Chapter 1: The Painted Stallion
Fluttershy was so excited, she felt like shouting. Well, almost felt like shouting. It was the first day of summer, and she and her friends had planned to celebrate by going out for a picnic. Spring was a nice season to be sure, but harvest time had Applejack busy at the farm while the weather transition from winter had herself and Rainbow Dash busy with the animals and weather, respectfully.
Fluttershy just needed to get a few chores done around the house and then she would be on her way. “Okay Angel, why don’t you go put the food together in the basket while I get the animals penned for the day?”
The hardnosed little bunny gave her a stare of frustration, but with a sigh turned to complete the task, mumbling about, what Fluttershy heard as, him being the only one who got things done around the place. She smiled. He may act tough, but he was a good little helper…and so cute.
Flying about her place, Fluttershy checked on all the animals. The sheep were all in their pens, good. All the birds were in their homes and trees, check. Goats, ganders, and mice; check, check and double check. All that was left were the chickens.
Humming to herself, she entered the chicken coop. “How are we all today?” she asked, checking to make sure they were comfortable. They clucked with their thanks in agreement; they were such good chickens. “Let’s see…one, two, three, four, fiv…uh oh. Where’s mister Cluckintine?”
She looked about the coop, but he was nowhere to be seen. Following his tracks lead her to a hole in the chicken wire. “Oh no,” she gasped, “I thought I fixed that back when the Cutie Mark Crusaders were here!” This was not good. She feared mister Cluckintine must have wandered into the Everfree Forest. Oh, why did she have to live so close to there?
Mustering what little courage she had, she made her way into the forest. “Here mister Cluckintine…here chicki-chicken. Where are-eep!” she squealed at a rustling behind her. This place is creepy even in the daytime, she thought to herself. But she had to push on.
After scaring herself a few times with her own shadow and a broken twig here and there, she finally found a trail of chicken tracks. She must be getting close, and not a moment too soon. That’s when she heard something in the distance.
“ARRRRRGHH!”
She was about to hoof it out as fast as she could when she realized that wasn’t an animal call. That was a cry for help from a pony! But, what pony would be this deep into Everfree Forest, Fluttershy thought.
“GUNTHER!”
No matter, somepony was in trouble. She may not be a brave pony, but she couldn’t ignore somepony in trouble, and it might be too late if she ran back for help. Galloping and pushing her way through the brush, she made her way to where the calls were coming from. She stopped dead in her tracks when she came upon the source of the cries.
There in the clearing stood two stallions surrounded by a pack of timber wolves. One of the stallions was standing over the other, holding what looked to Fluttershy like an overly-long knife, trying to fend off five hungry-looking timber wolves from his fallen compatriot. Fluttershy noticed that nearly a dozen other timber wolves lay dead or bleeding around the two ponies, but surely they couldn’t have fought them all?
As she watched, two of the timber wolves lunged at the stallion with the long knife. He punctured one of them through the throat, but the other latched onto his leg. Bringing his leg up, the stallion threw the timber wolf to the ground, crushing it under his stout hoof. But he was bleeding badly and looked to be at the end of his rope when the other three wolves moved to end the fight. Fluttershy knew it was now or never. She just hoped she knew what she was doing.
Faelan couldn’t believe this was going to be the end. Out of all the battles he’d been in, of all the pegasi, unicorns, and other creatures he had felled, he was going to die to a pack of wolves. They had gotten careless. He knew he could heal himself if given the chance to Feed, but the wolves had kept coming, seemingly out of nowhere. Now he couldn’t even protect his last brother-in-arms, much less himself.
He dropped to his knees with family sword drawn as the last of his sight clouded due to the blood loss. At least, he thought, I can die with sword in hoof like a true warrior. But just when the wolves were about to make the final blow a yellow blur came in and stopped in front of him.
“Please stop!” it called out.
Faelan couldn’t believe it, but the wolves held back. He had been saved, but by who or what? He was about to speak, but he knew he had no energy left. The last thing Faelan saw looked like a young yellow mare with a pink mane as he finally lost consciousness.
