//------------------------------//
// Diary Entry 1.1 (Book 1) 
// Story: Apostle 
// by EquestrianKnight97 
//------------------------------//


DAY 1: Morning


After my tour aboard the Serepindity, the Moriarity, and the Silverclaw, I found this small journal as I was putting away my belonging in my quarters. I can't remember when or where I bought it, but I noticed that I had never written anything before. It had been a while since I have kept a diary, especially long, in fact, but if I am going on as long of a trip as I believe, I should probably dot down my thoughts to keep track of time.

Despite my avoidance of complex magic after all these years, I still have a good enough memory to cast a sequester spell on this book to keep unwanted peekers from fully understanding my writings. I know that the risk of the book being deciphered is grave, but I need to keep myself busy when I not travelling all around the known world.

Besides, I doubt that this mission Bishop sent me on will go according to plan as he hopes. But if I can get what I want before everything possibly goes south, then I'll at least come out a bit satisfied.

Nonetheless, I should probably write out how yesterday started before going off to bed to meet with Titan's Eye later tomorrow.

I woke up in a tavern last morning in a small village called Hidden Hope, having spent most of the previous day traveling with my rented cart on the roads. I had flashbacks last night. They were just as bad as before.

The Orange Grove Airstrip was just a few miles away, so I knew that I would get there within a short amount of time without much delay. However, there was still trouble.

A very vocal spat between two groups of adventurers occurred in the tavern's dining room. The argument had something to do with one of the groups messing up the plans that led to a forest fire in a place where they were searching for treasure. I can't remember everything about the argument, and thus I don't know who was truly in the wrong, but as far as I was aware it had nothing to do with me.

One of the adventurers, a pegasus stallion named Apollo, tried to keep the peace between his group --- which had more body armor and weapons --- and the other. 

Sadly, things only got worse between these two. The leader of one of the groups, Steel Grit, stole an item of importance from the other adventurers, seeing it as compensation for the treasure he had lost in the fire. Knowing a fight would happen, I got out of my stool and went towards the door as quickly as I could, but a sudden purple flash of light blinded me. The next thing I knew, I had been knocked down to the floor by something --- or somepony.

When my sight came back, I saw the two groups fighting with each other through the entire room, using anything they could get their hooves on as weapons to club or strike one another. It only came to an end when one of the owners of the tavern threatened to sic the local sheriff on the two groups if they didn't leave.

Not wanting to be in the middle of something that would stall my time, I decided to leave the tavern for a while to explore a bit of the town, which didn't have much to offer, to be honest. Luckily, by the time I returned all of the adventurers were gone and peace had been restored. 

After several hours of hanging around the tavern for a final time, I packed the rest of my belongings into the cart and headed off onto the late evening road towards the airstrip outside Manehattan. The four hours spent on the road were as relaxing as an early night in late summer could be, with its gentle, kissful winds and the pumpkin colored orange high above.





Your sins don't have to be kept in stone. You have a chance to atone for what you've done. Once you have completed your tasks, the True Gods will bless you with what you've desired all along.


[...]


You wouldn't have agreed if the truth was known to you. This was necessary for the sake of Equestria and all ponykind. When you see the fruits of our labor in the future, you'll understand.







DAY 1: Night Time 


The start of this day was very... eventful, to be honest. It's best just to start from the beginning.

After my time traveling out of Hidden Hope, I ended up camping in a spot of woods near the road. I was able to go sleep real quick after a bit of reading. Sadly, I had flashbacks again in my dreams. One of them wasn't that bad --- it was just about my meeting with Bishop. But the one that shook me was my last encounter with Creed. 

Hopefully I'll meet with the latter soon.

Any other memories that would have popped up in my head never got the chance to do so, as I was awakened by a noise from outside my tent. With a small shield spell around my head, I carefully crept out and examined the environment around me. As far as I was aware at first, the night forest was completely dead, aside from the cool breeze and occasional hoot or chirp of an unseen critter.

