

“Why you’d get off the train Glarin? We already got your ticket, and don’t worry about the money.” Glarin picked up his head and looked at Twilight with a smile on his face.

“Thanks a motherload Twilight, I thought for sure I would have to spend my only 10 bits.” Twilight raised an eyebrow.

“Why in Equestria would you think that? We got you covered until you are up on your hooves, err, feet.”

“So much generosity from you ponies. But I expect nothing less from my clan.” Glarin put his muscular arm around Twilights withers and walked with her back the short distance to the train. They were stopped by the same official bearded pony.

“Tickets?” Twilight hooves the pony a large number of tickets.

“Here you are Mr. Conductor. Tickets for myself and all of my friends and their family.” The conductor pony counts the tickets and counts everyone present, he nods his head and punches the tickets, hoofing them back to her.

“Enjoy the ride.” The conductor pony walks off as everyone boards the train. Glarin took the same seat he had earlier. Only to be joined by that smallish pony Apple Bloom, with Daring and his sister Star sitting across from them.

Glarin continued to keep a watchful eye out the window as Apple Bloom began to snuggle up closer to him. Glarin furrowed his brow and turned to look at her.

“What are you doing Apple... Bow?” Apple Bloom pulled away a bit.

“You forgot mah name already?”

“I apologize, I have trouble remembering names, but faces I don’t forget.” Apple Bloom smiled and snuggled back up next to him. Star and Daring were having a bit of a laugh about it.

“Tha’s alright Sir Glarin, I forgive ya. Mah names Apple Bloom, try not ta forget it again.”

“Uh huh, well then Apple Bloom, why are you snuggled up next to me then?” Apple Bloom replied in a coy and playful tone.

“Oh, no reason in particular...” As she looked at Glarin’s muscular arm, she realized he never bandaged up his wounds. The arrow wounds he got earlier were still exposed and bleeding. “...You didn’t get your wounds treated yet Glarin?”

“No I didn’t, I just wanted to head back home. The ponies of this magnificent marble city bore me.”

“Well Ah’ma go get a first aid kit! You wait right here.” Apple Bloom jumped out of the seat and galloped off as the train began to move.

“Cute kid, little clingy though.” Glarin leaned back in his seat with Daring and Star staring at him.

“You think my aunt is cute Glarin?”

“Yeah, in a little girl way. She’s no where near as cute as my little sister was at her age though.”

“She’s a full grown mare now you know. She may not be as big as Aunty Applejack, but she’s an adult, not some filly Glarin.” Glarin thought for a minute.

“So she’s a dwarf pony then?” Star smacked her hoof into her face while Daring laughed. Apple Bloom returned with a first aid kit in her mouth. She set it down next to Glarin before speaking.

“Ahright Glarin, hold still while Ah bandage you up. Don’t you worry about nothing now.”

“You’re making me worry by saying that!” Glarin looked over at Daring who shook his head side to side and Star nodding her head. He wasn’t sure who to believe. Daring with his neutral looking face or Star with the huge grin on her face.

He eventually sighed and looked over at Apple Bloom who had a roll of gauze in her mouth and a hopeful look on her face.

“Well what are ya waiting for Lass? Get to bandaging me up. Don’t make em too tight now though.” Apple Bloom nodded her head enthusiastically and began cleaning the wound’s and wrapping them up.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Glarin had been sitting patently in the train for 2 hours now. Why were trains so slow?

And why did the ponies think this was a good place to nap?

Apple Bloom had fallen asleep, with Daring and Star also asleep. He had half the mind to do the same and pass out just as well. But with his bench crowded by 3 ponies while sitting in a pose that made sleeping difficult, sleep felt like a far away dream.

He was trying to figure out how this happened, but for the life of him he couldn’t. He had been staring out the window while they all talked to each other. Next thing he knew Apple Bloom started yawning and fell asleep with her head in his lap. Then Daring came over and fell asleep next to Apple Bloom with Star flying over and laying on top of the benches back. She then positioned herself using his shoulders and the benches back as some kind of surface and fell asleep as well.

Glarin was effectively trapped and cuddled in by the 3 ponies. It was extremely uncomfortable.

“Between the pickaxe and the rockface...”

Thinking Barrel and Worthless Gems, Hooray

View Online

After another hour of cuddle torture the train finally arrived at Ponyville. Glarin decided to wake them up so he could move again.

“Oye! Time to wake up, we’re here!” The sleepy ponies were startled awake while every other patron on the train looked over to see what he was yelling about.

The sleeping ponies quickly got up and off Glarin, with the exception of Apple Bloom who only snuggled in closer to him. Glarin grunted in discomfort as Applejack walked over.

“Wake up sugercube, its time to get off the train, and Glarin!” Applejack nudged Apple Bloom until she begrudely ‘woke’ up.

“Come on Bloom, you can help set Glarin up in the Barn.” At that she perked up.

“Oh yeah! Ah forgot he was gonna stay in the barn fer awhile!” with that, Apple Bloom jumped out of Glarins lap and out the train door.

“Thanks for that Applejack, I don’t get whats wrong with her.” Glarin gave a quick stretch and cracked various joints.

“Aint nothing wrong with her, she’s just in heat is all, shes around that age now after all. She handles herself really well actually.” Glarin furrowed his brow

“Heat? It’s not that hot out is it?”

“Hot?” Applejack looked at Glarin for a bit. Then realized he was seriously talking about the air temperature.

“Glarin I meant...” Applejack just looked at Glarin who kept his look of slight confusion “...you know what, never mind. Forget I said anything bout Bloom, les go.” Glarin nodded his head and followed after Applejack.

The walk back to the Orchard was relatively normal, besides the fact Glarin was paranoid and kept looking all around him. He kept a decent distance between him and any of the ponies he didn’t recognize.

On the way back, a box dropped from the sky and landed right next to Glarin. Glarin yelped and grabbed Twilight as she was next to him and began yelling as he ran.

“Its gonna blow! Run for cover!” Mass panic overtook everyone as they all scrambled as fast as they could to find cover behind the nearest solid object. After about 10 seconds ponies began to all peak around and stare at the box that had fallen to the ground. Twilight rolled her eyes

“Glarin its just a normal package that fell. Why would the Princesses throw a bomb at you anyway?” Glarin sighed and looked to the grey blond pegasus that had taken cover next to him and Twilight.

“Golly Mr, I didn’t know the package I was delivering for Filthy Rich was a bomb!” Glarin sighed again.

“No, it seems I was mistaken Lass, tis just a normal package it would seem.”

“Oh! Well if every things ok, then I’ll just be on my way then!” the blond Pegasus flew back over to the box and picked it up, then she went on her merry way. At seeing this the crowed of ponies and griffins all came out from hiding and just looked at Glarin. Twilight sighed.

“Everything’s ok everyone, just a little bit of a misunderstanding.”

The rest of the run back was rather uneventful as everyone went their separate ways. Glarin had pushed the barn doors open and dove into the nearest empty barrel pulling the lid over it. From within the barrel Applejack heard a muffled yell.

“If anyone ask’s, I’m not here! Come get me when the heat dies down.” And then all was silent.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

No one saw Glarin for 3 days. Besides Apple Bloom who would bring him food, along with everyone else who happened to come along looking for him. Applejack had trouble telling everyone he wasn’t there. Her poker face was absolutely terrible.

It wasn’t until a slew of guards, both day and night types, came to Ponyville looking for Glarin did the Apple farmer start to worry.

“Bloom head on back to the barn an let Glarin know a heap a guards are lookin fer him. Guards from both princesses...” Apple Bloom rushed from the apple stand, that she and Applejack were working with that morning, and headed back to the barn. When she arrived she bucked the barn door’s wide open yelling

“Glarin Glarin! Theres a buncha guards lookin fer ya!” Glarin popped the top off of his barrel and peaked out.

“Guards you say? How many?”

“Ah didn’t stop to count! There's guards from both Celestia and Luna!”

“Both you say?” Glarin thought about this for a moment. Sending guards would mean he was to be arrested instead of killed outright by assassins. This at least gave him some breathing room in terms of explaining himself. As he tried to get out of the barrel it began to wobble until it fell over and rolled around the barn until it crashed into some barrels that had been stacked by Big Mac. Glarin crawled out from the wreckage and brushed himself off.

“Hmm...” Glarin looked at the massive mess he had just created “I’ll clean that up later...”

“What are ya gonna do Glarin?”

“Well Im gonna go meet with them of course! I should be able to explain things to a guard better than some assassin.” As Glarin walked out of the barn he saw the large group of guards talking to Applejack as they approached the barn.

“Oye!” All of the guards ceased speaking to Applejack to look over to Glarin. He was walking over with his hands held up into the air. When he was within speaking distance of everypony Applejack spoke 1st.

“Glarin these royal guards came to...” Applejack didn’t get to finish her sentence before Glarin interrupted her.

“Arrest me? I figured as much. Jail is better than being killed by some assassins.” Glarin held his hands out waiting for the cuffs, or rope, or bridle, or what ever it is ponies used to arrest criminals. Glarin briefly wondered if they would hog tie and drag him or something. Maybe put a saddle on his back and blind him.

“...I was gonna say be trained by you.” Glarin dropped his arms down to his sides in slight confusion as he gave Applejack and the guards a questioning gaze.

“Trained? By me? For what?” one of the guards procured a letter and handed it over to Glarin. He unrolled the letter, and looked through it for a moment. Than he began to spin the letter in a circular motion as he read it. The guards shuffled around for a bit before Glarin grunted handing the letter back.

“I can’t read that chicken scratch. It wasn’t written in any dwarven I’ve ever seen.” Applejack chuckled as a guard took the letter back and began to read it aloud.

“Well lemme see here... Dear Sir Glarin, it has come to my sister Luna’s attention as well as mine as well that you are her very special someDwarf. It has also come to our attention that our guards, while capable of handling issues with ponies and minor disputes, Griffins are an entirely different matter. The incident at the Canterlot bank is just one of many examples. However you have shown you alone are capable of handling a situation where 3 entire squads of guards were not. Therefore my sister and I have sent you 15 guards each that volunteered to be trained by you. Making them into berserkers’s like yourself may prove troublesome, but perhaps you could give them some help on becoming warriors? With love, Luna and your soon to be sister in law, Celestia.”

Applejack was watching Glarins face as the guard read the letter, first his mouth dropped, then it went into a smile of pride. Then it turned into utter shock, with the last line causing his jaw to drop again and make his left eye twitch as he looked off into the sky mumbling something to himself. After a bit he looked back to all the guards

“Who da, buh... noo guh...” Glarin shook his head and took the letter from the guard. He fumbled with it again as he studied the writing upon it. “It must be a lie, it can’t possibly say that!” he looked at the official royal seal at the bottom of the letter and yelled in frustration ripping the letter in half. “Why can’t I read it!” he then preceded to eat the two halves of paper and sit down on the dirt as he chewed. After he swallowed both halves of the letter he stood back up looking at all of the guards.

“So ignoring the obvious lies in that letter, you all volunteered yourselves to be trained by me then?” All 30 of the guards clicked their hooves together and saluted.

“Well shale, my easy going life just flew down the goblin infested bottomless pit...” Glarin began to inspect the different ponies, he had a little of all 3 types in the day guards while the night guards all seemed to be bat pony things. “... I don’t know how to train ponies, but I know how to mold a young dwarf into a warrior. So from now on, you’re all dwarves to me...” Glarin paused for a moment as he looked between them all.

“Horribly mutated and ugly dwarves, but dwarves no less.” Applejack laughed as he said that. Glarin was unfazed by Applejacks laughter and continued.

“I’m gonna tell you the same thing my old teacher told me.” Glarin began to pace back and forth in front of them as he cleared his throat.

“Your bones will break, your skulls will be cracked, and your bodies will be broken. But those aren’t important. The only thing that is important, is that your pride must never break!” Glarin stopped walking to face them again.

“If the prospect of getting hurt frighten’s you, I suggest you go home. If not, Follow me into town, and we can get started.” Glarin walked for a bit then stopped.

“Which way was the town again Applejack?” Applejack chuckled again and pointed her hoof in the direction of the town. Glarin nodded his head in thanks and walked off.

The guards all gave each other looks before following Glarin into town.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Glarin was pounding on the door of the library to the point the guards behind him thought it would come off its hinges.

“Spike! Get your purple butt out here!” After what sounded like someone falling down the stairs, the door opened.

“What can I...” Spike looked around at all of the guards. “... It wasn’t my idea I swear! It was all Twilights fault!” Glarin gave spike a bit of a confused look.

“I’m just here so you can show us where to go for those gem’s.”

“Oh... Oh! Yeah sure no problem. Well we have to go get Rarity as well.” Glarin raised an eyebrow

"What do we need her for?”

“Rarity has a gem finding spell, We’ll be able to find a bunch of gems quickly with her.” Glarin began to drool, he started to see the fancy acting pony in a new light.

“Magic sure is useful...”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Glarin, Spike, Rarity, and the 30 guards were all traveling back from the spot in the mountains where they gathered the gems. Each of them was carrying a rather large sack with them. With the exception of Glarin, who was carrying 2 while Rarity had none.

“Sure was awful generous of you to offer help in getting gems with me in exchange for some of your own.”

“Not a problem Rarity, I’m glad to be of help, Spike was right about that gem locating spell. The only thing that puzzles me is that all of the gems were already cut.”

“Well what do you mean darling? Gems have always been found like that.” Glarin raised an eyebrow at that statement and shrugged it off as another strange thing this plane of existence did. Pre cut gems that had to be mined, miners must have it easy here.

“So is a gem finding spell common? Or is it like some special talent or something.”

“Well I’ve had it since I was a filly actually. It's part of my special talent, the other part is adding gems to clothing and other such fashionable creations of mine.” Glarin stroked his beard as she spoke.

“Interesting...” Glarin wondered if he could get himself a young pony with a gold finding spell. And another with a metal finding spell. Mining would be done so much faster if you knew where to look. But then again, these ponies acted like dwarves, well, probably more like cowardly humans. Its not like he could just go someplace filled with young ponies and take a few home to help him mine like they were pets or something...

Or could he?

Thoughts for a later time perhaps. For now he has 30 young dwarves, ugly dwarves, that he will have to hammer into fine warriors...

1st order of business is to stop any and all beard shaving. Then he should consult Princess Twilight about what ponies eat so they can gain muscle mass. Then he’ll have to find a source of calcium carbonate or see about buying some.

Then he remembered the mess he made in the barn... and hoped his thinking barrel full of bad thoughts wasn’t knocked over in the madness from this morning.

He suddenly felt a chill run down his spine. He suddenly didn’t want to head back to the farm.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Applejack was bringing her apple cart back from the market. She had to shut down for awhile when all of those guards showed up, but she made plenty of sales for the day anyway. As she got closer to the barn to return the cart to its proper resting space she could smell something funny.

“What in tarnation? Where’s that smell coming from?” As she got closer to the barn, she opened the door and was assaulted by the same smell but far more powerful.

“Oh sweet mother of Celestia, did some varment get trapped in here and die?” As Applejack covered her nose with a hoof she went inside and saw the massive pile of destroyed barrels.

“Con sarnet. Dang varment musta made a mess before it up and died...” As she got closer to the pile of barrels she could see an intact barrel that seemed to have its contents spilled out on the floor.

“I don’t remember having anything in these...” Applejack stopped dead in her tracks as she looked closer at the stuff falling out of the barrel. She then realized where that horrible smell was coming from.

And also why she never saw Glarin come inside the house to use the bathroom.

Glarin had been using one of their storage barrels as a bathroom! By the looks of it, you could mold a full grown pony. No wonder he clogged the toilet every time he used it. Applejack ran out of the barn in a fuming rage.

“I’ll Bucking kill him!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Are you sure darling? I only need one bag.”

“Nonsense, without your help in finding all of these gems, it would have taken us weeks. I insist you take these 4 other bags as well. The other 27 bags of gems should be plenty. Where do I go to exchange them for coin again?”

“The ponyville jeweler Darling, but most gems can be used as currency so exchanging them for bits really isn’t necessary.”

“Is that so?” Glarin raised an eyebrow as she spoke some more. Glarin wondered if he could just take her horn and use it to find gems without the pony attached to it.

“Indeed it is darling, its just a little hard to make change for jewels when one isn’t a professional appraiser.”

“I see, It seems having some coin would be helpful in getting my moneys worth I suppose.”

“Yes having bits on hand it always helpful, now if you’ll excuse me I have some work to attend to before the night closes in.” Glarin grunted and waved Rarity off as they headed out.

“The market is still open right Spike?”

“Should be, most of the smaller stalls will be closing up for the day though.”

“Thats fine, we need to hit up the Jewelers and a shop that might sell Calcium carbonate.” Spike furrowed his scaly brow in thought for a moment.

“You mean chalk?”

“Yeah, that’s exactly what I said, Calcium carbonate.” Glarin turned around to look at the 30 guards that were following him around.

“You three, give me the bags your carrying...” Glarin took thier bags and slung em over his back ”... Now all of you head back to Applejack’s farm. Write letters to your friends and family that you’re going to be gone for months, probably years. They are welcome to visit and what not. I actually encourage it. We can do little test phases N’ stuff when they show up.” With that Glarin spun back around leaving the guards behind without even waiting for them to respond. Spike looked between both of em and shrugged as he followed behind Glarin.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Glarin threw the 4 sacks of gems up onto the counter of the local ponyville jewlers to the shock and dismay of the owner.

“I’d like to exchange these here gems for bits.” The jeweler cleared his throat and levitated the sacks over with some of his magic. After a bit he open one of them and began to bring all of the gems out and organize them on the counter. He repeated the process with each sack until all of the gems were organized in separate piles based on color, size, and type.

He levitated the 4 now empty sacks back over to Glarin who took them from the air.

“So how much you reckon I can get for all of this chief?”

“Hmm, well judging by the size of most of these gems and the flaws in a decent amount of them, I’d say about tree fiddy.” Glarin furrowed his brow at that.

“I’m sorry what?”

“I said about 350 bits.”

“What?! Only 350 bits?!” Glarin turned to Spike for confirmation.

“Well that seems about right Glarin, these are just common gems and most of em do have flaws.” Glarin growled under his breath.

“Alright, gimme the 350 bits and we’ll be on our way.” The jewler levitated the 350 bits into one of Glarins sacks and they left.

“Are gems really that worthless around here?”

“Well flawed gem's yeah. But you can get up 2000 bits for a single perfect gem, depending upon its rarity of course.” Glarin just grumbled as they trudged along to their next destination. The only general store in ponyville, Rich’s Barnyard Bargains.

As they walked in, one of the employees approached them.

“Hello and welcome to Barnyard Bargins! How can I help you?”

“Just looking for some Calcium carbonate, Do you know where I can find some around here?” The employee just looked at him confused while Spike rolled his eyes.

“He means chalk.”

“Oh yes! We have that in isle 12.” Glarin grunted and walked past the pony with Spike. After a bit he walked down a seeminly random isle.

“Glarin this isnt isle 12, it farther down that way.”

“What do you mean this isnt isle 12? I counted and this is number 12!”

“This ones actualy marked 11, 12 is one more over.” Glarin grumbled again

“I really will have to learn this silly chicken scratch language of yer’s won’t I?”

“Well, it might help yes.” Spike said with a light chuckle. Spike Led Glarin down isle 12 and they stopped. They found the chalk alright, just not quite what Glarin expected.

“Why is it a bunch of diffrent colors. Do you ponies flavor your calcium carbonite?” Spike raised an eyebrow at Glarin in confusion.

“Flavor? Why would we flavor it? Its colored so that when fillies and colts draw with them it can be colorful.”

“What?! Draw? Where in blue blazes do you get your calcium then?!”

“Oh, from drinks like milk. Spinach has a high calcium content as well as a few other foods like cheese.”

“Lad, I don’t know what milk or spinach is, but I’ve heard of cheese before. I hear its really smelly and made from mold. Not that eating mold is bad or anything, I just don’t trust anything those humans seem to eat on a regular.” With that Glarin grabbed an armful of the boxes labeled as chalk, with a random assortment of plain and colored types.

“Now we just need some rope, and lots of it.”

“Rope? What do we need rope for?” Spike just watched Glarin as he waddled down the isle with his arms full.

“You remember those rocks I had those sorry excuses for guards gather along with the gems?”

“Yeah I remember, 5 of those bags have nothing but rocks and small boulders in them.”

“Yeah, we need the rope and rocks for training.” Glarin and Spike wandered down the halls looking for rope, lots of rope.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The 30 guards were all arriving at the Apple farm when they saw an angry orange mare wearing a Stetson hat running at them with a look that could kill on her face.

“Where is he?! Where is that disgustin varment Glarin?!” The guards suddenly became scard of Applejack as they all looked between themselves.

“H-h-he said that he had some things to take care of!” Applejack stomped her hooves into the dirt as she snorted steam from her nostrils.

“Then yall are gonna clean up that mess he made in the barn right this instant ya hear?!”

“M-mess?”

“Tha’s right his mess! He’s a been living in the barn the pass 3 days, and I go in there today to find... GUH! Just go clean it up right now! I’ll give his hide a good tanning when he gets back!” The guards set down the bags they had been carrying and rushed down to the barn.

Applejack could hear the guards shout and gag, she even heard one of them give a shrill cry of fear. Then yell “I didn’t sign up for this!”

Applejack began to look at the bags the guards had left at her hooves. The 1st one she opened up had nothing but rocks in it. The second one however had gems in it,

“Hmmm, well lookie here...”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Glarin stopped walking as he shuddered, but not from the chill in the air. Something was telling him to turn around. He shook it off and kept pace with Spike.

“Hmm, Spike, You think I could sleep at the Library for a few days?” Spike furrowed his brows as they walked along the path toward the orchard.

“Why would you wanna stay at the Library? I thought you liked it at the Apple farm?”

“Oh don’t get me wrong the food of magnificent, its just... I feel like something bad is gonna happen when I get back is all.”

“Psh, its all in your head Glarin, Applejacks a nice mare, I don’t think she’d do anything too rash against you. Even if you did make a bit of a mess in her barn earlier today.”

“Hrmm, I hope yer right Laddie.”

"But did you really fail to get out of the barrel and crash into the pile of stacked barrels?"

"It's not my fault the barrels are so tall yet narrow!"

As they got closer the Apple family home came into view and so did an orange pony wearing a stetson hat. She was surrounded by large sacks that Glarin and Spike recognized as the ones they had brought back from the gem mining trip. She also bore a face that was extremely unhappy.

As Applejack approched them, Glarin looked around to see all of the guards also looking at him. Many of them had looks of displeasure on their faces.

“Glarin...”

“Uh, hey Applejack.”

“I’ve had some time to cool off and think a bit, so as it turns out I’m only gonna buck you a couple times for what you did. And I’ll also be taking one those gem sacks over there to make up for the costs of buying new barrels before the big harvest in 2 weeks.”

“Buck me for what? All I did was break a few barrels!”

“Oh the bucks aint for the broken barrels, the bucks are for what you used one of mah water barrels for!” Sudden realization crossed Glarins face.

His thinking barrel had been discovered before he could rid of it himself in the nearby forest.

“I already had your little posse over there clean up your mess, only thing left is yer punishment.”

Glarin sighed in defeat. He might as well get it over with. Not like he could persuade her out of it anyway. He already hated the idea of giving her one the gem bags. But he remembered they were probably mostly worthless like the 4 gem bags he had just exchanged today anyway. He handed the bags of stuff over to Spike as he stood his ground in front of Applejack.

“Alright lass, I agree to yer terms. A few bucks and a bag of gems as an apology for what I did?” Applejack just nodded her head and spun around giving Glarin a swift buck to the chest.

Glarin slide back with his feet still firmly planted on the ground as he exhaled. Falling back into his dwarven ways, when he would basically do pissing contests with other dwarves, he just provoked her.

“What was that?! My grandmother can hit harder then that!” Applejack didn’t take kindly to that. She reared up her back hooves again and snorted steam as she bucked him again with 3 times as much force as before directly into his rib cage. Glarin just grunted as he slide back on his feet again. This time he spoke softer as he was slightly out of breath.

“My baby sister hits hard...” was all Glarin could finish saying before another buck to the chest hit him again, this time knocking him over. Glarin turned his head to the side and began coughing. Afterwards he gave a slight chuckle and stood back up again.

“Was that the best you had?”

“Why I oughta...!” Glarin waved a hand in front of him to signal her to stop as he coughed again, this time covering his hand in blood.

“I think you pushed my broken rib into my lung, its hard to breath now.” Glarin continued to cough up blood as he spoke. And Applejack suddenly felt bad for bucking him so hard repeatedly.

“We need ta get you to the hospital!” Some of the guards came over to help in anyway they could.

“I suppose that’s a good idea yeah.” Glarin coughed again with more force.

“And why didn’t you tell me you had broken ribs!?”

“Cause they weren’t broken to begin with, but that second kick cracked em, I felt it. The 3rd just finished it.”

“Come on! Get on one of the back of a guard or two and let us run you down to the Ponyville hospital!”

“Bah, I can walk! My legs ain’t broken. I can...” Glarin squinted an eye as he bent over and puked up a large puddle of blood.

“Alright, now that’s bad.” Said Glarin as his vision blacked out.

The Ponyville Hospital was buzzing with activity that night.

Broken ribs and the return of a demon

View Online

The new doctor for the morning shift was looking at a chart as he read everything aloud to the nurse who was scheduled for midnight to noon.

“His rib cage on the left side broke loose so he had Flail Barrel, and the ribs that are still where they should of been are broken in several areas. The fractured ribs punctured one lung while the other collapsed and his stomach had a large gash in it. Several of the muscles were also ripped in several places... It looks like his entire Barrel was subject to some kind of train wreck. Was this pony involved in some kind of train wreck?”

“Actually Doctor, Applejack just bucked him in the chest... 3 times. Also, he’s not a pony, its Sir Glarin. He was just released into this room an hour ago after his 7 hour reconstructive surgery.” The Doctor dropped the clipboard in shock.

“Applejack did this to him? What did he do to her?”

“Thats the thing, no one wants to talk about it, and the surgeon said he would probably be asleep for at least another day or two.”

“Well this is...”

“Oye! What’s this thing in my arm!?” The nurse and doctor turned to face the room as the alarm went off. Sounding the patents heart had flat lined. “Oh sweet Berronar, there’s blood everywhere!” The Doctor and nurse rushed into the room to find Glarin had ripped all of the medical devices out and off of him and tore one the veins in his arms doing so.

The unicorn doctor levitated a thick towel over, and held it against the new gash on Glarin’s arm as he cast a mending spell.

“Please get back into bed Sir Glarin. You’re still fresh from intensive surgery, and you need to rest for the recovery to be completed.”

“What are you talking about? What surgery, I thought I just had a few broken ribs, maybe a punctured lung or two.” The doctor cleared his throat as the Nurse directed Glarin back into the bed.

“Yes well, your ‘few’ broken ribs, turned out to be more than that. Your entire rib cage was broken with the left half of it free floating, held only in place by what little muscles were left. The fact you’re even moving around right now is a medical mystery to me.”

“Thats it? When I puked blood I thought it might have been something more serious... I can eat still right? You didn’t have to remove anything?” The doctor rubbed a forehoof against his head.

“Yes, everything seems to be in order now, you will just need to allow 2 months of rest minimum to heal. I however suggest 4 months, just too be safe. With the amount of damage your rib cage took... Might I ask what provoked Applejack to injure you to this extent?” Glarin rubbed his chin in thought for a moment.

“I don’t rightly remember. It might have been about an apple barrel. But I’m pretty sure it was well deserved... I think I said something bad about her apples. I can’t be sure.”

“Wait, she nearly killed you because you talked badly about her apples?”

“Well I wouldn’t say killed, but I’m not quite sure, I do know it was a well deserved beating.” The doctor raised an eyebrow at Glarin.

“Have you heard of Stockholm Syndrom before Sir Glarin?”

“Can’t say that I have. Why?” The doctor shook his head.

“Nurse is anyone still here?”

“Well there’s 30 guards in the waiting room still. I think they spent the night here actually.”

"And what of Applejack?"

"I'm not sure, she said something about going to the farm this morning to acquire some funds for the medical bill. She looked devastated when the surgeon told her what he had to do."

"I see, have the guards said anything?"

"Not that I know of, but they came in with Applejack and Sir Glarin who was unconscious at the time." The doctor thought for a moment about what he knew.

"Nurse, follow me outside. Sir Glarin, Stay in bed and rest."

Glarin watched them leave after they had finished talking with each other like Glarin wasn't even there.

"Rest huh... why can't they just use magical healing on me again? Is arcane healin different from holy healin? The way these ponies go about things is so confusing." Glarin sat up in his bed. His entire chest area was warm and covered in bandage wraps. Some spots had blood in random areas... and moving was a bit difficult as it seemed the bandages were placed to prevent wide movements. As he laid back in the bed the door opened and in walked Princess Twilight Sparkle.

"Oh hey Twilight. You come to use a healing spell on me so I can get this bothersome healing phase over with?" Twilight gently shook her head.

"I cant just keep using magical healing spells on you Glarin. The more magical healing you receive the more likely you are to be subject to some kind of magical backlash in the form of cancerous growths or incorrect healing. In the end, Healing naturally is the best way if its possible." Glarin gave a heavy sigh.

"Arcane healing is so weak compared to holy healing. This world is so boring, and slow paced as well. I hope you know I don't plan to lay in a bed the entire time."

"I figured as much. As such, I brought somepony you might remember from Canterlot." Glarins eyes went wide as he felt a shiver down his spine. In walked that demon nurse, Rose White, with a wheelchair.

"Hello Glarin. Princess Twilight has told me that you might need my help to get around again. Since you have things to do and places to go, but no time to wait and properly heal. Princess Twilight has set me in charge of your health, again."

"You're going to wheel me around in the wheelchair again?" Glarin started to sweat nervously

"Yes I will. I'm surprised though, all it took was like 4 days for you to become a cripple again. Most wait at least a month." Glarin gritted his teeth.

"Twilight, I can take care of myself perfectly fine. I don't need her help." He huffed as he crossed his arms and laid back in the bed.

"Yes, I'm sure you can handle yourself perfectly well Glarin, and that’s what I'm afraid of. You'll ignore your current injures and thereby re-injury yourself or worse, destroy the 7 hours of reconstructive bone surgery all those ponies put into you last night to make it so its even possible to move. Don't worry about the bill, I will take care of it, and I'll also need to go speak to Applejack about this. One more thing..."

"Yeah? What did you wanna know?"

"Did you really egg her on? Some of the guards said you provoked her into hitting you harder..."

"Knowing me, I probably did."

"Wait, you don't remember?"

"Not quite, but its no matter. I do remember telling her that her 1st buck was weak. Might of been a bit of a mistake on my part though." Twilight Sparkle sighed

"Hmm, your slight memory loss might be partly related to the anesthetic spells they had to use on you last night. I'll need to speak with Applejack and figure out what happened exactly. According to the Doctor, he thinks's you're suffering from Stockholm syndrome..." Glarin just gave Twilight a confused glare.

"Where did the Doc come up with that? Just because I recently got a small stock of gems and rocks he thinks I'm stockpiling them or something? And how does he know I even have them, is he spying on me or something?" Twilight sighed yet again. She understood he was... unsmart, about the world outside of dwarves but, sometimes it seemed to be a little extreme.

"No it's, never mind Glarin, I know Applejack wouldn't do anything like this without some kind of reason, but I can't imagine why. And that’s why I am going to speak with her about this." Glarin just nodded his head as he turned to face that nurse who had stuck to him like ugly on an orc before. As Twilight walked away leaving Glarin and Nurse White, he continued to look at her with a bit of suspicion.

"I can kind of understand how you feel Sir Glarin. You don't want to be seen as weak when I push you around in the wheelchair correct? You wouldn't be the first. But know that Twilight told me that you had basically been put in charge of training some guards by the other two princesses."

"Aye, I'm supposed to be charge of training some green horn guards. Such a bother, this lifestyle is." The nurse sighed as she went up to the bed Glarin had been laying in.

"I understand Sir Glarin. I've had to care for a few griffins in my time as a nurse. They say the same things. As an active race where being a warrior or a fighter is common, downtime with them showing weakness, makes them feel weak or vulnerable. But that’s why I'm here, I help you get over those feeling of weakness and overcome the hurdles you can't handle alone until you finish healing. I just wish you would understand that. I don't want a repeat of what we did in Canterlot." Glarin sighed as he listened to Nurse White.

"Alright Nurse White, just don't make it look like I can't do anything. Since Twilight brought you, I'm hoping you at least understand the basic's of what I’m trying to do." Nurse Rose White sighed

"Don't worry Glarin, I wont embarrass you. I'm just going to push you around and just so you know. From what I heard, the fact I'm even pushing you around is astounding within itself. So you shouldn’t have to worry about what others think of you." Glarin nodded in understanding then turned to look at her.

"Hey, you wouldn’t happen to know anything about the other two Princesses would you?"

"What do you mean exactly? It was all over the papers a few day's ago about Princess Luna being the very special somepony of the only dwarf in Equestria. Oh, it would seem Luna put something inside of Celestia’s shampoo yesterday. Made her right fluffy it did. Pictures of her covered in white fluff were all over the tabloids." Glarins heart stopped for a moment from that news.

Not only did the news of this newish world say he was going steady with one of its princesses, But he was also its only dwarf. Also Luna used the beard grow on Celestia’s entire body. Something that hit a little harder than the news of his interspecies relationship with the princess of this country.

Glarin just calmly climbed into the wheelchair she had brought along and sat quietly after that. It had finally come full circle to him that he was the only dwarf on this hell hole of a plane.

No booze of anykind to be found yet, and it would appear he had nothing that came close to it.

"Please Rose White. Take me back to the Applefarm, and make sure we stop by to pick up all of the guards that came with me, I'm supposed to train them." She nodded in agreement.

"Of course Sir Glarin, I was told that I would be helping you as well." Glarin just nodded his head until she said she would be helping

"How exactly are YOU going to help me?" She grinned as she looked him straight in the eyes.

"I was a combat medic in my younger days before I became a nurse for Canterlot." Glarin smirked at that.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Glarin was sitting under an apple tree while inside his wheelchair with Apple Bloom, Big Mac and Spike as they put together the next phase of his training plan for the 30 volunteer guards. All the while he was greatly enjoying the way the nurse handled the guards. Not only did she remind him of the ferocity his mother had, but the way she spoke and changed her attitude depending upon the situation.

"You call that galloping?! Sir Glarin is going to need another lap around the orchard before he gives you something new!" Glarin looked at Nurse White as he nodded his head in agreement.

"When they finish this lap, that should be enough. We’ll have enough of these completed by then." Nurse White nodded her head with a large smile upon her face.

"I'm just glad to be of help Sir Glarin." Glarin just acknowledged her how he always did, with a simple nod and smile. For the past 2 days he had been tying the rocks they gathered together with the rope he had recently bought.

For the last 2 days the guards had been running around the entire apple orchard. It would take them 40 minutes to run a single lap, and they were promised water breaks every 4th lap. They had improved thier time slightly, it only took about 39 minutes to finish the laps now.

Every guard expected to have like a month off until Glarin had healed enough to not need help, Twilight made that impossible. Her excuse was that Glarin wouldn't stand for that, and that he would force the work upon himself.

Celestia and Luna thought Twilight was just being impatient at first, until they found out Glarin woke up an hour and a half after his 7 hour surgery. Something unheard of within the current Equestrian medical history.

Needless to say, After hearing of Glarins near death experience, Luna set up a time to visit him as soon as possible. He was after all, her very special some dwarf. Even though Luna thought it would just be a silly joke, Celestia suggested she just go along with it as long as possible.

This could of just been Celestia's way of getting back at Luna for the prank she pulled half a week ago. Putting a few drops of Glarins beard growth potion into Cesltistia’s Shampoo had far better results than she ever thought possible. Celestia looked like some kind of fluffy toy pony that had gone through a heated drying cycle. The way her body fur had fluffed up was entirely to hard too NOT laugh at.

Celestia had figured it out almost immediately who had planned such a good prank. But Celestia had Twilight upon her side, and therefore made it easy to set up pranks. As she had always heard as she was a child, two heads are better than one. The new prank she would pull upon her sister Luna would be flawless.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Glarin began eating another piece of chalk as he inspected the rough weighted vests they had just finished making. They had just finished tying rocks into all of the rope he had bought before being confined into a wheelchair. The guards themselves finished their 20th lap around the entire west side of the apple orchard before collapsing upon the dirt floor in front of Glarin and Nurse White. Glarin was the first to speak out loud before they could all catch their breath.

"Good job Gentle dwarves! You passed the basic endurance training portion. Now come over here and I will fit you with the custom weight suits I made for all of you today!" One of the guards perked up his hoof half way in protest.

"What do you mean weighted suits? Why do we need special uniforms for this?" Glarin looked at the pony with a combined look of disgust and support.

"For the simple fact that you arn't even close to being strong enough. For even the simplest of trainings I had set out, you are all too weak. With this new training you should all be perfectly fit for what is to come." All of the guards looked at each other before slowly nodding at each other again.

It would seem that they all had some kind of co-dependency upon each other. Something he would have to break within a few months. A warrior that depended upon other nearby warriors before jumping into action was a weak link. He wouldn't allow any weak links to be sent back to the Princesses and rulers of the world he now currently lived in.

But then he could also build upon that to a certain extent... All a matter of how it should be approached.

While Nurse White had been running them haggard around the farm. It gave him and his new helpers some time to make the proper preparations, having help was nice. One of the guards, a Unicorn, stood up before he spoke a little informally to Glarin.

"Glarin, we've been running around since you got out of the hospital two days ago. Are we going to be doing anything besides run?" Glarin chuckled at the officer pony along with everyone he was with.

"I'm Glad you asked! Now come here, let me see if this fits you.” the Unicorn walked over with a bit of a disappointed look on his face.

Glarin had Big Mac pick up the vest behind him and place it over the guards back. The guards legs bowed for a bit at the sudden increase in weight.

“Oh Celestia, how much does this thing weigh?” Glarin thought for a minute as Spike and Apple Bloom brought some more things of rope with rocks in them.

“It weighs as much as a bunch of rocks and rope, anyway, Spike and Apple Bloom here are gonna tie some more to your legs and neck. Make sure it fit’s snugly we don’t want them to rub you too much. Cause your gonna be wearing them for a long time.” The guards eyes Widened in shock

“What?! I’m gonna be wearing this all the time? What about when I need to sleep?!”

“Well you sleep with it on of course! Sheesh, and I thought Unicorns were supposed to be smart.” some of the other guards snickered in the back. “You only take it off once a week to bathe and that’s it. Wearing these for a few months should build all the muscle you need...” Glarin thought for a moment. “That reminds me, We need to go shopping for some extra food for you guys along with your own stock of chalk to strengthen your bones.”

“Wait, your gonna give us special food too?” the guards mouths began to water at the thought of eating good healthy food during training.

“Of course! I need to make sure you’re all strong and healthy. Twilight gave me a list of everything I need to ensure you all eat properly. I also got a bit of money to help with expenses. Now if you’ll excuse Nurse White and I, we’ll go shopping while Big Mac, Spike, and Apple Bloom suit you up.” The Guards happily waved Glarin and Nurse White off as they traveled to Ponyville.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Glarin was wheeling around the Bargain Mart when he finally found an employee.

“Excuse me! Miss!?” The pony turned around a bit confused. While Nurse White whispered down into Glarins ear.

“Actually that's a stallion...” Glarin grunted in frustration.

“Can I, help you sir?”

“Yes, I hope you can, I’m looking for...” Glarin pulled the list he had written after Twilight told him what was needed to build muscles, and began to read it out loud. “Protein, calcium, Phosphorus, Vit-a-min A, D, E, B12, Thia-mine, Rib-o-flavin, and Pant-o-the-ric Acid... You ponies eat some strange foods.” Nurse White Rolled her eyes while the Pony who had been stopped stood in utter confusion.

“He means to say, do you have any Athlete supplements and muscle building supplements?” The pony employee seemed to sigh in relief at that.

“Yes, right this way, the Pegasus Pony Bulk Biceps buys it all the time from us.” Glarin just grunted as he followed the employee with Nurse White trailing behind him.

When they arrived the pony waved his hoof at the vast selection of supplements they had available.

“If you don’t need anything else, I’ll be on my way.” Glain waved him off as he left and picked up the nearest supplement that happened to be in a bucket.

“Hrmm.. I still can’t read this chicken scratch, think you can help me Ms. White?” Nurse White chuckled as she looked at the bucket Glarin had picked up.

“Hrmmm, looks like it has everything that's needed, besides the Calcium.” Glarin set the bucket down and slapped his knee.

“Thats perfect! We can just buy those calcium carbonite sticks to make up the calcium deficiency!” Glarin began to fill up the cart with the various buckets of supplements before he began to wheel along looking for the chalk.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Back at the farm it was starting to get dark as Big Mac finished fitting the last guard with their weighted suit.

“So hows it feel?”

“Hmm, kind of loose around the withers...” Big Mac grabbed a small piece of rope sticking out and yanked on it. The vest tightened around the ponies withers.

“Better?” The guard moved around for a bit then smiled.

“Yeah that's much better.” As they all looked at each other, the unicorns were having the most trouble with the weighted vests while the earth ponies seemed to not really notice the extra weight. The pegasi had somewhat of a neutral look until one of them tried to fly.

“OH CELESTIA I CAN’T FLY WITH THIS VEST ON ME!” some of the other pegasi guards began to panic along with all the bat ponies as they struggled to get off the ground. As they were panicking Glarin and Nurse White were half way back to the farm when she could hear the pegasi panicking. Nurse White perked her ear's back and forth each with way for a bit before turning to Glarin.

“Sir Glarin, I can hear the pegasi complaining that they can’t fly with the vests on.” Glarin thought about this information for a minute then nodded his head.

“Alright, hurry on ahead and I’ll tell em how to fix that.” Nurse white nodded her head until she remembered all of the stuff they had bought.

“But, what about everything we bought? You can’t carry it all.” Glarin pulled out some more rope he had bought at the Bargain mart.

“Just tie this to the cart and to my wheel chair, I’ll pull it with me. I can do it, don’t worry.” Nurse white gave him a hard stare then finally nodded her head as she tied the rope to both the cart and his wheel chair.

“Alright, I’ll see you in a bit, don’t strain yourself.” Glarin just waved her off as he put his hands on the wheels and began to wheel himself over. Nurse White had taken to galloping over in order too calm the panicked stallions.

Glarin was taking his time as he thought of what to tell them. The fact the Pegasi couldn’t fly with the vests on could only mean one thing to Glarin.

They were as weak as goblins! That had to be fixed as soon as possible. Glarin wheeled himself over until he was visible to all of the ponies. The Pegasi and bat ponies slowly walked up to Glarin with desperate looks on their faces, hoping he had some kind of cure all answer.

“The answer is simple. Make your wings stronger until you can fly with the vests on.” All of the pegasi had looks of hopelessness on their faces while the earth ponies simply gave a smirk.

“Now that the nonsese is out of the way, its time to get you guys the food Twilight recommended for you.” All of the guards slowly walked up eager to see the new food Glarin got them. All of thier faces turned sour when they saw it was nothing but buckets of supplements.

“Lets see here...” Glarin looked at one of the buckets and it had picture instructions with words he couldn’t read. “According to the picture, we put 2 scoops into a cup, and you eat it from there...” Glarin looked the bucket over some more and shrugged as he opened it. “ How interesting, it’s a white powder, looks kind of like limestone.”

Glarin got some on his finger tip and shuddered at the taste. With one eye half closed he gave a thumbs up to the guards.

“Tastes good. Don’t forget to eat half a stick of this calcium carbonate as well. I’m gonna go inside and have some of that famous apple family dinner now.” As he wheeled himself away Nurse White stopped him.

“Glarin they are supposed to mix two scoops with water or milk. I’ve used this stuff before...” Glarin nodded his head as he waved them off.

“Get to it then, I’ve got Delicious apple pie to eat!” Glarin Quickly wheeled himself away as the guards looked to the buckets of supplements they were left with. One of unicorns brought his hooves to his face as he began to weep. Big Mac cleared his throat as he headed back to the house with Apple Bloom, Spike, and Nurse White so they could also enjoy some Apple Pie.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

All of the guards were huddled around a fire outside the barn. They had taken to sleeping inside the barn as it was close by and free. They couldn’t believe they weren't being provided with a proper place to sleep.

“Why don’t we get Apple Pie?” asked one of the guards as he choked down his liquid and chalk dinner.

“Its slave work I tell you. So far all we’ve done is run. And now we’re eating this slop that I wish was at least tasteless.”

“Well think of it this way guys, Princess Twilight told him what he needed to get to ensure we have proper health and diet, I’m sure this was all unexpected for him...”

“Didn’t he get any funds from the princesses in return for training us? What did he do with that money.”

“Probably sunk it into this nasty tasting supplement, I mean really, why did he grab the hay flavored ones. I know they have alfalfa and even chocolate ones.”

“Well, I’m sure we will have tomorrow pretty easy right? I mean we just got these vests, were probably just going to wear them as we go through the day. I don’t think we’ll be doing anything heavy until we get used to these vests.”

“I suppose your right. Wearing these vests is like learning how to fly again. I feel like a foal.” the Pegasi guard began flapping his wings in a failed effort to get off the ground.

“I know what you mean.” said one of the bat ponies as he also tried to fly.

“Well, lets get some sleep, hopefully tomorrow won’t be as bad.” The other guards all nodded in agreement as they choked down their ‘dinner’.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As the apply family and guests sat around the dinner table eating. Applejack decided to say something that had been bugging her for the last few days.

“Glarin do ya, Hate me?” Glarin began to cough as he started choking on the apple fritter he was eating. After he finished choking and swallowed it he gave Applejack a confused look.

“Why in the heck would you think I hated you?” Applejack timidly rubbed her hooves together

“Well on accounta what I did to ya a few days ago...” Glarin furrowed his brow in thought.

“You mean when ya hit me and sent me to the hospital? I don’t care about that lass. So don’t worry your pretty little head over it.”

“A-are ya sure?” Glarin nodded his head as he shoved another slice of apple pie into his mouth. Half way through chewing he spoke again

“I could never be mad at someone who makes food taste this good. Oh! Before I forget...” Glarin finished the slice before continuing. “... Did you ever take the bag of gems you wanted?”

“No I uh, kinda forgot.”

“Well make sure you do that tomorrow. I gotta head into the town and exchange some more as well. All those bits the princesses sent me were used up today.”

“You spent 5 thousand bits on supplements and chalk?!”

“Of course not! I bought a bunch of mining equipment and other things I’ll need to build my house. Most the money was sunk into overnight delivery for everything. I’ve got plenty of work lined up for them for the next month or so. I paid extra to have everything arrive super fast.” The Apples just looked at Glarin with wide eyes.

“You’re gonna have em build your new house?” Glarin pointed a finger at Nurse White as he finished eating.

“I may not be very smart to you ponies, but I’m smart enough to know free labor when I see it.” Nurse white shook her head

“You’re not gonna give them time to get used to thier new vests Glarin?” Glarin just scoffed as he set down the slice of Apple Cobbler.

“The best way for them to get used to em is to work with em on! Besides, with everything I’m giving them they should be grateful. All they gotta do is build a house with a basement. Twilight said I should also set up a time for them to visit the town Spa and receive massages for muscle stimulation or something...” Spike decided to speak up next.

“Um, Glarin, Arn’t you supposed to train me as well?” Glarin furrowed his brow then smacked his forehead.

“Damnit all, I forgot about that! I’ll make ya something with what I got left tomorrow Spike. In the meantime, enjoy your last easy day.” Glarin grinned at Spike while he pulled a piece of chalk from his pocket and ate it. Daring Spoke up as he saw him eat the chalk.

“Why do you eat chalk Sir Glarin? Does it taste good?”

“Not quite, but my bones have been breaking far to quickly as of late. I’ll need ta increase my calcium intake if I ever hope to fix it...” As Glarin finished eating the piece of chalk he looked around for a bit. “...Wheres that Rainbow one? I have't seen or heard from her in 3 days.” It was Stars turn to speak next.

“Mom went to Manehatten for a performance, she should be back Thursday.”

“Ah, so that's why she has multicolored hair, She’s a traveling clown...” Glarin continued to eat while the rest of the Apples jaws just dropped along with Spike.

Somewhere off in the distance, a rainbow maned pony sneezed.

How do you compliment a pony?

View Online

The guards were woken up at 5 am again by Big Mac opening the barn door to gather supplies he would need to start working on the farm today. The guards all slowly woke up and by the time Big Mac had gathered what he needed the guards were up and ready to start the day after breakfast. As they started mixing their ‘breakfast’ up, Big Mac told em what Glarin had told him to tell them.

“Sir Glarin said to meet him outside the farm. Just look for where he and Nurse White are, by the park I think.” The guards got a confused look on their faces as they mixed up their food.

“By the park?” asked one of the guards as he looked around a bit.

“Maybe we are having something like a free day at the park or something?”

“That would be nice, to relax at the park with these vests... I think its already giving me a rash or something.” the other guards nodded their heads in agreement. They all set out with enthusiasm after ‘eating’ their breakfast.

As the guards walked toward the park they were all buzzing with conversation topics about what they would do at the park today. Their ideas ranged from lounging about too looking for single mares. When they arrived at the park many of them began to worry as Glarin wasn’t visible anywhere.

“Is this the right park?”

“It’s the only park in Ponyville! How could it be the wrong one?!”

“Well, Big Mac did say it was NEAR the park, not in it...” The guards suddenly gulped

“Dear Celestia, don’t tell me he has something for us to do...” Just as a guard said that Nurse White had found them and made her presence known. Using her sweet and delicate voice she called out to them

“Hello boys and good morning!” All of the guards turned around with a bit of fear but calmed down when they saw she wasn’t in training mode.

“Morning Ms. White, Where’s Glarin at?”

“Oh, he’s at the building site! Why don’t you all head down that way and meet up with him.” All of the guards watched as Nurse White pointed her hoof toward the hill just off in the distance and look around a bit confused.

“Build site?”

“Yes, Glarin had the bright idea of having you build his house while you wear the vests. He said it should help you get used to the extra weight, while also building a place for him to live and place for you to train as well.”

“Whoa wait a minute. Were building his house so we have a place to train and him to live?”

“Basicly yeah. Now get over there and do what he says. I’m on my way back to the Apple Farm too make sure Applejack takes the gem bag she wanted. Glarin put me in charge of a few other things while he supervises the work site.” With a silent grunt the guards headed over the hill she had pointed at.

When they arrived at the top they could see numerous amounts of building materials and tools, but no heavy machinery was visible. As they all silently moved down to the site they walked up behind Glarin who was in front of a table writing something out.

“Sir Glarin, we are here as requested...” Glarin turned around with a grin on his face.

“Aha! Excellent, grab a shovel and get to digging out the area I have mapped out over there! The rope barrier makes it simple. But for depth it needs to be around 18 feet down. Pile all of the soil in one area, were gonna use it with that brick making contraption I got. The Bargain Mart seems to carry everything, and what they don’t have in store you can always order. Such a fine establishment it is.”

“Dirt into brick? Won’t it melt when it rains though?”

“Hmmm, We’ll just mix it with some of the iron shot cement I bought, that should fix it.”

“Iron shot cement?”

“You know, the kind of cement you use when you build a war bunker. The Bargain Mart had some, seems to be popular among the ponies in the south. The brick making ma-jigger hasn’t arrived yet, so just get to piling up all the dirt you guys dig up someplace nearby.”

“Seriously? Your seriously going to have us dig while wearing these vests?”

“Yeah I am, is that going to be a problem? All dwarves work in the mines or doing manual labor before they move on to decide a career choice. Since you aren’t true dwarves, we’re doing this a bit reversed until I think you’ll survive basic training. Besides, This also gives you guys a place to actually start strength training.”

“How long are we going to be wearing these vests exactly?”

“Until you forget you’re even wearing it. Just remember, this isn’t a race, so pace your selves. Now get to work! All of you!” The guards grumbled as they walked over to pick up the shovels and pick axes. Glarin continued to scribble stuff down on the paper as they worked.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Applejack was walking into town with a single cloth sack on her back. It was the gem bag she had picked out after Nurse White reminded her.

“Judgeing by how much Glarin got for those 4 bags he converted already, I should get around... 87 bits for this bag. More or less depending on the overall quality of em.” Applejack sighed

“That will barely cover the costs of those broken barrels if I buy em in bulk again. Ah sure am glad Twilight decided to hoof that medical bill.” Applejack just kept her pace as she traveled to the Ponyville jewelers and pushed the door open with the door chime jingling. The pony behind the counter readjusted his glasses as he watched her approach the counter.

“Good morning Applejack. Am I to assume you’re going to exchange more gems you found while working the farm?” Applejack just shook her head and put the sack up on the counter.

“Actually, this bag was gifted to me by Sir Glarin, just came ta exchange em.”

“Ah, that Dwarf? Shame all of the gems he brought me a few days ago were all of poor quality and of the common garden variety. Come, lets take a look at what he has given you.” The unicorn behind the counter levitated the bag up and began to bring all of the gems out of the sack and arrange them on the counter based on color, size, etc. etc.

It wasn’t until he pulled out a gem that looked like a red tear drop did he stop and bring that gem closer for him to inspect.

“My word... can it be?” He brought out his little Loupe and twisted the gem around holding it in the light. “Applejack, I don’t think there’s enough bits in all of Ponyville to buy this off of you.”

“What do ya mean?”

“This! This gem is a Red Diamond! There’s only 12 known red diamond gems in all of Equestria, and 5 of those have flaws! But your’s is absolutely flawless! Sir Glarin was either extremely generous giving this to you, or he had no idea what he was giving you. The last red diamond was a tiny flawed thing found by 3 little fillies.” The unicorn levitated the red diamond back into the sack as he brought out the last few gems. Two of which caused his jaw to drop as he looked at them as well. Using his Loupe he looked at both of them in the light.

“I’ll be able to buy these 2 gems off you, I’ll have to empty my saving but I can buy them.”

“You don’t need to go an do that, but uh, what are those exactly?”

“This reddish triangle one? It’s a Red Beryl Emerald. This carat size is worth about 2 thousand bits. And this smaller purplish one? It’s a Blue Garnet. This carat size is worth about 3 thousand bits.”

“Whoa there Partner, theres no reason to empty your bank on me with that kind of coin. How about you just buy that red emerald and the other gems from me, and I’ll keep that red diamond with the blue one.”

“You got yourself a deal Applejack. Id would suggest heading to Canterlot with the other two gems. Look for the biggest and fanciest jeweler you can find. They will be the only ones capable of buying it from you. In fact I bet only one of the princesses themselves would be able to buy that red diamond from you.”

Applejack was absolutely giddy on the inside. With all of those bits they wouldn’t even need to make and sell Cider this winter. And by the sounds of that red diamond. They would be able to live in luxury for the rest of their days if she sold it to the right party.

The jeweler went to the back and returned a short time later with a sack filled with bits. He placed it up on the counter with a grunt. After which he levitated the gems he bought to the back leaving Applejack with her 2 very expensive and rare gems.

“Good to do business with you Applejack.” He gave off a pleasant smile as Applejack loaded the bits onto her back and despite the weight, had a jolly prance to her step as she headed back to the farm.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Spike was in the library reading a book about medieval knights. When Twilight came down the stairs and paused to look at him.

“Spike, aren’t you heading down to the Applejack's so Glarin can get you started on training? I thought you said he was gonna start it today.”

“Well, I figured I’d go after lunch, it’s still pretty early actually and that’s about the time I normally went anyway.”

“If you say so Spike. Did you already eat breakfast?”

“No, I was gonna eat when you got up. You mind making breakfast for two?”

“Not at all Spike...” There was a sudden knock upon the door and Spike set his book down as he went to answer it, unsure of who it could be so early. He opened it to find Nurse White, but no Glarin.

“Good Morning Ms. White, what are you doing here?”

“Good thing I found you, Glarin sent me out to go fetch you if you weren’t already at the apple orchard. You best hurry, because if you’re late he's gonna to make you run.”

“Around the orchard? I’m sure I could do a few of those no problem, I’ll just head over after I eat breakfast.” Rose White sighed.

“If you say so Spike, Glarin is over a hill near the park. He has the others getting to work in building his house and everything right now.”

“Really? Hes putting them to work without giving them a time to adjust to the vests?” asked Twilight as she poked her head out from the kitchen

“He says the work will allow them to adjust faster. Now If you’ll excuse me I have one more errand to run before I can return.” Spike waved Nurse White off and closed the door. As he closed it he belched up some green flame and a letter with it.

“Looks like you got a letter Twilight.” Spike handed Twilight the letter as she handed him a bowl of cereal with some gems mixed in.

“Hurry and eat, you don’t want to be late!” Spike scoffed.

“Even if I am late, it doesn’t matter.” Twilight just shook her head in disappointment.

“I thought I raised you better than that Spike.” Said Twilight as she opened the letter and quickly read through it.

“Oh, Princess Luna is going to make a visit to Ponyville later today to meet with Glarin...” Spike raised an eyebrow.

“Luna sent you a letter to tell you she was coming?”

“Actually Celestia sent the letter...Spike hurry up and eat.” Spike got a bad feeling as Twilight continued to read the letter over. So he shoveled the rest of his breakfast into his mouth and got ready to leave.

As he left and closed the door to the library he saw a bright yellow flash from the window as he left toward the park. When he arrived he looked around for a bit and saw a nearby hill and went toward it. From the top he could see where Glarin and all of the guards were situated. It really did look like a construction site.

As Spike got closer to it Glarin waved him over. When Spike was within shouting distance Glarin greeted him.

“Hey Spike! Glad you could finally join us!”

“Well I would have come later, but Nurse White came by and told me to come here.”

“Oh she did?” Glarin turned his head and yelled. “Oye! Rose! When did you tell Spike to get here?!” Rose White came out from behind a large pile of cement bags.

“I went straight to the library after telling Applejack about the gems, so like an hour and a half ago I think.”

“Well lets just say it takes 30 minutes to walk here. So then, why are you an hour late Spike?” Spike was dumb founded.

“Well I uh...”

“As punishment for being late, I want you to carry one of those cement bags and run around Ponyville with it.”

“Wha!? Why?!”

“Because you’re late. Now get to it. When ya get back we can start.”

“Sir Glarin, you do know those bags of heavy duty cement you bought weigh 250 pounds each, right?”

“Is that all? Better take a second bag Spike, one for each arm.” All of the nearby guards stopped working and looked between Glarin and Spike with wide eyes.

Glarin was expecting him to jog around the town carrying 500 pounds? And if he didn’t do it he wouldn’t train him? What kind of harsh treatment awaited them once they got used to these weighted vests?

The guards watched Spike walk over and try to pick up one of the bags. After a bit of work he was able to get one. But holding it with one arm seemed like it would be impossible for him. With obvious strain in his voice Spike relayed his trouble.

“Glarin, I don’t, think I can, carry another one...” Glarin put his hand to his beard in thought for a moment.

“I could have sworn you were strong enough... No Matter. Just give me two laps around Ponyville then.” Spike began to jog away while grumbling to himself.

“Nurse White!” shouted Glarin as he watched Spike slowly jog away.

“Yes Sir Glarin?” Glarin pointed over at Spike as he handed Nurse White a small riding crop.

“Follow Spike and make sure he keeps a steady pace.” White gave a grin with a salute as she ran off to catch up to Spike. After a short while everyone could hear her yelling at Spike to start running again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Luna was on her way to Ponyville in her personal open air chariot, with her new advisor that Celestia had appointed for her just yesterday. Luna thought nothing strange of it as Celestia herself also received a new advisor. Luna had dressed up to meet Glarin, as her advisor had suggested it. She even brought out some neat little accessaries for her to use.

“I still think my normal attire would have been just fine Cocoa.”

“Nonsense Princess! You must always look your best for your special somepo-dwarf.” Luna sighed.

“I knew I shouldn’t of let Celestia talk to the press and send that letter without me. And how many times must I tell you, we are not together. It was just a joke my sister told to get back at me for eating the last piece of cake... But it was totally worth it.” Luna just giggled as she remembered the look on Celestia face as she ate the last slice of angel food cake with blueberries and cherries in it.

The look of horror on Celestia’s face as she watched Luna slowly eat the last slice was priceless. Not to mention the tear that ran down her cheek as Luna took the last bite.

The rest of the trip was spent with Cocoa giving romance tips, causing Luna to groan.

“For the last time Cocoa, we are not romantically involved, it was all a joke by...” Luna was interrupted by the guards pulling the chariot, announcing that they had arrived. Luna just rolled her eyes at them, because telling her in an open air chariot that they had arrived was entirely unnecessary. Regardless, she nodded in thanks as she stepped off her chariot and into the town square.

Many of the nearby ponies and griffins bowed at her arrival and awaited what ever announcement she had to make.

“Please, go on with your day, I am simply here to meet Sir Glarin.” Some of the mares could be heard squealing in excitement with murmurs going around in the small crowd.

“Sir Glarin is near the Ponyville park Princess. Hes got all of the guards building something from the looks of it.” Luna nodded her head and began to briskly walk toward the Ponyville park. As she was walking a light green mare approached her.

“Luna, are you here to go on a date with Sir Glarin?”

“Wha- No. I am simply here to see how his recovery is doing, and by the sounds of it, its going just fine...” It would seem dwarves are made of some sturdy stuff, she wondered if it would have anything to do with him being a ‘child of the stone’ as he said it.

As she traveled to the Ponyville park she was also followed by a mob of ponies and griffins alike. Pegasi and griffins took to the sky’s to watch from clouds while the unicorns and earth ponies took to hiding behind bushes and around corners.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Meanwhile Celestia and Twilight were plotting what kind of prank they would pull on Luna.

“...no we can’t do that Celestia, what if she gets hurt?”

“She ate my last piece of cake! That smug look on her face was so...! Ohh! You don’t understand Twilight. The groans and moans she made as she ate it in front of me, it was all on purpose I tell you!”

“But still, won’t a spell like that hurt her?”

“Oh fine, we’ll just scare her then, I’ll transform you into a monster, then you run out and scare her a bit, the spell will wear off in a few minutes after I cast it.”

“But wont I get hurt then when she attacks me?!”

“Pish posh Twilight, she’s wearing that magic nullifying jewelry I had made for her. The jewelry in itself is a good prank, but I want to see her scared face. I want to see fear on her cake stealing smug face!”

“But what about Sir Glarin, won’t they be together?”

“What about him? You think he would attack you, even whilst injured?”

“Of course he would! This seems really dangerous for me!”

“Then just speak to him, the spell only changes your form, you will still be able to speak and use your magic.” Twilight thought about it for a moment. On one hand scaring Princess Luna seemed like a fun prank. It wouldn’t be the 1st prank she had helped Celestia do. But this one proved to be slightly dangerous... For her. But on the other hand, she would still be able to speak and use her magic even while transformed. So if things did go badly she could just talk or magic her way out of it...

“I’ll do it. Just make sure you keep an eye out so nothing bad happens to me!”

“Of course Twilight!” Princess Celestia walked up to Twilight and nuzzled her. “Scare her horseshoes off for me.” Twilight just gave a nod

“Alright, lets go hide in the forest near Glarin’s 'house', when Luna wanders off by herself alone near the woods, that’s when you pounce.” Twilight just kept nodding her head while Celestia’s horn glowed, they both disappeared in a flash and appeared in the Everfree Forest nearby where Glarin had set up the build site.

Everything was visible from their location. They weren't by any means deep in the forest, simply hiding in the tree line. They could see Glarin scribbling some stuff down while seated in his wheelchair at a table. Twilight audibly gulped when she saw that his axes were also on the table. She could also see the 30 guards all diggings not to far from Glarin’s location. They seemed to be working at a relaxed pace, many of them would stop work and relax in the shade for a bit and/or get a drink of water.

“Alright Twilight, I’m going to cast the spell on you so you can get used to it before Luna shows up.” Twilight nodded her head and removed her crown and other things she wouldn’t need or didn’t want to risk damaging. As Twilight backed up Celestias horn glowed for a brief time before a small stream of magic hit her, and she was enveloped in a large poof of smoke.

“Did it work?” as the smoke dissipated Twilight opened her eyes and looked around. She looked down to her hooves, they had turned into claws. She noticed her fur had disappeared, and she was a light grey color. Her front hooves had been replaced with thick powerful looking claws and her back hooves looked like feet claws. Whatever the proper term was. She was also considerably larger.

“Yes it did, quite well actually, this spell transforms you into a Grey Render for 5 minutes, now you will have to practice walking on the two legs as that is how it walks, but we should have plenty of time before she wanders closer to the forest. Now, try standing.” Twilight nodded her huge transformed head and stood up. After a few minutes she had gotten the hang of standing, albit she was hunched over as it gave her better balance. Even hunched over, she noticed that the trees were low enough to block her sight. Standing up she brought her new claws up for inspection.

“Celestia, I’ve never heard of a Grey Render before. Is this some made up Monster?”

“Well sort of. They tend to stick to Marshes in the Zebra lands. Luna had a bad encounter with one during a vacation we had with mother and father so long ago. She had bad dreams about them for awhile.”

“Your going to bring up old memories of fear?”

