Birthday Bios: Wayer Rune

Happy Halloween, everybody! I hope you’ve had an awesomely spooky October like I did—I got to facepaint at a Halloween party for little kids and go to the Halloween event at the local amusement park. There were people dressed as zombies at the latter; twice I’ve had one get in my face and spook me. Eugh. Hopefully today is fun, too!

Anyway, this thing’s not about me and my Halloween celebrations, it’s about none other than the sinister sorcerer stallion that’s probably the most evil of my pony characters: Wayer Rune! If you’re reading Brotherly Bonding Time, you already know the crap he did and what he’s generally like, even though his tale is usually told through third-hand accounts in the story.

If not, well, I guess you could find out under the break if you so choose.

Long ago, on a chilly autumn night, a tiny unicorn foal that wasn’t even a month old was found wandering the streets of the Royal City alone, wailing his little lungs out. A noblemare named Runeshimmer found the little foal, and took the time to try to find his family. Nopony, from the nobles to the peasants, knew where the foal came from, and thus Runeshimmer took him home. He was named ‘Wayer’ for how even at his very young age he was trying to find a way home, and ‘Rune’ to mark him as Runeshimmer’s adopted son.

Little Wayer was a bright colt, having learned to read when he was not even four years old and could control his magic a year later. Runeshimmer and her associates were amazed on how a colt could even figure out basic levitation by the time he was five years old. He then figured out basic spells by the time he was eight, simply because he wanted to help his mother’s servants do their chores.

He was ostracized by some of the other unicorn foals in town because they were jealous that he was already so powerful. They even taunted him for having his biological family abandon him as well, guessing that they thought he was destined to be an evil warlock. He was tempted to throw them around like rag dolls, but as he didn’t want to prove them right, he only took to throwing things around his room when he was upset.

Word reached the Princesses about his magical ability, and they in turn informed Starswirl the Bearded. They asked Runeshimmer if Wayer could join other magically talented colts and fillies for magic lessons so that he could reach his potential. While Wayer was nervous about leaving his mother behind, he was assured that he could write to her, and thus, he agreed to go.

He studied alongside other young unicorns—who were nicer to him than the others, and grew stronger with each new lesson. He understood magical theories perfectly, he could learn new spells rather quickly, and he was eager to find ways to combine spells into a brand new one. He heeded the warnings about the dangers of dark magic, and had witnessed a few of his friends lapse into temporary insanity when using it with the attitude of “won’t happen to me”. He had a dream of discovering new things and creating his own spells, and he often either wrote his mother or met her in person to tell her (or show her) what he learned.

Then, when he was just at the cusp of stallionhood, Wayer heard some strange rumors. Soldiers coming home from the edges of Equestria—particularly those that visited one distant village—were telling tales about a strange earth pony mare that could perform spells like teleportation, conjuring, and strange contortions of her body that had no lasting harm. Curious about this mare, he volunteered to investigate the claims and traveled to the village.

When he arrived at the village, he met the mare, Jamberry Harvest, almost immediately. After humoring her and showing her a simple levitation spell (she had never seen a unicorn before and wanted to see if they really could move things with their mind), he asked her to show him her magic tricks. Confused, Jamberry argued with him about how earth ponies didn’t have magic. They spent quite some time discussing it.

He was allowed to stay with her rather large family while he made his observations. Though she usually did her antics when he didn’t have his quill and scroll, they were still strange enough that they stuck in his mind long enough to write down later. She burrowed to scare off critters, chewed up rocks for easier plowing, and practically teleported when fetching the tools. She had a “Jammie Sense” that warned her about danger, and she always had an urge to lighten the mood with some random trick out of nowhere.

Her family was used to it enough to shrug it off, but Wayer’s outsider perspective marked her as a possessor of the most unique magic, which he named “jester magic”, for it seemed to work best when it was funny. The family certainly found it funny when she popped out of nowhere and surprised him.

He spent a couple of years with his observations, though he did other stuff as well. Sometimes he and Jamberry would steal away to the river and talk about their respective lives, learning more about each other. Wayer often had to contend with Jammie’s brother Wheat, who was a bit hostile to him out of overprotectiveness and jealousy of his magic. He helped fight off animals and monsters attacking the farm. But, most importantly, Wayer taught the family how to read and write.

