//------------------------------// // 10. The Monster - Part 1 // Story: The Legend of Friendship - Outcasts // by Danieru //------------------------------// With all the things that happened to Fade recently, the Unicorn decided to go to a place to hide from the Royal Guards. The last attack was not too long ago and it would definitely not be the last. Royal Guard members would be scattered all over Equestria to look for him. Every town was probably filled with them, keeping a close eye open to look for their former Captain. Luckily, Fade knew one place to hide from them. In order to get to that place, he had to travel to a forest in the south of Equestria. It was quite a long march to it but eventually, he arrived at it. With some company... "Careful!" Rosa said annoyed as she last second dodged one branch that almost hit her in the face because Fade walked in front of her. "Sorry," Fade apologized while having his sight focused in front of himself. The two continued their walked through the thick dark forest. Fade was leading the way and ignored most of Rosa's complains. He asked her to leave if she didn't want to be at a place like this but she refused and still stayed with him for unknown reasons. Fade was actually relieved that she was not leaving him so that he still had somepony left to talk to but this would still be the case because either way since there were still two other ponies following him. Fade often would look behind him to make sure that he was not only followed by Rosa but also by Mystic and Tagma. After Rosa noticed how he turned his head around again, she assured him that they were still far behind them. "I still don't quite understand why you let them follow us...I mean, you saw how crazy that one Unicorn was. He attacked that one guard without any hesitance!" She reminded him. "That is exactly why I let them follow us..." Fade replied, confusing Rosa at first. "I rather have my eye on him then let him walk around Equestria and be a potential danger to everypony," Rosa only shook her shoulders after those words. "In your heart, you are still a Royal Guard, huh?" She then asked a little teasingly, getting Fade caught a little off guard. "...sorry, I mean for not telling you the whole story so far..." he then apologized sincerely, lowering his head in front of her. Rosa acted a little surprised by this behavior and took it with humor. "You mean, the fact that you were the Captain of the Royal Guards? Yeah, sure would have been good to know that a little earlier. But then again, what is a thief supposed to do with this information?" She said as she smiled away, causing Fade to not worry about it too much. The walk through the forest continued. Soon, Fade found what he was looking for and stopped in his track. Rosa followed him and was wondering why he stopped but then she saw what he was looking at and got quite surprised by what she saw now. "There was something like this hidden in this old forest?" She asked confused with her eyes glued to the thing in front of her. "Yes. Princess Celestia claimed that this was here even before she was born, making it one of the oldest things in all of Equestria," Fade explained as he walked forward. In front of the two ponies stood a giant castle, covered with vines. It was also in a really bad shape. It was obvious that this place was not taken care of and visited by ponies for a really long time. Rosa took really careful steps out of fear that the whole building could collapse if she just sneezed, judging by how old this castle looked. Fade was not sure if Rosa was interested in the history of this place but he continued his explanation, nonetheless. "Nopony knows who build this castle and not a single piece of historical record even hinted at that there was a castle in the middle of this forest. Princess Celestia was the only one who knew about this place she could have been the only one write down information about this place but the problem was, that she had no information of it t begin with. She did not know who build this or who it belonged to so she just ignored it. All those information eventually gave this castle its name..." Fade explained further before he stopped in his track right in front of the castle's entrance and turned around to face Rosa. "The Forgotten Castle," The two ponies found themselves inside of the castle throne room after a few minutes. Obviously, there was a throne at the end of the hall but the question was just who it belonged to if it wasn't Princess Celestia's. Aside from the vines and the dirt all over the castle, it was actually pretty roomy. Even if there were Royal Guards looking for them in this place, hiding in there was probably really easy once you got accustomed to all the rooms. That and the fact, that not many ponies even knew about this place was enough to convince the two that this was a good place to stay. At least for a while. Both Fade and Rosa took a look at the throne room. It was very dark even with the big window at the end of the hall letting most of the light from outside in. "Well...now that we are in a place where we can't be bothered that fast..." Fade said before he turned around to look at the entrance of the throne room. "...it will probably be the best time to ask why you are following us," As soon as those words were spoken, Rosa began looking at the entrance as well since she knew exactly what Fade was