//------------------------------// // Chapter 7: Just A Normal Day // Story: A Lost Hero // by Emerald Byte //------------------------------// Chapter 7: Just A Normal Day Kald groaned as he opened his eyes and woke up from his unexpected night spent asleep on the floor. Kald had spent much of his time in his living room as of late, which had become something of a workshop for him with parts from his many disassembled inventions strung all about the floor as his most recent project was nearing completion. Using his human form and having help from Twilight when he needed it had resulted in his project getting finished much faster than he had anticipated. Kald got up off the floor firmly placing all four hooves and stretching his back feeling the refreshing pop of his joints, and decided it was high time he took a bath. Kald leisurely walked up the stairs to his bathroom and began running hot water into the tub. As the water ran, Kald grabbed the bubble bath that Pinkie Pie had given him and transformed into human form to open the bottle and pour a little in. With the bath bubbling nicely he recapped and placed the bottle back under his sink and transformed back to his stallion form, removing his jacket Kald stepped into the tub and began to relax. With the water warm and the bubbles cleaning him, Kald drifted into thought and was wondering what more about his transformation he had yet to discover. He had learned his clothes had pretty much become a part of him, he had tried taking them off before and then changing into pony form only to have the clothes disappear from where they lay except for the jacket, and upon transforming back to his human form his clothes were back on. It also seemed taking a bath as a pony washed his clothes as well drawing Kald to the conclusion that his coat and his clothes were one in the same, at least he wouldn’t have to have more regular clothes now, which Kald chalked up to a personal win since he didn't much like having a lot of clothes. Growing confident in his cleanliness, Kald climbed out of the tub and pulled the plug to let it drain as he shook off and got a towel to attempt to dry himself. Kald got done as best he could and walked back down his stairs to look at his project and smiled to himself at it’s near completion. It had been a lot of work getting this new project done and he was excited to give it a test run, a few more finishing touches and his new booster pack would be ready. Kald always enjoyed freedom of flight and the wind going through his hair despite his nagging fear of heights, but the booster pack and having that ability to fly just made the fear go away. In all honesty he wished he would have been turned into a pegasus instead of a unicorn so he would never have to fear being in a high place and not being able to fly. Being so lost in thought Kald barely even noticed there was a knock on his door. As he came back to reality he quickly yelled, “Come in, doors open,” as he turned his attention back to the near finished booster pack. With that the door swung open and three energetic fillies walked in the door, “Hey Kald, what’s up?”, Scootaloo chimed as she jumped into the room with her wings fluttering. Kald turned in surprise at his guests, “Well hi girls. I didn't expect you to be at my door, what are you up too today?” “We were about to go out crusading and figured, since you don't have your cutie mark and all, that maybe you would wanna join us,” said Applebloom as she walked over to look at what Kald was working on, “What’s this?” Kald perked up at her interest as the others came to look at his little invention, “This is going to be my new and improved booster pack once it’s finished. It will be more powerful enabling me to go faster with less effort and should be able to switch fittings freely between my pony and human forms. Just having a little trouble getting it finished.” Kald looked with pride at his creation as the girls seemed to take a fascination with it. Sweetie Belle looked up to Kald quizzically, “What’s the problem? I mean it’s your invention, shouldn’t you be able to make it work like the other one?” “Well to be honest, I didn’t invent it alone. It was my idea yes but I never could quite get it to work. I had a friend back home that actually understood the finer point more than I did. Without him, that first hover board would have never been finished, and modifying his work into the first booster pack wasn’t hard since basically all I did was change the outside, the machine itself worked the same,” Kald seemed to have a distant look in his eyes at his remembrance of his lost friend. The time they had spent together working on personal projects and hanging out had been some of his fondest memories. Scootaloo was the first to hop down back to the floor soon followed by the rest of the crusaders, “That’s cool and all, but it’s over my head. So are you coming with us?” She asked ecstatically. Kald fiddled with some circuits in the pack and then shut the lid to cover the circuits, making the pack retract and fold into itself until it looked like a metal egg, “Well...I still have a lot of work to do, so I don’t think so this time. Plus i’m not worried about my cutie mark.” Sweetie Belle rushed over to Kald, “Not worried!? But everypony needs their cutie mark!” Kald laughed a little at her over reaction, “I’m sorry girls i'm just busy right now is all.” Sweetie Belle looked up at Kald, with big