I even went by the cart to check for any unwelcomed intruders, only to find that there were none. With nothing seeming to be out of place, I assumed that the noise I heard of nothing I needed to worry about, so went back to my tent to go back to sleep. But before I could reach the flaps, I heard a low voice from behind me:

"Hello there, neighbor."

Stunned and caught off my guard, I turned around to find myself facing a tan stallion unicorn with a silver mane who was dressed in armor. By instinct, my body was readying my horn in preparation of casting some form of spell, but the other unicorn beat me to it by a ghastly green glow of his own horn, which he pointed straight at me like an offender would with a knife or cannon.

"There's no need to do anything rash," the unicorn said, a smirk glued to his lips. "Just need you to comply for a bit. It's safe, boys!"

Out of the shadows of the surrounding bushes emerged two stallions: one a purple pegasus and the other a very large black earth pony. The unicorn ordered the pegasus, named Quicks, to search the nearby road for any incoming travelers --- just in case somepony wanted to "be a hero". While the pegasus flew away with a "Yes, sir!" and a salute, the unicorn kept his horn trained on me, never letting it waver. Eventually, as he eyed me up and down, he got to talking again.

"You look a bit familiar," he asked. "Where have I seen you before?"

A similiar question popped up in my mind. Despite his horn radiating a bunch of light, I was still able to get a good enough look at his face to comprehend the fact I recognize spotting his appearance from somewhere recent. Before I could find any words to say regarding the matter, the other lackey spoke first. 

"Hey boss," the large earth pony said, "I think I saw him from the inn today. I mean, I could be wrong, but I could be right, too."

"The inn?" the unicorn asked. With a stern face, he closed in further on me until both of our horns nearly touched tips. Green sparks of magical energy sprinkled down on my face as the unicorn examined me with his cold indigo eyes. Eventually, he gave me a bit of breathing room.

"Yeah," he said. "I remember you. You are from the inn." He then  chuckled. "You're that poor sod that pegasus broad knocked Volt into when the fighting started. I caught just a bit of that scene, but boy, did she give one mean hook."

It was at that moment that I realized that I was dealing with one of the adventuring groups that started the brawl at the inn, though it's safe to say that these armored ponies seemed more like mercenaries-for-hire than simple, out-going adventurers that go on wholesome trips for treasure and excitement.

When the pegasus, Quicks, came back, the unicorn, who I remembered being called Steel Grit at the inn by ponies there, informed me in on their demands: they wanted everything and anything of value from my cart that they could get their hooves on. Steel said they need compensation for something of value that they lost recently and have not been able to find. He promised that as long as I cooperated and just stand by and watch, that no harm would come upon me.

As Steel Grit made his demands, I chose to stay still and make no sudden movements. I didn't know what type of skills and weaponry these mercenaries had, and my combat skills from years ago were (and still are now) too rusty and neglected for me to even think about taking all three of them. With a reluctant, silent nod, I made it clear to them all that I would not put up any resistance. 

"Smart one, here," Steel Grit responded. He directed Quicks and the earth pony to strip my cart while he watched over me. As the two goons ripped open my tarp and rummaged through the supplies and items I brought on this journey, carelessly throwing some of them to the ground, Steel stayed true to his word and kept his horn trained on me. The dim green illumination glowing over the unicorn's face strengthened the ghastliness of his haunting smile, causing him to appear like an imaginary monster a foal finds underneath their bed.

If I ever gave Steel Grit the idea that I was frightened of him, I can not recall of myself being that impressed. As far as I was aware, his intimidating stance did little to change my stone, blank expression. Though I knew that I was danger if I made the wrong move, I just could not find it in myself to see Steel Grit and his lackeys as genuine threats to be scared of. 

In all honesty, I doubt that they were as heinous or wicked as the other ponies I have met.

Eventually, the two other mercenaries got through with rummaging through my items. By the end, the only things that seemed worthy of taking were a lamp embroidered with a few jewels and my silver typewriter --- much to their visible disappointment. Personally, I was not much bothered by the fact that they could have taken more than what they plucked, for some reason.

