Chapter 3: Strange Meetings
"Ugh, this heat is killing me!" Stronghoof exclaimed in annoyance, since he had became one of the royal guards at the service of Canterlot and their royal highnesses, he hasn't had the luck of just being one of the other guards that just stood like statue in some 'Important spot' around the castle, the city wall or even the town. NO! he needed to be sent on some strange mission that came across the paperwork of his superior, in this case, Captain Shining Armor.
Since he was a small unicorn colt it had been his dream to one day see himself guard the gates of the royal castle, or maybe even become one of the body guards of the princess herself!
So being in the middle of the forest in a swamp wasn't exactly on his 'wish list'.
"Stop complaining, Stronghoof. It was an order of the princess herself, and as her loyal guards it is our duty to serve" Lightstorm explained with pride. Lightstorm was a pegasus with a white coat accompanied with a yellow and unkept mane. He had been best friends with Stronghoof since their first day in the academy, and in all this time he had learned how his brown coated friend always liked to complain about almost everything, he just couldn't help it.
"They could have at least accepted my proposal for an armor meant for summer, you know, lighter and breezier" the brown equine groaned with contempt. In his mind it had been a great idea, but the old commander said it was pointless, and that the royal armor had been a symbol for generations that should remain the same. What morons, he would like to see them say the same if they were right here with him under this deadly heat.
"I liked your idea" The support from his friend was enough to at least break a grin on Stronghoofs face. Maybe the white Pegasus could be an 'Egghead' from time to time but he could always count with him.
"All right gentlecolts, thats enough, you can continue your marital problems at home" At this statement the whole squad couldn't help but laugh loudly. Captain Shining Armor knew that the best way to raise the moral of his troops was with a good laugh, even when somepony was the unlucky target. Lightstorm just decided to continue with a even firmer march, trying to save any dignity he still had, however, Stronghoof´s pride cried for a payback, Oh! and Celestia knew he would have it.
"Yeah, the Captain´s right boys, we need to hurry up or Princess Cadence would have him to sleep outdoors tonight!" At this extreme form of cruelty the ponies in the patrol just laughed even harder. Maybe it wasn't the best way to talk to your superior, but Stronghoof had the luck of being an old friend of Shinings, this wasn't the first time they had play pranks on each other, but since he had gotten married some months ago all the current jokes in the royal guard had been aimed toward him.
Shining Armor just let out a defeated sigh, he knew this would be a long day, but he couldn't help but crack a grin, remembering that Cadence had ACTUALLY put him outdoors for once. It had been a big misunderstanding that wasn't solved until the dark cold night had passed.
Even with all the continuous laughter and other jokes that came from behind his shoulders, Shining Armor was able to hear some strange noises coming just some hoofs ahead of him. The following movement in the bushes told him that indeed something was coming.
With a firm hoof raised in the air all the guards stop their noises and suddenly stop, some of them took their positions beside their captain, maybe they could be 'hard headed' sometimes but they were also the most loyal ponies he could wish for.
"What is it, captain?" Asked a clearly feminine voice, it was Fastflutter, another of the Pegasi that formed his current patrol and also one of the most skilled flyers he had ever seen. However the only response for the blue maned and silver coated pegasus from her captain was just a shake of his head with a clear frown on it, determined to not let down his guard.
After a few more minutes of intense waiting and perspiration their answer finally came. Their pupils dilated as their eyes tried to get a better view of what they could. Some could be heard loudly swallowing as their bodies began to tense, ready for any sudden movement. An annoying silence was the only thing that hung in the air; thankfully...maybe, it was broken for Stronghoof, as he said aloud what everypony was thinking.
"Well... this sucks"
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The trio of fillies slowly made their way through the massive halls of the old and worn castle. Fear could be seen clearly in their expression but they held firm and continued their small trot, led by the one with the biggest amount of courage for the time being, and that would be the orange pegasus with a purple mane named Scootaloo.
"Are ya sure ya know where we’re going, Scootaloo?" Applebloom asked in an unsure tone, as her eyes caught any movement that could be seen in this depressing place, occasionally the scrapping of old branches on windows or some forgotten dripping would cause the small filly to jump back in surprise, but only until she realize they were just vain actions of nature.
"O-of course, I already told you that it's this way!" She yelled back, sounding indignant and brave. The truth however was that she had gotten lost a good half hour ago, but her pride wouldn’t allow her to tell her friends, but she wouldn't have minded being right beside her idol right now.
"You know, Scootaloo, I think it was even worse to have come across this old castle for that 'shortcut'" Sweetie belle blamed, trying her best to not get the living lights scared out of her as a bird came across one of the broken windows cawing loudly.
