//------------------------------// // A New Home, A peaceful life? // Story: A Marty Stu invades the Multiverse (Chess Game of the Gods) // by Keairan //------------------------------// I blink my eyes, and I see a mist around me. The mist is formless, and I take a glance at my surroundings. I take in my body, which is, and is not. I see hooves, I see hands, I see... and I see. "Where am I?" I ask into the mist. "You have been summoned, to be judged for your crime." A disembodied voice. "I assume you are talking of my destruction of an entire planet, filled with life?" My voice is resigned, knowing what I've done. "You admit your guilt? Your culpability in genocide?" The voice has become a choir, seemingly the voices of an entire world. "I have never denied either my guilt or my culpability. I deny only that I did it by my own conscious will." My voice is dampened by the mist, barely projecting beyond my own body. "We see. And of your other crimes? Conscious murder? Thievery? Rape? A-" "I have never forced myself on another! I would kill myself again before I would do that! How dare you accuse me of that." My voice is rage. "Those I have knowingly killed have committed crimes themselves, and unless I've died before I can, I always have repaid what I've stolen." "Abuse of children, and slavery." The voices conclude. "I kill those who are slavers, and do my best to help the children around me!" I'm truly raging by this point, but a thought crosses my mind. "I have traumatized children by my actions to save them, before. For that I do feel bad, but a bruised psyche is better than a dead psyche." "For your crimes, we have judged you, and found you guilty. We bestow on you life, until your sentence has been served." The voices have lost their cohesion. "There shall be no commutation, and no hope of parole. Bailiff, take him away." I bend forward, and accept their judgment. I feel a tug on my arm, with an odd sound accompanying it. "Sir! Sir, please wake up." ***** I awake, think to myself that dream again, and sit up quickly, unaware that there was something in my way. I bash my snout on what feels like a pony muzzle. "Ow" Is our combined chorus. I finally take in my surroundings, and note the nurse in front of me. He is a unicorn, and is currently running a hoof over the top part of his muzzle. Glad I was able to avoid his horn, that would've hurt. "Sorry about that." We say again "I should've been more-" Our voices combine again. "This is getting-" It happens again. "What I mean to say -" I cut off the unicorn at this point with "Squid rodeo rider with paisley go-go boots singing the macarena." "What?" The unicorn looks at me with utmost confusion. "Nothing, nothing. Just trying to stop the conversation deadlock. Now, what can I do to help you, Mr. ...?" I asked nicely. "Arterial Pressure, sir. It's good to meet you. Your friend has come through the procedure, and is conscious. She is currently asking if she can see you. Something about you checking how the surgery went through?" He asks, obviously curious. "Oh, I took care of her wounds when I first found her, just couldn't do anything about her leg at that time." "Wounds? What wounds?" "That's her decision on whether or not she tells anyone else. Anyways, lead on." "Alright sir, please follow me this way." He began to trot off, entering a doorway on the left of the room. We walked on down a hallway, taking a left at a sign that said 'Recovery Rooms' and then headed towards a doorway that said three-thirty-five on it. I take in Violet's recovery room, noting it's similarities to most hospital rooms I've ventured into during my long life. I then take in Violet. She's on her back, her upper body and one of her rear legs covered by a blanket, her left leg suspended and in a cast. Her upper body is slightly propped up, and she's currently trying to get at the straw of a cup of water near her head. I walk up to her side, grab the cup, and bring it to where she can get at it easily. "Thirsty?" I ask as she starts to guzzle the water greedily. "I was, thank you." She says with a frizzy-maned smile and what sounds like a scratchy throat. "Not a problem, Violet. What have the doctors told you?" I ask, not hearing the quiet steps behind me. "Nothing yet." I 'jump'. Which for my current body means I raise up off the lower parts of my abdomen off the floor. "Hello doctor." I say, keeping my composure. He takes note of my unique form, a flash of revulsion going cross his face, which he schools back immediately. He turns to Violet. Huh, nice bit of professionalism there. I like this guy. "You were incredibly lucky. It seems like the original fracture was a clean break, and healed evenly along those lines. But, we did an analysis of the area of the break, and it was force-healed that way." My suspicions where correct. "We also found an odd resonance over much of the rest of your body. It doesn't seem to be harmful, but is nothing like we've ever seen before." The doctor sounds quite perplexed, but continues on. "We've set the bone in place, and have set a spell to hasten the re-knitting of the bone. We do think you'll have to favor that hoof for some time." "Um, doctor, I can heal her leg the rest of the way, and it won't take anything out of her." I say evenly. "You can heal her? With what magic?" The doctor is incredulous. "I'm