//------------------------------// // Chapter 3: Ponies, Wards, and Wings // Story: Everharted // by Camlio //------------------------------// "Defend the town you awaken in, the six stars that shall light your way to your ultimate fate shall sparkle into view soon." - Unknown Voice As your mind stirs you register that the feeling of the chair underneath you is different than it was before, yet it's form was familiar to your body. It was made from wood instead of stone your sense of touch told you, and the smell of books and oddly machinery told you that you'd been moved since falling into slumber. "Do you really think we should have moved him here Twilight? I know the Princesses said it was okay and the chair's supposed to fix him up but, I'm not quite sure that it's helping him get any better. I mean he hasn't moved an inch since we set him in it." A young male voice spoke out through the haze of your mind. "It's fine Spike, the Princess Celestia even taught me the spell to make one of those odd thrones his body needs to heal itself. Though I wish she'd have let me borrow the book for it or at least told me more about him." A female voice said in your semi-conscious state as you could hear hoofsteps ascending a staircase close by. "I wonder if I have a book that has a reference to him." The voice said before your mind returned to slumber, it was not time to wake yet. Your mind awakens once again as the starbolt hood glows, the mark of the filly who granted you her power etching itself on the cloth. This event drew the attention of someone nearby causing them to move closer and alerting your body that it must awaken so you sit up. Your eyes open to see a strange creature that looked like a rather odd reptile standing on it's back legs looking at you. It was apparently shocked to see you awaken. "H-He's awake! T-Twiiiiliiiigggght!" The apparently young male reptile cried out as it ran upstairs looking for whoever this Twilight person or pony was. "He is?" A somewhat familiar voice was heard as the lavender mare from the ruins came down the steps. "You're awake!" The mare called out in glee as she leaped at you and gave you a hug and began sobbing openly. "I-I'm sorry. Y-You got hurt so badly while simply trying to help the girls save me." She said pulling back from the hug and looking at you while rubbing her eyes. You decided not to use your new speech just yet, mainly as you didn't want to scare her while she's already upset. So you simply reached out and gently stroked her mane in a soothing manner a soft smile gracing your face as you stood. This apparently did wonders to sooth the mare's nerves as she leaned into your hand in a rather instinctive fashion. This caused her to blush as she realized what she was doing. "O-Oh I'm sorry, that felt really good for some reason." She admitted shaking her head to collect her thoughts. "R-Right, my name is Twilight Sparkle personal student of Princess Celestia and most recently Ponyville's librarian and your... I think the Princess called me your Ward?" It was obvious she didn't know what the last one meant but the Vessel seemed too. A small trail of energy flowing from your hand and tracing around the symbol on her flanks as it became embroidered onto the Cloak. Like a piece of Heraldry. The positioning of it was odd, as it was placed in a manner that easily left room for five more surrounding it as if it was a piece to a greater whole. The lights had drawn Twilight's attention and caused her to check your back and what she saw shocked her. "What happened? Why does your cloak have my cutie mark on it now?" She asked confused to which all you could do was shake your head in confusion as the reptile from before ran back downstairs. "Twilight! If you don't hurry you're gonna be late helping Applejack!" It said which caused the mare's fur to bristle. "Oh my gosh you're right Spike! We gotta get going!" She said rushing upstairs with the reptile who you assumed was Spike sitting on her back. As she crested the stairs she turned to you. "Um... aren't you coming Spirit?" She asked which drew a confused look from you. "It's short for Spirit of the Vessel." She said proudly before rushing off which made you blink and chase after her. You had nothing better to do anyway, apparently she was important enough to have her mark added to the cloak. Besides, she gave you a name. "Spirit, I could get used to that." ran through your mind as you ran out of the Library after Twilight. You hovered through town slightly in the way the starbolt hood seemed to command your body to do, though the controls for it were as natural as walking or running. The ponies who noticed you either looked at you fearfully or in awe of the strange power of levitation you possessed. A small pony popped out of the blue and spoke to you, it seemed to be a small female, a filly from what little memory of home you could recall. "Hey how're you floating like that?" The filly asked, now that you looked at her, besides the colors she looked like a smaller version of the rainbow maned pony that was with Twilight the night before. "Um... I don't know, I just can." Was all you could think of to reply, you didn't know how your powers worked, it seemed the Vessel gave you instinctual knowledge of each power when you needed it. Though this answer seemed to disappoint the filly. "Aww come on! That's no fair, you don't even have wings and you can fly!" She said with a tone of defeat and hung her head before riding away on a scooter of all things. "I don't think I can fly... Can I?" You barely manage to say before you feel the rush of energy that comes with the knowledge of a new power. As well as the telltale rush of cloth shifting and changing. This time the cloak had changed into another odd combo. A pair of goggles and a two pairs of crimson wings that matched the vessel's odd hair color that seemed to attach to your back, the new nerves giving your brain a momentary jolt. This sudden transformation was definitely a spectacle as all the ponies, as you were told by another rush of knowledge though this one was from a childlike voice in your head, began to stare at you in awe. Making you rather uncomfortable to be quite honest, so you put your new power to use and leaped onto a building by flapping the sets of wings in unison before launching skywards and looking for anyplace you could escape from the eyes of the ponies. Settling your eyes on an apple orchard you began to glide in that direction, the wings apparently not ready for flight yet. "Why do all the powers seem to involve constellations or mythology?" raced through your mind as you descended into an apple tree. Just in time to see Twilight and Spike walking by with the orange mare from yesterday. AJ, you recall her saying her name was. Something in your gut said you needed to keep a watch on Twilight as soon as you saw a belch of green flame flow from Spike's mouth as well as two golden tickets... today would be long indeed.