"Aaah! come on girls, we are NOT lost... see! I'm pretty sure that the exit is around that corner!" She yelled in false joy as she quickly rushed where the wall took a turn and disappeared on the other side. She wasn't even out of the sight of her friends for a second before returning bouncing back on her flank off the ground a few times. Obviously she had bump against 'something'.
"Augh! ouch, ouch, ouch.... Who put a wall in this corn-" Her sentence was middle cut as her eyes slowly open to reveal that the 'wall' wasn't exactly a wall but instead something more... interesting.
Sweetie belle and Applebloom immediately ran to the side of her friend, hoping that she was fine, when they tried to call her she only stood there with her jaw almost hitting solid ground. Not understanding her situation both fillies turned their heads to the place where Scootaloo’s gaze had been lost. As they did, they too almost lost their jaws. Standing just one hoof away from them was a pony, but not just any random run of the mill normal pony, oh no, of course not, this one was really huge, massive if they knew the word! He, as it was, was a stallion, just standing proudly with what looked like an angry frown on his face.
After the little fillies began to snap out of their surprised shock they began to note the qualities of this pony, of course in their own way. Scootaloo turned her attention to the facial look of this pony, his mane was really spiky and tall, over his face was a series of rivets... or maybe piercings that were drawing an interesting pattern, finally her jaw almost truly hit the floor as she saw his eyes. They were like nothing she had seen before seeing as they were COMPLETELY purple with rings forming outside of his irises.
Sweetie Belle looked at his clothes, since her sister was fashion designer she had learned, even unwittingly, to look and judge the clothes that the ponies use. His outfit was only one garment, but that was more than enough to bring a chill down the spine of the small and now terrified filly. It was a large and black cloak that had a several red clouds on it. For some reason she felt... as if the clothing told her tales of sadness as well as danger.
And finally, AppleBloom twisted her neck in an uncomfortable manner to see this ponies face, and the impression she saw scared her as well. She had NEVER met any pony bigger than her brother, of course besides the princesses, but this pony was easily bigger than Big Macintosh!
"..."
Nagato could only raise a surprised brow, he wasn't expecting this. A group of strange colored miniature horses that possessed both surprised and frightened expressions on their faces. This was odd indeed. With a quick scan with his Rinnegan he saw that these horses didn't have chakra as well, that means no summons, even with the wings the orange one had and the horn the white one carried on its head... with his previous experience he was understandably having doubts to whether these horses were sentient beings. So it was also understandable that he was surprised again when the orange one spoke.
"Whoaaaah... Cool!" Said the horse with the same voice of one of the girls he had heard before. It was easy for him to put two and two together so he could guess these... fillies were the ones complaining some odd moments ago. Maybe this time THEY could be useful, thankfully he had sent Jigokudo this time so he would know what he wanted or...
"So... you can talk after all" Said Jigokudo with a bored and deep voice, his frown didn't even move an inch as he spoke. His statement seems to insult the orange filly because she start bouncing in an angrily.
"Of course we can talk sir, we're not foals!" She complained in tantrum. Putting that aside he decided to begin his questions.
"Tell me horses, where and what is this place?" However it didn’t go the way he planned.
"Who are ya sir? And what are ya doing over here? By the way can ya help us a little?" Ask Apple Bloom, at first she had hesitated since this pony intimidated her, he still did by the way, but they were lost even when her friend didn't want to admit it, and they could use any help right now. At least they come across somepony and not a Manticore or some Timberwolves.
"I asked first" Counter back Jigokudo as he starts to really frown and not only his habitual expression.
"Well, my sister says that you always need to introduce yourself before asking things to somepony" Explain Sweetie Belle in a shy tone, she try to defend themselves even when this pony really scare her. This time, however, he remained a little more calm, with an inner sigh he remembered to himself that he was talking with 'kids'.
"Fine, I'm Pain. I'm god."
After hearing his introduction the three fillies look at each other with clear expressions of even more fear, his name actually fit him, and they all replied 'what!?'. After a few seconds the CMC had thought about it and they came to the conclusion he was just kidding or something with the thing about 'god', but Nagato began to become impatient.
"Now, tell me, wha-"
"Hi there, Mr. Pain, I`m Scootaloo..."
"...I`m Sweetie Belle..."
"... and Ah`m Applebloom!"
"And we are the 'Cutie Mark Crusaders'!!!" Yell in unison the three fillies, bouncing and giggling to themselves and getting back their happiness. They always loved to tell everypony 'Who' they are. Jigokudo just blinked a few times after being interrupted again, this time quite surprised for these fillies, they were really strange truly. With a quick shake of his head he took a few hoofsteps near the fillies, which seems to surprise as they back away a little. They don´t know if this pony could be trusted.
"Now, after 'that'... tell me, what is this place" He asked with the most serious tone he could achieve, and it was a good one for the sudden transformation of the faces the fillies previously had, as well as the swallowing loudly.
