“The Traverser”
Chapter 5
For quite some time, I had begun to meet with the princess to do battle. She was persistent and her desire to save her ponies fueled her. Over a period of two years, our encounters became more and more frequent. I had become fascinated by her ability to adapt and determination to become stronger. There was even a small connection between the two of us. I did not wish to become her friend as I knew these things would come to an end in the most terrible of ways. Yet when we did battle, my worries seemed to disappear and all I could focus on was her. I did not open my heart to her, but my spirit as a warrior desired to see her true potential and I finally recognized her as a comrade.
An ethereal blade dismembers a tree where my head was positioned only an instant ago. I am completely calm yet thrilled all the same. This opponent had become a regular in these past few months and I could not be more pleased.
“You know, I think you have slew countless armies of oaks, but maybe you should fight me this time,” I say bouncing up and down grinning from ear to ear.
The pony I have come to know as Luna snarls and lashes forward once more with now four deadly floating blades. “Then I shall use something a little more suited to your big mouth”
The four blades begin to glow and waves of energy slashes come at me tearing through anything in its path. They pick up speed considerably and to avoid them, I sped up to what a normal pony would look like a blur. “Not bad,” I say while my voice vibrates. “But perhaps we turn up the heat”.
In an instant, I appear in front of Luna who appears unfazed with serious eyes transfixed on me. I wonder in amazement how fast she has learned to follow my movements at this speed. I strike at her and feel an odd sensation slow my hoof slightly before making contact with her muzzle sending her flying back into a waterfall.
The Alicorn staggers and stands after a moment. To my amazement, she smiles and begins to cast a spell. “This fight is far from over silver watch” Luna declares this as the entire waterfall freezes. In an instant, the frozen structure shatters and thousands of shards rush forth at light speed. I am taken aback by this and struggle to dodge and block these beautiful daggers.
With my hooves crossed to block the onslaught, I barely noticed Luna above me preparing what I assume is a finishing blow. I peer up and see a shadow covered up by the blinding sun. The form quickly descends and I make out what appears to be not four but twelve very large blades coming at me. “Oh Simon”
From the sword, my green friend appears. “You called” The green pony follows my eyes and sees the weapons approaching and screams. “Oh, Crap!”
I bring forth peacemaker and begin to slash through the ethereal blades. In a moment, I finish and begin to breathe fairly fast. “Not bad little Luna, some more training and you might be able to injure me.”
The princess pants and begins to chuckle. “Thy must mean injure you once more Silver, this princess sees something quite interesting.” She nudges her hoof towards me.
I begin to exam my body and to my disbelief, my ear had been nicked by the frozen shards. “Well then, I suppose accidents do happen. But it’s not enough to brag about princess.” I ready my stance once more and launch forward.
As I have come to discover, I always have enough power to defeat my enemies. However, I do not have an infinite amount of power over them. There have been times when my enemy has gotten quite close and even wounded me. Then there have been times where my overconfidence has led me to slip up in battle. This was one of those times.
As I launched forward, I bring my hoof to my usual punching position. I do as usual and prepare to use my brute strength to knock Luna across the area. This time, however, something interesting happened.
As I begin to charge, Luna readies her blades in an attempt to swallow me in slashes. Of course, I would have hit her long before she was able to do this. I smile and within a moment I am in punching distance. I then swing my mighty hoof towards her now grinning face. I knew something was wrong. “What…”
Upon getting close to its target, my hoof comes in contact with that strange force again. This time much stronger than the last. Immediately, I recognize Luna had placed an invisible force field between us. This shouldn’t have been an issue, but her magic had created a rotation that pushed my hoof up and away from her muzzle. Before I could try for another, I was forced to block the blades. Catching two and leaving my exposed body to handle ten more. The blades shallowly sliced my flesh. Little trickles of blood seeping from the wounds.
I snarl and look at Luna fiercely. My angry gaze quickly disappears as her horn now inches from me glows bright in what I can imagine was not a kind manner.
“Victory is mine Silver!” Luna shouts as she releases the last of her strength into a blast of energy. The blast directly makes contact with my belly and sends me flying into the trees crashing through and sending me back into the darkness of the forest.
The blue pony staggers and grins believing victory to be achieved. However, her eyes widen as a very beat up and very much moving Silver Watch trots back into the clearing. “Do you have any strength left princess?
Luna sighs and lowers her head. “No silver, I cannot begin to beat you even at my best. I have no way of defeating you…”
I walk up to Luna and raise her head. “Luna, in a very long history of fights, I can honestly say few have challenged me like you have today. Be proud Luna Princess of the night.” I smile and sit down.
She looks up at me and then a small smile grows. “I suppose I did do a little damage to the ego of yours Silver.”
I laugh and nod. “I suppose you did something to that. Now, Simon please patch us up.” In a flash, Simon appears in all his glory smiling big.
“Wow Silver, you got it good from the princess wink-wink.” He turns his head and smiles at Luna who is in awe.
“What is that!” The blue pony asks amazed at the tiny glowing pony in front of her.
I look at her and laugh. “Oh Simon, he is just my secretary, he does all my appointments.”
