//------------------------------// // Chapter Three: Discovery and Decisions // Story: Noble and Free // by Kaffeina //------------------------------// Chapter Three Discovery and Decisions The sound of a hoof thudding against a solid wooden door brought Twilight's attention from the mess atop the table she had drug out. Resting beneath her hoof as she turned to look towards the door was a buff colored package of sorts, almost yellow brown and longer than the average envelope, she left it open as she raced towards the door. Peering through the top, she noted the deep blue mane, white coat, and horn on the pony. Flinging open the door, she squealed. "Shining!" The stallion in question, Shining Armor, was in fact the lavender mare's brother. His hair mimicked hers, but in shades of blue, and was shorter atop his head, while it reached slightly past his shoulder in the back. Unlike Twilight's own marking, five smaller white stars with a large pink one in the middle, Shining's was a deep blue shield with a similar pink star in it's center. The stallion smiled, "Twily!" Twilight suddenly whipped her head back towards the table and then back to him, "Celestia wasn't able to come?" she asked. "No, but she said your letter mentioned me, so here I am," the stallion responded as he walked past the door she held open it. It shut with a light thud as she let go and motioned him towards the table. Grasping one of the book with her magic, she started into something of a rant. "If you open the book," she let Shining grasp the book and bring it in front of himself, "you can see none of it is in Equus, nor any other language I've researched that I didn't already recognize. At best, it's marginally similar to the written language of the minotaurs, but not even any of the ancient languages compare!" Shining furrowed his brows as he looked at the pages in front of him. The script was completely unintelligible to him, and it seemed like it was to his sister as well. "Is there any way to translate it?" he asked as he set the book back down. Twilight bit her lip before shaking her head. "If I had diagrams that depicted what certain words meant, I could do a partial translation and make a start on a complete one," she sighed, "but so far I haven't found anything. Certainly some of the diagrams portrayed similar things to ours, but the differences are enough so they wouldn't be usable as a proper terminology. If I could speak with one of the..." she frowned and continued, "Ewtika? then I might be able to translate it, as they could help determine what certain words mean and how to write them." "Ewtika?" Shining frowned. "The spelling of the name of the creatures in one of the books, which I found were the most likely inhabitants of the ruins and forest itself," Twilight answered, "they look similar to apes in a way, but far too different to actually be a primate. Perhaps a subspecies of some sort though." Twilight opened one of the books, dust dancing lightly off it onto the floor. Pictured, as she had said, was a creature similar to an ape but with a straighter posture, taller stature, pointed ears on the actual sides of it's head, and certain amount of elegance. Shining blinked in wonder momentarily. "I've never heard of anything like that," Shining finally admitted. "Exactly! It's completely new and totally foreign! If I were to guess, I'd say they weren't from anywhere near Equestria or the countries we know of. There's a lot unexplored out there," she went off, shaking with excitement, "It's a fantastic day for knowledge!" Shining held back his laugh at his overly excited younger sister, before taking the book from her magic and setting it back on the table. As he did, a few books were shuffled and the envelope Twilight had been messing with before he had arrived fell off the table and hit the ground, sending papers scattering. His sister slowly halted her bouncing and took a deep breath. "Sorry," she muttered sheepishly. Shining shrugged and gestured to the envelope, "it's obviously okay, Twily. I am sorry for knocking over your envelope, though." She blinked, "Oh, that wasn't mine. I found it with the books." They both turned their gazes to the floor, expecting the papers to be torn or yellowed, possibly even falling apart. However, amongst the papers scattered across the floor, there wasn't a single bit or hint of the ravages of time. They were flawless, as if they had just been made. Stamped at the top of one of the pages was an intricate design of the sun, embellished in gold. "To You Who Find This Folder?" Shining read out amusedly, before turning to Twilight. She seemed to be reading over one of the other pages, muttering to herself. After a moment or two, Shining turned his attention back to the paper in his grasp. The writing was somewhat rough, as if it had been written in something of a hurry, or with little care. The paper itself was moderately thick, though the envelope had seemed as if it had nothing in it. Shining read down the rest of the envelope and frowned as he encountered terms he had never heard of before, things he felt he ought to of, as one of the guard. Though, the concept of this envelope and possibly the forest itself having come from another world wasn't entirely too unbelievable. Certainly, it was ridiculous but he didn't think it was a complete impossibility. However, the idea of these "Displaced", "Void Dwellers", "The Merchant", and the other names and ideas listed as well as the idle threat given by the person who had penned the letter was something that gave him a particularly ill feeling in his stomach. The threat seemed almost completely unnecessary and if the folder itself was supposed to go to ones like the writer, then why had Twilight been able to find it. Why had anypony been able to read it or see it, actually? What use was the letter? Unless it meant nothing