“Playing a fear prank based upon what they fear most is always the best option. Besides, you would agree with me if you saw that look she had on her face when she ate my last slice of cake! Oh, and the hair grow in the shampoo as well, gotta get her back for that. Now keep practicing, you have to be scary when the time comes, why don’t you practice a growl.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The guards working suddenly heard what sounded like low growls in the distance. Many of them stopped and looked to the forest edge but could see nothing. After a bit they got back to work only to hear it again a few minutes later. The guards stopped digging and went to approach Glarin.

“S-Sir Glarin, may we have a word with you?” Glarin looked up from whatever it was he had been working on all morning.

“Yes? What is it?”

“Well, while digging, we thought we heard some creature growling, we dismissed it at first, but it seems to happen again every few minutes.”Glarin stroked a hand through his massive beard in thought for a moment.

“Well, I would say lets go monster hunting, but by the sounds of it, you’re all scared. In that case just get back to digging and don’t let it bother you, if whatever it is comes out of the forest. I’ll handle it with my trusty and loveable axes.”

“B-but you’re injured.” stuttered one of the guards as he peered over to the tree line.

“Oh? Well it sounds like you better step up and do something so I won’t have to if and when the time comes.” The guards audibly gulped at the thought of fighting what ever beast that was making the growling noise. And the thought of them going monster hunting in the Everfree Forest was something they did not want to do. So they all headed back to the dig site and got to work.

Moments later Luna arrived at the dig site. Glarin who was still heavily involved with scribbling more stuff down onto that piece of paper, didn’t even notice when she stood right behind him. Luna didn’t want to disturb him, so she peered over his shoulder to see what he was working on.

Luna formed her mouth into a little ‘o’ as she looked at his artwork. For being a deadly warrior, his artistic skills seemed to be top notch. It looked like he was designing armor for the ponies. She couldn’t read the strange looking runes he had labeled some of the things with, but it was clearly well detailed. She decided to speak up as she couldn't contain herself anymore.

“Are you designing armor for our little ponies?” Glarin’s eyes shot wide in surprise at her voice and spun his head around to look at her. She looked... Different.

'Oh gods, she got dressed up all pretty to see me didn't she?' thought Glarin as he looked at the jewels that he had never seen before adorning Luna.

“H-Hello Luna. I didn’t know you were coming! I would have prepared something o-or...” Luna chuckled at Glarin’s panic and flustered speak. “... at least got someplace for you to sit in the shade.”

“Did Spike not inform you of my arrival? My sister Celestia told me she had sent a letter to Twilight to expect my arrival...” Glarin thought for a minute.

“Well, I haven’t seen Princess Twilight all day, and Spike...” Glarin just hmmed in thought for a moment “...Spike was late for today's training, so he's running around Ponyville carrying a bag of cement, probably why he didn’t tell me. I’m hoping he’ll be back soon. I don’t think it takes more than 3 hours to run around Ponyville twice.” Luna raised an eyebrow at that.

“You think he failed to mention my arrival out of spite?”

“Bah, doesn’t matter to me, just uh...” Glarin cleared his throat. “... excuse me for a second Princess.” Glarin wheeled himself closer to the dig site and began yelling.

“OYE! Get yer Lazy arses up here and make sure our guest Princess Luna is comfortable!” The night guards immediately dropped what they were doing and scrabbled out of the decent hole they had been able to make so far, and rushed to aid Princess Luna. The day guards took a bit longer to get into gear but did as they were told.

Much to Luna’s surprise the guards had quickly arranged a place for her to sit and in the shade. One of the pegasi flew into town to buy a large picnic umbrella for her. After Luna was seated and in the shade the guards all bowed.

“Do you require anything else Princess?”

“Actualy no this...” Glarin interrupted Luna before she could finish.

“Of course she requires more! Go fetch some cold water for her to sip at her leisure! And Snacks!” a few of the guards scrambled off to fetch the cold water and snacks. While Glarin just crossed his arms and huffed.

“Useless bunch they are. But I’ll have em whipped into shape no problem.” Luna’s eyes widened in a bit of worry.

“You aren’t actually going to whip them, are you?” Glarin stroked his beard.

“Well, I’d need a whip first...hmm...” Luna gulped as she worried for her guards.

“Well, tell me about the armor you were designing.”

“Oh, well after I had a good look at what the guards are issued as armor I decided to fashion them a new set they can wear when this training is over. I don’t mean to be rude Luna but, the armor they normally wear wouldn’t even protect them from a heavy sneeze.” Luna chuckled.

“Yes I must admit, the armor they get is rather flimsy, its made merely for show I admit.” Glarin hummed.

“Well yes that would explain a lot actually. Anyway, the one you saw me working on is going to be for the earth ponies. I called it Juggernaut MK1. I just need to figure out how you ponies work exactly. I’ve seen those front hooves move in ways that simply aren’t possible. Unless you have like 6 joints that bend in every direction.”

“Well, there’s actually seven, but yes. We had evolved to make great use of our forehooves.”

“Boulderdash, that makes my job a lot harder then.” Luna chuckled as Glarin looked up to the sky in thought.

“Yes well, that is part of the reason why our guards only wear breastplates. Too many joints in the legs for our smiths.” Glarin chuckled back at Luna.

“You might be forgetting something Luna. I’m a dwarf, just give me some time, and I’ll make something workable and strong.” Luna mused on that thought as the guards returned with a pitcher of cold water, a few glasses, and a large platter filled with all sorts of different snacks. Ranging from small cupcakes to cheese and fruit, pre sliced mind you.

As one of her night guards placed the platter next to Luna on the nearby table, something they also brought, she noticed something different about her night guard.

“Why Prowl, your foreleg looks so, so muscular. Its only been what, a week?” The night guard blushed at the compliment from his Princess as he looked at his foreleg.

“I-I suppose it is. I hadn’t noticed...” at that mention the other guards all looked themselves over and noticed they too seemed to be more cut and had lost a bit of their bellies.

“If you think that’s impressive, come see them again in 2-3 months when they will no longer need the vests.” The guards all looked between each other and smiled at the thought of becoming some kind of muscle head behemoth.

“Alright you lot, breaks over, get back to work.” some of the guards grumbled as they went back to work while others just looked at their forelegs while traveling back to start digging again. Glarin just sat quietly with Luna under the shade of the umbrella.

Things seemed to quickly become awkward as the silence continued. Lunas new advisor tip toed her way over to Glarin and whispered into his ear.

“Compliment her you oaf!” Glarin’s eyes went wide at that suggestion, as if it had never occured to him.

“You’re looking rather magnificent today Luna.” Luna turned and smiled at him having hardly ever been complimented before, she tried fishing for more.

“Oh? And what’s so magnificent about me, hmm?” Luna was giving Glarin a bit of a sultry look, which caused him to sweat a bit

“Oh well uh...” Glarin began panic a bit, he's never really had to compliment a female while sober before. He wished he had a couple stiff drinks on hand. Luna kept peering in closer waiting for his answer.

“Y-your hips for instance...” Luna raised an eyebrow.

“My, hips?” Feeling that he was on the right path, he continued.

“Yes your hips are so voluminous. It makes your cutie mark show even better.” Luna pulled her head back and peered at her behind. Sure she had been eating a bit more cake as of late, but she didn’t think it was that bad... Glarin had failed to realize that what he was saying really wasn’t a compliment to Luna.

“My hips aren’t that big, are they?” Missing his cue to fix this, he spoke without missing the beat.

“Oh but they are Luna! Such stout birthing hips! I have yet to see a pony with hips that are as um, corpulent.” Luna’s advisor face hoofed at Glarin’s stupidity. Luna simply stopped eating the snacks and stood up from her chair.

“I, I think I shall take a short walk... excuse me.” Glarin also failed to realize the tone of her voice was down trodden as he watched her walk off. When she was out of earshot Glarin spoke up to the advisor.

“I think that went rather well...” the advisor smacked Glarin on the side of the head.

“What was that for?!”

“You idjit! You just called Princess Luna fat! Now she’s depressed!” Glarin got a look of anger on his face

“I didn’t call her fat! I just said she had amazing hips using fancy words!” A griffin along with a pegasi flew down.

“We heard everything dude, do you even know what corpulent means?”

“I heard it from a human! He used it to describe his loving wife!” the griffin began to laugh before he gave his 2 cents on the conversation

“Apparently he didn’t love her much then, corpulent basically means grossly fat.” Glarin pounded his fist on the table next to him.

“Dammit! What do I do now?”

“Well, she didn’t seem mad at you, that’s a good thing. So if you could maybe explain that you didn’t know what you were saying. Also, include that you’re an idjit, chicks and mares always love it when you admit that. She might forgive you.” Glarin just grumbled

“I thought that whole news of us being a thing was a joke, but when I saw her wearing all those fancy jewels that I haven’t seen her wear before... I think this is serious.” Glarin watched as she neared the treeline and sighed.

“Well, guess I better get over there and fix this mess I made... wait a minute.” The griffin and pegasi turned to look at him.

“What is it? Did you think of something?” they were looking at Luna, she seemed to have stopped and was looking at something.

“I just remembered, those green horn guards told me they could hear some creature growling from the tree line earlier...” the griffin and pegasi opened their eyes wide as they looked over to Princess Luna with slight worry.

“We need too...” Glarin’s sentence was cut off when a massive grey monster burst forth from the trees and roared at Luna. She quickly backed up as her horn began to glow, only to have it visibly fizzle out.

“Glarin we gotta...!” The griffin turned back around to look at Glarin, but his wheelchair was empty and his axes no longer on the table.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“I’m not that fat am I?” Luna stopped walking and looked at her rear. She had to admit, she did get a LITTLE bigger. But she didn’t think it was that bad. Maybe she should start dieting again and stop eating all of Celestia’s left over cake. As she sighed she heard a low growl come from the Everfree forest.

Luna lowered her stance a bit as she searched the treeline for the source of the growl. When she couldn't find it, she spoke to the treeline with a commanding voice.

“Show thyself beast, or begone!” as if on cue a huge grey beast with razor sharp claws and even sharper teeth burst forth from the treeline roaring at her.

It was a Grey Render. Just as huge and scary as it was when she was a filly.

She jumped back reflexively and began to channel magic into her horn, only to have it fail with large sparks falling from her horn.

Luna’s eyes widened in terror as she looked up to the beast, it seemed to smile at her. As if the beast had realized she would be a simple meal. Luna wanted to run, her mind screamed run, but like a deer caught in headlights, she just stood frozen in fear and confusion as to why her magic wasn’t working.

As she stared into the grey renders 6 yellow eyes, she lost control of her bladder as a tear began to form in her eyes. The grey Render saw this and looked... sad? Suddenly from behind her she could hear a rough voice yelling her name and getting louder.

“LLUUNAA!!” She turned her head to see Glarin sprinting in her direction, axes in hand and turned to look at the Grey render again. This time it looked... scared? Glarin leaped into the air over Luna’s head and landed in front of her, axes at the ready.

“Don’t Touch MY LUNA!” Luna promptly blushed while the Grey Render started to back up.

Rage activated... Fury engaged

Glarin inhaled a breath so deep the bandages on his chest ripped reveling the numerous scars on his chest and back, from the surgery or past battles was unknown. But what they did know, was that Glarin had began to emit a fearsome aura that everyone in the vicinity could feel.

His aura was so strong that it seemed to form a ferocious beast above his head. When Glarin roared, so did his aura.

The Grey render promptly lost control of both its bladder and bowels and fled back into the Everfree stumbling over its own feet.

Celestia quickly rushed over to Twilight, disguised as the Grey Render, and stood between Glarin and her.

“This prank seems to have gotten out of hoof. I convinced Twilight to change into the grey render to scare you Luna. I... I didn’t think it would turn out like this...” Celestia turned around to see Twilight cowering behind her, still in the Grey Renders form. Then turned to look at Glarin.

“I honestly didn’t expect this to happen Glarin, I had thought you would of sent all of those guards to aid Luna, not to come running out by your self...” Celestia looked at Glarin, his face was in a look of pure fury. The veins all over his body were bulging and pulsing.

“Prank?” Said Glarin in a harsh raspy voice. Luna stood up, trying to forget the fact she had just wet herself.

“This was all an elaborate prank Celestia? Was this to get back at me for the shampoo thing?” Luna glared at Celestia.

“Yes, and for my cake...” Luna sighed and looked at her behind.

“I don’t think I will be eating any more of your cake for awhile... But this got way out of hoof!”

“Yes well, the original plan was to have Twilight jump out at you, roar, then explain it was all a prank. Glarin’s interference kind of prevented Twilight from explaining in time...” Luna smirked.

“Well while I do feel bad for Twilight, something intrigues me...” Luna turned to look at Glarin who still had the look of fury upon his face as he breathed heavily. “Did you say I was, Your Luna?” With a raspy voice Glarin replied back.

“Maybe...” Glarin turned and inhaled, only to release a blood curdling roar into the air. His aura was quickly dissipating. As the tension in the air died, Twilight stopped cowering and began to look around. After a few more minutes, the transformation spell on Twilight ended and she returned to normal. At which Glarin scoffed.

“Bloody Magic...” Luna sighed and shook her head.

“One thing I don’t understand though, is why did my magic not work?” Celestia giggled a bit.

“Those jewels you’re wearing for your ‘date’ nullify magic Lulu. I had them special prepared. Just in case. So the risk of you harming Twilight during our prank would be extremely low.” Luna glared at Celestia with a blush on her face as Glarin walked over to Twilight and put a hand on her withers. She jumped a bit but calmed back down when she saw he no longer had his axes.

“Are you ok Twilight? Sorry bout the whole tried to kill you thing.” Twilight quickly cleared her throat and stood up.

“I-it’s ok, y-you didn’t know! But are you ok? You sprinted and jumped over Luna to get here!” Glarin thought for a minute and took a few deep breathes as he felt around his rib cage. After a bit he took both hands and grunted as he pushed a rib back into place.

“Yeah I’m fine.” Twilight's jaw just dropped in horror as he looked around, until he saw Celestia backside and hmmed to himself in thought. Twilight followed Glarin's eyes and realized he was staring at Celestia’s butt. So she whispered to him.

“Glarin don’t stare!” Glarin didn’t seem to hear her or not care, as he stared a hole into Celestia’s butt.

“Luna, I seem to have made a mistake, when I said your hips were the biggest I had ever seen, well. Looks like Celestia wins, by at least 4 inches on each side... She also doesn’t seem as firm...hmm.” Luna began to laugh while Celestia just blushed as she turned to prevent Glarin from staring anymore.

“Perhaps I should lay off the cake as well...”

Author's Notes:

source of the image comes from this fantastic Manga I found a while ago. Page 11 if you are interested. No words and its a one-shot, so its short. :)
Little Red Riding Hood and the Kind Wolf
That image's copyright goes to that author and what not, I don't own it yada yada.

Took me a bit to write this one, couldn't decide what kind of prank they would play on Luna, after making a list and rolling some dice, I ended up with a fear prank. Things got out of hoof as I wrote though. I ended up cutting out the short fight scene I had wanted to implement. How's he supposed to recover if he's always getting trashed? lol

I'll just implement something bigger later on.

Also, I might start implementing images as I see fit. Also, this is a Grey Render, saved some people a google search :p

Goat vs Princess

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All hell broke loose after what happened to Luna at the build site. Griffins and Pegasi came down from the sky in droves while Unicorns and Earth Ponies seemed to swarm out of the wood work. The first one to speak was a griffin that had a scar over his right eye.

“What in the hell is going on here? First it looks like the dates going well, then Luna leaves to walk over here, only to be attacked by some vicious beast that erupts from the tree line!” Next was a light blue mare.

“Yeah! What was that?! Why did you show up after the monster fled into the Everfree? And right after Sir Glarin valiantly came to her rescue?!”

“Where did that monster go?! We have to hunt it down!”

“I wanna know what that thing in the sky was! That thing was so scary it made the monster pee itself before running!”

The ponies and griffins all started to speak at once, most of their questions directed at Celestia. None of them seemed happy though. Many of them scared or concerned. Celestia hadn’t thought most of Ponyville was watching to see how her sisters ‘date’ went. The aftermath of her little prank was starting to get out of hoof.

“No! The monster turned into Princess Twilight Sparkle!”

“I-I... well you see my little ponies...” as Celestia tried to speak, the mob wasn’t hushing and her words were falling onto deaf ears. Celestia bit her lip as she tried to calm the crowd.

“No way! Why would Princess Twilight scare Luna that bad?! I thought she was a nice Princess!”

“OYE! SHUT YER TRAPS!” Everyone was silenced as Glarin’s yell was easily audible over the mob’s shouts and accusations.

“How about we move away from the bloody treeline! Afterwards, Celestia can tell us all why she thought this was a good idea. I would love to hear it...” At that, Glarin stomped off toward the Ponyville Park. Many of the crowd turned and looked at Celestia, only a single griffin voiced the crowds one major question.

“What did you do?” The stares she was getting from her little ponies and the griffins, suddenly made her realize the severity of her mistake. No matter how upset she was about Luna eating her cake, she should not have brought up old nightmares for Luna.

“I’ll explain everything, but for now, let us follow Sir Glarin to where he thinks its safe.” The crowd all looked to each other before following after Celestia. Twilight made up the rear of the group as Rarity pulled up next to her.

“Twilight Darling, Are you alright? That crowd was shouting something about the monster turning into you!” Twilight sighed.

“Yes I’m fine, Celestia will explain. I hope...” Rarity looked down to the ground as they walked.

“What was that big beast that appeared above Sir Glarin and Princess Luna?” Twilight looked over to Rarity, eyes wide open

“You saw it too?!”

“Well, who wouldn’t see it Darling, it was dreadfully terrifying.”

“I-I’m not sure... It looked like it came from Glarin. It was s-scary, I’ve never felt something like that before.”

“Oh I can’t even imagine what it was like having it directed at you darling. I mean, it scared you enough to make you... well you know.” Twilight groaned in agony.

“Don’t remind me, I just hope everyone will forget that...”

Twilight was being comforted by Rarity as they arrived near the fountain in the park. Everyone was circling around Princess Celestia waiting for an answer. Glarin was near Luna while giving Celestia a glare. Luna herself was just sitting down twisting a hoof in the dirt.

“Well? What do you have to say for yourself?” asked Glarin with his arms crossed. It seemed his overall fear of her being royalty was forgotten. With a sigh Celestia began to explain herself.

“This was just supposed to be a simple scare prank with Twilight disguised as the monster. It was to get back at Luna for eating my cake and putting hair growth into my shampoo. But it seemed we went too far in scaring my dear little sister...” the crowd of ponies and griffins once again started to become an angry mob

“Too far!? You scared the piss outta her! Literally!” shouted a mare from the back.

“And you ruined her date!”

“How could you Princess Twilight!” Now it seemed Twilight was in the hot seat. Many in the crowd turned to face her with accusing glares. Only to be silenced by Celestia

“Twilight is not to blame! She tried to talk me out of it...” Suddenly a voice was heard overhead. Everyone who lived in Ponyville knew that chaotically playful tone.

“Why are you leaving the best part out oh great and powerful Princess Celestia? Are you afraid of being judged even more by your little ponies?” Everyone looked up to see Discord floating up in the sky in a relaxed pose. But his words brought up another question.

“What is he talking about?” voiced many in the crowd.

“Well I-I...” Celestia’s voice cut short causing Discord to let out a joyful chuckle.

“Oh come now Celestia, Surely they need to know. Tell them! Tell them how you used a monster from Luna’s past that almost gobbled her up!” Discord brought his eagle claw up to his mouth “Oops, I just spoiled it didn’t I?” As Discord began to laugh, a rock hit him in the head.

“Hold your tongue beast, lest I hold it for you with my axe...” Discord rubbed the side of his head as he looked at the dwarf with a hint of amusement “...Is that true Celestia? Does the mismatched beast speak the truth?” Celestia hung her head.

“Yes, its true.” The crowd gasped and looked to Luna who was still sitting down in the dirt.

“And Twilight was just forced to go along with you then? Even after she said it wasn’t a good idea?”

“Yes, I was blinded by anger during my decision making, I acted extremely foalish in this regard.” Celestia hung her head as she spoke.

“Well I guess the question that remains is, what your punishment will be.” Celestia stuttered at Glarin's words.

“P-Punishment? You can’t be serious, I mean...” Glarin interrupted her.

“Endangerment to other royalty that would of been indirectly caused by me or others that interfered. Then there’s causing Princess Luna and Princess Twilight too lose face in front of the town and causing emotional trauma to a Princess of the kingdom. These three offenses within themself are worth about 23 hammering’s, but since you yourself are also royalty, it would be reduced to 12 hammering’s. Give or take a few, I’m not the Hold’s or um, towns official hammerer.” Everyone looked at each other confused as to what a hammering and a Hammerer was. Twilight decided to ask Glarin.

“Glarin, what is exactly is a hammering?” Glarin just looked at her confused.

“You know, a hammering? Like you get a hammer, and you hit the offender with it. That or banishment, stripping of title and clan, whatever 3 elder’s decide. Does the town not have a hammerer or 3 different elders to designate law and order here?” Luna finally spoke up.

“No we have a different legal system here... but the idea of my sister’s punishment being done with a hammer makes me feel better. I mean, why would you bring up something like that Celestia? You remember how I was after that don’t you?” At that little bit Granny Smith shouted from the back.

“Give her tha hammers!”

“Granny hush!” said Applejack as she tried to keep Granny Smith from condemning Celestia.

“I can’t be hushed! He said tha elders or the pony with a hammer gets ta decide punishment, an’ Ah say give her tha hammers!” Another olden pony spoke up After Granny Smith’s last ditch effort to be heard.

“Yes! I would of been punished for doing something like this back in my day! Princess or not! She needs the hammers!”

‘Oh dear’ thought Celestia, they aren’t really going to hit me with a hammer are they?

“Glarin, you aren’t really going to have me hit with a hammer are you? I could die from such a barbaric thing.” Glarin just hummed to himself while stroking his beard.

“What was it they said... oh yes, The hammerer reforge’s us so that we can be perfect in the next life. Please do not disparage him. That’s what is told to dwarves who are subject to 12 or more hammering’s or are at the mercy of a particularly cruel hammerer. Some like to place all the blows onto the law breakers face.” Celestia was suddenly worried that an angry mob would beat her with a hammer directed by Glarin. But luckily for her, Luna spoke up.

“As much as I would like to see my dear sister punished with a hammer, it is much too barbaric. And she also didn’t break any laws as there are no laws in place for an occurrence such as this...” At that Luna’s face turned into one of Anger “...However, I would still like to see some kind of punishment! I mean really Sister? You dredge up old nightmares of mine, because I ate some of your silly cake? You ate almost the entire thing while I only had the last slice!” Luna began to remove the jewel’s so she would be able to use her magic again. From the crowd emerged a small colt. If Celestia remembered correctly, his name was Pip.

“S-Say you’re sorry to my favorite Princess ever! O-or I’m gonna get r-really mad!” At that, Glarin burst out into laughter.

“Bawhaha! The little lad is right! We have yet to hear a complete formal apology!” Celestia released a breathe she didn’t realize she had been holding. Glad the idea of hammering her was gone and this would be over with but a simple apology. Celestia walked up to Luna and bowed as if she was just a normal pony.

“I am deeply sorry for what I did Luna, Could you ever find it within your heart to forgive your foalish older sister?” Luna embraced Celestia into a hug.

“Of course I could sister, just not yet.” Luna let go of Celestia who had a slight confused look on her face.

“W-what do you mean?”

“I mean, I feel like taking a short vacation before I forgive you.” Luna gave Celestia a calm grin.

“But, who will watch over night court and raise the moon?”

“Oh don’t be silly sister, I will still raise the moon while you take charge of night court for me!” Luna just gave Celestia a grin.

“But, what about day court?” Luna kept her grin as she spoke

“Oh dear sister, don’t be silly, of course you will handle that as well!”

“But, when will I sleep?”

“Well, I’m sure you’ll figure it out. Anyway, I’ll be right back.” and with that, Luna’s horn glowed and in a blue flash she was gone.

Everypony and griffin present just stood around awkwardly. Discord broke the silence as he floated by Glarin.

“Well, I haven’t seen a dwarf in over three millennia. What brings such a strong and proud race back to Equestria?”

“Back? You’ve seen dwarves before? Are any still around?!” Glarin looked up to the mismatched beast in a bit of hope.

“Perhaps you missed the 3 millennia part. You would be the 1st in a long time, Sir Dwarf.” All of his eagerness quickly disappeared.

“Ah...” At that Glarin sat down on the grass and in the distance, Nurse White could be heard yelling. Everyone looked to see her behind Spike.

“You’re too slow! How do you ever expect to be of any use as you are?!” Spike could be heard panting heavily, his eyes seemed to be glazed over. He was clearly exhausted and running on fumes.

“Bout time they got here...” Glarin grumbled as he stood back up, causing a loud crack to be heard from his rib cage. Glarin moved both hands over to his left side, a rib under his skin was bulging out. Some of the mares and stallions in the crowd fainted with Twilight galloping over with Rarity.

“Oh my goodness! We need to get you back to the Ponyville hospital Darling!”

“After Luna gets back and Spike gets over here, in the meantime...” Glarin took some more deep breathes and felt around for a second, instead of pushing it back into place like the last one, he stopped and leaned against the fountain edge. “... Yeah, I’ll need your docs to fix this, pushing it back into place would be dangerous.” Everyone just looked at him funny.

“H-how would you know that?”

“Well I was taught medical knowledge during training of course. Why do you think it takes years? Sure I can’t perform advanced healing maneuver’s, but I know basic little life saving maneuver’s and the placement of all my important organs N’ such. So I can pop a joint back into place, or take an attack in a non-vital area. My rib however, is rubbing against my lung and I wont be able to push it back into place with without dealing some serious damage to myself.” Celestia looked thoughtful for a moment before speaking.

“Actually, maybe we should implement that into our basic training as well.”

“What?! You mean I need to hire some doctors to teach them basic medical knowledge?!” Glarin began to groan as he looked up to the sky. “My money...” he suddenly opened his eyes and looked at Celestia “...Ah! You're paying for it Princess Celestia! Or at least giving me the money to do it myself.” Celestia was a bit taken aback by Glarin sudden volume change. Twilight was right about him becoming aggressive over money he earned.

“Well I, of course you shall be granted the funds you need Sir Glarin.” at that he huffed and Luna reappeared in a bright blue flash with Spike arriving at the same time. Spike collapsed upon the floor in the middle of the crowd as he gasped for air and Nurse White just approached Glarin with a worried look on her face as she stared at the rib sticking out. Luna looked around and saw Spike collapsed with Glarin holding his chest.

“D-did I miss something?” Glarin waved his hand as he sighed.

“Of course not, just pushed something outta place when I stood up is all.” Glarin motioned over to Nurse White and she trotted over. “Nurse, Make sure Spike goes out and gathers his own rocks and gets some rope, then put together a vest for him, he’s weaker than I thought he was. It seems he needs to work on his endurance.” At that he looked over to Luna, awaiting what she had to say and where she had gone. Luna suddenly realized everyone was looking at her and was waiting for her to speak, with a blush she spoke.

“Well since I was going to have a short vacation, I decided to spend it here in Ponyville... With Sir Glarin.” the crowd was in utter silence as everyone expected to hear more.

“Wat?” Voiced Glarin as he just stood there slack jawed as he looked at the Lunar Princess.

“Well yes, I already went to the Apples house and Big MacIntosh showed me to your room Sir Glarin, where I had left my bags. I simply came back here to let everypo-one know.”

“Wait, What?” Glarin still stood by the fountain slack jawed like everyone else, even Celestia. It didn’t take long before a few mares began to yell in excitement.

“Oh my gosh oh my gosh! Princess Luna is moving in with Sir Glarin!”

“So bold!”

“So Brazen!”

“Give em tha Hammers!”

“Granny hush!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Glarin sat in the Ponyville hospital as Nurse Joy was bandaging him up after a couple unicorns reset all of his ribs into proper position. He had a bit of a blank expression on his face and he looked to the nurse.

“Hey Nurse, is moving in common among relationships that started no more than a week ago with ponies?” The Nurse seemed to chuckle.

“I must say it isn’t very common no, but its not like it never happens. I wish I could move into the home of my little stallion.” Glarin grinned at that.

“You like em short huh? You’re ok in my book nurse. I’ve seen you around the apple house once or twice. Big Mac isn’t that small though...”

“Ah, that's because I treat little Daring. He has a few conditions that require constant monitoring.”

“Hes sick? I admit the lad is a little on the skinny side, but I didn’t think it was because he was sick.”

“He is, well he’s a special case. He can’t seem to develop muscle and his bones are on the brittle side. For being such a fragile thing he shows a lot of strength and willpower.” Glarin closed his eyes as he chuckled.

“He would of made a fine dwarf for sure. He would of been stuck as a record keeper, or perhaps a Lore Master. Depends how good his memory was. That sister of his though, seems to be just as full of energy.”

“Ah, that she is. She has some of the most magnificent wings a pegasi could ask for. And at such a young age too. Why in a few years I’m sure she would pass up even the best flyers in the Wonderbolts.”

“The Wonderwhats?” Glarin raised an eyebrow

“Oh, they are a team of fast flying high powered Pegasi. They are based in Canterlot and I think Rainbow Dash, their mother is part of the team now, she joined some 13 years ago I think.”

“Did she now? Interesting little fact that I didn’t know.” As she finished up his bandage wraps she stuck a large piece of duct tape to keep it from falling off.

“There, now don’t go chasing off beast’s that run out of the forest anymore. Send those guards you got with you at it.”

“Bah, those yellow bellied cowards ain’t good for anything yet.” Glarin hopped off the bench only to be caught by Twilights magic as she entered the room.

“You trying to injure yourself again? You already tore a bunch of the tendons in your chest again.” Twilight gently lowered him into a wheelchair that Rarity was pushing... she had a fancy piece of cloth on each hoof and a mask on her face. A very fancy mask, with jewels.

“I don’t remember you wearing that when we came in Miss Rarity.” said Glarin as he turned to look at her after being placed within the wheelchair.

“Oh well that’s because its something I just whipped together last minute in the lobby when somepony started coughing in...” Rarity seemed to hold a gag back “... my direction.” Glarin just nodded

“So why aren’t you using magic to push the wheelchair Miss Rarity?” Twilight rolled her eyes and answered in place of Rarity.

“Because Sir Glarin, Whatever you touch seem's to become resistant to magic as long as its in contact with you. It is most peculiar and it makes everything harder for us unicorns. You know the doctors that fixed you up?”

“Not personally no.” Twilight rolled her eyes and groaned

“Well all 6 of them are now resting from magic fatigue, how that single surgeon unicorn lasted those 7 hours on you was simply incredible. Last I heard he was in a magical exhaustion induced coma.” Glarin hummed to himself in thought.

“Remind me to thank him when he wakes up then.” Twilight groaned while Rarity decided to ask her own question.

“So Glarin dear, What was that beast that appeared above you when you defended Princess Luna?” Glarin narrowed his eyes in confusion.

“Beast? What beast? I didn’t summon any beast. I just ran out there with the intent to beat that ugly monster until it stopped moving or died, whichever came first. No offense Princess Twilight.”

“I-is that a fact?”

“Yes I suppose it is. Also, that magic of yers did an awful good job Princess. And I know I’m not supposed to kill anything, but I’ll be damned if some monster kills me or someone else before I kill it first.” Twilight just walked with her head low.

“Yes, I understand that at times a life can only be saved by taking the life of another. But that doesn’t mean you can jump straight to it!” Glarin sighed in frustration at the purple pony.

“Aye, always a last resort...”

“Also, I think I can explain what everyone saw Rarity. It would appear that the magic within our Equestrian air was, or appeared to give Sir Glarin’s intent, or perhaps it was his determination, I’m not sure what it was exactly, but the magic within our world mixed with whatever Sir Glarin gave out, and created a sort of energy based life form. Similar to a Windigo.”

“A-and would it be dangerous?”

“Oh I think not, It disappeared soon after Glarin calmed down didn’t it? I don’t think it can travel very far from him to be honest. Even then it would simply be an image.”

“What in Blazes are you two talking about? Window-gulls N’ magic in the air?” Twilight smiled as he shook her head.

“Nothing for you to worry about, once the situation calmed down I was able to analyze everything that happened. Perhaps when you get better we can do some testing and see exactly how you did what you did.” Glarin just huffed as he crossed his arms.

“All I did was get mad. That’s the basic of it when you really think about it.” Twilight tried to muffle a giggle while Rarity continued to push Glarin.

“I’m sure its more complex than that Glarin. Like I said, when you get better, we can do some tests to get a clear picture of what exactly is going on.”

As they left the Ponyville Hospital, Glarin mumbled something to himself about magic being stupid and unfair.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When they got back to the dig site, they saw Spike putting his vest together. It appeared Luna was helping him weave the rocks together with the rope. All of the guards had gotten back to work with the digging just like he had hoped.

Many of the towns ponies had left, some still hung around, probably to watch them work. Glarin wasn’t sure nor did he really care. It would also appear Celestia had gone back to Canterlot to ready herself for Luna’s vacation of sorts.

Glarin was pushed over toward Luna by Rarity and as they drew closer Luna looked up and waved over to them.

“This weaving of rocks into a vest is rather enjoyable.”

“It, It is?” Questioned Rarity, Twilight on the other hoof raised an eyebrow.

“You still don’t get out much, do you Princess Luna?” Luna smiled sheepishly

“I admit, leaving the Castle grounds is still something I do not often do. However, I hope this little vacation will change that.”

“Are any of your adoptive children going to be coming as well Princess Luna?” asked Rarity

“I... no. Perhaps they will visit, but it will be just I here.” Rarity nodded her head.

“Well, I would love to stay and chat longer with two princesses and a knight of Equestria, but I have work that needs to be finished by tonight and I am dreadfully behind as it is.” Glarin just waved her off as he wheeled himself away from her.

“Well alright then Miss Rarity. I hope you have plenty of time to finish and perfect your work. I myself have to make sure these lazy bums get back on schedule.” With that Rarity left Princess Luna and Twilight with Glarin. Glarin just rubbed the back of his head.

“Well I uh, guess I better go check on them... unnless you two need something from me?” Both Princesses looked at each other and shook their heads no, giving Glarin the all clear. So he left toward the huge pit he had all of the guards digging.

“Soo, Princess Luna. What exactly are you planning?”

“Me? Why I am planning on having a great time in Ponyville along with some relaxation. The bags under my sisters eyes when I get back in a few days is simply going to be a bonus.” Luna giggled to herself while Twilight sighed.

“I see, so then, how are you then? I also wanted to apologize for what I did.” Luna sighed

“Tis ok Princess Twilight. I assume you were simply caught in the ‘heat of the moment’ as some ponies call it. I know how persuasive my sister can be at times.” Luna chuckled to herself as she remembered a past event. “You know, she once convinced me to stay up all night then take over day court for her? All so she could go and buy a cake that they only make 5 of every Wednesday morning. Thing’s did not go over so well.” Luna sighed to herself as she looked over to Glarin, he was yelling various things to the guards as they all worked.

“What do you think of Sir Glarin Twilight? Be honest with me. When this whole silly thing of us dating was made public by Celestia as a joke, I thought nothing of it. As from what he said at his banquet, it would seem he had no interest in ponies what so ever. But the way he jumped out at the first sign of me being in trouble was so...” Twilight cleared her throat.

“I wouldn’t think about it too deeply Princess Luna. I think he would of jumped out at a monster emerging from the Everfree wether you were there or not. And from what he told me about dwarven society...” Twilight took a deep breath and exhaled “...females, both fertile or not, are highly prized and protected by all male dwarves. It is highly possible he would of done the same for any mare in trouble.”

“Ah, so he’s that type of Stallion, or Dwarf, as it were. That might prove troublesome, if he goes around saving every mare he see’s. But then, I suppose I am a Princess...” Luna sat in a relaxed pose as she watched Glarin yell at her guards.

“Luna are you...?”

“Perhaps, but the end result will be with what he decides, I wonder how the next few days will go...”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So for the rest of the day, Glarin had mostly ignored Luna.

He had spent a large amount of time at the local blacksmith, haggling metal costs and trying to establish a work order. Explaining things to Ponyvilles blacksmith was a pain, as many of the metal working techniques Glarin was telling him to do were apparently never heard of before with pony smiths. In the end Glarin had just told em to make all of the basic steel plates and little parts he was capable of doing. Glarin would assemble and finish them later. He would also check up on him daily to see how the work was going.

When he got back from the blacksmith, he just set up near Luna at a table. Going right back to work on designing armor for the other ponies.

Oh sure Luna tried to start conversations with him. But most of his answers would consist of a grunt or a mumble. It would seem he was tired of the day and was just waiting for it to be over.

But what was really going on, was Glarin was secretly panicking about what to do with the sleeping arraignments. He couldn’t sleep in the same bed as royalty without being properly married first.

But perhaps the biggest problem was, it was a talking animal of sorts. He had somewhat accepted that he was no longer home and that the world he now lived in was full of crazy talking animals. But that didn’t mean he had also lost his standards. No matter how royal or proper a Princess she was, she was still a weird talking farm animal.

Dwarves are not like humans and orcs, sleeping with anything and everything they can. Dwarves have standards, and its unthinkable! Why with no sort of alcohol around, there’s no way he could get drunk enough to sleep with something that wasn’t a dwarf... again!

In Glarin’s defense, that mountain goat had a mighty fine beard that looked like very much like Gloria Thickshield’s. It also sounded like her!

It was a simple mistake that any dwarf would of made after drinking 20 dwarven stout’s and 13 dwarven ale’s.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The fact Glarin's room only had one bed made things awkward until with a blush, Luna boldly decided to suggest that they sleep in the same bed. Glarin immediately became flustered and denied it.

“No! I can’t possibly, I mean uh, the bed seems much too small for the both of us...” Glarin just crossed his arm's satisfied with that answer.

“What do you mean you don’t wish to share the bed with me? There is plenty of room!”

That isn't what he said... the last half was though

“Its not that! Its just... I like the cold hard floor better.” Luna began to pout her lips in frustration.

“Is it because I am not a dwarf?” Glarin just sorta looked around a bit confused then slowly nodded his head. Then looked up in thought for a moment.

“Well, mostly yeah, but I did sleep with a mountain goat before...” Luna stomped her hoof on the wood floor.

“You would sleep with a mountain goat over me?! A Princess of Equestria!?”

“What?! I didn’t say that! You didn’t even let me finish! I was really drunk! I haven’t been that drunk in like, a month and a half?! That goat never did call me back...”

“What does a mountain goat have that a Princess like me doesn't? Am I too fat?”

“What are you talking about?! I never said... well maybe I did say you were kinda fat, but thats not the point!” Luna’s face puffed up in a bit of anger

“The goat also had quite the magnificent beard... Reminded me of...” Luna interrupted him again

“Really?! A beard! You sleep with some mountain goat because it has a beard!? You’re unbelievable!”

“Well I uh...” and with that Luna’s horn began to glow and she teleported away.

“I think I screwed up somehow...” Glarin shrugged and went over to a nearby desk and began to design some more of the armor, this time he was working up plans for the Pegasi’s armor.

He had to think of a way to make it strong, yet light enough to fly with once they became powerful flyer’s. Yet the armor had to be thick and strong enough to withstand blows, not onto the same scale as the earth ponies set, but just enough so arrows and a heavy blow or two wouldn’t cause much damage. He wondered if the ponies had invented cannons yet.

Glarin worked for about 2 hours before A bright blue flash caused him to turn around and see Princess Luna again.

But she looked...

Different

Very

Different

She had a beard. A magnificent beard that reminded him of the night sky, just like her mane and tail.

“Is this more to your liking Sir Glarin?” Luna posed around puffing her chest out as she showed off her new beard. Glarin gulped as he moved away from the desk.

“It's, it’s a s-s-start...” Glarin kept looking as she made different poses, all of which were probably sexual, but he couldn’t really tell, she was still a pony. A pony with a beard that could rule worlds “...where’s a barrel of Ale when you need one...”

Stupid sexy beard.

Granny Daniels

View Online

Everything came crashing down again after Glarin made a passing mention of the mountain goat, three times to be exact.

In the same sentence. A feat within itself actually.

Apparently comparing her to the goat was a mistake. The idea of her hindquarters being not as muscular looking as the goats was the deal breaker.

He ended up sleeping in the hallway outside of his room with a single blanket in the wheelchair. Not that he minded it. Sleeping in the hallway solved a few uncomfortable problems he was having with his current situation.

Either way, Glarin awoke early in the morning as Big Mac traveled down the hallway. Glarin cleared his throat as he awoke.

“Morning Mr. Mac.”

“Uhh, morning Sir Glarin, trouble in paradise?” Glarin let out a soft chuckle with a yawn.

“I’d have to be in paradise before there could be trouble in it lad.” Big Mac just hummed.

“Why don’t cha try askin Granny Smith if her new drink is ready yet. You might like it, I know the feller who inspired it would of.”

“Drink? What kind of drink?”

“I’m not supposed to give away our Granny’s secrets, why don’t you just ask her when she wakes up with the rest of us fer breakfast.” Glarin grumbled to himself as he followed Big Mac toward the stairs.

“Alright, I just hope its worth my time.” Big Mac just laughed

“It will be. So uh, need any help down the stairs?”

“Yeah sure, take the chair, I’ll walk myself down.”

“Well alright...” Glarin got out of the chair and began to walk down the stairs while holding the rail. When they got to the bottom Glarin reached into his beard and took out a piece of chalk that he began to munch on.

“I’ve been meaning to ask, but why do you eat chalk?” mid chew Glarin responded

“For the Calcium of course! Need it so my bones stay strong and heal strong.” As he finished the piece and got back into his wheelchair.

“That sister of yers, I’ve taken a cannon ball to the chest before, never had it break my entire rib cage like yer sis did.” Big Mac let out a sigh

“Thats what working on a farm yer whole life does to a pony.”

“Hrm, maybe I should have all those guards work on yer farm then...”

“Well, we don’t need any help year round, except during harvest season. A little extra help goes a long way.”

“So whens harvest season then?” Big Mac looked up in thought for a moment.

“1st harvest starts in 3 weeks at the north field. Then 2 weeks after that in the east field. Then the south and west field need to be harvested at the same time a week after.”

“So in 3 weeks... alright, just send a letter or something the day before and I’ll rally the troops.” Big Mac nodded his head as they headed to the kitchen.

Apple Bloom was already starting breakfast up, Since Applejack made it yesterday. Tomorrow was Big Macs turn to make breakfast. Apple Bloom turned to face them and had a sad look on her face.

“D-Did you and Luna have f-fun last night Sir Glarin?” She asked with a worried tone to her voice that Glarin didn’t seem to pick up on as he told the truth.

“Na, it wasn’t any fun at all actually.” Apple Bloom perked up a bit at hearing that.

“So she’s terrible at it?!” Apple Bloom picked up the pace of making breakfast after hearing what he said. Leaving Glarin in a confused state with Big Mac chuckling to himself quietly. They were soon joined by Granny Smith and Applejack.

“Howdy do Everypony! Whats for breakfast today youngin?” Granny and Applejack just took a seat at each table end.

“Apple pancakes with a side of Apple bread and Toast with Apple Sauce.” Glarin grumbled to himself, so far living with this apple loving family left him with nothing to eat but apples apples, and more apples. As Apple Bloom finished explaining what was for breakfast, Daring and Star came down the stairs to join them. Taking seats across from Big Mac and Glarin.

“So where’s Princess Luna?”

“Sleeping I guess, not sure...” Said Glarin with a yawn.

“But didn’t she wake up with you?” Glarin just shrugged.

“I slept in the hallway so I have no idea.” Everypony turned to face Glarin, besides Big Mac, and looked at him a bit confused. As Luna came down the stairs everyone turned to look at her. To Glarin’s disappointment she had removed her glorious beard at some point.

She sat in the seat farthest away from Glarin and seemed to be ignoring him as she walked with her nose in the air when she passed him. As she took her seat Apple Bloom began passing around breakfast to everyone. Glarin received a plate of heart shaped pancakes while Luna’s plate had a grip of misshapen pancakes. They looked like the rejects of failed heart shaped pancakes, everyone else got regular pancakes.

Luna looked at her pancakes then at everyone else’s, then resting upon the ones Glarin had.

‘I think young Apple Bloom doesn’t like my presence here... and perhaps she isn’t so young anymore.’ Thought Luna as she looked over to Apple Bloom who seemed to have an aura of authority around her.

“Oye, why do Luna and I get deformed pancakes?”

“Yeah! Why didn’t I get heart shaped pancakes like Glarin aunty Bloom?” asked Star as Big Mac just smiled as he ate his breakfast with Granny Smith and Applejack. All three of them just had smirks across their faces.

“These are hearts?” ask Glarin as he lifted it up. “Doesn’t look like any heart I’ve ever seen...” As Glarin inspected his heart shaped pancake Luna began to eat hers as if it didn’t bother her.

“Well I uh, made some fancy pancakes just for you Glarin, I hope you like em...” Apple Bloom just blushed as she waited for his answer.

“Fancy huh? No reason to go and do such a thing. Unless of course they taste fancier.” Glarin shoveled the entire heart shaped pancake into his mouth and chewed it up.

“Doesn’t taste any different...” Glarin just shrugged and spread some of the apple syrup on the pancakes and began to eat the rest. “So then, what are Luna’s supposed to be?”

“Oh, those were just the failed ones that hit the floor when Ah tried flipping 'em in the pan...” Luna stopped eating as she set her fork down and gagged a bit.

Apple Bloom just gave her a smug grin. While Granny Smith muttered something about a hammer.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Ya can’t ground me AJ! I’m a grown mare now! Im 18, and If I wanna feed that mean ol’ princess floorcakes ah can, an’ ah will!”

“Apple Bloom! Ya can’t just go around feeding a Princess of Equestria Apple family style Pancakes that fell on the floor!” Apple Bloom just snorted as she turned her head.

“She shouldn’t be so mean to Sir Glarin then...” Applejack sighed. “... making him sleep in the hall when he’s all injured.”

“Are ya still in heat Bloom?” Apple Bloom looked down for a bit then sighed.

“No, ah’m not, but Ah do like him... even if he is a bit older than me.”

“He’s at least 300 years older than you if what he says is true.”

“Dwarves age well don’t they?” Applejack and Apple Bloom just chuckled, and sighed.

“Yer still grounded though.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

While Applejack was ‘talking’ to Apple Bloom about what she did, Glarin took this chance to ask Granny Smith about the drink. She gave him a nod and they snuck away from the breakfast table and down to the cellar.

“So the special drinks in the celler?”

“Oh boy it sure is! It’ll knock yer horseshoes off!”

“Well as long as it tastes better than that tea Twilight made for me.” Granny Smith chuckled.

“That purple filly still can’t make a good cup of tea yet huh? Hrmm...” Granny Smith looked around for a bit before pulling on a string that was hanging down. “... theres that old light, now its right over here.” Granny Smith pointed to a line of barrels that were sitting on racks. Glarin’s eyes went wide.

He would recognize that type of barrel anywhere! It was a Keg! A glorious magnificent keg of magical alcoholic wonder!

“I-is that, what I think it is?” Granny smith just chuckled.

“Why don’t you get that mug over there and take a sip, I tried some yesterday and was out of it for a few hours! Knocked me down onto my plot it did!” Glarin reached over and grabbed the mug in a shaky hand and brought it up to the spigot and slowly turned the handle.

From the spout flowed a glorious yellow liquid. And it reeked of alcohol! This sip would end the longest dry spell he had ever been on.

He brought the drink to his lips, and ever so slowly, the liquid gold flowed past his lips and onto his tongue. It burned with the burn of fresh unaged/unfiltered alcohol. The small sip turned into a chug as he placed his mug down and placed his mouth onto the spigot and began to greedily drink it from the source. After a good 30 seconds, he stopped and burped.

“Granny Smith, you made all of this your self?”

“That I did, and judging by your reaction, I’m guessing you loved it!”

“Loved it? Granny Smith I... Are you single?” Glarin just gave her a grin as his face was beat red from the alcohol or maybe because he was blushing, it wasn’t clear. But one thing was clear as polished crystal.

He had found it, he found his paradise within this hell hole of a heaven.

“Now hold on a minute there sonny, I’m too old for a lively stallion like yer self.” Glarin just sighed as he chuckled

“Well then how will I get more of this glorious drink then?”

“I’ll show the rest of the apples how ta brew it so don’t cha worry, Little Mac already knows most of the process anyway. Besides, what about that there Princess?” Glarin just grumbled.

“I really had no say in the matter, she’s royalty, what can I do besides go along with it?” Glarin just sighed as he leaned against the wall.

“Just tell her no, its that simple ya know.” Glarin looked at Granny Smith like she had grown a second head.

“B-But shes a Princess!” Granny just shook her head.

“Shes a pony before shes a princess ya know.” Glarin sighed as he thought about it.

“Indeed she is still a pony... I need another drink.” Glarin took the mug and filled it to the brim.

“How many barrels of this stuff do you have?” Granny smith looked around in thought for a minute.

“Well lemmie see here... 1, 3, 5...” Granny continued to count while Glarin continued to drink from the barrel. “...got ourselves about 7 barrels that are ready to drink and 7 more in about a month or so. It takes about 3 years to complete. I had been perfecting it over the last couple years. I estimate a rough alcohol content of 48% in the finished product.”

“Only 48% huh? Well, it sure beats having nothing to drink at all. What do you call it?”

“Hrmm, I was thinking of calling it Granny Daniels, or uh, maybe Grannies Plot Kicker.” Glarin just chuckled as he drank from his mug.

“The second one sounds... funny.”

“Are uh, you sure you should be drinking so much being injured an all?”

“Yeah tis fine, I heal faster while intoxicated anyway. It’s a dwarf thing.” Glarin refilled his mug as he began to head for the exit.

“Alright, 5 mugs worth should be plenty for now.”

“Ya know, if a Princess doesn’t suit your taste, maybe a farm girl would.” Grannies sentence gave him pause. But he shook his head.

“Perhaps. A farm girl would be strong to my liking, but she would also have to be a dwarf, not a pony.” As Granny Smith watched him leave she looked over to the multiple barrels she had.

“I bet a couple a mugs of Granny Daniels will change yer mind... or at least make em look like a dwarf.” Muttered Granny Smith with a light chuckle to herself as she watched him stumble up the stairs back to his wheelchair.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Glarin had set up right outside the dig site like usual when it occurred to him he’s had these guards for almost a week already. And according to what Twilight said about pony muscle growth, they would benefit greatly from a single day off a week filled with a deep tissue massage.

Whatever the hell a massage was. But he was told the Spa ponies at the Ponyville Spa would be able do everything she had said they would need. Still slightly intoxicated from his morning drinks with Granny Smith, he barked orders to everyone to continue working while he went to arrange something for them tomorrow. All of the guards dreaded what he could possibly have in store for them.

As he began to wheel himself away toward the town, he ran into Apple Bloom and Nurse White.

“Where ya going Sir Glarin? Are they all done fer the day?”

“Na I have some business in town, you think you can keep an eye on em for me Ms. White? I’ll treat you one of those massage things Twilight suggested I give them. To uh, help increase their muscle growth or something.”

“Twilight suggested you give them all a deep tissue massage?”

“Yeah thats it, Deep tissue. Not sure how it works, but if its needed its needed.”

“Oh oh, mind if I come with ya Sir Glarin?” asked Apple Bloom, Glarin just shrugged

“Sure why not. Maybe you know where the Ponyville Spa is. Cause I sure don’t.” Apple Bloom nodded her head with great enthusiasm.

“Ah sure do!” as they were about to leave Luna seemed to come out from some nearby trees.

“Ah sir Glarin, are you heading into town as well? Would you mind if I joined you?”

“Uh, no?” Luna just nodded her head as she began to walk next to Glarin while giving Apple Bloom a grin, who in turn got a sour look on her face.

Little did Glarin realize, he was now in the middle of a love triangle. One he would probably never quite understand unless somepony/griffin told him of it. A love triangle of unrequited love.

As they traveled through the town, Glarin ignored the slight bickering between both ponies. Both of them tried to keep his attention focused on whatever side they were on. Weather it was to look at a shop or some flowers. Probably the worst distraction was when Apple Bloom told him to look over at a wall.

Worst part was the wall wasn’t even made of stone, but of that flimsy material known as wood. Why anyone would make anything out of wood was beyond him. Wood warped if it got wet, it shrank and grew with moisture in the air if it wasn’t treated, and worst of all about it, was that it came from something above ground.

And Elves loved using it as well. Stupid tree huggers.

Anyway, they had finally arrived at the Ponyville Spa, they didn’t seem that busy. Which was good. It meant that he could get this over with quickly.

Glarin, Luna, and Bloom went up the counter and waited. After a bit Bloom hit the little bell on the counter making a ding sound.

“Coming!” A light blueish pony with a pink mane came out from behind some curtains and appeared behind the counter. “What can I...” as she opened her eyes wide and froze while looking at the Lunar princess. Glarin cleared his throat and spoke. The wheelchair made it so his eyes were barely looking over the counter. Much to his annoyance, he seemed shorter than he really was because of this.

“I would like to set up a time tomorrow for 31 ponies to get a, a uh...” Glarin thought for a minute while the spa pony just looked between him and Princess Luna. “...A deep tissue massage.”

“T-thrity?” Sudden realization hit the spa pony that they would have over 30 patrons tomorrow.

“Yeah thats what I said. How much is it gonna cost me to get all 31 of em in and treated tomorrow?”

“Uh, just one moment...” The pony left back behind the curtain in a hurry “...Aloe!”

“I’m a bit busy at the moment Lotus!”

“Aloe this is Important!”

Glarin could hear them talking to each other, unsure of what to do with so many patrons coming in tomorrow. Luna and Apple Bloom could also hear it, being ponies their hearing was much better than Glarin’s so they could clearly hear that they wouldn’t be able to service so many ponies in a single day. After a bit they both came out from behind the curtain and cleared their throats to speak.

“Well um, 30 is a bit excessive for a single day, perhaps we could split it? Half tomorrow and the other half the next day? We still would have other customers to handle and 30 in a day means we would work 15 hours between the 2 of us without breaks. That’s already more than we normally do...”

“Split the group so it takes two days? Hrmm... well I guess that could work. I’ll just have the other half continue to work. That’s makes the schedule I had planned out quicken by a week or so... Yeah that works perfectly for me, now... lets talk price.”

By the end of it, Glarin had been able to talk them down to the low, low price of 300 bits, for a total of 600 for all 31 of them. Much better than the original price they gave him of 3100 bits. All he had to do was promise he would be back once a week with all of them with another 600 bits. His smooth haggle game has once again saved him a small fortune, and his good looks and glorious beard probably helped with negotiating prices.

The rest of the walk back was also rather annoying once Luna learned the extra 1 Glarin had planned for at the spa wasn’t for her, but was in fact for the Nurse that had been helping him out.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The rest of the day went by rather easy. Easy for Glarin anyway. He was making frequent trips to the cellar to grab a few drinks. Everything made more sense after a good drink.

The brick making ma-jigger had finally arrived and so they got to work on turning the dirt into bricks by mixing it with the cement. Once they figured out how to use the machine, they put Spike in charge of pulling the lever to compress it. As the first brick made it way out the back of the contraption Glarin picked it up and inspected it.

“Hrm... just gotta let em cure over the next week or two and they should be ready for usage... Make as many as you can and set em over there!” glarin pointed to the opposite side of the pit they had been piling all of the dirt. They all groaned at the extra bit of walking they would have to do but did so anyway.

Cheap and strong building materials, just the way Glarin likes it. Mixing the dirt with cement in a 5 part dirt 1 part cement ratio with a bit of water would ensure he had, quite literally a ton of bricks to start making his home with once they had finished digging the foundation of it.

As Glarin looked out upon everyone working on building his house Nurse White came over with Luna.

“Glarin, we noticed that you’ve been consistently making trips back to Sweet Apple Acres, any reason in particular for that?” questioned Nurse White.

“Oh, Granny Smith made this wonderful drink, If I could, I’d bring the barrel up here, but alas I can not with my ribs the way they are right now. But another week at this pace and my bones should be knit back together in no time at all! Haha!” Glarin let out a bellowing chuckle in Luna’s direction. Luna wrinkled her nose at the smell of his breath.

“Are you, drunk? Your breath reeks of strong Cider!”

“Drunk? Bah, I’ve got twice the liver of any creature! I barely have a head buzz right now. I wont be drunk until half my blood becomes alcohol!” Luna looked at Glarin with a bit of worry until she remembered something he had said the night before.

Something about how he only slept with that goat because he was ‘really drunk’. With a new plan in mind, Luna decided to help him get drunk.

For Science of course.

“Wait wait wait, your getting drunk when you should be relaxing and recovering? As a nurse I can not allow you to drink anymore Glarin.” Glarin scoffed

“Maybe to you ponies! But dwarves actually heal faster when they drink!” Glarin just gave the nurse a glare as he pulled a large flask out of his pocket and took a swig.

“Where in Equestria did you get that huge flask!?”

“I always had a drinking flask. It was just empty when I first got here is all...” Glarin slowly screwed the lid back on and put it into his pocket.

“Heal faster? Are you positive dwarves heal faster when they drink?” Luna raised an eyebrow with Nurse White.

“Check on me in a week and I’ll be fit as a fiddle I will...” Glarin let out a burp “... assuming the drink lasts that long.”

“There’s no proof that alcohol has any healing effect what so ever on anything! Disinfectant yes, but healing? Thats a big no. Never in all my years as a nurse have I heard of alcohol being used as a, as a medicine!”

“Well, I’m the first dwarf you’ve seen. So it stands to reason, dwarves use different medicines.” Glarin brought the flask out of his pocket again and began to unscrew the cap.

“But...!” Nurse White watched as Glarin took another drink from the flask, all the while he didn’t break eye contact with her. “...Fine! But the 1st sign of it having a negative impact upon your health, I’m taking it from you! I’m still in charge of making sure you heal properly! Even though... I seem to be more of a drill Sargent now.” Glarin put the cap back on and smiled at her.

“And a damn fine Drill Sargent you make.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Rarity was knocking upon the door to Fluttershy’s cottage when Discord popped his head out the door.

“Well Hello Rarity, friend of my best friend Fluttershy! What brings you here?” Rarity put on a half smile at seeing Discord.

“Oh Discord, well I uh, I had told Fluttershy I wouldn’t be able to make it to the spa today because I had fallen behind on my work, but I just received a letter telling me to push back the due date and uh, Well never mind that. I just came to get Fluttershy so we may go to the spa together today.”

“Oh Goodie a Spa day! Do you mind if I join you?” Discord clasped his eagle claw and lion paw together with a large grin upon his face.

“Well I uh, suppose not. Yes, why don’t you come along. I don’t see the harm in it, but where is Fluttershy?”

“Oh, she’s out back with Henry the Bear. Apparently a dragon decided to take residence in his cave and he’s out of a place to stay for now. Fluttershy is just making some space for him to sleep until he can find a new home.”

“Oh dear, a dragon you say?”

“Oh yes but I wouldn’t worry about it. Henry doesn’t seem all that bothered about it. Besides he’ll never be late to another tea party again!” Discord let out a joyful chuckle at that “I’ll go let Fluttershy know that the days plans have changed a bit.”

Rarity stood in the doorway slightly uncomfortable. The idea of Discord joining them on the Spa trip was a bit unnerving to Rarity. Even though he has been reformed for years now, she was still rather uncomfortable around him just like the rest of her friends. Well, with the exception of Fluttershy, she had somehow taken to Discord as a best friend and he would commonly visit her on a bi weekly basis. After doing whatever it was he did while not in ponyville with Fluttershy anyway.

The door soon opened with Fluttershy walking out followed by Discord.

“Oh Rarity, I’m glad you decided to let Discord join us on our weekly Spa trip. Come, let us hurry before it gets any later, well if you want to hurry... and if its ok with you.” Rarity just shook her head.

“But of course darling, I simply cannot go another minute without a trip to the Spa.” Discord simply floated along next to them as they walked toward the Spa. In an effort to break the silence Rarity decided to ask Discord a question.

“You know Discord, yesterday, I remember you saying something about seeing Dwarves before, how true was that statement?” Discord raised an eyebrow and he righted himself upward and began too walk along side them in the air.

“Well it was very true, I said it was around 3 millennia ago. You see, they had made these stone portal things that made it a one way trip here. It took them awhile before they fashioned together some more portals to make return trips. They were quite interesting creatures, so I kept an eye on them.”

“Oh really? What were they like?”

“Boring, very boring, they had so many rules and laws they followed, I quickly got bored of watching them. However, after I found them boring, it wasn’t long until I began to fear them.”

“Fear them? Why would you, a god of Chaos fear some dwarves?” Rarity raised an eyebrow intrigued while Fluttershy just calmly listened.

“Well you see, after I found them boring, I decided to play a little prank on them, I had found their supply of their favorite drink, Stout I think is what it was called. Anyway I set fire to it! It made such a fascinating blaze, and the explosion was a bonus. They didn’t take kindly to my prank, its not like I killed any of them. And there were so many pretty colors!”

“Oh my, you set fire to that drink called a stout, and they got mad at you?”

“Mad doesn’t even begin to describe it my dear, I was hunted. Hunted for years, It was then I learned that they were highly resistant to magic, even my own. Half of the things I tried to use were simply cast aside or fizzled before my eyes! The other half had significantly reduced effects.”

“Oh my, so they hunted you for years? Why didn’t you just simply leave the continent?”

“Oh well, I was having fun for the most part, avoiding detection and hiding in plain sight was always a fun game for me. It wasn’t until he showed up...” Discord made a shudder as he looked over to Fluttershy. “...did Glarin ever mention what kind of dwarf he was?”

“Oh well um, I think he said he was a berserker of the Ungard clan. I’m pretty sure that’s what he said...” Discord let out another shudder.

“Remind me to never get on his bad side, I’d hate to fight another Dagvar Corlar, as they called him anyway. I never understood what they were saying, It must have been their native language or something.”

“W-what do you mean?”

“I used to have 2 tails you know, Dagvar cut it from me and I never could get it to grow back...”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Glarin just sat in his wheelchair under the umbrella Luna had been using yesterday, next to the barrel of Granny Daniels that Luna had went and got for him. Her excuse was that it was to apologize for her sudden outburst last night. Glarin brushed it off and said he was also probably partly to blame for it.

Probably

Anyway, as he sat under the umbrella in the shade Spike came up to him, wearing his vest and all.

“You guys finish making those bricks yet?”

“Not quite were just taking a bit of a break is all. What have you been drinking this whole time?”

“My new favorite drink, Granny Smith made it. Wanna try some?” Glarin held out the flask so Spike could take it.

“What is it? Some kind of Apple Juice?”

“I’ve taken to calling it Granny Daniels. That name seems to stick rather well. Try some, it beats the crap outta Twilights tea and water.” Spike took the flask and took a sip, then started coughing.

“Oh sweet Celestia, it feels like my throat is melting!” Glarin let out a laugh as he took the flask back.

“That’s unrefined alcohol for you! Take a couple more swigs and it will start going down like an expensive version!” Glarin also took another swig from the flask before putting the lid back on.

“How much of that have you had already?”

“Not much, the barrel isn’t even half empty yet! Go grab a mug and enjoy your break for a bit.” Spike went over and decided to do just that. He’s had hard cider before, but it didn’t really affect him like it did the ponies, maybe this stuff would get him as drunk as Twilight was a year ago.

They never did find where she teleported her bed too.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Yoou know what?”

“What is it lad?”

“I uused to has a crush on Rarity, buts she turned me down so, so many times. I gave up on her.”

“Rarity? That fancy white pony? What was so good about her?” Spike looked thoughtful for a moment as he looked into his near empty mug.

“You know, I can’t really remember. But thas fine! I dun care anymore! I had a thing for Sweetie Belle for awhile, but she seems attached to that Button Mash.”

“Button Mash? What a strange name for a filly.”

“N-no no, Button Mash is, or uh, was a colt. He’s a stallion now. Hardly though, he still acts like a kid. I don know what she sees in him!”

“Maybe she likes em young?”

“Na, they were child hood friends for awhile... hey what about Apple Bloom? She’s looking pretty cute now.”

“Why you so intent on a pony lad? Why not find a nice Dragoness or something?”

“Bah, I tried to join the great Dragon Migration years ago when I still a hatchling. Dragons are all jerks. Because I was raised by ponies I’m seen as soft, or not a real dragon, they would never accept me in a million years...”

“Not a real dragon... Not a Real Dragon? How can you not be a real Dragon?! You’ve got scales, the breath weapon, that is extremely versatile and useful by the way. Then there’s your dragon like fangs and teeth!”

“Its because of my soft spoken personality that they didn’t consider me a true dragon.”

“Bah, the only thing that matters is that you don’t break under pressure. Just gotta show them your resolve, your pride, and your undaunting courage!” Glarin took yet another swig of the drink, this time emptying his flask.

“Bugger’s empty again...” As Glarin went back to fill his flask, Spike just sat down in the grass.

“So, you’re living with Apple Bloom right? What’s she like?” Glarin furrowed his brow in thought for a minute.

“Annoying. Talks a lot, and sometimes does unnesacary things. Like this morning, she made heart shaped pancakes just for me. No idea what that was about.”

“What?! She made you heart shaped pancakes?!”

“Yeah? What’s so special about em?” Glarin moved back to his spot in the center of the shade as he sipped from his freshly filled flask.

