//------------------------------// // Chapter 9 // Story: Godly Promotion // by Dapper_Dan //------------------------------// “So let me get this straight.” I started, pinching the bridge of my snout with a hoof. Don’t ask me how without fingers; just think happy thoughts till the question goes away. “You want me, a stallion you have known for literally less than a day, to come with you to the Gleaming City because you want to, what, study me?” Mystic smiled sheepishly in reply while her body guard stared at me from his spot mere inches behind her. I stared at her for a solid minute before sighing and walking out of the inn, deciding that it was way too early in the morning to deal with this shit. I may be immortal, but even the creator needs his beauty sleep. “Fine, whatever, was heading there anyway so I could rip a researcher a new one.” That’s when I rounded on her and held a hoof towards the brick house called Silver Shield. “But if he starts anything, he’s going to be getting there a hell of a lot faster than the both of us.” He just growled in response, quiet a sound to hear coming from a pony. “Silver.” The mare warned, making the big guy shut up real quick under her glare, before turning to me with a smile on her muzzle. “Not to worry my new companion, Sir Shield will be the epitome of honor and courtesy won’t you Sir Shield?” The boy grumbled, muttering a few choice words under his breath. “Speak up boy, got something to say, say it.” I told him. A smirk now plastered on my face. He growled again and hefted his silver battle axe over his shoulder, reflecting the sunlight off it as well as his armor, which was silver as well. Why oh why am I not surprised? “Silence your tongue you impertinent foal, or we will remove it from thine muzzle.” He threatened, voice low and eyes sharp. “Didn’t you already try that once?” I chuckled, flexing my wings and turning back around to resume my walk. “Freaking Knights Templar, thought the last of you lot were killed back in the purges.” Turns out that size does not always equal speed, because Silver was nearly two heads taller than me, yet he was able to fix that axe under my neck almost as soon as I finished that statement. “We said silence!” he growled again, pushing the edge into my throat. I just sighed and grabbed the handle before twisting it around and punting him away with a one hoofed buck, sending him crashing into a pile of wooden crates. “As I said before, I’m not afraid to make you the first unicorn to achieve flight.” Freaking holy knights, they always had a stubborn streak about them, never learning when to just call it quits when they constantly fail to complete their objective. Sure it kept them going back when they were fighting actual demons, knowing that hell-spawn didn’t need to rest like they did, meaning that battles were normally drawn out till the last of the darkness was purged. Sadly, it seems that this mind-set remained the same over the years, meaning that Silver Shield would likely never let go of his prejudice towards Thestral’s, despite the fact that he most likely has never faced one in battle. I couldn’t just get rid of him though, not without starting a full on race war in the process, or at least having a bounty put on my head. After all, I learned that I was very much wrong about the First Order. As it turns out, they only part timed as demon hunters now, the rest of their job was to guard the rulers of the pony kingdoms, or would it be queendoms since all of their rulers were female. Semantics aside, that’s one hell of a promotion. I had to ask myself how I missed something like that, might have even answered the question of why the ponies were the first ones to basically ignore their ancestral mother and father and focus on me alone. That’s when I felt a hoof lightly tap me on the nose, bringing me back from my musing and having me focus on a lightly frowning Mystic and Silver, who had a much deeper frown. “Sir Ash, are you even listening?” she asked, poking me once more for good measure. “Nope, what’s up?” She just pointed at the axe, which was still held tightly in my fetlock. I hummed before shrugging and tossing it towards him, watching him catch it before throwing it across his back and hearing its holds click into place. He huffed and limped forward, favoring his left side while Mystic watched him with concerned eyes. I huffed and followed after him, keeping my distance and hearing the clip clop of Mystic hurriedly following. “I’m so sorry again Sir Ash, Silver is usually never like this. He has always been so calm and collected.” She said with a sigh, staring at the leading stallion. I just shrugged and trotted on, honestly just ready to get this over with. Not that I don’t enjoy the company of an actual person after spending the last few millennia with nothing more than my thoughts and one way communication, but I had kind of gotten used to the solitude, what with the last actual conversation I had was with Spring before her and my other children ascended into paradise. Sometimes I wish I had followed them. I will say that a knight of the First Order was definitely a lesser of two evils. At least they praise me instead of proclaiming me as a false god like the children of Borreal, which was a cult created by someone I actually bothered to contact for fun. It wasn’t much, just a small glimpse of a future war that could have been prevented if they bothered to pay attention to the details. But I tended to overestimate mortal intelligence and I was reminded why I