“Oh, please be okay.” Checking the pony that had fallen first, she was disheartened to find that it was too late for him. It was with a glad heart that she found the other pony still breathing; unconscious, but still alive. He was also still clutching that weird-looking knife in his hoof. I guess it must be important to him, she thought.
If she could at least get him to the edge of the forest she could go get her friends to help bring him to a hospital. Taking the knife in her mouth, she hefted the stallion onto her back and began to walk out of the forest. Or crawl, more or less; this stallion was heavy.
With the crisis over, Fluttershy finally had some time to get a better look at the stallion. He was rather tall and heavy set, as her back muscles kept telling her, putting her in mind of Big Macintosh. His blonde mane was braided to one side with an iron lock and he had a short beard that she noticed was also braided. Odd, she thought, since when do colts braid their hair? He had a brown, shaggy coat and was wearing thick fur hind-boots, which seemed to indicate to Fluttershy that he must come from a colder part of Equestria.
However, that’s where the familiarities ended. He wore these metal galoshes that seemed to cover his front hooves. She noticed with horror that he wore a skinned bear belt over his back, but for what purpose one would skin a harmless little bear was beyond her. His body, below the tears and scraps from earlier, also appeared to have tattoos painted into his coat. They were blue and raced around in strange and intricate patterns that Fluttershy found hard to look at for any extended period of time.
But that wasn’t even the scariest part. Where a cutie mark should be was a creepy image that defied being called a cutie mark. It was red and looked to be a visage of a rabid animal. What could such a cutie mark mean, and did she really want to find out? Where could such a scary pony come from? Fluttershy knew she needed to get him to care, but she would be glad not to be around when he woke up.
Twilight Sparkle trotted down the streets of Ponyville with a purpose. She had been in the middle of preparing for the picnic today by choosing a good book to read on such a lovely day when Rainbow Dash had nearly crashed through her door in her haste. Apparently Fluttershy had found a mysterious stallion like nopony had ever seen before in critical condition in the Everfree Forest and had carried him by herself to safety. Twilight was on her way to join her and Applejack at the hospital when a familiar pink earth pony came bouncing out of Sugarcube Corner.
“Hey Twilight, where you off to in such a big hurry? You know the picnic isn’t for another hour, unless you all decided to make it earlier, which I can totally understand on such a BEAUTIFUL day. I mean how many times does the first day of summer come around? But that means you left your goodies at home! Don’t worry I’ll just grab some from…” the hyperactive Pinkie Pie went on.
“Pinkie! It’s not any of those things. Fluttershy and Applejack are at the hospital after…”
“WHAT! Are they hurt?! Where did it happen? TELL ME!”
“Whoa…easy Pinkie, they’re fine. They’re at the hospital because they found a wounded pony in the Everfree Forest. He was severely injured, so they had to carry him to the care center and I’m on my way to join them. You could come, too, if you want. This pony might need all the well-wishers he can get.”
“*Gasp* That means there’s a new pony in town, and you know what that means!” Pinkie Pie said with a gleam in her eyes.
“Pinkie Pie! This pony is in critical care! The last thing he needs is some crazy welcome party while he is in the hospital.”
“Well, duhhhh. That’s why I’m going to throw him a get-well-soon party and invite every pony in Ponyville to wish him well! He’ll be so grateful he’s bound to heal super-duper quickly and then we can throw him a welcome-to-Ponyville party! Two parties! I better get to inviting all the ponies right now!”
And with that Ponyville’s famous party pony dashed away in a pink blur. Twilight just had to shake her head. Well that’s Pinkie for you, she mused, able to find a reason to celebrate no matter the situation. Walking into the hospital, she was greeted by the sight of her friend Applejack in the waiting room, her hat in her hooves and a grim look on her face.
“Hey, Applejack. What does it look like so far?”
“Aw, it ain’t lookin’ too good, Twi. He was mighty beat up when last I saw him. Queerest-lookin’ pony I ever did see, though. Got these weird markings all over ‘imself. But I guess ya need to see fer yourself.”
“Okay, I’ll go check in with the doctor.” Looking around Twilight noticed somepony was missing. “Hey, where’s Fluttershy?”