“Glarin, dude, she likes you, like A lot...” Spike rubbed his head. “...Man, I’ll never get a Mare friend at this rate...”

“She likes me huh... well that would explain a lot of her annoying qualities. She keeps trying to outshine Luna... Which isn’t that hard in my opinion. Princess or not, she’s rather annoying. Actually, the only one who isnt annoying is her older sister Applejack. Boy did she have a powerful kick...” Glarin seemed to be day dreaming about something. As his half lidded eyes looked up to the sky, he continued to sip.

“Do you have any ideas on how I could get a mare friend?” Glarin just laughed as he pointed over to the keg.

“Take a couple more a those, then go talk to Apple Bloom. I’m sure it will turn out well. I think she’s cleaning out the barn right now as a punishment.”

“Punishment? What for?”

“She fed Princess Luna pancakes that fell on the floor this morning for breakfast.” Glarin and Spike let out a roar of a laugh. In the Middle of their laughter Luna came over to see what they were having so much fun with.

“I see that you are enjoying the drink with Spike now Sir Glarin.” Glarin spun his wheelchair around to look at her while Spike fumbled his mug a bit.

“Well hello there Luna, what brings you here?”

“The sounds of joyous laughter from you two actualy. Is this drink really so much fun?”

“But of course it is Luna! Have some, be warned it has a kick to it, unless you’re me of course.” Glarin passed the flask over to Luna. With a bit of worry she took the flask in her magic and sniffed the flask.

It smelled of apples and also had the scent of strong alcohol.

“This drink is an apple liquor? I thought my sister had banned the creation of Liquor.”

“Liquor? Luna my dear, this drink is simply a glorious apple drink of magical greatness. Not some simple liquor.” Luna sipped from the flask, it did indeed taste like apples. With the strong scent and flavor of what was unmistakable as a large quality of alcohol. She promptly gagged with a cough as it burned her throat.

“That’s the Spirit! A few more drinks and you won’t even notice the burn!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Blasted, blitzed, boogaloo, canned, hammered, kippered, leathered, loaded, mashed, pissed, plastered, razzled, schnooked, sloshed, smashed, tanked, totalled, and trashed.

Everyone was some kind of drunk, After Luna had a few more drink’s her laughter and shouts brought over some more ponies, and even the guards who should of been working. They even went and got a second barrel when the 1st ran dry.

Half the town was drinking Granny Smiths drink now known as Granny Daniels. Except most ponies reached the drunk stage after a single mug, with the second mug leaving them comatose upon the floor if they didn’t pace themselves.

The only two who could keep drinking after more than 2 mugs, was most obviously Glarin, Spike, and surprisingly Luna with Twilight Sparkle.

“I didn’t take you fer a drinker twi-*hic*light!” said Glarin, his blood had finally become more alcohol than blood.

“Yous kiddin Glarin? Twilight has her own store of vari-ous ciders in the libraries basement! Why she even started brewing her own ciders recently.”

“What ish this Cider you keep speakin of?”

“Cider ish a light alcoholic drink dat ish legal within equestria because da highest concentration is 4 purr-cent.” Said Twilight in a matter a factlly tone.

“4 percent?! Why, you might as well just drink cleaning water! Or your tea!” Everyone burst out into laughter besides Twilight who got a bit of a pout on her face.

“In my defense, Spike usually makes da tea, so I hardly ever get da chance.” Glarin looked over to Spike.

“Speaking of Spike, hey, hey, hey Spike...”

“Wha-What is it?”

“Did you talk to Bloom yet?” Spike began to blush because he brought it up around Luna and Twilight.

“N-No! I was gonna, but then I kinda forgot...”

“Apple Bloom? What happened ta Rarity Spike?”

“She was jus usin me Twilight and you knows it. Besides, It would be better if I do somepony my own age, right?” Glarin just stroked his beard in thought for a moment.

“What would a dragon pony hybrid look like?” Muttered Glarin giving pause to Twilight and Luna’s own thoughts. They also began to look thoughtful of it for a minute Before Twilight spoke up.

“Go talk ta Apple Bloom Spike, for Science!”

“Yeah! Don’t beat the bush, gently hold both her hooves in yer claws and ask her ta be yous marefriend! Tis as simple as that!” Luna looked at Glarin with a raised eyebrow.

“Oh, tis it really that simple? Could courting be as simple as that?”

“With the help of a good drink, everything is at lest 20% simpler. It’s a proven dwarven fact.”

“Is that so?” Questioned Luna and Twilight.

“Thousands of years of testing concluded that after a couple stiff drinks, everything is easier.” Glarin took another sip from his flask and effectively blacked out.

Glarin and Spike awoke that morning covered in Mares.

Apple Bloom and Luna were not among them, however, Pinkie was. She actually started it, something about a herd starting party.

Some stuff happened with a Time Skip

View Online

As Glarin awoke he groped around trying to figure out why his blanket was so heavy and fuzzy, only to find out it also had a styled mane.

“Mm, didn’t you have enough last night Sir Glarin...?” Said a pink and blue mare lazily. Glarins eyes shot wide open as he looked around “Well, not that I mind having another go at it.” Glarin looked at the mare he had inadvertently been groping for the past few minutes. It was some pony he had never seen before. He quickly wiggled his way out of the pile he was in and made a break for the barn door.

“I did it again! HAHAHA!” As he ran out the barn door yelling at the top of his lungs, he woke up the rest of the ponies and Spike who were also in the barn.

“Argh, my head, what happened last night?” said Spike in a daze, feeling probably the worst hangover ever. The light coming from the barn door caused his eyes to burn with a searing pain that also enveloped his brain. “I’m never drinking again!” yelled Spike as he bent over and began to vomit. A few of the mares came up and began to rub his back or pat it gently.

“Aww are you ok our purple scaled Stud?” Spike ceased vomiting long enough to respond with a highly confused tone.

“Wait, what?” Spike wiped the bit of vomit still hanging on his mouth as he tried to focus on what she had to say.

“You’re our Stud now.” Five of the mares went up to Spike and just smiled at him. “All of us agreed to have you!” Spike looked between the five mares in total confusion.

“What the...” As Spike looked between the five different mares another thought occurred to him, they were all sexy. “...perhaps I will drink again.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Glarin had stopped running once he was outside the barn and in front of the apple’s house. Boy it was a mess. They must of had some crazy party last night, ponies were strewn out all over the yard and some were even in the trees, while a few hung out of windows. As Glarin looked around he saw that rainbow maned pony looking around in total shock at the mess around the house.

“What in the hay is going on here?!” Rainbow Dash looked around and saw Glarin walking toward the house

“You! What did you do!? Where is Big Mac?! And wheres my little colt and filly?!”

“I didn’t do nothing! I was just enjoying myself a drink that Granny Smith made and then, some stuff happened, I’m not sure what though.” Rainbow Dash groaned as she threw her head back in anger.

“I swear if something happened to any of them I’ll...” Glarins eyes went wide as she stepped closer to him in a threatening manner. Strong visions of him being bucked into the endless void known as the sky flashed through his mind. When all of a sudden the front door opened with Big Mac walking out. “...Mac! You’re alright!” Rainbow flew over to Big Mac and gave him a hug with several kisses.

“Yeah I’m alright, and so are the rest of us. Grannies new drink seemed to be a hit. Besides the mess, every things alright. Welcome home by the way.” Glarin waved his hand in an effort to brush it away as he tried to walk inside.

“And where do you think you’re going?”

“Uhh, inside?”

“I don’t think so! You clean up this mess! I know you were responsible for it!”

“Take it easy on him Rainbow, he’s still injured after what Applejack did to em.”

“Injured? He doesn’t look injured to me! He was running over here from the barn!”

“The barn? Oh yeah, how did it go for you and Spike?”

“How did what go?”

“The herd party Pinkie threw for you two.” Rainbow jumped up into the air in surprise.

“Pinkie did WHAT?!”

“Now wait a minute honey, everyone had quite a bit to drink yesterday, things did get a bit out of hand, and that’s why Pinkie decided to throw that party...” Big Mac thought for a minute. “... Oh yeah, Princess Luna decided to go home last night after you started flirting with Nurse White Sir Glarin.”

“Garh! I did what!” Glarin grabbed what little hair he had on his head in fustration.

“She seemed awful depressed...” Glarin took a deep breath and just shuttered.

“I guess she’s fed up with me...” Glarin was sad for a moment before he shook his head and threw his arms up in triumph “Haha!” Big Mac stepped aside in order to let him pass while Rainbow just gave him a death glare.

“He didn’t do anything while I was gone did he?” Big Mac just watched him walk into the kitchen and shook his head

“Nnope.” Rainbow just sighed as they heard him rummaging through the fridge.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The rest of morning went by rather roughly as the ponies began to wake up and get themselves home. Rainbow Dash was a welcome sight for the apple family as she had been gone the past few days due to a Wonderbolts show that was held in Manehattan.

Spike also had one heck of time explaining to Twilight why five mares followed him home to the Library. One of them was disappointed he didn’t have a place of his own, while the other four offered he move in with them. Twilight was less than thrilled about what was transpiring in front of her home.

Glarin gave the guards a 3 hour break from starting as it would seem they all had some kind of hangover. He sent the 1st fifteen toward the Spa with Nurse White and the 1st half of the bits they had agreed upon for payment. The second half got back to work.

As he stood around directing the fifteen he still had working, one of them decided to ask a question.

“Why aren’t you using the wheelchair today Glarin?”

“Well one, I can’t find it, and two, after all the drinking I did yesterday. It feels like my ribs healed up quite a bit...” Glarin reached into his pocket and pulled out the large flask and started unscrewing it. “... sweet magical healing elixir.”

“How can you still drink...” the guard made a gag sound thinking about it. “...that stuff? Aren’t you feeling sick at all?”

“Na, it actually brings me back. I can finally get back to 100% with this. I’ll be taking it a bit slower today though, probably only drink half the barrel.”

“H-How can you stand to drink more than a single mug?” said the guard with a confused look on his face

“How can YOU stand to only drink a single mug?” said Glarin with a confused look on his face causeing the guard to sigh.

“N-never mind...” Glarin just watched him walk away and get back to work, Glarin shrugged it off as he drank from the flask. As he stood there watching them work, Rainbow Dash flew by and landed right next to him.

“I just came to say I was sorry, and to thank you for all the money you gave to Applejack, it’s really gonna help us out!”

“What money? I didn’t give her anything...” Glarin thought for a minute. “...besides some gems that I got while digging some time ago. How much did she get from them exactly?” Said Glarin as he raised an eyebrow suspiciously

“Uhh, I don’t remember the exact number, but she said a couple thousand bits, and even more once she finds someone to buy the other 2 gems in Canterlot.”

“WHAAT!?” In frustration Glarin chugged the rest of the flask.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A month and a half has passed and Glarins new home was finally starting to look like a home instead of just a massive hole in the ground surrounded by bricks and dirt. His ribs had also completely healed up to the confusion of the entire equestrian medical world. They couldn’t believe he had fully healed after only a month, filled with binge drinking no less. Yet a full scan showed he had in fact finished healing quite nicely. His bones also seemed to be stronger than they were before.

The entire equestrian medical world was baffled and he had actually started a nation wide research based on the Granny Daniels to find if it really did have healing properties.

It didn’t. The Millions of bits that were thrown into the research were wasted. Anyway...

The 1st couple of days after that herd party passed by awkwardly between Glarin and Nurse White. She wasn’t sure how to react to Glarins drunken flirts, yet she also attended that herd starting party. Only to wake up to him running out the barn yelling like a mad man. In the end he had told her it was nothing more than a night filled with drunken lust...

That would probably happen again if he ingested enough Granny Daniels.

Luna had a similar plight, after realizing he was drunk she tried several advances yet none of them seem to take, and when he started flirting with Nurse White, well she had enough and decided to head home in defeat. Glarin actually hadn’t heard anything from Canterlot the entire time, nor had he heard anything about them being broken up like he had heard about them being together. After a few days he had completely forgotten about the ordeal and kept on with his own life.

He had been having strange dreams though. Mostly about some kind of moon goat with rippling muscles and a glorious beard.

The Main hallway of Glarins grand home was finished with several side rooms and of course, a massive gym. Glarins home gym was actually bigger than The Ponyville Gym and Fitness Center combined. It had three Sauna’s, five shower rooms, and even a snack bar. The snack bar was Spikes idea.

It even had such great airflow that the smell of sweat and hard work wouldn’t make the place stink up. Being a Dwarf, Glarin had placed all of the air vents so that they would have maximum efficiency in keeping air fresh within his massive underground home.

Above ground his house looked like a small cottage similar to Fluttershy’s home, except it was made from brick and stone. A small home that looked completely unimpressive to those unknowing of the contents within. The air vents that went to the surface were also disguised as large boulders on the surface.

All of the guards lived on site inside bunk rooms. Ten to a room with plenty of extra rooms, just in case. The underground portion of it was massive compared to the top. Thanks to the lay lines map he had gotten from the princesses, he was able to build close enough to access them but not break them by accident due to careless building/mining. He just had to find a pony that could give him the hook ups so he could also get one of those magical ice boxes they called a refrigerator, and some lights.

But mostly a fridge so he could keep the Granny Daniels cold. Lights he could live without, with his dark vision and all. He wondered how the lay lines worked to get running water. Did the lay lines have some kind of magical stream running through them? Or was it some kind of fancy magic that literally created water from nothing? Well, he would find out once he found someone to set it up for him.

The guards were now covered in thick muscles that were visible for all to see. Where they once had cut muscles they now had bulking cut muscles. It would seem the amount of muscle a pony had directly affected the ponies overall size, or perhaps it was based upon their overall strength. The end result was that all of the ponies he had trained, were now at least 5-10 inches taller than him now. He would have to adjust the armor he had been making for them.

The earth ponies seemed to gain the most muscle mass and size increase. The pegasi were strong and fast fliers, way more than they were before, with a moderate muscle and size increase. The unicorns had gained the smallest amount of muscle mass and size, but had a large boost in magical power even though they hadn’t been training with their magic.

Spike was an entirely different story. Not only did he gain in muscle mass and size, his voice deepened and wings had begun to sprout from his back. He couldn’t quite fly yet but he was getting the hang of it. The mares around Ponyville would gawk when Spike traveled through town. Even Rarity was flustered around him when 2 months ago she would have nothing to do with him. Spike wasn’t sure what to do with his new found looks, and the mares that followed him around since the party Pinkie threw would jealously stick close to him on his free time.

Now that they had the muscle mass and endurance built up, it was time for some actual training with weapons and live combat. Good thing he had them build a obstacle course outside his home. They wouldn’t be able to use the underground facilities until he got the lights installed. As the ponies couldn’t see in the dark like he could, and torches got expensive even when bought in bulk.

He had hired a few Doctors to visit once a week so they could learn basic pony medical knowledge and anatomy. It would seem he would need to hire a few as permanent staff for the injures they were going to sustain during the next part of his training.

Should he also get to work on a medical ward... na, the hospital was close enough. But he would certainly need his own personal forge though. What kind of dwarf would he be if he didn’t even have his own forge? Also a few shrines to some of his dwarven deites would also need to be added.

Anyway, Glarin still also had to buy things like blankets for his bedroom and such, most of the gym equipment and other furniture was easy enough to make with the left over construction materials. After all, Glarin didn’t mind if everything was made from rock and dirt, reminded him of home and the gym equipment just needed to be heavy and have a place to hold on too.

The only thing that upset him while they were making his home, was that they didn’t find a single deposit of ore, gems they found. Gems seemed to litter the underground everywhere. In Equestria, Gems seemed to be common everywhere with certain places having very high concentrations of them. Where as metals were hard to come by in this world. Or was he just perhaps not looking in the right direction for metals?

He needed to look into the whole unicorns with magical finding spells. Like how Rarity had a spell that could locate gems, he just needed a unicorn with a metal finding spell.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Glarin had gathered all of he guards outside the obstacle course as he was going to have their first mock fight, with clubs.

“Alright listen up, were going to be having 1 on 1 fights. I don’t wanna see you holding back. I’m expecting bruising, concussions, and possibly broken bones, hopefully we won’t have any deaths.”

“D-deaths sir?”

“Aye, it can happen, a hard enough blow to the head can cause death. Now you will fight each other until I say to stop or one of you becomes unable to fight. Understood?” The guards had finally come around to be more accepting of Glarin, so far he had taken great care of them. And they expected him to take care of them if they did become injured from his training exercises.

“Sir yes sir!” they had also begun starting to sound like a military unit instead of a bunch of green horn guards.

“1st things 1st , put these on!” Glarin opened up a crate he had been standing next to “I had em all special made for you guys, I got tired of seeing you carry everything around with your teeth, this will also help you adapt to the new armor sets you will be using in a another month of so. It will also help keep you from losing too many teeth when your are disarmed... Actually I’m not even sure its possible to be disarmed with these unless it breaks.”

The ponies reached into the crate and pulled out what looked like some kind of harness with various pieces of metal worked into it. An earth pony began to strap it on after inspecting it for a minute. The harness seemed to go around his entire body with the front part having metal sleeves.

On closer inspection it would appear the front ends had what seemed to be metal springs and a few other contraptions that they couldn’t quite figure out at the moment. Once everypony was strapped up Glarin began to explain the device to them.

“Alright now, these here harnesses I made will hold your equipment, I’ll have to make some new equipment so they fit inside the harnesses gripping mechanism. You’ll also have to thank the towns Clock work pony for making these, hes good with all the little gears and delicate parts. He actually improved my original design for them. Now...” Glarin took one of the clubs he had near the crate and went up to an earth pony, and forced it into a hole in the harness near his shoulder.

“Ok, now, Stamp your hoof down as hard as you can, make sure the back of your hoof touches your barrel.” The earth pony complied and heard a small click when the back of his hoof touched his barrel. He then stomped his hoof down as hard as possible, cracking the earth beneath his hoof. At the same time the mechanism within the harness came to life and the club swung down, and with a loud click and a whirr the club positioned itself facing outward midway down his forearm.

“Ok good, looks like its working, now lift your hoof above your head for me...” As the earth pony lifted his hoof above his head, another click was heard and the club moved to the bottom of his hoof so it looked like he was holding the club with a single hoof above his head.

“Excellant! This way you wont have to worry about holding the weapons with your mouths, I’m sure after a bit of time you will get used to them and your fighting ability’s will improve. Tell me if you have any ideas on how to improve them or if something is wrong with it. Still have a few kinks to work out of em. I also still need to work on the speed so they can be used in actual combat better. Or maybe just rework the entire design, Not sure exactly. So we need to run a few trial runs is all.”

“Wait, you’re planning to build something like this into our armor?”

“Yeah, you’re all going to get a full helmet, so you wouldn’t be able to carry anything in your mouth, and seeing you ponies fold your arms all funny around poles and handles...” Glarin just shook his head. “...I don’t know, I don’t trust you to hold on to a weapon in the heat of a real battle like that without any fingers...” Glarin wiggled his fingers while looking at them for a moment. “...Anyway, I’ll let you guys strap your selves up and get used to them for a bit before we start the matches.” The guards all saluted and began to test them out.

Glarin watched as most of them seemed to fumble around while getting the harnesses to work. He was just glad that once he had it implemented into the armor everything would just click and snap into place. Unless Princess Twilight Sparkle got involved in the design again. He had asked for her help before, and she went and gnomed up his original design.

For those unfamiliar with the term ‘gnomed up’. It basically means taking something that could be simple, like making a sandwich, into something overly complex and a complete waste of time. Like building a complex machine the size of a house to make sandwiches for you, but only to have the machine break repeatedly or make half destroyed sandwiches.

Yeah, gnomes suck, and Twilight seemed to have the mind set of one when it came to mechanical designs. Magic on the other hand was a completely different story, it was best to leave her out of any and all mechanical designs.

Anyway, the 1 on 1 fights were a complete disaster. They were bloody scared to hit each other! And when they did, well... it looked more like love taps. Glarin briefly wondered if they would start kissing at the end of the match. They didn’t, much to his disappointment... perhaps hes had a bit much to drink today. He had starting drinking the 7 barrels of Granny Daniels 2 weeks before the ready date and was already almost through with it. He was on his last barrel and the next batch wouldn’t be ready for another 2 years.

The guards may have looked fearsome due to their sheer size and muscle volume, but their personality left a lot to be desired. They had become something like gentle giants. At least he hoped that was what they had become. He just needed to find a way past their timid nature. He would probably have to find a way to get them to become serious during these mock fights. If they didn’t learn how to fight each other, they would most certainly have trouble when a real fight broke out.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Toward the end of the disastrous training day, Spike came up to Glarin and asked what he had planned for later.

“Hey Sir Glarin, did you um, have plans for later tonight?” Glarin just looked at Spike with a raised eyebrow.

“Sorry Lad, my axe doesn’t swing in that direction...” Spike began to blush from embarrassment

“T-That isn’t what I meant! I was just wondering if you heard about the show Sweetie Belle was going to put on. I thought maybe you might want to go.”

“Show? What show?”

“Sweetie is going to be singing on stage tonight at the Watering Hole.”

“Why would she sing by the towns well?”

“No its not a well. Thats the name of the place. It’s a drink bar, they serve food as well and sometimes they hire ponies to provide entertainment. Sweetie Belle has been trying to get her singing career off the ground for years now. So far she’s only done small town gigs...”

“Oh that lass Sweetie Belle huh? Do you still fancy her? How about those other mares you already got a hold of? Or are you looking to expand your clan still?” Glarin gave Spike a big Grin “Oh to be young and fertile. Such an exciting life it must be. Tell me, have any of those mares gone and taken to your seed yet?” Spike’s face began to turn beat red

“N-No. I mean, we haven’t done much since that night and well... I’m not really attracted to them anymore. I just don’t know how to tell them.”

“Just go on an’ tell em! No point in dulling a blunt axe boy.”

“Well, what about what you did with Princess Luna? Isn’t that what you were doing at first?”

“That was diffrent lad! She was a Princess, royalty! She could of had me killed if it ended badly!” Spike just raised a scaly eyebrow at Glarin.

“I’m pretty sure it did end badly... what with you flirting with everyone in town except her...”

“What!? I did no such thing! It never happened as far as I’m concerned. Luna and I just went separate ways is all...”

“Big Mac told me you flirted with him as you groped his arms...” Glarin threw up his arms in defiance.

“I told you my axe don’t swing that way boy!”

“I don’t know... You kept telling him something along the lines of, and I quote ‘how do you know you don’t like dwarf, if you’ve never tried it?’” Some of the guards overheard what was being said and began to snicker.

“Boy, I swear it was the drink, also all of the ponies look like females to me, I still can’t figure out the difference between the boys and girls here. Besides lookin’ between the legs...” Spike just sighed as he shook his head.

“Look, did you wanna go see Sweetie Belle sing or not?”

“Hrm, yeah why not. Maybe I’ll find something new to drink there.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Glarin and Spike were sitting at the bar, Spike needed a special seat to fit his increased size. But most of spots in Ponyville that Spike visited often had adjusted since he’s been this big for about two weeks now.

“I say Spike, this growth spurt of yours is most astonishing. Why just last week you wern’t much bigger than I was!” said the barkeep with a hearty laugh.

“Heh, yeah. I’m not sure what caused the sudden growth spurt and either does Twilight, she had to get me a new basket.” Glarin looked over at Spike for a moment in a bit of confusion.

“You sleep in a basket lad?”

“Uhh, yeah?” Glarin just shook his head.

“Well, to each his own I suppose. Hey barkeep, what do ya have thats good?”

“Hmm, well that depends. We have all kinds of juice from far and wide. And we have a bit of the apple family Cider still. We don’t carry Granny Daniels though, as far as I know it isn’t mass produced yet like the Cider is during the Fall.” Glarin just grumbled to himself a bit and looked over at Spike who just shrugged as he wasn’t sure what to get as well.

“Just give me a glass of yer finest cleaning water...” As the bar keep spun around to fill up a glass from the sink a very pale yellow pony, who was almost white in color, troted up to the bar. The pony had an electric blue mane and some crazy looking glasses that were tinted a pink red color. The pony pulled up a seat next to Glarin and smacked her hoof down on the table with a smile on her face.

“Yo Barkeep Jimmy! Give me the usual with a glass of Cider would ya?”

“Coming right up Vinyl, Glad to see you’re back in town.”

“Yeah but just for the weekend, I got a show to put on in Las Pegasus in a few days, so I came back to relax for a bit at my favorite Watering Hole.” The bar keep just nodded at her and passed the glass of water over to Glarin. Vinyl looked over at Glarin and took her glasses off as she looked at him.

“Oh hey, I know you man! You’re that new knight of Equestria the princesses made a few months ago. I didn’t know you were in town! How long you gonna stay?”

“I live here, My new home is just about finished actually.” Glarin began to sip the water from his glass slowly.

“Aww no way man for real?! That’s awesome! I had no idea I was living in the same town as a Princess and the first Knight from another race!”

“You seem very excitable. What was your name again?”

“Vinyl Scratch is the name, My stage name is DJ-Pon3 though. But you can just call me Vinyl, or Scratch. Doesn’t matter to me.” The bar keep brought over the drinks she ordered. One of them was on fire while the other had a plant of some kind in it. She also got a mug filled to the brim with a golden frothy liquid.

“What in blazes is that drink with the fire lass!?” Vinyl looked down at her drink and just grinned as she put her glasses back on.

“This is called Fire Water, its made in Stalliongrad. This other one I got is called Loco. The last drink I got is some classic apple Family Cider to wash it all down with.” She picked up the flaming drink and threw her head back as she tossed it down her gullet with it still on fire, followed by downing the drink called Loco. She made a loud exhale as she slammed the empty glasses down onto the table.

“WOO! That hit the spot. I suggest the fire water Sir Glarin. Loco is kinda just a drink for ponies as the loco weed extract in it doesn’t seem to have the same effect on non-ponies. Now if you’ll excuse me, I gotta go help my friend Octavia and the band set up. Some young mare named Sweetie, is supposed to be singing tonight. Oh yeah, If you ever wanna hang while I’m in town drop me a line. Same to you Spike.” With that she hopped off the seat and went up on the stage behind some equipment. Glarin and Spike just looked at each other then over to the barkeep.

“Hey can we get some fire waters as well?” The Barkeep just nodded his head.

“Two fire waters coming up.” As they got their drinks, they both picked em up and slung their heads back as they threw the drink into their mouths. With loud exhales they set the glasses down.

“This fire water... Isn’t water at all! Barkeep, keep em coming!” As the barkeep got a second round going Spike tapped Glarin on the shoulder.

“Hey, Sweetie came out on stage.” Glarin turned around to see her up on stage, she looked a little nervous as she cleared her throat before speaking into the microphone.

“Hello everyone, My name is Sweetie Belle, and I was going to sing a song for an old friend of mine who can’t be here with us tonight... Her name is Scootaloo.” Glarin grabbed his drink as the Barkeep set it down and quickly downed it. Spike just sat in his seat a little bummed looking.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQeM3YCQh6s

As the song began Glarin held off on drinking the next Fire Water as he listened to the lyrics she was singing. 30 seconds into the song, Glarin understood what the song was about. He quickly downed the firewater again and set the glass down. Then indicated he needed another one.

Glarin turned around and watched as she sang. She had a beautiful singing voice. A huge contrast to her normal speaking voice that would squeak from time to time.The sad song made him think of his family who had long since past.

As the song ended Glarin spun back around and threw his head back to drink the next firewater.

Only to have it miss his mouth and land on his beard.

Sweetie Belles sad song ended with Glarin Screaming at the top of his lungs.

“OH SWEET MERCIFUL BERRONAR!” Glarin began to run around slapping his beard and face trying to put out the fire on his beard. “SOMEONE FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS HOLY SAVE MY BEARD!” Vinyl Scratch took it upon herself to throw the remainder of her Cider into Glarins face, effectively putting out his beard fire.

“Way to change the mood man.” Said Vinyl with a grin on her face.

Las Pegasus

View Online

“Please please please please!!! You must go with my little sister Sweetie Belle to her 1st big show! I will gladly pay you for your time and for making sure she stay’s safe!” Glarin just grumbled as Rarity continued to plead to him. It had been two days.

Two days Rarity had come to Glarin’s new house to ask, no, she was no longer asking. She was begging he go with her little sister to some city down south called Las Pegasus. At first he told her he would think about it, but when one of the guards told him Las Pegasus had become a city full criminal organizations. He declined the offer and also told her not to allow her little sister to go to such a place.

“That’s why I’m asking you to go! You could keep her safe and you could even bring along your little entourage! She needs this so her singing carrier will take off! A well known talent agent came and saw her performance that night you set your beard on fire...” Glarin interrupted Rarity. He had enough of her pleading, and he didn’t want a reminder of how his beard was horribly disfigured a few days ago. If to just get her to shut her mouth he would agree.

“How much were you planning to pay me?” Rarity was elated at this question, it was the 1st time he had asked how much she would pay him. She assumed he had finally agreed to do it.

“Why I would pay you one thousand bits and another thousand on her safe return!” Glarin raised an eyebrow at such a large sum of money, two thousand bits just to keep the little mare safe? Rarity took Glarin’s look of shocked confusion as a sign she was offering too little money.

“I-if two thousand isn’t high enough I will...” Glarin interrupted her with raising his hand

“No no, the two thousand bits is plenty enough. I just uh... Never mind, when was she going to leave?”

“Oh thank you thank you thank you! I’ll send Sweetie Belle with Apple Bloom over later this afternoon with the train tickets! Um how many guards were you going to bring along?”

“Wait, Apple Bloom is going along?”

“Well of course, they are both best friends after all. And well, After what happened to their other friend all those years ago, they don’t like to be apart for very long. But as I was saying, how many guards were you going to bring along?”

“Oh hrm, just one of em, Spike Actually.”

“J-just you and Spike? Are you sure?” asked Rarity as she raised an eyebrow.

“I’m positive yeah, now when are we leaving exactly?”

“Why tomorrow morning of course! I’ll have Sweetie spend the night at your house and I’m sure Apple Bloom will as well, that way you can all head straight to the train after breakfast!”

“Well alright, if that makes it easier for you. I'll need to go let Spike know we’re going on a special mission.” with that Rarity trotted away quite happily with Glarin closing his large stone door behind him and headed down some stairs into the basement.

It was quite a huge basement, it was a side passage away from the main hall and with the addition of the lay lines he had a power source for lights as well. He found a unicorn that would hook everything up for him the day before and was able to get most of the lights installed already. That unicorn worked fast.

The magic lights were much better than using torches and he had no idea how to make runes of light like a Rune-Shaper would.

After Glarin finished packing a bag he went upstairs and headed outside to the Library. He had given everyone the day off today in celebration of his home being 90% complete. He got running water this morning, a big plus. Turns out the lay lines had some kind of magical water running through them at all times.

He had also finally remembered most of the roads around ponyville, he only got lost some times now.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Glarin was returning back to his humble abode with Spike when they saw Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom sitting outside the front door with Applejack. Glarin just waved at them while Spike did the same.

“So ya’ll are taking my little sis and Sweetie Belle to Las Pegasus to do a show?”

“We sure are Applejack.” said Spike with a smile on his face as he waved. Glarin simply grunted in confirmation.

“I’ve been reading the news, I know what that towns been like the past few years, gangs popping up everywhere with dirty guards doing nothing about it and the such. I even heard a rumor that the guards are in league with em! I want you ta promise me you’ll bring em back to us safe N’ sound.” Glarin just nodded his head

“Applejack, you have my word as a dwarf I’ll bring em back to you safe N’ sound. I’ll treat em the way I would my own sisters. I promise on my beard that I'll return them to you or Rarity.” Applejack smiled at that with a sigh of relief.

“That’s good. I’m glad you decided to go Glarin. This will really help Sweetie Belle get her singing career up off the ground. You gotta start big someplace, I just wish it wasn’t in Las Pegasus.”

“Don’t you worry your pretty little head Applejack, Spike and I are in the same mine cart with em.” With a smile Applejack left back toward the apple farm. If there was one thing she liked about Glarin. It was that he always told the truth and kept to his word.

“So what are we gonna do 1st? I can’t wait to see the inside of your new house!” Squeaked Sweetie Belle. How she could sing without adding in that squeak confused him.

“Well, I dunno what we're gonna do... Whatever you want I guess. We still have a few hours before it gets dark and all.” When Glarin opened the door everyone noticed that the lights were rather dim.

“Why are your lights so dim Glarin? This place doesn’t look big enough for you to have power problems...”

“Yeah the first floor is rather small, lets head down to the main hallway. I’ll show you to your rooms and then I guess we can figure out what to do in order to pass the time.” Glarin went a little deeper into the house and opened a door that led to a large staircase.

As they descended Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle looked around the massive room they entered into. It was lit up with a large amount of lights and had different doors lining its walls. As they followed him in total awe Glarin pointed over to their left.

“Your rooms are on this side, the doors at the end of the hallway lead to the gym and the other leads to the mine, the right and left door respectfully. On the right side is the bunk houses for the guards and other trainees. I’m assuming Princess Celestia and Princess Luna will send more my way once they see how their guards look.”

“This place is huge!” shouted Sweetie Belle as she looked around.

“It sure is big, I never expected it to be so big when the outside looks so small. I guess that makes sense though since most of this is underground.” Spike just crossed his arms.

“Yeah well, I knew how big it was from the beginning when I helped build it.”

“I did my share of work once my ribs were set in place. So don’t go taking all the credit for it lad.”

Once everyone was settled in, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle turned to each other for ideas on what to do for entertainment. Spike offered they play a board game while Glarin suggested using his gym equipment, as that is what he had been doing to pass the time when he had nothing else to do.

They opted for the board game.

“Aha! You landed on my property! You owe me...” Apple Bloom picked up the property card and looked through it. “...246 bits Glarin!” Glarin just grumbled as he picked up a hand full of bills.

“I hate this board game called Ponopoly. When did I even get this game?” said Glarin as he forked over the game money to Apple Bloom.

“I believe Twilight gave it to you along with all those books to help you learn Equestrian.”

“Bah, I don’t need to learn how to read your goblin scratch language. I’ve been fine so far.” Sweetie Belle just raised an eyebrow.

“Thats why you keep handing the cards over to Spike! Are you also just handing us more than we need because you can’t read the numbers too?” Glarin just grumbled as he handed the dice over to Spike so he could roll.

“No, I’m just being generous...” said Glarin as he crossed his arms. Spike jsut chuckled as he looked over at Glarin.

“Hey Glarin, you mind if I ask a question?” Glarin raised an eyebrow.

“Not at all lad. Ask away.”

“Well I remember you saying that when you enter into a fury, you lose the use of your body. What did you mean by that exactly?” Glarin grunted as he cleared his throat.

“Were you not listening when I told this to Twilight some time ago? Well not only do the muscles break and tear, but you lose the use of your senses the longer or more often you enter it. Taste disappears, sense of touch dulls, and sounds become muffled. The worst of it is when it begins to take your eyes. The light begins to fade and everything takes on a shadowy aspect. In the end you could end up in a permanent world of darkness.”

“T-that can actually happen?” asked Apple Bloom as she listened

“It can and has happened, but most Berserkers die on the field of battle before that happens. No ones reached the point of no return and lived long to tell of it, because if they have it was on the battle field.”

“How do you prevent something like that?”

“Prevent? Well, you can slow it down. My old teacher told me those that enter a fury without a guiding light fall faster than those without a light to guide them through the darkness.”

“A guiding light? Like what?”

“Hrmm, like something to focus on, something to protect. A priest of Berronar actually provides a good beacon in the darkness for us. A few normally project a holy light from the cities in times of war.”

Spike just nodded his head as he thought about that while they continued to play the board game well into the night.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The morning went by rather quickly after breakfast. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle complained about the beds being made of rock. To which Glarin just shrugged with Spike laughing.

The train ride itself was also uneventful. Absolutely nothing happened.

And Glarin hoped it would stay that way. Hopefully the criminal scum he had heard about in Las Pegasus would pay them no mind and this would be a simple job with just him keeping watch over the two mares with Spike.

When they arrived at the Las Pegasus train station Glarin was surprised and a little in awe about all of the brightly colored and glowing lights and signs in the city. Many of the buildings were also so high he couldn’t see the tops of them once he got close to them.

“So this is Las Pegasus. I figured a city filled with criminal scum would be more on the down low.”

“Well the criminals aren’t really out in the open Glarin. Las Pegasus is a city full of gambling and illegal activities that are kept on the down low, as Twilight says. Cause what happens in Las Pegasus, stays in Las Pegasus... except metritis or arteritis, that sticks with you for life.”

“What in blazes are those?”

“Venereal Diseases.”

“And a Venereal is?”

“Well its not a thing its um...” Spike was starting to become flustered with answering when Sweetie Belle just blurted it out.

“Hes just using a fancy word for sex.” Glarin lightly pounded his fist into his open left hand as he understood it. Then became confused again.

“Wait, too much sex can make you sick? What kind of horrible place is this?!” Sweetie Belle just face hoofed while Apple Bloom laughed

“As long as both parties make sure to keep clean its not much of a problem. Applejack told me all about that stuff a few years ago.”

“Yeah Rarity told me pretty much everything as well.” Glarin just looked between the two of them as they continued to talk, then glanced over at Spike. Spike just got flustered again

“Twilight told me about some stuff, but uh, it was really awkward... apparently dragons develop differently from ponies and she was stumped on a few things.” Glarin just scoffed

“Well a course you develop differently! You’re a giant fire breathing lizard! A dragon! Why I wouldn’t be surprised if you had two or three of em!”

“Well actually...” Glarin threw up both hands to keep him from speaking more while Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom ended their conversation to try and hear the rest of what Spike had to say.

“Enough Lad! I don’t need to know. Lets just get to where we need to go.” Glarin looked over to Sweetie Belle who took a piece of paper out from her saddle bag and looked it over.

“Lets see, The hotel were looking for is called the Sheltered Mare. Its located on the opposite end of Las Pegasus from the train station.” Glarin looked out ahead of him and grunted.

“So if we walk straight long enough, well find it...”

“Or, Or Glarin, we could get a taxi. That way we don’t have to walk.” Suggested Apple Bloom.

“Money shouldn’t be a problem while we’re here. Rarity already set up a hotel room for us and everything along with some bits to pay for food and taxi’s.”

“Wow really?” said Apple Bloom, Sweetie just nodded her head with a big grin on her face.

“My sister is really hoping this gets my singing career off the ground. She was saying I could one day be singing up on stages like Sapphire Shores. And then she could design dresses and costumes for me to wear!”

“Wow thas really excitin! Good thing that talent agent was in town when he saw you perform Sweetie Belle.” Sweetie Belle nodded excitedly with both of them rushing off together toward the street so they could hail a taxi. Glarin just looked over to Spike.

“Keep your eyes peeled lad. Let us pray to Moradin that this goes as smoothly as the two lasses hope it will.” Spike just walked out after them as he talked to Glarin.

“Yeah well. I’m sure those news ponies exaggerate things just to get more views or whatever. I seriously doubt things are as bad they say it is. I mean, if ponies were kidnaped everyday and sent into slavery like they said, I’m sure the Princesses would of done something about it by now.” They could see Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom waving their hooves up in the air trying to get the attention of one of those yellow carts.

“I hope you’re right lad. What about those rumors of the dirty guards who even help the criminals?” a rather large yellow Cart pulled up along side the road

“Just lies made up by the media. There’s no way the Solar guard would be entirely corrupt like that. I mean, Im sure there’s a few, but its not like all of them are like that.” Glarin looked over at the pony who was pulling the taxi. He had a beard. So he was trustworthy in Glarins book.

“Where y’all headed to?”

“The four of us are headed to the Sheltered Mare!” The taxi driver gave a bit of a shudder that caused Glarin to raise an eyebrow.

“Are you sure? I can suggest much nicer places to stay. Take the Dancing Stallion for example. Plenty of nice folk in that area.”

“No, just take us to the Sheltered Mare please. I’m doing my first big show there tomorrow!” the Stallion gave a sigh.

“Alright then. Hop in...” the Taxi Driver looked at Spike and Glarin for a second then raised an eyebrow. “... are you two with these young mares here?” Glarin grunted while Spike replied with a simple yes. As Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom were distracted with putting all of their bags inside, the Taxi driver leaned over and almost whispered to them

“Keep an eye on ‘em at all times over there. Most of the Marenapping happens on that side a town.” Glarin raised an eyebrow while Spike just widened his eyes.

“Are you serious dude?”

“Dead serious. That side of town is bad news. I don’t like staying in it for long.” Glarin cursed under his breath while Spike just looked at him.

“Hey, are one of you gonna help us or what? Come put those new muscles of yours to work Spike!” Spike just looked down to Glarin and nodded his head, then went over to help.

“Don’t you worry about a thing Lad. Me and the dragon will take good care of them. Were acting as body guards. Names Glarin of the dwarves by the way.” The taxi driver looked to be in thought for a moment before gaining a smile on his face.

“The Glarin? I heard about you. Oh boy, that’s good then. I’m sure nothing bad will happen with you around then. Well hop on in, I’ll get you guys there in a jiffy.” and with that everyone got into the taxi and he took them to the Sheltered Mare.

Along the way they passed by so many signs and advertisements it was hard to ignore them. Many of them were so eye poppingly bright and colorful your eyes were drawn to them whether you wanted to look at them or not.

After about 30 minutes of fast paced traffic filled traveling inside the taxi, they arrived at the Sheltered Mare. He stopped just in front of the entrance and let them all off.

“Good luck during your first show! I’ll make this ride on the house for a future star! Just uh, stay safe ok?” Sweetie Belle just nodded her head with enthusiasm at him while everyone else unloaded the taxi. Once it was empty he quickly went down the road and was out of sight.

Thinking nothing of it, Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom began heading to the front door when a dog about the size of Winona came up to them and began to happily yip wagging its tail.

“How cute!” Said Sweetie and Bloom as they began to pet the dog, much to its enjoyment. Afterwards they waved goodby to it and went inside.

“I wonder who’s dog that was...” they walked toward what they assumed to be the front desk.

Glarin and Spike were looking around the lobby. It seemed to have many balconies and was extremely fancy looking. Golden pillars lined the walls with expensive looking art between the pillars. They arrived at the front desk with a very pretty looking mare behind the counter.

“Excuse me! My name is Sweetie Belle and a talent agent by the name of Keen Eye told me to go here. He said everything would be set up for a show I would perform for tomorrow. Also my older sister Rarity contacted this place in advance about booking a room for me and my friends.” Sweetie moved a hoof behind her to point out Apple Bloom, Glarin and Spike.

“Sweetie Belle was it? Let me check the records here, just a moment.” The mare turned around and began looking through some files until she pulled one out.

“Ah yes, Sweetie Belle, your sister Rarity did indeed pay for a room in advance. The manager was also informed of your arrival and he went ahead and upgraded your room to a pent house suite. Apparently you impressed Keen Eye enough to put in a very good word for you.” She put several room keys up on the counter and pushed them forward.

“Wow a pent house suite!? Really? Just for us?!” Sweetie gained a huge grin upon her face.

“Indeed, our Manager Himmel Krieger always enjoys giving new up coming singers the best. He hopes to bring more fame to the hotel once they become famous. Since this will be your first major show, I presume?” Sweetie just nodded her head.

“Excellent, be sure to remember where you got your big break ok? Your room is up on the 35th floor.” Sweetie swiped up the keys in her magic and levitated a key to everyone.

“Wow a pent house suite on the 35th floor? Thas amazing Sweetie Belle!” Glarin was the last to get a key and grunted as they headed toward the elevators.

“Sounds fishy to me.” Glarin was just looking at the key in his hand

“Oh I’m sure he does that with all the new up coming stars! You heard what she said right? That talent agent Keen Eye put in a good word for me!”

“That doesn’t sound like any pony name I’ve heard before though.” Spike spoke up next

“Sounds like a Griffin name to me. They always did have fancy sounding names like that. Griffins have names similar to ponies. Except its mostly done with their native tongue instead of equish. I know a little bit, and I think Himmel meant sky. I can’t remember what Krieger was though. I’m sure Twilight would know.”

“Well it doesn’t matter what he is. I just don’t like the sound of it. This place is giving me a weird feeling.”

“Oh come on Sir Glarin, lighten up a bit. Lets just go up to our room and unwind. My show starts tomorrow so we can have a bit of fun today!”

And with that Glarin kept silent as he followed behind the group keeping a close eye on everything around him. Everything seemed normal enough. No one was watching them and was keeping about their own business it seemed. On the way to the elevators they passed by a room with rather large doors with some manner of loud drum beats and other sounds that Glarin couldn’t identify coming from behind it. Apple Bloom noticed him looking at it and decided to tell him what it was.

“This is the theater Glarin, the sign above says so. Mah guess is this place is where Sweetie Belle is gonna perform at.” Sweetie nodded her head again.

“Most likely, I didn’t see anything else like a theater or ball room besides this one as we walked around.” When they reached the elevator they saw a pony wearing a uniform inside standing by a lever.

“Hello and welcome to the Sheltered Mare Elevator, what floor is your room on?”

“The 35th floor please!” The pony in the red suite nodded his head and pulled the lever, causing them to quickly ascend the floors and rise to the top. Once they got to the 35th floor the pony tipped his hat and bid them good day as they left. They traveled to their room and opened the door revealing a rather large room. The pent house suite had its own kitchen and 2 bedrooms with 2 bathrooms. The living room area was rather big as well with two couches and several odd looking tables. Apple Bloom looked at the table curiously.

“What an odd lookin table. Ya think its some kinda fancy one?” Spike looked at it as well, while Sweetie traveled to one of the bedrooms.

“I would have to say yes, it doesn’t look very practical and it also looks like it can fold up, or fold out I’m not sure...”

“Forget the table guys! Look at this bed!” While Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom and Spike were exploring the room. So was Glarin.

He was carefully scanning the walls and a few of the walls didn’t seem as flush as other places. Maybe it was because of bad construction or something else entirely, he wasn’t sure. If the walls were made of stone he could be 100 percent sure of himself. The room also had a faint magical feeling to it. He couldn’t pin point it, but it was there. He didn’t like this place at all. The room felt, wrong, to his dwarven intuition. A knock came upon the door prompting Glarin to stop inspecting the wall and answer it. He opened it to find a Green Stallion with a few other ponies behind him.

“Can I help you?” said Glarin with a raised eyebrow.

“Ah uh, yes I hope so. You see we were told by Mr. Kreiger that a new tenet would be staying up on this floor for the next few days. As the newly hired security team, we thought we would get a look at the new tenets. Just so if we see any suspicious characters we can take care of them. You see we’ve had problems in the past with disappearances. So Mr. Kreiger hired extra security on the floors with his most valued guests.” Glarin just kept looking at them unmoving until he grunted.

“Security huh? Where’s your uniforms then?” Before the pony in question could respond, Spike showed up.

“Who are these guys?” Spike crossed his arms as he looked out to them. Many of the ponies slightly stepped back when Spike came into view.

“They say they’re extra security hired to help keep the important guests safe.” Spike raised an eyebrow.

“But none of them have uniforms.” The green Stallion in the front chuckled.

“Thats because Mr. Krieger didn’t want us standing out. Try to blend in and look like guests he said. He hopes we can catch who ever is responsible for the recent string of Marenappings. After all, its bad for business if ponies keep disappearing around your place of business.” Spike nodded his head in agreement.

“I guess that makes sense. So you just came by to do what exactly?”

“Just to see the new tenets of the floor so that we know who is and who isn’t supposed to be on this floor, That’s all.” As he finished speaking Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle came to the door as well.

“Oh, who are these guys?” The stallions looked past Glarin and Spike and smiled at the two mares.

“Ah, were just the security for this floor miss. Also I have a message for Sweetie Belle...”

“Oh, that’s me!” said Sweetie Belle as she moved to the front.

“...yes well, your show starts at 1PM in the theater on the first floor tomorrow. Just head backstage around noon and the stage hands will help set you up before you go on. Well, that’s pretty much all we came to do. Enjoy your stay.” with that, they all nodded their heads and left.

Glarin just watched them leave down the hall before closing the door and locking it.

“I don’t trust em. His smile was off. And I didn’t like the looks they gave the two of you.”

“Stop acting like an overprotective big brother. I’m sure its not everyday they get to see a rising star and her friends. Let alone a dwarf and a Dragon. I’m sure they were just shocked.”

“Yeah thas right. Dragons still aren’t a very common sight in Equestria. An' Ah’m sure you're still a very new thing for many to see Glarin. Didn’t you see the stares ponies were giving ya as we walked through the lobby?”

“No, No I did not. I wasn’t paying attention to that.” Sweetie and Bloom just sighed.

“Well lets go check out the town! We have an entire day to see the sights!” Glarin just grunted as he followed behind them.

As they walked out of the elevator to the front lobby exit they saw a rather large griffin talking with some ponies by the front desk. They could hear the end of his sentence before he turned around to look at them.

“...Do I make myself clear...?” The pony at the desk nodded her head and was pointing her hoof at them. The griffin approached them with a smile on his face.

“Ah, you four must be our newly arrived guests. From what Keen told me, my guess as to who Sweetie Belle is would be...” he looked between the two mares before setting his eyes on Sweetie. “...you. Such a lovely white coat just like he said. I cannot wait to hear your singing voice my dear.”

“Are ya Mr. Kreiger, the hotels manager?” asked Bloom as she tilted her head.

“Manager and owner of this fine establishment! I do hope you enjoy your stay while you are here. Is the penthouse suite to your liking?” Bloom and Sweetie just nodded their heads fiercely with huge smiles.

“Excellent! Did you get the message from the security team as well?” Sweetie just nodded her head “Ah, even better. Are you all headed out to explore the city then?”

“We sure are!” the Griffin let out booming laugh

“I hope you enjoy yourselves then. Remember though, you have a show tomorrow!” The two mares nodded their heads and headed to the door. They were soon followed by Glarin and Spike who seemed to just shadow them.

At the front lobby the Griffin watched them walk out, then he saw a dog approach them. He watched as the two mares petted the playful looking dog before going on their way. The Griffin turned back toward the mare behind the counter.

“I want that mangy mutt taken out back and gutted. I won’t have some filthy stray tainting my hotel. If its still out there when I come back from lunch. I’ll gut the damn thing myself, and then mount your head in my office with the others.” The Mare nodded her head fearfully then galloped out the front door looking for the dog.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was now the next day and Sweetie Belle was nervous about going on stage in front of a large crowd.

“I-I- don’t know if I can do it you guys...” Bloom just patted Sweetie on the withers

“Don’t you worry, you’ll do just fine. Just pretend you’re still in Ponyville singing among friends and family!” said Apple Bloom.

“You’ll do just fine Sweetie, you have an amazing voice. I mean, you have a cutie mark for singing so of course you’ll do just fine.” said Spike

“I’ll beat anyone that dares boo yer singing Lass. Why not sing something more upbeat this time around.” said Glarin as he crossed his arms and huffed. Electing a giggle from Sweetie.

“Upbeat? Oh! I know what to sing then, go tell the DJ and band to play song 42...” The pony on stage was introducing her as a new and upcoming singer in Equestria, as he said her name he held his hoof out to indicate it was time for her to come out. “...wish me luck guys.” Sweetie walked out on stage and the crowd started cheering. With Bloom running down to inform them what to start playing.

( Footloose - Holding out for a Hero I couldnt decide what to play, so you can decide. Happy )

The music slowly began as the host left the stage leaving Sweetie by herself on the stage. She looked back over to her friends on the side of the stage and took a deep breath to relax her self.

Then she sang, and boy did she sing. Everyone within the theater could feel her emotion and strength from her singing voice. Using her magic she kept the microphone near her mouth as she moved upon the stage electing cheers and whistles from the crowd.

When she finished singing the crowd in the theater all stood to stomp and applaud her performance. Causing the winded white mare to gain a broad smile. The host came out again and held out his hoof to which Sweetie handed the microphone back over to him.

“Wow I must say, that was quite amazing, would you mind singing another for us?” Sweetie became flustered, but she nodded her head yes and the band behind the scenes began to play another song at random. The host left the stage with Sweetie levitating the microphone from his hand. She began to sing again with just as much strength and emotion as before.

This continued for another hour or so. With the last 20 minutes being the host talking with her, asking how she started singing and what not.

Everything was going rather smoothly. Sweetie Belle had to stop Glarin from beating back her new fans with a broom stick he had found as they tried to crowd her as they left the theater. When they exited the theater they were meet with Mr. Krieger.

“I must say my dear, bravo, bravo. You put on quite a lovely show my dear Sweetie Belle.” Sweetie began to blush and shy away a bit from him.

“T-thank you. I’m glad you decided to let me perform a show at your hotel. I’m sure with this I will become more popular!” the Griffin let out a laugh.

“I must say my dear, you not only captivated my ears with your beautiful voice, but you also captured my heart...” Sweetie opened her eyes in mild shock.

“W-well I...” She became flustered and started to slowly back up from him. Glarin and Spike raised an eyebrow at the situation, unfolding their arms as they watched.

“Please, would you do me the honor of becoming my marefriend, and live here with me? I will take care of ALL your needs and then some.” Sweetie Belle lowered her head with a mighty blush on her face.

“I-I’m sorry Mr. Kreiger, but there’s somepo, I mean, someone I like already.” he reached a claw out and gently placed it upon her shoulders.

“Oh come now my dear! Surely I can...” his sentence was abruptly cut off by Glarin stepping between him and Sweetie Belle with his claw thrown off with a rather brutal slap. Spike walked up and stood next to Sweetie Belle. His height making it easy for him to overlook everything that was happening.

“Are you deaf boy? She said no.” As Glarin stood between them he brought his fists up to his mid section and began to loudly crack his knuckles in a threatening manner. The griffin quickly backed off with a forced smile and laugh.

“Ah yes, my apologies. Please, enjoy the rest of your stay. I hope I didn’t offend you.” Glarin nodded his head and they walked off. Sweetie and Bloom looked back at his smiling figure until they were near the elevators. Once they were near the elevators waiting for it to arrive, a pony walked up next to Mr. Krieger, his smile had turned into a scowl.

“Mr. Krieger, is there anything that...” Mr. Krieger grabbed the pony by the throat

“Bring me that filthy creatures head on a platter with that snow white mare alive and well. I don’t care what happens to the other two!” He released the pony who began to cough and gasp for air.

“Y-yes boss! Right away boss!” As they were getting into the elevator, Glarin spared a glance over to Mr. Krieger. Glarin saw the griffin look at him with the eyes of an angry beast. Glarin smiled before getting into the elevator after Spike.

“How dare that filthy plebeian touch me!” Himmel Krieger flew up to one of the balconies in the lobby and disappeared behind its door.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Back inside the room Sweetie Belle was running around the suite with Apple Bloom celebrating how well the show went.

“All the cheering and applause ya got was amazing!”

“I know right?! At this rate I’ll be super famous in no time at all!” Sweetie said with a squeak.

“Mr Kreiger was a bit weird though...” said Sweetie as she looked to the side

“Well, it seemed he REALLY liked ya Sweetie. You still on about that colt Button Mash? Didn’t he get fat recently?” said Bloom with a hoof to her chin in thought.

“Yeah he did. But that isn’t the reason why we broke up. He was always too busy with his games to notice me. Even when we did play together it seemed like I was annoying him.”

While Bloom and Sweetie talked about things. Spike and Glarin were having their own conversation.

“Damn, I can’t believe he came on to her like that. What a creep.”

“Bah, No ones gonna be getting close to her like that with me around. I promised Applejack I would treat em like my own sisters and bring em back to her or Rarity safe N’ sound. Safe N’ sound would also include their chastity.” Glarin looked up to Spike in a slightly threatening manner.

“What are you looking at me like that for?!” said Spike a bit offended.

“I remember what you said about them back in Ponyville lad. Once were back in ponyville feel free to do as you please. But while were here, I expect professionalism. I didn’t sleep much last night and I remember you pacing around talking to yourself about how to ‘woo em’ while we're here.”

“Well you know, its just that...”

“What about those mares you got back home? Ain’t 5 enough for you?” Spike just blushed as he began to stutter a bit.

“W-well its just...”

“By Moradin’s great beard laddy! Are you some kind of sex fiend?” Before Spike could deny or confirm Glarins question a knock came upon the door. Glarin turned to look at the door.

“Oh I wonder what kind of beardless pony has come up to see the new singer. I hope they don’t mind seeing the bottom of my shoe instead.” Glarin and Spike trudged over to the door and opened it. Outside the door were those same security guards from yesterday. That same Green Stallion just had a stupid smile on his face.

“Hey guys, great show you put on today. Listen, Mr. Krieger is very sorry about what he did. So we have drinks for you. Free of charge of course, complements of Mr. Krieger.” He held out a platter with two drinks on it.

“The drinks for the girls are on the way. This is just some Fire Water, I can light it for you if you wish.” Glarin was about to deny the drinks when Spike took one from the platter and sniffed it. Causing the green pony to chuckle.

“You’ve never had Fire Water before I take it?” Glarin just grumbled

“We’ve had it before, But I just don’t trust you lot. This whole place has been giving me a tingle in my beard.” Spike sipped the drink and shrugged.

“Lighten up a bit Glarin. I don’t see anything wrong with the drink. Tastes alright to me. Besides, he said he was sorry downstairs right?” Glarin let out a loud low grumble as he grabbed the drink from the platter and sniffed it as well.

“Would you like me to light it up for you Sir?” Glarin waved his free hand to deny it.

“No thanks, I’m done playing with fire for awhile.” He threw his head back and downed the glass of Fire Water with Spike doing the same shortly after. “Tastes a bit funny...” Spike looked at him and shrugged

“Maybe its just a different brand.” As Glarin set the glass back onto the platter with Spike, the green stallion had a huge grin on face with the ponies behind him softly laughing.

“Stupid rent a guard’s...” was the last thing Spike and Glarin heard before the world began to swirl around them.

Even Death can't stop a dwarf from keeping a promise!

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Glarin awoke in the hotel room suite. When he moved his hands up to rub the odd sleep from his eyes he noticed that his left hand was in a golden chain that came from a hidden door within the wall. Spike was next to him sprawled out on the floor with his right hand held by a different golden chain. Spike was still fast asleep from whatever they gave them.

“Well look here, one of the stupid rent a guard’s woke up already. I thought you said this magic sleep tonic was supposed to last an hour at least. Its only been 15 minutes!”

“A drink that makes you sleep? Good thing I have an iron stomach. But which of you clanless beard-shaving sissy’s used a golden chain to hold us back? Gold can be broken easily.” Glarin began to pull on the chain only to be puzzled at it not distorting as he pulled.

“Sorry to burst yer bubble bud, but that chain isn’t made of gold, its made of steel and then permanently enchanted to be unbreakable. You see, this is a special room that we give to, special guests.” The stallion side stepped along with his partners in crime reveling Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle, they were tied up and gagged, both of them fully awake with panic clear in their eyes. The Stallion lowered his head and whispered to Sweetie Belle

“You know that talent agent that ‘scouted’ you? Yeah, he works for us.” The green Stallion just grinned at her sad face

“You see, the Boss liked what he saw at this little white mares performance today, and well, he wants her now. Turning down his offer earlier wasn’t a good idea, now we gotta use force. This friend of yours though, well she’s free game for the rest of us.” The Stallion licked his lips and turned to face Apple Bloom. As he turned to face her, he felt a chill down his spine.

Rage Activated.

“Who ever touches one hair on either of their heads again is dead!” The Stallion turned around with a half smile on his face. The Stallion met with Glarins wide eyed glare, his eyes seemed to burn with a fire. He felt threatened at first, but remembered he was already chained and couldn’t move very far.

“Yeah? And what are you gonna do about it huh? You’re chained to the buildings support beams with an unbreakable chain. We have the key to those locks, plus we took your precious axes. We left em in the rooms bathtub filled with salt water. I’ll enjoy watching them rust later. Your empty threats don’t scare me.” The Stallion gave off a toothy grin. While Glarin just kept his gaze locked onto the green Stallion. He soon lost interest as Glarins gaze didn’t falter.

When the green stallion turned back around Glarin looked around the room for something he could use, he reached over and grabbed a nearby accent table. As he dragged it closer to him the drawer fell out and along with it some random items like a quill and note pad, also a small letter opener that looked like a butter knife.

The Stallion turned back at the noise Glarin created and lightly laughed. The pony on the far right spoke up with a taunting tone.

“What are you gonna with that stupid table? Throw it at me? Oohh I'm soo scared.” Him and the rest of the ponies began to laugh. Only to have the pony on the far right get impacted by said table. That pony was thrown back by the table and impacted against the wall with the table breaking apart. The pony was knocked out cold.

“He really did throw it... Well no matter. We got some time before we gotta give the boss Sweetie here. So lets have some fun with her yellow friend.” The small group of stallions went back to business now that Glarin seemed to have nothing else within reach to throw at them.

“Come little mare, we wont hurt you much...” The green stallion with a blue unicorn stallion removed her gag as they tried to position her better. “... would you hold still!” Apple Bloom was struggling as best she could and was able to get one of her back hooves free.

“No! Just let us go!” Apple Bloom thrashed her back hoof out striking the green stallion across the jaw.

“Why you little!” The Green Stallion smacked his hoof across Apple Blooms face. She let out a cry of pain as her head hit the floor. The sound of a chain hitting the floor with a heavy guttural growl was heard as she hit the floor.

Fury Engaged.

The consistent chill he had been feeling suddenly intensified ten fold. Like a bucket of ice water was dropped on him. Every hair on his body stood on end and he could feel beads of sweat run down his forehead. With a slow turn of his head he looked back to where Glarin should of been, only to see the dwarf standing right next to him. The fire he had seen in his eyes before had become a blazing inferno of hellfire.

“Ek Wurgym!” Glarin shot out his right hand and wrapped it around the green Stallions neck. He lifted the stallion up in the air one handed and began to tighten his grip.

“H-how...” The Stallion was trying to use his hooves to pry Glarins hand off, but to no use “...get out!” the Stallion looked over to the wall Glarin was at, and saw that there was a trail of blood leading up to them, with Glarins hand still held by the golden chain and a letter opener sitting in the middle of a puddle of blood.

“Crazy...” The Green Stallion stopped trying to pry Glarins hand off and began to throw his hooves into Glarins face. “...Rent a Guard!” The Green Stallion kept pummeling his hooves into Glarins face, only to stop when the hand around his throat began crushing his windpipe. With a loud snap the green pony went limp and was flung into the door and out into the hallway with a loud crash.

The other ponies watched in absolute shock as their makeshift leaders neck was crushed and then thrown a good 20 feet away and through a door. Glarin turned to look at the blue unicorn and pointed at him with his bloody stump.

“You touched her too!” The unicorn in question began to back away while the others simply backed away from him as fast as possible. In a desperate attempt to fend off Glarin, the unicorns horn began to glow with a small flame forming.

“E-Eat fire and Die!” A large flame spewed forth from his horn for a few seconds before stopping. He looked out in horror as Glarin had simply held out his left arm to block the flames with the bloody stump. The bleeding had stopped as the flames had seared it closed.

“Thanks.” The Ponies eyes went wide while his pupils turned into pin pricks, he began to charge his horn again only to have his horn grabbed by Glarin causing his spell to fizzle out. Glarin lifted him by his horn and looked directly into his eyes and spoke with a deep guttural voice “Lets see if you can fly!”

The pony began to panic and thrash wildly as he was thrown through the window on the 35th floor.

Glarin turned to face the other ponies who were just cowering in a corner. One of them tossed the key in his direction.

“Please let us live!”

“Get out...” The ponies did just that and ran out of the room as fast as possible. Glarin took a deep breath and exhaled calming himself. He went over to Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle. He undid their binding so they could move and speak again. Bloom and Sweetie just had tears in their eyes as they looked at what Glarin had done to get them out of the situation he had already warned them about.

“Take the key and get Spike out, try to wake him up, I gotta get my axes...”

“B-but your hand! W-w...” Sweetie Belle’s sentence was cut off by Glarin.

“Don’t worry, I still got one left...” said Glarin as he raised his right hand and wiggled his fingers for her to see “...Now get Spike out of the chains and wake him up. Lets just focus on getting out of here and back to your sisters.” Glarin went into the rooms bathroom to get his axes while Sweetie Belle levitated the key and undid the locks on Spikes chains.

Glarin came back out of the bathroom with both axes, his left axe in its sheathe. He went over to the bed and set his right axe down so he could bring out the other. He started to rip the bed sheets into strips and wrap it around his left arm. He positioned the left axes handle so it hung off the bed and began to wrap the handle in with the strips of cloth he made. Spike began to stir awake.

Glarin continued to wrap the cloth around his forearm and the axes handle until he was running out of cloth and then tied it all together. As he lifted his left arm up off the bed he gave the axe a few practice swings and grunted.

“Not perfect, but it should hold long enough till I get you back to your sisters...” Glarin looked over to see Apple Bloom slapping Spike across the face.

“What?! You need a hospital! We can’t just...?!” Apple Bloom looked over to the broken down door with her ear twitching. She grabbed Spikes arm and tried to drag him away farther from the door. “Someones coming! Help me Sweetie Belle!” Sweetie used her magic to help Bloom drag Spike farther into the room.

“Hes dead! They were right, go set off the alarm!” said some pony who was out in the hallway. Glarin stood by the doorway while Sweetie and Bloom were still dragging Spike. When they came in they looked around breifly then looked at Glarin who had his right axe over his shoulder.