responsible for healing her other wounds, and I didn't heal that hoof because she wanted to wait till we got some pain meds to re-break that pastern." With that I turn around, and ask gently "Violet, may I finish healing you?" "Right, I'm going to refuse instant healing and be unable to work for how long? Weeks? Months? No thank you." Violet's sarcastic outburst surprises me, but I remember she's gone through a lot in a seemingly short time. Who's to say she's not buried much of her personality to cope? "Alright, I'll get started." I grab the power, and start to weave all five elements of the driving force of the universe, fire to cleanse, water to circulate, air to comfort, earth to bind, and spirit to hold it together. "I say, I must protest. I will not let strange magic be used on my patient, consenting or not." The doctor, who never introduced himself, protested. "She was my patient long before you set eyes on her, and I have never harmed anyone when I've tried to heal. Where I'm from, we take an oath to 'Do no Harm' to our patients." With that, I set a seemingly fragile lace of a weave on her leg, binding the bones together perfectly. "It's done. You do good work doctor. I didn't have to make any adjustments to what you'd done. If you don't trust my work, you can get an x-ray of it. In fact, I insist you do that." I say, letting go of the power. "I-I-I." comes from the good doctor's mouth. "You will? Good." With that, I finally notice the name tag on the doctor's scrubs. Dr. Clip-Clop, Orthopedic and Podiatric surgeon. "Well, Violet, I'm going to go down to the local guard garrison for a couple hours, and then I'll be back." "Why are you going to the garrison? You're not going to report that pegasus, are you?" she asks worriedly. "No, I'm going to inform them about the rest of the slaves that escaped. It worries me that we didn't see any on our way here. Hopefully this city's guard detachment is actually competent." With that, I headed for the nearest exit, leaving a still stuttering surgeon and my new friend behind me. ***** I exited the hospital, and began to look about for either a map of the city, a taxi, or a friendly local. The closest thing to any of those was what looked to be a green little earth pony filly standing next to her grey unicorn mother, looking at me with wide-eyed and adorable curiosity. I gave a friendly wave at the filly, who started to yammer at her mother. She looked at me askance, and I continued my wave with my friendliest smile. To my great surprise, the mare waves back at me. Shocked that anyone was being this friendly, I decide to slither up. "Hello ma'am, if you and your adorable daughter could do me a favor, I'd be forever grateful." The filly pips up "I'm not adorable!" in a the type of voice that just screamed precocious. The mare and myself chuckle for a moment, and then she replies, with a slightly serious tone of voice "What kind of favor?" I reply first to the filly "Saying you're not does not make it any less true." I then turn to the mare, and say "I'm new in town, and I'm afraid I'm more than a little lost. Could you give me directions to the local guard garrison, a money changer, and a place where I could purchase a map?" The mare replies "We can do better than that. We were just out for a walk, and all three of those are on the way home for us. We'll walk with you, and show you where you need to go." "Thank you so much. This is such a huge help. I'm Marty, Marty Stu." I bend forward and reach my hand to shake the hooves of my new-found acquaintances. They shake my hand, and speak up with their names. "I'm Charcoal Briquette, and-" The gray mare is cut off by her filly. "I'm Emerald Dream! I just got my cutie mark! First in my class too! Want to see!? Want to see!?" The hyper filly is jumping up and down with excitement. "Okay, little one, I'll take a look." I take a look at her flank, and see a sunbeam on her hindquarters. "And what does your cutie mark mean to you, Emerald?" "It means I shine a light of happiness into the lives of those I meet. At least, I think so." She looks at me with a slightly unsure expression. I chuckle, and tell her "If it's not your talent, I don't know what is. You've certainly made me smile." I'm practically glowing I'm smiling so hard. Being a ta'veren does have its perks. A guide, and a filly who makes me think of my own kids. "Shall we?" I ask kindly "Yes, lets." With that, we set out. "So, Charcoal, what do you do?" I ask. "I'm a mother, isn't that enough?" She says with a smile. "Point, children are job in and of themselves, but they are more than worth it." I say with a slightly wistful smile. "Yes, yes they are. But to answer your question fully. I'm an artist, and I specialize in charcoal drawings." She doesn't note the look on my face. "So what do you do?" "This and that. I'm a jack of all trades. I can do pretty much anything that needs to be done." Millennia of experience gives you more skills and knowledge than I care to think about. "That's... That's interesting. I don't think I've ever met a pony like that before. Then, again, you're not a pony." "I certainly hope not. I'd be the most awkward pony ever. Plus a blank flank, at my age? I'd set records." "I'm sure you would. Here's the garrison, we'll wait for you." "Thank you so much. I hopefully won't take too long." With that, I walk