never liked giving them advice. Turns out, not even three days later, he started studying dark magic to try and prevent the war from ever becoming a thought, but he forgot the most important rule of dark magic. You don’t fuck with dark magic. He ended up becoming the very first being to ever succumb to the dark arts without the aid of a demon, eventually starting his own war that, while thankfully less devastating than the original one, still killed hundreds and ended with the birth of the Cult of Borreal, named after the unicorn himself. “Sir Ash, are you alright?” My ear twitched before my eyes turned to regard my companion, sending a questioning look her way. “You seem distracted.” I shook my head offered her a small humorless laugh. “It is nothing, merely letting my thoughts wander?” I smiled, grabbing my whiskey from my saddlebag and taking a larger than normal swig. “That cannot be healthy.” “It isn’t, but it helps ease the pain some of my past actions left me with.” This wasn’t a total lie, the metric shit-ton of alcohol in this one bottle won’t get me buzzed, but it helps remind me of my daughters when they were still young and stupid. Those were simpler times. She gave me an understanding nod and leaned into me a little, the equine version of a hug on the move. I gave her an appreciative nod and nudged her with a wing, hearing a small growl from ahead, meaning our goodly knight was still paying attention. “That’s enough depressing thoughts though; we need to focus on the road ahead.” I pulled out another map, mentally stabilizing myself so I wouldn’t burn this one, and let my eyes wander across the page. “On hoof, the trip should take about a week...at least I could, but the two you would probably add about three days.” “Art thou nsinuating we would be unable to keep up?” I heard Silver growl, he seems to do that a lot, while twisting around to glare at me. I walked up to him and snorted before flicking his nose with a wing and walking by him. “No amount of training on the planet could put you at my level colt.” I heard the axe clips come undone before dainty clip clops and hushed whispers made them click back into place, making my smile grow. Poor boy was whipped Their quiet conversation continued, my mind selectively tuning them out while letting my thoughts wander again. Not about anything important, but Silver’s speech reminded me to check on my translator later. It’s worked fine so far, so it either didn’t register for him, or he laid it on so thick it literally just said screw it and tried its best. I’d worry about it later, right now I need to figure out if I should actually stay with these two or ditch them overnight. Wouldn’t feel much guilt and I would get there a hell of a lot quicker, but that means I had to talk my way into the research department of several racist unicorns and find a very specific researcher, not that difficult but more work than I would like. At the same time though, I could get Mystic to take me directly there and point out said researcher, all while possibly getting me an audience with either the research committee or the board of education. Hell, I’ll get an audience with the Queen herself if I have to; it’s one of my freaking thrones after all. In order to do any of this though, I guess I have to stick around with these two...joy. “Come on you two, I want to be out of sight of this city before nightfall.” I shouted, noticing them falling slightly behind already. Their ears perked and Mystic said one last thing to her guard before moving to catch up, leaving the stallions eye twitching but following his boss’s lead. Yeah, I started regretting letting these two follow me less than two hours into the trip, not in the way I had imagined though. Silver was actually okay as a traveling companion, nice and quiet while only sending me a death glare every other five minutes. It was annoying, but at least he didn’t stop us every ten minutes to study a new species of flower on the side of the road like our lovely little Dawn did. It was amusing at first, seeing that academic spark in her eye as she set about studying every little detail of plants and animals that were actually quite common in the coastal areas of Equestria, but were likely quite rare in her mountain home. After a while it lost its charm and I started telling her everything about every single thing that caught her attention. It sped us back up but I can officially say that it was the most I had talked since creation. Course this made the mare sad and Silver mad, lovely combination if you want a giant Unicorn trying to give you a lobotomy with a throwing knife. Where he kept it I will never know, but on the bright side Mystic was no longer sad. One lecture, one death threat, and one bruised ego later, we continued on our way until we hit a forest and stopped for the night, my companions eager to set up camp while I grumbled about mortals and their lack of stamina. “You cannot truly be trying to say you are not tired Sir Ash, we have been walking since sunrise.” Seems I was grumbling a bit louder than I had wanted...whatever. “I don’t get tired Lady Dawn, never have, and I doubt I ever will.” I replied, flying up to the trees and proceeding to hang myself upside down by my tail, watching Silver as he set up the fire and mats of his boss and then his own, frequently giving me the stink eye all the while. I just rolled my eyes and cocooned myself in my wings, letting my consciousness fade away, not at all looking forward to the headaches tomorrow would bring.