“Oh, she’s in the little filly’s room. Gotta hand it to her, though; goin’ into the Everfree Forest on her own like that. Carried the big guy herself until I came along. He sure was heavy, even with the two of us.”
“Well, I guess I just need to take a look at this mysterious stallion. Oh, and if a crowd of ponies start flooding into the room, don’t be surprised.”
“Pinkie Pie?”
“Pinkie Pie.”
Making her way past the receptionist, Twilight was introduced to Dr. Ever-Ready or Dr. ER for short. She walked over to a window overlooking the operating room and finally got a glimpse of the mysterious painted stallion. Applejack was right; he was a sight to see. Turning to Dr. ER Twilight asked, “How is he, doctor?”
“Well, his vitals have stabilized and we’ve cleaned and bandaged the wounds. A lesser stallion would have probably died from the shock.”
Turning to Twilight, he continued, “It’s actually a good thing you arrived, Twilight Sparkle. Your knowledge of abstract trivia may prove useful. You see, he’s like no other pony I’ve ever seen before. The marks on his body are quite evident, but while operating I noticed they seemed to be imbued into his coat, almost like a part of him. Also, my unicorn assistants couldn’t seem to use their magic on his body, so we were forced to do the whole operation by hoof. I didn’t know if it might be some kind unicorn magic of some kind, if that is what you think?”
Twilight furrowed her brow in thought. “It’s true that unicorns sometimes use runes or enchantments on objects, but none of my studies have suggested such things could be done to living creatures. Such research was considered too dangerous to pursue, not to mention the ethical issues.”
“Well, that wasn’t the only peculiar feature we observed. We noticed that he had set of upper and lower canines in his jaw, much like a carnivorous animal. We didn’t know whether to chalk it up to a genetic abnormality or whether he is some kind of obscure species of pony.”
“I don’t know. I’ve never read of any such occurrences in any of my books. I could see if I could get Princess Celestia to allow me into the royal library to do some research on the subject. If there’s anywhere in Equestria that has a book with the information it’s Canterlot.”
“Thank you, Twilight. It will be good to have all the information possible on such a patient. Don’t worry, though, he won’t be moving for awhile yet.”
Twilight looked back at their mystery pony. She had a lot of research to do and a letter to the Princess to write. It was then that she noticed the stallion begin to move. “I think he’s awake. I think…wait a minute. What is he doing with the blood pack? Is he…?” Twilight trailed off.
Dr. ER moved to an intercom switch. “Nurses to the operating room, stat!”
Faelan could hardly move when he awoke. Looking over himself, he saw that he was nearly wrapped head to hoof in bandages. He tried to think back, but the only thing that came to him was the image of that yellow mare with the pink mane. I better find her to honor her deed, he thought to himself.
Looking over to his left he noticed a bag of blood that seemed to be connected to his body via a tube. Reaching up, he took the bag, tore it open with his teeth and began to drink the contents. Not as good or as enjoyable as a proper Feeding, but it would get the job done. The runes on his body began to glow red and morph while he felt his limbs begin to mend themselves. The experience always carried a certain amount of pain, but after centuries of practice he hardly noticed anymore.
He had just about finished when three ponies barged into the room, all wearing funny-looking white attire. The eldest pony, a blue stallion with a graying mane, exclaimed, “What do you think you are doing?! Nurses, hold him down!”
Faelan reasoned this must be the village healer and probably one of the elders. Shaking the kinks from laying down so long, he forced his body off the table, shrugging off the bandages and the weak mares’ attempts to get him back onto the table. Seeing his body no longer marred with the scars from earlier, their attempts ceased and they simply stood staring in disbelief.
The elder pony began to stammer, “I-I-I’ve never seen anything like this. How did you…?”
“Forgive me healer. I sometimes forget how long it has been since another pony has witnessed a Feeding. I assure you that I pose no threat to you or your village. I simply wish to take my things and leave. So, if you could return me my clothes and weapons I will leave this village without another word.”
“Well…okay. Follow me then.” And with that the elder pony dismissed the two mares and turned down, what looked to Faelan like, a room connecting many more rooms.
