Darkness, darkness, was all he could make out. The feeling of loneliness and isolation. He didn't know how long he had been in that state, nor did he know how much longer it was possible for him to bear this feeling. Then the pain starts to rise in his senses with every second that passes, as it gets more and more unbearable.
After what felt like an eternity, everything stopped. The distress started to slowly fade and the darkness became more luminous. Slowly, his eyes began to open and all of his senses came back to him. Slowly, he began to raise his head. He lifted his right hand to rub his hurting temples. He began to look around, "What happened? ... Where am I?" and these were his first words as he slowly began to stand up. Looking at his surroundings, the first thing that he noticed were the trees, A lot of them, and that's how he came to the conclusion that he was in the forest, a really dark and dense forest. He came closer to one of the trees and began to inspect it. As he looked at them, he could immediately tell that they were nothing like the trees he knew. They were too colorful, cartoonish even, but this wasn't what bothered him the most, what bothered him the most was silence. He decides to keep his guard up and begins to look at himself for wounds or anything unusual.
Upon looking down at himself, he realized that he was clad in black armor. Looking closely at it, he realized how badly damaged it was. The next thing that he managed to catch were two big blades, one with a blue gemstone on its hilt, and the second one with a red gem. Wanting to further inspect them, he pulled the sword on his left out of its sheath, the sword was made out of really good quality iron and was around 3.8 feet long (115 centimeters). Regardless of its size, the blade was light enough to use it as a one-handed or two-handed sword, but its lightness wasn't the only surprise. The middle of the blade was adorned with runes of unknown origins. The runes were engraved with mirror-like precision on both sides of the blade. Upon deciding to test the blade, he swung it to test its sharpness. In the middle of a swing, runes on both sides of a blade ignited, emitting a blue glow.
" Well, that's something new," he murmured under his nose.
Hiding the blade in its sheath, he decided to look at the second blade. This one was almost the same in construction, except the runes on it were crimson red, and the feeling beaming from it was almost like it was alive on its own. He reattached it to his belt and continued to examine himself, discovering a rather large backpack in a deep dark blue color, with a bedroll on its side. Taking it from his back and placing it in front of him, he proceeded to check its contents.
Upon opening it, the first thing that he saw was a container with a few potions in it. Taking it out of the backpack and opening it, he decided to take the first one that caught his attention. After removing a vial containing some kind of red liquid, he managed to notice a sticker with an inscription saying "Greater potion of healing" At the same moment, everything darkened, and right in front of his eyes, a figure appeared. It was a tall man wearing a blue scarf with a moon on it. Half of the moon was red and the other half white. He was also wearing...
'BLACK ARMOR', he shouted in his mind. It was precisely the same as his but in much better condition.
" Is that me?" he wondered out loud.
Meanwhile, the person in front of him began to place a small cauldron on top of the campfire. He started to pour water into the kettle and prepared some kind of ingredients. Then, while adding components to the cauldron, he began to mix them together. The liquid in the kettle changed its color to red, and the man began to pour it into the vials. At the same moment, everything began to blur, and he found himself in front of his backpack again, while still holding the potion. Quickly checking his neck, he found a scarf exactly the same as in the vision
" Sooo...I made those potions? That means I'm pretty good at this... I think. Currently, I have no idea what I was doing. Alright, I am going to worry about this later, I still need to figure out where the hell I am. Besides, I still have the rest of the backpack to look into. "
Following these words, he put the potion back into its holder and began investigating every nook and cranny of his backpack for more hints of his past.
After about 15 minutes of exploring his backpack later, he was able to examine the rest of its content, which consisted of eight potions of healing, eight potions of stamina, eight potions of mana, and six potions of strength. Which, in total, gave thirty potions. Except there were not only potions, it also contained things like a few tins with food and five bottles of water, a rather big blanket, a long black cloak, a pair of binoculars, a pouch of money, and few rolls of bandages, four packs of cards, and two bottles of whisky.
