The Guitarist
Chapter 5: Trusting Honesty
I was instructed to follow the light orange equine as to escape the coming storm, with the slightly larger red equine following me closely from behind. I turned back to the red one to see how he was handling my guitar. Mostly out of worry that my guitar might be damaged, but my fears were defeated. The red equine had been carrying my guitar in his mouth, only slightly clasping the head of my guitar, trying not to drag it on the ground. As I faced him and looked him straight in the eyes, I said "Thank you for taking care of it." I just barely got a nod in agreement from him.
"So stranger, where did you say you were from again?" Asked the orange equine in front of me.
"I'm from Midgard... uh Rune Midgard. I've traveled over the entire globe, but I don't ever recall ever hearing of this place... uh..." I responded.
"Midgard eh? Can't say I've heard of it, and this place here is Equestria, land of the pony folk."
"Equestria? Pony folk? By that I guess your civilization is comprised mostly of equines?"
"Why that would be a fancy word for us ponies, but yes. That's correct good sir."
A land inhabited by sentient ponies, what a strange place indeed. "So there are no humans here?" I asked.
"If in what you call, more creatures such as yourself, no."
My heart seemed to sink, and I began to ponder the demise of my world. Was I really the only human left in existence? The only response to the orange pony was just a simple "Oh."
"Well that didn't sound good."
I just stayed quite. My thoughts were elsewhere, still wondering how things were faring in my world, whether Queen Xellie and her grand army were able to hold off Satan Morroc, or had the responsibility shift over to my old friend Colonel Lightning Strike and was it bad if it has. We had made it to a structure that seemed to resemble a barn, but the architecture just seemed off, but oddly enough in my mind it made sense if this land was only inhabited by ponies.
"Alrighty then! We're here!" The orange pony recited. "Alrighty then Mr. Kiniro why don't you sit on down here in the barn on one of them bushel of hay there and why don't you tell us why you are here, let alone why you were trying to eat one of my zap apples."
As instructed I had walked into the barn and sat in one of the corners of the barn, feeling the need to cover my back. The two ponies positioned themselves between me and the entrance of the door. "Aren't you two going to sit down as well?" I asked.
"Me and my brother Big Mac are quite fine as is, isn't that right Big Mac?" The orange pony explained.
"Eeyup." Big Mac said with a rather monotone sound.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to steal from you, I was just so hungry, I needed to eat something and I would have been glad to pay for it upon finding the owners of the orchard." I explained. I noticed the red pony turn around to set down my guitar behind him and just as the other two, I had noticed he too had a symbol on his hind quarters, a big green apple that had seemed to be cut in half.
"Well me and the Apple family run this farm here, Sweet Apple Acres. Now I can tell your sincerity in your words about that apple." The orange pony explained.
"I'm so sorry still, here have this, I know it might not be worth anything here, but its all I have." I had proceeded to put my hand into my pocket and dug out a gold piece. It was a coin from the Swartvald Republic and extremely weathered. I extended my hand out to the ponies hoping to have some forgiveness given to me. "Here."
"I don't need you're money there Mr. Kiniro, I just want some answers. As far as I know you're the only hu-man here and I'd like to know why, and figure out whether or not your the peaceful type."
"Ok I'll tell you what you want to know." I eyed my guitar behind Big Mac, wondering whether or not I could get to it, if things got bad, pondering if I could use it if necessary. But again the whole one arrow thing shattered my idea, but again I don't know if they are peaceful either. My gut at this point kept telling me to let cooler heads prevail and hope for the best, because the gods know, I'm not in the best position to do much of anything else otherwise.
"So tell me, this place your from?"
"Again I say from a place called Rune Midgard, its one of the bigger nations on my world, its a place of wonder. Magic, technology coexist in very interesting ways, we were once ruled by a very caring king, but..." I sighed heavily. "But its not so nice there as it once was."
"Now why is that?" Asked the orange pony.
"Well, recently a great evil returned to my world to destroy it, I had heard folk tales and legends about it, but I thought that was it, that there was nothing more, but I was wrong, it was real. Satan Morroc, the great evil, was real. Even prior to his return, it was a very complicated place, especially after my good king died."
"I'm sorry to hear that about your good king. See we have someone like that here that rules us and watches over us, and heavens forbid, if we lost her..." The orange pony explained. "And sometimes, folk tales have a strange way of being true, needless to say, me and a couple of friends had to learn that the hard way. Come to think of it, the entire town of Ponyville did."
"Did the orange pony really just call her town Ponyville? Sounds a little cliche if you ask me" I thought to myself. "Yeah lessons learned the hard way, seems like that been my life summed up into a nutshell." I said aloud.
"I see there. Now Mr. Kiniro how about yourself?"
"Well... I'm a minstrel." My train of thought stopped, why would I tell her who I am and what I'm capable of. She doesn't need to know these things, but again my gut feeling kept telling me otherwise. I usually don't feel the need to lie, considering my entire life has been fighting for truth in my home. "I'm musician and that's my guitar, now I know this is going to sound strange, but bare with me, but I can use magic by channeling it through my guitar by playing it. I have some other unique skills but nothing that... I think would interest you."
"Magic you say? Just like a unicorn, now fancy that, I bet if my friend Twi met you, she'd have a field day trying to figure it out."
"Unicorn?" Wait a second, unicorn! "I remember seeing one of those earlier! It was teal covered and had a harp on its rump!"
"Oh dear, I bet you ran into Lyra... I hope she didn't find you with anyone else around." She said with a worried tone.
"No, she was alone."
"Ah good, then most will bet she was off being her crazy self. I bet when she saw you she had a burst of joy. She's been spouting off for a while now about humans and what not. Can't ever say I knew what she was talking about until today."
