//------------------------------// // Chapter VII – An Unexpected Gift // Story: To Devour a God // by the7Saviors //------------------------------// I watched as the massive wolf like avidaeus blackened and sunk into a dark puddle of dead cells before dissipating into a black smoke with a loud hiss. I shivered involuntarily, caught between horror and fascination at everything I had just seen. Okay, just breathe... breathe, Twilight... it's all over now. I did just that—closing my eyes and taking deep, slow breaths as I tried to get the shaking in my hands and legs under control. I was so focused collecting my self that when I opened my eyes, Luna was already at the door to the truck. I jumped slightly as she turned her hard eyed gaze my way. At my reaction her eyes softened somewhat and she turned her attention to everypony else in the truck. "You all have my sincerest apologies for the delay," the dark blue mare said with a frown, "the beast caught two of our other trucks by surprise and we had to regroup. I pray the four of you are safe and unharmed?" "W-We're fine!" I replied a little too quickly, my voice a little higher than I had meant it to be, "everypony's okay, Chief Commander, n-nothing sprained, broken, or bleeding!" "...I see," Luna replied, raising an eyebrow at me before turning to the others, "well, that is good to hear. My sister would never let me hear the end of it if anything had happened to any of you." "That... was wicked!" Everypony turned their attention to the excited white unicorn mare sitting next to me. I yelped indignantly as she pushed her way past me and towards the window, causing the alicorn just outside to take a surprised step back. "I've seen footage of some of your fights back home," Vinyl gushed, "but seeing it for real? That was... well... it was bucking unreal!" "Vinyl Scratch," I hissed through gritted teeth, "what are you doing? You can't just—" "Please, Twilight Sparkle," Luna interjected with an amused chuckle, "it is fine. We are... I am... flattered to receive such praise for my skill." She gave Vinyl Scratch and I one last cordial smile before turning to my brother and Harshwhinny—her smile becoming a businesslike frown. "Captain Armor, Elmyra Harshwhinny," she intoned, "we must make haste, lest more of the beasts follow in the wake of the Lobairo. Be ever vigilant as we press on." Both Shining and Harshwhinny replied with a nod and a simultaneous 'Yes, ma'am' before returning to their seats up front. Luna nodded in satisfaction before looking back to me. "Our... my sister wished for me to give you something once we had arrived in Ponyville," she said, reaching into a pocket hidden in her coat, "but seeing as I am here, I may as well bequeath her gift to you now." My brows shot up in surprise. What on Equus did the President want to give me of all ponies? And why wait until I got to Ponyville? If she had something to give me, why didn't she do it while I was still in Canterlot? She could've sent it along with the letter if she had it. Thousands of questions piled atop each other in my head, and before I could voice any of them, the Commander-in-Chief spoke once more. "Calm yourself, Twilight Sparkle," Luna said in a softer tone, no doubt noticing me tense up in nervous anticipation, "it is nothing so dire that you need to worry, though I myself am not sure why she wanted you to have this..." Everypony in the truck watched curiously as Luna rummaged around in her coat pocket. After a moment she pulled out a key—not a key card, not a digital key, not even one of the many keys you'd find on a key ring. No, this key was far older than anything I had ever seen before. Luna held the key out and I gingerly grabbed it out of her upturned palm, turning it this way and that as I inspected it. It was a large, old fashioned lever lock key. Just at a glance I could tell it had to be at least twelve hundred years old, or maybe older—yet it remained remarkably unblemished by time. To my astonishment, it almost looked as though it had just been made. The key itself was simple—incredibly simple, yet ornate in its design. The entire key was pale gold in color and it had three sets of bits circling the pin. Each set had four bits of varying sizes, meaning that whatever this key unlocked had a very complex set of tumblers. Interesting as this was, it was the bow that caught my attention. The bow's design consisted of a familiar looking sun motif with the image of a crescent moon engraved within it. I recognized the sun and moon motifs as the ones that adorned many of the banners in Canterlot castle and couldn't help but look back to Luna with a questioning raise of my brow. Luna noticed my look and nodded towards the key in my hand as she spoke. "That key is... very special to my sister and I, Twilight Sparkle," the Chief Commander explained, "I am unsure of why she was willing to part with it, or why it was given to you specifically... but I do not believe she would have done so if she did not have a good reason." "I... wow..." I muttered, awed and humbled that Celestia would give me something so valuable, "I... don't really know what to say except... thank you," I looked from the key to Luna with a puzzled frown, "but... what exactly does it unlock?" Luna shook her head and gave me a knowing, and slightly impish smile. "I was told to tell you that you would find out in due time, Twilight Sparkle," her smile fell and was replaced with a stern frown, "in any case, I trust you will take good care of this key, yes?" "O-Of course!" I replied a bit too quickly with a smile that was a bit too wide. I found myself gripping the key a bit tighter and holding it closer to my chest, "both you and the President have nothing to worry about!" By the wary look I received, I doubt my assurance did much to convince the Chief Commander, but she slowly nodded regardless. "I should hope not," she replied as she stepped away from the window. Her expression once again turning businesslike as she hefted the overly large charge spear onto her shoulder, "now then, I believe it's time we resumed our journey." One of the other trucks chose that moment to pull up behind Luna and she turned towards it just as the back door opened. She took one last look back at us and gave a single wave. "We will be sure to keep a more constant vigil going forward, on this, you have my word," Luna called back before stepping inside the truck, "until we meet again in Ponyville." With those last words, the door closed and I heard the engine rev up just as our own truck roared to life and began to move forward. I watched for a moment as the other truck drove ahead and took up a position in front of and to the right of us. "She's so bucking cool..." I blinked and turned to see Vinyl staring out the window at the other truck as it passed us. It took me a second to realize just how close she was, scooted