" Whisky and cards... May be useful if I find company later on. That is if there is even any civilization in this place. "
Without giving it much thought, his gaze was drawn on two books that were in his possession. "Armorsmithing and blacksmithing" and "Potions brewing from 501 worlds and more" are the titles of two secret books.
" That would explain where I got my potion brewing knowledge," he exclaimed, with a slightly visible smile.
After these words, he put on his cloak and began packing everything back.
" Alright, so what do I do now? I am in the middle of nowhere, without even knowing where the hell this nowhere is. So, how do they do it? Ahh yes, close your eyes and spin three times, then open them and walk straight ahead. "
And so he proceeded to go straight in a random direction. He was trying to think about what he was doing before he found himself in this place. Without much success, he continued to go through the forest. After about fifty minutes of steady peace, the bushes behind him began to rustle, and he heard a loud roar. As the beast began to emerge from the bushes.
" ...Is that an overgrown lion? Wait, it's not a lion. The lions don't have scorpion tails, wings, or large lower fangs and fucking bat ears!"
He didn't get any more time to ponder about the beast, as it raised its front paw and sent him flying backwards. "FFFFUUUUCCCCKKKK" He flew into a rock at full speed. Fighting the pain, he slowly rose on his feet. He unsheathed his red sword, and pulled himself together for the upcoming fight. The beast charged at him once more, but this time he was prepared and avoided it with a quick motion to his left. Slashing it in the process, the beast roared in pain.
'That's gotta hurt ' he thought. Taking a fight stance once again, he stood right in front of the terrible abomination of nature. Instead of charging blingily, the beast threw its terrible scorpion tail at him. Jumping away from it, he tried to chop it off, but he missed. Meanwhile, the beast used its paw to land a hit on him but quickly rolled out of the way. Standing face-to-face with the beast that he now identified as a really odd-looking Manticore, the monster mowed once again and tried to pierce him with its tail. He rolled to his left, doing a 180-degree spin and slashing at the beast's tail. The manticore roared in pain as half of its tail fell to the ground. Without giving it a second to rest, he dashed to its side and slashed at its front paw, making a big gash in it. The beast struggled to keep its balance, and finally gave in and collapsed onto the ground.
" Time to finish the job," he murmured grimly under his nose.
With one last attempt to fight for its life, the beast swung its healthy paw at its opponent. He ducked beneath it and landed the final blow on the manticore chest. For a fraction of a second after piercing the monster, the runes on the sword started to glow brighter.
" It seems that you can forget how to fight, but your muscles still keep the memory and reflex. I felt a bit rusty fighting that monster, so I better start training again." He thought to himself while sheathing his swords. "Alright, let's keep moving. The faster I get out of this forest, the better.
After a one-and-a-half-hour journey through a seemingly never-ending forest, his eyes finally caught a glimpse of clearing. Reaching it and looking up, he saw a beautiful sea of stars. Everything began to blur, and then, with lightning-like speed, right in front of his eyes, thousands of images appeared, showing planets, stars, and even galaxies. He knew them, their names, and how they looked on the surface.
" Now I am fucking lost. First I see myself making potions and then the universe in one go!? Seriously, what the hell are these visions?" Without giving it much thought, he decided to set up a camp for the night.
Unconsciously for him, his previous actions attracted a certain being that likes to call herself "Nightmare".
" Alright, now I can make something ..." The world didn't let him finish because soon after he started speaking, a dark blue mist blew off his campfire. His smile faded as fast as the campfire. The mist began to change its form, and after a few seconds, right in front of him stood a figure that looked exactly like ... " A horse? Am I seeing right?" he exclaimed.
" HOW DARE YOU CALL US A HORSE! WE ARE NIGHTMARE MOON!" Nightmare exclaimed in anger.
" And it talks. Seriously, where am I?! First the damn lion with a scorpion tail and wings, and now a talking magic horse. Did I go insane? " He questioned himself worryingly.