I chuckled lightly. "I don't mean to be rude but what's your name?
"Applejack, and apple buckings my game."
"Apple bucking?" I questioned.
"Er, yeah its what I do to harvest apples from the trees here at Sweet Apple Acres. Its kinda like this." Applejack explained, while showing me what she meant. She had placed her weight on her forelegs and then with a sudden jolt kicked backwards. "Catch my drift?"
"Yeah, ok makes sense... I think."
"Well, if your a fan of apples, I could show you a nice spell I know, if you wouldn't mind giving me my guitar."
"If you reckon you'll be peaceful, I'll give it to you, Big Mac could you give him back his guitar, but keep an eye on him."
"Eeyup" Responded Big Mac, he proceed to pick up my guitar and bring it to me. After a slight stare down Big Mac passed me my guitar.
"And just to show I'm peaceful, here." I unlocked the loading mechanism on my guitar releasing the arrow and proceeded to throw it on the ground. "Here's the arrow in my guitar, I load them into my guitar to use it as a weapon to defend myself." I got a rather shocked reaction, not more so that I was dangerous but more so the fact of how I was armed. But the expression quickly retreated knowing that now I was mostly vulnerable. But at least I had my guitar, and I could use it for a nasty blunt object if need be, but performing the spell song was my concern now.
I began to pluck the first few chords for this spell. "Here, let me perform the song of Lutie." Shortly after announcing the song, I began to pick up pace with the chords forming the song, to what became a slight whimsical melody. I felt my energy being pooled into the guitar, and the guitar began to glow a soft blue. After a few more seconds of performing the song, I closed my eyes, and finished the song. As the song concluded, I heard one small thud. As I opened my eyes, I spotted one golden apple on the ground in front of me.
"Wow that was an interesting trick, but where did you get the apple from?!" Applejack questioned.
"Thin air, I was hoping I'd get more, but I guess I'm too weak to summon more." I responded. I noticed both Applejack and Big Mac's facial expressions and they both appeared to be shocked at what they saw.
"So... its a golden apple? Whats so special about it?"
"Its a Lutie Apple, like said I usually make more but like said I'm really weak, probably from hunger. But what it does is increase the stamina and the vigor of the person who eats it."
"So then why don't you eat it Mr. Magical Musician?" Applejack asked.
"I can't its essentially eating my own magic energy, nothing would change, its basically a transfer of my mana to help someone else. Mana is just a shorter word used for magical energy. So go ahead, take it."
"Alright, but I don't see what the big deal is, it looks like just an apple." Applejack approached the apple and took a bite of it and with a sudden burst of energy lit up. "Yee-haw!" She jumped up in excitement landing on her hind legs while kicking her forelegs. "Its like I have the energy of 15 ponies! I bet I could go buck the entire orchard right now!"
"See?" I said with a smug face.
"Alright alright, you proved you know some magic and you seem like a good pony, I mean er, good... whatever you are. But why are you here?" Asked Applejack.
It seemed that the conversation had become more lax and now Big Mac had brought down his guard now realizing that I was not a threat.
"Honestly I don't know, last I remember before getting here, was fighting that great evil from my world, Satan Morroc, and I lost. Millions of lives rested on me, and I lost." I tried to explain, but I began to shed subtle tears of the sadness that began to overtake me. "I gave it my all, but I couldn't go on, then everything went blank, dark, but then I saw a light, it spoke to me and it brought me here. Why? I don't know."
"Seems like your world was in sure a heap of trouble, how do you plan to get back?"
"I'm not sure."
"Look here Mr. Kiniro."
"Please just call me Kiniro."
"Alrighty then, but look here Kiniro, I know its late and this storm is due any second, but I can't have you wondering off. I know you would mean well, but if you walked into town you'd sure cause a ruckus."
"But I have no where to stay." I stated.
"Well you can stay here in the barn till tomorrow." Offered Applejack.
"Eeyup." Responded Big Mac in agreement.
"Thanks, I don't know how I can repay you." I stated
"Don't mention it, you've done enough." Responded Applejack. "Here have some apples, we store some in here in the barn, help yourself."
"Again I don't know how I can repay you."
"Considering you showed me you can be a good..."
"Person." I finished her sentence, "Person."
"Uh, yeah that." Applejack blushed lightly. "Now just stay in here for the night and get some food and rest. I'll check in with you tomorrow, and I'll bring my friend Twi, if anyone can help you get home, she can."
"Very well, I'd appreciate it, thank you. You've done so much for me, and you barely know me."
"Well that's what us Apples' are good at, good ol' hospitality." I deciphered that she she was referencing her family, after putting two an two together, her brother and her having apples for the symbol on their behind.
"Now have a good nights rest Kiniro, now if you don't mind... I think I might go uh... do some apple bucking, with this energy and all, better not waste it!" Applejack said and quickly darted off into the orchard.
"I better go keep an eye on her, don't want her to get hurt, mostly from the storm coming. Eeyup" Big Mac said and followed her out.
"Holy crap you can say something other than 'eeyup'? Talk about... Nevermind..." I ended my sentence after realizing I was alone in the barn. "Well I guess I should eat a few apples and head off to bed in the piles of hay, can't say this is the worst I've been in for comfort, considering back when I traveled Midgard... but this will do nicely." I said aloud to myself. But I began to wonder, who was Applejack's friend 'Twi' that she mentioned, could she really help me get back home? I'm skeptical, but Applejack's good words about her friend, oddly seemed to comfort me, but if there was a slim chance, of returning home I had to take it. But first food and a goods night rest.
End of Chapter 5.