“Why don’t you just give up and give in? The Boss pays well and it looks like you’re already injured.”

“I’d rather mine trees you weak livered milk drinker!” Glarin brought his right axe down into the ground causing the floor to crack.

“Hey whoa! Take it easy! I’m just trying to tell you that you wont leave this place alive if you don’t hand those two mares over.”

Rage Activated

“You’ve just greased the handle of your axe, WITH YOUR CHOICE OF WORDS!” Glarin took a deep breath and roared in their direction followed with a charge. The ponies attempted to step back and out of the way but a few in the front lines were hit with the blunt of his axe and sent flying.

Seeing the fight was on the other ponies began to circle around him. Two of them were making their way toward Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom. Glarin lunged at the nearest earth pony and bashed his head with the head of his left axe.

A pegasus took to the air and dive-bombed at Glarin while holding a knife in his mouth. Glarin was impacted in the back by the Pegasus, but his chain mail shirt kept the knife from piercing his back. In retaliation Glarin spun around and smashed his elbow onto the Pegasi’s skull knocking him out.

“This damn rent a guard has chain mail under his shirt!” While Glarin was handling the ones who were attacking him, two stallions snuck around and were approaching Sweetie and Bloom.

Bloom and Sweetie Belle had their eyes glued to Glarin as he fiercely fought against, now 6, ponies who were obviously trying to kill him. Each of them had pulled out some kind of small bladed weapon or were using a piece of broken furniture to attack him with. Sweetie Belle was caught unaware when a pegasi stallion grabbed her from behind.

“Ahhh!” Sweetie Belle’s scream at being grabbed caused Glarin to loose focus on the fight at hand and look in her direction. He saw a light purple pegasi dragging her away by the tail. He was using his wings to pull her as he held onto the end of her tail with his hooves. In Glarins moment of distraction an earth pony using a makeshift club landed a blow on top of Glarins head. A stream of blood began to flow down his face.

“Shut-up and come with me!” Shouted the pegasi as he continued to drag her. The Stallion who just hit Glarin suddenly became nervous as his attack didn’t seem to do anything. Glarin completely ignored the stallion who had just struck him and instead focused on the pony that was touching Sweetie Belle.

“DON’T BLOODY TOUCH HER!” Glarin threw his right axe at the pegasi. Before the Pegasi could even think of dodging, the axe seemed to fly by his face with blood splattering in the direction of the axe. The pegasi fell back in agony when he saw that his left arm had broken and wraped itself around his chest while his right arm had been ripped from its socket.

The other pony that was sneaking up on Apple Bloom stopped in his tracks when he saw what Glarin did. He instead backed away slowly prompting Glarin to break into a full on charge in his direction. The pony tried to break into a sprint but his hooves slid on the hard wood floor causing him to slip.

Glarin didn’t slow his charge and grabbed the pony by his skull. Glarin lifted the pony’s head up and slammed it into the ground, pushing his head through the floor boards.

The others that watched it happen began to back out of the room. Before running down the hallway.

“Run! Were gonna need the unicorns!” yelled one of the ponies as they ran down the hallway. Glarin calmed himself again and picked up his axe and swing it toward the ground to get the blood off it.

“Are you two ok?” said Glarin as he walked up to them. Sweetie Belle nodded her head shakily with Apple Bloom. Spike began to stir awake.

“What, whats going on...?” As the sleep cleared from Spikes eyes and mind he looked around to see Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle. Both of them looked like they were having a terrible day. Their manes were completely messed up and the fur under their eyes were stained with tears. Spike looked over to Glarin who was brandishing his axes.

“Some stuff that I don’t feel like explaining right now lad, all you need to know is that we need to get out of here.” Spike watched as Glarin was giving his axe a few swings. He suddenly noticed that Glarin was missing his left hand.

“W-what happened to your hand?!” Spike suddenly realized what the room looked like. Random ponies were strewn about the room unconscious. Some didn’t look like they were breathing at all though, hell that pegasi was missing an arm. The room was smashed to bits. He suddenly remembered having that drink and falling asleep.

“Nevermind the little details Spike. Just know we need to get out of here without letting them touch the girls.”

“Alright, you’re the boss...” Spike gave a light hearted chuckle “...Guess those drinks weren’t as safe as I thought.”

“Everyone makes mistakes when they’re young, just remember to not repeat them again later.” Sweetie Belle was trying to speak but through the tears she was having trouble.

“I-I-I’m s-s-s-sorry, I-I-I-I...”

“Lass, we don’t have time for your apologies and telling me how right I was about them. Like I said before, lets just focus on getting you back to your sisters safe N' sound. I have a promise to keep.”

“Yeah, if this hotel is under their control then we need to leave before they send in the calvary.” Glarin walked out to the hallway and looked down it both ways.

“Which way to the stairs?”

“Why the stairs?”

“You think they're going to let us use that elevator? As far as I’m concerned it’s a death trap. We take the stairs.” Spike was about to complain but kept his mouth shut. Glarin had been right about everything so far. Spike pointed down the left side of the hallway.

Glarin and Spike kept close to Sweetie and Bloom as they ran down the hallway toward the stairs. Glarin kicked the door open and looked inside. The stair case looked completely empty when he looked over the edge.

“Alright, its clear, lets get going.” Glarin stopped before he descended the stairs.

“Spike, I need you on the defensive. Keep them safe from everything. If they start to swarm you I’ll lend an axe. Don’t forget to use your breath weapon lad. I brought you because I trust you. Don’t disappoint me.” Spike just nodded his head.

“Alright, hang on a second then.” Spike inhaled a deep breath with a green gas forming in his mouth. He slowly exhaled the gas and it began to swirl around Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle. After a moment the gas took on the solid form of plate armor.

“Good thinking Boyo. Lets get going before they find us.” Glarin just smirked at them wearing bright green plate armor before heading down the stairs.

“Hang on, one more thing.” Spike pulled out a piece of paper and a quill from nowhere. He scribbled something down on it and blew some green flames on it.

“What did you just do?” asked Glarin as he watched the piece of paper burn up with the smoke traveling away back out to the hallway.

“I just sent a quick letter to Celestia about what’s going on. Maybe she can send help or something.” Glarin grumbled.

“You shouldn’t be bothering royalty with such meager problems like ours lad. I don’t think she’ll send help.”

“I know her, she will.” Glarin just shook his head , thinking Spike delusional from the stress of the current situation.

As they neared the bottom of the stairwell they heard the sound of some of the doors opening above and below them.

“I found em! They took the stairs!” Ponies armed with weapons began to flood the stairwell with griffins and a few unicorns.

Glarin released a roar that caused many of them to back up and stop running toward them. At the bottom stood a griffin that was brandishing his claws with a unicorn behind him. Glarin jumped from the top of the stairs toward the griffin ready to splatter him across the wall.

Glarin landed upon a yellow barrier that appeared out of thin air. He responded by smashing his axes into it making it shatter. As he fell through the shield the bottom of his shoes smashed into the griffin and it crumpled under his weight.

One of the ponies with a spear thrust it at Glarin only to have it parried away and broken, followed by a strike from the axe head flinging him off the stair well and down to the bottom floor. Using the small distraction he gained from everyone watching the pony fall off the stairs he began to charge through them. Pushing pony and griffin aside. Some being trampled upon or pushed over the railing.

Spike was setting up a wall behind them to stop the advance of the gangsters that were coming from floors above them. All the while he was keeping up pace with Glarin while Sweetie and Bloom were close behind as they descended the last bit of stairs.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In the main Lobby Krieger was waiting for them with a large group of unicorns and griffins. They could hear the shouts and screams coming from the stair case. Everyone in the lobby had thier focus upon the door. Waiting for it to open.

Only to have the wall next to the door smashed down. Glarin had kicked an earth pony in the barrel so hard he flew through the wall. As the dust was settling Glarin came flying out of the hole he had made with an orange glow around his body.

An orange unicorn was holding Glarin in her magic and was smacking him around the entrance way. After a few seconds the magical aura faded and he fell to the floor with the unicorn looking extremely winded as her legs wobbled. Spike came up behind the orange pony and picked her up, flinging her back into the stairwell and sealing it off with a new wall.

The ponies on the other side of the wall started beating upon it in hopes of breaking it.

“Where did all of these guys come from?!” shouted Sweetie Belle as she stood behind Spike. In the distance they heard that booming laugh they heard yesterday from Mr. Krieger.

“You best come with me nicely Ms. Belle. I’m sure you will enjoy being with the leader of one of the most influential gangs within Las Pegasus. The Blackstar Gang!” Mr. Krieger ended his little speech as he threw his claws up into the air and flaring out his wings.

“Besides, why would you hang out with some short fat monkey, when you could be standing with a tall majestic griffin such as myself.” The sound of metal hitting against tile echoed through the massive lobby as Glarin stood back up.

“YOU’LL BE LOOKIN UP AT ME WHEN I CUT OFF YER LEGS!” Yelled Glarin as he charged forward to the large group that stood between them and the way out.

Krieger snapped his claws together signaling the unicorns to begin charging their horns. Glarin was enveloped in 4 different colored glows as he was lifted from the ground. His muscles could be seen flexing as he struggled against the magic that held him. The unicorns that were holding him all had pained expressions on their faces.

“Hurry it up would you?! He’s too strong!” the aura over Glarins left arm disappeared with the unicorn collapsing to the ground. With his arm freed he let loose a roar. Krieger looked unamused

“Launch the Fireballs. I wish to see this filthy animal cooked.” The unicorns up on the balconies charged up their spells and 6 huge fireballs hurled toward the suspended Glarin.

“Spike do something!” Yelled Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom. Spike just looked around dumbfounded before throwing out his own green fireball. Spikes green fireball collided with one of theirs causing an explosion before it got close enough to Glarin. Glarin had somehow used his free arm to deflect another fireball into a nearby wall. The other four exploded after making contact with him.

The roaring flames filled the massive hallway with an explosion that caused the building to shake. Spike quickly set up a barrier between them and the heat from the flames. Krieger and his group were all behind magical barriers that other unicorns put up to defend themselves. When the explosion ended all of the magical barriers went down and everyone saw Glarin fall to the ground as the auras around him faded.

He landed with a loud crash. The axe he had bound to his left arm fell away as the cloth holding it in place was burned away along with his shirt and hair. His right axe was still clenched in his hand.

“Ahh noo!” Yelled Sweetie Belle as she looked at Glarins smoldering form and blackened skin.

“They killed him!” wailed Apple Bloom as the small flames in what was left of his beard died.

“You two, stay inside the barrier...” Spike inhaled a deep breath and released a huge torrent of green smoke. Half went around Sweetie and Bloom turning into a solid green box to keep them safe. The other half became a huge jagged blade that appeared in his hands.

“W-what are you gonna do!?” Spike exhaled green flame from his nostrils in anger.

“Something I should of done a long time ago!” With that Spike inhaled again and released and huge torrent of green arrows at the ponies.

They erected shields to protect themselves, but not all ponies have the same magical power. As the arrows hit the shield spells a few of them cracked and broke letting the ponies and griffins behind them becoming nothing more than pin cushions.

Krieger watched as the purple dragon began tearing through his men. He hadn’t seen many dragons in his day, but he knew for a fact fireballs would do nothing to them. After all, Dragons had such fire resistant scales they could bathe in lava. From experience however, he knew they weren’t lighting proof.

“You five up on the Balcony! Prepare some Lighting bolts and fry this Giant Lizard!” The unicorns began to charge up their horns as Spike was tearing through the ponies and griffins on the ground floor. Krieger took to the air to avoid being hit by Spike as he rampaged across the room.

Spiked looked up to the balcony at the sound of crackling and arcing electricity. Spike inhaled and released a large ball of green flames in their direction in hopes of stopping their spell. He noticed a moment too late as his ball of green flames was met halfway by a huge bolt of electricity.

The massive five cast lighting bolt tore though Spikes fireball and began to electrify him. The barrier he had set up for Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom began to turn back into a gas and fade away as Spike was losing consciousness.

With a roar of defiance Spike was able to keep the green armor around them from disappearing as he fell to his claws and knees with ragged breathes. Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom ran over to try and help him.

“S-Spike come on! W-we gotta go!” Sweetie was on the verge of tears as she tried to help Spike stand

“Get up Spike! We gotta get home!” Apple Bloom was also nudging Spike

“Just go, escape while you can...”Apple Bloom had put herself underneath Spike in an attempt to carry him

“I’ll drag you out if I have too!” Krieger landed next to them and made a little cooing noise

“How touching. Why is almost brings a tear to my eye. But sadly I tire of you all now. Besides, I don’t think letting any of you live would make my men happy. Well, perhaps you mares can live with the others in our basement.” Krieger gently stroked his claw on Sweetie Belles face. Everyone went wide eyed at the sound of metal hitting tile.

“I. SAID. DON’T. BLOODY TOUCH THEM!” Glarin was standing with a staggered stance and using his right axe to help keep him on his feet.

“Hes alive? Hes Alive?! Why is he Alive!?” yelled Krieger as he took his claw off Sweetie Belle.

“I’LL GUT THE LOT OF YA!”

“You’ll kill us?! You can hardly stand! Let alone fight! Fry this monkey using some lighting bolt’s like you did the dragon!” Glarin looked over at Spike and saw he looked battered and beaten with many of his scales looking like they had been melted. Before the unicorns could get the spell off, he threw his head back and roared into the air.

Rage activated; Fury engaged.

As he finished roaring the unicorns had finished channeling their spells and released the crackling energy at Glarin. He simply held his axe out and all of the lighting seemed to be absorbed into his axe before running around his entire body.

Instead of shouting in agony, he lowered his head and began to growl. The electricity seemed to move across his burned flesh peeling away the black skin and reveling new skin that had a light blue tinge to it. The electricity was arcing between the wounds all over his body and what little hair he had left was standing on end.

“GIVE ME EVERYTHING YOU’VE GOT!” As he finished his sentence he roared and out flew multiple bolts of lighting from his mouth that arced between the gang members frying all the ponies and griffins, except Krieger who had flown up into the air.

Krieger looked around and saw that most of his gang had been decimated by that attack. Somehow that monkey was able to throw the lighting back at them! With a screech he dive bombed at Glarin.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Celestia and Luna were outside the ponyville Library with a small battalion of solar and lunar guards. They were waiting for Twilight to gather her friends. In hopes of arriving on time to help make sure the four of them got back safely from Las Pegasus. Twilight teleported in front of the library with all of her friends.

“Gather around everypony, I will teleport us all to Las Pegasus. According to Spikes letter they got into some trouble with one of the local gangs. This is just the chance we’ve been needing to lock them up for good and start cleaning out that town.” Everypony gathered around Celestia and after a brief moment her horn gave off a tremendous light and they all teleported to a park within Las Pegasus.

“Rarity, what hotel were they staying at?”

“The Sheltered Mare Princess Luna. Oh, I do hope they are all ok.”

“Glarin and Spike went with them. I am sure they are doing just fine Rarity.” said Twilight with a smile on her face.

“Do not let the cities calm exterior fool you Princess Twilight. This city became full with scum and villainy when the griffins migrated over.”

“Well then lets git ourselves to the Sheltered Mare then. Hopefully things aren’t that bad.”

They all began to gallop toward the hotel called the Sheltered Mare as the park wasn’t very far from it. When they showed up near its front door, Glarin came crashing through the glass and into the street landing next to a rather flat looking pony.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As Krieger dive-bombed, Glarin just got his axe ready to strike when he came within range. What Glarin didn’t expect was to see the griffin make a 90 degree turn mid flight and circle around him before coming into range. Krieger unleashed a flying Griffin kick powered by his wings and backed with his mass. The kick sent Glarin sailing through the lobby and through one of the glass windows. He landed in the middle of the street next to that pony he had thrown out the window earlier.

All of the nearby ponies scattered when they saw Krieger come out of the hotel. Glarin stood up using his axe to hold himself up. Krieger flew up into the air again and looked around, that’s when he saw Princess Celestia and Princess Luna with guards all around them. They were looking at him with disdain.

“Luna grab Mr. Krieger with your magic. I’ll try to help Glarin. Twilight, go into the hotel with your friends and some guards and look for the others.” They all nodded with the girls running off toward the hotel and Luna chargeing up her horn. Her horn soon fizzeled

“Sister I cannot hold him with my magic!” Krieger let out a laugh.

“Did you really think I would walk around unprotected?” he lifted the feathers around his neck up reveling a steel collar. “I’ve been wearing a magic proof collar for the last 3 years because magic is a freighting weapon when you cannot use it yourself.” While Luna was giving Krieg a death Glare Celestia was nearing Glarin.

As she got closer to him she could see that his left hand was missing and he was covered in burns with some areas covered with a blue tinge that seemed to have a blue light skitter across his skin, like electricity on water.

“Glarin, what on Equus happened to...” Glarin spun around swinging his axe in her direction. She backed away and saw that his eyes had glazed over. Was he still fighting on will power and instinct alone?

“HA! The Crazed Rent a guard even turns his weapons upon the Princess!” Glarin was breathing heavily as he turned back to face the direction Krieger was in. Between labered breathes Celestia could hear Glarin speak in his raspy voice.

“Keep safe...” His breathing was becoming even more haggard “...To their sisters...” Glarin began to cough with some electricity leaving his mouth and hitting the floor. Celestia gasped, she had no idea what was happening. But he was surely going to die at this rate if he didn’t receive any healing. Celestia’s horn began to glow and a soft glow illuminated from her horn with a small white ball moving toward him. It slowly made its way until it touched his back and fizzled out. The sound made Glarin turn around and see her horn glowing.

“FOUL DEMON MAGICS!” He broke into a sprint in her direction with his axe above his head. Celestia went wide eyed and took to the air, hovering just out of his reach. He roared up at her and the air above him seemed to swirl with a black mist like it had when he jumped between Luna and the transformed Twilight.

“He has gone Mad Princesses! Let me dispose of him as he made quite the mess in my hotel! For no reason I might add!” Krieger put both of his arms above his head and clasped his claws together forming a point.

He broke into a dive-bomb again as he begun to spin at a rapid pace in Glarins direction. Lunas eyes went wide when she saw what he was doing and yelled out to him.

“Avoid his Drill Claw Sir Glarin!” She also put up a shield spell between him and the griffin.

Kriegers drill claw pierced through the shield causing Luna to fall back. As she was falling she saw as his drill claw also pierced through Glarins chain shirt and into his gut. Luna let out a scream, not only from her shield breaking but also seeing him mortally wounded.

Glarin dropped his axe and looked down at the claws that were in his gut. Krieger was smiling, he had finally killed the pest that had been bugging him and putting a blemish upon his pure and crisp life.

His smile soon faded when Glarin used his right hand to grab one of his feathered arms with the strength to crush rocks and an ear drum shattering roar into his face. He also felt something above him and when he looked up it looked like the sky was getting darker as a black mist seemed to be getting thicker above Glarins head.

Krieger went wide eyed when he saw Glarin raise his left arm and began smashing his face in with the stump.

“RAA!” Glarin kept pummeling his left arm stump into the griffins face until his beak broke and he went limp. Glarin pulled the griffins claws from his gut causing a large amount of blood to splash out with small arcs of electricity dancing around in the hole.

He picked up his axe and headed back toward the hotel.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So hazy.

So dark.

So cold.

The demons and criminal scum seemed to pour out of the wood work during his fight with that stupid griffin. That griffin turned out to be some kind of shadow demon as he transformed partway through the fight.

But deep down he knew this was the fury induced darkness and that he was losing himself to it slowly. But that didn’t matter, he couldn’t trust anyone in this cursed city. But it was going to be ok, he had his guiding light.

Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom and Spike were his guiding light within this darkness. He could barely make out their faces and voices anymore. But they were the only light within the surrounding darkness. As long as he protected his guiding light, he wouldn’t completely lose himself within this darkness filled with shadows and demon spawn.

As he began to trudge back toward his light, the only light he could see. He could hear distorted voices coming from around him. When he looked around him he saw two large demon horses floating in the air above him. In hopes of intimidating them he released a terrifying howl as he raised his axe.

They seemed to back off so he made his way back toward the light, only to hear those same distorted voices again. Followed by him being lifted into the air with some kind of black magic. He struggled to break free from it, but his strength seemed to be leaving him. He looked out toward his guiding light and saw that several shadows had encircled them.

His guiding light was in danger! With a blood curdling roar he opened his mouth and began to eat the magic that was holding him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Celestia hold him! I’ll cast a sleep spell to try and calm him! He’s going to die at this rate!” Celestia agreed and held on to him with her magic, lifting him into the air slightly. Lunas horn began glowing as she cast the spell. Only to have it fizzle out.

“Again!” Yelled Luna in anger. Her horn glowed as she recast the spell only to have it fizzle again. “Why is he resisting harmless spells!?” Luna kept trying to cast them as fast as possible, hoping one would take effect putting him to sleep.

“Luna, hurry and try something else! Twilight was right about him draining magic...” Glarin released a blood curdling roar interrupting Celestia. He moved his head out and seemed to grab her magical aura in his mouth.

“W-what is he doing!?” Celestia and Luna watched as he seemed to slurp up the golden aura that was holding him in place. Not wanting him to leave fearing that he might die, she fed more magic into her spell to keep him held in place. Her magical power was quickly being drained as he was eating it faster than she could pump more into the spell.

Celestia gave up trying to keep the spell up and let him finish eating the golden magic. The hole in his belly had been filling with a golden glow as he ate her magic until it looked like he had a beacon of light on his stomach. When he landed on the floor he threw his head back and his arms out wide releasing another shout as a golden glow enveloped his body filling in all the spaces where he was missing flesh. The blood stopped pouring from the large hole in his gut and his skin with the blue tinge was replaced with a golden version. He turned his attention toward the hotel and broke into a sprint.

He charged through the open hole in the wall and saw a mass of shadows that seemed to be circling around his light.

Two solar guards approached Glarin as he ran inside, ready to greet him and tend to any wounds he might have.

“FOUL SHADOW DEMONS!” The guards looked at Glarin in fear as he yelled and swung his axe at them. One of the guards had his helmet knocked off as the axe grazed the top of his helmet. On reflex the other guard jabbed his spear at Glarins face.

Glarin turned his head and the spear went though his cheeks without knocking any teeth out. Before the guard could retract his spear Glarin clenched down onto the spear with his teeth and wreched it from the arms of the pony and punched him in the face with his left arm.

The main six and the rest of the solar guard all looked at Glarin in horror. He had golden spots all over his body with the biggest concentration being in his belly. Spike had recovered enough to understand what was happening.

“Everypony! Back away from Glarin NOW!” Not wanting to question Spike all of the guards backed off as far as they possibly could. The main six however, stayed where they were next to Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom trying to comfort them.

“Twilight! All of you, I said back up!”

“W-whats wrong with him?!” Twilight saw his glazed over look and the golden glow that covered him. Celestia and Luna flew in and hovered in the air above him

“He can’t recognize any of us! He thinks us demons!” Twilight looked frantic at hearing that.

“Was he consumed by his fury?!” Spike stood up and walked toward Glarin.

“Not entirely, hes been protecting us the entire time...” As Spike got closer to Glarin, he seemed to visibly calm. But when he looked over at Sweetie who was being held by Rarity and Bloom who was being held by Applejack. He tensed up once again, running in their direction.

“DON’T TOUCH MY LIGHT! YOU FOUL SHADOWS!” Rarity and Applejack went wide eyed with Sweetie and Bloom breaking out of their sisters hold to intercept him. Remembering what he had said the day before while they played that board game.

Glarin stopped running when they started coming toward him. He visibly calmed again and looked around him, growling at all of the surrounding ponies.

“Glarin! You can stop now, were safe. Our sisters are here! Everything’s going to be ok now!” Glarin looked at Sweetie Belle, his breathing was extremely haggard.

“Ssafe...?” He looked around himself again settleing his eyes on Apple Bloom.

“Yeah, were safe now. My sis is here now. You’re done fighting. You can rest.” Glarin set his axe down head first on the floor and began to lean on it.

“Safe, sister...” He turned to look at Spike who nodded at him.

“You kept your promise Glarin. Calm down and let them help you now!” Glarin began to wobble a bit as he looked around the room again.

“Promise, kept...” The golden glow that was enveloping his body began to dissipate “...safe, sisters...” As the golden glow disappeared blood began to flow from all of the spots that had once been golden.

The golden glow seemed to be holding him together. As his rage subsided the magic and energy he had taken faded away. When the last of the magical aura disappeared into the air Glarin fell to the floor on his back with blood oozing from all of his wounds.

As he lay on the floor looking up at the ceiling he reached down to his pants and pulled out his flask. When he went to open it with his left hand he looked at the stump where his hand used to be.

"oh yeah..."He passed out dropping the flask next to him unopened.

So this happened

View Online

Panic overtook everypony as they watched the pool of blood around Glarin only get bigger as he laid motionless upon the floor among the debris. Twilight was the 1st to rush over and begin to cast a stabilizing spell with other healing spells like she had the first time she meet him.

Only the spells didn’t seem to work as well as they had before. Unlike before, her biggest healing spell wasn’t making any noticeable change. She couldn’t see any of the damage reversing or healing taking place like she witnessed last time.

“M-My spells aren’t working!” Cried Twilight while Celestia and Luna landed next to her, horns ablaze with magic as they also tried. Only to see their spells have the same effect, nothing. Celestia gripped him in her magic aura again lifting him off the floor.

“We must get him to the nearest hospital with haste!”

“We’ll need to run Celestia! Glarin doesn’t do very well with teleportation magic I learned...” Everypony followed Celestia out the door as they all galloped after her toward the nearest hospital. Luna swiped up his axes and flask in her magic as Twilight cast healing spells while they traveled to the hospital.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“That’s a corpse...” said one of the doctors while looking at Glarin. He was in the ER with Twilight, Luna and Celestia who were casting healing spells back to back upon him, half of them fizzled upon contact or didn’t seem to do anything. His breathing was rapid and short as he spoke unintelligle words.

“Princesses...” whispered one of the doctor’s trying to get their attention “...You can’t bring back the dead...” Luna turned to face the doctor.

“H-hes not dead! He can’t be! He is alive! We were casting healing spells on him all the way here! Now do your job and bring him back to me!” The doctors all took a deep breath, not sure how to handle this situation.

“Princess, Did you... did you see the results of the scanning spell?” asked a unicorn doctor.

“I did, and your scanning spell is flawed!” yelled Luna as she quickly went back to try and cast more healing spells.

Twilight stopped casting and gingerly approached one of the doctors.

“W-what did the scan say...? Maybe we can focus our efforts on a spot that has the most damage!” The doctor sighed as he brought up a clipboard.

“3rd and second degree burns cover his entire body. Multiple lacerations on his arms and legs, a few on his chest with a massive hole on the left side of his abdomen. His cheeks, well, they are gone as you can see. His skin, large portions of his muscles and some of his internal organs seemed to have been flash cooked, I can’t even imagine what could of caused that, let alone the pain it must of caused. Our healing spells can’t work with dead tissue Princess, and the scan also showed signs of death about half an hour ago. The fact you told us he was moving around no more than 5 minutes ago is mind boggling. The fact he’s breathing at all is a miracle.” Twilights eyes were darting around the room as if she was looking for an answer to the current problem.

“W-what do you mean C-cooked?” Twilight bit her lip as she waited for the doctors answer.

“Cooked as in a medium rare steak. All of the outer layers are cooked with most of his insides intact. Also part of his lower intestine is shredded and his lungs are done, they show signs of thermal decomposition. He must of been inhaling while he was being flash cooked because his throat and nasal cavity is also pretty burned. His mouth shows signs of electrical burns as well...” Twilight was looking down to the ground with tears beginning to form in her eyes.

“...Also he has broken bones through out his body and a few of his vertebra are broken as well. I’m guessing because of his thick muscles he was able to hold his broken bones in place and keep moving...” Twilight was no longer looking at the doctor.

“... In all seriousness Princess, hes moribund. He may be alive now, but the amount of damage he has sustained with all of our healing spells being ineffective...” The doctor just sighed as he looked away, he couldn’t watch as the Princess of Magic began to cry.

Luna and Celestia had slowly stopped casting healing spells as they overheard what the doctor had been telling Twilight.

The rest of the mane six along with Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle came into the ER to try and see what was going on. Spike was receiving medical treatment for his injuries, but he wasn’t as close to death as Glarin was. With the atmosphere that was hanging around in the room, it was clear to them what was happening.

As one of the doctors was noting the time of death, he noticed a small torrent of silvery flames appear on the floor near the gurney. It began to increase in intensity with blue-white and amber sparks flying from it.

“F-Fire!” shouted the doctor grabbing every ponies attention in the room.

“H-how did...?!” before they could figure out what was happening the silver flames died and in the center of where the flames had been was a tiny creature that stood on two legs.

The small creature looked it self over and looked around the room for a moment. It was clad in armor with a helm covering most of its head. The most notable thing about it was the greataxe it held in its hands looked to be as big as it was. It also had a greatsword on its back that also seemed to be just as big as the axe. It looked buff for its size, about as buff as Glarin. Before any of them could ask what it was and what it was doing there, it leaped up onto the gurney with Glarin and looked down at him. It soon released a joyful laugh with a feminine sounding voice.

“It would seem I am a tad late to answering the earlier battle prayers, but his current ones don’t seem to be needed. Can any of you tell me how one of my favorite berserkers was taken down? From the looks of it, I’d say he fought against an army or a group of spell casters, probably both.” She released another joyful laugh as she looked Glarins body up and down. Her eyes fixated on the two large axes on the nearby counter. She leaped over to them and looked at them for a moment, only to laugh again.

“I tell ya, If his beard was silver he would look like an avatar of Clangeddin! You must tell me! Our connections to this realm are very weak so I wasn’t able to watch what was happening, and I spent most of my power just getting here!” Twilight went up to the small creature with everyone else as they looked upon it. For being so small its voice was extremely loud.

“W-who are you?” The small creature looked over to the purple pony that had addressed her. She looked like a tiny dwarf. Her build was similar to Glarin, a bit thinner in the shoulder and gut department, yet bigger in the chest department.

“So you can speak! Names Haela Brightaxe! Now are you going to tell me what happened?” Sweetie looked around then moved forward to speak.

“I-I can tell you what happened...” Haela sat down on the counter with a smile on her face as she was intent to just listen to the tale.

Sweetie told of how he had removed his own hand to save her and Bloom. How he had tied an axe to his left arm as he could no longer hold it. Then of how he had lead the charge through enemies down the flight of stairs as he took wounds from both blade and claw. Then of how unicorns had been picking him up in their magic and bashing him around the stairwell and hallway. Then up to the point when he was captured in several magical auras and blasted with four fireballs.

Everypony with the exception of Bloom and Sweetie gasped at that revelation. Haela just had a huge grin on her face the entire time that seemed to get bigger as Sweetie relayed more of the story to her.

“That would explain the flash cooking...” whispered some of the doctors.

Sweetie continued telling how Spike had taken over after Glarin had fallen. Then of how Glarin somehow got back up after Spike was hit with the lightning bolts. Then of how he had also been hit by the lightning bolts, but instead threw it back at them while gaining a bright blue glow with the electricity arcing around his body. She finished with telling how the griffin, Krieger, had flying griffin kicked him out of the lobby and into the street, because that was all she saw. Haelas smile faded a bit, knowing there had to be more.

“You know, most don’t normally pick lightning, fire is far more common...” She thought for a few seconds then looked back up “...Is that all?” Luna spoke up next deciding to relay what had happened out on the street. Telling of how Krieger the griffin was responsible for the large hole. Only to have his face smashed in with his claws still in Glarins gut. Then they also told of how he ate Celestias magic and started attacking everyone. Haela let out another loud laugh as she heard the last part

“Ha, Sounds like any good berserker dwarf to me! And it sounds like he let the fury take hold while holding on to a light. Much like his mother would of done. His father was more of a lover and a crafter you see...” She continued to giggle to her self for a bit before calming and continuing. She seemed to emit this strange aura that was calming everypony in this dire situation “...So when are you going to heal him? I have some power left to stay before my time is up.” The ponies suddenly looked downtrodden.

“We’ve tried! Nothing is working!” Haela raised an eyebrow at that and stood up

“What do you mean tried too? How could a divine healing spell not work?”

“Well, from what he told us before, our healing spells would be arcane...” At the word ‘arcane’, Haela Brightaxe burst into a roarous laugh again.

“Arcane healing magic!? No wonder hes still so close to bloody death! That form of healing magic is so flawed. Anyone with at least 1/3rd of a brain knows that.” Twilight became flustered at the comment as Haela stood up and walked over to Glarin so she stood by his head. Only to pause and look back to the group of ponies.

“You wouldn’t happen to have any valuable red gems, or perhaps the blood of those hes slain? I’ll also need some drops of your blood as well for the offering. I wasn’t exactly called here for this and it would violate some rules. But if I got a heartfelt plea for help, I might be able to help with my aura...” Applejack widened her eyes and took off her hat, removing the red tear drop shaped diamond.

“I happen to have this, I got it from him a while back, still haven’t found the time to get around to selling it...” Haela’s eyes lit up at seeing the gem.

“That gem would be more than enough for an offering! Now I’ll need you to offer it to me with a few drops of blood in exchange for helping him here.” Applejack widened her eyes a bit, but placed the gem on the counter next to the little talking critter. She nipped a bit of her forehoof enough to draw blood and set out a few drops on top of the gem.

“I uh, I offer this gem and my blood to you Haela, so that you might heal Sir Glarin.” Haela chuckled and went over to the gem placing a hand on it. It quickly vanished from the counter and a silver flame began to emanate from her as she gained an inch of height.

“Not the best plea for help I’ve heard, but with this kind of offering, I’ll let it pass.” She walked back over to Glarin and moved her hand out, white-blue and amber sparks started to fly from her hands.

“Make sure you tell him to build some shrines for us soon. Unlike the deities of other races, We dwarven ones actually answer the prayers of our devout followers. It would be nice to be able to keep an eye on him. I know Moradin would be happy. He always likes to watch over his little dwarves.” Glarin was soon enveloped in the silver flames with the blue-white and amber sparks flying around the room.

Despite the silver flames and sparks filling the room, there was no heat emanating from it, it was actually sending out waves that seemed to restore the vigor of everyone within the room. The little wound Applejack made near her hoof moments ago disappeared. The fatigue Rarity had from staying up all night working seemed to disappear. Everyone felt like they had been subjected to a powerful empowerment spell. After a few seconds the flames died and Haela began to fade from their sight.

“Return from the Stone Glarin. It seems your joining of the ancestors will be delayed yet again...” As she finished her sentence, Glarin inhaled a deep breath and she vanished completely. All of the ponies went wide eyed when they saw him breathing normally again.

“Huo- ouh...” Glarin slowly sat up and began to look around the room seeing everyone just staring at him wide eyed. He spotted Luna, making his eyes open up in what seemed to be joy. He moved his right hand out and motioned for her to come closer.

“Luna, come er...” Luna quickly went up to him with tears in her eyes beginning to form. She was ready to hug him when he reached his right hand out and grabbed his flask from her side that she had magically stuck to her flank.

Glarin used his teeth to untwist the cap off and began to drink from the flask until it was empty. With a satisfied sigh he let out a burp and began to pat his belly.

“Nothing like a good drink after seeing The Stone Father...” he smacked his lips together for a bit then looked around the room again.

“... don’t remember it tasting so bland though...” He looked down to where his left hand used to be and shrugged.

“Suppose things could be worse. Thanks for healing me up completely this time. Anyway, lets get back to the farm and get the rest of that drink Applejack.” As Glarin hopped off the gurney, he put an arm around Lunas whithers and began to walk toward the group. Everypony was just watching him speechless, unsure of what to say. All of the life threatening injuries he had before seemed to have disappeared. Applejack snapped out of her stupor long enough to respond.

“There’s uh, no more Granny Daniels...” Glarin looked at her wide eyed and fell to his hand and knees in shock with a pained groan.

“Everything just got worse...” Everypony speechlessly just watched as a single tear slid down his face as he stood, looking up to the ceiling.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After a bit of time passed everypony had gotten over the initial shock of what just happened and decided to relay what happened to Glarin, and how they weren’t responsible for his revival. Glarin raised his arms up to the sky with a yell.

“I missed the Luckmaiden?! Rahh Noo!” Glarin lowered his arms when he was done yelling and sighed.

“I’ve only seen the beautiful Luckmaiden once in my lifetime, when I was but a child. She was the one who inspired me to be a berserker. The way she flows through the battlefield! Slicing and dicing every foe in her path, with a joyful laugh that intimidated enemies and invigorated allies. It was a beautiful rain of blood that day...” Said Glarin as he looked out a window into the distant sky with a small twinkle in his eye. Twilight looked at him and asked the question that was on everyponies mind.

“So she was a god then?”

“No, not quite god, she is a deity. Like a god, not as powerful though, but far more helpful, and beautiful...” Glarin seemed to drift off into a daydream of a buff female dwarf hacking her way through hoards of enemies. Then removing her helmet with the fight over to let her long flowing hair blow in the wind and she shook her head slowly.

“Well, anyway, we best get moving. I got shrines to make, quite a few of them actually...” As Glarin was gathering his few possessions together, everypony with the exception of the doctors went in and gave him a huge hug with many tears being shed.

“You big Dummy! We thought we lost you forever! Why, if she never came you would of been dead!” said Sweetie Belle

“Y-You lost a hand and nearly died keeping my sister safe!” said Rarity as she tried to keep her tears from messing up her mascara.

“Our healing magic is nothing like the healing magic from your deity!” Cried Twilight as she used her wings to help envelop everyone in the hug.

“We can’t thank ya enough for what you did. I’d a trade a barrel a blood and priceless gems just to make sure you come back to us.” Glarin just harrumphed as he was embraced by all of the ponies. Luna was nuzzling his neck while humming.

“I remember when you told me you didn’t mind lightning, but I had no idea it was because you could control it.” Glarin just struggled a bit to try and get them to break off so he could move. After a bit they all stopped hugging him and stood a short distance away.

“I can’t really control it, more like absorb the energy it contains and reduce it, or use it. It still does some damage, but nothing along the scale it would do normally.” Twilight looked at him a bit confused

“What do you mean use? Is that why Sweetie Belle said you gained a blue glow after being hit with the lightning?” Glarin crossed his arms and nodded his head.

“Aye, you see the body works and moves with energy, all it takes is a powerful will and body to tame an energy type to work for you. Fortifying the body to use a foreign energy isn’t easy. Being really angry at the time helps a lot. I’ve only heard of one warrior that wasn’t a berserker do something like that, but its possible and it gives spectacular results that will keep a fighter going long after he should of expired.” Everyone seemed to look sad for a moment with Celestia humming to herself for a moment.

“Then what about eating magic? Do you remember when you ate my magic? You had a golden glow about you after you did so.” Glarin turned to face Celestia and did so with a slight bow not looking up to meet her gaze. Falling back to old habits with royalty.

“Same as the lightning Princess Celestia. Magic may go awry within dwarven hands, but magic is still an energy. With a bit of work and will, you can eat it and make it work for you, fortifying your body to work well beyond limits. It’s not as effective with magical energy though, as that energy type is mostly unstable. I hope you can find it within yourself to forgive me. Doing such a thing to royalty...” Celestia let lose a slight chuckle and brought Glarin into a hug that the rest of them promptly joined in again.

“There is nothing you need to apologize for. What you did today, while it may have been very unorthodox, was necessary to keep my good little ponies safe and get rid of the danger and corruption. As a Knight of Equestria you are able to pass judgement as you see fit on any that break laws and rules. Just next time, I hope you will take better care of your own life. We would hate to lose you again...” She ended the hug and broke off, causing everyone to also break off. They smiled and nodded at Glarin, some were still teary eyed.

“I suggest you get Spike now and head on back to Ponyville for some well deserved rest. Luna and I have a lot more to do before we can leave. Our guards tell us the basement was... not pretty. We will have to sort it out and tie up all the loose ends. Perhaps we will be able to clean out some more gangs that took a foot hold. The Blackstar gang was the biggest thorn in our side, and with them out of the way, the rest should fall in line.” Luna looked over to Celestia and gave her a bit of a pouty face.

“Can’t I accompany Sir Glarin back to ponyville sister?” Celestia sighed.

“I’m sorry Luna, but I will need your help in cleaning up the mess here. Perhaps you can visit him later.” Luna let out a sigh and looked over to Glarin with longing in her eyes.

“I still haven’t given up on you. Almost losing you today made me realize that even more.” As she and Celestia left the room Glarin just groaned to himself inwardly.

“Aw shale...”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

They had all opted to walk back to the Las Pegasus train station in hopes of talking to each other more and bonding. Almost losing Glarin was a traumatic experience for all of the ponies. As he was considered one of them now, part of the herd.

And well, the ponies did want to walk and talk. Glarin wanted to take the taxi again. He just wanted to get home as soon as possible and fix his chain shirt. He would also have to get to work on a new hand, or maybe just get something like a mug for a hand, or an axe that also worked like a mug or flask.

Oh the possibilities were endless. Why he could even get a cannon for a hand like Carin Ironsight did. Whatever it was going to be, it had to be awesome looking, or at least interchangeable. His train of thought was interrupted by some pony shouting at the top of her lungs

“Saddle Purse Snatcher! Someone stop that hatchling hybrid!” As Glarin looked in front of him he saw a small creature running on all fours at them. He had never seen anything like it before, It had the body, mane, and front legs of a lion. But the head, neck back legs and tail looked more like a pony. It also didn’t have wings. The lion part was purple while the pony part was green. The mane color was black with random colors of purple and green within it. The hybrid was barreling through the line of ponies that were trying to stop him. Including Twilight and Fluttershy who were shoved out of the way and to the ground.

As the hybrid was nearing him. Glarin just stood his ground in front of the young hybrid. Instead of being shoved aside like the ponies were, the little hybrid felt like he had just run into a brick wall and fell back. With his eyes spinning around in his head.

Glarin picked him up by the scruff of his neck and took the bag from his paws, tossing it back to the pony that had arrived in time to see him pick the hybrid up.

“Oh thank you so much!” Glarin waved her off and looked at the hybrid with a discerning eye.

“Nice bull rush you got there lad, but why are you stealing? Didn’t your parents ever teach you anything?” Glarin raised an eyebrow as he set the young creature back down on the ground. The young hybrid shook his head and growled at Glarin.

“J-Just let me go! And you’ll never see me again!”

“I don’t think so lad. Where are your parents at, I think some discipline is in order.” The little lion pony hybrid seemed to start sulking.

“I don’t know where they are...” Glarin raised an eyebrow at that.

“What is that supposed to mean?” The little hybrid snapped his gaze up at Glarin and yelled at him

“It means they both went out 3 weeks ago, and never came back!” The little hybrid sighed to itself, then looked back to the ground “But that’s ok, I don’t need them anyway. I’m a tough Leoequus...” Glarin squinted his eyes as he looked at the hybrid.

“What in blazes is a Leoequus?” Rainbow hovered over to Glarin.

“They’re actually kinda new. Its when a stallion and a hen mate, they make a Leoequus, while a mare and rooster make a hippogryph. It’s a weird thing that happens. But, what are we gonna do with him?”

“Well, since he doesn’t have parents to discipline em, guess that leaves it to me then...” The little Leoequuss’ eyes went wide in sudden fear as Glarin cracked the knuckles on his right hand simply by clenching his fist.

“N-No you don’t! You could just let me go! I promise I won’t do it again!”

“Oh I know you won’t lad.” Glarin brought up his fist and conked the little hybrid on top of his head, knocking him out cold. All of the ponies looked between Glarin and the Leoequus wide eyed.

“Ya killed him!? You didn’t need to kill him!” yelled Rainbow Dash

“He was just a child Glarin! How could you kill him!” yelled Twilight.

“Quit yer bellyaching, he aint dead. At least I don’t think he is. Pretty sure I didn’t hit him that hard...” Glarin leaned down picking up the limp hybrid and tossing him over his shoulder. He then continued walking down the sidewalk.

“What are you doing with the poor dear now?!” asked Fluttershy with both worry and fear in her voice.

“Well, it sounds like he’s all alone. Someone needs to raise him up right proper, and I need someone to clean my new house. Sounds like a win win to me.” Pinkie rushed up in front of Glarin with a big smile on her face.

“Does this mean hes gonna live with you now?! Oh my gosh! I’ll need to throw a party for him and since you’re gonna be like his new dad and what not. I’ll have to throw another party just for that! Oh this is gonna be so much fun!” Glarin just looked at the hyper active pink pony.

“I never said I was gonna be his dad, more like, uh, like an uncle. A distant uncle that has him clean the house while I go and do fun stuff... cleaning isn’t fun...” Everypony just looked at him with utter disbelief.

He was basically saying he was taking this child home to clean so that he wouldn’t have to do it.

“But Glarin, your house mostly has a dirt floor...” said Sweetie Belle

“Exactly my point.”

Piss N Vinegar

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They continued traveling down the road toward the train station with the Leoequus being the new talk.

“Twilight, is he uh, is he allowed to just take kids and like, adopt em like that?” Twilight became flustered as she tried to think about it.

“I-I don’t know! I’ve never read anything about our laws and regulations with adoption! It’s one of the few things I never actually studied yet!” Pinkie bounded up next to Applejack

“Well of course he can! He’s a knight right? You heard what Celestia said! He can pass judgement on any lawbreakers as he sees fit! And the little guy is gonna be cleaning house as punishment! And besides, this little guy wasn't even in the legal system yet! He’s off the papers!”

“So then, hes just foal-napping some, dirty, street urchin?” said Rarity with a bit of a gag, Pinkie giggled at Rarity

“Silly Rarity, hes not a foal or an urchin! He’s a Leoequus! And he’s not THAT dirty.” Rarity rolled her eyes

“Um girls...” said Fluttershy as the other girls kept talking, not noticing her low voice

“Still, don’t ya’ll think we should just take him to one of those orphanage thingy’s instead?”

“Girls...”

“So he could get lost in the system? I don’t think so Applejack. Hippogryphs and Leoequuses have an almost zero adoption rate. Celestia sent me some of the paper work asking for my advice on what do with the influx of abandoned Hippogryphs and Leoequuses a week ago. I ended up telling her to make a special one just for them. At least to raise them until they become adults. Apparently they have very different temperaments from both gryphons and ponies. Most parents are at a loss for what to do with them when they reach the rebellious phase and end up... well, leaving them...”

“So then this guys in his rebel phase then? And his parents just left cause they couldn't handle him!? Those kinda parents shouldn't even be allowed to produce offspring!” yelled Applejack as she thought of such a thing.

“Girls!” Everyone turned to look at Fluttershy because of her sudden outburst.

“Um, he is actually a um, a she...” Applejack raised an eyebrow to look back at the shy Pegasus.

“What do ya mean, he is a she? Sure looks and sounds like a boy to me, How do ya know?” Fluttershy just pointed to the Leoequus

“Could you turn back around for a bit Glarin?” said Fluttershy in a timid voice. Glarin just chuckled and turned back around.

“Well I’ll be a diamond dogs uncle...” The Leoequuses short tail did little to keep everything hidden and being slung over Glarin’s shoulder had caused it to stick to a spot that made it even easier to see everything.

“She looks just like a boy though. I mean, with the short hair and everything...” Rainbow Dash just rolled her eyes.

“Yeah, cause hair color and style shows genders and sexual preference right?” Rainbow was flying with her front hooves crossed as she looked between Applejack and Twilight who had sheepish grins.

“Look, it was an honest mistake Rainbow...” Rainbow flew up and gave Twilight a noogie.

“Don’t sweat it. Besides, that misunderstanding and some cider is the reason why I've got Mac and my foals now anyway. Totally worth it, by the way.” Rainbow nudged Applejack while raising her eyebrows in a slightly seductive manner. Twilight ignored Rainbows odd behavior toward Applejack and used her magic to rearrange the little hybrids tail so that everything was hidden again.

“Rainbow Dash, How many times do I gotta tell ya. I don’t wanna know what you and mah brother do behind closed doors. I can hear enough as it is already. Ms. ‘Just 20% Percent Faster’.” They continued to converse about what to do with the little hybrid beyond Glarins initial idea.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The little hybrid awoke to find herself sitting on a soft bench as the train arrived in the ponyville station. She was scared as she had no idea what was going on and was now in a strange town with a bunch of unfamiliar ponies. She looked over and saw that the creature that knocked her out was asleep next to her on the bench. She moved away from him and into the wall.

“Glarin wake up! Were home!” Rainbow Dash flew over to Glarin and nudged him awake, then looked down to the little Leoequus to see that she was also awake.

“Oh hey, She’s awake now.” The little hybrid took a defensive pose, flaring up her mane and fur as she looked around wide eyed.

“Oh, thats not good, she’s scared out of her mind right now.” Glarin blinked and rubbed his eyes for a bit before looking down at the little hybrid.

“Oye, stop doing whatever it is your doing and let’s...” Glarin was interrupted as a paw with sharp claws struck him across the cheek with the little Leoequus kicking against the wall and bolting out of the trains exit and down the road.

Glarin put his right hand where she had struck him and looked at the blood on his hand. He let out a heartfelt laugh.

“Feisty little she devil ain't she? That’s always a good sign. I probably didn't give her a concussion then.” Sweetie and Bloom ran up to Glarin along with the rest of the main six. Spike walked out of the train to watch her as she ran.

“Oh Celestia your bleeding!”

“She did a number on that newly healed face of yers.”

“Bah, I’ve had worse. We better hurry on after the little devil before she gets into trouble again.” Glarin and the others went out the door in the direction Spike said she headed.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The little leoequus was running through the town dodging ponies and stalls as she ran as fast as possible. Trying to gain as much distance she could from her captors and whatever madness they had planned for her.

Up ahead she saw a dense looking forest. Despite its ominous look, she decided to head toward it as it would likely prove safer than staying among these ponies and the thing that foalnapped her. Living alone in Las Pegasus for those 3 weeks had taught her many things.

No place is safe for long, and even in a safe place you might get hurt. She pushed her way through several ponies and left town heading into the Everfree Forest.

Ducking below low branches and weaving around bushes, the little Leoequus was starting to get tired. She slowed as she looked behind her and couldn't see or hear anything.

“Stupid foal-napping ponies. How am I gonna get back to Las Pegasus now? More importantly, where am I?” She leaned up against a wall covered in some brown moss to try and catch her breath. In slight confusion she began to touch the wall with a paw. The brown moss looked a lot like fur.

“What kind of wall is this?” Oddly the wall was warm and soft, it didn’t take long for her to realize it wasn’t a wall at all.

The Manticore that she had been resting against turned to look at her. Unsure of what to make of the small creature that had disturbed it’s sleep. He rose to face her and in turn received a claw to his nose.

“B-Back off a-and I won’t hurt you again!” She had clawed the Manticore out of surprised panic, and soon realized it was a mistake, as its face turned from minor curiosity into anger as it roared at her.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

She was easy enough to follow as she left quite a trail of disturbed ponies along the way. Several of the ponies she had knocked down said they last saw her running out of town and toward the Everfree.

“What?! She just got here and she runs to the most dangerous place 1st?!” Glarin just chuckled at Rainbows anger as they ran.

“Shes a tough little lass ehh? I think we’ll get along just fine.” The ponies shook their heads as they kept running toward the forest. As they broke the tree line they stopped running and began a slow jog looking around.

“Which way do you think she went?” All of the ponies looked around until Applejack spotted some hoof and paw prints.

“Over here! These tracks look like they...” Applejack stopped speaking when they heard a manticores roar coming from the direction the tracks seemed to be headed.

They all broke into a sprint, going as fast as possible in the direction the roar had come from. About a minute later they came to a small clearing with the little leoequus running around, dodging the large paws of the manticore. She ended up a fair distance away and stood in an aggressive stance. Flaring out her mane and fur in an attempt to look bigger.

“Oh Celestia! Is she crazy fighting a manticore!” exclaimed Twilight

“Woo-wee, look at the manticores nose! She got him good right there!” said Applejack with a slight cheer

“Theres a few others on his face that look fresh as well...” said Rainbow Dash as she looked on.

“Oh dear, that manticore is so big compared to her...” said Rarity as Fluttershy just watched wordlessly at the two of them fighting.

“Size isn’t everything you know! Look at her go!” said Glarin as he laughed out loud. His laugh made the leoequus lose focus on the fight at hand as she looked over at them.

The manticore took advantage of the distraction as he landed a paw strike on her. She flew through the air and crashed against a tree rather hard as she yelped in pain.

The ponies all gasped and cringed when they saw her crash into the tree. The manticore having had enough of the annoying little hybrid, lunged in her direction with his tail primed and ready to strike. But before he could fill the little annoyance with venom, something barreled into his side. The manticore fell to the ground as the wind was knocked out of him.

“You’ve already won beast! Now begone with you, lest you wish to taste my axe!” Before Glarin could pull his axe out Fluttershy flew over to the manticore and began to coo at him. The little Leoequus looked up at Glarin who stood between her and the manticore. While the butter yellow Pegasus gently rubbed the manticores face.

“Oh you poor thing, did that mean little Leoequus scratch up your face?” The little hybrid got a smug grin on her face as the manticore nodded at Fluttershy. The manticore remembered her from all those years ago when she had removed a thorn from his paw.

The manticore began to meow and make motions with his paws, with Fluttershy nodding her head.

“Oh I’m so sorry for her rude behavior. Waking you up from a nap and then attacking you for no reason!” The hybrids face turned into one of slight confusion.

“But that's still no reason to try and kill her! You’re a lot bigger than she is and she’s only a child who got scared.”

“I wasn't scared! I’m full a piss and vinegar! I could of taken him if I didn’t get distracted!” Glarin looked back at her with a bit of confusion on his face.

“What’s your name Lass?”

“Spatzi, Spatzi Angel.”

“Hrm, odd name. But no matter. It looks like my clan mate Fluttershy has the beast under control for now, lets...” Before Glarin could get them to start heading out Fluttershy went up to Spatzi and glared at her.

“I want you to apologize to Mr. Biggles Worth over there. You rudely woke him up from his nap then attacked him. I want you to apologize right now!” Glarin nudged her side, to try and push her forward.

“Better go do it lass...” With a grunt Spatzi went up to the manticore and shuffled her back hooves together nervously

“I’m sorry I woke you up, then attacked you...” Mr. Biggles Worth nodded and waved a paw to dismiss her with a light meow. He then dipped his head down a bit at her before nuzzling against her face.

“Mr. Biggles Worth is sorry for trying to kill you Spatzi. Now lets all get home. You come with me Mr. Biggles Worth. I want to get some bandages on those cuts.”

Glarin and the rest of the ponies that just saw what unfolded looked around a bit confused. They were sure a blood bath was about to begin, but instead Fluttershy calmed down both sides so that they apologized to each other. Shaking it off they all started to head out of the forest with Fluttershy and Mr. Biggles Worth leading the way.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Deciding to dismiss the oddness of what just happened the ponies all broke off after making sure Glarin would be OK with her by himself. To that question he just laughed and told em to head on home. As Glarin and Spatzi walked. She began to get nervous again.

“W-where are we going?”

“To my home.”

“W-why?”

“So I can keep an eye on you. Also your gonna clean up my house a bit as punishment for stealing.”

“What?! Why couldn't you just let me go?! Y-y-you foal napped me to clean your house?!”

“If you wanna look at it like that, then yeah I did. You can sleep anywhere in the house you want and you can eat whatever you find as well. All I ask is that you keep things a little cleaner than how it is now.” She looked at him a little confused

“Wait, just a ‘little’ cleaner? And I can eat all I want and sleep all I want?” Glarin nodded his head.

“Yeah that’s pretty much it. So tell me, you said you were full a piss N’ vinegar right?” She puffed up her chest as they walked and got a smile on her face.

“Ya got that right ya ol Coot. Some of the others I meet in Las Pegasus told me I was full a piss N vinegar, after I ruffed em up a bit!”

“Is that so? Whats vinegar?” The gears in Glarins head began to turn as he pondered what she had just said.

“Its this sour stuff some ponies use to cook and it can also be used to clean I think.” Glarin continued to look thoughtful about it as they walked.

As they neared his house he saw a number of ponies standing around his house. Many of them wearing hats and also having a camera in hoof.

“Oh bugger, it’s the news ponies again. I really hate them... Tell you what, you go to my house before me. Just walk in and tell em whatever you want. The front door should be unlocked if a bit heavy. If anything have em help you open the door.”

“What? Where are you going?!”

“Off to the market so I can buy some supplies you’ll need for cleaning, also so I can avoid those news ponies. I don’t care what you tell em, just try and get em to leave before I get back.” She looked to the crowd of news ponies as she started to shuffle her back hooves around.

“I-I don’t know...” Glarin chuckled

“What? You run outta that piss N vinegar already lass? Want me to hold yer paw and take you inside?” Spatzi began to blush as she looked to his outstretched hand.

“N-No! I don’t need your help ya ol’ fart!” Glarin laughed and waved her off as he traveled back toward the town.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Glarin spent the next hour and a half traveling around the market buying supplies and food. He also set up an order at the Blacksmith to fix his chain shirt and get some shipments of iron ore in order to start crafting a new left ‘hand’. He still hadn’t decided what to put there. He was stuck between a hammer and a mug. He most likely would have to go with something that he could switch out to fit multiple situations.

The Blacksmith informed him that he had completed a single set of armor for each of the pony races. Glarin would finally get around to testing out the new armor he had special made for the three different types. Glarin told him to have the three armor sets delivered as soon as possible to his house and he would pay shipping costs.

Cash on Delivery is what Glarin told him. If Glarin knew beforehand that the postal service charged by the pound for mailing heavy items...

As Glarin came within sight of his home again, he saw that the news ponies hadn't left yet. Pulling on the cart that he borrowed from Applejack. He slowly lugged his cargo of food and cleaning supplies home dreading what the gossip ponies had in store for him.

“Shale... they haven’t left yet. Guess I better get this over with...” As he neared the house one of the ponies pointed in his direction causing the rest of them to swarm over. As they gathered around him they began to bombard him with questions yet they didn’t block his path, allowing him to keep a steady pace.

“Did you really take down the Black Stars Empire from the inside out with the assistance of Spike the Purple Dragon Knight?!”

“How did you lose your hand?!”

“Was it from a gang deal gone wrong?!” Glarin groaned inwardly to himself to try and drown out their voices.

“Is it true you kidnapped a leoequus child to work as your sexy maid slave for the rest of her life with the threat of death should she try to leave?!”

“Is it true you almost died while defeating the Blackstar gang?!”

“Are you and Princess Luna still romantically involved?!” Glarin furrowed his brow as he listened to them question him over and over again until one of them caught his attention.

“Whoa! Wait a tick! Repeat the last question again?!” the ponies all looked at each other and shrugged

“Are you and Luna romantically involved?”

“Could a swore you said something different... But no! As far as I know we are not and it never was serious to begin with! And I think the answers to the rest of your questions are going to be a yes.” The ponies all looked at each other and began to scribble stuff down in their notepads and take pictures.

“Now If you will excuse me, I have work to do.” As Glarin pushed his door open he brought everything inside, leaving the ponies outside as he closed the door. They seemed to be satisfied with his answer.

As he walked inside he saw Spatzi laying down on his stonework bench with the pillow that Rarity had given him to ‘warm’ up the place. A magical fire would of been more useful but beggars can’t be choosers. Spatzi stood as he entered and jumped down from her seat.

“Is this your place? I’ve looked around a bit and it shouldn’t be too hard to clean. But where do you sleep?”

“Downstairs in the bedroom of course, this is just the main hallway, follow me.” Glarin unhitched the wagon from behind him and led her to a door in the back that seemed to be mostly hidden. With a strong push the door moved in and with the sound of stone against stone the wall moved out of the way revealing a staircase.

“Holy Celestia’s backside! You have a basement?”

“Yeah, just a little one, but its getting bigger.” As they walked down the stairs Spatzi looked around and realized this place was far bigger than she ever thought possible. Her idea of easy cleaning was soon dashed. And Glarin’s idea of ‘small’ was vastly different from hers, along with the rest of the world as well.

The farther in they walked the more she realized this house of his was more like and underground mansion. It even seemed to have its own set of pony guards as she saw them walking around. Except they weren’t like any pony guards she had ever seen before. These ones actually looked like they could put up a real fight. A few of them walked up to them and saluted Glarin as he approached.

“Sir Glarin, might I ask who this tasty looking one is?” said one of the bat winged ponies as he let his fangs glint in the dim light.

“Her name is Spatzi, she’ll be living with us for the time being. Try not to scare her too much Shifty.”

“I’m not scared of him!”

“Ya hear that Shifty! She ain't scared of you! Full a Piss N Vinegar she is!” Glarin rubbed his beard that had been restored by the Luck Maiden in thought for a moment.

“Speaking a Piss N Vinegar, I’ll be back. Make sure you gather everyone in the yard outside in a few hours. Send someone out to get Spike as well.”

Shifty and the other guards shrugged and walked off.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As all of the guards and Spike gathered outside the house with Spatzi. She had followed them all out into the yard as she was unsure of what to do exactly. They all saw Glarin stirring a large barrel with several large glasses around him on a nearby table.

“Sir Glarin, what did you want with all of us?” Glarin stopped stirring the contents of the barrel to greet them all.

“Ello! Well were gonna be doing another fighting exercise, hopefuly this one will be more productive then the last one. I went ahead and got two doctors and three nurses from the hospital telling them we were gonna be having a live combat exercise.”

“Another live combat exercise sir?”

“Yes another! Everytime I see you guys fight each other, all I see is a bunch of sissies who are afraid to hurt and get hurt! That ends today! Little Spatzi here fought with a manticore in the Everfree and I bet the rest of you would of just shat yerselves if you had to fight one of em! She’s a little rough around the edges but that’s fine.”

“What does she have to do...” Glarin looked over at the pony and yelled, interrupting his speech.

“Oye! I wasn’t done! Anyway, She then informed me she was full a Piss N’ Vinegar. So I went out and got a bunch of vinegar, and I covered the Piss part nicely over the last 2 and a half hours...” The ponies eyes went wide

“Wait...” They began to look at each other with worry on their faces.

“Thats right, You’re all gonna pair off and duel, the loser has to drink a glass a Piss N Vinegar so he toughens up. Spike and I will go first.”

“So then that barrel is full of...” said one of the ponies before he was cut off by Glarin as he went back to mixing.

“Aye, Piss N Vinegar.”

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Everypony began to panic at the prospect of drinking what he had made.

“We can’t drink that!”

“We’ll get sick!”

“Its gotta be full of germs and disease!”

“Yeah! Tell em doc!” The doctor’s on the side just coughed into their hoof lightly as they looked around.

“Well, technically speaking, Pee is sterile. It’s perfectly safe to drink...”

“And so is Vinegar, so...” As the doctors continued to look around while scratching their heads, Glarin cut back in.

“So its perfectly fine to drink! Now lets get started! Maybe this will put some hair on your chin... or uh, longer hair.” Glarin shook his head “anyway Spike come over here. I can’t make my men do something I wouldn't do.”

“Well I don’t know...”

“Come on Spike, easy rules. Fists only, Or uh, hooves in the case of the others. We keep swinging till one of us gets knocked out, or one of the good doctors says its over.” Glarin got into a fighting stance

“I- uh, I really don’t wanna do this. I’m going to lose...” Glarin got out of his fighting stance and looked at Spike with a look of discomfort.

“What do you mean? How can you give up so easily lad?”

“I can’t beat you! I know I can’t! You’re stronger than me and faster and...”Glarin stomped his foot and began to yell, interrupting Spike mid sentence.

“You shut your mouth! That’s human and dirty tree hugging elf talk! You never know what can happen on the battle field! Even a Nug can fight off a Deepstalker with enough heart! Now raise your fists, no more words!” Glarin put up his fist and stump as he moved away from the table and toward Spike.

“...You do know that the term Piss N’ Vinegar is just an...” Glarin interrupted Spike again as he dashed forward

“Actions speak louder than words lad!” Glarin connected his right fist into Spikes belly pushing him back a few feet. Spike clutched at his belly while Glarin continued his assault throwing out his left stump hitting Spike in the chest.

Spike put up his guard to defend from the fist that kept coming. Glarin certainly wasn't pulling any punches. Even through his scales he could feel the impacts, and the blood on Glarins right knuckles indicated he certainly wasn't holding back.

“Glarin stop!” Glarin kept punching him, hitting Spike on his guard or weaving a fist around to hit him in the belly again. Spike had become a little to tall too land a solid blow on his face. Glarin had to get him on his knees before he could reach.

Spike however was far from falling. His scales were as hard as dwarven crafted plate armor, and Glarin could feel it. He only increased the amount of power in hopes of knocking the wind from Spike in order to bring him to his knees.

Spike however was losing his patience with the whole ordeal. His scales seemed to be blocking most of the damage, and the thick muscles he had built up from the training helped mitigate the damage from Glarins attacks. Being hit repeatedly still hurt though.

“I said STOP!” Having had enough, Spike turned his body as he pulled his dominant arm back arming it with a scaled fist. In a flash Spikes fist flew out with his whole body turning and following through with it. Just as Glarin had shown him weeks before, a proper punch.

Spikes fist connected to Glarin's chin, causing his head to flop and bob for a moment from the jarring hit. Glarin’s eyesight blacked for a moment as his brain bobbed around in his thick skull. He fell to his knees, but awoke again before he could topple over completely. Using his elbows for support, Glarin kept his face from hitting the dirt. He shook his head and groaned in sadness.