" SILENCE! WE WON'T TOLERATE CALLING US BY SUCH NAMES." she shouted in anger.
" Someone has a serious anger problem," he murmured silently.
Having the opportunity to properly look at her, he discovers that her coat is completely black, her tail and mane are just like the sky above them - dark and full of stars. She also seemed to be wearing some kind of armor, which included armored horseshoes, some kind of armored regalia with a half moon on it, and a blue helmet made out of the same kind of material that horseshoes and regalia were made of.
" Ahh. Alright, what do you want?" He said, sighing.
" As your ruler, I dema- " She didn't get a chance to end the sentence when he interrupted her.
" First of all, you aren't my ruler, and second, I am not doing anything. I only awoke a couple of hours ago in this forest, and until now I didn't even know of your existence. "
" YOU SHALL SERVE ME OR ELSE, I SHALL MAKE YOU SERVE ME! "
" Ain't gonna happen," he said emphatically.
" So be it, '' she said and began to charge her horn with all her anger, and sent a bolt of bright blue magic at him. He jumped out of its way at the last second, grabbing his blue sword and taking a stance. Hearing an explosion, he turned around only to see a large crater with fire surrounding it. ' This is going to be tough ' he thought to himself, and prepared for the inevitable.
Second Lieutenant Strong Spear was going through the worst day of his life. First the princess disappeared, then some kind of dark queen wanting to enshroud the whole world in the eternal night. And all of this on his shift, ' I am soooo bucking tired ' he thought to himself, only for his thoughts to be interrupted by a giant explosion, turning his head towards the Everfree Forest. Seeing a large cloud of black smoke.
" Corporal, prepare everypony, we're leaving to investigate that place."
" Sir, Yes Sir!" he shouted.
After about twenty minutes, they arrived at the destroyed area. Looking at the crater, Strong Spear saw how big it was. It would be simple to fit all of his guards inside with some room left. His thoughts were, however, interrupted by one of his soldiers. " Sir, there are two figures on the left." Looking to his left, his eyes caught two shapes, one of them being the dark alicorn from before, when the second was... "What the hay is this thing?" he asked no one in particular.
" Corporal, go back to the town and alarm the rest of the guards. Everypony else is going with me. We're going to make sure that this criminal is going to be punished.
Back to the encounter.
The fight was tough. Whenever he wanted to strike his enemy, she used her magic to teleport away or turn into blue mist, which made this fight a whole lot harder for him. At this point, his plan was to just wear her down or destroy her horn so she couldn't use magic any more. This would make her vulnerable to his attacks and allow him a fast victory afterwards, but first he needed to distract her. 'But how?' he thought. As if something high in the sky heard him, a group of guards entered the battleground.
" Halt!" one of the guards shouted.
" In the name of the princess, you are under arrest."
The guards were overconfident because of their numbers, but this confidence didn't last long, as Nightmare Moon shot one beam of magic at them. When the beam collided with one of the guards, it killed him on touch, and made a small explosion, scattering most of them around.
Seeing it, he immediately began to run towards her with the intention of breaking her horn and speeding this up. Jumping from behind her, he aimed his sword and swung it at the horn. It shattered into thousands of pieces, creating small bolts of magic emitting from each piece. Nightmare Moon roared in pain as the blood began to pour out from her shattered horn.
He swiftly landed on the ground and concentrated only on her. While preparing to make his final strike, one of the remaining guards used his hind hooves to kick him on his back. Crushing onto the ground a few feets further, and silently thanking his now-completely shattered armor for the sliver of protection it provided. He slowly lifted himself off the ground, only to see a pink bolt of magic flying in his direction at extremely high speeds. Barely succeeding in dogging the projectile, he looked at the direction that it came from. Only now did he realize that a group of three guards were approaching him. After realizing what was happening, he sprung up and quickly prepared for another fight of the night.