I really cannot explain it. I know that other ponies would be livid and horrified to have their cherished belongings ripped away from them, but I was totally indifferent. I guess that as long as these three did not impede my journey to the Sojourners, I couldn't care about what else would happen to me.

Once the goons told Steel Grit about their abundant findings, the leader's smile changed into a sour expression as he looked back at the pile at my cart. Telling me to stay still with an unexplained threat, he trotted over to the other two and yelled at them for not trying hard enough to find something of worth. Using his magic, he went through my trashed belongings and levitated many of them towards his snarling face for closer inspection. 

When Steel was done with that, he walked over back to me, still holding on to his scowl.

"Guess we got unlucky this time," he grumbled to me. "You're not that heavy on loot like the other four were. Hopefully the next feller we meet won't be a lightweight like you."

That statement really took me by surprise. If I was the fifth pony that they've robbed that night, it was hard for me to be assured about how safe these roads were when the sun went down. Nonetheless, I could find myself getting away from this situation scot-free, so I knew that little harm was coming my way. As long as I played nice.

"So," I start off saying, "if that's everything --- can you let me be?"

Steel Grit squinted his eyes at me, before letting out an exhausted, heavy sigh. "Well, I'm a stallion of my word --- at least sometimes. At least you didn't try to be a hero like the last poor sod." He chuckled coldly. "Made an injured fool out of himself and in front of his wife."

Steel ordered Quicks and Roadblock, the large earth pony, to take my lamp and typewriter to some wagon that I couldn't spot while he followed behind them. They followed through with the demand, but not without showing a lack of courtesy by leaving the rest of my belonging the ground. As the two mercenaries went away towards the trees with my possessions on their backs, Steel Grit walked backwards in the same direction, keeping his horn aimed at me.

But just before the ponies could be sequestered by the shadows of the forest, a voice from above stopped all three of them in their tracks.

"There you guys are! Been looking all over for you!"

Surprised, I looked up to see a white pegasus in the air, floating just near the tops of the surrounding trees. I didn't know anything about the pony at first, but I could tell from the mercenaries scowls and disgruntled faces that they were not pleased by the sudden appearance.

The pegasus lowered themselves down between me and the mercenaries. On the ground, I got a better look at them. The pegasus was a stallion owning a long black mane with a grey streak running through the middle. He had amber-orange eyes and a cutiemark of a fiery bird, perhaps a phoenix. Across the stallion's back was a satchel bag and a small sword kept in sheath.

"You have a lot of stones to follow us, Apollo," Steel Grit spat out with an venomous tone. "Leaving us was probably the best choice you've made, and now you just undid all of that."

The pegasus, Apollo, chuckled back, seemingly unfazed by the unicorn's threatening aura. "I couldn't just let the rest of you guys harass good folk all night." He looked back at me with calm, yet lively, smile. "Don't worry, they ain't getting away with you stuff."

"Where are the feathers?" Quicks asked angrily. 

Apollo shrugged. "Beats me. They could be anywhere?"

"We know you had something to do with them going missing," Roadblock stated.

"Let's not go making accusations like that. We don't know for certain it was me. I even told Volt the same thing when he and the others were holding up a food wagon."

Steel Grit's eyes widen. "What did you do?"

"Nothing serious," Apollo said in an unamused manner. "One thing I can promise, though, is that they'll be spending a few sore days in the county jail cells before their big trial... Just like you guys."

That last statement seemed to piss off Quicks, as the purple pegasus floated off the ground and flew towards the white one in a blind rage, shouting vulgar obscenities at threats of harm. Apollo managed to fly past me in a forceful gust of wind, that almost placed me on the ground, before Quicks could buck him. When the mercenary realized his target was not longer there, he too rushed past me in a quick hurry to pursue his prey in the night sky.

The two pegasi disappeared into the clouds above, leaving Steel Grit, Roadblock, and I behind. A few seconds later, lightning appeared inside one of the clouds, followed by the rumble of thunder. Quickly afterward, another strike of lightning apparated in a nearby cloud, then another, and then several more in sequence. Though it was hard to spot, I could slightly make out two dots floating around in the clouds whenever lightning was set off. 