He mourned along with them when the Harvest parents died, and they mourned along with him when he discovered that his beloved mother died. They helped each other adjust and move on, and Wayer and Wheat even became like brothers after the latter warmed up to him. He considered them his family, and didn’t care one whit that they were earth ponies while he was a unicorn.

But, most importantly, Wayer had discovered that he loved Jamberry a very different way—the kind that made him wish he could marry her. But, as he had duties to the Royal City to return to soon, she was expected to stay and help with the farm, and that mixed marriages were unheard of in that time, it seemed to him that it wasn’t meant to be.

Still, when heading off home, he thought that showing her his home would be a nice present for her. So, with the promise that he’d return her home within a month, he took her to the Royal City for her to see.

As he was giving her a tour, the word came out that the Princesses’ court jester had died, and they were seeking a new one. Wayer ended up chasing Jamberry around the city, and later around the Sisters’ castle. It didn’t help that the castle was full of booby traps, which Jamberry took advantage of while Wayer had to escape or fight them off. By the time he found her in the Sisters’ court, she already had Celestia and Luna on the floor laughing.

Next thing he knew, she was the new jester, and he was embarrassed to admit that to Wheat. And to his surprise, the Sisters saw no problem if they wanted to marry each other—even if the three tribes had been unified for a few centuries by that point, they thought a mixed marriage would promote a stronger bond between them. Starswirl would agree, and the couple was wed.

Of course, not everyone was thrilled about this turn of events. The citizens of the Royal City looked down on Jamberry for her peasant origins, not to mention they were frightened of her when she pulled off her “non-earth pony” tricks. Whenever Wayer heard insults against his wife, his temper would flare up and he’d make sure they knew that they were know-nothing know-it-alls. They even changed Jammie’s second name to Rune in order to say, “We’re in love, and you can’t stop us.”

When their son was born, Wayer was amazed that the tiny colt he held was his and Jamberry’s, and overjoyed to know somepony related to him by blood. Following in his mother’s footsteps, he named him Silver Rune, which started the tradition of bestowing the word “Rune” to the firstborn’s given name, which would be done throughout Silver’s line down to the present day.

Nine more foals came after Silver, but only four would survive to adulthood with their eldest brother: Merry Joy, Pixie Dust, Harvest Moon, and Destiny Star. Two of their siblings had been stillborn, two more had died before they were one, and the last one died before his tenth birthday.

In trying to find a way to save that son, Wayer attempted to magically induce his body to heal, but then accidentally pulled out that son’s memory just before the kid died. While it was clear later that the memory removal didn’t kill him, Wayer had still been horrified by what he had done. However, he grew curious about how he did it, and thus, he had made the new discovery he had always wanted to make—the magic of memories. He would go on to study and perfect the spells surrounding them for years to come, and Starswirl made sure to preserve his records. He still kept that memory of his deceased son’s for the rest of the family to remember him by.

He and Jamberry had a blissful life for a few decades. Breaks from their professions had them visiting the town nearby that Wheat Harvest founded to be closer to his sister, and they enjoyed time spent with the extended family. She had gained more respect during her years in the Royal City, and the only rumors that surrounded her in later years were just ponderings about where her magic came from. Wayer often wondered too, and pondered both the theories of either her being some reincarnation of Chancellor Puddinghead or having her bloodline storing some of Discord’s spare magic. Whatever the case, he loved her still being brightly bouncy even when she grew older. She never failed to make him laugh.

Silver Rune had just become of marrying age, and they wondered which mare he was going to marry. However, with the declaration of war against the Minotaur Kingdom, their little marriage fusses would have to wait. Without question (despite their confusion over it), Wayer and brother-in-law Wheat Harvest suited up to fight, and bid goodbye to their families as they went off to war. With Wheat’s strength and Wayer’s wide range of spells, they were confident that they could help.

While Wayer and Wheat had their bonding experiences, like telling stories and jokes to each other and playing simple games in their down time, and fighting together during battles. Wayer may have been a higher rank due to his magic, but he wasn’t going to leave his brother-in-law’s side. Both had their wounds and their scars, and they bound each other’s.