The guards reached his position in only a few seconds, but those mere seconds were enough for him to see that one of them had a horn. The two other guards were just regular ponies, small but still regular. All three of them were wearing gold armor that covered their backs and golden helmets over their heads and backs of their necks. Their hooves were protected by golden armored horseshoes, leaving their bellies and half of their sides unprotected, and exposed to the attacks.
Looking further, all of them were carrying long spears on them. Their weapons seemed like they were not made for small pony bodies. That meant, they couldn't use them to their advantage. The fact that the spears were made almost entirely out of wood didn't help them either. One good strike with a sword, and they would break like nothing.
He shook out of his thoughts, only to be greeted with another bolt of magic flying towards him. He tried to dodge the bolt, only to fail and get hit in his shoulder. Luckily for him, this one wasn't as powerful as the one before, but it still made him wince in pain. After only a few seconds, the guards managed to catch up, and began to surround him.
" Why does this kind of shit keep happening to me?" he asked himself aloud
" What do you even want from me? Can't you see that we are on the same side since we are both fighting Nightmare Moon?" He pointed it out to the guards surrounding him.
" That doesn't matter. Our princess wants her alive and you nearly killed her! "
" It's not my fault that she attacked me first, plus, to me she still looks strong enough to still be kicking your asses. " He said, pointing at Nightmare fighting off at least six of the guards. Ignoring his arguments, the trio of the guards pointed their spears at him.
" As you wish, let's get this party started!" He shouted as the fight began.
The guards began to tighten the circle around him, but he still managed to find an opening. His eyes were filled with anger, as he made eye contact with a newbie guard. Her eyes caught an expression filled with fear, symbolizing that it was most likely her first real battle against a true enemy.
A small, devilish smirk appeared on his face as he quickly began to close the gap between them. Sliding under the spear, he punched her in one of her front hooves. Hearing the sound of a broken bone and a roar of pain, he immediately rolled away from her and stood on his legs.
Now, glancing at two standing guards and one whining in pain on the ground, gave him a bit of confidence to keep on fighting. He cut the distance between him and the duo of guards. The short expression of terror in their eyes didn't last long, and quickly traded places with a look of determination. One of the guards threw his spear toward the human but missed terribly. Not bothered, he began to charge his horn once again. only to be greeted with the sight of his enemy only a few feet away. His eyes went wide as the sword pierced right through his throat.
After taking out the second guard, his line of sight was drawn towards the last one remaining in his way, only to be surprised by a shout from behind him.
" RETREAT!" One of the guards fighting with Nightmare shouted.
'Either Nightmare is one hell of a warrior, or these guards are really sucking at what they are doing. ' He reflected to himself.
Hearing the command to retreat, the guard in front of him glanced behind himself, and looked at the one with a broken leg.
" Forgive me. " he said, and ran away, leaving a wounded guard to her fate.
" Don't leave me here!!" She shouted after her running companion, but to no avail.
" Please, I don't want to die." she whispered as tears began to flow from her eyes.
A strange feeling started to build up inside the warrior at that sight. At first he wasn't sure what it was, but after just a few seconds, he remembered. It was a pity. He genuinely felt sorry for her. He decided to spare her and help since he was partly responsible for this situation.
' I am going to regret that later on, won't I? ' He thought to himself.
" I am not going to hurt you, even if you wanted to kill me first. Instead, I am going to help you with that broken leg. "
" R...really?" She said this while visibly calming down.
" Yeah, but don't make me regret that later." He smiled a little to make her feel better.
" I am going to try my best." she returned with a weak shaky smile.
" Alright now, we need to... " He didn't have time to finish the sentence when he heard his new companion yell.
" Behind you!" she shouted, pointing her healthy hoof behind his back.
He didn't have time to turn around when something—or rather, somepony—hit him in the back, causing him to fall face first to the ground.He felt an immense pain in his back. Slowly rising from the ground, only to be struck and flown a few feet away. The traveler tried to pick himself up from the ground once again. This time he managed to rise just in time, to dodge his attacker, which was none other than Nightmare Moon herself.