“Blasted cleaning water and bitter tea is making me weak...” Glarin slowly rose back up to his feet. And dusted his pants off. Spike just blinked while everyone else just looked on wordlessly.

“I-I won?” said Spike as he looked at his fist. It had some of Glarins beard hair on it.

“Aye you won, don’t rub it in...” Glarin walked over to the barrel and grabbed a cup, dipping it into the liquid.

“Well, as I was saying, the term Piss N’ Vinegar is just an expression.”

“An Expression? Whats that mean?” Before Spike could explain himself further Glarin placed the cup to his lips and began to drink.

He got half way through the cup before he coughed with a gag.

“Bawaargh!” with one eye closed he glared at the cup with the other before he downed the rest of it. He finished by smashing the cup onto the floor causing it to shatter.

“By the gods that tastes horrible. Tastes like elf wine and troll spit that was mixed together with unwashed goblin feet.” Glarin grunted while closing an eye as he turned away. Then hit his chest a few times before looking back to the group.

“How do you know what troll spit and goblin feet taste like?”

“Long story, I’ll tell you some other time. But for now, Whos next?” All of the ponies looked at each other before nodding.

“What if we all refuse to participate?” Glarin spit onto the floor before responding.

“Then I’ll force the lot of ya to drink the entire contents of the barrel instead of just a cup for the loser in each duel. I’ll also replace all the drinks with this foul stuff. Now pair off and get to it!”

Two earth ponies were the first to start brawling with each other. This set off a chain reaction where everypony began fighting the nearest unoccupied pony next to them. Glarin could see black eyes and a few teeth flying.

He was satisfied.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Fluttershy was on her way to Glarin's home as she figured it was time for him to start looking for a pet. After all he did have his home now and he did say he would think about getting a pet once his home was complete.

When she arrived at his home she saw everypony outside, all of them looking rather beaten up. With a few ponies drinking from some cups. They would all gag or vomit as they tried to drink it. Many of them were sobbing as they looked into their cups. Fluttershy fluttered up behind Glarin as she kept her gaze upon the ponies making gag sounds as they continued trying to drink from their cups.

“Oh my, what happened?” Glarin turned around to see her holding her hooves up to her mouth in shock.

“Just a training exercise is all. They actually did a good job this time. They just needed some motivation I suppose. Anyway, what brings you around?” Glarin crossed his arms and burped, causing him to groan and gag a bit.

“Oh, well um, I was wondering if you wanted to go and um, pick out a pet...” Glarin stroked his beard in thought for a moment then shrugged.

“Alright why not. What kind of pets do you have?” Fluttershy perked up right away as she began to list them all off.

“Oh I have so many pets for you to choose from! There’s all kinds of birds, dogs and frogs! Some butterflies and many different reptiles!” Glarin kept looking ahead as he followed Fluttershy who was flying backwards as she spoke

“You have any Brontos?”

“Um, Brontos? I don’t think I've heard of a Bronto before...”

“Well thats fine, I’m sure you’ll have something that could work.”

“What kind of pet were you looking for exactly?” Glarin stroked his beard in thought as he followed her.

“Something big, perhaps something that could help with the heavy lifting around the house. Something that could also put up a fight. Like a Bronto.”

“Oh well... I’m sure one of them will work out for you...” Fluttershy seemed to be in thought the rest of the way toward her cottage and Glarin just got a look of slight confusion upon his face when they arrived at her house.

“Why are we at your house lass? Did you need to pick something up?”

“Well um, all of the pets are at my house. My home is used as a shelter and a vet for all of the nearby animals.”

“Oohh, so all of those critters from before were being taken care of by you then? I thought you just had a bunch of pets.” Fluttershy seemed to blush as she looked away.

“Well... about half of them are my pets...” Glarin just nodded his head in understanding before letting loose a slight chuckle.

“Well alright then, Lets see what you have to offer.”

They walked inside of her little cottage and a bunch of critters all seemed to pour out from the walls and little hidey-holes. They seemed to cheer and wave at Fluttershy as she passed them.

“Well, from the sound of it, you would want a bigger pet... So lets go out back.” Fluttershy, for lack of a better word, fluttered out the back door with Glarin close behind.

Outside the cottage larger animals like dogs and pigs, were running around. Some large pink birds as well. But nothing like an animal that Glarin was looking for specifically.

“Yeah I still don’t see anything that could be useful around the house or in the mines...”

“T-t-the mines?” Glarin just nodded his head as he looked around some more. He stopped when he saw that Manticore from a few days ago napping in the shade of a tree near the forest along with what looked like a furry brown mass.

“That animal over by the Manticore, it looks like the rug one of my uncles got many years ago. What is it?”

“Oh! Thats Henry the Bear.”

“A bear?! Now a powerful animal like that is what I need!”

“Oh well, hes not...” Glarin began a slow jog toward Mr. Biggles Worth and Henry the Bear. When he was close enough he patted the bear on its side.

“Good, hes full of muscle. I’ll take him! And I’ll take this thing next to him as well.”

“W-w-wait a minute.” Henry the Bear and Mr. Biggles Worth both looked at each other and then looked between Glarin and Fluttershy.

“I would like to take them both Fluttershy. They will make excellent work horses and help give the those sorry excuses for guards some kind of live combat exercise.” At the mention of fighting Fluttershy zoomed up and was face to face with Glarin.

“I will not allow you to take them just so they can become... become...!”

“Battle Beasts?” said Glarin as he noticed she was having trouble finishing her thought.

“Exactly! Its too cruel! Making them fight and get hurt!” Glarin thought about it for a moment.

“What if I said they wouldn't get hurt? I can’t say the same about those guards though...”

“What do you mean they wont get hurt?”

“Well I mean I wont give the guards real weapons, and I’ll even fashion some armor for these two here. That should make sure they don’t get hurt.” Fluttershy calmed down a bit as she thought about it.

“Y-you promise they wont get hurt? And that they will be safe?” Glarin gave a low hum as he closed his eyes.

“I promise I won’t let them get hurt, and they would be a great help around the house. I am sure of it.” Fluttershy let go a sigh as she looked at Mr. Biggles and Henry. After a moment she flew over to them.

“What do you two think about becoming, um, pets for Mr. Ungard here?” Henry studied Glarin for a moment before shrugging while Mr. Biggles seemed skeptical. He began to make low growling sounds toward Fluttershy to which she responded.

“Oh, well you wont have to worry about that. I’m sure he can manage.” With a nod the Manticore, Mr. Biggles also nodded his head. Causing Fluttershy to fly back over to a confused looking Glarin.

“You know I’ve always wondered but I guess its true. You can understand the animals can’t you?”

“Oh yes I can, well its not that I understand their speech, but more like I understand what they want to say.” Glarin nodded his head to look as if he understood.

“Interesting... So when can I take them home?”

“Oh! Silly me, I will be right back, take your time to get to know each other while I get the paperwork.” As Fluttershy flew off Glarin walked over to them and sat down in the dirt across from them.

“Henry was it? How do you feel about living underground? Same goes to you Mr Biggles.” Both of them shrugged and made a low grumble sound as they continued to lay in a relaxed pose.

“Sounds like you don’t mind, that's good cause my home is underground. Now tell me, how do you feel about fighting?” Mr Biggles seemed to perk up at that and get a glint in his eyes while Henry stayed indifferent about it.

“I’m guessing you like fighting then.” Said Glarin as he eyed up the manticore “Yeah, I think you’d make a great Battle Beast. Those sods are in for a surprise...” Glarin began to chuckle to himself. After a bit Mr. Biggles worth also began to chuckle with him, Henry soon joined in.

Fluttershy returned to see them all laughing, and figured they had somehow all become good friends in such a short amount of time.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The town had a bit of a scare when they saw Glarin walking around town with a bear and manticore behind him. He headed into town to visit the blacksmith as he had an order to make once again. He really needed to find his own source of iron ore to use at his forge at home. The smith told him that he had already sent the armors as Cash on Delivery and that they should be at his house shortly. Glarin thanked him and then went on his way home.

At his house however was something he never expected to see. A large crowd of ponies outside his house. A group was by several crates while another group was surrounding Princess Twilight Sparkle.

“Today is such a busy day. What in blazes is going on here now...” Deciding that the group around Twilight was simply there because of Twilight, he walked over to the group near the crates first and hailed them.

“Oye! What are you lot doing here? Are those boxes for me?” one of the ponies walked forward and began to look through a clipboard.

“You are Glarin Ungard correct?” the mail ponies were eyeing the manticore and bear that stood behind him.

“That I am yes.” the mail pony with the clip bored sighed as he looked through it some more.

“Alright, I’ll need a total of 5,880 bits from you before we can release the packages to you.” Glarin just looked at him dumbfounded. He stuck his pinkie finger into his ear and twisted it around. After a moment he looked at his finger and flicked a rock off it.

“I’m sorry, I had a rock in my ear, how much did you want again?”

“5880 bits.” Glarin fell to his knees in shock and foamed a little at the mouth as his brain shut down for a moment. When he regained his wits, he asked six simple words.

“Why does it cost so much?!” Glarin got back up and dusted his legs off a bit.

“Well lets see here... Standard shipping charge is 2 bits per pound, but since this was labeled as express, the price becomes 5 bits per pound. The price also increases further to 7 bits per pound once the total weight exceeds 400. The total weight came to 840 pounds. One crate weighed in at 390, the second at 250, while the last one was 200 pounds. Standard delivery would of been cheaper, not by much though.”

“Bloody hell, next time I need something delivered I’m taking it myself... Let me go get the money...” as Glarin walked away he looked back to Henry and Mr. Biggles. “...Come with me, I’ll show you where you can sleep.”

After Glarin got both of his new roommates settled in, he went back upstairs and paid the mail ponies their ridiculous charge. By then Twilight was out and waiting for him with the crowd of ponies behind her. The crowd seemed to contain a decent amount of young ones from both the ponies and griffins.

Glarin told the guards to take the crates inside and figure out who was going to wear the new armor sets and see how they felt. In the meantime he was going to see what Princess Twilight wanted.

“What can I help you with your Royal Highness?” Glarin even bowed his head as she approached him.

“Please just Twilight is fine. And why did a bear and a manticore go into your house? Whats going on?" Glarin smiled

"They are my new pets Your Highness, From Fluttershy." Twilight sighed inwardly and decided to ask him more about it later.

"Please, just call me Twilight." She sighed again "Glarin I have a task for you.” Twilight looked behind her at all of the ponies and took a deep breath

“Anything for you Princess Twilight. You need but ask.” She smiled as he continued to bow his head. Twilight walked up to him and placed a hoof upon his face so that he would look up at her.

“I thought we were friends, there’s no need to be so formal.” Glarin stopped bowing as looked up at her.

“Aye, I suppose we are. It’s just formalities and all. Its hard to teach an old Bronto new tricks. So what do you require of me?”

“Ah, these ponies here behind me. They need a place to stay. They were the captives inside that ‘hotel’. Princess Celestia is having a hard time finding a place for all of them to stay at the moment, and... well...”

“What do you mean stay with me? You think I’m running some kind of Inn here?! I mean, yeah I have room for them... But still! Why can’t Princess Celestia put them up someplace else?” Twilight leaned in closer so that only he could hear.

“...The ponies in Canterlot were less than willing to allow them to stay because of what happened to them. Those snobbish ponies have zero sympathy for what was done to them.” Twilight leaned back again and spoke with an angry voice. “It makes me sick that ponies like that live in the city I grew up in.” Glarin and Twilight both gave a heavy sigh. “They also don’t want to be anywhere near Las Pegasus, or a city that looks like it. A nice quiet town like Ponyville will help them relax and unwind.”

“Fine, I’ll put em up for awhile. You just get to work and getting them out of here quickly.” Twilight smiled and gave him a hug.

“Thanks so much, they should only be here for a few weeks at most. In the meantime I hope they can settle in and find some peace here for the time being.” Glarin groaned inwardly as more responsibility was dumped on him once again. Twilight turned around to face the group of ponies with a smile on her face.

“Everyone, this is Sir Glarin, Berserker of the Ungard Clan and Knight of Equestria. You will be staying with him for the time being. You have nothing to worry about while you are in his care. He was the one that brought down the Black Star Gang with the help of Sir Spike, the Dragon Knight of Equestria.” The group of ponies suddenly went from skeptical to overjoyed, rushing over to hug and greet him.

So far, Glarin was already regretting his decision to let them stay.

“Celestia is going to send you some money to help pay for their expenses and anything else they might need while they stay here.” Glarin just nodded his head and he broke out from the group.

“Alright, follow me inside, I’ll show you around...”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It turns out they were mares or hens with children, only 2 of them were male. One being a pony with the other being a griffin. He wasn't sure how much they would enjoy staying here, seeing as how most of the facilities were for training purposes and made of stone. This home wasn't made for comfort.

“Ok, so the west wing over here is where all of you will be staying. Don’t worry about any of the other ponies you see walking around, they work for me. If you need anything but can’t find me, just let one of them know.”

Glarin was leading them around and showing them where everything was. Everything seemed to be going rather smoothly with everyone just nodding and oooing as he showed them around. It was easy up until one of the children asked a simple question.

“Where are the toys?” asked one small colt. Glarin groaned inwardly as he took a deep breath.

“We don’t have any...” Before he could finish his sentence, Spatzi popped out from behind him waving her paw

“They’re over here! I’ll show you all the neat stuff I found while cleaning!” The children looked up to their moms before getting a nod allowing them to go. With a smile on their faces they all left after Spatzi to go look at the ‘toys’.

“Who was that darling little one?” asked one of the mares

“She was a leoequus right?” asked one of the hens.

“Aye, I picked her up as I was leaving Las Pegasus. She had stolen someones coin purse when she ran into me. I thought it better she lived and worked for me rather than live on the street.”

“So then, you adopted her?”

“What?! No she’s working for me. Completely different. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some business to attend to. You’re all more than welcome to watch if you want. I’ll need to test out some of the armor I had made.” With that Glarin walked away. Many of the mares and hens followed him, unsure of what to do.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

They all ended up in a large room. It was the sparring room. Large and spacious as it was used for them to practice fighting when they weren't above ground. The room was spotless as they had never used it before.

In the center of the room stood 3 ponies in armor. One of each race in a different set of armor.

“It took us a little while to figure out how to get it on, but we got it. These are considerably heavier then those vests. I can see why you made us wear them all the time now Sir.”

“Aye, I have my reasons for doing what I do Shifty.”

“Even drinking Piss N vinegar?”

“You got into a fight and lost some teeth correct?” Shifty mumbled as he rubbed a hoof over his face.

“Yeah, I need to go see the dentist Colgate about getting this fixed. What kind of Lunar Pegasus would I be without fangs. What even gave you the idea to make us drink that if we lost?” Glarin chuckled to himself

“Spatzi did. She said she was full of Piss N vinegar. After I saw her hold her own against one of those manticores I figured you guys could use some as well. Also I picked one up along with a bear at Fluttershy's today. Things are going to get fun around here...” Shifty looked at Glarin with a bit of confusion.

“Wait a minute, you mean those two beasts are actually going to live here? For real?!”

“Yeah, now lets see how this armor is working.”

Glarin walked up to the Earth pony first, knocking on the armor and inspecting it as he walked around. The earth pony inside the suit of armor stood a full foot and a half over Glarin. The armor was dark in color instead of a shiny polished steel color. It was more of a dark dull grey. With the full helmet you couldn't see who was inside the armor. From inside the suit of armor the pony spoke

“Sir. What is this huge plate on my back for?” Glarin looked up at the pony

“Hrm? Thats the shield. Raise yer left hoof up until you feel a click Rocky.” The earth pony did as such and the shield upon his back sprang to life, spinning a quarter circle as it moved out until the bottom of the shield was at equal length with his foreleg and hoof, with a small piece of metal sticking out of the bottom of the shield. Rocky set his leg down and that small piece of metal pushed into the shield as it came into contact with the ground. Another click was heard and the shield expanded outward providing even more cover.

“Excellant, it works. Now raise your right hoof in the same manner.” He did so and another click was heard with a hammer springing forth from Rocky's back and attaching itself to his right hoof as well.

“It bloody works! Bawhahaha!” as Glarin gave a little victory dance the ponies in the room were just marveling at the armor that was being used. They had never seen such workmanship in armor before. Let alone all of the little gizmos that it seemed to have to allow storage of weapons and a shield.

“Sir, is the armor heavy because of all the gadgets it has in it?”

“Ha, no. Its heavy because your shield is an inch and a half thick while the rest of it is close to being an inch thick. I believe the shield itself weighs in around 100 pounds.”

“But why would I need such heavy armor, I won’t be able to move very fast, let alone run.” Glarin chuckled to himself as he walked over to the wall and grabbed one of the practice blades on the wall.

“The armor your wearing is the of the Juggernaut Class. Your job is to provide cover and push forward. Advancing the line and gaining ground no matter what. Being on the front means you are going to be taking the brunt of attacks, as such, your armor is the thickest and the strongest.” Glarin walked back over with the practice blade over his shoulder.

“Watch...”

Rage activated.

“Uhh, sir...” Rocky started to shake a little as it was clear Glarin was going to hit him with the practice blade.

Glarin raised his arm and brought the practice blade down upon Rocky’s withers. The blade broke into several pieces as rocky just stood there. With a deep breath Glarin calmed himself and tossed the rest of the broken practice blade to the side.

“I-I didn’t feel anything, besides the added weight of your blow, but it didn’t hurt at all.”

“Good, your withers is the thinnest part of the armor, remember that. Now on to the unicorn set...” Glarin walked over to the unicorn, like the earth pony it was a full set that covered everything including the horn.

“Sir, why is my armor so heavy? It doesn't weigh as much as the Juggernaut class, but its still considerably heavy. It reminds of when I first put my vest on.”

“Just because you wont be in the front line all the time doesn't mean you should wear light armor Ace. Move around in it, tell me if it restricts any of your movements.” Ace turned his head and neck around, lifted his hoof a few times and began to bend it every which way. As he moved around he began to increase his movement speed from what seemed to be excitement.

“H-h-how is it so flexible?! It looks and feels like a metal plate, yet it allows full flexibility in all of my joints?!”

“Aye, it took me a blasted month with many sleepless nights to figure out how to make them that way. You ponies have far too many joints. Did you see the contraption Twilight wanted me to install on the back of all the unicorns and pegasi armors?” Ace turned his head around to look at the thick wire mesh on his back

“Yeah we were wondering what that was.”

“It’s a magic gem, or a uh... what did she call it?” Glarin thought for a moment then shrugged “I can’t remember what she called it, I zoned out for most of her explanation. To much magic talk. Anyway, just put some magic into it.” Ace nodded his head and his horn came to life, glowing a red color. The gem soon began to glow and after a moment the glow from the gem began to envelop the armor.

“The armor! I-I-It doesnt weigh as much anymore!” Ace proved his theory by running around and leaping up into the air. When he jumped he flew a good 20 feet up into the air as he crashed into a wall.

“What the bloody hell!? What did Twilight have me install in your armor!” Ace picked himself up and shook himself off a bit before galloping over.

“I think its one of those power gems, but of the type I’m not sure. I wonder if she made a new type or something...” Glarin shook his head.

“I don’t want you using that gem outside of combat, you need to get used to wearing the armor...” Glarin sighed. “Anyway, lift up each hoof until you hear a click, just like what Rocky did.” Ace nodded his head and lifted both hooves up simultaneously. Two clicks went off and an axe with a hammer came out attaching themselves to the end of his hooves.

“Looks like this works as well, excellant.”

“No shield sir?” Glarin shook his head.

“The Battle Mage set. I figured between your magic and other spells, you could cover yourself just fine. I've seen some humans pull it off. I figured you could do the same. Now after we inspect the Pegasus armor I want you to head down and get Twilight to explain what these gems do, both yours and the one I had put into the Pegasus armor.” Ace nodded his head as he moved back.

Glarin walked to the Pegasi and looked him over. It was full body armor as well except the helmet was more of a wire mesh so the vision was better. The back had two port holes that allowed the wings to come out once extended with some plates around the base of the wings for some added protection. The Pegasi without being asked lifted his left and right hoof up as well, but there was no click. He tried it a few more times but heard nothing.

“Is it broken Sir?” Glarin chuckled.

“No, yours it set up differently Gust, flick the bottom of your hoof inward then outward.” Glarin gave him a visual using his right hand, moving his hand down then flicking it upward at the wrist.

Gust did so and a set of claws came out, he repeated with the other hoof and claws also came out.

“I get claws sir? Glarin laughed again.

“Thats not all, first see if you can fly.” Gust nodded his head and after a bit of a running start took to the air, he flew around for a bit before landing.

“I can fly, not very fast or far at the moment. But with practice I’m sure I can get better, just like with the vest.”

“Good good, now flair out your wings and flick them backwards with a twist.” Gust did so and with a click some metal plates sprang out covering the front end of his wings with it extending outward a bit more. The metal on the ends extended outward slightly with it being razor sharp. It was a shiny silver color instead of the dull grey the rest of the armor had.

“Excellent, it works just as well as the others. I had to use Mithril for the wing blades as it was the only thing light enough that wouldn't cause much wind resistance. At least that’s what Twilight told me. Anyway, try flying again.” Gust nodded his head and took off a little faster than last time. Made a quick few circles in the air before landing again.

“Same as before, the Mithril blade on my wings doesn't seem to hinder me at all.” Glarin chuckled as he turned to Ace.

“Seems like the Assault set works just fine. Ace charge up the crystal for Gust so we can see what it does.” Ace nodded his head as his horn began to glow.

“I’m sure its just a power crystal like mine.” After he charged it Gust picked up his head and looked around a bit.

“Oh yeah, the armor feels much lighter. Lets see...” Gust began to flap his wings and fly around the room, he started to pick up speed as he did some aerial tricks. Sharp turns and stopping on a dime mid air. He landed again laughing

“This is incredible, its like I'm wearing nothing at all!” Gust turned around and shook his flank around for everyone to see.

“You will need to get Twilight to explain what she did with these power crystals, this is out of control.” Said Glarin as he huffed in disappointment. Rocky walked over and with a bit of a pout in his voice.

“Why don’t I get one of those power crystal thingy’s too?”

“Cause you won’t bloody need it when you adapt to the armor. You will be an unstoppable powerhouse, even without the silly crystal...” Rocky looked side to side for a moment before nodding his head.

“We’ll head over to Princess Twilight's place of residents and ask her about the crystals.” Said Ace as Gust walked up next to him.

“Good, maybe you can understand half of what comes out of her mouth. Lass is too smart for her own good at times.” Glarin began to walk out of the room only for some of the mares to stop him.

“E-excuse me, but um... where are you going now?”

“To my room. I need to make up a basic design for my new hand. Then get some sleep. Its been a long day.” Glarin walked down the hallway rubbing his head.

“Good night Sir Glarin. And um, for what its worth, Thank you. We all thank you for what you did.” Glarin smiled lightly

“Think nothing of it Lass, I was just doing my job and keeping a promise.”

Some Comforts

View Online

Glarin was sitting inside a rocking chair in front of his home. He was sitting relaxed as he rocked back N’ forth watching the young ones play out in the yard. After a moment he heard the familiar sound of hooves upon stone.

“Dinner is ready Love, call our little ones inside so we can eat.” Glarin turned to look at the source of the voice and saw it was Princess Luna. With a confused smile on his face he nodded his head.

“Yes, of course dear...” Glarin said without really thinking about it. He got up out of his chair and took a deep breath. “...Foods Ready!” Glarin watched them all run up to the house. But it started to get strange, some were ponies while others were dwarven children. Except they looked like him, just smaller. Not the way dwarf children should look at all.

Then the icing on the cake walked by. It walked on two pony legs with a bulky upper dwarf body. With chiseled facial features and a full on beard. It looked up at Glarin and spoke with a childish voice that didn’t match the way it looked at all.

“I love you daddy.”

“Bawhhaa!” Glarin sat up in bed with a cold sweat dripping down his face. He looked around his dimly lit room and heaved a sigh of relief.

“What a bloody nightmare.” Glarin hopped out of his bed and shook his head. Ready to tackle the new day and forgot the nightmares that seemed to come from time to time.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Spatzi was up early. The stone beds made it hard to sleep for very long. She would need to get something to make it more comfortable, the only problem was where she would get the money in order to buy some blankets or pillows? Let alone find something other than rocks in this place. The only soft thing she found was that single pillow upstairs.

As she wandered around the halls she could see some of the other ponies that the princess dropped off the other day were also awake. She walked over to greet them.

“Hey! So how long are you all gonna to be staying here?” the mares looked tired as they turned to look at Spatzi. They gave her a weak smile with a chuckle.

“Not so sure. Hey, do you know if Sir Glarin has any bed sheets or pillows? Is everything here made of rocks?” Spatzi thought for a moment and shrugged.

“Pretty sure everything is made of rocks. The old mans cheap like that. I’m sure if you put in a request he would do something about it.” The mare seemed to perk up a bit along with the others near her.

“Oh really? That would be wonderful. That hotel was bad, but at least they had real beds...” Spatzi looked a little dejected at that.

“Ah, I heard something about that from some of the guards. I’ll go let him know. Maybe we can go get something done by today.” The ponies thanked her as she turned to leave.

It felt weird to be thanked for doing something. It actually felt kinda nice to not be yelled at with curse words. She began to run down the hallway in search of Glarin

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Glarin was busy setting up one of the rooms the guards had cleared out in preparation for the first shrine he was going to set up.

A Shrine to Moradin of course, then came Berronar, then Clangeddin, and last but not least to the Luck Maiden. Maybe a few others for good measure, but he never really worshiped any of the others. As he set up the Sacred Forge Spatzi opened the door and rushed up to him.

“Hey old man! The new guests were wondering if we could give them some blankets and pillows so they could sleep better! It looks like they didn’t sleep well last night, and to be honest I find it hard to sleep as well...” Glarin stopped what he was doing and looked over at Spatzi for a moment then sighed.

“I was afraid of that...” Glarin walked out of the room and motioned for her to follow him. They went to a back room Spatzi had never been too before, mainly because the door was so well hidden in the wall the hallway looked like it ended in a dead end. Glarin pushed a portion of the wall in and the wall moved outward with a groan and slide out of the way.

“Whooah, I’ve never seen this room before...” as Spatzi walked in behind Glarin she could see a moderate pile of bits in the far corner with 3 sacks next to it.

“This is my treasurery, and as you can see, its in a sad state. Damn mail ponies. Thieves is what they are. Thieves in uniforms!” Glarin picked up an empty sack and began to push bits into it until it was half full. He spun around and held it out for Spatzi to take.

“Alright, head into town and get them some comforts, I’ve got work to do around here.” Spatzi looked at the bag and at Glarin.

“Y-you’re just going to let me do it?” Spatzi was taken aback, he had known her for less than a week. Yet he was trusting her with a large sum of money.

“I trust you enough to not run off with it. Just try not to spend all of it. You’ll need to get enough for 20 beds, not including your own as well. Those guards I’m training are lucky I even feed them, so don’t worry about getting anything for them. Just our new guests.”

“Well, how much did you give me? Things like soft beds are usually expensive you know...” Glarin thought for a moment, and released a low growl, then scooped some more from his pile into the bag

“You should have about...” He lifted the bag up and down a few times looking at it. “...about 6,000 bits in here. Give or take a few hundred. Remember to haggle it down cheaper because you’re buying in bulk. When every things said and done tell them you’ll come back to pick it up later. That’s when I’ll send some of the guards with you to pick everything up. No way in hell am I going to pay those thieves in uniform again.” Spatzi gulped at the large sum of money he was literally just handing to her.

“W-well I’m not really, I don’t know how to haggle...” Glarin hummed to himself for a moment.

“Its not too hard to haggle a price down. You always go for a number considerably less than what they offer you. Shops have a habit of charging at least 100-300% more than what they paid for something. And if they ask you that stupid question of ‘how much are you willing to spend?’ you cross your arms and tell them ‘I wasn’t planning on spending any money actually. I’m mostly just looking at the moment.’ That usealy gets them to drop prices to make a sale.”

“Well still, I’m not so sure...”

“What? Scared to go buy some things by yourself?”

“I’m not scared, y-you old man! I-I-I just... Nevermind, I’m going!” Spatzi snatched the sack from Glarins hands and did her best to run out the door with it. It was pretty heavy though, and she stumbled from side to side trying to maintain balance as she kept the sack on her back.

Glarin just grunted as he watched her leave. With a smile he headed back to the room to finish setting up the shrine.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Spatzi was out and walking around the town. She needed to find a place that sold mattresses, and then blankets and pillows. Hopefully the money Glarin gave her would be enough for everything. As she walked through the town she avoided the market place as that area mostly just sold food stuffs and other nicknacks. She needed to find some kind of bedroom store, or something.

She eventually ended up at a place called Sweet Dreams. The outside didn’t look like much, but it had a picture of a big moon for the shops symbol. If a moon didn’t symbolize sleep, she didn’t know what else it could mean. So she opened the door and walked on inside.

It didn’t look like a store that sold things like bedding or anything like that. In the center of the room was what looked like a bar with benches all around it with some tables near the walls. The building also looked quite smoky as well.

“Hey kid, what are you doing in here? You need to be of legal age to come in here.” Spatzi flinched a bit at the harsh sound of his voice

“O-oh, I was just looking for a mattress store. I t-thought with the name Sweet dreams you’d sell stuff, like... that...” As Spatzi looked around she noticed a few griffins and some ponies eyeing her with the shop keeper, he was moving a pipe around in his mouth as she spoke.

“Ah, you’ll wanna go three streets over to a place called Celestia’s Beds N’ Sheets. They got a sun symbol on the front door, can’t miss it.” his voice wasn’t as harsh this time around.

“Thanks a lot Mister!” The pony just nodded his head at her as she turned around and left the shop.

Now with a sense of direction of where to go, Spatzi started heading three streets down and began to look for the store with a sun symbol on it. That shop keeper was right about one thing though, The shop wasnt hard to miss at all.

Forget the sun symbol on the door. The sign was a large bed with Celestia inside it sleeping, with the words Celestia’s Beds N’ Sheets carved into the side of the bed.

With a bit of a laugh she walked through the door and a bell went off signaling her entrance. Where she was immediately greeted by the pegasi sales pony.

“Hello and welcome to Celestia’s beds N sheets, home of the greatest Cloud Mattresses straight from Canterlot! Was there, anything I could help you with? Anything at all?” Being a sales pony that worked off commissions in probably one of the slowest business ventures, he was desperate to make any kind of sale, even if it was just a pillow.

“Ah yes, well, I was looking for a nice mattress and, you wouldn’t happen to also sell blankets and other things as well, would you?” the sales pony’s eyes glinted in the light as he eyed the sack on her back. He could taste a sale coming. He might be able to make rent this month. Heck if he convinced her to buy a top end mattress he might make rent for two months.

“Oh yes! We are having a special where if you buy a mattress it comes with a free full bed set. The full set includes your sheets with a comforter, two pillows and two pillow cases! Depending upon the mattress you pick out the thread count for the sheets ranges anywhere from 150 - 1200. Of course you can always upgrade to a higher quality with any mattress type.” Spatzi looked thoughtful about what he had said. She tried to look like she understood what he was talking about with the thread count.

She really had no idea what thread count was. But had to make it look like she did.

“I see, well I’m just going to have a look around if you don’t mind.” The sales pony nodded his head and waved a hoof with a bow allowing her to walk freely around the store.

She walked off and looked at all of the different mattresses, all of them looked the same with varying prices. The cheapest she saw was 165 bits, but if they were also getting sheets with a blanket and pillows with it. That would mean for all 20 it would cost a total of... a lot of bits. She thought about what Glarin had said, haggle down the price because of bulk buying.

But... those poor ponies needed something better than the cheapest available. She overheard some of the guards talking about how they used to be slaves or something. Forced to work for the Black Star Gang. She had heard of them while she was in Las Pegasus. She made it a point to avoid that side of town because of all the nasty rumors... She wanted to do something nice for them. Even if it did mean spending all of the money he had given her. Glarin, that old man had to stop being so cheap.

She stopped in front of a bed with the highest price she had seen so far, it was marked at 540 bits. It was labeled as a Cloud Mattress. She set the bag of bits down and hopped on top of it.

The sales pony eyes glinted again as he got a smile on his face when he saw her hop on top of it.

Spatzi sank into the bed. Every single one of her curves was being cradled in such a gentle way. Even her tail that usually made it uncomfortable to lay on her back was being gently hugged. The bed was so soft with the sheets so smooth. It was like she was floating upon nothing at all. The mattress that had enveloped her was slowly warming, lulling her to sleep. She was so comfortable she almost fell asleep, and would have if the sales pony didn’t come by at the moment her eyes closed.

“I can see you are enjoying Equestria’s best Mattress. With the combined techniques of both pegasi and unicorns they were able to create clouds that any creature could lay upon. The comfort that only griffins and pegasi could enjoy is now available to all.”

“Wait, this is a real cloud?” The sales pony nodded his head.

“Yes it’s a real cloud, shaped by pegasi and enchanted by the best unicorns to give it a solid form. Solid yet still retain its cloud softness that every pegasi grew up on. Even Rainbow Dash, the Element of Honesty can vouch for its softness. Seeing as how she’s always sleeping on a cloud.” Spatzi loved this mattress, but the price tag was a little high, she doubted she would be able to afford 20 of them plus one for herself... Unless she haggled him down. Spatzi hummed a bit in thought before speaking.

“It’s a nice mattress I’ll give you that, but it’s out of my price range.” The Sales pony looked baffled, no ones ever denied buying a cloud mattress after they tested it, well besides pegasi who had brought an actual cloud into their cloud homes.

“Well, how much were you looking to spend?” That was the question, the question the old man had warned her about. Good thing he told her how to answer it.

“Actually, I wasn’t planning on spending anything, I’m just looking around mostly.” The sales pony felt his heart sink, maybe he wouldn’t make rent this month after all.

He thought making money would be an easy thing to do. His Commission rate was 60% and even selling the cheapest mattress in this store got him a 1/4 of his months rent. But still, he had to try. Maybe if he dropped the price of the cloud mattress she would be more inclined to buy one. She did after all have that large bag, but if she didn’t want to spend 540 bits, then it probably wasn’t as full of bits as he thought.

“What if I lowered the price to, say, 450 bits? Would you be more interested?” Spatzi crossed her arms as she stood on her hind legs.

“Slightly more, but lets say... 100 bits.” The sales pony looked baffled at the extremely low price she offered him.

“100?! But that’s how much we pay! That’s wholesale!” The sales pony quickly covered his mouth with his hooves in an attempt to prevent himself from saying any more foolish things. Spatzi smiled, this haggle game was fun.

“I see, then how does 140 bits sound then?” The sales pony shook off his shock when he realized she was playing a haggle game with him.

“400!”

“200!”

“370!”

“230!”

“350!” they had been moving closer as they shouted numbers, they were nearly face to face now, each not really willing to go much farther.

“250!”

“330!”

“270!”

“300 bits! That’s my final offer!” Spatzi looked at him for a moment.

“290, or no deal.” The sales pony was obviously sweating as he contemplated it. He stood there silent looking at the floor. Spatzi took it as a no and began to walk toward the door with the bag of bits in hand.

“Wait!” he yelled in desperation, he was seriously cutting into his own paycheck at this rate, but he needed to make at least a few bits.

“Hmm?” Spatzi stopped to look at him.

“295 bits is the lowest I can go and not get in trouble with the higher ups...” Spatzi smiled at him and lugged the big sack out from behind her and set it on the ground in front of him. Spilling its contents onto the floor.

“Deal, I’ll take 21 of them.” The sales pony looked at all the bits that littered the floor around his hooves and then back up at the smiling Leoequss. She had played him, quite well actually. He cracked a smile at what had just happened and then chuckled about it.

He would make rent after all, for this month and probably the next few.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After they had counted out all the bits, she had a total of 6,237 bits. After he rung up all the mattresses the total came to 6,195. Leaving her with a total of 42 bits left.

At least she didn’t spend it all in one place.

Because she lacked a saddle bag she just tossed the remaining bits into the sack and told the sales pony she would be back with some other ponies to pick everything up.

“I’ll be back!” Yelled Spatzi as she happily left the store.

42 bits

She had 42 bits left. Perhaps she could find a sweets shop. They had to have one someplace in town. She went off in search of a bakery or a candy store, its been awhile since she’s had anything sweet to eat.

As she traveled off in search of a candy shop she was stopped by a pegasi as she rounded a corner in a part of town that was less traveled.

“Hey kid, what happened to your huge sack? Don’t tell me you spent everything already.” Spatzi backed off a bit.

“W-what do you want!? Leave me alone!” The pegasi didn’t back off however and just moved in closer.

“Just hand over the sack, maybe there’s still enough left for some drinks.” Spatzi kept backing up until her backside was against the wall of a building. She was starting to panic, so she flared out her mane.

“Just leave me alone! I’m warning you!”

“That’s cute kid, just hand over what’s left of your money so we can both move on.” He reached out his hoof to take the sack off her back when she lashed out and swiped his arm. He reacted a second too slow as her claws dug into the flesh on his arm causing him yell in pain.

“You little hybrid freak! I was trying to be civil about this!” He spun around and bucked her.

Spatzi tried to jump back and out of the way but in her panicked state, forgot she was already backed into a wall. His buck landed on her stomach knocking the wind from her lungs and pushing her into the building. She fell to the floor wheezing for air as the pegasi grabbed the sack and dumped the bits out onto the floor.

“42 bits? Well that should be able to get me a few drinks at the bar. Stupid little crybaby, shoulda just hoofed me the money.” He spit on her as he left, leaving her as tears began to well up in her eyes.

“Give it...back...” Spatzi just watched as he began to flap his wings and take off.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Pinkie, is it really necessary to have a party right now?” asked Glarin as he watched her set up streamers and balloons, much to his displeasure.

“Of course it is silly! Little Spatzi left on an errand so it’s the prefect chance to set up her Surprise party!” Glarin grumbled again. Even after telling this pink energetic pony that today was not a good day for a party, she just kept setting up party materials. How she was able to keep pulling things out from her mane was a mystery. But then again, he remembered how many of the older dwarves had a habit of storing things like food and tools in their long thick beards. Perhaps she was part dwarf in that manner.

“Glarin, I brought the small ball of iron... What was this for again?” Glarin took the small iron ball from Starset and looked it over. It fit nicely into the palm of his hand.

“Pinkie asked for a small ball, the only ball I have is this iron one from the weight room... Pinkie! I got your ball!” Pinkie jumped down from the top of the ladder

“Yippe! Hand it over quick!” Glarin held out the metal ball for Pinkie to take, only for her to look at it quizzically.

“This isn’t a toy ball!” She exclaimed

“I don’t have any toy balls...” Pinkie just looked at the iron ball thoughtfully for a moment before turning away.

“Well thats fine, I can just use one of mine from one of my emergency ball stashes.” Pinkie walked over to a bookshelf in the room and pushed it aside revealing a hole that she reached into. She then pulled out a few balls then replaced the bookshelf.

“I don’t remember having any books... Let alone that Bookshelf!” Glarin just watched as the pink pony bounced from one place to another as she continued to set things up. He was still trying to figure out where that bookshelf with the books came from. It was made of weak and dirty wood for dwarf sake.

It was at that moment that one of the guards came running into the room.

“Sir Glarin! Spatzi has returned, shes coming down this way...” Pinkie let loose a loud gasp

“Quick! Everyone hide!” The guard just shook his head.

“No, shes... I think something happened. She covered in dirt, but she won’t tell me anything.” Glarin raised an eyebrow at that. Pinkie had stopped bouncing around as she heard what the guard said.

The door opened slowly with Spatzi walking inside. She slowly walked up to Glarin with her head hung low the entire time.

“I got the stuff. You can go pick them up at a place called Celestia’s Beds N’ Things...” Glarin nodded his head.

“And my change? Was there anything left?” Spatzi seemed to flinch at that.

“I-I don’t have it...” Glarins eye seemed to twitch at that.

“What do you mean, you don’t have it? What happened?” Glarin waited, but she kept looking at the floor.

“It...I’m...” Glarin was starting to loose patience with her being so timid.

“Spit it out lass! What happened!” Spatzi looked up at him with tears in her eyes.

“I’m just a stupid little crybaby that let a stupid Pegasus take it from me! Ok?! Are you happy now?!” Glarin didn’t respond the way she thought he would. He didn’t yell at her for losing the money, or losing to some stupid Pegasus, he didn’t even look angry.

“Do you remember what he looked like?” Was all he said. Spatzi nodded her head as she used a paw to wipe away her tears.

“He was orange, I didn’t see his cutie mark or notice anything else...” Glarin turned around to look at everyone else in the room.

“EVERYOONE!” Yelled Glarin, he was so loud that the room shook, he was beginning to emit a dangerous aura.

“GATHER EVERY ORANGE PEGASUS IN TOWN THAT MATCHES SPATZI’S DESCRIPTION!"

"IMMEDIATELY!” Without hesitation every single one of the guards saluted Glarin and sped off outside toward the town. Glarin turned back to face Spatzi once again. He didn’t look angry.

“One last thing, did he call you a stupid little crybaby?” Spatzi nodded her head, and then she heard him growl.

“Here, take this back to the weight room. I need to get my hammer...” Glarin handed her the small iron ball he had been holding onto the whole time.

As she looked at it, it was no longer round, it was more oval shaped with indents that were big enough for Glarins fingers to fit inside of.

Justice and Questions

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Twilight was busy explaining to Ace exactly how the crystals worked and what they did. Gust was just looking at all of the books around the library. He was uninterested in magic talk.

“So as you can see, no matter how much energy you put into the crystal, it will never explode due to its intricate inner crystalline structure that I designed myself. It will simply last longer, the only drawback is also that no matter how much energy you put into it, it will never increase its power output.”

“I see, so all these crystals do is double our natural strength? And it lasts longer the more magic we pump into it?”

Twilight nodded her head in agreement.

“Yup, it only doubles the users physical output, it’s a very simple yet complex crystal. Was there anything else you...” Twilight was interrupted mid sentence by Applejack and Rainbow Dash busting her door open in a bit of a panic.

“Twilight! Somethin’s happening!” yelled Applejack

“Yeah! Glarin has those guards tearing up the town and gathering every orange pegasi in town for some reason!” huffed Rainbow Dash

“Darn near grabbed me too until they realized I wasn’t a pegasus.” Twilight looked over at Ace who simply shrugged in response.

“An orange pegasus probably made him angry, so hes looking for him or her.” Twilight sighed in slight frustration.

“If it isn’t one thing it’s the other. Lets go figure out whats going on girls.” They both nodded their heads and began leading Twilight, Ace, and Gust over to where Glarin was gathering them. Just outside the edge of town near his house.

Three orange pegasi were already lined up and being restrained by some of the guards by the time Twilight arrived. She could see Glarin standing nearby with a large hammer slung over his shoulder with Spatzi sitting near him.

“You sure it wasn’t one of these three?” Spatzi shook her head no after looking at the three of them.

“No, it wasn’t one of them.” Glarin released a low growl and motioned for them to be released. Twilight cantered up next to Glarin to figure out what was going on. The three pegasi huffed after being released, but didn’t leave, they just hovered in the air watching. Hoping to figure out what all the commotion was about.

“Glarin! What is going on here? Applejack and Rainbow Dash told me the guards your training are looking for an orange pegasi, and they are tearing up the town as they do so.” Glarin spoke without turning to look at Twilight. Instead he was looking over at another orange pegasi that was being brought over by two of his earth ponies.

“Were looking for a criminal. The one who robbed Spatzi of her pride and my money...” Twilight got a look of shock on her face.

“S-she was robbed? In Ponyville!?” Twilight looked over at the loud pegasus that was still being brought over by the two earth ponies.

“I didn’t do anything! Unhoof me right now! I didn’t even get to finish my drink!”

“W-what are you going to do once you find him Glarin?” asked Twilight as the pegasi kept yelling, grabbing everyones attention.

“First, I’m going to judge him. Then I’m going to give him a few hammers. Then if hes still alive, I’m going to gut him. And if hes still ALIVE? I’M GOING TO STRANGLE HIM, WITH HIS OWN BLOODY ENTRAILS! AND IF HES STILL ALIVE AFTER THAT?! Hes free to go.” Glarin had ended his violent and loud outburst rather calmly, much to Twilights surprise. The flash of anger she saw on his face was now gone.

As the two earth ponies dragged him closer Spatzi sat up, looking at him while getting an angry scowl on her face.

“It was him! He was the one that bucked me to the dirt and took the money!” Twilight and everyone else felt a cold chill run down their spines the second she pointed him out.

“You didn’t tell me, that he hit you...” The pegasi stopped yelling when he also felt the chill. He looked over and saw Spatzi standing next to the town’s well known Knight. He suddenly didn’t want to be here, or anywhere right now. He wanted to dig himself into a hole and hide until he was forgotten. He wanted to be a tree.

Glarin walked up to the orange pegasi and glared at him. The most noticeable thing was that he didn’t look angry, his face looked rather calm. Yet the harshness within his voice told an entirely different story.

“For your transgressions against the Ungard Clan and those under its protection and care, I sentence you to the total of six hammerings! To be carried out now!” The pegasi began to panic, the hammer Glarin was holding was by no means small. The hammers head was as big as his own head, if not bigger.

“You got the wrong guy! I’ve never seen the little lying brat before in my life!” Glarin released a low growl and set the hammers head down upon the dirt. It made a solid audible thump as it hit the dirt.

“Another hammering for lying.”

“Come on kid! Tell him you never saw me before!” Spatzi started to shake before she frilled out her mane and looked up, yelling at him.

“You even spit on me while I was down you jerk!”

“Another 3 hammerings!” The orange pegasi’s panic was reaching new levels as Glarin added more hammerings to his sentence total.

“Y-You little Crybaby brat!” The orange Pegasi’s breath caught within his throat as he said that. He turned his head to look at Glarin and the calm look he had before was completely gone.

“I was trying to be civil about this, but you used such a vile word in front of royalty!” Glarins teeth were gritted and his neck muscles were visibly flexing and pulsing.

“W-What vile word...?” said Twilight as Glarin approached the orange criminal.

“Hold him still...” Growled Glarin, making the two earth ponies gulp and tighten their grips upon the orange Pegasi’s orange forehooves.

“W-what happened to good ol’ equestrian justice?” Asked the orange pegasi with a whimper. Glarin just lifted the hammer up with his one hand and reared it back to swing it in a horizontal path straight into the law breakers gut. What happened next made everyone watching, cringe in pain.

With a brutal sounding grunt from Glarin the hammer came full force into the pegasi’s gut. The force of the blow sent his lower body swinging back and upward as the two earth ponies held onto his forehooves. He went up so high he was almost upside down with his shoulders screaming in agony as they were pushed to the limit of their flexibility. His joints creaked and cracked as they kept him from going a full circle around. As his lower body fell back down toward the ground the contents of his stomach erupted from his mouth, causing his lower body to impact the falling mess. The only reason he was still up was because the earth ponies didn’t loosen their grip upon him at all.

“One.” As Glarin reared the hammer back again Applejack spoke to Twilight with a hurried tone.

“I’m all for punishing a dirty varment that robs fillies, but he’s gonna die!” Twilight didn’t need to be told a second time, but Rainbow decided to toss her 2 cents in as well.

“Let him take another hammer first...” Rainbow had a scowl on her face. Probably because she herself also had a filly and a colt, So seeing a pony that would rob a child would receive no sympathy from her.

Torn between stopping Glarin and letting that pony take another few hammers. Twilight erected a shield wall in front of the pony to soften his next hammer blow. She had been improving her shield spells with helpful hints from her brother. They had been sending letters back N forth over the last month. Perhaps a half powered shield spell with the hints from her brother would absorb some of the damage before breaking.

With another vicious grunt Glarin began swinging the hammer again. Only this time a purple barrier appeared in front of the pegasi. Everyone watched as the hammer struck the purple shield. Instead of a solid sounding smack against glass that is commonly heard when objects strike a shield, this sounded more like it was hitting against mud with a glomp sound.

Glarin was having none of it and kept pushing the hammer through. Instead of stopping to question what Twilight was doing, he simply added more force behind his swing at the sight of the shield. The shield spell bent inwards and rippled on contact with the hammer. After a brief moment the shield spell cracked and broke with the hammer being sent in a downward angle. Right into the orange pegasi’s stallion bits.

Everone in the crowd cringed again except Rainbow and Glarin. Rainbow looked at Twilight and gave off a laugh as she looked over.

“Nice one Twilight!” shouted Rainbow as she hoof pumped the air. Glarin turned to face Twilight as the Orange pegasi’s eyes rolled into the back of his head as he gargled in pain.

“Why are you interrupting his hammerings Princess Twilight? Did you wish to pardon him for his crimes?” Glarin spoke the last sentence with a bit of hostility, much to Twilights shock. But she composed herself none the less.

“If you keep hammering him Sir Glarin, he is likely to die.” Glarin just huffed.

“I fail to see the problem with that, Princess.” Twilight sighed, she was going to tell Glarin something that she heard many years ago. Something that she thought she would never have to repeat.

“The problem with that Sir Glarin, is that death is not a punishment. It is a release.” Glarin looked at Twilight for a brief moment before a small smile spread across his lips.

“Who told you such dark words of wisdom?” Twilight looked up into the air with a thoughtful look on her face for a moment.

“An old friend told me that many years ago.” Glarin let the hammers head thump against the ground as he looked at Twilight. He leaned against the hammer as he looked back at the pegasi who seemed to be slowly recovering from the last hit.

“So what do you suggest we do with him?” asked Glarin as he glanced at the pegasi again. “He still has another 8 hammerings to go.”

“I will take him into custody, and he will be hit with the full force of Equestrian law. He won’t see day light for a long time.” Glarin gave a sigh with a grumble. He motioned for the guards to release him and he fell to the floor with a groan.

“Fine, take him out of my sight before I lose my patience with him.” Twilight lowered her head with a smile. Even though Glarin had a rough way of doing things, he still put his trust in her. She walked over to the orange pegasi and used her magic to get him standing upright.

“Follow me, If you try anything, anything at all! I WILL let Glarin finish hammering.” She gave the orange pegasi a glare and he nodded his head. Happy that he was no longer going to be hit with that massive hammer. As they walked past Glarin the orange pegasi gave him a small smirk.

This smirk pissed Glarin off beyond all measure all over again.

The orange pegasi’s jaw soon came into contact with the back of Glarins fist, in the form of a spinning back fist with all of his weight behind it.

Twilight turned around to thank Glarin once again for his cooperation. Instead she got to see first hoof how a pony jaw looks when it takes a shattering impact from a dwarven spinning back fist. With a bone crunching sound his lower jaw moved over a full 2 inches before it seemed to lose its solid form. His head then flew down into the ground, followed with another crunch as his head bounced off the dirt floor several times before he laid motionless upon the floor.

“I apologize Princess Twilight, you took too long.” Twilight groaned as she would now have to carry this criminal in her magic, most likely to the hospital. Applejack ran up to Twilight and held up a hoof for her to stop.

“Hang on a second sugar cube.” Applejack reached up and pulled out a solid white object from her mane.

“What is that?” asked Twilight as she looked at it closer. It had some red on it.

“It’s a tooth, it was one of the many that flew outta the varmints mouth. Ah only saw this one land in yer mane...”

Twilights eye began to twitch.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After several annoying trips, letters, and hours later. Twilight had finally finished dealing with that orange pegasi. He was hoof cuffed to his hospital bed and would need to have his jaw wired shut for 4 months, then it would take another 5 months before he would be able to open his mouth wide enough to eat food again. But then he would need to get back most of his teeth to chew food normally again as well. Twilight made it clear to the doctors that she didn’t want him to receive any magical treatment, of any kind.

Besides the bit needed to give his jaw and face shape again. Anything else he would have to pay for himself at a later date.

Now she was on a different mission. One that involved Glarin and lots of questions. Hopefully some tests. Ones that she had been putting off for long enough. As she neared Glarins house, he was outside with all of the guards it seemed. As she neared she could hear him yelling something to them.

“...When there’s a rumble in the floor, You must prepare for war! When living underground there are many things that can cause the floor to quake. None of them are good. Survival is a must, As you must think of yourself as the only line of defense that keeps your family, your loved ones, the weak and the innocent safe from harm...” Twilight silently cantered up behind Glarin as he continued to speak. All of the guards made no motion of having noticed her. Their faces still as stone as they listened to Glarin drone on.

“...Because if you fall, who will destroy the threat? Sure you could depend upon your allies to finish the job. But its always better to inflict as much damage as possible before... wait...No that last part is a Berserker thing. What was the end of the warriors creed again?” Glarin seemed to be asking the question to himself more than anything. As he thought he turned around and saw Twilight just standing behind him.

Which shocked him more than anything, causing him to kneel.

“Princess Twilight, I apologize about my behavior earlier as well as the behavior of that orange pegasi. Using such a vile word in front of royalty, such a thing is unforgivable. I hope he wasn’t too much trouble after you took him.” Twilight scoffed with a light smile on her face.

“No, he wasn’t much trouble after you shattered his jaw, broke part of his skull, and knocked most of his teeth out. He was quite docile. But please, stand and stop with the formalities, and I thought I told you before. I may be a princess, but that doesn’t mean I want my friends or anyone treating me differently because of it.” Glarin slowly rose to his feet as he looked at Twilight.

“Well, what do you ask of me? I don’t think you came just to say hello.” Twilight nodded her head.

“Indeed, I was hoping to ask you a few questions and hoping you would let me run some tests on things I’ve been curious about for quite some time now. I have my theories but I need to know for sure.” Glarin grumbled for a bit before responding.

“Any questions you ask I’ll answer honestly, but these tests better not end up with me strapped to some strange magical machine in some kind of lab.” Twilight blushed as she stuttered out her response.

“W-what about an u-underground one?” said Twilight as she mumbled something to herself while looking away, blush evident on her face. Glarin hummed in thought for a moment before shrugging.

“As long as its underground I can handle it... Anyway, ask away with the questions 1st.” Twilight released a sigh

“Alright then, what did he say that was so vile?” Glarin looked shocked when she said that. He even began to stutter for what Twilight thought was the 1st time since she had seen him.

“I-I-I well... I don’t want to repeat what he said out loud but...” Glarin moved up and whispered into her ear causing her ear to twitch slightly at his hot breath. She then got a puzzled look on her face when he pulled away.

“Crybaby isnt a...” Glarin held up a hand signaling her to stop as he shouted.

“Noo! A Royal Lady shouldn’t sully her mouth with such vile words!” Twilight just continued to look at Glarin slightly confused until she decided to mentality check the, ‘it’s a culture thing’ box and leave it at that.

“Alright then, next question. What exactly are you planning to do with that Manticore and Bear Fluttershy let you have?”

“You mean Henry and Mr. Biggles Worth? Put them to work of course. I suppose I’ll have to feed them and other stuff as well.” Glarin thought about it for a minute and sighed. “ I’ll need to have the some of the hallways widened to allow them access to all the rooms and possibly add a secondary door for them to use...”

“You’re going to give them free reign around your home and the ability to leave when ever they want?”

“Of course, Why wouldn’t I? It’s not like they’re slaves or anything. I would never stand for anything being treated like a slave, weather it be an animal, man, or dwarf. Even one of the vile evil elves don’t deserve a fate like slavery.” Glarin seemed to spit the word elves out like it left a bad taste in his mouth.

“Ook, next question then. Whats an elf? Whenever you mention anything about one you seem to cringe as you say the word.” Glarin crossed his arms and huffed.

“Looks like you don’t have elves in this world, thats good. I would hate to meet one above ground. Wicked creatures they are. On the surface they would appear handsome or beautiful, but don’t let that fool you. Because they have the ability to transform into monstrous creatures with sharp claws and fangs dripping with dwarfs bane. They also enjoy shaving off a dwarves beard and body hair with their sharp claws while the unsuspecting dwarf sleeps.”

“Thats, what? Are elves really that bad?”

“Thats not even half of it! Back in the early days of existence the elves hunted us near extinction for no reason! They’re evil vile creatures with only death, destruction, and shaving on their minds I tell you!”

“Thats... Have you ever meet an elf before?”

“Once, in my younger days when I was still very much a fool. That evil troll spawn shaved me bald like a newborn human baby after I passed out drunk.”

“But, you said before you’ve never been above ground, How did you meet him?”

“Well it all started when we broke into a natural cave that exited out into a forest. Turns out an elven village was near the cave entrance and elves started to visit our city for trade or other such things. Most likely a cover up for any dastardly evil deeds they had planned.”

“I see, please continue...” Twilight cocked an eyebrow as she listened to Glarin

“Well I was just enjoying some of the best Dwarven Ale I’ve ever had. Fresh from the cask it was. Anyway, he came strolling up into the bar and sat next to me. A little too close for comfort I say. He introduced himself as Legolos. I thought him a woman at first. What with the long hair and lack of facial hair. He told Ragnar the barkeep he would have what I was having. Ragnar tried to talk him out of it, but he said any drink a dwarf could take, he could take twice as much. After such an insult I challenged him to a drinking contest!”

“So what happened then? Did you win?” Glarin looked down to the ground with his shoulders slumped over.

“I don’t know how he did it, but he started to out drink me. He was using Elven witchcraft I tell you! By the time I started seeing double he was still downing them like water! He even shouted at the top of his lungs that I was a weak livered milk drinker!” Twilight could suddenly feel a cold tingle in her spine. Glarin was becoming angry as he talked about his past.

“I couldn’t stand for such an insult! So I ordered a mug of the strongest Dwarven Stout for both of us, A mug of Brogars famous Troll Sweat Stout. If the smell didn’t knock you down, the fact it had enough alcohol in it to knock several humans out and be used as a deadly explosive just might.” Glarin gritted his teeth and clenched his fist before throwing it up into the air.

“That Evil elf! Somehow he downed the mug in a single shot! I had to do the same just to match him. After that I blacked out and woke up naked behind the bar. I was completely shaved, with all of my clothes missing! It was the most shameful walk home I ever had! I HATE ALL BLOODY ELVES!” Twilight just took a step back as he finished his story. After awhile he visibly calmed down and crossed his arms again.

“Anymore questions Lady Twilight?” Twilight shook her head, deciding that a subject change would probably be best.

“What do you plan to do with Spatzi?” Glarin just raised an eyebrow at the question and looked at the town. He had sent her back with two guards to pick everything up.

“What do you mean, do with her? I put her to work already.” Said Glarin with a confused sounding tone.

“Well I mean like, are you going to send her to school or anything?” Glarin rubbed his chin in thought for a moment.

“What kind of trade schools does Ponyville offer?” Twilight furrowed her brow in confusion

“Trade schools? She’s not old enough to go to a trade school yet. She would have to learn the basics of a general education first. And Ponyville only has one school. For any kind of higher education she would need to be sent abroad to a city like Manehatten, or Canterlot.”

“So the school system in ponyville is weak then? There’s no warrior or Scholar programs? Or a trade school for learning things like becoming an Armor Smith or a Weapon Smith? Not even something like a basic trade school so she can figure out what she enjoys doing?”

“Well no, but you can send her to a school so that she can get a basic education while she figures out what she wants to do.”

“Pah! I turned out just fine without any basic educations!” Twilight raised an eyebrow as she looked Glarin over. She remembered all of the stupid things he has done, and probably will do. Also he still couldn’t read Equestrian. Nor did he show any interest in ever learning.

“Yeah, shes going to school. I’m making sure of that.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Glarin sat strapped into a chair inside Twilights basement in the Library. He had a Spaghetti strainer on his head along with all kinds of different lights and gizmos attached to it. Wires were heading out of it and back to the big machine in the middle of the room.

Glarin looked around nervously as he weakly struggled against the straps holding him in place.

“So Um, Princess Twilight. I haven’t angered you recently have I? I’m sure we can talk this out.” Twilight rolled her eyes as she flipped a switch causing her super computer to power on, making Glarin jump a little inside his seat. He was ok with the thing on his head, but when she strapped him into the chair for ‘his safety’ he began to become nervous.

“You don’t have to kill me you know. I’m sure I can make it up to you. If you only give me the chance!”

“For the last time Glarin, this isn’t going to hurt you. You might feel a slight tingle, But you should be fine.” The last part of her sentence is what worried him. Mostly because the tone of her voice sounded like she had no idea what might happen.

“I’ll give you whatever you want!” Glarin thought for a brief moment “Except my money!” Twilight just groaned as she flipped another switch, making more lights come on with a big whirring noise.

“Alright! I’ll give you some of my gems! Just don’t kill me!” Twilight just walked over to a part of the machine and pressed a red button. Causing a sheet of paper to start coming out filled with various bits of information.

“There see, its already working. Do you feel anything?” Glarin just looked around the room a bit before he began to relax.

“Not at all actually...”

“Good, you calmed down. This heart rate seems normal for something of your size, blood pressure levels are normal, I think. The mineral content of your body is extremely high. The density of your bones is at least tree times that of your average pony. But that’s probably normal based on your lifestyle I suppose.” Glarin just continued to look at all of the different lights and things as Twilight continued to look the paper over.

“What does this big contraption do exactly? If you don’t mind me askin.” Glarin just shifted in his seat best he could in an attempt to get more comfortable.

“It does and tells me all kinds of things actually. From basic information about a ponies health to what’s going on inside of a ponies body. Basically, its using a constant scanning spell for everything and it prints out all the information out on this piece of paper as it does so.” Glarin just nodded his head as she spoke.

“So, its not going to kill me then?” Twilight groaned loudly as she flung her head back.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Back at Glarins house the guards who didn’t leave to get the mattress were busy doing their daily tasks that Glarin had set for all of them.

“Why are we still mining? And what direction are we even supposed to go in?” asked Quick Hoof the Pegasus to no pony in particular.

“Heck if I know, I guess we just keep going straight until we hit something or he tells us to stop. Only thing I know is that this mining business is quite a workout in itself. I don’t think I’ve ever used our gym equipment once.” Said Mojo the Unicorn

“Tell me about it, I think the earth ponies are the only ones who can handle working in the mine all day and still hit up our gym afterwards. Aint that right Rocky!?” Yelled Gust Wind the pegasus. Gust had taken to working inside the armor just like Rocky was doing. If the armors were to be treated like the vests, then they would only take them off to sleep and bathe.

“Hehe, you got that right. Us earth ponies were always good with the physical aspect of life.” As Rocky swung his Pick axe, large chunks of earth were falling away, more so then the others were capable of.

“Earth ponies also seem to make good miners... Hey what kind of beds do you think Spatzi got for the mares?”

“Pfft, knowing Sir Glarin, he probably gave her a few handfuls of bits and said to buy the cheapest available.” the other ponies let out a laugh.

“I know right!? Man, cheap bed sheets are like sandpaper against your fur. Probably better to sleep without them.” They turned around at the sound of hooves coming down the tunnel.

“Hey, you guys help us carry in and set up all the new mattress! Surprisingly he had everything on hand so we were able to get everything today.”

“Oh, guess we get to find out what they get to sleep on.” Some of them snickered as they swing their pick axes one last time.

“I bet sleeping on our rocks is better than a cheap mattress with cheap sandpaper sheets, haha!” All of the guards let out a laugh as they set their tools down and traveled out to help bring everything in.

It seemed everyone was traveling out to see everything that was being brought in. The mares were heading outside, following or already outside looking at the two large covered wagons. Applejack sure was nice to let them borrow the wagons when she had no current need of them.

As they were uncovering what they brought back, Spatzi just had a huge grin plastered across her face. The two guards that went with her to pick them up, had faces that looked somewhat annoyed.

“Dude, you’ll never guess what Spatzi got for those mares, just guess.” Rocky flipped the tarp back as he looked at the mattresses.

“Uhh, slightly better than the worst kind?”

“Guess again.” One of the pegasi walked over rolling his eyes as he grabbed one of the mattresses with his teeth and tugged on it. It gave way far easier then he thought it would, and ended up falling backwards onto his flank with the mattress landing on top of him.

“What the tartarus?” Exclaimed most of the ponies as they saw him fall.

“Put too much strength in that tug or what Woo?” Woo just pushed the mattress off him and then shoved it up into the air, it then slowly drifted back down on top of his back.

“I wasn’t expecting a cloud mattress, Is this one yours Spatzi?” All of the mares and guards looked to Spatzi who still had her huge grin on her face.

“All 21 of them are Cloud Mattresses, he even included 1,200 thread count silk sheets and pillow covers! The pillows we got were also cloud pillows!” Every ponies jaw dropped simultaneously as they looked between the two wagons and Spatzis huge grin.

“Does Glarin know about this?” All eyes turned to Spatzi.

“Nope!” Spatzi just kept her grin on as the guards grumbled amongst themselves, making note to have Spatzi do all of their shopping from now on. Maybe they might get some real food for once.

Author's Notes:

Been listening to this for like, 2 days now. 2 Cellos-Thunderstruck

Also, I now own an Electric Violin. And man, do I sound terrible. I'm hoping to get better at it with time. Its amazing how much time a person has when they don't watch TV, movies, or play video games all day.