inside. "How can we help you today?" A bored sounding voice comes from behind a desk. "If it's not too much trouble, could I speak to one of your officers? It's about a potential search and rescue." I say politely "Search and rescue?!" Comes the now alert voice. "Come with me sir!" Says the voice. I walk forward, and I see a black pegasus mare heading into the bowels of the building. I follow after, walking past many desks, the occupants who are all staring at me in my armor and sword. We come to an office that says 'Sergeant Barn' on it. The mare knocks on the door, and opens it up. "Sir, got an informant on something potentially important for you." Looking in, I see a large uniformed bull sitting behind the desk. The bull looks up, and stares at me for a moment, then motions for me to come in. The bull opens his mouth, and spouts out "First, what is this so-called information, and second, what in the name of Tartarus are you?!" "Sir, in answer to the second, I only know that I'm some sort of snake-man thing, and in answer to the first, that may take a moment." I breathe, then start my explanation. "Yesterday, at about midday, a group of twenty diamond dogs marched up to my campsite near a bridge that crosses the stream that feeds into the Hoofington lake. They were leading a group of thirty ponies in chains. Coming upon my camp, I questioned the leader of their group about their intentions with their prisoners. They admitted that they were slavers, and that's when I lost control." "You lost control?" Sergeant Barn and the pegasus mare ask simultaneously. "I have a particular hatred for slavers, and I slaughtered the diamond dog contingent completely. I then proceeded to free the slaves, who ran off except for one who was injured. She is currently in the hospital, and I have no clue what happened to the others." "So you're saying that twenty-nine ponies are wandering around near my city, who may or may not need medical attention?" "Correct." The bull sighs, then says "Thank you. Glad to know at least someone cares. Maybe this will close a few of our missing pony files." The bull grouses under his breathe, which I happen to catch. "But nobody cares about us cows." "Having troubles with cows going missing, Sergeant?" I ask, curious. "Cows and ponies both... I never did catch your name." "Call me Marty." "Then call me Barn. I'm grateful for the help, and any more information you can give me would be much appreciated." "If I get any, I'll be sure to send it on. I have no clue where I'm going to end up, but I'm sure I can help out with any leads." With that, I turn to leave, until Barn calls me back. "Oh, before you go, and I'm sorry to do this to someone who's done their civic duty and more, but I'm going to need to peace-bind your blade. Civic policy on weapons owned by those who aren't members of the guard." He says with an apologetic shrug of his shoulders. "That's completely understandable. How long will it take?" "Less than two minutes." The bull steps out of his office, then yells out "Clem I need a peace-binding done, and stat." A uniformed orange unicorn comes by with a wire floating in a yellow aura. "If you could just hand me your sword, I'll have this done in a moment." I hand him my saber, and quick as a flash, my sword is now legal. "That should keep you out of any trouble with any of the beat constables." "Thank you, and I'll be on my way now." And with that, I exit the building, and meet back up with Charcoal and her filly. "That didn't take too long at all, now did it?" I ask. "You took fore-e-ever." Emerald whined at me. "I thought you'd never get done." I chuckled at this, and looked at Charcoal. "Ah, the impatience of youth, eh?" "You did take a while, but not enough for that performance." She agrees. "Shall we head to the money changer now? I really need to change over to bits. Very few shops accept gold shavings, at least in my experience." "Gold shavings? You carry gold around with you?" Charcoal looks at me, incredulous. "Yes, I travel a lot, and gold bullion is almost universally accepted as being valuable. Carrying around a few kilos of gold instead of who knows how many different currencies makes a lot of sense in my book." "I guess that makes sense. Why change it now, though? I thought you said you traveled a lot." "I'm probably going to stay in Equestria for a decent amount of time, so changing some of my gold into bits makes perfect sense." I state rationally. "Ah." We walked in comparative silence, the local populace giving the three of us odd looks. Charcoal looked rather uncomfortable with the attention, whereas Emerald is singing a nonsensical song about a cart made out of bananas. "Banana Cart! Banana Cart! How do you move? Banana Cart! Banana Cart! Magic you must prove. Banana Cart! Banana Cart! How do you not spoil? Banana Cart! Banana Cart! Is it because your peels we boil? This continued on for several stanzas. The lass is impressively good at rhyming, but this song is getting old. "And here we are at the money changer." Charcoal finally says. "I'll be right out, shouldn't take too long." I replied. With that, I slithered into a fairly ornate looking bank. I slithered up to the tellers window, and ask the slightly frightened looking stallion politely "Could I get some bullion turned into bits please? "Yes sir, how much are you looking