" Why the hell does everyone want to kill me when I turn my back to them? " He asked himself while holding his chest tight with his hand.
" Stupid critter, now you are going to pay for what you did to us!"
He struggled to keep his posture, but Nightmare wasn't in better condition than he was. She was completely covered in small cuts.
" If you want to take me down, you need to try a little bit harder than that." He exclaimed while pointing his sword at her.
Looking straight into her eyes, he saw only hate and anger. Without much of a thought, she began to cut the distance between them. Clearly tired but still fueled by rage and hatred. But this will pass soon. Now all he has to do is dodge and wait until she wears herself out. Her fighting abilities suffered because her broken horn was required to cast any spells. She had to mainly rely on physical strength and stamina, which both were alarmingly weak.
Being driven by hate, she lost all sense of tactic, and kept hitting him with her head. The hardest attack to dodge was her taking a flying course at him, but with how damaged her wings were, she only used it twice. Any of those attacks weren't very effective, since they were slow and inconsistent. After a few minutes of this blind fury, her reserves of energy and anger started to fade. Now was his time to attack. He quickly pulled out his second sword and started swinging alternately at her. Evidently surprised by that, Nightmare Moon began to back away while blocking his attacks with her armored horseshoes.
But it hasn't lasted long because after a few swings she missed one block, which resulted in a big cut alongside her front hoof. The crimson liquid began to pour out of the wound, making her wince, but she clearly tried not to think about it. Unfortunately for her, she failed to hide the pain. With only one hoof that is capable of doing anything, it was time to finish this fight. He swung his sword at her, which she blocked, but that was what he wanted. Keeping her occupied, he used his second sword to slash her chest, breaking her regalia into pieces.
She immediately collapsed onto the ground, and a small pool of blood started to form around her. He came closer, and crouched right in front of her. Eyes that were earlier full of color, are now losing saturation with astonishing speed. After just a few seconds, her body started to emit a black smoke. Taken aback by that, he took a few steps back. Only now did he realize that the fumes started to fly at him, or rather towards his sword. The cloud began to rim his blade, only to be absorbed by it. Dumbfounded, he looked at it with interest. ' I think I need to do a few experiments with it, but now I have to recover from the fight.' He thought to himself with great interest.
Looking back at Nightmare Moon, he could see that her body has changed. For example, she was no longer pitch black, instead her fur changed its color to grayish-blue. The next noticeable difference was her size, since she had gotten at least twice smaller, and was now around 5 feet (1.55m). Her mane had lost its eternal braze as well as all of its stars. Now it was light blue, as was her tail. But this wasn't the most amazing change, because all of her wounds healed with the exception of what his swords made. Which means she is still going to bleed out if not treated. He realized that she changed not only in appearance, but in character as well, because the aura of negativity around her, faded away.
" Since when am I so kind to people that try to kill me?" He said, annoyed at himself.
" AGH! Fine, she's going to owe me sooo much after that." saying that, he took his backpack and pulled one of his potions of healing. Using his teeth to open it, he began to pour the contents of the vail into her mouth. The effect was almost instantaneous. The only thing that didn't heal was her horn, which he assumed was magical, so it would need something related to magic to heal. He put the vail back in his backpack, and looked back at his new made 'friend'.
" Great, she didn't wake up, which means I have to carry her, but the same applies for the guard with her broken leg. UGH! What am I going to do now, I can't carry two of them at once." He asked himself while looking around.
He searched the area around him for something useful, and after a while, he caught a glimpse of vines hanging down from one of the trees. " I think I may have an idea."
He was right. The vines were perfect for making something to carry an unconscious pony. The construction resembled a backpack and allowed him to carry someone on his back. He put his new friend in a "vine-pack," as he called it. He was expecting a lot of weight but was pleasantly surprised by the pony's lightness, not that he complained. " Alright now, take the guard and get as far as possible." He said to himself and started to trot in the guard's direction.
" Hey, I'm back."