At last, a loud scream perpetuated the night air as a final burst of lightning went off, and soon a whistling sound appeared that kept gettting louder. Though it was confusing to find its origin, the whistle ended when a heavy thud was made just near the other two and I. Following Steel Grit's gaze, I found that the foliage of the tree had been disturbed, with more than a dozen of its leaves falling to the ground, and from the foliage dropped an unconscious Quicks. The purple stallion's coat was darkened and his mane was all frazzled out. 

High above, Apollo's voice out of one of the clouds.

"That was a bit of a doozy," he resonated with a chuckle. "Almost got me there a few times."

The sight of their friend laying as a defeated heap on the ground drew mixed reactions. While Roadblock was left skittish and paranoid, his large frame shakily heavily due to his wobbly legs underneath as he searched for the remaining pegasus, Steel Grit was merely angry. From the ground, he called out to Apollo, telling him to come out and face the rest of them. 

In an unexpected show of speed, a flashing streak of white flew towards Roadblock at full speed. When it passed, the large earth pony fell to the ground with a loud yelp. On his neck was a large burn mark, which he tended to with his hoof when he got up off the ground. 

"W-where are you, y-y-you coward?" Roadblock mumbled out in a fearful tone. At this point, Steel Grit's horn was glowing green once more, ready to confront the unseen offender. But Steel wasn't quick enough to prevent what happened next.

In a rapid sequence, that same streak of white came back down and repeatedly pummeled Roadblock on his back, torso, legs, and head. Each strike, followed by the sharp sound of static, drew whimpering cries and yelps from the earth pony, who occasionally bucked in the direction where the streak went after getting hit. Steel Grit and I were left alone to merely watch as this jolting scene took place, with neither of us making a single move.

Eventually, the beatings wore down Roadblock, to the point where the char-coaled, burnt stallion was left stammering and wobbling around. That all came to a quick end when the white streak came down from the sky, made a curve upward, and slammed into Roadblock's chin. The final blow was enough to bring the earth pony to his hindlegs before falling down on his back in a motionless mess.

When Roadblock went down, the white streak floated in the air, revealing itself to be Apollo with a pair of miniature storm clouds on each forehoof. Seeing an advantage, Steel Grit gripped the white pegasus with his magic before he could fly away, and with strain threw him across the campsite against a tree trunk. Though the impact seemed to hurt him, and made the small clouds he possessed disappear, Apollo managed to get up on all fours hooves and defiantly glared back at Steel.

"I've always had the wrong feeling about you, Mustang," Steel Grit stated with gritted teeth. "Like you were just a screw-up just waiting for the moment to turn our luck against us. I never should have let the others convince me to let you join. That stunt you did in Farasi wasn't worth all of this trouble."

Apollo grinned. "Well, I have to say I'm a bit disappointed myself. I was hoping you all were swell fellows when we first met. Heck, I even got along with Volt at times, though he was mostly difficult. Even when you lied about how you got a job done, pushed ponies to pay you more than what was originally agreed upon, and didn't help those in need when you could have, I still thought that you weren't all that bad."

Steel Grit was left unmoved by the pegasus' remarks. "And I'm guessing tonight was the last straw for you, right?"

The pegasus shrugged. "It was actually this morning when you stole those feathers from the others. But hearing about you goons robbing ponies on the highways isn't something I'm cool with."

With his wing, Apollo pulled out the short sword from his scabbard and placed the handle in his mouth. With a gleam of determination in his eyes, the white pegasus floated off the ground and bursted towards Steel Grit.

What transpired was a back-and-forth struggle between the two stallions, which caused me to seek shelter behind my tent. A heavy song of wings flapping and jolts of magical energy filled the air as Apollo and Steel fought with each other. From what I could peek out, through his speed and agility Apollo tried to fly by Steel and slash him with his sword, while Steel himself shot jet after jet of spells at the empty spaces where the pegasus used to be. 