"W-well this i-is the old castle of the Princesses" Princesses? This gets the attention of Jigokudo, maybe these ‘monarchs’ would be useful in the long run. Also, why they would abandon a castle like this one? Besides the frailty and the fact that it could fall to the ground in any second he was pretty sure that in one time this building was majestic.
"Tell me more" Sweetie Belle almost fell to the ground as the enormous pony came closer to her face, the 'bad stallion' attitude this pony had really showed dislike to her, but once again, fearing that something would happen if she didn’t answer, she started to explain to this pony about the Princesses Celestia and Luna, at least what her young mind knew. Even for a filly like her this was odd; this pony seemed to not know about Equestria at all! He didn't even know what the Elements of Harmony were when she came to that part in the story when her sister and her friends freed Princess Luna from her evil form. She thought that something wasn't right about this pony, his lack of knowledge about the basics in history and also...well, about everything, confused her. And then the strange questions he asked like 'Where are the Elemental Nations?' or 'What do you mean by magic?'.
After what seemed like an hour and a half Sweetie Belle finally end her explanations and allowed the stallion a few moments to understand what she said. Nagato was a little confused at first, being in this... new world? Was a surprise but it wasn't something he hadn't expected. The red maned stallion only let out a frustrated sigh as his head hung low, his previous fight had truly sent him and Konan in this twisted world in where it seems these 'Ponies' are the intelligent species, he also doubts they are the only ones but that must wait. He can only curse ‘him’ in his thoughts and his real body, that bastard had betrayed him in the end.
Now that he didn’t need these fillies... he determined it was time to go.
"Very well, thank you for the information" And as that he began to trot away, he was actually glad he didn't need to use the powers of Jigokudo to get the information he needed, it wasn't that he had never done it before but... well, they were just kids, he wasn't the devil, he just want to achieve that 'peace' he was fighting for since his childhood.
"Oh well it was nothi- Ay! wait, where are you going?!" Yelled Sweetie Belle after seeing how this pony was leaving her and the girls behind and alone in this old dangerous castle, and that is not including the Everfree Forest of course! Her sudden yell awoke her two friends that had just fallen asleep like half an hour ago, leaving the 'Egghead' to explain to this pony whatever he wanted to know. They too saw their situation and the trio of fillies immediately rushed in front of the massive orange stallion, blocking his trot.
"We helped you, I thought you were going to help us!" The white unicorn exclaim with some surprise and worry, even though she doesn't trust or like this pony, she didn’t like the idea of being lost in this place and alone in THIS forest even more. However, the next answer he gave began to drop their hopes even further.
"I never said I would help you, filly" His firm and serious stare make Sweetie Belle to jump back a little in surprise, but this time she wouldn't feel fear, this was their best hope to return safely and she knew it. So, with the support of her loyal friends she confronted this pony.
"My name is Sweetie Belle, not filly!...please, we just want to return to Zecora, she couldn´t be far by the way, but the forest is dangerous" she explained with the hope now that this pony would finally help them.
"And then why you were here in the first place?" Asked Jigokudo, beginning to grow even more annoyed at this point. If what this little pony was telling him was true then why the heck had they come to such a place? Were they dumb?
"W-well we want to get our cutie marks in explorers, o-of course." 'Cutie Marks?' Ah, yes he remembered she said something like that before, something about pictures on their flanks that told them their special talent.
"It´s foolish to get yourself in danger only for that stupid 'mark' you talk about" He tried to explain; hoping they would understand it was THEIR fault and would leave him alone.
The result was totally the opposite.
"It wasn´t! Is easy for you to say so, you already have your cutie mark!... by the way... what its mean?" He blinks a few times after hearing her statement, this caught him out of guard, he had a what? Turning his attention to his flank in where the orange filly had pointed to before, to his surprise indeed was a 'Cutie Mark' adorning his sides. The fillies don't seems to understand it, but he does, the background was the Rinnegan and over it was a deep purple flame, like some kind of spiritual representation of his powers... quite interesting, he would need to see if the other paths had it too. Turning his attention back to the fillies they look very interested in knowing what it means, but they don't need to.
"Well... it is not of your interest, now I must leave" And with that he continued his trot again. This caught the fillies in surprise again since they believed they had finally convinced him to help them. So with their last try the three of them decided in whispers to use their last resource... a deadly technique only known to them. They put themselves in front of the big stallion as they look directly into his eyes, at first they hesitate since they were quite strange, but it was their last hope. They use... the 'puppy face'
Their eyes almost grow twice their normal size as they absorb all the light they can to complete the effect, and for the finishing touch... a super cute and sad voice.
