//------------------------------// // The Preparation For The Crusade // Story: The Traverser Part II // by TheTwins //------------------------------// “The Traverser Part II Chapter 2 “The months that followed my return to the everfree were marked with reflection. A thousand years may have offered much time for contemplation, but the isolation of the living forest gave shape to the past. Shadows offered visions of those I had wronged, dreams come true, and nightmares to be realized. But perhaps the most painful of all was the reality that just as the everfree was shrinking, my time in solitude would one day come to an end. Little did I know that it would be in the shape of three fillies searching for their destinies.” Awakening from my sleep, I slowly stretched my body and breathed the fresh morning air. Having been the material for a thousand years had made sleeping on a stone floor quite easily. I rose from the ground and began to exit the cave now serving as my home. It was clean, quiet, and free of other creatures. The best possible combination. “Another day of training. Yippee.” As I exited the cave a blinding light struck my eyes the way it had every morning. The clouds in the sky were pearl white and it was going to be a warm day for certain. Trotting ahead, I eventually came to an edge of a cliff. Before me, I could see for miles. The beautiful yet daunting sight of the everfree that no pony was able to see but I. I could see small shapes that were the making of pony homes very far away. Thankfully these ponies feared the everfree and therefore I have had my peace. “Enough relaxing, its time to get started.” Tensing my muscles, I smirked before launching my previously weak body into the air. I soared into the sky gracefully. Though I was only able to fly after unlocking so much of my power against Discord, my legs were plenty strong enough to grant me the illusion of flight. As my ascension slowed, I pointed my limbs toward the clearing I had been using for practice. My body fell faster and faster until my hooves slammed into the ground. “Very good landing Silver!” I said in a voice clearly mimicking a certain green pony. The clearing was very green, the vegetation kept the trees from growing in the area just enough to create a circle where I could train without notice. “Alright, let us see how many we can break today.” Walking to the center of the clearing, I turn and focus on the immense trees before me. Their bark thick and strong. Wider than some cottages and older than most creatures in these lands. I focus my energy into my core slowly breathing in and out causing steam to escape from my nostrils. With a sudden jolt, the sheer build-up of energy rocks the ground. With a swift movement, I dash forward into the first tree smashing the base completely through. The force from my blow causes the trees around to shake and the assaulted tree to crack open. I jump back to the spot and crack my neck. “Ok, let's hoof it up a notch.” I release blasts of energy from my hooves in the direction all around me aiming for the bases of the trees but keeping my focus so that they are split and not simply breaking. After releasing the volley of attacks, I retire from the assault and wait for the trees to begin to fall. And just like predicted, the great trees slowly begin to topple in unison. I close my eyes and grin as they are halfway to the end of their journey to the ground. Suddenly, I am caught off guard by a scream. “Help!” A trio of fillies’ yell in the distance. From the corner of the opening, there appears to be a small white, orange, and crème colored group of fillies. “Somepony save us!” For some reason, the instinct to save these ponies surfaced. I knew it was my fault that they had been placed in danger. The speed I moved had made time seem like a simple plaything. In less than an instant, I grasped the trio of ponies and had them back in the safety of the clearing. They continued to scream even after opening their eyes. They were only quieted by the thunderous roar of newly toppled trees meeting the ground. “Ok, Ok, Ok! You are safe now!” The ponies slowly come to the realization that they were no longer in peril and pat each other to make sure it was no dream. The red maned earth pony filly breathes out heavily. “Goodness sake, I can’t believe we’re ok. Scootaloo, are all your feathers ok? The Pegasus still shaking checks her rather small wings and nods. “Uhm, yeah but I think Sweetie belle may be in shock.” The purple maned filly snaps her hooves in front of the white filly with pink and light purple hair. The little pony continues to stare forward not reacting to her friends with an eye twitching. The others try and get her to react but to no avail. After a second, the little white pony raises her hoof and points it at me. “Who are you?” The clearly shook pony blinks into reality as the other two looks in my direction and jump when they finally notice my presence. I face hoof and frown. “What the hay are you girls doing this deep in the forest!” The