to get changed?" The fear in his eyes changes into a look of service immediately. "I'm going to trade out two kilos of gold for as many bits as I can." Glad I had that third bar in my pack. This should keep me in cash for a good long while unless the bit is worth a lot more here than I remember it being. "I'm not familiar with that unit of measurement, but I can figure out what it's worth in a jiffy." With that, the banker came by with a set of scales and a ruler. The banker mumbled to himself, moving the tape measure about and fiddled with the scale, then doing some writing in a ledger, of what looked to be density equations. "Alright sir, you look to have just over four point four pounds of twenty-four carat gold here. That will net you seven-thousand bits after our fee for doing this for you." "And how much is this fee?" I asked, curious. "One hundred bits even. A more than fair fee for what you got." The stallion said confidently. "It sounds fair indeed." With that, the stallion collected the sum of bits for me, then hoofed them over. "Thank you for your assistance sir, and I hope you have a great day." I said as I walked out the door. "It was no problem, sir. And please return if you have any further needs for coinage." The unicorn said with polite enthusiasm. "Oh I will. Auf Wiedersehen." I called out. I heard a muffled "what?" as the door closed behind me. "And now on to the cartographer's shop!" I said with obvious enthusiasm. "Yay, we might get to see Daddy!" Emerald yells out with glee. "I wonder how he did today?" "I'm sure your father did very well in sales, Emerald." Charcoal says with guarded assurance. "Considering I'm going to be buying several maps, he should do very well today." I said with a smile. We continued on in silence for several blocks, until we come upon a shop with what looks to be an old style treasure map out front. "Welcome to the 'Marked Path', hopefully having all your mapping needs." Charcoal said with what sounded like a practiced speech. We walked inside the store, and I watched as Emerald scurried over to a surprised looking tan earth pony, who had a pen on a map as a cutie mark. "Daddy! Mommy and me found 'dis new friend up by the hospital. He looks so weird! But he's really really nice!" She took in a large breathe, and then started her monologue again. "We saw lots of ponies too! I saw pegasi, unicorns, this one earth pony I think was a cow, a cow, a gryphon, and what looked to be geeses!" The stallion has a bemused expression on his face, listening to his daughter chatter on. Charcoal spoke up "Dearest, this is Marty Stu. We've been his guides this afternoon. He's looking to buy a map." The earth pony looked me up and down, then smiled and said "Hi there, Marty Stu, I'm Gunter Wheel, and what kind of map can I get for you today?" I look at Gunter, and blink at his name. Gunter? That's a rare pony name. Wait, map making, Gunter? Surveying tools, of course. "I need a general map of the world, doesn't have to be particularly detailed, a decently detailed map of Equestria, and maps of Canterlot, Hoofington, and Manehatten." I look at Gunter expectantly. "Um, we have something that could be called a map of the world, but it's extremely undetailed. We don't know much about the lands beyond our borders." Gunter smiles sheepishly "We're rather unadventurous, unfortunately. I do have contracts with several different explorers, who send me basic maps and descriptions of areas they visit. I even have some correspondence with Daring Do!" He says, with a little more enthusiasm. I blink again at this. So Daring Do is a real pony in this reality. Interesting. "What you have is fine, then." With that, we started to gather up several different maps, each one a piece of art. She's only a mom, huh? I'll bet at least ninety percent of these maps Charcoal makes. "Alright, for these five maps, I think five-hundred bits should cover it nicely." He looks at me expectantly. "Hmm, these are good maps, but your world map being essentially of a continent brings the value of that one down sharply. three-hundred and fifty." I shoot back. "I agree on that one, but the map of Equestria has all the little towns on it, and the three city maps have a few marks on them showing good eateries and other shops." He lobs back. "I'm a carnivore. Pony food, unfortunately, doesn't exactly work for me. Four-hundred." I smile at him at this. Looking slightly disturbed at my statement of being a carnivore, he nods his head. "Four-hundred bits even it is." With that, I reach into my back and start counting out the necessary bits. "...three-ninety-eight, three-ninety-nine, four-hundred. It's been a pleasure doing business with you." With that, I turn to Charcoal. "Could I get your address, so that I could write to you folks? If there is one thing life has taught me, friendships live on conversation, and what is a letter than a long distance conversation?" Charcoal looks at me, somewhat dumbfounded. "I guess that makes sense. Here, I'll go write it down for you." With that, she floats over a quill, some ink, a piece of parchment, and some sand. "212 Industrial Park, Hoofington, Equestria." She says as she writes it out. She then splashes a little sand on the parchment, then hoofs it over to me. "Thank you Charcoal, and thank you too, Emerald. I'll be sure to write once I figure