"Please sir... we are lost and we want to get back home... Please, please, please, pretty please with a lot of sugar in the top... please?" They couldn't help but to laugh in their minds, yes! They finally have him, mwahahah-
"No" He just said with a blank expression and past the small group of horses like nothing. Their surprised faces didn't have a price at all, if somepony could see them they would laugh to the ground for the funny sight of their jaws hitting the ground. He had resisted the 'Puppy Faces' like nothing! Not even a flinch.
At this point they got really worried, this was bad, if this big and apparently strong pony (That would be quite useful in the Everfree Forest) was that mean, they were gonna need to try their best to return to where Zecora is on their own... that’s if they make it. Sweetie Belle can´t help it anymore and began to sob, her friends after seen her in that state and realizing their situation start sobbing too.
"P-please... j-just please... I want to see my sister again sir... please" Pray her and Scootaloo and Applebloom joined too with their own wishes.
"..."
He wasn't sure... they were just kids in the end... well, helping them wouldn´t cause harm to him (Not that anything can) or wouldn´t be a problem in his search of information... so...
"Very well then, at least keep going" Finally resignation hit him with a long sigh. This immediately hit the ears of the fillies that thrill with his answer, their faces immediately returned to their happy smiles and they began bouncing and singing some happy and victorious songs. He just shook his head again, already regretting this, but well, he already accepted.
"Just don´t delay, you understand?"
"Yes!!!" Exclaim the three in unison. To his surprise... and a little annoyance, the fillies suddenly manage to jump on his back, clearly hoping for a ride. He just raised a brow as he ask the obvious.
"What do you think you're doing?" His voice was a little annoyed, but they were too happy to notice or care.
"Returning with you to Zecora’s of course! The Forest is dangerous, didn't tell you this before?" Answering his question was the orange filly since she was the nearest to his head, it wasn't the answer he was looking for, though. With another loud sigh and shake of his head he began to trot with the fillies in his back... thankfully he wasn't in his world any more, where if someone were watching him, his reputation would have taken a huge dive.
As he moved they began to sing again...
"No singing"
"But-"
"NO SINGING"
"...ok..."
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Konan couldn't help but be more interested in this world. Since she had began this small tour with Pipsqueak he had been very happy to show her EVERYTHING he could about his 'lovely' town as he had said. She occasionally would ask him some small and interesting questions, and he was more than happy to answer.
It was odd to walk just in the middle of this ponies just like that, but they don’t seem too afraid or weary of her, she hadn´t witnessed any kind of guard trying to stop her and ask for her whereabouts, maybe some ponies would look at her with curiosity but that doesn't harm her, even more, some ponies also smiled at her and wave at her … especially the stallions…curious. She must admit she felt strange, but not a 'bad' strange at least.
"Why is everypony so happy and careless around here, Pipsqueak?" She asked with genuine interest, even when she had try to find any sign of problems or any sudden attack she just failed miserably.
"Well... I don't know what you mean Miss Konan, everypony is like that here... in all Equestria actually" he just confessed to her with a shrug of genuine innocence... just like any kid. She felt a little surprised when she felt something in her chest, at first she thought it was jab but it was nothing, so she just ignored it... for the moment.
"Maybe it’s because of the Princesses, they’ve always kept Equestria like this for the last thousand years, a happy place!" He said with a one of his big smiles with lots of pride behind it.
'The princesses, huh?' He had told her about them before, and if they truly had been able to keep this 'peace' for that much time maybe they can give her more answers... she would need to meet them, also Pain would like to know this, maybe it was time for her to go.
"Well, thank you, Pipsqueak, for your help, I think it is time for me to go, you should see us sooner or later"
"Wait!" Just before she could turn around and trot he stopped her in her move, he couldn't help but blush a little for his sudden reaction, after that he just continue with whatever he wanted to tell her.
"Before you go you must meet a friend of mine, she is the coolest, funniest and happiest pony in all Ponyville! Maybe in all Equestria!" The happiest? Well that got her attention... that and the constant bouncing and playing smile on the face of the small colt. So with a patient nod she turned his way again, he quickly began trotting as he called for her again. She couldn't help this time but to... smile.
That truly shocked her. She quickly began to look in all directions, looking if someone had seen her, just like she had killed somepony or something like that. It was a weak and almost imperceptible smile but it was smile in the end, she had not smiled for years... she hadn’t smiled since... it hurt her too much too remember it.
For some reason this world, this small child, had made her finally smile again for the first time in a long time, she stayed confused for some moments until her train of thoughts crashed as Pipsqueak called for a new pony with a REALLY loud cry.
"PINKY PIE!" Konan rush to his side after hearing him scream like that, but she just found him looking at a big ... is that a cake-like-building? She had seen some strange things in her world and this one, but this was just ridiculous.
The sudden and strange noise coming from the building turned on her instincts, then next was the burst of pink coming at her at unbelievable speed making her put herself between 'that' and Pipsqueak, fearing that she finally found a shinobi in this world.
"Wait! it’s just-"