eyes and a quibbling lower lip, “Please won’t you come with us?” Kald sighed and just couldn’t turn them down now, “Ok. I needed to give the new pack a test run anyway,” Kald scooped the compacted pack into his hoof and placed it in one of his jacket pockets, turning to accompany the crusaders on their wacky adventure. “Yea! Cutie mark crusaders ho!” The trio shouted together as they trotted off with Kald following behind making sure to shut his door. As Kald trotted along with the crusaders he couldn’t help but think that this would make for an interesting day. *********** Kald sat in a corner of the crusaders club house as the three fillies came up with ideas on what to try for a cutie mark. Kald smiled to himself seeing the eagerness and joy in their faces as they rambled on with ideas, Kald knew some were a little dangerous and would be there to protect them mostly but he figured some of the ideas they had would be fun. “Let’s try getting a cooking cutie mark,” Scootaloo, chimed in above the others. “Nah, that won’t work I already tried that with Pinkie,” Applebloom said dismissively. The three thought again for a moment until Sweetie Belle had an idea and turned to Kald, “What do you think we should try for a cutie mark?” she asked as Applebloom and Scootaloo turned to look, waiting with anticipation. Kald was surprised they would want his opinion since he is new around here, but figured what could a little idea hurt, “Well how about exploring somewhere to try and find something new to get some kind of explorers cutie mark,” Kald laughed a little to himself at his silly idea. Scootaloo bounced up with excitement as she frantically flapped her little wings “That sounds awesome!” Sweetie belle quickly ran to a storage chest and came back wearing a safari hat, “We could try exploring the Everfree Forest.” Kald got up at the mention of the forest, he had heard much of how it was dangerous, “Now girls wouldn’t that be dangerous why not explore something safer.” Applebloom looked to the others and then back to Kald with a stern look, “Everypony knows about everywhere here around Ponyville, if we’re gonna find somethin’ new, we gotta go there. Besides you will be with us, so we will be fine.” Kald sighed his agreement to go, knowing full well they would go without him or not and he couldn't just let them go by themselves, “Alright but, if anything dangerous starts to happen I am getting you out of there. Deal?” “Deal!” they all cheered in delight as they prepared themselves for an exploratory trip to the Everfree Forest. *********** Kald followed close behind the trio as he kept a watchful eye for anything that might pose a threat, although the thought of when the crusaders had to stop him from walking into some poison joke made him smile a little at how little he knew about what was really dangerous. The trees all seemed to be like one’s from his home, they were old and some damaged from natural growth he guessed. As they trudged on Kald kept having a bad feeling that something was watching, Kald constantly stopped to try and listen for movement but heard nothing aside from the trio of fillies ahead of him. “Hey look at this!” Scootaloo yelled as they neared what appeared to be a clearing of some kind, “Isn’t this amazing?” The clearing was slightly indented and had lush green grass growing within, but there was no tree’s for about ten feet from the center of the clearing. Applebloom looked around and saw how the trees surrounding the grove seemed to be swept outwards, “I wonder what made this,” she said as she saw two small mounds of dirt that lead up to a tree that was bent forward towards the grove. Kald looked around and chuckled at his realization, “Well girls, I believe we found the spot where I arrived.” The three fillies all looked back to Kald with shock, “You made this crater?” “Well, yea. Didn’t you know they found me crashed here in the Everfree Forest?” Kald said with a slightly defensive tone. Sweetie Belle looked around the grove again and then back to Kald, “Yeah we knew. But look how big this clearing is and how the ground is dented you shouldn’t be alive.” Kald smiled and laughed at her statement, “Well normally yes, but i'm not normal now am I,” he said amusingly. Out of the corner of his eye Kald noticed a spot where grass had just started to grow that was about two feet wide near the tree that had been bent over from his impact, “Seems something else has traveled here aswell,” he thought. “Come on girls we are bound to find somethin’ if we keep lookin’,” Applebloom exclaimed as she began to venture forth deeper into the forest with the other two behind her. Kald ran and caught up but now he knew there was something else here, there had to be, and if he had to place a bet he would say it’s whatever is giving him this watched feeling. Kald noticed as he left the grove that there was a pair of shadow’s that kept just out of sight, they moved fairly quickly and he lost sight of them once they passed a few trees, whatever was following them knew just how to avoid him, making Kald nervous. *********** After sometime of clambering through the woods with a few stops at some ponds for a drink Sweetie Belle found what seemed to be a camp of some kind. “Is this supposed to be a tent?” she said fumbling with some cloth that had been draped around some arranged branches to make a decent shelter. Kald heard a rustling of leaves from in the trees and suspected