My computer was crapping out on me. After a series of crashes it had a big one and seems to have stabilized. Oh, also It needs to have the Windows 7 install disc in the CD drive with it set as the primary boot drive, otherwise it doesn't start. The BootDr file was corrupted with the last major crash. Anyway, instead of spending my time on fixing the problem, I opted to just have my PC work well enough to write chapters and let me surf the net while I save some money to get a new one. That's part of the reason why I bought a violin and don't play games all day. It keeps crashing when I try to play a game. In hind sight buying the violin won't let me get a computer any faster, but I need to entertain myself man. hehe.

Tests with an after Party

View Online

The inside of Glarins home was abuzz with activity as the new mattresses were set up. Each of the mares took it upon themselves to thank Spatzi personally for such a luxury, and were sure to pass the thanks onto Glarin as well.

Pinkie had stuck around after the whole fiasco with the pegasus and figured that Spatzi might need some cheering up. She could tell Spatzi was just putting on a brave face. Pinkie knew when a smile was genuine or not.

Everything for the surprise party was still in place, except it wouldn’t be much of a surprise anymore. Spatzi had already traveled through the area several times while everything was being set up for those mares from Las Pegasus.

Pinkie had waited patently on the side lines for everything to finish before she approached Spatzi.

“Now that everything is said and done, It’s time for YOUR PARTY!” Pinkie outstretched her arms with confetti bursting out from behind her with the sound of several kazoos going off as well.

“M-my party? Is that what the balloons and stuff are for? But why?” Pinkie just giggled

“Because silly, this is your welcome to Ponyville Party! And it’s kinda Sir Glarins too. He wasn’t doing too well when he first arrived so I couldn’t throw one for him. But this one is mostly yours!”

Pinkie lead Spatzi back into the room where she was handed a slice of cake with a strawberry on top.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Wha, How!?” Exclaimed Twilight as she kept looking at the numbers that were printing out on her huge machine.

She had asked Glarin to go into a rage so that she could monitor exactly what goes on. The machine was giving out numbers and figures that shouldn’t of been possible to achieve. At least not without some kind of major physical threat. Somehow he was able to remove some of the involuntary mental blocks that every creature had as a built in safety mechanism to prevent self injury.

Normally a creature only uses 30% of its total muscle mass to prevent injury and prolong muscle use. More could be used in short bursts due to massive stress and with the release of adrenaline. However her machine was telling her Glarin was currently in control of 60% of his total muscle fibers, without any adrenaline coursing through his system. She pushed her rising fear aside and wondered what the fury alone would do.

“C-Could you perhaps enter into a f-fury for me? W-without the rage... P-p-please?” She saw Glarin take a deep breath and release a long low growl. The numbers on the machine suddenly dropped back down to normal, but only for a moment.

Shortly after he took another deep breath and roared up to the ceiling. The numbers that printed out were much higher than before from his rage.

As she watched the new numbers print out become bigger, so did her fear.

Blood pressure spiked as did his heart rate. His metabolism increased and brain activity sky rocketed. Adrenaline was also coursing though his system with levels of serotonin and endorphin’s almost twice that of when he entered into the rage. These elevated levels would explain why he was able to ignore many of the serious injuries he has taken in the past. The numbers also explained why the bones in his arms and upper body always seemed to be broken after a big fight. He had control of 80% of his total muscle fibers. He had the same mental blocks removed but with the addition of the adrenaline it would seem he gained an increase of 20%.

She heard of ponies that broke bones and tore muscle fibers by simply using 60% of their muscle mass with the help of adrenaline. Yet Glarin was using 80%, and most of the damage he sustained was only after prolonged use. It was most likely because of his training that he was so durable, and perhaps because of the fact that, ‘dwarves are born durable’. As he had told her a few times before hoof.

Now she would need to know what happens when both of them are active at the same time. She felt the cold shivers of fear in her spine as her instinct kept telling her to run, but she also knew that none of it was directed at her and that she would be ok.

“Now, i-if you would, c-could you calm down f-for a-a moment?” Glarin took another deep breath and released a growl, louder than before. Once he was done he seemed to have a bit of some labored breathing that quickly disappeared.

“Was that everything Princess?” Glarins voice was rather calm and the aura he was emitting was gone. Her fears quickly died, yet the memories easily lingered on the forefront of her mind.

“Just one more test, I would need you to become enraged and enter the fury at the same time. I would like to see what doing both at the same time does exactly.”

“Are you sure princess? I can tell that I’m scaring you...” Glarin looked a little sad as he finished his sentence.

“Don’t worry about me Glarin, I’ll be fine.” Glarin sighed.

“But I do worry, Princess. Not only are you Royalty, but you are also within my clan. Its my job thrice over to worry about you and your safety.” Twilight blushed a little at his words, but shook it off.

“Yes I can understand that, but would you please enter them both so I may observe what happens?” Glarin took a deep breath before speaking.

“As you wish Princess. I may need to yell a bit, so please, don’t think it’s directed at you.” Twilight simply nodded her head and motioned her hoof forward for him to continue. At the cue Glarin closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He then gritted his teeth and opened his mouth.

“DON’T TOUCH HER YA OVERGROWN TUNNEL CHICKEEN!” As Glarin yelled he pulled against the restraints causing them to snap and break, yet he remained seated. Twilight felt a heavy pressure around her. Her fear was making it hard to breath and think.

The one time his rage had been directed at her, she was sure she was going to be killed. And the thought scarred her deeply. It left a mark that she couldn’t forget or ignore.

The numbers the machine printed were at unbelievable levels. Endorphin’s were six times what they were during a rage. The serotonin remained the same as did his brain actively. Yet his heart beat faster with blood pressure well over dangerous levels. His body temperature rose to a dangerous level as well. Most likely a response to the increased actively within his body. Adrenaline was also flooding his body, at least 9 times more than before.

Every single mental block was removed. He had control of 100% of his muscle mass. But that wasn’t it, The machine said he was at 120% with his muscle control. His pain sensory was being blocked completely. It wasn’t that he ignored the pain with both active, He just couldn’t feel it.

Twilight had read about unicorns claiming to have overcome their physical limitations with a spell that let them ignore pain and surpass their physical limits... It was an extremely dangerous prospect.

The ponies could tear steel chains apart with their bare hooves. An amazing feat to a pony of any type. But they were always short lived because the cost was always great. Many unicorns had done such in an attempt to gain great strength without much if any physical work. The experiments were always short lived because it always ended with the breaking of their bones and tearing their muscle tendons beyond natural repair.

His sensory organs also seemed to be shutting down. His life energy was slowly being consumed. His eyesight was reading at 89% along with his hearing, sense of taste, along with a few others. The numbers looked to be slowly dropping as she watched her machine continue to print.

He seemed to be absorbing the magic surrounding him, yet it was being funneled into something that wasn’t him. The machine couldn’t tell her what exactly, because it was leaving his body.

But she could see it.

Above his head a dark storm cloud seemed to be gathering. She knew her basement had a high concentration of magic in the air due to her constant experiments, but she didn’t realize it was enough to make such a large cloud.

She had theorized before that he was taking the magic in the air without realizing it, and giving his rage and fury a form of its own. But she still had no idea how it was happening. The machine still didn’t have the answer to the biggest question she had.

Where did that monstrous beast come from when he jumped to Princess Luna’s aid near the Everfree forest? Was the magic thick enough around the Everfree to give it enough shape to be seen as more than a black cloud? Did the spell Princess Luna try to cast add enough magic to the surrounding air? Or was it the constant casting of the transformation spell Celestia was using?

As a cold sweat dripped down her forehead, she decided she had gathered enough data. She wasn’t sure how much longer she could take it. She was visibly shaking and her eyes kept darting up to look at Glarin, just to make sure he was still sitting down and not coming after her.

“O-o-o-ok, y-y-ou can s-s-stop n-n-ow...” She was able to finish her sentence, but not before she felt a tear roll down her cheek.

Glarin calmed down with a roar, much to Twilights displeasure. After which he sighed to himself and removed the spaghetti strainer from his head.

“I’ll be heading home Princess, If you need anything else, Anything at all. I’ll be at my home...” Glarin walked up the stairs dragging his feet.

Twilight kept looking at the paper with a cold sweat, not wanting to look up at him as he left.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Glarin was just kicking random stones as he walked home. As he walked he absent mindedly began to wander around town as he kicked the stones. He ended up in front of the watering hole where he first saw Sweetie Belle sing.

Glarin looked up at the sign and sighed to himself.

“Might as well get a drink or four...” Glarin pushed the door open and seated himself at the bar. The barkeep slowly walked up to him and continued to shine the glass as he looked at the clock.

“Haven’t seen you in a few days, and it’s a little early, what’el it be?”

“The strongest drink you have.”

“Well, that would be the Firewater still. Cold right?”

“Cold, drinking fire was fun until I burned my beard.” The bartender set the glass down and turned around to grab the bottle. Filling the glass to the brim. Knowing exactly how Glarin likes his drink. He’s only been here a few times since Sweetie Belles show, but he left such an impression it was hard to forget. The bartender hasn’t seen anyone drink an entire bottle of Firewater like Glarin could and then walk home without so much as a stumble.

“I got a question for you Mr. Clear.” Clear raised his eyebrow as he looked at Glarin.

“Yeah? What could I know that the great Sir Glarin, Esteemed Knight of Equestria doesn’t?” Glarin sighed for a moment as he downed half the glass in one gulp.

“Am I scary?” Clear looked at Glarin for a moment with a bit of confusion

“What do you mean? Of course you are. Well when you’re fighting or angry. But for the most part, you’re just a very serious guy. Funny too, but I don’t think that’s intentional. Why do you ask?”

“I was with Twilight, she was doing... something, not sure what. But she told me to get angry. Enter a rage n’ such. I didn’t mean too, but I was scaring her, badly. I know I can be frightening, but I made her cry... I feel like I’m...” Clear interrupted him mid sentence.

“A monster?” Glarin just looked at Clear and downed the rest of the glass.

“No, like some half-elf jerk. My mother told me that a dwarf who makes the lasses cry are hated more than elves and orcs combined. More so than any monster.” Clear just stood in silence for a moment before speaking again.

“There’s something I gotta tell ya. Something a gentlemen told me awhile ago.” Glarin just looked into his empty glass and sighed.

“Yeah and what was that?” Glarin tapped his glass to indicate he wanted it filled again.

“He told me that a stallions form gets scary when he’s serious. When there’s something he’s just gotta protect. It doesn’t matter weather it may look right or wrong to others, because its necessary.” Glarin just looked into his filled glass for a bit.

“I’m always serious. I suppose I could lighten up a bit. Try to be less hated.” Clear shook his head.

“Sir Glarin, you are not hated. Feared perhaps, but not hated. Might I add one more line of wisdom for you?” Glarin just smiled as he downed the whole glass this time.

“Go right ahead.”

“Its better to be hated for what you are, rather than loved for what you aren’t. You’ll just live a hollow life like that. Besides, its easy to please yourself rather than everyone around you.” Glarin sat in his chair as he looked up at the ceiling for a moment.

“True enough, but I still don’t wanna make all the lasses cry. Otherwise I shoulda just been born as a human.” Glarin tapped his empty glass again. “Give me three more for the road on top a this. I’m heading home.” Clear nodded his head as he pulled up three more glasses and filled up all four of em.

“Just looking for a small buzz today?” Clear just began to wipe down the counter.

“Yeah, still need to think clearly. Thanks for the advice though.” Glarin downed each glass right after each other and belched loudly once he was finished.

“I’ll put it on your tab, remember its due at the end of the week.” Glarin waved his hand in the air as he walked out the door and headed home.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Glarin opened the door to his home and it was oddly dark inside.

But that’s not unusual as the upper deck was normally dark as no one was ever in it. He started to become worried when it was also dark downstairs.

Good thing he had dark vision, being a super awesome dwarf and everything. He could see clearly in the dark. He saw ponies hiding in various spots around the room. It didn’t take long for the lights to come back on with everyone yelling at nearly the same time.

“SURPRISE!” Everyone jumped out from their hiding spots and somehow Pinkie had come from nowhere, appearing in front of him with a piece of cake in her hoof, which she held out for him. It had a strawberry on top.

“Whats all this for then?” Glarin looked around the room and saw that pretty much everyone he knew was here. Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie, Applejack, Big Mac, Rainbow and the rest of her family. All of the guards and those that were staying here temporarily were also present. Some ponies he had never seen before were also present along with a bunch of griffons.

Twilight wasn’t anywhere to be seen though...

“It’s a Welcome to Ponyville party for you and Spatzi! I couldn’t set one up for you when you first got here since you were a little broken up, and then it totally slipped my mind until Spatzi showed up!” Glarin took the plate with the slice of cake on it and looked at it quizzically.

“What is this? It looks like bread with some kind of soft white mud on it.” Pinkie Pie gasped loud enough for everyone in the party to hear her and turn around.

“You’ve never had cake before?!” Applejack trotted up and hoofed Glarin in the shoulder, then took the plate freeing up his only hand.

“Take a bite sugar cube, also we got somethin from our hidden stash ya might like.” Glarin was intrigued by her words, so he lifted up the fork that was sitting on the plate while she held it. He shoved a piece that was slathered in frosting into his mouth. He paused for a moment before looking at it again.

“Why does this ‘cake’ have the sweetness of 10,000 apples?” He then shoved a much larger piece into his mouth without waiting for an answer.

“Because it has loads a sugar in it!” Yelled Pinkie as she ate some cupcakes off a table not too far away. Glarin finished eating his slice of cake in a flash, causing Applejack to chuckle. He had frosting smeared on his face and beard.

“Come right over here sugar cube, Big Mac and I got something from our hidden stash for ya.” Applejack lead Glarin over to where Big Mac was standing, along with the rest of the family. And next to them was the most glorious sight to ever be seen.

It was a cask. A cask with a freshly placed spigot.

“It ain’t no Granny Daniels, but it gets the job done. Mah brother an I made this batch. We call it Big Jack, go ahead N’ take the first glass.” Glarin reached out and took the cup from Applejacks hoof and held it near the spigot. Using his stump he pushed the spigot back and filled the glass to the brim.

The liquid was a golden brown color with hints of red. It even had an earthy scent mixed with the apples. As Glarin put the glass to his lips he threw his head back filling his mouth with the magical liquid. He didn’t swallow immediately and let it swirl around his palate.

The earthly smell was also in the taste and reminded him slightly of a braggot he had once when humans would trade it for some goods.

He immediately filled his glass again and downed another.

“This tastes so much better than that firewater. This actually has flavor!” Applejack chuckled while Big Mac nodded his head.

“It aint as strong as the firewater, but it still packs a bit of a hoof with all of that flavor!” Glarin looked at Applejack a bit confused.

“Don’t you mean it packs a punch?” Now Applejack looked confused.

“No it packs a hoof. There’s no punch in this here Big Jack of ours. The punch is over on the table by Pinkie Pie.” Glarin narrowed his eyes as he looked at Applejack.

“Packs a punch...” Applejack narrowed her eyes as she lowered her head to meet Glarins eyes

“Packs a...!” Big Mac stepped between them breaking eye contact between them both.

“Ah think what mah little sis is tryn’ ta say is that it packs a mighty good kick with the flavor.” Glarin and Applejack just looked up to Big Mac then to each other.

“That makes sense.” Said Glarin as he nodded his head.

“So does saying it packs a hoof.” Glarin just glared at Applejack while he filled his glass yet again. Without breaking eye contact he slowly turned his head to take a drink while still looking at her. When he finished he looked Applejack straight into the eyes and spoke slowly.

“Has a nice, Kick, to it.” He put extra emphasis on the word kick. As he filled the glass yet again.

“You just gotta be all nitpicky about things like Rarity don’t cha?” Glarin downed his cup again, only to fill it once again.

“Me?! I’m no Nit Picker! You take that back ya dainty little pony!” Big Mac’s eyes went wide as he stepped back and away from his sister.

“Danity?! You looking to get Bucked up again?!” The crowed of ponies suddenly hushed as Applejack and Glarin were starting to get louder.

“Again!? I let you do it last time! Lets see how it turns out...!” Glarin felt a tug on his shirt and looked down. It was Spatzi, and she was standing next to Daring.

“Please don’t fight! This is supposed to be our party after all.” Glarin sighed to himself.

“Yeah! I don’t wanna see you and aunty Applejack fight. You might get hurt.”

“Me get hurt!? ME?!” Glarin turned his head to see Applejack burst out laughing. After she finished laughing hysterically she wiped a tear from her eye and walked up to Glarin putting her hoof on his shoulder.

“Ya should listen to my little nephew. I’ll let you get back to the party, I need a good drink, been awhile since I let loose.” With that Applejack walked away and over to the cask filling it to the brim and slugging it back just like Glarin had done.

Glarin had to admit, a girl that could down a drink like that was pretty attractive. He shook the thought from his head and looked back down to Spatzi.

“I suppose you’re right, it would be bad form to get into a fight at our own party. Show me to some games!” Spatzi smiled as she lead Glarin to a nearby game. As Spatzi lead him to the side of the rooms the games were at. He saw Twilight try to sneak into the room. He smiled and was glad that she came after all.

“This ones called pin the tail on the pony! You put on this blind fold then we spin you around. After that you gotta do your best to put the tail where its supposed to go. So far I’ve been the only one to get it as close as possible!” Glarin looked at the picture and watched as some of the other guests did as she was describing.

“Sounds simple enough, could I go next?” Pinkie popped out next to him with a blind fold on her hooves.

“Of course you can silly!” They watched the other pony finish and then began to blind fold Glarin.

“Alright here's the tail...” Pinkie put the tail into Glarins hand “... and now we spin you right round!” She began to spin him around and around. After a bit she stopped him on a dime and made sure he was facing the direction the poster was in.

“Alright, now just walk straight ahead and try to figure out where the tail goes!” When Pinkie let go of Glarin he began to walk with a heavy step toward the left.

“Uh Glarin...”

“Don’t help me I can do this!” Shouted Glarin as he veered heavily toward the left. Rarity was conversing with Fluttershy and Twilight. She was talking about a new line of dresses she was making for the upcoming Winter.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“As I was saying Darling, Stripes are in this season, especially since the new trade agreement with the zebra nations across the sea. The timing is just perfect I say.” Pinkie had just finished spinning Glarin and sent him on his way.

“I don’t know Rarity, I mean stripes are nice but...” Fluttershy paused because she noticed Glarin was getting closer. But Twilight was speaking with her eyes closed like she normally did when she spoke of things she knew by heart. Afterall reading books about fashion trends means she could now speak equally about this with Rarity.

Right?

“How do you even plan to make black and white stripes look good? Isn’t is just a super simple design?” So much for reading all of those books.

“Oh please, I am going to ask Zecora if she could visit and model for me a bit. Make it look like authentic zebra stripes. Also I will be using many different colors and patterns, not just black and white. That would be far to boring darling!”

“Ok but what about...” Twilgiht stopped because she just noticed Glarin was standing behind Rarity blindfolded while holding the tail for the pin the tail on the pony game. She could only guess what was about to happen now.

“What about what dar...” Was all Rarity could say before she heard Glarin yell out loud right behind her.

“The tail goes here!” Glarin shoved the pin as hard as he could into what he assumed was the correct spot on the wall. Shortly after he heard a shrill cry with a yelp as the pin entered Rarities flank.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Glarins bumble was soon forgotten as the only damage was a small red spot of Rarities pristine white coat. A spot that was easily cleaned up inside Glarins bathroom with a bit of soap and some magic.

The party had gone rather smoothly afterwards with many games being played and many cups being filled. Apple Bloom had taken to following Glarin around the house with Sweetie Belle.

Spike apparently had other business to tend too. Apparently he was having some problems with the mares he moved in with recently. He was thinking about moving back in with Twilight or maybe Glarin. Glarin didn’t know the full details of what was going on, but he was sure it had something to with the fact Spike was a Sex Fiend.

He already had those five mares from that herd starting party, but he seemed to be on the lookout for more. Was he going to start hoarding mares? He was a dragon after all. But then again...

“I feel like Spikes been going out of his way to see me Sweetie.” Said Apple Bloom as they stood next to Glarin, who was near the now half empty keg.

“Really? I feel the same way. He used to randomly show up at the Bouquet to see Rarity, but now he only stays if I’m there. At least that’s what Rarity told me.” Apple Bloom raised an eyebrow as she looked at Glarin.

“Seeing him round the farm wasn’t that odd because he was training with all the other guards, but now he just comes by at random times as well.” Apple Bloom had her hoof to her chin as she thought about it for a moment, Sweetie turned to look at Glarin as well.

“Glarin, have you seen Spike lately?”

“Yeah what’s up with him, I mean really.” Glarin finished filling his cup and downed it before speaking with a sigh. Apple Bloom decided to fill her cup while Glarin was busy.

“No idea, only thing I know is that he has an interest in the two of you, even though he’s got five other mares already.”

“Whaat? Really?!”

“Are those five not enough for him!?” Glarin started to fill his cup again, he really wished he had a mug, drinking from a tea cup was starting to get really annoying.

“Well he is a dragon, my thought is that he's creating a hoard of mares. Or whats it called... a uh...” Sweetie spoke up next to finish his thought.

“A Harem?”

“Yeah, something like that.” Apple Bloom shook her head.

“I don’t think he could do a good job keeping them all happy, I mean he's already having trouble with 5 of em right? How’s, he supposed to handle more?”

“Who knows, maybe he’ll figure...” Before Glarin could finish his sentence Applejack wobbled over.

“Heey! Stop hogging all the drink ya booze hound!” Applejack was clearly drunk, or getting there. Surprisingly her speech wasn’t that slurred. She moved herself right next to Glarin, pushing Apple Bloom aside a little as she attempted to fill her cup again.

“Ah good, theres still some left!” Shouted Applejack as she quickly emptied her cup in one gulp. She looked into the cup and turned it upside down

“Sheesh, tea cups do not make good drinking cups. Shoulda brought some mugs. Don’t you have any mugs?!” Glarin just shrugged his shoulders at Applejack who wasn’t surprised.

“I had cups, but most em broke during one of the training exercises.” Glarin reached over and started to fill his cup again, Applejack watched intently as he then quickly emptied his cup.

“Ya should save some fer other ponies and griffins ya know.” Glarin looked at Applejack and narrowed his eyes a bit. He then began to fill his cup again without taking his eyes off her.

“What did I just say?!” Applejack seemed a little bossy when intoxicated Apple Bloom noticed. Glarin just continued to look at Applejack as he brought the cup to his lips and slowly drank. Once he was finished he set the cup down onto the table next to him and spoke.

“Sorry, I wasn’t listening.” Applejack raised an eyebrow at Glarin and shoved her face into his. Being the hard head Glarin was he didn’t back down.

“Spit that back out or I’ll make ya do it.” Glarin just kept glaring at Applejack

“Make me.” Applejack Moved her face even closer as she glared back. She then forcefully pressed her lips against Glarins and went to work. Glarin neither resisted or embraced her, he just had a rather confused look on his face.

Sweetie Belle gasped while Apple Bloom stared in confusion. The rest of the party guests either didn’t notice or care. Except well, Applejacks friends and family. Mostly just Apple Bloom.

“Noo! He’s Mine sis!” Apple Bloom ran over and shoved Applejack off Glarin. This made many of the nearby guests look over to see what was going on. The only thing Glarin could think to add was a single sentence.

“You put your tongue in my mouth.”

“Noo! Ah won’t lose ta you! I’ll give ya real kiss!” Glarin just watched as Apple Bloom went up to him with a determined look on her face. She then tossed her hooves over Glarins shoulders and placed her lips upon his, going to work similar to how Applejack had just done.

“How was that?” Said Bloom as she pulled off from Glarin. He just looked thoughtful for a moment and nodded his head, looking over at Applejack who seemed to just be sleeping on the floor...

"Right then this calls for more drink!" Glarin partly filled his cup and dumped it into Blooms half empty cup, then handed Sweetie Belle a filled cup before filling his own.

"B-but I don't drink!" Glarin downed his drink along with Bloom and laughed.

"I think its time you started then!"

The rest of the night was somewhat of a blur.

Battle Beast

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Author's Notes:

First and formost, I'll link this, simply because the band name matched the chapter title I chose a while ago. Also, they aren't half bad.
Battle Beast- Out of Control

Feels like forever since I updated with a new chapter. Octobers been a busy month for me sadly. Between the Halloween Rave -Escape All Hallows Eve that I went too, and my computer Crashing on me. Recently I found out I can't turn my PC off anymore, otherwise it takes anywhere from 20 minutes to 4 hours to get it to start back up again. I actually have it sitting sideways on the chest next to me with the side panel removed so that I can tap the harddrive from time to time. not sure exactly whats wrong with it, but after much experimentation, I found that tapping the harddrive when it hangs, makes it work again. Also it freezes less when its on its side. WD Black 750GB hard drive. lasted me about 4 years before it started crapping out on me, not too bad.

Anyway, On to the story!

A few weeks have passed since the welcome to Ponyville party. Things started to pick up again. The armor he had been making for Henry and Mr. Biggles was now complete. The special weapons he custom made and then enchanted, with the help of Princess Twilight, were also complete and he could now give those pony dwarves of his some real combat training. Well, as real as Fluttershy would allow with Henry and Mr. Biggles.

Several of the ponies were now also wearing new sets of armor. Now only a handful of the guards walked around without the armor.

Glarin had yet to get his new left hand. He was having trouble finding a doctor that would graft his finished product to the bones in his left forearm. But it was only a matter of time now, he had appealed to Princess Twilight and she said she would look into it for him.

Henry the Bear was wearing a fearsome looking horned helmet and gauntlets giving his paws bigger claws that looked far more combat worthy. Henry also wore a chain mail shirt, with steel plates covering areas that didn’t bend as much. Upon his back was something that looked like a saddle, except it was made of steel.

Mr. Biggles had an armor set up that looked like the Pegasi’s. Glarin even fashioned a pair of wing blades to go with his new claw gauntlets. He also had an attachment for his stinger, a shiny metal covering that extended the length of his stinger while still allowing him to inject venom if he so wished too. Mr Biggles had a helmet that was a thick mesh netting on the front, and a solid back with a crazy amount of spikes protruding from it. Yet the bottom of the helmet was open allowing him to eat, or attack with a bite.

Oh, Spatzi also started going to school in Ponyville.

Over the years Ponyville had gotten bigger and so did the school system, instead of just a single school house, they now had two. Younger children were taught by Miss. Cheerilee while the older kids were handled by the new teacher Ms. Alexia. A griffin that used to teach before the collapse of her home country.

Spatzi was a year too young for Ms. Alexia’s class and was placed in Ms. Cheerilee’s. Apparently she was pretty smart and only had minor behavior problems. Well, Glarin considered them minor, Ms. Cheerilee saw them as major problems.

Glarin considered it perfectly acceptable to beat up anyone that offends you or a friend. He also thinks having a short fuse is a positive thing. And he complemented Spatzi when he found out she knocked out some colts teeth.

Ms. Cheerilee does not like Glarin.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Mr Ungard, Can I have an allowance?” Glarin looked puzzled for a minute and stopped adjusting Mr. Biggles’ Helmet.

“Whats an allowance?”

“You know, like some spending money I get once a week!” Glarin thought for a minute again then raised his finger up as if he understood.

“Oh, so like a payday then! Alright hang on a second here...” Glarin fished inside of his pocket and pulled out a single bit. He then flipped it over in her direction. Spatzi caught it then gave Glarin a look of ‘really?’

“A single bit is all I get? I clean this whole place! I should get at least a bit per room!” Glarin thought about it again and realized she probably did do a lot, But he never saw her cleaning, and he was pretty sure no one ever saw her cleaning either.

“Alright, tell you what. For everyone that can say they saw you cleaning. I’ll give you a bit per room plus another bit for each person that saw you cleaning that room.” Spatzi went wide eyed.

“Really? You promise?!” Glarin nodded his head as he crossed his arms.

“I Promise, you have my word as a dwarf on that.” Spatzi got a big smile on her face as she thought of the amount of money she could get from this. Assuming someone could say they saw her cleaning the room in question. Some of the rooms she knew for sure she would get a handful of bits from, like the common rooms. Princess Celestia still hadn’t found a new place for all of those hens and mares from before...

“Well come on! Lets go!” Glarin patted Mr. Biggles on his helmet sending him away and began to follow her out of Mr. Biggles’ room and into the guards common room.

“I cleaned this room! And I’m sure most if not everyone saw me in here cleaning!” the guards that were lounging about inside looked over at Glarin and Spatzi.

“Alright, well thats only 1, can any of you louts vouch that Spatzi cleaned this room at all this week?” All of the guards nodded.

“Its kind of annoying, even when its mostly clean she still comes in and sweeps the floor.” Glarin nodded his head and looked at Spatzi.

“Alright then, thats 11 total. Any more rooms?” Spatzi nodded her head and lead Glarin out and into the next nearby room.

For the next 30 minutes Spatzi was leading Glarin around the entire underground complex and the more ponies they came across, the more they vouched for Spatzi saying that she did in fact clean the room with them in it, along with several others... Glarin was regretting the promise he made to pay her a bit per room plus a bit for everyone that saw her clean it. Apparently he was the only one that didn’t see her clean. Even Mr. Biggles and Henry vouched for her.

“Alright... that's 257 bits...” Glarin grumbled to himself as Spatzi was trying to think of any other rooms she had cleaned, but might of forgotten about.

“I think that's it... So can I get my money now!?” Glarin motioned for her to follow him. He would have to open up his treasury if he hoped to pay her the amount she wanted. He hoped it wouldn’t be this much every week.

After Glarin handed her a bag with the bits in it, she ran off. Apparently she had some shopping to do.

Glarin just looked at the sad state his treasury was in and sighed to himself. He would need another source of income. The amount of money he made from gem hunts with Spike and the bits he got from Princess Celestia were slowly dwindling down to nothing. If he could find his own source of iron he could save so much money, but the mine he had them working in didn’t turn up anything besides a few gems every once in awhile. Hopefully, once his mine reached the underground area of the Everfree forest they would turn up some valuable minerals. From the sound of it, that place has much-untapped potential as the ponies were much too scared to do much with it.

He closed the door to his treasury and went to go find Mr. Biggles and Henry. It was about time to put to use the custom made items he painstakingly helped craft for them.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Glarin had gathered up all the guards in the Sparring room he had made. With some of the mares and hen's coming to watch what was going to happen. Spike was also present with his mares. Twilight had also come with Fluttershy, Twilight because she wanted to see how her enchants were going to be used and Fluttershy because she wanted to make sure Mr. Biggles and Henry were going to be ok. Two Doctors also stood on the sidelines, just in case.

“Alright, now that everyone is here we can start with the Beast sparring. I’ll go first to demonstrate what I expect from you. But first, Mr. Biggles and Henry need to equip their blunted armaments.” Glarin went over to the nearby weapons rack and pulled off a blue colored set of armaments and began to put them on Mr. Biggles and Henry. Fluttershy whispered over to Twilight.

“Twilight, those look magical, and what does he mean blunted.” Twilight just watched Glarin put them on Henry as she explained.

“Well, Glarin came to me and asked if I knew an enchantment to make it so a weapon wouldn’t cause damage when used in combat, a blunting spell. It only stops the actual damage from the weapon though, you will still feel the pressure and be pushed away if the attack is strong enough.” As Glarin finished putting the magicly blunted weapons on Henry, he walked to the other side of the room and began to equip his own set of blue weapons.

“And as for me, I am going to be using weapons that are completely harmless, thanks to the help of Princess Twilight over there.” Twilight just waved as everyone looked at her. One of the hens spoke up to ask Glarin a question.

“What makes them completely harmless?” Twilight took this chance to explain to everyone her part in all of this.

“It’s a few simple enchantments actually. First I placed a Blunting spell on them to reduce all the damage they would inflict to zero, then I also implemented a force nullifying spell, so whatever you hit with it won’t feel a thing, not even a push. Then I placed a third enchantment so that when a target is hit, a charge will be placed upon them that lasts for 15 minutes. Once 10 charges accumulate, The target is teleported outside of the ring. I also included a 4th enchantment to help you know how many times you’ve landed a hit.” As Twilight finished she looked over at Glarin who had on blue shoes with a blue cap over his stump. He also had a blue axe in his right hand with a blue bandana on his head.

“Every part of you that has the potential to be used as a weapon needs to be covered in one of the special made blue items. Once everything is set up, the Spar can begin.” Shift flew up into the air to get Glarins attention.

“If we get hit 10 times are we teleported out of the ring as well?” Glarin shook his head side to side.

“Nope, you will fight until you are unable to fight, or you win.” Shifty gulped as he slowly brought himself back to the ground.

Henry was standing in the center of the large sparring space that was neatly outlined with a bright purple line. He was met in the middle by Glarin. Glarin placed his right hand over his heart while holding the axe and bowed his head. Henry grunted in response, then stood upon his back legs, and made a challenging roar.

“Thats the Spirit! Have at you!” Glarin lowered himself into a stance and began his charge.

Henry brought both paws in a double swipe but missed as Glarin rolled to Henry's right side and landed an axe blow upon one of the steel plates. A loud Squeak was heard that caused everyone to pause in confusion and look at Twilight.

“What? You count the squeaks to see how many you’ve landed so far!” Twilight just looked around nervously before chuckling. Henry rolled his eyes with Glarin shaking his head, before going back at it.

Henry spun around and back pawed Glarin across his head. Glarin went with the blow and turned it into a roll to the left landing another axe strike in a spot between two of the plates and upon the chain shirt underneath, another Squeak was heard.

Henry was losing. He didn’t want to lose. Otherwise, he would look bad in front of Fluttershy and his new friends the manticore and Spatzi. It was time to wake up and step up. Besides, he wouldn’t be able to seriously hurt Glarin, his new owner, with the magic weapons right?

Henry turned to face Glarin and roared as he attempted to land a double swipe again. Glarin ducked under both strikes and jumped head first into Henry’s gut for a headbutt.

The steel plates made it a bad decision and Glarin ended up injuring himself more. Henry followed up by falling forward and landed on top of Glarin. Crushing him under his weight, once Henry was satisfied he rolled off and stood on his four legs. Glarin stood up and shook his head.

“Ok, that was a bad move on my part...” Glarin got back into a lowered stance again and charged.

Henry side stepped to Glarins left and let loose a paw strike on his left side. With no weapon on his left side, Glarin should have avoided it instead of try to parry. Glarin’s left arm was thrown violently back with his shoulder making a loud popping noise as his arm flung around and behind him.

Glarin in turn landed a quick axe strike on Henry’s paw as he jumped back with his left arm dangling.

Henry in the heat of the moment charged at Glarin and tackled him before pummeling him into the dirt for a moment with his front paws, then finished by landing a double strike, flinging Glarin outside of the ring and into a weapon rack filled with regular unblunted weapons.

Glarin made a light groan sound as he stood up from the mess.

He was cut in several areas on his back with a visible bump protruding where there should be none on his shoulder. Glarin dropped his axe and put his right hand over the bump and looked at it.

“Ah, seems like you’ve gone and dislocated my shoulder...” Glarin continued to inspect for a moment as Twilight and the doctors stood up.

“Let me have a look at that...” Glarin waved his right hand at them and waved them off.

“No need.” Glarin grabbed his left arm above his elbow joint and then contorted his face as he placed his stump upon the floor. With a savage grunt Glarin pulled his left arm out, turned his body so his left shoulder faced the ground and then pushed his upper body onto his left arm. With another loud pop Glarin stood back up and began to move his left arm.

“There we go, good as new.” Glarin picked the axe up and got into a ready stance as he faced Henry.

Henry made a low moaning whine sound as Glarin stood ready to fight.

“Well? What are ya waiting for Henry? Lets get started again!” Glarin rushed in with a charge to which Henry responded with a paw strike.

This time Glarin didn’t dodge. Instead, he watched as the paw strike slowed down until it was nothing more than a soft pat on his face. Henry gave that same low moaning whine sound. Henry then brought up his left paw and did the same, slowing down before impact until it was nothing more than a soft pat. Henry then started making a more upbeat moaning sound as he continued to pat Glarin.

Glarin stood there as his knuckles turned white and the veins on his head and neck were visible for everyone to see. As Henry came in with another pat attack, Glarin knocked it out of the way and head butted Henry after shoving his blue headband out of the way. Even with his helmet Henry became dazed and fumbled back. Glarin then came with an axe on top of Henry’s head. Twilights enchantments did their job and Henry felt nothing, but he did see the anger on Glarins face.

“How Dare You Show ME Mercy! I Am Not Some... Some Frail Childs Toy!” Glarin dropped his axe again and gripped his left arm above the elbow again.

“Do Not Pity Me! I AM A WARRIOR!” Glarin pulled on his left arm with a sucking pop sound echoing inside the room.

Rage activated.

“AND I WILL BE TREATED AS SUCH!” Glarin lowered into his charge stance, picked up his axe and bolted off all at same time. Henry made the low moan whine again as Glarin ran at him.

Henry didn’t defend as an axe blow came at his head. When Glarin saw that he didn’t even defend, it pissed him off even more.

He tossed the axe aside and grabbed Henry by his left paw and began to swing him around. After he gained enough momentum Glarin let loose and Henry flew across the ring and landed on the weapon rack filled with blunted weapons.

“YOU WILL NOT BELITTLE ME AGAIN BEAST!” Henry stood back and looked at Glarin. He didn’t want to hurt him, but he didn’t want to make him mad either. So perhaps, hurting him would be ok if it made him happy.

Dwarves are strange Henry thought to himself as he stood on his hind legs, and gave out a challenging roar.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A few minutes before...

Fluttershy watched in horror as Glarins axe went straight into Henry’s side on one of the steel plates. But instead of hearing the loud scary bang when metal hits metal. She heard a squeak, like the squeak from a rubber bath ducky.

When she opened her eyes Fluttershy saw that everyone was looking at Twilight.

“What? You count the squeaks to see how many you’ve landed so far!” Twilight began to blush as she tried to fade away and out of everyones sight. Fluttershy was relieved to see that Henry was ok. And the scary noise of fighting was replaced with the cutest rubber ducky sound.

She watched with both eyes open and only one covered this time. She saw how Henry hit Glarin in the head with the back of his paw, only to have Glarin turn it into a tumble and land another squeak.

Fluttershy watched as Henry looked at her then over to Spatzi and Mr. Biggles. Henry’s face changed into one she had never seen before.

He looked angry. Sure the face he makes when roaring looks angry, but it's not... his eyes still have the soft look to them. His soft look was replaced with a piercing stare. Was Henry going to be serious now?

Fluttershy saw Henry do a double swipe again, but something seemed different about it this time. She couldn't quite figure it out. She then saw Glarin headbutt Henry in the chest only to daze himself. Henry followed up by falling down on top of him. Henry wiggled around for about 2 seconds then stood back up and jumped back. Giving Glarin plenty of space.

Glarin stood up and shook his head. Muttering something to himself before getting into a low stance again and charging.

Henry made a quick side jump and swiped at Glarins left side. Thats when Fluttershy noticed the difference. From the beginning when Fluttershy first met Henry, he was always holding back. He was always such a kindhearted bear. He only ate fish, honey, and some vegetables. Not including the tea and biscuits they would share at times.

When he held back the muscle in his body looked like loose fat that wiggles when he moves. But the strike going toward Glarins left side wasn’t covered with a shaggy fur that seemed to hang loosely on him. Instead, it looked to be form fitting and bulky.

Henry wasn’t holding back anymore. And it was confirmed the moment she saw Glarins arm make a violent popping sound as it flew behind him. Henry didn’t seem to notice and tackled him after Glarin made a retreating attack. After Henry tackled him to the ground he brought both of his front paws up and started to bring them down on top of him. That was the last thing Fluttershy saw before she closed her eyes.

The next thing she heard was something landing nearby with the sounds of metal hitting the floor and stone crumbling. She opened her eyes to see Glarin laying in a heap among a bunch of shiny steel grey weapons... Real weapons with sharp edges.

Fluttershy squeaked as she saw Glarin mutter something about his shoulder. She peeked through her hooves and saw that his shirt had holes and fresh blood on it. His left arm was also dangling loosely next to him. The moment Twilight and the doctors went up to go help him she looked over at Henry.

Henry just looked at Glarin as he stood up with his left arm dangling at his side, he was bleeding.

And it was all Henrys fault.

Henry put his face into his paws as he began to rock back N forth. Fluttershy watched as Henrys face went from one of confusion, then into panic and worry mode. He took his face out of his paws and looked over at Glarin. Only to make a low whine noise and go back to holding his head.

Henry was horribly distraught about what he did. Fluttershy and Henry were too distracted to notice that Glarin fixed his arm and was ready to fight again. They just assumed Twilight had fixed it for him.

“Well? What are ya waiting for Henry? Lets get started again!” Glarin charged only to receive a half-hearted paw strike. The muscles in his arm were far too relaxed and the speed of the strike compared to before was also painfully obvious.

Glarin didn’t bother dodging as he saw the slow attack pat him on the face. Fluttershy watched as Henry continued to slowly send out attacks while making the low whine noise.

Henry was apologizing and didn’t want to hurt him anymore. Fluttershy was about to speak up and end the fight when Glarin smacked the last paw strike out of his face and yelled at Henry

“How Dare You Show ME Mercy! I Am Not Some... Some Frail Childs Toy!” Fluttershy watched as he gripped the arm that was dangling just moments before.

“Do Not Pity Me! I AM A WARRIOR!” Fluttershy watched in horror as he dislocated his own shoulder and raised his head up to yell into the air.

“AND I WILL BE TREATED AS SUCH!” Henry only made the low whine sound again as Glarin charged at him again, axe at the ready.

Henry didn’t defend as an axe blow came at his head. Fluttershy saw how Glarins seemed to get even angry when Henry just stood there.

“YOU WILL NOT BELITTLE ME AGAIN BEAST!” Fluttershy saw the look of confusion on Henrys face before he shook his head and took on the serious demeanor from before and let loose another roar.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

At the sound of Henry’s roar, Glarin picked the axe up again and leaped at Henry. With a fierce yell, Glarin landed against Henrys chest pushing him back and hit him in the head again with his axe.

Henry, no longer caring about hurting him, smacked him in the face knocking Glarin to the ground. Glarin bounced off the ground and with quick roll stood back up. He swiftly landed another axe strike on Henry’s leg before rolling farther in an attempt to get behind Henry.

Henry decided to try a roll as well and fell over on his side and began to roll in the direction Glarin had just gone. Glarin jumped over Henry as he rolled like a log toward him and then dashed at him.

Only to run into a Purple see through wall. Glarin looked over and saw that Twilight had decided to intervene and stop their fight.

“Glarin, I know you can still fight, but watching your left arm flop around like that is starting to make me sick. And I’m pretty sure you’re making it worse than it was a few moments ago.” Glarin calmed himself down and looked at his left arm and the shoulder. It was worse than before, it was turning black and blue with shades of purple.

Both doctors ran up with Twilight and began to inspect his arm.

“We need to get the blood flowing back into it immediately. Blood stopped circulating at some point...” Said one of the doctors as he held it in his hooves.

“Your arm is dying!” shouted the other doctor as he finished a short scan.

Glarin just mumbled to himself as he walked back to the sidelines with Twilight and the two doctors who were in a panic. Only wanting him to hold still while they made sure he could keep his arm.

“You won't win so easily next Time Henry...” Twilight smacked him upside the head.

“You didn’t have to go and dislocate it again after you fixed it! You’re strong and tough, we all know that! There’s no reason for you to go out of your way and re-injure yourself like that!” Glarin just looked off to the side as Twilight glared at him.

“He started it...” Twilight became flabbergasted by that statement

“You’re blameing Henry?! I, Wha...” Twilight just looked at Glarin with her right eyebrow raised so high it was almost under her hairline.

“From now on, there will be no Spars unless there is a unicorn that is capable of stopping the fight present!” Glarin turned to look at Twilight before nodding his head slightly.

“Ok, I can understand that...” Glarin looked over to everyone that was in the sparring room. Most of them had worried expressions on their faces. He looked over at the guards and shouted at them. “...Who's next?!”

All of the guards seemed to look around at each other and just hum to themselves. Glarin just grumbled as he shook his head in disappointment at them. He was about to give them a lecture again when little Spatzi ran up to him.

“I heard all the commotion so I left my room and came to see what was going on... I wanna try it!” Glarin raised an eyebrow at Spatzi while Twilight was re-flabbergasted at what she said.

“Why you most certainly...!” Started Twilight, before being cut off by Glarin.

“Can! Just grab some of the blunted weapons and pick who you wanna fight with. Make sure its something you can use easily.” Glarin was just giving her a grin while everyone else in the room looked horrified that Glarin would let her fight Henry or Mr. Biggles.

Everyone was just speechless as Glarin watched her happily run off to the pile of blunted weapons that Henry landed in a few moments ago.

“Shes a little fighter that one. Shame she isn’t a dwarf, or closer to my age.” Twilight started going off on Glarin at that point.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Spatzi looked back and saw Twilight yelling at Glarin point blank. She giggled as she rummaged through the pile. Many of them were far too big for her. It wasn’t until she found a pair of small gantlets near the bottom did she look at them with a bit of curiosity.

They were a perfect fit for her small paws! Not only that but a blue dagger was next to them as well. She placed the dagger in her mouth and happily trotted to the center of the ring.

“I see you found the sparring weapons I made just for you!” Spatzi turned to look at Glarin who waved at her with a smile on his face.

“WHAT?!” Yelled Twilight as she started yelling at him all over again.

Henry was still standing inside the ring and looked at Spatzi. Fluttershy was relieved to see that she would be fighting Henry. He would go easy on her while still giving her a fight, it would be like a game.

Fluttershys smile disappeared when she told Henry to go rest, and that she wanted to have a rematch with Mr. Biggles. Henry made the low whine noise again as he left. Mr Biggles slowly stood up and gave out a stretch with a yawn before moving into the ring with her.

“Mew?” For being such a large creature, his meowing was rather high pitched, similar to a house cats. Spatzi spit the blue dagger from her mouth and yelled at Mr. Biggles.

“This is a rematch! No going easy on both sides! I wanna know if I woulda won in the forest if I didn’t get distracted!” As Spatzi picked up the blue dagger again, everyone saw Mr. Biggles give a wide grin showing off his sharp teeth.

With a thunderous roar, Mr. Biggles began to charge at Spatzi. Everypony in the room cowered when he roared.

When Biggles was within range he lunged at Spatzi, teeth barred and paws outstretched. He wasn’t holding back.

Spatzi leaped backwards so that she was just out of reach and bopped Mr. Biggles on the nose with one of the gantlets, letting a loud squeak be heard.

“One!” Spatzi just had a big smile on her face. Mr. Biggles rubbed his nose and snorted. He gave a faint smile back at her along with an attack from his stinger. Spatzi side-stepped as the stinger went into the ground and became stuck. Spatzi took this chance to hit his tail with the dagger.

“Two!” Mr. Biggles was starting to get embarrassed. He was losing to a child.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Twilight stopped yelling long enough to watch Spatzi and Mr. Biggles spar. She had heard from Ms. Cheerilee that she was a little fighter. But she had no idea it was like this.

It looked like Spatzi was dancing. She had a smile on her face as she dodged and flew between strikes. Everyone watched speechless as she seemed to move effortlessly around, landing a hit when the opportunity for it came. Twilight turned to look at Glarin who was chuckling as he watched her move around the ring.

“She really is a little devil. She really enjoys fighting, just look how happy she is! Shame she isn't a dwarf...” Glarin just watched as she back flipped over another one of Mr. Biggles paw strikes and jab him in the belly with her dagger again, prompting another thunderous roar from Mr. Biggles. "...Reminds me a little of Haela..." Spatzi was dodgeing most of the strikes by a hairs breadth.

He was getting frustrated just like he did in the forest. She was far too nimble for him to catch.

Mr. Biggles took to the air and began to circle around her. Spatzi spit out her dagger and yelled up at him.

“Fight like a Stallion!” Glarin chimed in after a hearty laugh.

“Yeah! Ya yella bellied house nug!” Mr. Biggles wasn’t sure what a house nug was, but he was sure it was meant to be an insult. And there was nothing he could do about being yellow bellied. He had yellow fur.

Either way, Mr. Biggles tucked in his wings and made a dive bomb at Spatzi. All of the ponies and mares gasped. Twilight was about to use her magic and end it when Glarin reached over and flicked her horn, causing her magic to fizzle out.

Twilight looked over at Glarin in horror while he simply pointed.

With a loud boom, Mr. Biggles landed. And when the dust cloud began to settle they could hear Spatzi laughing as she yelled out again.

“You missed me!” It was then followed by another squeak.

“She’ll be a speed demon on the battlefield when she reaches adulthood... reminds me of that one elf...” Glarin shuddered at the thought. “... good thing she’s on my side.” Twilight whopped him in the back of the head again, and again...

A bright flash of purple filled the room causing everyone to close their eyes. When everyone opened them again Mr. Biggles was standing outside the ring in a fighting stance. He looked around for a moment before slumping his shoulders and laid down in defeat.

“I won!” Shouted Spatzi as she ran out of the ring toward Glarin.

“Did you see that! I told you I could of won if I didn’t get distracted!” She finished her sentence by sticking her tongue out at Glarin, making him laugh.

“Are you bunch a babies just gonna let a kid show you up like that? I may have fought and lost due to a bad call from the ref..." Twilight hit Glarin again. "...But she won!” He thought about it for a second then slumped his shoulders as well. “She made me look bad too, didn’t even get hit...” Glarin began to kick a rock that landed near him after Mr. Biggles crash landed.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Spike had been watching the whole time with his mares watching as well. They looked up at him expectantly with smiles plastered on their faces.

“Come on Spikey! Go do a sparing match with that Manticore!” Said Silver Blossom

“Yeah, he cant be that hard! Did you see what that little Leoequus did!?” Spike watched as the green Pegasus pointed over at Mr. Biggles, he was just laying down looking around him a little upset.

“Yeah but, well I guess I could...” Spike rubbed the back of his head nervously. “...Sir Glarin! I’ll give it a go. Is Mr. Biggles ready for another round?” Mr. Biggles looked up and saw Spike walk over toward the pile of blunted weapons.

“You up for another round with Sir Spike Mr. Biggles?” Mr. Biggles jumped up and ran to the center of the ring eager to go again and redeem himself.

Spike walked to the center of the ring to meet with Mr. Biggles and get things started.

“Woo! You can do it Sugar plum!”

“Hes just a big kitty!”

“You got this!”

Spike was feeling pumped up at the cheers he was getting, So he began to charge at Mr. Biggles...

Spike woke up two hours later inside a hospital bed.

He looked around the room and saw Silver Blossom reading a book while sitting next to him. He stood up and held his head, he had a massive lump on it.

“What happened?” Silver Blossom looked over at him and giggled.

“Oh, you’re awake. Well, as you were running at Mr. Biggles, you tripped over your own feet and hit your head with a rather loud cracking sound and passed out.” Spike just blushed heavily and ducked under the covers as he groaned out loud.

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Spike found out later that he wasn’t the only one that lost and was sent to the hospital. Apparently whoever choose to fight with Mr. Biggles wasn’t getting away un-injured. He had already lost to a child so he had to prove just how strong she was, by beating every adult that challenged him. Rocky was next to him in the hospital while a griffin was reading a book next to him.

It was weeks before one of the guards finally beat Henry without sustaining too many injuries. Mr. Biggles was still the reigning champ under Spatzi, and Glarin hadn’t used the sparring ring once since his match with Henry, as he was busy establishing the last shrine.

Many of the ponies had been able to remove their fears away while sparring. Once they realized the chance of death was rather low with the rules set into place. All they had to worry about was getting some broken bones and dislocations, maybe a concussion or two. Followed by a small vacation in the hospital with some smoking hot nurses. Sure Twilights enchantments stopped the damage, but they didn’t stop the overall force of the attack. Mr. Biggles proved it when he smashed Rocky into the ground using the same dive he tried to hit Spatzi with.

Anyway, Glarin was busy trying to figure out where all the noise was coming from. For the past few days he’s been hearing heavy drum beats and other sounds he couldn’t quite figure out. He ended up enlisting the help of two guards when it began to frustrate him to no end.

“Where’s that blasted sound coming from?” asked Glarin as he turned another corner trying to find the source of the sounds.

“I think its coming from the private bedrooms, Sir.” Glarin made his way to toward the private bedrooms and sure enough the sound was getting louder until they stood in front of Spatzi’s door.

“Is she making all this noise?” Now that the sounds weren’t reverberating down the hallways Glarin could hear the sounds better. He realized it was some kind of Foreign music. He could identify the drum beats, and what sounded like singing of some kind. There was also another voice that seemed to be singing just behind the main female voice. There was only a single male voice and it was deep and angry sounding.

“When did she invite guests over?”

“Um, Sir. I think that Spatzi may be listening to music on that new record player she got a few days ago.”

“Record Player? How does one play a stone record?” The guards were befuddled by the thought of a stone record and how terrible it would sound. This pause in their thought process caused Glarins thoughts to roam freely.

“Its not hitting that Stone record against my masterfully crafted floor or walls is it?!” The guards still unable to find words simply shook their heads no as quickly as possible.

“Sir, its only music, and its not made of stone its made of Vinyl.”

“Vinyl? That pony with such a pale yellow coat it looks white? How does she turn part of her body into music machines? Is it magic?” Deciding that explaining any further would be a waste of their time, they decided to go with it. After all, they had chairs that needed to be sat in.

“Sir, its just harmless music, and yes its all created by very magical magics that would take too much time to explain.” Glarin nodded his head not wanting anything to do with magic at the moment. After all, he would never find a use for it.

“But still, this is what you consider music?” Glarin continued to listen for a bit longer. “Its kind of catchy I admit, but what is this magic toy that the monkey boy has? And why does it make her go uahaha-uaha? This music has a confusing story in it.” Glarin looked over at the heavily armored ponies and they shrugged in response.

“Its just music Sir, I don’t think it really has a purpose other than to sound catchy and probably paint some kind of story.” Glarin nodded his head and walked up to the door.

“Alright, lets peek in and see whats going on.” The guards all looked between each other and shrugged again.

Glarin slowly opened the door to Spatzis room and they all peeked in through the crack to see what was going on exactly.

Spatzi was dancing and singing.

At least that’s what it looked like she was doing. Glarin wasn’t sure if bending your knees while singing was considered dancing. Or, whatever it was she was doing at the moment. The guards were also peaking in, one below Glarin and the other looking in from above Glarins head.

They continued to watch. It was rather funny to see how into it she was. She was clearly out of breath yet she kept going. Tongue out of her mouth and everything.

It wasn’t until the song came to a close did Spatzi glance over at her door and see them looking at her.

“GET OUT! GET OUT! GEET OOUT!” She screamed in a high pitched voice as she ran over to slam the door closed.

Glarin let loose a hearty laugh as they narrowly escaped decapitation from the door swinging shut.

“Let her know to keep the music lower. Its shaking the whole place and disturbing me, and probably others.” Glarin began to walk away and started chuckling to himself again.

“But she needs to keep dancing!” He let loose another roar of a laugh as he turned the corner.

The guards turned to face each other and shrugged at each other before turning to face the door again. The music had stopped playing. They saw Spatzi looking at them from the doorway.

“W-was my dancing that bad?” They shook their heads quickly before speaking.

“Oh no! I thought it was magnificent. What about you Merv?” Merv nodded his head in agreement.

“Indeed. You show much energy in your performance. I started bobbing my head in tune with you.”

“R-really?” The guards nodded their heads yes in agreement once more causing Spatzi to smile as she blushed. She nodded her head in thanks and closed the door again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Glarin had to find out if his shrines were made properly and satisfactory to them. He would need to make offerings at each one and see if they were accepted or not. He just needed to do a bit of shopping, and then a bit of black smithing done as well. The only problem would be the blood of his enemies since his last offering... He hadn’t collected any since he arrived and the bit of goblin blood he did have was at his old home and had probably gone stale by now.

Hopefully more of his blood would suffice... He’ll need to increase his iron intake for the next few days.

And he would need to find another big source of income if he ever hoped to appease Berronar. It had been months since he made any proper offerings to any of them.

He should be able to fashion a pair of silver rings for Berronar’s holy symbol with some silver from his own vault. Berronar only accepted things that were rightfully yours to begin with, as true offerings. He couldn’t just use the money Princess Celesta has given him for his “work” in Equestria. Unless he used all of it...

With a quick trip to the market and the smithy that had been doing very well recently, thanks to Glarin. He had most of everything he needed for now.

The smithy, that used to be old and mostly shutdown, was now bustling with several workers. It was also expanded twice over since Glarin showed up. When word got around that a pony was being taught secret smithing techniques, by Glarin. Many smiths from all over traveled far and wide to try and learn from Glarin as well as help with any work he needed done in exchange for the knowledge behind Dwarven Steel.

You see the difference between Equestrian steel and Dwarven steel, was that Equestrian steel wasn’t properly made. When tested against Glarins Dwarven steel, it paled in comparison. The moment Glarin used a newly finished axe to chop though the “new” Equestrian steel anvil that had come in. They knew Equestrian steel was horribly weaker, and that Glarin was absurdly strong.

When Twilight had published a report about it to the princesses it quickly spread to the newspapers. Celestia had decided to let all of Equestria know of the Dwarven Steel, that she later renamed. Twilight had sent a small block made of the metal with the letter in case Celestia wanted to see for herself. Celestia told the papers to write something about their newest Knight, and that he was sharing the secret knowledge of his mighty people about what she called “Dragon Scale Steel”.

Celestia had responded to Twilight and even wrote a letter to Glarin about what she intended to do, She even sponsored the smithy and was directly responsible for its increase in size.

Glarin couldn’t read the letter and promptly threw it away, smiling to himself humming and glad he couldn’t read equestrian. His life would stay simple this way. Well, unless the letter contained important information. Once this thought crossed his mind he dug it out of the garbage and had a guard read it for him.

He threw it away again.

Once Glarin had all of the pig iron, limestone and the iron ore he needed, he began to use his special made Open-hearth furnace.

Just like the one his pops had.

And began to start the long process of converting it into the first stage of Dwarven Steel. As he was pumping the Billows in his “little” smithy Spatzi walked in. She had been looking for him for quite some time now.

“Um, Sir?” Glarin furrowed his brow as he looked over at her.

“What’s wrong? That’s the first time you’ve called me Sir.” She was playing with her hair as she watched him pump air into the furnace using the giant four chambered bellow. She no longer had short hair like a boy, it was gradually getting longer.

“Well, I was wondering if you could show me how to, how to, well, do what you’re doing.” Glarin looked back at the open hearth furnace then to her.

“You wanna learn how to make Dwarven Steel Lass?”

“Not just make it! I wanna mold it too! I’ve seen the stuff you make, and its pretty. I wanna make pretty things too, Like those two silver rings you made for Berronar! ” Glarin just hummed to himself as he continued to pump air into the furnace.

“I only know the basics, and you might not take to smithing very well.” Spatzi fluffed up her mane.

“Is it because I’m a girl?! I can do...” Glarin cut her off

“Oye! I said you might not take to it is because you’re not a dwarf. I’ve seen loads of female smiths and they were just as good if not better than their male counterparts. But they were dwarves. I’ve never seen a female human or elven smith. Bending and carving wood is not the same!” Glarin cleared his throat.

“I’ll teach you everything I know, We’ll just see if you enjoy it or not.” Spatzi calmed down a bit and smiled.

“We’ll have to start now as I just started the purifying process, I’ll explain everything I’m doing and why. Alright?” Spatzi nodded her head and ran up closer eager to learn.

Over the next two weeks Glarin showed Spatzi the ins and outs of smithing and smelting. Just the basic knowledge that every dwarf was taught at a young age. Yet basic Dwarven knowledge was vastly superior to any knowledge of metal work this realm had ever seen.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Glarin was unable to perform any of the rituals 100% properly because he was a single dwarf, and without any Clergy he wasnt sure if the shrines would even work. But he knew how to perform every single right, and he wasn’t about to insult any of them by posing as a clergy member.

Moradin was pleased with the offering and upon ending the ceremony, Moradin showed his pleasure at the new shrine by having his symbol appear on the anvil as the sacred hammer lowered itself on the sacred anvil.

Everyone that went was amazed to see magic, without a unicorn doing it. The wall of fire that appeared near the entrance once the ceremony was complete scared them all into thinking they were trapped, and they thought Glarin would burn his hand the moment he reached into the forge. It was a long process, Yet, everyone that went was simply in awe at what they were seeing.

Glarin was using his bare hand to reach into a forge and pick up hot steel, silver, and gold that he melted himself, and then preceded to mold it. He used his left forearm to flatten out the red-hot metals as he shaped them into various objects. Like a mini anvil or other small items that could be used to decorate the shrine.

Glarin explained that Moradin prevents harm to the truly faithful, allowing them to perform such feats in his honor in times of worship. Pleasing Moradin was the first, of many rituals that had to be done to ensure his shrines were properly cared for.

When the ritual ended and Glarin explained that the fire wouldn’t harm them, they were able to leave and then spread the tales of Glarins gods. Of course he still had 3 more to appease, and Berronar was next.

Berronar was a simple Deity to please, all she asked for was an offering of silver in the form of coins, jewelry and other items made from silver once a year. But Glarin had already made his yearly offering. He would simply need to make an offering of most of his wealth in order to appease her for his long absence and lack of prayer the last few months.

“Are you gonna help me carry everything to Berronars shrine or not Lass?” Glarin looked over his shoulder at Spatzi who wanted to see more of what Glarins deities could do.

“You know, when you said you wanted some help. I didn’t think I was going to be hauling all the bits in the treasury...” Spatzi was pulling a small cart behind her filled with sacks.

“You don’t have all of it lass, just most of it. Besides you’re the one with the cart.” Spatzi rolled her eyes.

“Whatever, old fart...” She continued to do her best at pulling the cart behind her as they neared the shrine of Berronar.

Once they were inside Glarin proceeded to strategically place all of his wealth upon the large stone altar. As Spatzi watched Glarin place all of the bits on the stone alter, she looked around. The floor was covered with a lush carpet of moss and lichen that Glarin had spent days gathering himself. She didn’t understand why the floor had to be covered with the stuff. And he insisted that only he could gather and place it. To do otherwise would either anger her or she would simply ignore the shrine altogether.

After Glarin placed everything in the proper position, He walked back next to Spatzi and kneeled before the altar. Having heard of what Moradins was like, she assumed something similar would happen.

She kneeled down best she could and sat silently next to Glarin as he whispered prayers. After a few minutes, Spatzi opened her eyes and looked around for a bit. She silently gasped as she shut her eyes again.

The altar was glowing brightly. And Spatzi was unsure of what she should be doing as Glarin didn’t explain anything to her. So she kept her eyes closed, until she felt another presence in the room with her.

Spatzi cracked open her eyes to see a ghostly figure clad in heavy armor and long flowing hair whispering in Glarins ear as he kept his eyes closed. When the ghostly figure was done she looked over at Spatzi and smiled.

A light began to surround her as small plants grew out of the ground around her and began to blossom with white flowers, filling the air with a sweet scent that made her feel safe. Spatzi looked back at the ghostly figure and she slowly faded from view with the gentle smile on her face still.

Spatzi was too awestruck to do anything other than sit in the middle of the patch of flowers that sprung up around her. Glarin stood up and looked over at Spatzi and smiled as well.

“The Reverd Mother smiled upon you and granted you her protection. As for me, I need to tell those guards which direction to dig now. Berronar told me which direction to dig for the mine.”

“Wait, you asked her where to find wealth?” Spatzi looked at Glarin suspiciously.

“Not just any wealth Lass, The wealth of the dwarves that were here before me!” Glarin paused for a moment. “Well, Berronar has different views of wealth. Perhaps she is simply showing us the path that leads to a wealth of knowledge.” Glarin shook his head for a moment before looking back to Spatzi.

“The revered Mother always looks after her little dwarves and their allies, she also tells us of forgotten history and treasures she wants to be found again.”

“And she told you where to look?”

“Aye, North East. I’ll need to let them know to start digging in that direction.” Spatzi huffed and looked over at the alter, all of the Bits Glarin placed on it were gone.

“Hey! What happened to all the money?!”

“Hrm? Well, Berronar takes the offerings she gets and distributes it to the pure of heart dwarves who are in desperate need of it...” Glarin continued to think about it for a minute.

“But I’m the only Dwarf in this realm... will she give it to some pony?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Daddy, I’m still hungry.” Hard Tack looked down at the youngest of his four children. She looked up at him with those big eyes that children have when they try to get more than they were given to begin with.

“Oh, did you want some more my little Pumpernickel?” She nodded her head with enthusiasm as he picked up his helping of bread and handed it to her.

“Make sure you share it with your brother and sisters.” Pumpernickel nodded her head yes and ran off with it to share.

Hard Tack was a simple earth pony Baker, that had two other jobs. He was doing his best to keep his family happy. And if that meant going to bed a little hungry, then he would go to bed hungry. He was having trouble keeping his family well provided for. After his wife fell ill, he did all he could to afford treatment and pay all of the medical bills.

Between paying for rent, food, and the hospital bill. He was running on his last legs now. He was going to have to cut the food budget again. He would rather go hungry than let his children miss a meal, and he would die of exhaustion before he let his loving wife Teacake be denied the best treatment he could afford.

Even though life was hard now, he knew it would get better. The doctors told him only a few more treatments and she would be better. But he wasn’t sure how much longer he could keep this up and not keel over himself.