out where I'm going to be living." I turn to head towards the door, when I feel a small presence against my lower body. I see little Emerald hugging my tail. "Bye bye Marty! I'll miss you!" She says with a pout. "I'll miss you too, little adorable one." I bend over and return the hug, gently. "I'm not adorable!" She cries out. We adults chuckle lightly, and then I head out the door. "Tschüss!" I call behind me. I hear a "what?" from both Emerald and Charcoal, but Gunter surprises me. "Bis bald!" He yells to me. I smile, and begin to slither towards the hospital. Hopefully they're done x raying her leg. I'd like to keep her from having to sleep inside a hospital. I've yet to be in an actually restful hospital. I walked in silence, and pointedly ignored the looks the ponies gave me. One bitch of a unicorn mare said something like "How revolting, how dare they let something in this city like that." I couldn't let that stand unanswered. "Awww, it thinks it's people. How precious." I continue slithering onward, listening to the sputters of rage from the unicorn. ***** I finally reach the hospital, and run into Violet at the front waiting room. "Hey Vi, I'm back." She looked at me for a moment, then shrugs her shoulders. "How'd it go?" "The local guard will be on the lookout for the others from your group, and I now have money and maps." I said with a smile. "I'm glad. They kept us from talking with each other, but I did make a couple of friends, more or less. I'd hate it if they got free but ended up dead or worse." She said with some hope on her face. "So where to for now? I don't have anything I need to do, nor any obligations. You?" Violet looks at me, and said "I really, really, want to go home. I want to see my house in Coltogne again, the little brook that runs past it. I want to see the annoying but sweet neighbor's filly. I want to hear the local school bell. I... I want." She says with what looks to be tears in her eyes. I bend down, look her in the face, and told her. "I understand perfectly. I'll buy you a train ticket to Coltogne tomorrow. If you'll have me, I'll buy two." I told her kindly." Violet straight out started crying. "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou." She raps her hooves about me in a hug. "I really, really, really want you to come along. If nothing else, you can earn your keep digging. We seem to always have a need for that." I smiled at her gently. "That sounds like it could work." With that, we left the hospital and went looking for a decent inn. ***** The sun is finally setting, just as Violet and I had gotten our rooms. "Violet, do you want to try and find somewhere both you and I can eat in the city, or just use the horn?" Violet takes a look at me, then sighs. "I doubt they have anywhere you could get food, and frankly, I'm too tired to go traipsing around. Let's just use the horn, then call it an evening. I pull out the horn, and then I pull out my orb of memory. I blow into the horn, and then turn to Violet, who was getting seated at the table. "Violet, I know you're a violinist, but what's your favorite type of music?" She looks at me, confused, and then replies. "I like most types of music, but I like playing as much as listening." "Well, I have a group who you'll probably like." With that, I set the orb to play some music. She sits there eating for a minute, and then said "I like it. It's not my favorite, but it's definitely enjoyable. I do like how you don't have the whitenoise that our record players have." With that, we continued to eat, with my occassional changing of the music to different pieces that emphasized instrumentals, but no symphonies. "Thank you for the meal Marty. It was absolutely delicious. Also, thank you for sharing your taste in music." She gets up from the table and stretches. "I'm going to go to my room and sleep. I'll see you in the morning." With that, she left the room. "Good night, Violet. Schlaefst sehr gut!" I take off my armor, and then curl up in the bed. ***** A few hours later. I'm awoken from a rather unpleasant dream by someone knocking on my door. I unlocked the door, and saw Violet on the other side, She looked like she'd been crying. "Can I please, please, please, sleep with you? I had the same nightmare as last night." She said with a pitiful look on her face. "I can't say no too that face. Come on in. I'll massage your head till you fall asleep again." I say with a smile on my face. "I don't mind having you sleep with me. My dreams tend to be better when I'm sleeping next to someone anyways." She smiles, and then climbs into the bed. I slither around to the other side, then gently wrap my tail around her, cuddling up against her. "Goodnight Violet." "Goodnight Marty." The both of us quickly drift off, me massaging and stroking her mane. ***** We woke up the next day, and quickly ate a horn breakfast. "To the train station!" I said while striking a pose. Violet started laughing. "To the train station!" She says, striking a simmilarly silly pose. We walked in silence to the train station, arriving during mid-morning. "Two tickets for Coltogne, please." I said pleasantly. The pegasus mare behind the counter nervously gets the tickets ready, then told me "Fifty bits, please." I forked over the amount of bits, then we waited for the train that would take Violet and I to her home.