talking about. Only seconds later, Mystic and Tagma revealed themselves from inside the shadows. While Mystic walked up to the two ponies without any bother in his facial expression, Tagma seemed to be nervous about following them. "So you did know that we followed you?" Mystic asked rather smugly. "It's obvious that you want something from us," Fade replied. "Though, I hope that you are not looking for a fight, like before with the Royal Guards..." he added as some kind of warning for Mystic. "Yeah. Me neither..." Tagma threw in as he stepped back a little from Mystic. By now he was definitely sure that traveling with Mystic was probably not the best idea he had. Mystic didn't waste any time and quickly cut to the case. He walked up to Fade and asked what he wanted to ask. "Those guards from before said that you were the former Captain of the Royal Guards. Is that true?" Fade wondered what a pony like Mystic would do with such an information after he saw what he did before. However, lying to Mystic would probably be a bad idea. It was obvious that Fade kept a close eye on Mystic. He had to admit that his magic was really powerful, powerful enough to deal with multiple members of the Royal Guard at once. Maybe even more powerful than him... With that in mind, Fade carefully thought about what he said. "Yeah, it's true," he simply replied. Mystic continued. "If you were the Captain, then that means that you might know something that I want to know," he began to ask. "About what?" Fade replied, waiting for Mystic's question. Mystic looked into Fade's eyes with a serious expression on his face. "About..." But Mystic's words were interrupted by some noises not too far away. Growling, some steps, and other noises that couldn't be figured out at first. "What was that!?" Tagma asked in a panic, looking around the whole room to find out the source. The growls began to get louder. There also seemed to be more of them by the second. Panic began to spread to Rosa as well. Mystic, however, was a little annoyed that his conversation was interrupted like that and decided to stand ready to deal with whatever was approaching now. Fade had a slight guess what those noises could be. "I think I forgot to mention something..." he said a little apologizing towards Tagma and Rosa. "This forest is known to be the home of some dangerous creatures," "What!?" Rosa exclaimed shocked and angrily...mostly angrily. "How could you forget to mention something crucial as this!?" "Well, with all those things happening, it seemed to slip my mind," he said but in truth, he was thinking about how traveling with Mystic and dealing with some Royal Guards was probably a little more dangerous. "Didn't you said, a while ago that you can deal with some trouble?" Rosa didn't like how her words were used against her and was now more annoyed than angry. "That doesn't mean that you can just expose more to every danger in Equestria out there!" She complained. For a moment, the group actually forgot the growls around them while listening to the discussion of Fade and Rosa but once they got louder, it was impossible to not stand ready for an upcoming attack. "There!" Fade said as he pointed at a pillar a few steps away from them. Behind it was a wolf who slowly stepped in front of it and revealed himself to the group. The group walked backwards in direction of the entrance but soon they noticed that a bear was just entering the room, walking up to the four. The next idea that they had was to leave through the windows but there were already multiple eagles waiting for them. Before they knew it, all kinds of animals were gathering around them, trapping them in the middle of the room. "Now what!?" Tagma asked in his frustration. Mystic took it upon himself to answer Tagma by readying his horn and preparing himself to deal with all those wild animals. "Wait!" Rosa then said, stopping Mystic in his track. "Look!" She added pointing to the entrance. Near the entrance, right behind the animals, a little colt revealed himself to the group. It was an Earth Pony with a pear green coat color and a dark green messy mane. On his flank was a Cutie Mark that consisted of a wooden heart with vines around it. Despite being around all those wild animals, the colt did not seem to be afraid at all and stood right in front of the animals who did not growl aggressively at him like to the others. It was almost like as if he was one of them. The animals stepped a little forward and were now dangerously close to the four ponies, ready to attack any time now. Mystic readied his magic and Fade also stood ready to defend himself and the others. However, before a fight broke out, the little colt spoke up. "No..." he simply said which surprisingly calmed all the animals in the room down in an instant much to everyone's surprise. As soon as Fade and Mystic noticed how passive the animals were, they began to loosen up as well. Now it was like as if the animals were friendly and well-trained pets. It made them completely forget that they were in danger a few seconds ago. Still, the colt did not seem to be too fond of the group and spoke up again. "...This...our forest...our home..." the colt said slowly, thinking about each word before he said them. This colt seemed to have some difficulties when it comes to speaking but he still managed to get across what he wanted to say. "You...leave..." he added, clearly