At one point, Apollo managed to produce a long, bloody wound on Steel's unarmored flank and rear leg, drawing a deep, aggravated groan from the unicorn. But things got worse for Apollo, as Steel landed an impactful spell on his back that brought him down to the ground, knocking out his sword. With wicked glee in his eyes, Steel Grit walked over to the injured stallion, ignoring the the blood trickling down his leg, as well as possibly ignoring the pain his wound was pounding out.

"Got you where I want you," he said. "Like a fly in a spider's web."

From his side, Steel Grit levitated out a spiked mace and began to twirl it around in the air. Apollo spotted the weapon and tried to get up on his hooves, but instead his fell back to the ground. From behind the tent, I could only watch as the mercenary took his time in approaching his former colleague, who was scrambling amongst the ground to an attempt to escape. The scene playing before me was almost like that of a horror movie, where you knew that blood and gore would be an imminent reality in just a few seconds.

But what happened next was surprising --- even to me. I never thought it through, nor was I even aware of what had happened until I saw that effects. It just happened.

From my own horn came a jet of golden light that flew across the campsite and hit Steel Grit's armor, and within the same second a barrage of electricity spread throughout the unicorn's body. In that instance, Steel let out a piercing howl and paused in his tracks, kneeling to the ground as the snap and crackle of the stun spell rendered his body nearly immobile.

Apollo eventually got up to his hooves to see the trembling unicorn right behind him. Planting his forehooves deep into the soil, the white pegasus raised the lower half off his body and bucked Steel Grit in the face. The ferocious impact of both hindlegs was enough to knock out three or four of the unicorn's teeth, along with causing squirts of blood to shoot out of his mouth. The fluid motion of Apollo's bucking was something that definitely took me off guard. 

When Steel Grit fell the ground --- motionless --- Apollo was quick to take out two pairs of hoofcuffs from his satchel and placed each one on both sets of the unicorn's legs. He then repeated the same process for Quicks and Roadblock, before taking out a flare gun with his wing and shooting it into the air. Once an explosion of red-orange light bursted in the air, Apollo walked over to my tent where I was.

"Hey there," he greeted with a smile. "Thanks for the help back there. If it wasn't for me, I'd be mincemeat."

I got up from my spot and slowly left my tent and towards the pegasus. "It just sort of happened," I responded. "I had no control over it."

"Still, I owe you. In fact, this is all sort of my fault. I stole something from them that wasn't theirs to keep, and gave it back to those who really deserved it. They wouldn't be out tonight robbing honest folk if it weren't for me."

I simply nodded to him and replied that he probably didn't mean to cause all of this trouble. I just wanted to got back to sleep and prepare for the journey I had the next day.

"Say, I have seen you from somewhere?" Apollo asked.

From my own memories, I could tell that this was the same pegasus who tried to ease tensions between the adventurers and mercenaries at the tavern before the fighting began. I told him where I recognized him from, and his face beamed with excitement.

"Oh! I do remember you from the tavern! I think you got knocked over or something during the brawl that went down." He laughs out loud. "Man, that was crazy! Don't you think?"

I nodded. "If you don't mind me asking --- what's going to happen to the three of them? I rather not go back to sleep with a few criminals nearby that could wake up at any moment."

"I'm guessing you didn't notice the flare," Apollo said, pointing up at the fading orange light in the sky with his wing tip. "The sheriff around these parts gave the gun to me. I told him about Steel and his goons after I met up with the other three of them earlier on. The sheriff and his posse should be here any moment to bring them to the county jail."

Seeing how dangerous these stallions were, I asked Apollo if a simple jail will be able to hold all six of them. He told me that they would be in the jail for only a day before they were transferred to a more guarded facility in Manehattan, where their trial would be held. That news brought a little bit of relief to my heart, along with the added fact from Apollo that the hoofcuffs held magic-suppressing properties.

With this whole chaos finally over with, I decided to head over to my wagon and began levitating my thrown-out belongings back inside. Apollo offered to help, but I told him I was fine and that I didn't have that much to put in storage. Once that was taken care of. I went back to my tent and tucked myself in. 

Despite the chaos of that night, I guess I was too tired to stay awake. I simply just drifted off to sleep, hoping that the next day woudlbe a bit better.