it wasn’t just birds, “Girl’s I think it’s time we leave.” Applebloom looked to Kald with sad eyes, “But we are just gettin’ to findin’ cool stuff.” Kald looked around anxiously, “Well it’s getting late we need to head back,” he said noticing that dusk was approaching. The crusaders hung their heads, “Okay,” they sighed knowing Kald was right. Kald followed the girls as they started to walk back the way they had came, but this time Kald could notice the slight movement in the trees and he knew that whatever those shadows he saw before were they were here alongside them. The group stopped as a nearby howl began to pierce the silence of the forest. Kald took a defensive stance ready to fight, “Girls, what was that?” The crusaders were trembling as they answered with shaky voices, “Timberwolves.” Kald was taken by surprise when a wolf completely made of wood leaped out from the trees. Kald quickly spun around and kicked his back legs hard into the timberwolf shattering it to pieces, “You weren't kidding about the Timber part were you,” he said laughing at the play on words. Kald jumped forward and landed on top of another timberwolf smashing it against the ground, “We leave now girls!” Kald used his magic and changed into his human form quickly getting his new prototype booster pack out of his pocket and throwing it behind him to have it attach to his back. Picking up the three fillies Kald looked to the sky which was almost dark, “Good a time as any to test this thing I guess,” he said as he jumped up and the booster back boosted them skyward as they flew above the trees and headed towards Ponyville. Scootaloo looked up to Kald and has to yell against the wind, “What did you mean by test this?” Kald looked down and smiled to try and reassure her and the others, “Well I haven't flown this new one yet so I’m hoping it works like I want it too,” he yelled. Applebloom looked up worried, “What if it don’t?” Kald made a playful smirk, “Don’t worry girls even if it doesn’t I will make sure you're safe,” he said with such concern and confidence, Kald could feel the fillies relax a little. As the approached town Kald began to worry, it seemed that he couldn’t decelerate the booster pack and it was drawing too much energy from him. Kald feeling exhausted searched for a way to land the girls safely and spotted a stack of hay near a building, “I’m sorry girls I gotta drop you in that hay pile over there, but head home straight away ok.” The three turned and looked at Kald with shock, “What!” was all they managed to say before Kald released them, landing them safely in the hay pile. Kald sighed with relief knowing they were ok but was it was getting harder to stay conscious with the booster pack sapping all his energy, but if this was wrong maybe something else was too it was a long shot but he had to try. Kald began flying towards his house and once he was lined up with the broad side of his house he changed back to his pony form and just as he had expected the booster pack did not readjust with him as he had originally intended, so Kald dropped down and rolled across the ground as the booster pack collided with the side of his house and fell to the ground both it and the house sustaining some damage. Kald got up feeling the pain in his legs and back from the impact of the ground from the speed he was going, he limped over and tried to make the pack compact itself but to no avail, it was pretty broken. Grabbing a wing of the pack in his teeth he dragged it around to the front of his house only to see the two shadowy figures in cloaks fleeing from inside his house, “Hey! Stop!” he yelled as he dropped the booster back and attempted to give chase only to collapse on himself from his hurt limbs. Losing sight of the two cloaked shady figures Kald got back up and dragged the pack into the house and relocked the door behind him along with blocking it with some furniture, it didn't seem like anything was taken or damaged the only thing out of place was his picture of him and Lita had been dropped on the floor but what would they have wanted with it he wondered. After placing the picture back where it belonged Kald walked up to his room for some much needed rest, but tomorrow he was going to try and find out more about those two that had broke into his house. He sighed to himself, seems this has been anything but a normal day. *********** Elsewhere in the night a faint glow could be seen in the everfree forest where a pool of water gave off an eerie light as what appeared to be a black wisp emerged and quickly flew off into the night sky towards canterlot. Luna feeling a disturbance in the night took flight in search only to see the light fading from the everfree forest. Upon her arrival there was nothing more than a small pond and nothing to be found. Although she could feel that something was amiss in the darkness she decided to return to the castle, she could just feel that something bad was going to happen and soon. She just hoped that equestria was prepared for what was to come. The wisp had eluded Luna but knew it was only for so long. Searching for some way to hide it quickly came upon a garden full of statues, one caught it’s eye. It was a statue of a Draconequus that had a sense of life emanating from it. Seeing this as it’s chance the wisp flew over to the statue and went inside melding with the life already inside, corrupting it. For soon his plan would be under way.