As he readied himself for his 3rd job a white radiance filled his bedroom. He closed his eyes as the light filled the room. When it died down he looked to the bed and couldn’t see the bed anymore... It was just a large pile of bits.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After Glarin told them which direction to dig, it was only a matter of time now. The first few days Glarin helped them dig, in-between establishing the rest of the shrines of course. After the 4th day Glarin was called else were. Apparently the ponies in ponyville thought he was some kind of lawman that was there to help them settle disputes and anything that might be criminal related.

“She took a bite out of my Cupcake, and I want it back!” Glarin just looked at the pink pony known as Pinkie in slight confusion.

“How is she supposed to give back something she ate?” Pinkie demonstrated how it would be done, by taking a bite, then promptly putting it back as if nothing had happened in the first place. Glarin inspected the cupcake and couldn’t even see the bite mark that was visible no more than a few seconds ago.

“I told you Pinkie, I just wanted a nibble. I didn’t think you would get so bent outta shape about it. And I can’t put it back like you just did. I don’t even know how.” Glarin grumbled to himself as Pinkie demanded back a piece of cupcake that Rainbow Dash had taken when Pinkie wasn’t looking.

“How about, you just give her the cost of the cupcake and be done with this? Do you really need the bit of cupcake she already ate?”

“YES! It was the most tasty cupcake ever made and you can’t put a price on perfection!”

This little argument went on for about 15 minutes. Glarin who had enough of their babbling about some sweet treat, decided to grab the cupcake and eat it.

At which point Pinkie and Rainbow both looked at Glarin with wide surprised expressions on their faces.

“No cupcake, no problem...” Glarin was cut off by Pinkie who tackled him to the ground trying to open his mouth.

“NOO! Give it back!” shouted Pinkie as she wrestled him to the ground. Rainbow jumped in for good measure.

Glarin had no idea the pink one was so strong.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“What do you think Berronar told Glarin he would find?” Rocky shrugged as he kept mining away at the rock.

“Spatzi said something about wealth. But it might not be money. Considering the word wealth has multiple meanings.”

“Of course wealth means money. Once we find it, we probably won't have to go find our own food anymore...” After his offering to Berronar, Glarin had been mostly broke. He decided to cut down on the food bill. And the guards were getting the short end of the stick.

“Just cause I’m male doesn’t mean I like giving up my food to others!” Rocky shook his head.

“Not just because we’re male, but because and I quote, ‘We are warriors! And we can skip a few meals and be fine.’ Not that I enjoy skipping lunch so that one of those mares can have some extra dandelions.” As Rocky struck the rock once more, it made a hollow sound.

“Did you guys hear that?” Rocky and the others began to dig more at the spot that sounded like it was hollow.

With a few more strikes from the pick axe, the wall collapsed and gave way to a cave. They all looked at each other, happy that their days of digging were probably over.

“What do you suppose we uncovered?” Rocky, Ace, and Shifty both looked at each other before looking into the darkness again.

“Wait, is that a light over there?” Shifty pointed to the back of the cave.

“I don’t know, yer the one with night eyes Shifty.”

“Yeah, there’s some light up there too. Actually, there’s a bits of light everywhere, I wonder if its some kind of glowing fungus?”

“Should we explore it? Or get Glarin first?” they looked at each other for a bit. Before Ace pulled out a bunch of sticks.

“Whoever gets the longest stick has to go back and get Glarin."

“Isn’t it the shortest stick?” Said Rocky as he watched Ace pull the bundle of sticks from his pack.

“My sticks my rules.” As they all picked out Sticks, Ace was the one with the longest stick.

“Damnit, just my luck...” Ace began to head back in search of Glarin as Rocky and Shifty both peered down into the dimly lit cave.

“Shall we do a bit of exploration?” As Shifty thought of it they both perked up their ears at a voice they hadn’t heard before. It sounded like a small dog.

“Yip yip yip! Nàmhaid! Nàmhaid!” Then the sounds of padded footsteps were heard. It sounded like it was running away.

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Rocky and Shifty both looked at each other, unsure of what to make of the voice that came from the darkness.

“Well, we didn’t go through all of that training to run at the first sign of danger...”

“Besides, he sounds like a small dog. Maybe it’s a small tribe of diamond dogs?”

“True, Glarin also said to dig this way to find ‘wealth’. Perhaps some Diamond dogs have taken up residence here after so many years?”

“Mmm, by the sound of it, small diamond dogs.”

Rocky and Shifty both looked at each other before nodding their heads and lowering the face guard on their helmets.

Then they stepped into the darkness.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ace found Glarin in front of Sugar cube corner. Apparently he had been wrestling with Pinkie and Rainbow Dash for the last hour.

“Sir...” Ace watched as Glarin continued to keep Pinkies hooves away from his mouth with Rainbow Dash just looking to be in on the action. She would switch between trying to hold Pinkie back, then go try to hold Glarin back so Pinkie could get at him.

“A little busy Ace!” Glarin fell to his back as Pinkie tripped him. Rainbow Dash flew up into the air and wiped some sweat off her brow. After a deep breath she landed next to Ace and watched as Pinkie continued wrestling with Glarin.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Rocky proceeded in the front with Shifty close behind him. The cave was in fact dimly lit. They had broken in through a smaller hidden part of the cave. The hole they created was behind a wall of stalactites and stalagmites, that came together like sharp fangs.

Once they got out from behind them, they could see that the cave was actually lit up by patches of some kind of lichen. Allowing sight quite easily once time allowed their eyes to refocus to the dim light. After studying the lichen around the room they noticed that it seemed to only grow around small odd shaped oval rocks, and only around those rocks.

As they slowly continued forward Rocky drew his shield and kept a steady pace forward. Ready for anything, Rocky kept the shield at the proper position he had hammered into his skull the past several months.

Quite literally. Glarin hammered him in the skull every time he let the shield fall out of position. And it took months for most of them to learn it because Glarin was giving them consistent light concussions with his ‘light’ hammer hits.

They both heard what sounded like a rock hitting the floor to their left, and turned to face it.

“Ya heard that too right?”

“Yeah, sounded like someone or something, kicked a rock...” They turned to look at each other and nodded before moving toward the source of the sound.

After getting halfway across the cave they heard the same padded running sound again with several others coming from behind them. Expecting an attack Rocky spun around on a dime slamming the shield down into the ground, causing it to extend outward providing more cover.

But nothing came. The only reaction he got from the footsteps was the sound of some panicked yipping.

Rocky lifted the shield up off the ground causing it to revert back to its smaller state. Once the shield was no longer blocking most of their frontal view, they could see the creatures that made the yipping sound.

It was some scaled creature with horns and a tail. Behind it were several smaller versions of the same creature, The tallest one couldn’t of been half of Rocky’s height. It had to be around 2 feet tall with the others much smaller.

They looked kind of like Spike, except they were extremely thin in the places where Spike was chubby when he was at their height. Were these small subterranean dragons? Some kind of lizard? They did after all dig under the Everfree forest.

They watched as the taller creature hissed at the smaller ones grabbing their attention. The creature glanced in their direction briefly before gasping. It then hurried the little ones out, yipping the whole way.

“Wha-what was that!?” Shifty glanced around the room again before getting closer to one of the lichen piles and looking at the rocks.

“Rocky... I think this is some kind of nursery. These rocks, aren’t rocks...” Rocky put 2 and 2 together and figured out what Shifty was implying.

They were eggs. The eggs of some kind of lizard mini dragon thing. Surely this would not end well for them.

“Well what are we gonna do?” Rocky thought about it for a minute before shrugging.

“They’re evil right? I mean, they live under the Everfree, they look like tiny dragons, and I’m sure I saw that they all had sharp teeth. They can’t be good like us. Those ones only ran because they were little. Probably couldn’t even fight yet. So they ran so they could grow up and kill us later!”

“I guess that makes sense... but, Do we really wanna kill a bunch of babies and other young ones?” Rocky slumped his shoulders as he looked at the eggs near him.

“Well, no. When you put it that way... it makes us sound like the evil ones... doesn’t it?” They both perked up their ears at the sound of yipping getting louder and louder. A bunch of them were coming down the hall.

“Yeah, this is defiantly the nursery or something we broke into. Sounds like moms coming back with an army behind her...” Rocky turned to face the tunnel and drew his weapon. Neither of them had any qualms about defending themselves from an attack.

With a quick glance and a nod at each other, they were determined to hold out as long as possible until Ace could return with Glarin.

He would know what the right thing to do would be, right?

They had to be some kind of mini dragons. A bunch of the slightly taller ones came rushing into the room followed by the biggest one they had seen so far.

Although not much bigger than the rest of them, this one had to be an adult, it had wings and was wearing armor.

The armor looked out of place though. It looked like the armor Glarin made for them, same color and the design was similar, except it looked old.

Very old.

The first thing it did was run up to them and viciously hiss in their direction. Shortly after, they watched all of the smaller ones run around the room gathering the eggs.

All except for the clutch they stood directly in front of.

“I-I think we should move...” Rocky nodded at Shifty and began to strafe over to the side, shield still in front of him. The larger one with wings watched them intently, studying them. After a moment its eyes went wide and it shouted.

“Clàbar nàmhaid bàsaich!” The creature got into a low stance and clenched its hands into fists. At which point blades sprung from the gauntlets.

“What did you do?! You made her mad!” Shifty looked up past the creature and saw that every single one of them was watching them now. It started low, but it soon gained in volume, they were chanting something, but it was in a language they couldn’t understand. But they could hear it clearly.

Daidein

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Glarin had finally pinned Pinkie down against the ground.

“Enough Pinkie! I don’t have time for this!” Pinkie continued to struggle for a bit before giving up.

“Alright, I give up. I’ll just have to make more of those cupcakes, and Rainbow Dash will help me!” Rainbow Dash flared out her wings.

“What? Why do I have to help you make em!? Glarins the one who ate all of it!”

“Yeah, true, but he has things to do and this all started because of you anyway Rainbow.” Rainbow Dash growled to herself before slowly walking over to Pinkie as Glarin let her back up. Glarin dusted himself off as he walked over to Ace.

“Now, what was it you wanted to tell me again lad?” Glarin continued to dust himself off and look himself over.

“I just came to inform you that we broke into what seems to be a natural cave. It would appear that Berronar was correct in telling...” Ace was cut off by Glarin

“Of course Berronar was right! Only a fool would think otherwise. Now lets hurry back and behold the “wealth” contained within.” Ace nodded his head and ran back with Glarin.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Rocky and Shifty felt something they never expected to feel from something smaller than them.

Fear

But it wasn’t just any fear, it was a fear brought on by an overpowering aura of rage. Rage that was being directed at them, and they didn’t know why.

It reminded them of Glarin.

The creature leaped at Rocky, landed on his shield and started climbing it. Rocky brought his weapon forth and hit the creature on its chest and sent it flying toward the wall.

Instead of impacting the wall it repositioned itself midair and used the momentum to crouch against the wall ,defying gravity, and propel itself back at Rocky.

Rocky swung the shield around hitting the creature and sent it flying back into another wall behind them. This time it didn’t rebound off the wall, it simply hit the wall and rolled off behind one of the many stalagmites.

After a moment it came out from behind the stalagmites with its wings covering the front of its body. Its arms and chest were being hidden by its wings.

“Shifty, I think its hiding something... Whatever its hiding can’t be good, right?” Shifty nodded his head looking at the untouched clutch of eggs behind them. Then using his natural Luna given abilities, blended into the shadows. Leaving Rocky alone to face the creature.

The creature however was calmer than before. It kept looking at the exit... That Rocky was unknowingly blocking.

With a hiss it charged in his direction with its wings still covering the front of its body. As it tried to get behind Rocky, He spun around and slammed his shield into the creature knocking it down.

It landed on its back a few feet away with Shifty appearing from nowhere above the creature.

As Shifty brought down both of his claw weapons the winged lizard threw its wings open and used its gauntlets to keep Shifty’s claws from hitting it in the chest. When its wings were pulled away they could see what it was hiding.

Three of the smaller creatures were clutching onto its chest armor. Shifty’s eyes went wide as he withdrew his claws and jumped back. Rocky saw them just as well as Shifty did.

“W-wait!” Shifty yelled as he flew up into the air, trying to get out of its way. He really did feel like a bad guy now.

They were just defending their nest, weren’t they? He had never seen or heard of these creature before. Did they remain hidden underground in the Everfree their whole lives?

For some reason the moment Shifty took to the air, the littler ones began to panic and started yipping uncontrollably. Their panicked yipping caused the winged one to take them off and point in the direction of the exit where the other lizards were watching.

“RUN MUIRICHINN!” The little ones just watched as the bigger one got back up and release the blades once again.

Rocky and Shifty both looked at each other before looking back to the mini dragon lizards.

“That sounded like, Equestrian...”

“Are we... Are we the monsters here?” Shifty nodded his head at Rocky.

“We should leave. Before this starts getting out of hand... more than it already has.” The winged creature leaped at Shifty and grabbed on to his leg. The added weight brought Shifty down to the ground and with a shout the winged lizard jabbed its gauntlet blades into Shifty’s armor.

Shiftys armor however, was new, unlike the mini dragon lizards. The blades broke upon contact with his armor causing the lizard to look at them in shock for a moment, before throwing a clawed punch at Shifty’s helmet and jumping away.

“MO ASUING!” It continued to look at its broken gauntlet before turning to face the little ones again, they hadn’t left. “GO DACHAIDH!” The little ones looked shocked but they stood their ground and started yipping at Shifty and Rocky.

The young ones were soon joined by several others, until there was at least 60 of them all yipping, hissing and growling simultaneously at Shifty and Rocky.

“We really need to leave...ack!” Rocky looked at the ground at what hit him, it was a rock. Several more followed it and several were being thrown at Shifty as well.

The winged lizard looked back at the large group that had gathered and turned to face them once again. One of the smaller lizards was dragging what looked like a mace behind it as it ran as fast as possible toward what Shifty had deemed their champion.

And probably their only one.

“Bàsaich, jiarg-noid, GEDDYN BAASE!”The winged lizard spun around and took the mace with its right hand before charging in their direction with a roar.

It was deep and throaty sounding, making it sound ten times bigger. It sent chills down their spines.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Glarin and Ace had entered the lower area of the home and stood in front of the mines entrance when they could hear sounds of fighting along with what sounded like Rocky screaming.

Like a little filly.

“Are they fighting something?” said Ace as he looked over to Glarin. Glarin clenched his fist and reached for his axe.

“Why did he scream like a little girl!? I thought we fixed that!” Yelled Glarin with a chuckle as he too charged down the mine shaft toward the sounds of metal clashing with yelling.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Rocky immediately placed his shield up between the winged lizard and himself. What happened next, Rocky was unprepared for.

The moment the mace came into contact with the shield a loud crunching with a distinct crack was heard as Rocky’s shield crumbled under the creatures attack.

As Rocky’s shield broke apart the winged lizard used his free hand to shove it out of the way and grabbed him by his front left hoof.

Rocky was at the mercy of the little dragon lizard. Even though he stood a good three feet taller than it, Rocky was still lifted up off the ground and flung into a wall.

As soon as Rocky impacted against the wall Shifty flew at the winged creature tackling it into the one of the nearby stalagmites.

Before Shifty could back off he felt something grab him by the withers and lift him off the ground. Shifty looked and saw the winged lizard snarl at him before slamming him into the next nearest stalagmite.

“Gah!” Shifty felt the jarring impact as he broke through the earth forged stone.

“Hang on buddy!” Yelled Rocky as he began to charge. He had discarded the destroyed shield, and was running toward them with his weapon sheathed.

The creature kept its attention focused on Shifty and was beating upon his armor, trying to tear it off so as to reach the soft pony within. It didn’t even notice Rocky until it was shoved aside with another tackle.

Rocky picked up Shifty as the creature stood back up and snarled at them again. They stepped back in caution. With the creature staring them down.

“Dude, we need to...” said Rocky before another one of the creatures spoke.

“Shassoo cooidjagh mo teaghlach! For Daidein!” Soon the others jumped in as well and began throwing rocks at Shifty and Rocky.

“This would be a good time to pull back...” Shifty was interrupted when a red shield appeared blocking all of the rocks.

“I came as quick as I could guys! Glarins... well he was right behind me!” The lizards began to panic again at the sight of the shield. Causing the one they called Daidein to snarl at Ace.

“Ace, we need to...” The Lizard snarled again and grabbed one of the larger rocks lifting it over its head.

“W-what is that?” Stuttered Ace, he didn’t realize the fear he had been feeling was coming from a single creature, he thought the fear was coming from the excitement of an actual fight.

“It’s part of the reason we need to pull back so lets...!” The large rock the creature had been holding was thrown at the shield causing it to make a solid thumping echo and interrupt him.

“I think the three of... wheres your shield Rocky?” Rocky put his face up to Aces

“Its part of the reason why we need to pull back! Theres...” Rocky looked back at what sounded like a roar. Daidein had gone back for the mace at some point and was charging at the shield.

“Oh gods its got the mace again!” Daidein used the mace to obliterate Ace’s magical shield and charge past Rocky and Shifty, going straight for Ace.

Glarin had learned a long time ago that when a unicorns shield breaks, they lose focus and sometimes even lose consciousness . After months of practice, every single one of the unicorn guards lost that weakness.

After Aces shield broke he was able to immediately launch a bolt of magical energy at Daidein.

With a quick side jump the magical bolt was evaded and before Ace knew it, Daidein was directly in front of him with the mace coming toward his head.

There was nothing Ace could do besides move in the same direction as the blow in hopes of lessening the overall damage. At the same time Ace released his left hoof weapon and slammed it into the creatures left leg.

With a crunch Aces helmet broke apart, But so did the creatures leg. With a cry it jumped back and fell down.

Ace began to charge up his horn again as he removed his helmet.

The winged lizard’s left leg was bent and twisted. They watched as it tried to stand, only to fall and break into a coughing fit.

At the sight of their champion falling, all of the lizards started yelling and yipping. It wasn’t until one of the smaller ones ran from the group to stand in front of the winged one did Ace stop charging up his horn.

“Daidein!” yelled several of the smaller ones as they ran to the winged one. Shifty and Rocky watched as all of the lizards began to move and stand between them and their injured Daidein.

“Muirichinn!” The winged one coughed as several of the others began to tend to his leg.

“S'treih lhiam Daidein...” The little one that was the first to stand between them picked up a rock and threw it at Ace. Before Ace could charge his horn again, Glarin came around the corner huffing.

“OYE! When did the mine get so big?! And What’s all the yelling in here? Sounds like a, a...” Glarin stopped speaking when he saw the creatures, and what one of them was wearing.

The smaller creatures stopped panicking when they saw Glarin. They began to whisper amongst themselves for a moment before the winged one stood upon its only good leg. It blinked several times before looking at the armored ponies and snarling in their direction.

“Maith, My bailliu, mór bearded one.” Glarin sheathed his axe and looked over at Rocky and Shifty.

“By the Gods. Do you have any idea what hes speaking? Or what he’s wearing?” Rocky shook his head along with Shifty

“Looted armor and tiny dragon language with equestrian mixed in?” Said Ace with a guess as Glarin approached the lizards, they didn’t seem to be afraid of him. They looked happy.

“They were speaking Dwarven, an older dialect. But it was dwarven mixed with common, or uh equestrian.” Glarin just shook his head and snapped his fingers back at Ace.

“Ace get over here, Slowly, and heal this Dragonwrought Kobold the three of you injured.” Glarin kneeled down to be level with the winged creature he called a Dragonwrought Kobold.

In the light they could see that they all had scaly green skin with what looked like scales of all various colors speckled into their hides.

“S'treih lhiam, for mo deóradh cumraagys caggee. They are Friends, or uh caarjyn.” Said Glarin as he scratched his head.

“I don’t have very much experience with this older dialect, hopefully I said most...” The dragonwrought Kobold began to chuckle a bit.

“I see, has the language of the mór ones fallen so? Tell us mór bearded one, Why do you disgrace your race by speaking the same language as... as the doit four legs.” Glarin looked back at the ponies then smelled himself.

“Glad to know you speak more common, but I’m sure that foul smell is because we don’t have much time to bathe these days. And common is more common than you think among dwarves these days. Makes trading easy if there’s not much of a language barrier...” The Dragonwrought Kobold hissed at Ace when he came closer and ignited his horn.

“Why is the language of SLAVERS COMMON?! What happened to you on the surface mór one?!” Glarins face went solemn at those words. He saw the looks on the faces of the Kobolds, and knew these were no regular Kobolds. They looked more... dwarven to him than kobold.

The Dragonwrought Kobold had a layer of what looked like skin that was purposely left instead of shed away like the rest of it.

It looked like a BEARD! A beard made of old un-shed scales that was trimmed and worked to look more like a beard instead of several unsightly layers of un-shed skin.

“Ace, Heal him. And then the three of you need to leave.” The Kobolds began to hiss when Ace lit his horn again causing Glarin to snap at them. “Jeigh dty ghob! Let him use his magic to heal your Daidein!” Glarin motioned for Ace to use his magic again. This time they didn’t hiss and let Ace do his magic.

“W-what did you say?” Asked Ace as he began to mend the bones back together and heal the broken flesh.

“I told em to shut up and let you heal their honored father...”

“O-oh...” As soon as Ace finished he slowly backed up as he kept his head low.

The three of them looked back at Glarin. Rocky and Shifty both spoke up.

“We didn’t know...” Glarin waved them away and nodded his head as they turned the corner and left.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After the Ponies left Glarin began to speak with the Kobolds. He spent hours with them learning everything. Why they were using Dwarven armor small enough for them, why they spoke dwarven, why they didn’t act like the Kobolds he knew of.

He learned their history. What they were, and what they became.

About his dwarven ancestors.

If there was one thing Dwarves did well, it was record keeping. And carving everything in a solid stone wall made sure it would last forever.

Glarin read about how they first arrived on this world and their dealing with the other races. Shortly after their arrival they met with hostile forces from all corners of the planet, with Dragon’s being a big problem with their first arrival. They had relations with the ponies, and the horn wing combo seemed to be far more abundant in the past.

Glarin soon learned why the horn wing combo was so scarce now.

They made enemies out of the dwarves and some magical chaotic creature after a treaty with the dragons. In exchange for peace between the two races, The dragons offered them the Kobold race as a token of peace.

The Kobolds were an unwanted offspring of some Green dragon named Kragel with all sorts of different gems adorning his hide. The dragons stated that the Kobold race would work for the pony race for as long as they lived until the end of time.

The Kobolds were slaves.

This caused a severe rift to open between them and the dwarves. As all dwarves abhorred the mere idea of any type of slave or serf.

The Dwarven race was enslaved by the giantkin long ago, before they fought tooth and nail for their freedom. As such it was natural for them to hold a deeply rooted hate for all giants and all forms of slavery. Even the idea of indentured servants made a dwarf seethe.

The meeting between the ponies and dragons was in secret as the dwarves who traveled to this realm were reluctant on “meeting” with any dragon. As far as they were concerned, the only good dragon was a dead dragon, and the only dragon ally they needed was one made into armor and weapons.

This caused the first few years of the kobolds enslavement to go unnoticed by the secluded dwarves until a trading caravan showed up on their holds front doorstep attempting to sell them Kobold slaves.

The Dwarves were unable to sit and watch an entire race be subjected to slavery. Let alone by those they thought were allies. This caused an uproar among all the dwarves and they demanded they let the Kobolds free. Because no creature, good or evil, deserved to live the life of a slave.

When the pony merchants refused to free them, the dwarves slaughtered the merchants, setting them free. The Kobolds being a weak and timid race didn’t know what to do with their freedom. They were slaves of the dragons until they were given to the ponies. All they knew was how to serve so they wouldn’t be mistreated or go hungry for a few days. So they followed the dwarves, in secret at first.

Due to the Kobolds fast breeding rate, their enslavement quickly became widespread across what was now called Equestria. As the dwarves traveled across the continent freeing every Kobold they could. The Kobolds were learning dwarven culture and learning what it meant to be free, to be a dwarf.

When many of the ponies refused to release their Kobolds from slavery, the dwarves became violent and liberated them by killing the ponies. The ponies with the horn wing combo were reluctant to give them up while the other pony types would generally comply when faced with a dwarven army, known for killing dragons by the hundreds. After several years the dwarven race was dwindling as they were fighting a losing war on two fronts.

Apparently they had the same problem with the portal he did.

It broke, and by the time they were able to fix it again. They set out one last time to ensure that the Kobolds would not be bothered again. The dwarven history on the giant stone wall was left blank after that. Glarin concluded that they never came back from what ever quest they had set upon.

Since that day the Kobolds have been using what they were taught to live in hiding. Apparently they all knew common and dwarven, with dwarven being the main dialect. Common was used when the dwarven equivalent was unknown or to make a heavy insult.

Apparently if a Kobold wanted to let another know how they truly felt about the situation, they would say it in common. Glarin realized Daidein was untrusting of him at first, but when Glarin explained the situation topside it caused them to go quiet for a time.

They had been underground for a long time, believing that one day their saviors would come back for them, and lead them to glory on the surface like they had been promised so long ago.

The Kobolds had held onto their part of the deal. Keeping quiet and learning everything they could from “the wall of knowledge” as they called it. So now it was the dwarves turn. But being the only dwarf in Equestria, meant it fell upon him.

“My life keeps getting more complicated... when I die, I’ll need them to write I was a simple dwarf that died of complications.” The Kobolds had all been gathering around Glarin as he read the wall of knowledge until the entire village was waiting for him to finish.

The Kobolds were also informed of what had happened on the surface and resorted to using common, even if it left a ‘bad taste’ in their mouths. When Glarin turned to face them all, he realized there had to be at least 200+ Kobolds waiting on him.

Glarin groaned inwardly as he thought about what he would need to do so they could possibly integrate into pony society. They wanted Glory, but there were a few different ways to achieve Glory. The killing of innocents that had no connection to the past, was anything but glorious.

But he had some questions for three certain ponies.

One of the smaller Kobolds quickly ran up to him, and moved the helmet out of its eyes before speaking to Glarin.

“So Bearded One, When do we leave to take over the surface from the filthy four legs?” Glarin sighed again, keeping a promise made by his ancestors would take a lot of work.

What matters is Personality

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Author's Notes:

Sorry it took so long, but when my external drive with all the chapters died on me, I spent 2 weeks trying to bring it back. No luck, so I had to rewrite it again and I know this chapter (along with the next 3ish) isn't the same as what I wrote a few months ago. My PC can't seem to install windows 7 without corrupting a driver someplace, so its still crashing on me from time to time. Excuses are excuses but lemme just say I didn't feel like writing until I could get another external drive to save everything on. Simply because my computer was being unreliable.

Also when I used the website to write it seems to lag, and its kind of annoying really. I didn't wanna deal with it.

Anyway, sorry for the Delay and I'm gonna start writing again.

Downhearted - Pegboard Nerds
So dont be downhearted, I'm picking up the pieces here.

Also please tell me of any mistakes with grammar spelling etc. Its been awhile since I last wrote seriously. I'm sure I need to relearn a few things.

Glarin looked down at the little Kobold and patted him... or her on the head. He wasn't quite sure.

"Soon, but I will have to go Topside and make some arrangements."

"Arrangements!? So we can take them by Suprise? Take back what should be ours!" Glarin grumbled at the prospect of them becoming violent.

"There is no need for such drastic action. It has been a long time. They've forgotten all about you, about this place. You'd be taking revenge on the innocent generation that has no knowledge of such a dark past. I'm sure they would all be appalled by the mere thought of a slave."

The Kobolds remained silent unsure of what to say next for a time.

"You'll come back, yes?" Glarin gave out a hearty chuckle

"Of course I'll come back. Listen if you follow that tunnel all the way, you'll reach my home. It exits out into a room full of mining equipment and what not. But it's part of my home. You're all more than welcome inside it. I'll inform everyone on my end to be hospitable to you."

"You're home? A Mór ones home?" All of the kobolds began to whisper amongst themselves with some excited sounding yipping also being thrown into the mix.

"Aye, it's my home. I'll leave a pony that works for me by the mines exit for you guys. Don't be afraid to ask him anything, ok?" The kobolds all looked at each other and began to murmur again.

Glarin began to head out toward the exit after giving them a wave. He would need to come back and look through all this old stuff another day. Might still be something useable hidden deep within the old underground dwarven Hold. Hopefully the Kobolds haven't completely destroyed the place over the years.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

While Glarin was on his way to Twilights house to ask her some very important History questions. The guard Gleam was placed on the job of pony emissary.

He recalled what Glarin had told him. The words of wisdom for dealing with this new unknown lizard-like race.

'Don't leave your helmet on. Let em see that ugly four eyed mug of yours...' He shook his head and sighed.

"Like that's gonna help me...I'm not that ugly am I?" He said to himself. Yet he got a response anyway in a small voice.

"Seen uglier." Gleam turned around to see a kobold standing out in the open hands on hips. Gleam stood up straight and gave the Kobold a Salute which caused him to flinch slightly.

"Gleam At your Service. I was told to help you in any way I can." The kobold looked him up and down and waved a hand to the side signaling more to come over. The Kobolds began to take turns saying each part of the sentence. Almost like they did it all the time

"You Unicorn. Yes? Can you. Do Magic? NICE MAGICS! GREAT MAGICS!" Gleam broke his salute and relaxed a bit. Even though they looked rather mean, they were capable of quite a few facial expressions. They were obviously pleading and he wondered how old they were. He looked up back to the tunnel and saw several slightly larger Kobolds giving him a death glare.

They were watching his every move. He heard briefly of what happened in there from Rocky, Shifty, and Ace. It seemed they hated ponies, yet these smaller ones, didn't seem to mind the fact he was a pony. All they could think about was magic tricks. He couldn't blame them, earth ponies and pegasi loved to watch simple magic shows, while finding a unicorn who did was much harder.

"I do know a few magic tricks, and there's a few I've been working on myself..." Gleam took off his helmet and set it down so he could see around the room better. Artistic magic for entertainment always required the most visual concentration.

The kobolds all looked on at him with wonder. When they saw his glasses the Kobolds in the back all stood at attention, and then had a sudden change in demeanor. They lost the scowls on their faces. Gleam couldn't understand why.

You see, Glarin failed to mention that all dwarven Master Crafters and Artisans wore glasses or goggles. And it was well documented within that old hold, those who wore such things deserved your respect.

You see it wasn't just history they left behind. But an education of sorts as well. These kobolds were about as civilized as most ponies.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Glarin was slapping the door to the library yelling all the while. He was obviously upset.

"TWILIGHT! We need to talk!" Glarins heavy hand suddenly hit air as the door swung open.

"I heard the first 51 Glarin! I was just finishing the Chapter! ...I uh, Still haven't gotten into the habit of answering the door right away. Spike always did that..." Glarin cleared his throat.

"Well kids must leave the nest at some point. Perhaps you should go make another?" Twilight looked at Glarin utterly confused.

"What? I hatched him from an egg! When I was just a filly! I can't just replace him!" Glarin lifted an eyebrow. As Twilight looked at the ground lifting each of her legs in a nervous manner.

"Oohh...I was told you made him in some magical experiment with a green dragon and your DNA, whatever DNA is. Some of the guys down at the Watering Hole were talkin bout it a few days ago..." Twilights calmed down and realized she was talking to Glarin. He still couldn't read and still hasn't found a reason to learn. So she took a deep breath and just accepted it.

"Something like that yes. Anyway, I'm sure you're not here just to chat?" Twilight looked at Glarin with a slightly hopeful look on her face.

"Actually, I have just one question. How old are you?" Twilight looked at him confused.

"You know, some might consider such a question rude, but I turned 29 just last month." Glarin nodded his head and put his hand on her withers.

"I forgot how young your race does most things... My mother wouldn't let me stray far from the house till I was 20. 'Stay in the Yard or I'll break your legs too!' Mother was always a little overprotective during harsh times." Twilight pursed her lips together in thought.

"I'm sorry, but did you need anything else? I would like to get back to reading my book." Glarin shook his head and waved his hand.

"I apologize Princess Twilight, but I found a bunch of friendly Kobolds while digging. I was wondering if you could help me with some things." Twilight once again became confused.

"Whats a Kobold? I've never heard of them before. I've never seen any record of such things before either..." Twilight suddenly froze with her eyes locked open and whispered "...unknown creature..."

"Well unknown to you maybe, but I've learned all about them." Twilight teleported away and less than 2 seconds later appeared back in front of Glarin with a saddle bag that had paper hanging out the side of it.

"Take me to them! I want to know everything!" Glarin cleared his throat.

"Well alright Princess but, there's a few things I need to tell you before I bring you to them."

As Glarin explained to Twilight in detail of them, she suddenly lost all of her enthusiasm about meeting them face to face. She lifted a hoof to her horn as she looked at her wings.

"They're going to hate me aren't they?" Twilight laid down on the floor as she got a downtrodden look on her face. She looked up when Glarin began to run his fingers through her hair.

"They're going to really have to try Princess. I haven't seen a flower as beautiful as yourself fail to make someone smile." She began to push her head into his hand. Causing Glarin to pull it back much to her displeasure.

"Come now Princess. I'm sure they would be thrilled to speak with you. You're royalty after all." Twilight smiled as she sighed, following behind Glarin as he walked back to his home.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Gleam wasn't sure when the rest of the guard, parents and children came into the room to see him do his magic show. He was also surprised to see that everyone fit into the room with the mines entrance. But then most of them were sitting upon the equipment. While many of the pegasi had figured out the clouds inside the cloud mattresses could be taken out and used to float around with. Their cloth 'containers' had a spell that kept them from floating apprently.

Gleam had done a few minor tricks before to entertain some of the children. So they knew what to expect, and that he always had something new every time he did a trick. His standards of simple were also far from being so.

Currently, he was using a rod of solid blue light to "paint" various creatures with great detail and diffrent colors. When the creatures were complete they would come to life and begin to walk around. After he moved they would fall in line behind him until he had a group of colorful light creatures following him.

"Excuse me young Miss..." Gleam leaned down to look at one of the smaller kobolds sitting in the front. "Can you hold this for me? I promise it won't hurt you." The Kobold looked around and rubbed her hands together before reaching out for the small glowing light Gleam levitated out for her to grasp.

She took the light in her hands and looked at it with utter amazement on her face.

"When I give the signal I want you to throw it straight up and into the air, ok?" She got a smile on her scaley face and nodded her head up and down. Promoting Gleam to smile as he turned around and trotted as far away as possible.

"Ok, give it a good toss now!" Using both hands, the little kobold threw upwards at a slight angle causing it to go up and behind them. But it didn't matter, the trick worked just fine anyway.

Each of the creatures that stood near Gleam began to charge at the glowing ball with a blinding speed. Once they impacted it, the ball would fly back up into the air and the creature would fly to a different part of the room casting it in a glow of a seemingly random color.

As a blue glow was cast over a group of the fillies and colts, they began to shout in excitement and clamber towards other colors.

"The Blue Tastes like Blueberries!"

"This yellow one is Bananas!" The Kobolds began to mimic the children and began to lick the air the color was saturating.

Suddenly one of the kobolds inside a different yellow light shut his eyes closed as his face scrunched up.

"BLLUEGH! It tastes like..." Said the Kobold as he stuck his tongue out again. "...BLLUEGH!" A nearby colt moved over and tasted the yellow cloud on the opposite side of the room.

"UGH! It's LEMONS!" Gleam chuckled as the faces they made puckered up.

"Sorry about that, I thought I made em all sweet." The kobolds just smiled back at him and went to other colors.

The Kobolds and ponies all seemed to be getting along well enough. The Kobolds and griffins were a bit stand-offish at first, but that's only because the Kobolds weren't sure how to ask them if it was ok to pet their feathers. They had never seen anything like it before.
The griffins had always wondered what a scaley hide felt like and they had a mutual exchange of sorts. Everything was going as well as anyone would expect.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Glarin was at the front door with Twilight when she suddenly got cold hooves and wanted to go back.

"Maybe I should just go home and come back later. This might be too much for them in just one day. I mean, with them being isolated for so long..." Glarin wrapped his left arm around Twilights withers and opened the door to his house.

"Nonsense Princess, Once they learn you're part of my Clan and why, they will have nothing bad to say about you."

"A-are you sure?"

"Aye Princess, they have seen the light just like me... heheh. In more ways than one." Glarin began to chuckle much to Twilights displeasure

"Why is that funny? That's not funny at all, it's sad! To never see the daylight!" Glarin took his arm off her as they walked inside.

"You know, the first time I saw the light, from the sun anyway, was leaving Fluttershy's home. And even though they all grew up thinking ponies are evil. They still grew up like any dwarf would of. My ancestors you see, they left far more than history for them. It would seem they grew to accept the Kobolds following in their footsteps and left plenty for them to learn."

"What do you mean?" Glarin began to Laugh.

"I mean, they are the closest thing to Dwarves I'm going to get. They know the Culture, of the gods, and all its practices. But there's records for old smithing techniques. I might be able to find out how to make all of our complex alloys again! Truth be told I never memorized all 223 different alloys. I'm not a smith! haha!" Glarin continued his happy gait toward the mine entrance.

"You're really happy to of found them, haven't you? It's not often you're so talkative."

"They are a gift from Berronar, Princess Twilight. She told me where to find them. Knowing her, she'll want me to finish what my ancestors promised, and bring them Glory. But To do that I will need your help. Besides, Dwarven holds are always built upon some kind of ore Deposit. If we're lucky. I'll have found my free Iron source." Twilight looked a bit flabbergasted at the idea.

"W-well what do you expect me to do? Make them citizens of Equestria or something?"

"You're a Princess, you can pull some strings and make it happen right?! I'm not fond of asking Royalty for help Lass, You know that." Twilight thought about it as they continued down the hallways.

"I might be able to accept them as like... refugees? But if they aren't a documented species...Ohh this is going to be so much paperwork." Twilight gave out a sigh "But I'll do it. I suppose I should get to know them first." Glarin nodded his head as the mine entrance came into view.

"By the way, where is everyone?"

"Probably watching one of Gleams shows. The kids good with magic and light. Shame he can't use it much for combat. He's become much better at his shield spells after that tip you gave him. Many of them did actually."

"Your welcome and what show?" Glarin opened the door to the mines entrance and reviled a room filled to the brim with ponies, Kobolds, and some griffins. The griffins seemed to have Kobolds around them all petting their feathers.

Twilight looked into the room and was shocked to see the Kobolds at first. They were a bit scary, yet when she heard them speak, she found their small raspy sounding voices to be rather cute.

Many of them turned to look at her with fear, but when they saw Glarin by her side, The fear was quickly replaced with a smile. Everyone else in the room as well turned to face them once they realized who had come for a visit.

"Princess!" Yelled all of the children in unison before rushing her. Twilight assumed the role she had learned from all the years she had been a Princess. She poised herself up straight and began to emanate a bit of royal authority with a soft smile on her face.

The Kobolds took note of how everyone else was reacting to the new Alicorn in the room. Daidein who had been keeping watch of everything in the back was the first Kobold to approach both of them.

Glarin simply nodded his head at Daidein and motioned toward the crown atop Twilights head. To which Daidein opened his mouth a bit as he lost his composure. Only to have it return as he approached Twilight. He didn't make eye contact with her and kept his gaze slightly averted.

"We know a crown when we see one. We had no idea a Mór one would be friends with The Queen of this land." Glarin chuckled while Twilight became flustered.

Thats the first time someone has mistaken her for a Queen. She kept her posture as she corrected him.

"Actually, I am just a Princess. One of three actually." Glarin nodded his head.

"Aye and she's part of my clan as well. She saved my life when I first arrived. Her and a few of her friends. I would appreciate it if you showed her the respect she deserves." At that statement, Daidein kneeled down to one knee and flared out his wings as wide open as possible.

He reached out and gently grasped her hoof in his scaled claw-like hands. Instead of kissing it, he simply lifted it above his head.

"May you show us the same kindness and Mercy you have bestowed upon our savior as well, Princess." Twilight was a bit taken aback, this Dragonwrought Kobold as Glarin had described with the wings and everything, was easily the scariest one here. Yet he was so gentle, compared to his looks.

"Of Course. I will do everything within my power to help. Glarin has explained everything he knows to me."

Glarin remained silent by her side watching over the room. He witnessed many of the older Kobolds slowly walk up and kneel beside or near Daidein.

The rest of the time was filled with pleasantries that Glarin was no longer listening too. He was more interested in why the area was bathed with colored lights and wondered why many of the younger children were running around the room with their mouths open and tongue hanging out.

He left Twilights side as she spoke in detail with Daidein and a few other Kobolds. She seemed happy enough talking with them. The strange colors that had the children enthralled was far more interesting than politics.

"Oye, what's with you guys?" Asked Glarin as he walked into a red area. He could feel a slight tingle in the air. Causing him to lift his hand and try to grasp at the color filling the air. Spatzi leaped out from behind him.

"Just stick your tongue out!"

"What sorta magic... " As he spoke some of the color hit his tongue "...is this?" As he tasted it he looked around and suddenly realized why all the kids seemed to be licking the colored air.

It was Delicious! Spatzi giggled at the look of confused realization on his face.

"GLEAM my boy! Did you make this tasty light?!" Gleam chuckled a little as he witnessed Glarin lick at the air similar to how the children were. He quickly trotted over and gave him a salute.

"Yes, Sir. The Kobolds asked to see nice and great magics. So I showed them something I've been working on the last 3 months." Glarin nodded his head and put his right arm around Gleam.

"Great job entertaining our new house guests, But you should stick to your training a bit more Lad. This would explain why you're a bit behind the others." Gleam was about to protest but kept his mouth shut.

"Thank you, Sir. Yes, Sir." Glarin nodded his head at Gleam and turned to walk away. Only to wander into all of the other colors with his tongue hanging out.

Spatzi just chuckled as he walked around and put her front paw on Gleams leg.

"We all love your shows Gleam, Even Mr. Unguard." Gleam just chuckled

"I know Spatzi, His stone-faced way of thanking me is just something we must all do as Soldiers. As he says anyway. How did you enjoy my new spell, 'Taste the Rainbow'?" Spatzi giggled at that.

"You named the spell after the rainbow?" Gleam just nodded

"I thought it was appropriate. After all, it's made with light. And a minute amount of electricity in the air. That's how I get the taste sensations. Hehe, the first time I did this I electrified my tongue."

"Is that why you couldn't talk for 3 days three months ago?!" Spatzi was just fighting back a burst of laughter as Gleam turned red in the face.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Twilight, Glarin and several of the Kobolds were standing outside his home saying farewells.

"Okay you guys. I'm gonna do some research tonight and send out some letters, but I should have everything set up for some of you to meet with Princess Celestia. The sooner she gets to see you for herself the sooner we can get all of Equestria ready for your presence."

"We trust you with our lives Princess." Said Daidein as he bowed his head and placed a balled fist over his heart again. Twilight was still amazed at how well he spoke compared to the others who seemed more childlike. But he was supposedly over 50 years old and considered a 'Great Wyrm' by kobold standards.

As Twilight walked off into the distance Glarin looked over at Daidein with a smile on his face.

"So tell me Daidein, Do you know anything about a mine inside the old Hold?" Daidein nodded his head

"Yes Mór one, there was a mine 10 generations ago. We had to collapse it during the bug war."

"Bug war? I didn't read about that." Daidein hissed a bit as he thought. The hiss wasn't violent but seemed to replace the sound of an hmm.

"The bug war, Many of us died and we lost a lot during it. They came from the mine unnoticed as none of us Kobolds had any real interest in it. We just expanded the hold outward to make room for more nests back in the early days. We also had few warriors as we had lived in peace for 10 generations before they arrived."

"I see, The Bug war was something that happened after the dwarves left. What happened? Will we be able to recover the lost areas?" Daidein thought for a moment before nodding his head.

"With your help, anything should be possible Mór one. After all, the only thing we did was collapse all of the lost areas. With too few warriors, we stood no chance when they flooded in. We Kobolds are all that's left. The roots of these 'trees' as you call them. We're what we've been eating." Glarin nodded his head knowingly

"Aye, you eat what you must, to survive." Daidein nodded his head.

"Yes, but the areas we were left too had very little food. Many of us starved and fought over food after the war. But now that were on the surface. We will no longer have to follow strict rules on the number of children we can have. We might be able to eat 2 meals in a day now!" Glarin chuckled and pat him on the back.

"This world may seem poor, with its lack of artistic stonework in its towns. But let me tell you, no one ever goes hungry around here. At least not that I've seen." Daidein and all of the kobolds around him gained huge smiles.

"Tonight, I will show you what it means to eat to Live. Not just to Survive." The kobolds became slightly confused.

"Isn't living and surviving the same?" asked one of the kobolds. Glarin shook his head and told them to wait inside while he did some shopping again. He could dip into his reserve funds for a celebration.

Glarin splurged a little and even gave the guards something they had to chew for once. They hadn't been given anything solid to eat since they started nearly a year ago. All prescribed/created by Princess Twilight Sparkle for maximum health.

Too bad Taste wasn't part of the equation.

Moe the Kobold

View Online

The next morning was a bit of Choas. Many of the Kobolds wanted to travel to see the Marble city they heard so much about at the dinner table. But Celestia only sent a small chariot.

It was really only big enough for 2 ponies or 4 Kobolds. The Kobolds stopped fighting over who was gonna get to go with Daidein when Glarin voiced his opinion on the idea of taking a flying Chariot again.

"YOU'LL HAVE TO KILL ME BEFORE I JUMP IN THAT THING AGAIN!" Yelled Glarin as he crossed his arms at the sight of it. Twilight sighed as she walked over to Glarin.

"Alright, would you rather take the train? I told her you wouldn't be fond of going by air again." Glarin harrumphed loudly

"Why didn't we just do so from the beginning..." The Kobolds began to murmur to themselves wondering what and how big a train was.

As they all traveled toward the train station Twilight noticed how all of the kobolds seemed to be squinting or trying to shade their eyes from the sun. With a bit of concern, she turned her head to face them while they kept walking.

"Is the sun too bright for all of you? Perhaps I could get my friend Rarity to fashion a bunch of hats to keep your eyes shaded." The Kobolds nodded their heads promoting Daidein to speak

"Our eyes do not adjust well to bright lights. However we can see perfectly fine in the pitch blackness of our underground home." Glarin chimed in as well.

"Perhaps we can make some kind of shaded goggles for all you to wear when you're Topside." Many of the Kobolds fidgeted a bit at that thought.

"B-but we aren't craftsmen..." Glarin hummed

"Maybe you should be. If things go as I hope, you will have your own little country somewhere within Equestria." Twilight turned to look at Glarin in shock.

"Wait a minute! I thought you wanted me to let them join our society! Not have their own country!" Glarin nodded his head with a smile at Twilights 'excitement'.

"Yes Twilight, but to be truly free, they will need a place to call home." Daidein chimed in next.

"Why don't we just take the land in and under that forest you found us in Mor one?" Glarin and Twilight hummed at that thought

"I don't see a problem with it, do you Twilight?"

"Other than how dangerous the forest is? Nothing I can think of. As far as I know its considered free land for the taking. Mainly because of how dangerous and mysterious it can be. But then Zecora does live in the forest as well... Maybe she could help?" Glarin nodded his head.

"Yes, but we shouldn't get too ahead of ourselves. Princess Celestia will be the one to make the final decision." Daidein looked over at Glarin.

"We must speak to a royal child? Where is the King or Queen? Could they not make time to see us?" Twilight screamed internally as she scrunched up her face from the nightmarish flashbacks that began to flood into her mind.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Many of the kobolds were sour about being left behind. Daidein had instructed that he Alone will be enough. He didn't want to cause much panic. He was watching what many of the ponies did at the sight of them. He was sure none of them ran screaming simply because Glarin and Twilight were nearby.

But well, Kobolds by nature are mischievous little sneaks. As any dwarf will tell you. Even if they were civilized, children will still be children and one little kobold decided to sneak aboard the train and see the great city for himself.

His name, His name is Moe.

He would stay hidden and nearby. No one would be the wiser and no one would notice he was gone.

Moe was the smartest of his egg brothers and sisters, and the quickest and most nimble! Why he would get to brag about seeing the great white city before any others!

He quickly snuck away and hid under a bench. He was positive no one saw him. Being born with many black scales on his hide, he could easily blend into the darkness and shadows.

When no one was watching he made a mad dash for the nearest open train door and hide under the nearest seat. From there he moved around from seat bottom to seat bottom. Looking for where Daidein and Glarin had gone.

He couldn't let them get far. If he lost them he would lose his way back home. Not that he was scared mind you. He was also the bravest of his egg brothers and sisters. Being hatched first meant he had to be.

He finally spotted them and decided to stay put. He was comfortable and there happened to be some bags that covered him completely from anyone that might glance downward.

Never having being on a train before, the little Kobold didn't know what to expect. But he knew the thing they all got into was some kind of big magical moving device. He had seen it pull into the Station with the rest of them.

And now, all he had to do was wait...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Moe awoke to find himself alone in the train car, whoever owned the bags by his feet took no notice of him as he slept against the wall under the bench. The train car was still lit but stationary. Was he even still in the right city?

Panic began to overtake Moe as he realized he had just lost his guide back home. His only hope was that the white marble city was on the outside. Then all he would have to do is find them!

Moe crawled out from under the bench and looked around, No one was inside the same car as him so he sneaked toward the exit and slowly opened the sliding door. Slowly because it was giving him some decent resistance. As he opened the door he peeked his head out and saw that no one was around so he jumped out and ran to the nearest visible crevice, behind some plants and a trash can.

As he looked around the train station he saw the color of choice seemed to be white, but having never seen Marble, he didn't know if it was the correct color of white for it to be Marble white. It seemed to have some gray and black in with the white.

Staying out of sight he slinked his way out of the train station and out into the open world.

The city was so bright and white that it hurt his eyes to look around. Everything was so bright tears were forming in his eyes and it pained him to keep them open in direct light. But the city was indeed white.

They must be someplace in this white city, but where did they go? Moe sat down and tried to think where Daidein and Glarin went. He remembered them saying something about Royalty, and they usually lived in the biggest building right?

Scouting around a bit Moe stuck to the shadows as he made his way to the city center...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"So let me get this straight Mor one. There really isn't a King or Queen?" Daidein was wearing a large floral hat with purple flowers in it to keep the sun out of his eyes. Even though they were inside the Castle now, he had taken a liking to it.

"Aye, there isn't. Its weird I know but that's just how they do things around here." Ms. Canto was leading them through the castle toward Princess Celestia's Royal chamber.

"I must say, Daidein was it?" The Dragonwrought Kobold nodded his head as he turned to face Ms. Canto.

"Are all of your kind so, um, Scary looking?" Daidein cleared his throat with a bit of a chuckle.

"I am unique among my kind with the wings, and I could say the same about you..." Daidein was eyeing the horn on her head. "...With such a dangerous weapon out in the open." Ms. Canto was a bit taken aback

"I beg your pardon? Are you referring to my horn? There's nothing scary about it! It's normal for unicorns and its nothing that needs to be hidden."

"So are you implying that my kind and I should remain hidden because we're scary? Scary for something we have no control over? Just as how it's normal for your horn to be out, its normal for us to look..." Daidein motioned with his hands to encompass his entire body. "...like this." Ms. Canto was a bit at a loss for words.

"Umm... Well, You're correct. It may take some time getting used to your appearance. I just hope it doesn't cause too much of a problem." Ms. Canto focused upon the huge hat he was wearing and cracked a slight chuckle.

He looked like some kind of small dragon lizard, being no bigger than a mid-sized dog. The purple hat with flowers in it was rather distracting. Perhaps it was all the scales that made her uncomfortable, But it could also be the sharp teeth and visible claws...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Moe was running between buildings and hiding behind stalls as he ran through the city. It wasn't until he stopped to catch his breath by an ally did some pony finally see him.

"Ohh-eww! What is That?!" Moe looked over to see a pony wearing an extravagant looking dress, pointing at him with a scared look on her face. He tried to play it cool.

So he smiled and waved. Causing the pony to up and flee with a screech.

"How Rude..." said Moe as he watched the pony run. Soon others came and saw him as Moe felt no need to run and hide. He had done nothing wrong. Sure he didn't listen to his elders, but the ponies were good now.

Right?

After all, he was only avoiding the bright lights because it hurt his eyes. He noticed that many of the ponies were studying him as they kept their distance.

Moe had started traveling in the opposite direction of the Castle and was unknowingly heading toward the cities busiest area, the Market. None of the ponies in this part of the city saw Glarin or Daidien.

So they had no idea what Moe was. Moe himself was at a loss for words. So many of them were just staring at him. It was making him nervous and his voice was having trouble leaving his mouth. He opened his mouth to speak, but the words caught in his throat and nothing left his mouth.

"What do ya think it is?" Moe was looking between all of the ponies and noticed that many of them didn't look very happy to see him for some reason.

"Did it come outta the sewers?" Moe began to curl his tail behind him. He was getting scared again. Why were they staring at him like that?

"Ugliest sewer rat I've ever seen!" Moe isn't ugly, or a rat! These ponies are mean. No one's ever called him ugly before. Big smelly poo head sure, but not ugly.

"Someone call animal control!" They started pointing at him with others circling around.

'W-what are they doing' thought Moe as some of the horned ones began to close in on him. He started to back away when one of the Unicorn horn's began to glow.

Moe turned around to run when a couple of the trashcans in the alley slide across the ground to block his path.
"Don't let it get away!"

"Aiieee!" Shrieked Moe as he scrambled around the ponies and out into the open. Panic had taken over as he ran through the street looking for another ally to hide away in.

Why did they try to keep him from leaving? The Mor one said the ponies were nice now. They were nice inside Glarins home, but there's nothing nice bout these ponies!

Calling him ugly and looking at him like he did something bad!

Moe didn't do anything bad! He didn't mean to scare the pretty looking pony, he was just saying hi with a smile! So, why were they chasing him?

Moe dashed to a pile of plastic bags half way through the ally way and dove inside of them.

"It ran down this alley!" Moe sunk deeper into the pile and became as quiet as possible. Hoping they would pass by.

"Where did it go?!"

"Thing was pretty big, like a dog except on two legs." Moe could hear so many hoof steps he lost count of them. And simply decided an army was searching for him.

"You think it ran all the way down the ally that fast?" Moe could hear one of the ponies smacking his jaw like he was chewing something.

"In my experience, critters tend to hide in things. Stand back and let a professional show you how it's done." Moe gulped fearing what kind of professional this confident sounding pony was.

Moe heard a hollow sounding deep thump followed by a whistle.

"Sure is big like a dog..." Moe heard some shuffling from outside, were they looking for him still?

"...this oughta keep the thing from escaping." Moes' heart stopped as fear gripped every fiber in his body when he heard the sound of a loud click.

Suddenly all of the trash bags were thrown away from around him. Followed by a net covering his field of vision along with the bright sunlight. Causing him to release a hiss. Moe looked on in horror and saw the "professional".

It was a unicorn with Glasses! There was no escape from this pony.

"Critter hissed at me!" Moe soon found himself unable to open his mouth as his snout was inside some kind of tight metal muzzle.

"That outta keep everyone safe from those nasty looking teeth of yours..." The unicorn looked over Moe some more from inside the net.

"Damn, what the hell are you? I best tie up your arms and legs too. Those are some sharp claws little guy. Everyone's gonna have a field day back at the pound."

Moe just struggled against the unicorn's magic as ropes bound his arms and legs.

"Hold still! This is for your safety as mine you know!" Moe stopped resisting as much causing the unicorn to visibly relax.

"So yer smart huh? I wonder if you belonged to some griffin, having sharp teeth and what not. No tags, probably some exotic pet that was smuggled in..." The unicorn shook his head as he traveled back with Moe to a carriage. Placing him in the back, inside a decently sized cage.

'A CAGE!' Thought Moe. His life was over. A Cage meant his freedom had been taken, and they even caged his mouth! He wasn't even free to speak.

Things had taken a turn for the worse for Moe. He remembers all those tales and bedtime stories about bad little kobolds.

Bad little kobolds who don't listen and follow the rules! They get taken away by the evil ponies, forced to work impossible jobs, and then used to feed the fields when they got old and could no longer work.

Moe began to sob inside the back of the carriage as they traveled back to the pound.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Celestia bowed her head, causing Glarin and Daidein to recoil in fear for a moment. They had been speaking with each other at length and Celestia was most intrigued by Daidein.

She had never seen something that looked like a dragon, yet speak so well! She learned that Daidein was highly intelligent to boot. Most of the adult dragons she had seen didn't use many words, more fire, and roaring. She only wished that he knew more of Dragons.

"I will need for you to stay the night. You may choose a room anywhere you like this time as well." Celestia eyed Glarin with a smile while he cleared his throat.

"It's still early in the day will we be allowed to travel the city?" Celestia nodded her head.

"Of course, and Daidein?" Daidein placed a fist over his heart and bowed his head before responding.

"What is it you ask of me? Your Majesty?"

"Please don't go traveling alone. Tomorrow I will make a formal announcement of your race. That should spread the news fairly quickly of your kinds arrival. The ponies of my city are rather Xenophobic. Things were difficult enough with the Griffins, but we are better prepared this time." Celestia hummed to herself as she looked over a scroll

"Also, it will only be a few hundred of you correct? Much easier to handle than several thousand with a language barrier around every corner." Daidein simply responded with a grunt, to which Celestia responded with a smile.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Moe stopped his sobbing part way back to the pound and began to think. He was the oldest of his egg brothers and sisters, So he had to be brave. He had to know what to do in a situation like this.

He always paid attention to the classes Daidein taught them. Things he learned from the wall and from his own father. He would need to access the situation calmly. So as not to anger his captors.

If he was a good little kobold, he could bide his time and escape when he could. Who knows what this 'Pound' was. Moe only hoped it didn't involve any real pounding.

When they came to a stop Moe waited for his captors to come get him. Moe expected to walk out or be carried while still in the cage. Instead, Moe was gripped in the same unicorns magic and was pulled from the cage and kept floating in the air as they traveled inside.

Moe was assaulted by the sounds of barking. When he looked around he saw that they had all kinds of 4 legged furry creatures inside cages as well.

Were they captured as well? Why were so many kept in cages like this?

Moe was put into a big cage in the middle of the room and the bindings on his hands and feet were removed. However, the muzzle on his snout was still intact.

"When you show us yer not aggressive, then we can take the muzzle off." Moe released a low whine noise. Would he not get to eat?

The unicorn left the room leaving Moe to look around the room. He saw that many of the 4 legged creatures were eyeing him with curiosity. Some even growled when he looked at them too long.

Moe began to inspect his cage and looked at the door. It was a simple gate with a latch that wasn't very hard to figure out. Moe had opened the door to his cell and gasped at what he had just done. Was it not locked?

All of the dogs began to bark excitedly at Moe.

Moe began to panic at the sudden increase in volume so he quickly shut himself back inside his cage. About 20 seconds later the unicorn came back out with two more ponies, pegasi and an earth pony.

"What do you mean you got a baby dragon?"

"I'm telling you, I think it's an exotic pet from the griffin nations. I bet some rich griffin paid handsomely for it. Princess Twilight has a pet dragon right?"

"No way dude, my best mate in flight school was a griffin, he never said anything about no dragons for pets. Princess Twilights just an exception, what with Princess Celestia teaching her all kinds of forbidden magic."

"The Princesses don't know any strange forbidden magic! It's all rumors..." The earth pony paused for a minute while the pegasi slowly landed when Moe came into view.

"It does look like a baby dragon don't it. You think its worth anything? Or if it has any tags?" The unicorn shook his head.

"No such thing, I woulda felt the magical tag when I picked him up off the street. Did we get ourselves a feral dragon... pup? What do you call a baby dragon?" The other two ponies shrugged

"Well whatever you call it, we got one now..." The 3 ponies just looked at Moe with wonder cause of what he was. Or what they thought he was.

"Moe wished they would take the muzzle off so he could talk to them. Then they might understand. They didn't seem so bad after all. He began to feel the muzzle he had around his mouth and head. He started to worry when he could feel no separation in the metal.

Did the unicorn put on a muzzle that could only be taken off with magic?! The earth pony was watching Moe struggle with his muzzle

"Hey, is that one of the magic muzzles? He's trying to get it off." The unicorn professional answered without turning around, he was looking through some books.

"Yeah it is, He hissed at me before the capture, he also stopped struggling when I asked him too. So it must know some commands. Probably as smart as your average Equestrian dog." He made a motion with his hoof at one of the other animals in a nearby cage. Was that a Dog?

"Take 3474B to the back, It's been a month and 3474B is still here with Zero ponies or griffins showing interest. One left a comment saying he was 'too old'."

"Give our newest guest his cage and set him up. Also, leave the muzzle on him. I don't wanna risk him breathing fire at anyone or anything. I'll take it off when I feed him later. If he behaves, I'll leave it off."

FOOD! Moe was gonna be fed after all... But where were they taking such an old dog?

Moe watched as the pegasi went over to the cage with a leash. The dog was less than happy about coming out of the cage with the pegasi.

Why was he scared of him?

"Come on 3474B... I ain't gonna hurt you..." The dog slowly came up to the front of the cage and let the pegasi put the leash on him.

"Good boy... So glad we stopped giving them names." The pegasi gave a deep sigh as they walked to the back. Moe was just confused cause as they walked down the hall, all of the other dogs began to bark.

But not like before. Before they sounded excited and happy that he was able to get out of his cage. Now they looked terrified, Many of them were barking aggressively at the pegasi while others made whimper noises with weak sounding barks. What was going to happen to the old dog?

Moe found himself looking at the earth pony who was looking at him through the cage.

"Now, How am I gonna get you from this cage to the next one without the risk of getting hurt..." Moe wondered if he should try to communicate with her. Or if that would just get a lock on his cage. None of the cages had locks, just those funny looking latches.

Moe was no fool. He knew his history, he knew those in power don't like it when those under them know better. So Moe just kept staring at her, until he decided to just sit there and look around. Cause he knew manners...

Daidein had passed on most of his knowledge to him already. Moe just wasn't as strong or big yet.

The earth pony came back with a long pole with a loop on the end of it.

"Damn magical Jerk, why couldn't he just do the move with magic. What's he gotta do that's so important. Did he forgot about those sharp looking claws?" She gave out a sigh as she stood in front of the cage.

"Now, get to the back of the cage." She pointed with a free hoof to the back corner furthest from the door and stood kind of aggressively. Moe not wanting to seem too smart, just looked at her with a bit of a blank stare. This time, she said it again and kept her hoof pointed.

"To the Back!" Moe followed the path her hoof pointed out with his eyes before looking back at her.

"Back! To the back I say! I thought you were supposed to be smart..." Moe turned back to what she was pointing at and began to move to the back of the cage.

That's what Moe was waiting for, For her to think he's not very smart. Part one of his escape plan was underway.

Once he was to the back of the cage, he found that loop now put over his head. He Instantly ducked out of the way and turned around. Causing the earth pony to 'eep'

Was she scared of him?

Why? What did he do that made him so scary?

Moe decided he wouldn't dodge the next time she tried to 'catch' him.

With a bit of a shaky hoof, she tried it again. This time a bit slower and Moe didn't move this time. He let the loop close around his neck, and felt himself being pulled toward the cages exit as she walked away. Keeping her at a safe distance.

'Smart' thought Moe. 'I can't reach her and she can still reach me.' Moe just went with the current flow. When it got dark, he could begin his escape plan.

As Moe was put into the new cage, the loop around his neck loosened and it came right off, followed by the door being closed behind him with the strange latch clicking closed.

"Good good. That was rather easy. If your as tame as you seem to be. You shouldn't be here very long. Someone might take you home. But then again..." She looked Moe over and shook her head.

"I'm sure a griffin wouldn't mind." Moe just had to wait until they left him alone. He would wait until he got the muzzle off and got some food as well. Hopefully the muzzle wouldn't be put back on after he finished eating.

The real question is, should he just try speaking when he gets the muzzle off?

Dogs and Bar hopping

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"TO THE NEAREST BAR!" Shouted Glarin at the top of his lungs soon as they exited Celestia's throne room.

"A bar? what would we do with a bar?" asked Daidein as Glarin chuckled

"No Lad, a place to get a drink. I'm sure you've never had a real drink before!" Daidein got wide eyes and looked over at Glarin.

"You speak of Stout and Ale Mor one? We've heard stories of it, but never had any. Besides the first generation..." Glarin wiped a tear from his eye

"You poor soul, Come let us get you a drink! But first we need to find that Lad Ozzy! I haven't seen him in almost a year now... I think. I don't have any way to track the months. Being a different realm and all, for all I know it could have been a few years already in their time. Haha!" Daidein just thought about all the stories he heard that were passed down.

Stories of how just the aroma would get the smallest Kobold drunk. Sadly he would be disappointed in Equestrian drink. As they are nothing near the same strength.

Glarin was planning to give the little kobold and a couple of Luna's Kin the hangover of a lifetime. And what better way to introduce yourself to a culture and its locals than going from bar to bar in its capital with some of its royals?

Nothing of course.

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Moe sat in his cage watching the ponies go about their jobs. They cleaned and fed all of the dogs. The pegasi left out the window in the ceiling and came back with food for the other ponies. Everyone got food except him! He still had the magic muzzle on as well.

Moe sat grumpily in his cage. He was used to not getting something to eat, but not when everyone else around him was eating.

Why wouldn't they share it with him?

After the ponies had finished eating they began to circle around the cage.

"What do ya think he eats?"