showing that he wanted the group out of the castle. Mystic, of course, was not too happy to hear somepony trying to tell him what to do. "Why don't you try to make us leave?" He said, needlessly provoking the colt and the animals. Judging from that sentence, Rosa was not sure anymore if Mystic generally liked to pick fights or if he was just ignorant about what he was capable of. There were a lot of wild animals all around them and he still felt the need to make the situation worse. However, Rosa could not take that anymore and speak up. "Will you stop being such a meanie and try to think about the situation for a moment!? How about you let someone else do the talking!?" She said heavily annoyed by Mystic's behavior while not even bothering to turn around and looking at him. Mystic only turned his eyes towards her and replied. "You? You want to talk with this colt?" He replied surprised. Rosa then turned around looked at Mystic. Her face was filled with anger, directly focused on Mystic. If there was one way to describe the look on her face in one word, then it would be: Scary "Yes! You got a problem with that!?" She said, accompanied by her scary expression on her face. Mystic had to admit that he was actually feeling a little uncomfortable by the way how Rosa looked at him right now, if not even scared. He tried to not let anypony see him like that but it was plainly obvious so he turned his head away from Rosa. "Whatever," he said with a faint shaking in his voice. Rosa then looked at Fade and Tagma as if she was asking if it was okay to take the lead for a moment. Fade nodded and let her take care of the situation and Tagma smiled uncomfortably so that he would not get on her bad side as well. It was obvious that the Changeling was pretty scared by her at this moment. Rosa then turned around again and stepped forward. None of the animals seemed to be aggravated by her action and the colt made a general calm impression on them so that was a good sign. Rosa was not out for any trouble so she took the opportunity to talk this situation out. "I'm sorry if we came into this forest like that. It's just...we needed a place to hide for a while so don't you think that we can stay here for a while?" She asked in really nice and charming way which completely mirrored her previous behavior. But the colt gave a quick answer. "No...you...Ponies...You...leave..." he replied. "But you are a pony too! And you live in this forest as well! So don't you think that it would be okay if we stay at this castle? We won't get in your way too," Rosa offered. "No..." the colt replied quickly. "Forest...home...Ponies...have home too...Ponies...go home...stay... away from forest...Ponies..." he added. "Well..." Rosa replied while she rubbed her neck. "I can't speak for everyone now but...some of us can't really go back home. That's why we're hiding in this forest," The colt tilted his head to the side in confusion. "You...no home?" Rosa then turned around and looked at everypony. She did know Fade's situation by now but as soon as she looked over to Mystic and Tagma, she realized that they both had frowns on their faces while looking on the ground. It did seem to be the case that the two ponies that accompanied her actually happened to be in a similar situation. Of course, she had no idea about that. She didn't even know Tagma's name at this point. Rosa then turned to the colt again. "No...I guess not," she simply said. The colt began to think for a moment. He seemed confused. "You...not afraid... you...don't try to hurt...friends...me?" He then asked. "Hurt you?" Rosa asked back. "Why would we try to hurt you?" "Yeah. I mean, Mystic hasn't attacked anyone of you yet," Tagma pointed out. "Hey, why are you referring to me especially!?" Mystic replied a little offended, seeming to be oblivious to his previous actions. The colt did not seem to understand why the four ponies in front of him were still talking nicely to him...for the most time. "You different...no home...not afraid...and...friends with...not pony?" He asked, once again tilting his head to the side. "Not pony?" Rosa replied confused. The colt then looked over to Tagma which caused Fade and Rosa to take a look at the two other ponies. Tagma did not know how to react to this and just smile uncomfortably while waving to the two ponies awkwardly. "You...smell...different..." The little colt said as he kept his eyes on Tagma. "Me? Oh no! You must be mistaken! I just didn't shower for a while so..." Tagma replied awkwardly, trying to get to another subject but all it did was disgust Rosa a little. However, the colt did not change the subject and was brutally direct with his words."You...not pony..." he said which caused Rosa and Fade to turn their attention towards Tagma again. Tagma just smiled awkwardly again and somehow hoped that someone would help him out of this situation but quite the opposite was the case once Mystic opened his mouth. "Just transform back..." he simply said which struck everyone of the group in shock. "It's not really changing anything about our situation if you ask me. Besides, if mister knight here decides to attack you, then I will stop him," Fade had no idea what that was supposed to mean and why he would attack Tagma and just looked confused at him. Tagma was kinda relieved that Mystic offered his help but he actually wanted to avoid any kind of conflict, including