up next to me. Somehow I had completely forgotten she was there, and the close proximity caused me to blush and hastily shift back over to my original seat. Seeing this, Vinyl chuckled, taking up her own seat and nodding towards me. "I'll be damned to Tartarus, girl," Vinyl commented with an impressed whistle, "seems like you're going places. I mean, getting something personal from the President like that?" "Yeah, I... don't really know what this is all about to be honest," I replied, eyeing the strange key in my hand with a contemplative frown. I closed my hand over it and looked towards the front seats, "did either of you know anything about this?" "Not me," Shining replied without looking back, "I was only told that Luna was going to be escorting us, and that's about it," he glanced at me in the rear view mirror, "didn't expect her to actually give you something like that." "Likewise," Harshwhinny added, turning around in her seat to face me, "I had no idea the President and Chief Commander even had something like that." "Oh," I replied, looking back down at the key, "alright then... I wonder what it's for..." "Who knows," Vinyl responded with a shrug before leaning back in her seat, "all I know is that I got to see something wicked today, and I can't wait to tell Tavi about it." "Tavi?" I asked with a hint of curiosity as I reached down and rummaged around in my bag, "who's that? A friend of yours?" "Yup," Vinyl replied, smiling somewhat wistfully, "Octavia and I go way back. She moved out to Manehattan from Canterlot years ago." I hummed in mild interest as I pulled out a small-ish black nylon pouch containing my safety goggles. Unzipping the pouch, I took them out and placed them in a small side pouch on my bag. "So she moved from Manehattan to Ponyville at some point?" I asked, replacing the goggles with the key, zipping up the small pouch, and placing it in the inner pocket of my thin white jacket, "does she have family there or something?" "Or something," Vinyl replied with a knowing chuckle, "she actually moved all the way out to Ponyville to get away from her family, and the city in general." "Huh," I replied thoughtfully, before looking back to Vinyl with a raised brow, "why Ponyville of all places though?" At the question, Vinyl laughed out loud, as though remembering a particularly funny joke. "Funny story actually," she said after a moment, "so Tavi and her folks were getting into this huge argument, right? And then..." As Vinyl talked about her friend, I started to sort of tune out, turning my gaze towards the window. I watched the massive rocky desert pass me by, the terrain dotted with dead trees here and there. I let my mind wander along with my eyes and my thoughts brought me back to the key and why the President had entrusted me with it. It seemed like Celestia was going out of her way to help me, or give me encouragement, or... something. It was like she was... expecting me to do something, or that she was expecting something to happen to me. No... thinking back on the 'test' she gave me when she transferred me to Daeus Arms R&D, the sudden reassignment, the cannibalistic Avidaeus, my compatibility with the 'new type' Daeus Arms, being escorted to Ponyville by Chief Commander Luna herself, and now this key... It was almost like... she was preparing me for something. But what? Why all the secrecy? Why not just come out and tell me what she really wanted from me? I asked myself these questions, but I supposed I could take a guess as to why she wouldn't have wanted to tell me directly. She probably might've told me right then and there in her office, had I not completely flipped out and fainted in front of her. I grimaced at the memory, somewhat ashamed of myself for overreacting like that. Maybe she had decided that it would be best to be a lot more discreet with her approach. Maybe she thought it'd be better to instead, let me slowly figure things out on my own, at my own pace. If that was the case, then I kind of agreed with her. I would've much rather figured this out one revelation at a time rather than... My thoughts ground to a complete halt. I blinked a few times before narrowing my eyes and fully turning to face my window. I could've sworn I saw something moving in the distance, but it was hard to make out from where we were. "What... is that?" I muttered, inadvertently catching my brother's attention. "Twily?" he asked with a hint of concern in his voice, "what's up? Did you see something out there? Anything we should be worried about?" "I don't know," I replied distractedly as I leaned in closer to the window, "I think I see something moving in the... wait a minute..." There was definitely some movement in the distance. The movement had been a bit further up ahead of our truck, and as it moved closer, I could just make out what I had seen—my suspicions now confirmed. Quickly scrambling up a large rocky cliff as if their life depended on it... was a dragon. From where I sat, I still couldn't get a good look, but I was able to see that the drake wasn't very big—most likely an adolescent. Its purple scaly arms and head peeked out from a tattered brown cloak that blew this way and that in the wind, getting partially caught on the green spines jutting out of its head and along its back. To say that his life depended on it was no mere exaggeration either. Gathered below the no doubt frantic dragon, were no less than a ten or so smaller bear like avidaeos. Shining was saying something, but I ignored it as I observed the scene. I hadn't even noticed that the truck was already veering off towards the cliffside, as there was another detail that caught my attention. It had looked like the dragon was struggling to gain any leverage, and I soon saw the reason why. In one claw it held what could only be a Daeus Arm... but it was broken. The top half of the jade colored short blade looked as though it had been snapped off, leaving the drake holding onto the remaining lower half. The arm holding the broken blade had a familiar black armlet attached to it, and I couldn't help but gasp in horror as the full weight of what was happening hit me. That drake was a Daeus Hunter, and a young one by the looks of it. Not only that, but it was alone, and had been for quite some time if the state of their cloak and scales were anything to go by. Somehow it had managed to break a Daeus Arm, which in and of itself was not an easy feat to accomplish, and now it was surrounded with no way to escape. Who was this young drake, and why was it here in Equestria and not the Dragonlands? How did they break their Daeus Arm and how did the drake even get itself in this situation to begin with? All these questions and more filled my mind, but one question in particular rose above the rest... Just how long had this young dragon been surviving out here in this avidaeus infested wasteland?