to normal ponies? Shining shook his head, information like this was definitely not his forte, in fact it was anything but. The titles on the other hand were concerning and honestly, he felt they were totally useless to put down. Not even the princess had that many, and the dragons already felt themselves superior so titles meant all of nothing to them. Griffins sometimes added a few, but... If Shining had learned anything about this "Auric" from the letter he had penned for the folder, it was that he had an ego bigger than anyone he had ever met. Either that or he was overcompensating in order to scare people off. Even so, if this was the last time he heard of the mysterious "Master of Psynergy" then it was too soon. As the stallion finally looked up from the letter in his hands, Twilight was almost practically in his face. Flinching backwards, his sister spoke up. "What did you find?" she asked. As Shining began explaining the letter, and his sister was clearly itching to grab it from him, there was a person standing in the old ruins of the village that very mare had practically raided the day before. The ruins were speckled with sunlight cascading down from the vast canopy of leaves, and a light green glow covered the entire area and the person walking slowly into one of the buildings with silent footsteps. Hoof marks were scattered through the film of dust on the exposed planks, and the grass sprouting was pressed down. Brushing her hand on the walls, the elf had finally discovered something had been here. However, the hoof marks made it fairly clear it hadn't be an elf, human, or anything she knew to be sentient. As she turned around, she noticed the squashed patches of grass, and the grooves in the dirt that marked the passing of something with wheels. Despite this being the first bit of evidence that something else alive had been in the forest in ages, she felt confident in the idea that the only creatures that possessed both hooves and any sort of wheeled transportation were the minotaurs, creatures of mild intelligence and violent rage. Her decision made, the elf turned away from the tracks which were heading towards what she was certain was southwest, and made her way northwest, certain in the fact the creatures wouldn't be able to track her through her own forest. As usual, the forest itself was mostly silent aside from the quiet crunch of dead leaves beneath her feet and the whispers of fresh winds that rustled the leaves of the trees. Picking up a somewhat hefty and large branch that lay on the ground, she turned her focus to the surrounding forest for any signs of heavy movement. Despite how out of practice she was, after such a terribly long time, she was familiar enough with the silence and forest to know when something had arrived. However, because she was paying more attention to the ground rather than the sky, she was not unseen. Above the trees, sitting upon a cloud, was a dark brown pony sized creature with deep brown feathers adorning it's head, shoulders, and forelegs while it's back was a lighter brown speckled with white. Peering towards the ground as it flapped it's wings as quietly as it could manage, it gazed towards the forest where patches of the ground could be seen. Just moments before it had seen something it honestly wasn't sure of, possibly some strange new monster from the new forest. It watched the creature with interest, it held the stick as if it suspected a battle or being attacked. It's shoulders, though thin, were tensed and slightly toned muscles were perfectly visible to the birdlike quadruped floating above it, and the griffon, for that is in fact what it was, flicked it's tail. Unlike the ponies that inhabited these lands and the creatures from Equestria herself, the creature below was definitely a hunter or knew violence. For the first time since she had been sent on the scouting mission by the warlord she served, she was excited. Days of literally nothing but ponies and here was something clearly new. She watched on as the graceful creature made it's way towards the griffon territories. While she doubted it spoke Gryphic, even though most griffons spoke Equuian, she doubted it spoke Equuian either. From what she could tell when the ponies had left the forest, neither this... she wasn't certain of what to call it, but creature didn't seem to fit, so she finally settled on something more akin to a name. Neither this Tree Walker nor the ponies knew of one another, though she couldn't say she was surprised with how quietly and quickly it moved. Musing, she was surprised she herself had seen it. Interrupting her own inner turmoil, the griffon turned her attention back to the forest itself and managed to keep following the creature. Amused, she realized it still had not seen her, as far as she knew. Unbeknownst to her, of course, the "Tree Walker" had in fact finally noticed her presence. The elf was cautiously watching the animal tailing her, glad that it wasn't a minotaur but annoyed the griffon was doing nothing more than tailing her, as opposed to attacking outright. Was it just out on a hunt for it's young? If it was, then she was incredibly lucky as griffons were one of the creatures that had far less issues fighting in the forest. Minotaurs were strong and deadly, but griffons were agile and hard to take down before you got injured at least. Such was common knowledge in the past. She tried hiding behind a tree before moving on, but somehow it was still tailing her. With an annoyed sigh, she turned towards the approaching thicket and dove in, thankful the thorns were not as plentiful as they had once been. Laying on the ground she quieted her breathing and turned her ear up. The soft sound of wings flapping was barely audible but soon she heard a crunch as the creature landed. Thankful for the dead leaves, the elf held her breath.