Simon gasps. “Excuse me, the only appointment you have is to complain and be a pain in the flank for my ears.” Simon turns to Luna and holds out a tiny Hoof.
I snicker at her as she meekly shakes hooves with Simon. I then lay down and watch as the two interact going to my own little world of thought.
“Nice to meet you, princess, I am Simon. The personal assistant to silver watch. Please allow me to heal your body.” Simon says this as he smiles up at Luna.
“Uh… The pleasure is mine, Simon. I am Princess Luna. Forgive me if this sounds rude, but what exactly are you?” The princess says as she begins to glow the same green as Simons fur.
“I am the essence of all Traversers collective thoughts, I store information on all places visited and send them to my current owner. I also assist with combat and heal when Silver is injured among thirteen trillion and forty-five other objectives that are classified.” Simon grins as he looks at the baffled princess. “But I guess an assistant is a better word.”
Luna simply looks at the tiny pony with her mouth wide open. “What…” She looks at him still confused and begins to think about what he had said as her body begins to heal. “Who is Silver?”
“Oh, that’s easy, Silver Watch is….”
I decide that Simon had gone far enough and cough very loudly interrupting the green pony with a loud mouth. “Simon, that’s plenty I believe. Sorry, Luna, there are some things that you are best left not knowing and I simply do not wish to be discussed.”
I stand up and look her in the eyes. “Please understand”
The still confused Luna looks at me sharply trying to decide whether she should press the matter but sighs. “Well, I suppose you have never been one to let ponies too close to you. I didn’t come here today to ask about you anyways.”
I look her in the eye knowing already what she wanted. I turn my back from her and frown. “Luna, you know I have no desire to fight Discord. I do not wish to expose my abilities to so many nor interrupt the balance of the world. He is the embodiment of Chaos and should not be destroyed.”
Luna stands up and stomps towards me. “But these are your ponies too. How can you turn your back on them so quickly when you know you can stop him!”
I turn around returning her harsh words. “Because it’s not my place Luna! Your ponies are not the same as mine. You do not wish to make me your hero! I am the farthest from it!”
She frowns and looks me in the eyes. “Fine then, I do not wish to ask you to destroy him, simply fight alongside us.”
“What good is that if he is still stronger than you in every way!” The hair on my body raises as I look at her with serious eyes.
She looks at me and flares her wings. “He is stronger than me and my sister Silver, but you can easily keep him distracted while we use our secret weapon.” Luna looks at me with tears coming to her eyes.
I look at Luna and watch as tears drip down her muzzle. These tears are easy to understand. I have seen many painful expressions caused by loss, but the most sorrowful one of all is the one created when a creature is on the verge of giving up. After a moment I understood that she really needed me. It reminded me of so long ago when I was left alone in my world. I just wanted a friend to help me and get back what I had lost.
I walked up to Luna who was now too embarrassed to look me in the eyes and place a hoof on her shoulder. “I surrender princess. You have defeated me this time.”
Luna looks up at me confused and chokes up some words. “What...”
I smile for what seems like the first in a thousand years. “When we fought the first time, I told you if you defeated me, that I would surrender to you and do as you ask. Today is that day Luna.” I kneel down and bow my head in respect. “Though you have terrible taste in comrades.”
Luna looks at my actions and blinks into realization. She takes a moment to calm herself and then her smile shows brightly. “Silver… Thank you so much. “
To the side of us, Simon begins to cry madly saying something about finding happiness and absorbs himself into peacemaker.
“Do not thank me, Princess Luna, as of today, I will fight along your side as your protector and ally. What do you say to that?
Luna stands proudly returning to her regal stance and materializes her blade. “I say this, Silver Watch Earth pony of Equestria. As of this day, you are a proper citizen. Not only that, but I hereby grant you the title of knight. You will protect this land with your power and do no harm to it. You will stay by my side to keep me safe and see that I am a fair ruler. Now rise Silver watch and let me hear your vows.”
With a proud thrust, I stand and look sharply at the princess. “I Silver Watch shall be by your side to protect you and this land. My sword shall strike down your enemies and guide you on your path.”
After that, the princess explained to me that they had found secret artifacts within the forest known as the Elements of Harmony. These relics were supposed to be able to defeat Discord. Of course, I would have to see for myself.
As I sat by the fireplace looking at the stars I began to think about what I had entered into.
“Hey, Simon...” I spoke to the little green pony on my shoulder. “Do you think I did the right thing by agreeing to help Luna?”
Simon looks at me and shrugs. “Well, you remember how that worked two thousand years ago when we first met. You got close to so many only to become their worst nightmare.”
I sigh and nod. “I just feel as though this pony is special and its what I am supposed to do Simon.”
For the longest time that night I questioned myself and recalled painful memories of forced betrayal. I knew that eventually, he would come to destroy any sentiment of happiness I had found. I decided that while I had been caught up in the moment, I was not going to let my guard down anymore. She was the princess and me her knight. It would be much easier if it stayed that way. I would not sleep that night, but instead, I laid alone watching the flickering flame of the fire. Perhaps things will work out if I just stayed quiet. Of course, I realize now that this was a great fault of mine. By doing nothing and simply standing still, I myself had let my world and many others be engulfed by the tyrant known as Silence…