Still, with each loving letter that he sent to his wife, Wayer began to have his doubts about the war. What were they even fighting for, anyway? Performing stealth mind scans on their opponents had him learning that they didn’t know either—all they knew was that the ponies started it. Wayer denied that his kind, which were generally peaceful, could start a war against the more warlike Minotaurs without good reason, and he kept up that line of thinking for a while. Still, he doubted more and more as he watched fellow soldiers die left and right, being gored, dismembered, and crushed as the Minotaurs suffered little damage. Going through a couple years of constant bloodshed made the question of “Why?” pester his mind and wonder if the Princesses had gone corrupt, and he just wanted it all to stop.

He considered finding a dangerous spell to use to convince everypony to stop the pointless fighting. He considered using dark magic to end the war once and for all. He considered using the forbidden art of “blood-brewing” on himself in order to create a new spell that’ll defeat their opponents. However, Wheat made sure he did none of that, as even a simple farmer knew that dark magic corrupts a pony. Wayer listened, as he trusted his brother-in-law.

Then, during one battle, Wheat was gored right in front of his eyes.

As he grieved over his brother-in-law’s death, Wayer decided that he had enough of the fighting. It was clear to him that Princess Celestia had gone power hungry and started this war for a land grab (though he was completely wrong over that, he wouldn’t believe the real reason the war had been started), and he was going to make sure that this war was over. So, he pulled out the dark magic tome, and started brainstorming over what he was going to do. Hearing a wolf howl in the distance gave him an idea.

He cast spells upon himself, which included greater speed, greater strength, and a few others. Finally, as his final spell, he snatched a wolf and fused himself with it. While it could have killed him, he was lucky that the combined spell was a success. Making it so it could spread and be only revealed under moonlight, he cast the spell at every watering hole the troops came across.

The spell was a success, as the battle of Sorrel Canyon boasted the first wolf transformations, and they slaughtered the Minotaur soldiers with very little mercy. In the present, the ghosts of the battle could still be heard under the full moon.

Finally, Celestia met the Minotaur King diplomatically, and the war was ended. Wayer himself was cold when he finally reunited with his wife, and spent the rest of his domestic days being moody at best and a raging monster at worst. Even worse, Wayer’s spell still held, and for months afterward, the surviving soldiers would transform and attack their friends and family, causing bloodshed and the spreading of the curse.

Wayer often went out on full moons, visiting his fellow wolves and seeing if they were all right. If he saw an ounce of regret for the bloodshed or lingering trauma from the war, he convinced the pony to let him take the offending memory away from him. Though they would forget the horrible deeds, the victims would only become more wolf, and the dark magic infecting them would make them rage against loved ones like the monsters they’ve become.

Wayer was convinced that his monsters were better than the other ponies were normally, and started to consider adding more “Wayeranimals” to the roster. He often raved about how his own kind was weak, and that he could solve that problem.

It made his children nervous, but Jamberry was trying to assure them that he was just joking. While she knew deep down that something was wrong and that he was responsible for the wolf plague, she was in denial. She didn’t want to believe that her bright and curious husband had gone mad. Even when she witnessed his wolf form, she still denied that he had gone off the deep end.

Silver Rune’s denial wasn’t as stubborn, and he made the hard choice of informing Princess Celestia about the source of the plague. With this new information, the princess and Starswirl decided to confront Wayer on this.

They met his wolf form at Rune home, and Celestia was quick to cast a counterspell to cure him, while Starswirl placed a spell that ensured Wayer wouldn’t be able to use himself as a guinea pig for any spell from then on. Enraged, Wayer used a reverse breath spell to suffocate them, only stopped by his wife smacking his horn, realizing that the stallion she loved was gone. She was suffocated as well, but Celestia stopped Wayer with a magic inhibitor and took him away.

He was sentenced to eternity in Tartarus, and Celestia began a campaign of curing all the “Wayerwolves” in Equestria. Jamberry died from a broken heart, leaving Silver to raise his siblings. Wayer’s peers were saddened by the downfall of such a wonderful pony, and Starswirl regretted having to put such a bright magic user into Equestria’s harshest prison, leaving him to suffer throughout the ages.

Magically kept alive to suffer for centuries, Wayer misses his wife and family, but knows there’s barely any chance that they survived as long as he had, so he knows he’s alone. Still, he swore that he would escape. And once he did, he would find a way to perfect his werewolf spell, and make sure that Celestia suffers for the pointless war she started. He’s had years to form a plan, but he realizes that he can’t use himself as a template anymore thanks to Starswirl’s spell.

Once he escapes, he’s going to find a new template.

Comments

[howard035]

Man do those dream gremlins have a lot to answer for.