Faelan followed the pony down the halls to a room containing his equipment. After fitting himself back into his harness and placing his sword back into its sheath he turned to the doctor and said, “Many thanks to you healer. Before I go I wish to ask, do you know the name of a yellow mare with a pink mane?”
“Oh! You must mean Fluttershy. Yes, she’s in the waiting room at the end of the hall if you wish to thank her. Um…before you go I wish to ask something of you. What was that you did back there?”
Faelan looked him dead in the eye and stated, “It is called the Feeding, and that is all you need to know.” With that Faelan turned away to leave, but was stopped by the sight of a purple mare entering the room…a purple unicorn!
The small pony looked up to him and put out a hoof. “Hello, my name is Twilight Sparkle. Let me be the first to congratulate you on such a…speedy recovery.” It seemed to look him up and down, trying to size him up. “What a very…interesting get up you have. Might I know your name?”
Faelan stared the small pony down. Turning to the elder he asked, “Healer, why does this slave insist on talking to me? And why hasn’t its horn been removed?”
The purple unicorn seemed to take offense at this, shouting, “Slave! Such practices have never been used in Equestria or anywhere I know! Only the most ancient records even mention such an institution. Where are you from that such a despicable practice is used?” it said with much heat in its voice.
Faelan was confused. He had assumed with the elder healer being an earth pony that he was in friendly territory. If this wasn’t an earth pony village, then it must be a unicorn settlement! That would explain the odd halls and the odd clothing. He turned to the elder pony and, grabbing him by the hoof, threw him over his back. “Hold on healer! I’m going to save you from your unicorn masters!” He may not be able to save every earth pony in the building, but he could get the elder healer to safety.
Faelan charged the small unicorn. It seemed dumbfounded at the thought of him running her down and tried to use its magic on him. He felt the pain of the absorbed magic radiate throughout his body. This must be a truly powerful wizard; the pain had nearly stopped him in his tracks. But it was too late as he kicked her to the side like a sack of potatoes. He had nearly reached the end of that impossibly long hall when the elder pony began to pitch a fit.
“Put me down! What are you doing?!”
“I’m saving you from your prison. I’ll get you out of here and back to an earth pony village with your kinsmen.”
“What are you talking about, prison? This is my home. I’m not being held here, I live here!”
The unicorns must have used their magic to warp his mind. Perhaps another healer could fix him. Faelan now saw what looked to him to be an exit to this impossibly large building. Bursting through the door, he was greeted by the sight of an orange earth pony wearing an odd hat.
Looking at him wide-eyed the orange mare exclaimed, “What in tarnation is goin’ on here!?”
“Follow me kinsman. I’m breaking out of this unicorn stronghold.”
“Uhhh, you’re doin’ what now?”
“No time to explain. I’ll cut a path for you to follow.” And with that Faelan burst through the door that he reasoned was the exit, welcoming the embrace of daylight. However, that was not the only thing waiting for him on the outside.
Staring at him were nearly three dozen pairs of eyes from what he figured had to be the entire population of the village. But to his horror he saw not only unicorns, but pegasi and earth ponies as well. What was going on?
Before he could react a pink earth pony with perhaps the most ridiculous cutie mark he had ever seen came up and started shouting. “Oh, hi there! I’m Pinkie Pie. You must be the spooky mystery stallion everypony keeps talking about. You must be ‘cause I’ve never seen you before, I know everypony in Ponyville, which means you must be new! I had gotten everypony to wish you well, and it must’ve worked ‘cause you’re all better, and we didn’t even need to wish you well. You must’ve been extra super-duper grateful for it to work so fast. Hey, why do you have Dr. ER on your back? Are we playing a game, because I love games, especially PARTY games!”
Faelan didn’t know what to do. All those eyes were staring at him. He knew he could easily slaughter the entire village, but what would that accomplish if he didn’t know why his kinsmen were living alongside their mortal enemies. Unless…
“No…it can’t be.” He now feared for the worst. He knew the three tribes had convened to settle matters long ago, but the chancellor couldn’t have possibly sold out his fellow earth ponies, could he?
“What can’t be what?” the pink pony inquired.
Bucking the healer off his back, Faelan shoved the earth pony to the ground as he prepared for what he must do. The chancellor may have surrendered like a coward, but not him!