ponies still unsure of me huddle together. I realize perhaps I should be calmer. “Look… I am Silver Watch, I live in this forest and you three need to be more careful ok. What if I had hurt you?” The red maned pony shakes her head and frowns. “Wait an apple picking minute. You’re the one who almost turned us into pancakes!” The three looks at one another and give a simultaneous. “Yeah! What’s the idea?” My mouth opens and I shake my head. “Wait, you're blaming me for this? You shouldn’t even be here!” The white pony looks around at the devastation and tilts her head. “How did you do this anyway?” Looking around I see that it was clear that no ordinary pony could cause this kind of damage. I scratch my hoof and laugh. “Uhm, Dynamite…” The little pony stares and asked me where the holes from the explosion were. “Hey, you ask too many questions filly. Who are you three?” The three had already shaken off their experience and began to become curious about me instead. One by one they introduced themselves. I came to know that the two fillies’ names I had heard before were the Pegasus Scootaloo, and the unicorn Sweetie Belle. The red maned earth pony was known as Apple Bloom. After a few moments of watching the fillies’ debate between themselves of my origin story, I begin to get frustrated. “Uhm, excuse me everypony, but I still want to know why the hay you three are so deep in the everfree without an adult!” I scream and then take a moment to calm myself. Apple Bloom steps forward quickly. “Why that’s easy, we are the cutie mark crusaders and we’re looking for our cutie marks!” The three smiled big making a small performance out of the ordeal. I face hoof and look at them. “Well did you really need to come out here to do that? What could you have to do that requires you to risk your hooves for it?” I look at them trying to understand their antics. Scootaloo steps forward. “Well you see, we thought that we might get our cutie marks in something dangerous. My idea, of course, so we decided we were going to be deep wilderness explorers. And that’s pretty much how we ended up here.” The others nod their heads. I take her words in and sigh. “Well, that seems like a lot to process. Anyways, you three need to get home soon. So…. you know.” I wave my hoof attempting to get the message across. “Shoo-shoo please.” The three looks at me and around themselves for a minute. Sweetie Belle scratches her forehoof awkwardly and I understand immediate. “Ok look, follow me. Don’t speak, don’t laugh, and especially don’t ask questions.” The three ponies smile and line up as I start towards Ponyville. As we are trotting, the three start to whisper of course. I hear something about my cutie mark and such. “You know, not only are you breaking both rule one and three but its very rude to talk about other ponies. They stop for a moment but as we continue, I can feel my flank getting eye holes burned into them. Scootaloo groans and jumps in front of me walking backward. “So…. how did you earn your cutie mark? I open my mouth to speak but am interrupted. “Do you make watches? Or maybe you sell watches? Or do you like time or something?” I hold out a hoof to muffle her voice. “Look, I didn’t do anything to earn my cutie mark ok.” Obviously not satisfied with my answer, I am bombarded with questions about how I obtained my silver watch. I stop and look at them. “Look, some ponies earn their marks through the things they have talents for. And some ponies are cursed ok!” Sweetie Belle looks at me with her eyes watering. “Am I going to be cursed?” Her friends console her and look at me. I breathe in and give a small smile. “Look Sweetie Belle, I didn’t earn this mark through my talents. I’m sure you will have yours soon enough for a special talent.” She seems to calm down for the moment as we trot into the opening to the forest. It had gotten darker but there was plenty of light in the sky to help them on their way home. I stop and motion for them to go on. “This is where I stop, great to meet you three, but please be careful from now on.” The fillies nod but as they start to leave, Apple Bloom turns to me. “Where do you live in the forest?” I smile and look at her. “I have a cave deep within. Do not worry about me.” I start to turn but she runs over and taps my leg. “Well, I wouldn’t mind if you came home for some food. Granny would be mighty happy to meet you and say thanks.” I was quickly ready to say no thank you but the combination of her pleading and my stomach growling made me give in. “Well, I suppose for just a little food.” She bounces up and down and turns to the other girls to invite them as well. Before I knew it, I was following them to Apple Bloom's home. Come to find out, as with her name, she was living on her family’s apple farm. When I walked into the little rustic house, I came face to face with perhaps the biggest earth pony I had met. He looked at me and raised an eyebrow. Apple Bloom steps in front of me and smiles. “Big Mac! This is Silver Watch. He helped us find out way out