" What are you?" she asked, with fear in her voice.
" What?"
" I asked, What are you! There's nothing in all of Equestria that could have survived something like that, and walked away like nothing ever happened!"
" Oh that. It may be because I am not from here, I guess. " he answered, unsure of his answer.
" What do you mean, you guess!? You're not sure of where you're from?"
" Yeah, that's the problem, I lost my memory, but I'm starting to recall a few things, but still nothing important at the moment."
" Alright but..." she couldn't finish a sentence before being interrupted.
" If you want to go with me, then we need to move, or else we might get caught by reinforcements. Wait, can't you just stay here and wait for them? You're one of them after all. "
" I can't."
" Why?"
" Because if they find me here alive even after all of this, they're going to kill me, most likely thinking that I am some kind of impostor. In other words, I don't want to have anything in common with them after they left me here to die. "
" Understandable, OH and by the way, sorry for the leg. I haven't got any other choice."
" Apology accepted. Sooooo what's the plan, big guy?"
" I need to take you in my arms, and after we get to a reasonable distance, I am going to bandage your leg."
" Sounds good to me."
A FEW HOURS LATER.
Luna grunted as her senses began to come back to her, and slowly opened her eyes. She yawned and tried to stretch her limbs, only to feel something preventing her from doing so. She started to panic, only to be stopped by someone's voice.
" Hey you, you're finally awake."
" Who's there!? " She screamed in terror.
" Chill out, Nightmare. You're tied up because I'm not sure about my judgment. So convince me that you have changed not only in appearance but in character as well."
" What do you mean? What happened? And we aren't Nightmare Moon anymore; our name is Luna. "
" Guess my theory was correct. Hmm, so you have no recollection of what happened when you were Nightmare Moon?"
" We remember only some fragments of it."
" Still better than me." He murmured to himself.
" Alright, I'm going to free you from your bounds, but please don't freak out." He said this while drawing his sword and cutting the vines.
" Why would I ... freak out?"
Her eyes widened when she saw an almost 7-foot tall figure(around 2.03m) clad in black destroyed armor. His eyes were in two different colors. The left one was blue, with the aura of kindness and peace around it. The right one was crimson red, with an aura of rage and hate surrounding it. Both of them were glowing in the dark. He looked at her with his cat-like eyes straight into her soul, or so she thought. Her ears slapped flat on her head.
" W-Who are you?!"
" I am someone who helped you even though you tried to kill me before. By the way, It's not the best way to make friends. Oh and sorry for the horn. My potions didn't work on it."
" I am someone who helped you even though you tried to kill me before. By the way, sorry for the horn. My potions didn't work on it."
" What do you mean?! What became of our horn!?"
She began to scratch her head with her hoofs in search of her horn. The only thing she found was a shattered foundation of it. It didn't even stick out of her fur.
" What did you do to us!"
" I fought you, only because you attacked me first. Breaking it was my only hope of victory. Sorry it has to be this way."
" Please tell us how all of this happened." She said, with tears in her eyes.
" Alright. So everything started when..."
After about ten minutes, he reached the end of his tale, and looked at her face, which was now full of regrets.
" We're sorry for what we did when we were Nightmare Moon."
" So you really were possessed by something back then."
" In some ways, we were possessed by our own jealousy and anger towards our sister."
" Fortunately, it's all behind you now."
" Yes, we hope so."
" So you want to meet our third companion? In fact, I don't know her well myself, so I guess the three of us may talk a little bit to get to know each other. "
" We agree with you."
The Guard sat near the campfire that this so-called human had built before going to see Nightmare Moon. Even though he broke her leg, he didn't seem that bad, at least as long as you were on his good side. But that red eye, It terrified her so much. She had no idea why, but when she looked inside of it, it was almost as if she stared straight into death's own eyes. She was so deep in her thoughts that she didn't see him coming from her left.
" Hey, I'm back and I have a guest!"