“Hey! That hurt you know!”
“ENOUGH! If my fellow earth ponies have chosen to surrender themselves to a life of slavery to the unicorns and pegasi here, then they have thrown away all honor! I will raze this village to the ground, even if I have to tear it down brick by brick!”
At this the villagers began to scream and panic. Such spineless curs, he thought. A few stallions took a step towards him motioning that they would protect their gutless marefolk. Two began to rush him, but he dispatched them effortlessly with two kicks to their legs, snapping the joints like twigs. A pegasus then flew by attempting to throw him off balance. Faelan relished the moment when he caught the pegasus’ wing in his teeth and dragged the bastard to the ground.
He was about to cave the pony’s head in when a lasso wrapped around his hoof in mid-strike. Turning his gaze, he caught sight of the orange earth pony from before, when he then caught sight of the other pony next to her. It was the yellow mare from before in the forest!
The orange one spoke, “Hold on there, partner! I don’t know what the fuss is about, but we can’t have ya goin’ around beatin’ up every pony in Ponyville.” She looked around seeing all the other ponies running in panic. “What in Equestria did ya do to them?”
Now the yellow mare started to speak, in a voice barely above a whisper. “Please, no more fighting! I’m sure it’s just a misunderstanding. There’s no reason for anypony to get hurt.”
Faelan brought his foot down gently, backing away from the other injured stallions. He slowly made his way over to the two mares and stood before the yellow one. Bowing his head he asked, “Are you the one they call Fluttershy?”
“Y-y-y-yes.”
“Then you are the one I owe my life to. It would be my honor to…” he trailed off. Looking down at her he couldn’t believe his eyes. She had wings! She was a pegasus! He had his life saved by a pegasus, his sworn enemy!
But, how had he not notice before? Wait…back in the forest she had ran in front of him. He didn’t remember hearing the flapping of wings. That’s why he didn’t notice before! By the gods, he owed blood debt to a pegasus!
“No! This is not how it is meant to be!” he fumed. He felt the anger building inside. He could crush her right here, it would be so easy. But he owed blood debt; his honor demanded it be repaid.
The yellow pegasus was now cowering behind her orange companion, who honestly wasn’t faring much better. Gathering his composure he tried to make his voice as even as he could manage. “Fluttershy, may I speak with you. On my honor I will not harm you if you don’t give me reason to.”
Poking her head out the little pony squeaked in that impossibly soft voice of hers, “W-wa-what d-do you want?”
“You have saved my life when it was not your duty to do so. You are one of my sworn enemies, thus your mercy leaves me owing you blood debt in return. Stendarr the Righteous, all-father of the earth ponies, demands all debts be paid, for his is the path of justice. I offer my services to you, and will pledge my life until the blood debt is repaid in your service.”
“Oh no, that won’t be necessary. I just did what any pony would have done. There’s no need for…”
“You DARE refuse my offer!” Faelan bellowed. “You shame me yet again, pegasus! If you will not allow me to regain my honor by fulfilling the blood debt then I will take it from you on the field of battle!”
At this the orange pony turned to her friend, exclaiming, “Just agree to the fella’s offer Fluttershy, or he’s fixin’ to burn down all of Ponyville!”
“Um…okay. I accept. Just, please, don’t hurt anypony else, if that’s okay with you.”
Faelan let out a sigh. By the gods, he was going to regret this, but Stendarr sees all. “Then I, Faelan, son of Omarr, of the Grey-Mane clan, in the presence Stendarr, do pledge my services to you, lady Fluttershy, as your huscarl. I pledge to protect your person and all that you possess until my blood debt be repaid or until death take me in your service.” Drawing his sword, he placed it at Fluttershy’s feet, “My sword is yours.”
The orange pony turned to her friend, “Well, congrats Fluttershy. Ya got a crazy tattooed stallion at yer beck n’ call, who will probably be sleepin’ over at your place tonight if I miss mah guess.”
“Eep!” And with that Fluttershy fainted.
“Was it somethin’ I said?”
Faelan looked to the sky. The gods sure had a terrible sense of humor.