of the everfree.” He looked at her obviously mad at the girls for venturing into the woods. But her then smiles and hands me a hoof to shake. “Thank you, sir, I am sorry for my sister and her friends troubling you.” I give a shake of my hand and explain it was no trouble. My stomach growls loudly causing the girls to laugh. I blush as a little green pony walks in and smiles with her false teeth. “Well everypony, dinner is served!” The grandmother also thanked me and the meal was great. Lots of apple related dishes of course. Towards the end of the dinner, the older mare who was called Granny Smith asked me how I was living in the everfree. I explained to her my situation and she offered me the barn. I politely declined but thanked her for her offer. Sweetie Belle raised her hand as we were finishing and asked me a question. “So why don’t you live in ponyville then Mr. Silver?” I frown and look at her sincerely. “Well you see, I really like my privacy, and my past has made me need to hide from ponies.” Granny Smith frowns. “Now I have to ask, you aren’t a criminal running from the law are ya?” I shake my head. “No ma’am, I just have a lot of history. The history you ponies might not even believe.” Granny Smith smiles and looks towards a chair next to the fireplace. “You know, stories are pretty good after a nice meal.” I think about what she says and shake my head. “Well, you have shown me such hospitality. I suppose it wouldn’t hurt. But I doubt you will believe me as I said. We make our way to the chair and I clear my throat. “You should also know, this is a sad story.” They look at me nodding but I could see the curiosity in their eyes. Scootaloo raises her hoof. “Is there adventure? I hope this isn’t a love story.” I laugh slightly. “There is a lot of adventure, but I will let you all decide the rest. I catch my breath and become serious. “You see, my name is Silver Watch. I began my journey in Equestria over a thousand moons ago. It was a much less civil time. The land was controlled by a monster by the name of discord. At the time, I was also living in the everfree forest. But my help was enlisted by a princess, she needed my power to defeat the monster. Eventually, having become a royal knight, I helped imprison the beast and was promoted to the title of Captain of the royal guard.” It was obvious that they were entranced by my story so I continued. “Having risen to the top of pony society, I had faced my obstacles and battles. However, my fate was sealed when my best friend.” I paused and frowned. “When my best friend fell to the darkness and I was imprisoned in stone for a thousand years. Until I awakened in the modern Equestria. On top of that… I caused my partner pain that he should not have had.” I stop telling my story and get lost in thought. Looking down, I see they are all tearing up. “I’m sorry everypony for ruining the mood.” Sweetie Belle gets up and gives me a hug. “I believe you Mr. Silver Watch. It must have been terrible to be trapped in stone.” I smile as she tries to console me but Apple Bloom tilts her head. “Who was the princess you helped?” I look at her and frown. “Well, she was named Princess Luna, but she was Nightmare Moon the last I saw of her.” The three fillies looked at one another and gasp. “Princess Luna!” They smile at me and Apple Bloom yells. “Princess Luna was saved from being Nightmare Moon! She is in Canterlot with Princess Celestia!” I shake my head and stand up. “You mean the two sisters are still alive!” They nod and explain that they now have a capital called Canterlot. Scootaloo locks at me and asks. “So, are you going to go visit them?” I breathe in a sad sigh. “Well Scootaloo, there are reasons I haven’t tried to find them. The only thing I wish I had was my swords. But I lost those when Luna fell.” The three huddles together for a moment and then look at me. “Well…” the three say in unison. “Why don’t we go ask them for help!” They cheer and look at me brightly. “The cutie mark crusaders sword locating mission!’’ I hold my hoof up. “Woah now, you three shouldn’t be getting involved. Besides, do you think granny would be happy with you three leaving.” They look at her as she is wiping her face with a tissue. “Well, it is the weekend, can you have them back before school?” I stand there with my mouth open. “What? Is this the responsible thing to do?” She shrugs and stands. “After that story, I am sure these youngins would try and help you anyways. Isn’t that right Captain Silver Watch.” I look at her and think for a moment. After considering my needs, I think of Luna but I get angry. “Fine, but you will do as I say and we will just be going to Celestia for information. Got it?” The three jumps up and down and speed off to prepare for their trip. “Great, glad that’s clear.” “The next day was spent preparing for our journey. At the time, I clearly had strong negative feelings towards what I now knew was the original Luna. I couldn’t believe what she had done to me. I could not have known the trouble to come, however.”