"Meat, did you see those teeth? You don't need that kind of sharpness for plants." Moe could actually eat anything he wanted, besides metal and stone.

A Flash of light blinded him for a second with a plate appearing in front of him. A large bright red slab of meat was then slipped through the cage bars and placed upon the plate, followed by his muzzle disappearing.

"Not true meat, but even a griffin can't tell the difference." The unicorn just watched Moe's eyes follow it around.

Red Meat, Moe had never seen red meat before, The occasional stray tunnel crawler scout was the closest thing they had to meat, but it was a blue/white color. It was about as bad and tasteless as the roots were.

Kobolds possess the unique ability to eat and digest anything they can put in their mouth. Even dirt with the occasional worm was enough to keep a Kobold alive till he/she died of old age.

Moe was fascinated by the red coloration of the meat. And the smell of it was making his mouth water.

He realized the ponies were watching him stare at the meat with his mouth hanging open. He smacked his lips closed and looked between them all before leaving the bright red meat where it was.

On the Plate.

It was being nudged in his direction via magic...

Moe lost himself to the primal urge to sink his teeth into such tender looking meat. So he did so with a gusto and a growl, to the horror of some watching.

"He cut it like butter!" Moes tongue was coated in a layer of flavor he had never experienced before.

"Gonna leave that muzzle on, yer head moves pretty damn quick. Don't it?" The unicorn was giving Moe a raised eyebrow. Moe continued to eat, lost in its savory smooth texture. It felt like it was melting inside his mouth with more flavor dancing on his tongue.

The meat was so tender and juicy, a huge step up from the crawler meat. It didn't make him want to retch, he only wanted more.

Having lived on such flavorless food his whole life, Moe had figured that was the norm.

He didn't know eating could be, enjoyable. He thought the food the Mor one had was special for such a happy day. Yet this uncooked and raw looking food tasted just as great, if not better.

As Moe licked the juice from his lips he saw the unicorn's horn began to glow again. Followed by a bright flash the muzzle was placed back on his mouth.

Moe had a change of plans, as soon as it got dark, He was gonna find more of those red meats.

Then escape.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Glarin, Daidein and several of Luna's kin were all walking down the road, much to the confusion of the ponies in the town. They had never seen such a group, and Glarin was going out of his way to make sure everyone noticed them. He set his voice to shout and didn't seem to know how to turn it off.

"FIRST BAR OF THE DAY, AND I GOT THE FIRST ROUND!" Shouted Glarin as he booted the doors wide open with his left heel. He almost ran to the counter dropping a heavy bag of bits onto the counter.

"Uhh, Can we...?" The bartender was then rudely interrupted by Glarin as he turned around.

"A DRINK FOR EVERYONE IN THE BAR! MY GOOD SIR!" The 4 ponies and lone griffin in the bar suddenly liked this loud obnoxious group that just came into the bar.

The Bartender opened the bag before bringing out a row of glasses.

"Any preference to what goes into the glass?"

"WHATEVER'S STRONGEST!" Shouted Glarin as he raised his fist into the air with a howl. The Bartender cringed a little, his shift just started and he was already being yelled at. He cleared his throat as he began to fill the glasses with a shimmery silver liquid.

"Is yelling necessary Sir?" Glarin just hummed in thought for a moment.

"No, I suppose its not. BUT WE NEED DRIINK!" Said Glarin in the most upbeat and happy sounding yell he could.

Everyone was rather rigid around Daidein much to Glarins disappointment. Kobolds weren't scary looking to a veteran like Glarin, who had seen unspeakable horrors in the Underdark during his early military career.

Nothing should ever have more than one mouth, let alone all over its entire body, and each with an unnecessary amount of teeth... Glarin gave his head a slight shake as he finished his shiny drink in one gulp.

After everyone in Glarins group finished their drinks he stood up with such a purpose that it brought all the attention on to him.

"TO THE NEXT BAR!"

"How many bars are you planning to visit today?" asked Gizmo Gears. His face was already looking a little flushed.

"ALL OF THEM! OR TILL WE CAN NO LONGER WALK!" Glarin gave out a big heartfelt laugh as he put an arm around Daidein and Gizmo.

"THE GUARDS SHALL CARRY US HOME!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was Finally dark.

Now was the time for Moe to make his Escape!

The ponies have been missing for a long time now, and they even turned off the lights before leaving. He was sure they wouldn't be back until morning now. Even all of the dogs had gone to sleep, Moe was able to stay awake cause he was no longer some hatchling.

He reached out and opened the latch on his door. He was glad the ponies thought him stupid enough to not know how to open his cage. The only thing was the muzzle he had on his face.

But that problem could be fixed once he got home, He was sure the great one would be able to take it off. He would get in trouble for sure if Daidein found out.

He hoped Glarin would keep quiet about it...

Moe shook his head and slowly opened his cage door and stepped outside. He made a B-line for the back room where the ponies went to get that red meat. They seemed to keep all the good stuff in the back.

Moe tried to open the door but it was locked!

If the back door was locked... Would the other doors also be locked? But he had no key!

He continued to jiggle the handle until he heard some of the dogs begin to stir. He stopped moving completely and slowly turned his head to look at the nearest dog cage.

Inside was a small dog, about one-third Moe's height, it had long fur over its body and looked rather shaggy. With his Darkvision he couldn't exactly see any colors, but he could clearly see the dog looking directly at him.

It didn't bark, it tilted its head at Moe and slowly walked up to its cage door to try and see Moe closer in the dark. It then sat down in front of the cage door and whined quietly.

Moe tried to open the door again to no avail, He thought it best to ignore the small dog until he could find a way to open the door. Any door really, otherwise he was just locked inside a bigger cage. When moe began to walk away, the small dog began to whine louder.

Moe stopped walking when the whine became so loud it might wake up the other dogs. So he turned around and looked at the dog again. The dogs whine slowed and quieted down.

Until Moe tried to leave again. Only to hear the dog go back to whining. He groaned and went back to the front of the cage.

The dog was up on its hind legs, dancing back and forth for some reason. Did it just want him to watch it do some stupid trick? Moe turned around to leave once again only to hear it let out a low bark that sounded almost sad.

Moe saw that the dog was just looking at him and at the cage door...

Moe slowly opened the latch and opened the door for the little dog. To which it responded with dancing on two legs around him once it was outside. The little dogs tail was wagging so furiously that its back feet would slide back and forth on the tiled floor.

Moe was suddenly happy, The little dog seemed to be absolutely smitten with him, and its enthusiastic behavior was helping him stay calm in this situation. He admits that the only part of his plan he was 100% sure of, was getting out of his cage.

Knowing they put locks on the doors, He would have to find another way out. Moe walked around the room with a claw on his newest friend. Moe looked around the room and saw what looked like a hole in one of the walls!

The hole reminded him of all the holes he saw in the buildings when he was walking around Ponyville. What were those called again? Moe shook his head cause it didn't matter what they were called, he just knew it would be the way out now.

But, how would he get up there? Moe pondered for a bit and decided to just pile junk up until he could reach the hole.

As Moe began to grab things and pile them up, His new friend also began to grab anything it could carry in its mouth to the pile as well. All of the movement began to wake the other dogs, who started to whine at the sight of them being outside of their own cages.

Moe looked around and saw that most if not all of the dogs were awake now. Many didn't bark but instead would stare at them while making a whine noise, even more of them were excited and couldn't sit still in front of the cage doors.

Moe Gulped and wondered if letting all the dogs out was a good idea.

He looked down at his newest buddy who hand a thin pointy stick in his mouth and patted him on the head.

Moe let the Dogs out. Who let the dogs out? (the answer is Moe)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Do dwarves have any good songs? Like something you all hum while you work?" Glarin drank only half of his glass before musing to himself for a moment. This strange pony had just come out of the blue and starting asking all kinds of questions pertaining to his culture's music.

"WE HAVE MANY SONGS LAD! ALL OF THEM BETTER THAN GOOD! MADE BY MASTER CRAFTSMEN OF THE DWARVEN WORD AND SONG!" The pony was a bit taken aback as that was the first response Glarin had given him.

But then it was also the first time he let him say something. He was overly excited about meeting Sir Glarin in the flesh. After reading so much about dwarves in the newspaper and even some things that Princess Twilight Sparkle published about the new race called dwarves. But nothing about their music!

He decided to take it upon himself to discover some traditional dwarven music.

"Could you give us an example Sir Glarin?" Glarin gave a slight grin as he scratched his chin.

"OYE YOU LOT! FLOYD, PJ, ECHO, PINK! WE NEED YOUR MUSICAL TALENTS!" The four ponies slowly cantered up, they were clearly feeling the 4th drink of the night. Glarin was the only one that got everyone a glass of firewater. Everyone else seemed to be buying normal strength drinks.

Much to Glarins displeasure, he would never get drunk at this pace.

He went to each one and gave them a quick intro to follow.

"YOU LOT WILL MAKE THE BEAT! WHILE I SING THE TRADITIONAL MINING SONG!" They began to beat tables and mugs together to make the sounds Glarin had instructed them to do. Everyone in the bar stopped what they were doing to watch as Glarin climbed up top the bar and began to clear his throat.

"BROTHERS OF THE MINE REJOICE!" Diggy Diggy Hole

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Letting all of the dogs out was the best idea Moe ever had.

He was upset about not being able to find those red meats though. But knowing he helped free a bunch of good creatures made him all fuzzy on the inside. It gave him the energy he needed to make sure every dog could get out... Moe looked to the back room where they took the older dog.

Moe looked through the pile of junk they had collected for him and found a large stick with a big soft thingy on the other end that flopped about loosely. He stood in front of the locked door in the back and stared at it for a minute.

Many of the dogs followed him and whined as he got closer to the door. Moe took his big stick and began to wack the door with it in a frenzy.

The door wasn't very sturdy and seemed to be hollow with its outside surface being very thin. Moes Flop Stick, as he called it. Worked just well enough to break the door down after a hole was made. A few of the dogs began to help him by grabbing at loose parts and tearing the door apart.

Once they were inside Moe looked around and saw many cabinets filled with small containers and wondered where they put the dog from earlier... and where the red meats were.

He began to open every door he could in search of the red meats with the other dogs copying him as well. Opening or scratching at things they couldn't open.

After a solid 15 minute's the entire room was in ruins, but they found the red meats!

Moe was unable to eat any because of the muzzle, So he just tossed everything out of the big cold metal box they were all inside of. The dogs began to bark excitedly as they began to eat what Moe tossed into their direction. Moe had to walk inside of the huge metal box to make sure he took all of the red meats. He wasn't sure what any of the other stuff was, but the dogs seemed to like it as well.

All of the dogs eventually had their fill and took to leaving the room once they ate. In the end, the only one who ate nothing was Moe. But it was ok. He already ate one of the red meats earlier today. And making sure his new friends were fed and safe was now his top priority.

Once they were all out of the back room the Dogs were more than glad to help him drag or push large heavy objects so they could reach the window. Moe was the first and only one to reach the top. He climbed up to the hole and felt some kind of invisible barrier!

He felt around and looked for some way to open it, it felt pretty solid and seemed to have some kind of metal frame. He saw something that looked like the latch on his cage and opened that, causing the invisible barrier to give way. Moe pushed as hard as he could and fell outside landing on his back a couple feet down.

He looked up to the window and waited for his new friends to follow him out...

They weren't coming, In fact, he could hear them barking. They were panicked he had disappeared. Moe ran around and grabbed all the trash he could find in the ally and piled it up until he could reach the hole again and pulled himself inside again.

The dogs stopped barking at the sight of Moe. Moe realized the pile he made really only made it possible for him to escape out the window, he would have to rebuild it so they could all follow him out as well.

At first, Moe was only concerned for his own safety. But these dogs were in the cages just like him. Did the ponies just enjoy locking up those they thought weren't as smart as them?

Moe puffed out his chest and mentally prepared himself for the task ahead. He couldn't leave until every single one of his new friends was out safe and sound.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"NO WAY YA CAN LIFT THE TABLE WITH ONE ARM LITTLE GUY!" The night had been going strong for a few hours now and everyone was thoroughly drunk.

"Wanna..." Said Daidein with a sly smirk growing across his lips. He reached to his back and pulled out some gems from behind his armor, and tossed em onto the table. "...Bet?"

Canterlot seemed to have an abundance of bars near the castle for some reason. A group of earth ponies had come to chat with the mares of the group since all the boys left to get drinks.

All with the exception of Daidein. He didn't know it, but he was reaching drunk. He stayed behind convinced that leaving the females alone would be disastrous.

Which put him into his current situation.

And to think, it all started when Daidein announced that none of the stallions who approached them were worthy of mating with any of the females he was traveling with. This of course, brought all the attention to him. As every stallions masculinity in the room was challenged by that statement.

It was quickly de-evolving into a pissing contest between every Stallion/Griffin that thought he was 'worthy' of being with the mares.

Without hesitation, the stallion who had challenged Daidein to a strength contest tossed down a sack of bits as well.

"120 BITS! 120 BITS IF YA LIFT THIS HUGE TABLE WITH ONE HAND LITTLE GUY!" The Stallions all burst into laughter at Daidein. The table was actually rather big compared to him. It was about half an inch taller than Daidein himself and looked to of been built pretty solidly. It was big enough for six chairs after all.

"BET ACCEPTED!" Roared Daidein grabbing the entire bar's attention. Glarin and the others who went to the bar to buy drinks were arriving back just in time to see it unfold.

Daidein crouched near one of the tables and put his claw on the tables front right leg. He looked over to Kira and Maggie Pie, motioning them to pick up their drinks.

They quickly took their drinks off the table with the exception of the stallions that tried to move in.

With a savage hiss and grunt Daidein quickly lifted the table up off the floor knocking over all the drinks that were still on it. He widened his stance and leaned back slightly to give himself more leverage as he then slammed the table back to the ground, breaking the two legs on the other side of the table.

Everyone in the bar instantly shut up except Glarin and others who simply cheered at the sight. Daidein took the bag of bits with the gems.

"Not Worthy..." Said Daidein as he began to count of the bits out of the bag. "I cover next round Mor One! Also how much to fix table?"

Glarin burst into laughter as he handed Daidein his drink. All of the stallions and griffins who had gathered around stepped back when Glarin entered the scene.

"THEN FINISH MY BOY AND LET US HEAD TO THE NEXT BAR!" The boys began to chug their drinks while the girls drank with a gusto.

So far, The ponies were able to keep their own against Glarin, but that probably had a lot to do with the fact they were buying weak common beers.

"Oh Jeez, My stomach is full..." said Maggie Pie after chugging the beer. She was the only Mare that was drinking at the same speed as the boys.

"TAKE STEADY BREATHES MAGGIE MY GIRL! CALM THE STOMACH AND MAKE MORE ROOM!" Said Glarin as he chugged his beer in one gulp. Then slammed the mug onto the table upside down.

"NEXT BAR WE HIT, YALL BETTER SET EM DOWN UPSIDEDOWN! IF IT LEAVES A RING ON THE TABLE YOU GOTTA GET ANOTHER!" Glarin was feeling it, all of the yelling and quick drinking was helping reach an early buzz.

Several bouncers and the barkeep were standing near them waiting for them to finish.

"92 bits and 3 of those gems for the Mahogany table, and then you all need to leave." Daidein started to slowly count the bits out one by one...

Shame he couldn't count past 23.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Moe had no idea how much time passed since they began to rearrange all the junk so they could all escape.

But it was done. Everyone was out safe and sound.

All of the dogs were watching Moe, waiting for him to take the lead. Moe may be a teen in Kobold years, but now he has responsibility. He would hate to disappoint Daidein. If Daidein ever found out, he could say he at least stuck to the morals he learned. Maybe then his punishment wouldn't be so bad...

Moe lifted his Flop Stick up over his head in both hands and began to jump and dance in place. The dogs also joined him and ran around him a few times.

After the small celebration at their freedom, they headed out. Moe needed to find that train thing, it was the only way he knew how to get home. He began to run in the direction he thought the train was in with all of the dogs following him.

Some would scout ahead with others running beside him. Many were right behind him.

It was dark and the city seemed to be mostly asleep. They had free reign of the city streets.

The mob of 30 dogs and Moe moved semi-silently through the night.

Moes mind was racing about how he was gonna get them all home. He had no idea how to get home on foot. He was positive it would be impossible to sneak all of his new friends along with himself onto the colorful train.

With the magical muzzle on he couldn't speak. If the ponies had a problem with him and his new friends, then he would take the color train by force if he needed to...

He just really hoped Daidein wouldn't find out about this. Perhaps he could just say all of these dogs simply followed him home when he went out for a stroll...

Moes thought process stopped when he heard one of the dogs up ahead release a high pitched bark followed with a whine.

Moe stopped running and made a B-line in the direction it came from. Every single dog followed Moes lead and soon came upon a pegasus who had the dog trapped in a net.

"What the Fu..." The pegasus had gotten a call about a stray dog barking around the area waking up some ponies. He didn't expect to see a pack of them with some Lizard holding a mop.

Moe lowered his head and bull rushed the pegasus jabbing him in the face with the mops floppy end. The pegasus dropped the net he was holding in his hooves and stepped back in surprise more than actual pain.

Several of the dogs rushed to Moe's side and began to Bark and growl at the pegasus. Moe used this opportunity to slash the net apart with his claws.

The trapped dog happily jumped out and gave Moe a lick before running back to the pack. Moe raised his Floppy stick up into the air and grunted as loud as possible gaining the attention of the dogs and the pegasus.

He then pointed his floppy stick in the opposite direction, directing the dogs away from the pegasus and back to the pack. Moe shook his floppy stick at the pegasus and then turned around leading all of the dogs back down the street.

The pegasus just watched em all leave, stunned by what he just witnessed.

"Not exactly sure what's going on, but I think I need to get some help..." The pegasus took to the air and got a pegasus's eye view of them.

He wasn't sure what their intent was, or even what the lizard was, but they seemed to be heading in the direction of the castle. He sped off in the direction of the nearest guard post.

Moe was basically in the middle of the pack, some of the faster dogs were running in circles as they kept up with the pack, Making sure the slower ones weren't forgotten or left behind.

Moe made it a point to not leave any of them behind. If there was one thing he read on the wall of knowledge, it was that no one gets left behind.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Glarin was wondering why so many bars happened to be around the Castle. He wondered why until he saw the Princess of the night at the next bar they went too. She was just sitting at the bar of a place called the Prancing Pony.

For the first time in the night, Glarin stopped yelling.

"Lets go to a different..." Glarin was interrupted by all of Luna's adopted kids as they all rushed forward to greet her.

Luna turned around and began to laugh as she hugged the ones who ran up to her.

"My, I was wondering when all of you would make your way here. Ever since the Prancing pony moved closer to the castle I've been able to pop in for some drinks. Being able to teleport large distances has its advantages. But something closer to home is much easier." Said Luna as she sipped from a large glass she held in her magic. She was eyeing Glarin in the background.

"Soon as I awoke this evening I was told all of my children and newest guests were out traveling the town. Knowing our knight of Equestria, I figured it was to go to every bar in town." Luna gave a sly grin knowing that her guess was spot on. She looked over and saw the Lizard creature Celestia had told her of and smiled at him as well.

"Daidein the pony over there with the dark blues and shiny wavy hair is Princess Luna. It would seem she was expecting us..." Said Glarin. Daidein took no hesitation and approached the Princess when they made eye contact.

All of the ponies made room for him. Daidein kneeled in front of Luna and just stayed silent.

"Stand Daidein, Begining now you and all of your people are equals among us. The rest of the world won't know of it till the morning when my sister does the heavy speaking. As such, your armor suggests you to be a warrior correct? Perhaps we should go around to..." Luna tilted her head back and finished her drink "...knighting you as well."

The barkeep refilled Luna's glass when she levitated it closer to him. He seemed to of been used to doing it as he didn't even look as he filled the glass to the brim.

"Iz... it would be an honor." He stood and realized the world seemed to be slightly titled. Daidein was trying to figure out why his balance and speech was so hard to keep straight. He was spending so much of his energy on them he was starting to wonder if it was worth keeping perfect manners.

He didn't know it was the alcohol, he just read about it being a drink of the gods, and how much fun one could have whilst drinking it. He was having fun no doubt. The locals were more than friendly with him and very talkative as well.

"Then so be it. I'll make the arrangement for it to happen tomorrow as well. It should be an eventful day to be sure." Luna drank half of her newly filled glass. Then cantered up to Glarin and gave him a peck on the cheek.

"I must hurry back to the castle now, to make the necessary arrangements. In the meantime, all drinks are on the castles tab." She moved her face over to Glarins and quietly told him a tidbit of information.

"We can have an after party in my room later. Just the two of us..." Glarin nodded his head making her give a happy grin. Luna turned around to go talk to her children giving Glarin a decent look at her backside.

Glarin couldn't help but notice the definition on her. She was no longer perfectly smooth all over, she looked like his guards did when they started training. Did she start working out?

Glarin was deep in thought. If he could get drunk enough with this free tab...

She should still have the hair grow as well... She could get the beard back!

...and with the sight of her lean muscle mass... Maybe.

Where does it all go?

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'WHERE IS IT?!' yelled Moe inside his head. As they traveled the city was becoming more and more confusing. He was sure they couldn't of been running in circles, because the area they were in now was lit with the buildings being lit up as well.

Nothing looked familiar to where he was this morning. The buildings were taller and the number of ponies in the streets was starting to increase.

Moe wasn't sure why this area seemed to be lit up more than the rest of the city. But he was no longer being as stealthy as he hoped.

Ponies were noticing them.

Lucky for him they weren't trying to stop them. They all quickly moved out of the way and would only shout or gasp before running away.

The griffins and Pegasi, however, were all collecting into the sky. They wanted to know what was going to happen with this group of 30 dogs and a Lizard.

Moe's anxiety was reaching its peak. He could feel the eyes of everyone watching him. Judging him and every action he was making. All he wanted to do was go home now.

Moes running pace began to slow as he was haveing trouble catching his breath. The 'helmet' kept him from opening his mouth enough to breath properly. All of the dogs slowed down with him, as well as the ones in front. Moe didn't want to be out in the light anymore.

He went down the nearest alley, with tons of things up between the two structures. He hoped to loose his aerial spectators once they couldn't see them anymore.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Glarin was seated front and Center of the bar. The second he finished mulling it over he asked for the strongest bottle of liquor.

40 minutes of yelling "PUT IT ON THE ROYAL TAB, AND BRING ANOTHER!" went around the bar and even started to draw the attention of passer-byes who could hear the yelling.

In 40 minutes Glarin had drunk the contents of eight different hard liquor bottles. All of which were the 1.75 Liter variety.

Glarin let out a burp that rumbled the ponies sitting next to him.

"NOW I FEEL LIKE I'M IN THE PRESENCE OF A MILLION GOLD COINS!" Glarin rubbed his round alcohol gut "Such a warm feeling..." He mumbled to himself. He then looked over to the bar tender and pointed his finger at her. Which was a little off to the right.

"HEY, I HAVE A QUESTION FOR YOU. ONE OF SERIOUS IMPORTANCE..." The bartender had seen that look on many a ponies face before. Glarin was rather drunk, but she couldn't tell if he was blacked out or not.

"And what would your question be? I'm your local bartender, you can tell me anything. In a normal voice..." She thought she would humor him, The knight of Equestria should have something interesting to say... Regardless of how drunk he may be.

Glarin leaned in a little closer to the bartender and said in a 'whisper' that was probably closer to being a 6/10 on the volume scale. "Would you Get it on with a Princess if the opportunity came? "

The Bartender, Grace, gave a shy confused smile. "Oh, I couldn't! I mean. I'm married so..." Glarin slapped his hand on the table

"SO YOU WOULD!" shouted Glarin. Grace just let out a laugh

"Maybe, She's the biggest patron we've had, and she IS part of the reason we stay open 24/7 now." Grace gave Glarin the biggest of smiles as she spoke. "Also, she IS covering your tabs tonight. Just thought you'd like to know it's about to hit quadruple digits soon."

Glarin mumbled to himself for a minute. "Coulda swore it was higher then that..."

Glarin got out of his stool and went to the nearest table and stood on top of it.

"DRINK TILL THE BARS DRY! THE CASTLE IS PICKING UP THE TAB!" As Glarin climbed back down the table everyone began to cheer and rush the bar simultaneously.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Luna got an odd chill down her spine for a moment before a guard came running inside.

"Princess! There's a large number of dogs running around Canterlots Light districts! They don't seem to have any direction in mind and have begun running through alleys. We suspect the dogs are being led by some small two-legged Diamond Dog. Its wearing some kind of metal helmet and armed with what I'm told is a Mop..." Luna just looked at the guard and furrowed her brow at the last sentence.

"Did...What? Have you tried to stop them?" The night guard, Commander Fluffy dropped his Salute as he spoke.

"No Ma'am, we got the warning from a local dog catcher. He said the Diamond dog was actually some Lizard, but that's absurd. We just assume the shock scrambled his memory of the event. Since he got a... a mop to the face..." Luna was sure Commander Fluffy was doing his best to stifle back a laugh, his eyes were starting to gloss over and wobble as he finished the last sentence. Luna smirked as the drink was warming her mood.

"I see, But the sound of a Lizard is interesting. It hasn't been announced yet, but were getting some kind of Lizard ponies... or no, Lizard people I think is what Twilight wrote. They walk on two legs and are small, like a dog. Perhaps we have another guest... and Perhaps my night guards started their shifts after the new emissary left with sir Glarin. Perhaps everyone should read the reports besides Commanders..." Fluffy's confused mood was replaced with one of a stress relieved sigh... Perhaps he wouldn't have to explain everything all the time now. That would be nice.

"I see Princess, Should we attempt to stop them? Or...?" Luna thought for a moment, wondering what would happen if the mass of dogs came into contact with Glarin. It could distract him from ever coming to see her.

That could not come to pass.

"First, keep them away from the Prancing Pony. Set up small blockades to detour them away from the light district. At least until Glarin heads back to the castle. In the Meantime, Try talking to the Lizard leader as you set up the blockades. He should understand speech at the very least. Let's hope he's not here in anger. Twilight told me they don't much like ponies. Do NOT hurt any of them, after all, we are all going to become good friends in the coming days I hope. Have Commander Izi take command of his care, and tell her they are to be treated as friends."

Commander Fluffy saluted and hurried out the door. He had some new information to spread.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Moe and the dogs had packed themselves away inside of an alleyway where they stayed for a bit of time to order to catch their breaths. Moe was thinking to himself about how he was ever going to possibly get out of this situation and stay out of trouble.

If he could use magic like the Dragon assistants in the old stories then maybe he could just magic himself and his new friends away!

Moe sat in the middle of the ally rocking back and forth holding his knees while he was deep in thought.

He had seen many of the ponies begun to move and block off certain roads and paths. He had no idea what was going on anymore. Were they going to trap him?

When the dogs around him began to growl, Moe looked to the sky's expecting to see a griffon or pegasus.

Instead he saw one of those flying ponies with the bat wings and sharp eyes. Like those the Mor one had at his house! Did the Mor one send him?

But... The Mor one was here as well. Did they find out he went missing?! Moe studied the bat pony again.

His armor was different! Then who sent him?

Moe stood up and gazed at the Bat pony as he put one of his clawed hands onto the dog next to him and began to pat her on the head. Ending the growl from her and the others. The bat pony stared at the Kobold with his own dark vision and realized he wasn't a diamond dog at all.

"Diamond Dogs don't have scales...and that's not a helmet, is it?" Moe shook his head furiously side to side with some muffled words escaping his mouth.

"Wonder if we could find a unicorn to get that offa you... Bet it was a unicorn that put it on you as well. Looks like the kind of muzzle Unicorns use for dangerous animals and test subjects." The Bat Pony shook his head side to side "Tsk Tsk... My names Carl, I'll be right back, Don't leave ok?" Moe shook his head up and down in understanding with more muffled words escaping.

With the nod of his head and a light smile, the bat pony flew back up and out of sight. Soon as Carl was out of sight he chuckled to himself a little.

"He really does have a Mop..." He thought back to the dog catcher who got his face mopped, and pictured the little Kobold rubbing the mop in the dog catchers face in a frenzy.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Glarin slammed a hammer fist into the counter. "UNOTHER BOTTLE ON THE ROYUL TUB!" Glarin had taken to building a 3D tower with the empty bottles and glasses. As well as replacing his A's with Us and U's with O's.

"I'm Sorry but..." Grace was cut off by Glarin who insisted he could handle it. She was becoming sick of his change in attitude toward her after the 12th bottle.

"LUSS! I CUN STILL STUND WITHOOT MOCH EFFORT!" He demonstrated his ability to stand by falling out of his stool and then standing.

"GRUCEFOL US UN ELF!" He finished by holding his left arm behind his back and his right hand outstretched up to the light, as if he was trying to grasp it.

Only because he was trying to grasp it and ended up falling over onto the bars counter. He looked up to the bartender with a pleading look. For the second time, he stopped yelling.

"Pleuse luss, I still don't huve the cooruge to go sleep with royulity! She shoold be looking for some mule she could huve offspring with. Not some, one trick impotent dwarf like me..." Glarin trailed his sentence off as he slopped his head around the counter. Grace paused for a second as he didn't slur the word dwarf...

"Well I'm not giving you more because I won't, it's because The Bars Run DRY! You drank half my stock alone, YA Bottomless PIT!" Glarin just looked up to Grace a bit bleary eyed and looked around the bar to see everyone else in just as bad a shape as him or asleep.

Apprently she wasn't denying anyone a drink, and after they ran dry, the patrons were starting to become angry with the waiting staff. Grace took a deep breath and calmed herself a bit.

"I know everyone's drunk, but what you and the princess do, or end up doing, is no business of mine. And from my understanding, she has plenty of children already." Grace ended the sentence with the outstretching of her hoof toward the ponies that had been traveling with him the whole night.

"Bot they ure not of her blood. Woold the citizens even sopport one of them tuking her pluce when the time comes or if something were to huppen?" Grace smacked Glarin upside the head with the back of her hoof. For two reasons, the first was in hopes he would stop slurring his speech like that, it sounded so weird. The second was because of what he said.

"I know you aren't from here, But that whole civil dispute is long over and I will not have word of it mentioned again in my restaurant." Glarin held his face not from physical pain, but emotional pain because his beloved bartender hit him. Glarin had a moment of clarity and calmed himself.

277 years of drinking experience with an extra 20 of them being from before he was an adult, He knew when he had to pull himself together so as to avoid trouble or fix a problem. In this case, it was to calm the upcoming riot from this drunken crowd.

"OYE YOO LOT! I DRUNK THE LUST OF THE BOOZE! WE OOTTU HEUD ON OOT!" Grace sighed as the slap didn't seem to fix his speech. But at least he was rallying the mob outside now.

As Grace came out from behind the bar she took a deep sigh and looked around with the rest of her crew. She would have to make some calls for taxis to get those who fell asleep out of here, or perhaps a trip to the hospital for some stomach pumping would be better.

"Um, Ms. Grace I noticed Glarin never got up to visit the bathroom once." Grace thought for a minute and realized he had been 'talking' to her or ordering another bottle the entire night. Not once did he stop yelling at her and get up to use the bathroom.

"How did, Where did it all go?!" She discovered several of the empty liquor bottles had been filled and placed inside of the 3D pyramid of empty glasses and bottles. Several of those bottles in the middle were filled with a yellowish liquid. One looked like it contained some vomit. They all had a napkin stuffed inside the necks with the lid screwed on.

"HOW DID NO ONE SEE HIM DOING THIS?!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Moe was sitting quietly with all of the dogs huddled around him, either laying down near him or nearby in a pile.

Carl had returned on foot with a unicorn wearing the day guards garb.

"Alright Saber, I'll need you to get it off him so we can figure out what's going on here." Saber yawned as he walked down the alley behind Carl. Moe stood up along with many of the other dogs. They didn't bark or growl this time.

The day guard was slightly intimidated at the sight. He had a brief thought of the little kobold being some warlord from the sewer people like in that comic he was reading yesterday. He shook the thought from his head and began to illuminate his horn and magic the muzzle off. It popped over next to him and he caught it into his hoof.

"Once you learn how to teleport yourself, teleporting small objects becomes simple. Although teleporting it onto something is kinda... Ehh, messy, if you don't have a lot of practice anyway. I'm sure we can narrow down the number of dog catchers with a licensed unicorn down to only a few."

Moe just reached about his face and felt his lovely scales unobstructed by metal once again.

"MOES HEAD BE FReE AGAIN!" Said Moe with a crack to his voice. Carl and Saber both looked at the little Kobold. The tone in his voice with the voice crack made him sound young.

"Who send you? Was it the Mor one? Did they find out I broked the rules? And then followed them to the white city?" Carl sighed. Yeah, he was young. Carl chuckled to himself a little.

"Um, No not exactly, Princess Luna sent us. She hopes we can all become friends in the coming days. Judging by what you had on your head and who you're with. We can only guess what happened." Moe shook his head up and down.

"Ugly pony in pretty dress screamed at Moe and ran away! Then a u-knee-corn up and magic'ed me in the eyes! Then before Moe could even explain himself! He magic's that helmet on me! And says he didn't want me to bite him! Moe never bite anything that still be alive! Besides maybe a grub... or two... and sometimes Dalila's leg."

"I See, What terrible treatment!" said Saber in a slightly sarcastic tone. "I'm sure we can do some detective work and bring this mean dog catcher to justice. Or at lest, inform him on the new species joining us, like how we did with the griffons." Saber cracked his neck by tilting his head to one side.

"Either way, I'm going back to bed. I'll see you when we trade shifts again at 5:45 Carl." Carl just nodded his head and turned to face Moe.

"Don't mind Saber he gets cranky when he's up too late, or woken up mid sleep. Anyway, what are we gonna do with you now?" Moe looked around a bit and then twisted his foot a little.

"Could you maybe...Send Moe home with all his new friends? Without telling everyone that Moe broke the rules?" Carl cleared his throat in place of a chuckle this time as he looked around him.

"Perhaps, I'll uh, See what I can do. Wait here alright?"

"Moe wait for the Carl the Trusty! Moe call you trusty now cause you help Moe so far!"

"Uh, Thanks." Carl got a smile on his face as he flew back to make a report to his commander.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Luna never told us what to do once they cooperate! We assumed she would talk to em or something!" The two luner guards who were stationed the throne room door just shook their heads.

"Sorry Commander Izi, Soon as Glarin walked through these doors they've been locked with everyone being kicked out ever since."

"W-what did you guys hear?" They both kept stoned faced

"Nothing...Nothing at all... besides some yelling. Perhaps some yacking as well... He basically crawled into the throne room." Commander Izi's jaw dropped for a brief second. Sighed and shook her head.

"Alright, But he says he wants us to take them all back home. I'm guessing that's Ponyville then?" They both shrugged

"I don't know, reading the days news and facts is mostly just commanders... Commander." Izi ground her teeth a bit.

"Luna damn it... I don't wanna skim back through that 20 page report..." Izi mumbled as she walked away to go do some reading.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Commander Izi was beginning to arrange things for their return home herself. Since the last thing she remembers was that they were all going to be friends. So she should help them get back home. And if he didn't want anyone finding out, then they would just perform one of their silent recon's with a tiny payload.

No one would ever know, except Luna. When she gets the report later...

The Lizard, Moe, was still in the alley, but he was waiting with Private Carl, or Carl the Trusty. The little Kobold had only good things to say about him. She never expected him to of just been lost after sneaking after his dad and Sir Glarin.

The only problem she was haveing, was finding enough available night guards to fly em all back to Ponyville.

How the little guy traveled with so many dogs unnoticed until recently was beyond her. The day guards must be sloppy, or perhaps there's more to the story.

She shrugged "Screw it, We'll just use the Lunerator to transport them. Could use the dusting anyway." Izi gained a smile across her lips.

"Carl and I should be able to control it ourselves if its just them inside... I wonder if that autopilot was ever corrected." Izi hadn't used the Lunerator since its creation and test runs. She couldn't wait to hear it purr again.

Twilight and her Gnomey inventions

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Carl was moving Moe and all of the dogs to the pickup location. Commander Izi told him to meet with her soon as he dropped them off at the location, She wouldn't be able to move it by herself. Carl had done his best to explain to Moe what was going to happen, but Moe couldn't quite grasp the concept.

"So this, Loon-er-a-tore, is a big magic flying wagon?" Carl nodded, he had adapted to talking as if he was speaking to a child. Mainly because Moe was still a child or Teen as he said.

"Yeah, that's a very easy way to explain it, Once you see it I'm sure you'll understand even better." Moe and Carl were walking down the open streets with a few other night guards following behind them and all the dogs.

None of the dogs seemed to be worried about where they were going. They seemed to be happy just to follow Moe around. They heard the gist of it, Moe broke out of the dog pound with all of those dogs out of what they assumed to be a window. As they don't know of any building using magic see through force fields.

They were heading away from the lights and seemed to be heading for an area with what Carl had called a city park.

Once they arrived at the center of the park, the two-night guards at the back of the group nodded their heads at Carl. Then they spread their wings and disappeared into the night sky.

"Alright Moe, just wait here. Commander Izi and I will return shortly with the Lunerator. I've never actually seen it, or heard of it before." With a bit of a Smile, Carl spread his wings and took off into the night sky.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Carl went to the place Commander Izi instructed and waited... For about 10 minutes before she showed up.

"Okay, So I'm not as coordinated as I used to be. Even with the engine working and the junky Autopilot, I couldn't get it to fly properly solo." Carl just shook his head.

"Well, it IS about twice the size as Celestia's Skyship. I'll be happy if we can pull it off together without hurting ourselves or destroying it Commander..." The look on Izi's face indicated he should have stopped speaking a few words ago.

"Watch your tone, Carl the Trusty. It just isn't set up for a single pony to control it, It has a double steering mechanism. One pony controls each side with its steering while we can just set the gas to auto. So when it's just me it has a heavy lean to one side. Its nearly impossible to keep it up and going straight alone... Unless you happen to be a Unicorn." Izi tilted her head with an overexaggerated look of expectation on her face while looking at Carl.

Only to drop it a second later when Carl didn't respond with a yes, I am a unicorn.

"So I guess the description of a big flying magic wagon was a bit off then?"

"Its more of a Stealth Sky Carrier Private, We won't be able to use any of the weapon systems as they are on different consoles a bit out of our reach, but we should be able to get it to ponyville and back in about 10 minutes or less. Ever Since... You know what, You aren't even Classified to be knowing all of this, so don't tell anyone what were about to do. Just be happy you even get to help me fly it. " Carl just Saluted

"Good, keep your mouth shut unless it's to talk to our guest. Mr. Diplomat." Carl Saluted Again, keeping his gaze straight ahead. The look on her face indicated she was rather peeved at him. Her sweet look had twisted into something a bit fowl.

He followed her back to the hidden deployment on the mountain side near the castle. Inside were Celestia's Skyship and several other smaller ones along with her chariot. Commanders Izi's pace was more of a quick trot with the use of her wings to help her glide down to the back of the garage with ease.

Commander Izi bucked over a barrel which caused the wall to open up leading to a hole that went straight down.

"Unless you can see in the dark or bring some light, you won't see the entrance to the Hanger. There's no platform and the bottom of this hole leads outside at the bottom of the mountain. It's like a giant painful slide that's mostly just an 80-degree drop." Carl was glad he was a bat pony. It would seem this entrance was made for Lunar guards.

Carl followed Izi down into the hole with it closing right behind them. About 60 feet down Commander Izi stopped diving and took a sharp left with Carl shortly behind her. Once they got inside the hole she leads him through a zigzag hallway before coming to a huge steel door.

That wasn't locked apparently, nor did it need any kind of key, Commander Izi just pushed it open and walked in nonchalantly.

It opened up into a huge hanger, which was surprising actually There was room for plenty more in the hanger. The lights were shining upon a lonely upsidedown Isosceles trapezoid shaped box. It was painted the same color as the night sky with what could only be called stars across its surface, they seemed to be twinkling.

"So far you're the first Private to see it. Commander Fluffy and I were the only ones in the night guard to know of this. Luna has been working with a ton of unicorns to get this thing up and running. I heard Twilight Sparkle even had a hoof in building this thing."

"This looks like something out of a sci-fi comic! How does it even fly with no wings?" Izi started with a brisk pace toward a control panel with Carl following behind, yet keeping his eyes on the huge box ship.

"It uses Twilights gem Engine design. It used to eat up magic gems at a rate that wasn't sustainable. But the new gem design she made a few months ago, for 'Armor' none the less. Works the best for this engine once they are tweaked! Like really, that mare can be so smart at the wrong times and places."

"So wait, she made a magic guzzling engine, then made an ever-lasting magic gem battery for armor? Is it like power-up armor? Or does it make a barrier?"

"Private you're asking the wrong pony too many questions. Apparently, the gem Battery was for Sir Glarin to use. We ended up getting some as well with a letter and notes on how to install them inside the Lunerator. Now instead of using several hundred gems at once, it works on 3 supercharged Power Gems, with 3 more as a backup. It's a techno-magical marvel... You better be excited for this." Carl nodded his head as he followed her inside.

He followed her through a few hallways that were all well labeled with a few maps on the wall outside a few key rooms. Like the cafeteria, the map even had a big red 'you are here' dot.

Once they were in the command center Izi walked over to the left side and placed a hoof on the control panel.

"Ok, this here is your side." She began to point different things out and explain what they did.

"This controls the throttle on the left front pushy do-hickey..." Carl furrowed his brow and looked at Commander Izi

"Yeah, I never got around to memorizing Twilights name for them, It was like 3 or 4 words or something long, Pain the flank. This one controls the middle pushy do-hickey, and this the back pushy do-hickey. The entire middle row will be set to autopilot, so we just need to coordinate with each other so we don't flip over or smash into any walls." Carl looked at all of the controls with the several levers and buttons.

"So, why Doesn't this thing have like a single thing, that turns the whole thing?" Commander Izi just shrugged as she walked over to the center console.

"Ask Princess Twilight, Princess Luna asked the same thing, Twilight talked her ear off for 30 minutes on the importance of the absolute control she can have once the system is mastered, and the ships design was something she refused to change for some reason." The ship's command center lit up with everything lighting up with a whirr to indicate that it was coming to life.

"Now to get a few test drives in before we take this baby out. Princess Luna would kill us if we scratched the paint." Carl gulped as he struggled to remember which of the levers controlled what. Why did Princess Twilights Inventions always have to be so complex?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Moe looked around and saw that he was in the middle of a small open field with some trees near the outskirts of the area. Many of the dogs had taken to running around the field in the dark but stayed within earshot just in case something happened.

Moe was sitting where Carl had left him and was rubbing his head. Glad to be rid of that 'helmet' he couldn't take off no matter how hard he tried.

Moe was watching all of the four legged animals run around and wondered what they were called. Besides, the names he had given them.

Suddenly Moe could see a big long box object floating around in the sky silently above them. A door opened and out dropped Carl who landed by throwing his wings out at the last second and stopping just inches above the ground.

All without a sound.

"Alright, Time to get you all inside as quick as possible, Commander Izi is keeping the ship stable, but I dunno for how long." Carl began to move at a quick pace, picking up the nearest dog one at a time after placing Moe on his back.

"Alright Moe, just talk to the dogs as I take em up, keep them calm yeah?" Moe Saluted at Carl and began to pep talk the small dog that was in Carl's front hooves.

Within a reasonable amount of time, Carl had loaded everyone on the Lunerator as was back in the cockpit with Commander Izi.

"Private, is everyone on board?" Carl Saluted in her direction as he stood in front of his half of the controls.

"Yes, Commander. Everyone's been stowed away in the mess hall nearby." Izi Looked at her console and used both of her front hooves to push two levers up, while her wings pressed various buttons around the console as well.

"Why Did Princess Twilight make this so complex..." muttered Commander Izi as Carl did he best to keep his side steady.

Within 7 minutes they had arrived on the outskirts of Glarins home near the Everfree Forest.

"Alright Carl, I'll hold her steady while you get everyone out. Twilight's new gem batteries are fantastic, were still on the first set! And the fuel readout still says 87.354453...%..." Commander Izi sighed as she stopped reading the numbers on the fuel gauge.

"Is this one a those tasty lights?!" Yelled Moe as he jumped onto a console in the back hitting a large orange button labeled fireball.

Commander Izi Froze in Disbelief. Out of how complex it was to control this giant flying piece of technomancy. What with its two levers for engine speed control (A total of 4), and its buttons for each cylinder to each side (A total of 24). So that it would have total aerial control, just as a pegasus does.

Yet It took only a single button to activate the weapons system. And it was simplistic like a child's toy cannon gun. No aiming system whatsoever, and it had a charge time.

Commander Izi only had one thought. 'Why did Princess Twilight not include some kind of safety on the weapons system?'

Since the ammunition was magic based, it's not like it took any time to reload. For whatever reason Princess Twilight never put much thought into the weapons system, other than total destruction it would seem.

Afterall, an old friend once told her, who needs to aim, when you can just blow everything up?

As Commander Izi and Carl watched a giant ball of Fire began to form in front of the ship. They began to panic, as it was aimed directly at Glarins house.

Izi and Carl both began to work at a frenzied pace to turn the ship away and toward the Everfree Forest. By the time the weapon had finished charging it was aimed up over the Everfree Forest.

It looked like a miniature sun had been put up into the sky, the forest was lit up in a light before it sailed a decent enough distance away and began to sink toward the ground.

Moe, Carl, and Commander Izi both looked in total awe as the miniature sun exploded into a swath of flame and light no more than 800 yards out. According to the distance gauge anyway.

"I think were out of a job Carl..." Carl gulped as what he was seeing on the screen was anything but subtle.

"d-d-d-did m-m-Moe...?" Carl and Commander Izi both looked over to Moe who was shaking uncontrollably at what he just saw.

"It's not Entirely your fault Moe... Just about 50%, for now, We'll just..." Izi stopped speaking when she looked up at the screen because she could hear what sounded like a roar in the distance.

"Did we wake something..." Asked Izi almost sarcastically. The huge Command screen began to blip red until it zoomed out and refocused to the left side. Where a pinkish purple Ursa Major was on its hind legs standing and looking, not at them, but across the other side of the destruction.

It would seem the fireball had landed not far from its home, and that a certain something attacked her.

The magical computer system began to blip again, this time splitting the screen. The Ursa Major was on the left side with the right side zooming in on what appeared to be a Red Dragon emerging from his cave.

"Oh no! Does the Ursa Major think the red dragon who moved into the Everfree a few months attacked her?!" Commander Izi was just watching the screen in disbelief.

The red dragon emerged from the cave with a half-asleep look on its face. The look was quickly replaced with surprise at the sight of the destruction before it, with his neighbor running in his direction. Looking none too happy about it.

"What the hell are we gonna do Commander?!" Commander Izi began to hit some buttons on the console and then began to walk back toward the mess hall.

"Well, I'm gonna go make some popcorn. Pretty sure there's some in the mess hall. Not like there's anything we can do. Besides, we might as well gets the show of the century before we lose our jobs, titles, and become bums or some kind of vagrant." Carl just sat totally awestruck at everything that's happened tonight.

He looked over at the screen to see the Ursa Major charging at the Red Dragon, teeth barred. The red dragon seemed to shake off his sleepiness and was beginning to brew some flames inside his mouth.

Carl sighed as he walked over to Moe and held out a hoof.

"You ever have popcorn before? I'm sure we can find something for your new friends to snack on before the show gets real interesting..." Moe was just shaking as he looked back to the screen.

"I-i-i-is t-t-t-that..." Carl just gave a light chuckle

"Don't worry about it Moe, Just enjoy it while it lasts." Moe had a very bad feeling inside of him. Why weren't they mad at him?

An ancient creature russles

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"What was that light?!" Said Luna as she peered her head toward the window of her bedroom. Glarin had recovered enough to where he had normal speech again.

"Forget the light! You need to get that beard back!" Glarin was dabbing a bottle onto a cloth as Luna cleared her throat. Letting the thin outer shade fall back into place, she shyly walked up to Glarin.

"Is it really necessary?" Glarin gave Luna a bleary look before he looked out the window, seeing the plume of smoke through Luna’s tissue thin curtain.

"Yes, let the other authorities handle it. It’s in the middle a nowhere and besides… We're busy here." Glarin held the cloth up to Luna for her to take. Which she took with a blush before looking at it with some second thoughts.

"I'll show you how to braid it beautifully..." Luna watched Glarin look at his own beard and gently stroke it. How he recovered his normal speech so fast was probably why 4 maids were in the throne room right now cleaning up various fluids. His eyes would lose focus easily as he seemed to get lost in thought. Perhaps he was in some kind of drunken stupor with normal speech due to tolerance.

Luna wondered what he was thinking about as she dabbed the cloth around her chin. A blast like that should wake Celestia anyway. And it was out in the middle of the Everfree Forest. Luna sighed at the odd feeling on her chin as the fur began to grow to an oddly long length.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"I found the Popcorn! Go back out there and tell us what were missing Carl! Moe, help me find something for the dogs." Moe looked around then over to his dogs… that he didn’t know were actually called dogs.

"Ok, but what we feed Klick, Clack, Zack, Mack, Jack, Moxie, Mixie, Skag, Klag, Dagg, Larry, Chip, Mog, Pog, Gid, Klig, Kroag, Dlack… ?" Commander Izi just looked in disbelief before giving a sigh and a chuckle.

"Moe, your new friends, they are called Dogs. Glad to hear you've named them all. Let’s find something Quickly, I bet we've already missed the start of their fight."

Moe help Commander Izi by opening the cabinets and drawers he could reach. Before long they had a decent number of things that they gathered and took out to the command room. Carl was manning the cameras and doing his best to keep an eye on everything.

“You haven’t missed much, It seems Ursa isn’t bothered by Red’s flames. At least it doesn’t seem like it anyway. Red took to the air just a moment ago to prevent himself from getting mauled. Shes a bit bigger than him.

Moe watched the big screen with the Red dragon flying around overhead spewing bright orange loosely spread flames down toward the Ursa.

“Is that what were calling them now? Red and Ursa?” Commander Izi laid all the stuff out on the nearest table as she watch the T.V.s.

“It works right? Not like we know their names anyway.”

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Many Dragons have the ability to create a pure Hydrogen gas within them. Most of those dragons use it for flight, sending the gas to a separate lung, or Air sac to order to make their massive bodies weigh less.

Red Dragons are born with the ability set to go beyond the normal fire-breathing seen in lesser half-breeds. So long as a Red dragon eats a varied diet with sulfur and metals like platinum or gold, he or she can use them to create volatile substances greater than any lesser fire breathing dragon that attempts to use its fire. A pure blooded red dragons body is a powerhouse for creating different kinds of flammable substances, they just needed the time to do so.

Reds flames were weak right now, he just woke up from sleeping. The combustible gasses within his attack lung had to build up for a few minutes before he could make something that would hurt her. He has sent it all to his flight lung in order to prevent his head from being ripped off.

He could always just mix some of his stomach acid with his Sticky fire…

He wondered briefly what caused the damage and why she thought it was him. He wasn't nearly big enough to do something of that scale.

Sure she was against him moving in, and he kicked out her lesser cousin Henry. But Henry said he could crash at a friend’s house, and not to worry about it.

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The real problem was getting Red out of the sky so she could tear him to pieces. It's been awhile since she’s eaten dragon flesh, and her cub would enjoy it as well. A delicacy such as that is hard to pass up. She had hoped to reach him before he had enough time to get airborne.

After an attack like that she should have had plenty of time to run over and rip his head off.

Ursa took to running around the forest keeping an eye out for any small fireballs that may be coming her way.

She didn’t understand why he would open and then miss with such a large attack, if it left him in such a weakened state? Why didn't he blow up her cave directly?

With a powerful swipe of her left paw, the nearby earth and trees were uprooted and sent hurdling toward Red.

Twelve trees were uprooted and sent flying into the air. Five more trees were left mangled and broken not far from Ursa. The ground was missing a considerable amount of earth making a rather deep crevice.

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The trees were easy to see with his lowlight vision, and the fact she shined like a beacon in the dark made it hard to miss any of her movements. Red opened his mouth and released a huge wave of thick flame. Incinerating the trees directly in front of him with only debris and ash hitting him.

Red snorted as he stayed up in the air. He had been saving that, how was he supposed to finish this quickly if she was going to be throwing trees at him?

Red thought for a second and rubbed his belly. He should have enough stored for several of them.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As Red flew up higher into the sky, he began to churn the flames inside his mouth and lungs. With a practiced motion, he turned his head up and flexed his belly, pushing on the left side of his stomach. He then hacked up a small ball of red-orange goop into the air, followed by several more. He began to catch them into his mouth, only to be re-spit back up into the air. He was juggling the balls of dense red goo until green spots began to show on their surface.

He juggled them around until he had about 20 of them. They were somehow mixed together so that everything was green with red spots. At which point Red dislocated his jaw and caught them all into his mouth one after another. Once he caught them all he turned his attention to Ursa, who had been watching him the whole time.

Peeved that he had flown just out of reach to juggle some balls around.

Ursa locked her gaze on Red as he locked his eyes onto hers.

He folded in his wings and exhaled a small cloud from his nose. At which point he dropped back down a decent distance. When his wings expanded back outward, a deep sounding solid thumping boom echoed throughout the sky. Red launched one of the magma balls at Ursa the very second he expanded out his wings.

She almost didn’t even see it, she heard it land next to her, then saw a hole in the ground next to her with it sizzling with smoke and flame. It began to get more violent as it continued until she heard a muffled boom.

The ground shifted upwards with black smoke rising from the hole.

Red smiled with his mouth full of the deadly ammunition and inhaled a deep breath through his nostrils as he prepared the volley. His test shot was closer to the target than he thought.

Ursa couldn’t let a single one hit her, such a thing would be the end for her.

Reds eye twitched when she cracked her neck and roared up into his direction.

Provoking him as she stood up to her hind legs.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“No Freaking way!” said Carl as he tilted his head back and filled his mouth to the brim with popcorn.

“Shut Up and man the Controls Carl! We need a Better Angle! Also I hit the record button! I bet after we get fired we can make a killing on selling this video to some underground animal fights system for some cash.” Carl jumped up dropping the food and began to rush toward the console.

“Thinking ahead I see; I want 33% of the profit! Now Lead on Commander!” Izi furrowed her brow.

“33%? Why not 50%?” Izi raised an eyebrow at Carl. Thinking he was trying to get on her good side.

“Doesn’t Moe get some? I mean, this only happened cause a him… and somewhat Princess Twilight. But you know… I think she’s already loaded.” Carl shrugged at Izi.

“Yeah I guess so…” Izi looked over at Moe who was covering his mouth and one eye as he watched the screen. “Why not.” She shrugged as she began to propel them forward slowly. Keeping the cameras steady.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ursa dropped from her hind legs propelling her own body toward the ground with the intention of slamming into it, then with her toes gripping the earth, she propelled her massive body forward.

As she came down the earth quaked causing the trees to uproot and rocks to bounce. She took off like a rocket in a zig zag crushing trees under her, and using a heavy paw swipe to throw trees into Reds direction. The more she moved and distracted him, the less likely one of those things would hit her.

Red saw her start scrambling through the area and throwing more trees up into his direction. He dodged the trees best his could, letting smaller objects hit him. He couldn’t use his current weapon against the trees.

Red began to start his aerobatic dance to avoid being knocked from the sky. Staying in the air was much less burdensome than what she was doing. He would just have to wait for her to slow down a bit…

Ursa was throwing everything she had at him. If she could knock him out of the air before he had to exchange the gas in his flight lung. Then she could finish this quickly. She really didn’t want to try actively dodging those little death balls. She just hoped he was using them to try and hit her while she ran around.

After she had exhausted all of the trees in the area she slowed her pace only to realize Red's mouth was still brimming with them. He was waiting for her to stop moving, wasn’t he?

How long could he stay in the air before he had to land?

Red watched as she began to slow her pace. The number of useable trees that he stayed within reach of were now all gone. She had taken to watching him as she moved around the now open space with a brisk pace. Red took a deep breath and shot another one out.

Ursa watched as his chest inflated and got ready for the coming bullet. A little quick on the draw, she jumped to the left just before she heard the boom. She was about to smile at Red but suddenly heard another boom as her paws were about to touch the ground.

She didn’t even have time to look up before she heard something land right behind her, followed with another boom as her paws just finished settling on the ground...

Survival instincts took over with the release of every chemical needed for times of desperate situations. Her brain kicked into overdrive remembering his last position in the air, her surroundings and what would happen if she got hit.

Her only hope was that he couldn’t hit a moving target.

Ursa began to hop around as if she was light as a feather. The tips of her paws would barely come into contact with the ground before she jumped again. Even taking to tumbling or rolling her massive body, anything to keep her massive glowing body moving as erratically as possible.

Red quickly inhaled another breath and began to pop them out one after another as fast as he could. Angry that such a huge bear could move faster than him.

Then again, his body wasn't made for fast land movements anyway. If he couldn’t hit her with another couple single shots, then when he got down to his last seven or so. He would try his luck with a spread shot.

That always worked in the past against fast or nimble foes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Carl was watching the screen with Izi and Moe, all watching in awe that such a huge creature could possibly move so fast.

It was mind boggling and brought on a feeling of hopelessness should they ever anger such a creature. Red was having a bit of trouble it seemed, he was terrible at re-aiming, it would seem he always needed a test shot in order to get it down 100%.

Ursa dodged to the left and then again to the back right at an angle, followed by a roll forward, and a spring hop to the left.

There was no boom for the last two of her jumps, she slowed her pace as she looked up.

Red had stopped to inhale through his nose one last time, the second she looked up and saw his chest puffed out she leaped back as far as she could.

But it was too late. Red was waiting for the moment her adrenaline rush wore out. The moment of pause when she would need to slow down and breathe.

With a deafening Phoom sound, She was hit with 3 of the little dense flame balls.

One went through her front right forepaw, with another lodged in her right shoulder, the last one had taken her left ear and part of her cheek.

Red tisked. More at his terrible aim than anything else. It would seem he only took her right arm. He wasn’t sure if it would be enough to kill her. If he got her left, it might be close enough to her heart, and it would melt through the bone and reach her heart, or explode through to it.

Red hoped that once it popped, she would take enough damage to go down. Or at the very least leave to go lick her wounds. He needed to go and find more materials to eat, and then spend a day digesting them. He already used his only trump card.

He would have to land soon and exchange the air in his flight lung as well. But if she still wanted to fight, then he would have little choice in the matter.

The pain from her missing ear and the hole in her right forepaw was excruciating, but not nearly as bad as the one in her shoulder.

She could feel it sizzle and crack, the flesh in her right shoulder felt tight, yet the something inside of her that felt agonizingly hot moments ago, had gone cold. Only the sensations of the various pressures and the feeling of bubbles and popping were present. Her shoulder felt like it was frozen and numb, yet the rest of her body felt like she was on fire.

A thick black smoke was rising from the wound. She fell over to her right side and writhed around in agony at the feeling in her right shoulder.

All she could do was wait it out and hope the damage wasn't as bad as it felt.

Red watched her writhe and roll around on the floor. Glad he could make such a large opponent fall and roll around in agony. As Red landed he watched her writhe around roaring, till her eyes locked onto him. Her half-awake pained expression was replaced with fury.

He landed… now was her chance. Her anger allowed her to ignore the pain emanating from her shoulder and body. Despite the fact, her right arm had become completely useless. She stood favoring her left side and ran as fast as she could with three legs toward him. Her body had become so hot that each one of her breaths was clearly visible as a thick mist in the darkness.

Red simply smiled at her. His little ball had yet to explode, he would get to see it up close for once.

As Ursa charged him, she didn’t get halfway before the ball popped.

It had been resting on her shoulder blade keeping her lungs and organs safe. Yet burning everything else and causing the spot of bone it rested upon to simply die. Her bones were strong enough to resist melting from the little ball.

Yet… Not the concussive force of an explosion.

Red's smile grew twice its size as he watched her right shoulder expand outward into a flower made of crimson and orange. Her massive body was pushed to the left as her entire right side was engulfed in both flame and her own blood.

As she went down, the only thought on her mind was 'Who would take care of her new cub?" She fell over to the ground eyes half open gasping for breath as black spots filled her sight.

Why would he attack her anyway? She looked up and over to Red who was walking over to her.

"I must say, for a creature as young as you, you sure put up quite a fight. Don't worry, I won't let you go to waste. I'll make sure to eat every last bit of you, even the bones. As for who made that mess in the beginning… I'm not so sure." Red gave her a weak sympathetic smile as he filled his mouth with more flames.

He always did prefer his food cooked well done, or burned black. Red stopped when he heard the distinct sound of a howl in the distance, followed by the entire forest joining in.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`

"Commander, what are the timber wolves planning to do...?" Carl, Izi and Moe just watched silently as the ship's systems began to pick up various signals from all over the forest.

"Mother of Celestia, It's like the forest is coming alive…" Said Izi, Twilight had been kind enough to add an enemy count. It had stayed at 2, but when the howling began, the number began to rapidly increase.

10, 20, 40, 60, 100, 140, 200… The number kept going up.

"W-whats happening?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Red looked around himself and tisked. He swallowed the flames he had been building and spread his wings outward again.

"Agoreth awakens from our fight. I would love to stay, but I cannot burn the forest and its mountains to the ground, perhaps she will be satiated with just your body. And I will likely be blamed for that damage as well..." Red spread his wings and took to the air. Leaving Ursa to her fate, to die slowly out in the open, or be eaten by the forest.

Ursa lay on the floor, her breath becoming shorter, slower, her mind wandering as all of her pain seemed to subside and slowly disappear into a feeling of warmth and comfort that began to envelop her body.

Her eyes became focused enough to see the vast number of timber wolves gathering around her. Ursa simply closed her eyes, there was nothing more she could do. She was going to die soon.

She took her attention off the timber wolves and moved her head to a more comfortable spot. If she was going to die, then she was going to die remembering all of the great times she had with her last and newest cub. The feeling of warmth and happiness from her memories kept her at peace.

She released a halfhearted and low moan toward the timber wolves to indicate she no longer cared. Her only regret was not being able to raise her second cub till he was old enough to be on his own.

The Timberwolves watched her give them a weak smile before closing her eyes. To which they all howled up into the air again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Commander Look!" Carl pointed a hoof up to the screen to the timber wolves who had gathered around her right arm which was blown off and sent a small way away.

The timber wolves were running around the area of open space, gathering bits and pieces of the flesh that scattered from the explosion.

"They be eating the big bear!" said Moe. The timber wolves had gathered around the severed arm like ants and were eating it as fast as they could. After some time, one of the wolves walked off in the distance and halfway buried itself into the ground. Soon they all began to leave the arm and plant themselves into the ground at various spots.

"Are they, planting themselves to become new trees?"

"They're fixing the forest?" The newly planted trees were growing at an alarming rate with vines beginning to spread around covering the brown.

"Now they eat Bear!" Yelled Moe as the wolves began to climb on top of her and look at her wounds.

Some of the wolves clawed their way inside of her massive body with others eating and tearing away at all of the damaged flesh. Except the wolves weren't leaving her to plant themselves. More kept crawling inside of her massive body.

The ones on the outside seemed to be focusing on the flesh that was burned or damaged beyond repair.

After some time, they saw what looked like a small tree sprouting from her right shoulder.

"What are they do…?" Commander Izi put a hoof to Carl's mouth as they watched.

The timber wolves began to leap off her body and bite the small tree that was spouting. They themselves began to meld into a different form with the sprouting tree.

Were they healing Ursa? But why?

Carl, Moe and Izi watched in awe as the Timber wolves slowly but surely turned themselves into the forest, and become part of Ursas body. By the time the sun began to rise, the holes in the forest were covered in new growth and Ursa now had a new wooden right arm and whatever else they had to replace from within her body.

"Alright, it's getting early. We need to drop you off and get back home ourselves. Then take our firing with pride I suppose." Commander Izi hit the rec button again to stop it. And then they began to head on back.

They quickly moved outside of Glarins house and dropped everyone off. Commander Izi wanted to at least get the ship back into its Hanger before the sun was up completely.

She was still on the job after all.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Moe put a finger up to his mouth and made a shushing sound as he got low into a sneaking pose. Many of the dogs followed Moes example and got a bit lower as they followed him.

When Moe reached the front door he realized he couldn’t open it. Glarins huge stone door was way too heavy for him to push open all on his own.

So he was stuck outside…

DiE: Glarin Ungard the Berserker

by InsaneJustin

Dwarves, as I know it. (ver. 1.1)

Rewind, then back again.

So things are decided by height then? Thats Dwarfist

A Knight Berserker? or a Berserking Knight?

The "Games"

The Boreing-ass banquet and The Bad-ass dream

He who so sheds dwarf blood, by dwarf shall his blood be shed

Thinking Barrel and Worthless Gems, Hooray

Broken ribs and the return of a demon

How do you compliment a pony?

Goat vs Princess

Granny Daniels

Some stuff happened with a Time Skip

Las Pegasus

Even Death can't stop a dwarf from keeping a promise!

So this happened

Piss N Vinegar

After Effects

Some Comforts

Justice and Questions

Tests with an after Party

Battle Beast

Wealth is more than just gold

Sometimes Evil is all a matter of perspective

What matters is Personality

Moe the Kobold

Dogs and Bar hopping

Where does it all go?

Twilight and her Gnomey inventions

An ancient creature russles