attacks from the ponies he traveled with. But right now, there was one way to find out how those two would react to him transforming back so that's what he did. Green flames surrounded him starting from his hooves to his head. Soon, a Changeling with a yellow headband stood in front of everyone who still had a pretty awkward smile on his face. "What's up?" He said after he transformed back to his original form. Rosa did not seem to be too excited and got a little scared by this. "You got to be kidding me?" She said with a mix of disgust and confusion. The situation quickly shifted from the animals and the colt to Tagma, much to the Changeling's dislike. Needless to say, Fade especially was not too happy about this discovery. "You are a Changeling!?" He said surprises but yet a little angrily. "I can't believe a Changeling was hiding right under our noses! And here I thought you were the only one that I have to keep an eye out!" He added as he looked over to Mystic angrily. But the purple Unicorn didn't mind those words. "So what? Are you gonna capture and deliver him to your precious princess so that she will forgive you for whatever you did?" He replied back. Fade couldn't help but stagger from this reply. As a Royal Guard he would just go after Tagma at this moment but now he just looked at him and thought about what he did so far, only to find out that he didn't do anything wrong. It made it kind of hard to go up to Tagma with the resolve to fight him like he was used to. "We deserve an explanation why a Changeling is traveling among us! Lately, there were more Changeling attacks in Equestria recently so your queen must be up to something! Explain!" Fade demanded rather aggressively. "I don't know anything about that!" Tagma replied nervously. "I don't know much about the queen myself! The last time I saw her was before I escaped from the Changeling Kingdom!" He added, hoping that this would calm Fade down again. To his surprise, it actually worked. "Escaped from the Changeling Kingdom?" Fade asked in the name of everyone else in the room. Tagma did avoid eye contact and looked away from all the eyes that were focused on him right now. Fade never thought that he would feel regret while talking with a Changeling before but just now, that was exactly how he felt. He could tell that there was a bigger story that he had to know to fully understand Tagma but just now, it was actually like he could understand him without words being spoken. But Fade was not the only one who felt like that. The little colt walked up closer to the group and looked at Tagma with an understanding look on his face. "You...same face..." "What?" Tagma replied confused. The colt then looked over to the others. "You...all...same face..." he said getting the four a little confused. "Face...sad...alone...angry? No home...no...friends...so...hide?" He mumbled. It was a little hard to understand what he tried to say but each of them felt like as if he was getting less hostile to them. In fact, it looks like as if he felt compassion towards the four. Fade then walked a few steps towards the colt and offered a solution. "Those ponies were after me...but now you are probably followed by them as well. Maybe you can let her stay here at least?" "Hey!" Rosa said, causing to grab Fade's attention. "I'm a thief...I don't really am considered the first pony that others want around them...I'm always hiding. So don't tell yourself that you are dragging me around or something. Besides, if mister short fuse wouldn't have let the situation escalate like this, then we were probably not in that much trouble!" Mystic was aware that she meant him but he didn't bother to say anything and waited how the situation would evolve. "You know..." Tagma said, directing the attention towards him now. "I'm a Changeling...I can't show myself to other ponies as well...so you guys really didn't change any of that or made my situation worse, you know?" Fade and Rosa were still not sure how to react to Tagma. They never even came across a Changeling who was not trying to suck out their love before. It was weird. Considering what happened recently, it would be just a waste of breath to worry about Tagma. The Changeling took the opportunity to ask Mystic if was feeling bad for getting involved by all this but of course, he did not feel like sharing too much about himself. "I don't have a home that I can return to..." he simply said. The colt watched the four talking to each other like this and even though he didn't completely understand their situation, he did make a rather surprising offer. "You...stay here..." "What?" Rosa replied surprised. "You...no home...you...stay here..." he added. The group was not sure what exactly driven him to allow them to stay but they seemed thankful for it. Rosa was the one who expressed her gratitude. "Thank you very much...um..." it was just now that she realized something while talking to the colt. "What's your name by the way?" She said a little embarrassed as she sticks her tongue out. "Me...no name..." the colt replied with a frown on his face. "What do you mean? Everyone has a name. I mean what do others call you?" Rosa asked. The little colt looked down at the ground with a frown on his face before he looked back at Rosa, giving his answer to her. "Ponies...give name to me...when visiting forest...Ponies...call me... Monster..." To be continued...