She jumped in place, only to have her leg remind of itself. "OUH!" She yelped in excruciating pain, she felt.
" Hehe. Sorry about that. Anyway, I want you to meet Nightmare Moon herself. " He said happily while pointing his hand at the pony behind him.
" You're kidding, right?" She was shocked by the fact that he untied the pony that tried to kill them a few hours ago.
" NOPE," He said, and sat on the opposite side of the campfire and gestured for Luna to sit. She compiled and sat on the left side of the campfire.
" I guess introductions are in order. Please allow me to introduce myself first. My name is Arrin, and from what I can tell, I am just a simple adventurer that has traveled through quite a number of places."
" Yeah, simple adventurer... Anyway my name is Guarding Hart, and I used to be a member of Solar Guard. But currently everypony probably thinks I am dead."
"Our name is Luna, and we used to rule Equestria alongside our sister, but a thousand years ago we rebelled and became Nightmare Moon. Then we were banished to the moon for a thousand years. But it seems that thou menaged to free us from our own hate and jealousy. "
" Alright, since we all know each other now, I may have a question for you."
" What is it?" "Guarding Hart asked.
" Can any of you tell me where the hell I am? Because I have no idea since I saw talking horses for the first time in my life."
" First of all, we aren't horses, we are ponies. Second of all, you're in Equestria now, or more precisely, in the Everfree Forest. How can you not know that?"
" Well, I kind of woke up here only a few hours ago, and I have no idea how I ended up here." He was still deep in thought.
" Hmm. That's interesting, but what's more interesting is the question, what are we going to do now?"
" I'm probably going to do a few jobs here and there and, of course, move around
" Okay, so I know what I will be doing. How about you two? Are you going back to your old jobs?" He asked with curiosity in his voice. Both of the ponies looked at him, then at each other. After a brief moment, Luna finally spoke.
" We don't know."
" I don't know either."
" In that case... How about we form a team? It's going to be easier to survive together than alone." He asked enthusiastically. Both ponies looked at him in shock. And after a moment they finally spoke.
" We guess we might join forces with you, since you are strong enough to defeat us."
" I guess I don't have a choice, since I can't even walk by myself, let alone survive."
"Fantastic! Now we need a name for our team, but what may that be? "
"How about Daring Champions?" Luna asked.
"Or how about The Iron Fangs?" Guarding heart proposed.
"Both sound really good, but I have my own proposition. What would you say about Shadowbringers?"
"Sounds good to me. How about you, Luna?" Said Guarding Heart
"We like it too."
"Then from now on, our team shall be known as the Shadowbringers."
" Alright, but first we need to find a way out of this forest. And since we have no idea which direction to go in, we might have a problem." Guarding Hart said as she was evidently troubled by this revelation.
" We're going to use a secret method to exit the forest."
" Let's do it then." Luna answered with a smile.
" That would be unwise at this time of day. I would advise that we stay here for the night and set out in the morning."
" After all of this, a good night's sleep sounds really appealing to me." The ex-guard stated that with a yawn.
" Alright then, I may have something for you to make your rest a little bit more enjoyable." Saying that, he pulled a blanket and a bed roll out of his backpack.
" Here, take this."
" Thank you," both of them said simultaneously.
" What about you, though?" Luna expressed her concern.
" Don't worry about me. I will be fine."
" Maybe we're going to share a blanket together. It's big enough for both of us." said Guardian Hart with a smile.
He fluttered slightly, but he realized she said it without any sexual intencion.
" T-Thanks for the offer. I may consider it." He answered with a slight grin on his face, while still feeling a bit uneasy.
" Anyway, let's go to sleep. Tomorrow we're moving out. " He cleared his throatawkwardly.
" Good night," Luna said, and drifted off to her slumber.
" Sooo is that offer with the blanket still open?" He asked, to which she smiled and patted the ground next to her with her healthy hoof. He lied beside her and looked at the starry sky above.
' This is going to be a long journey ' he thought to himself and closed his eyes.