Evergreen
Fan fiction by Grey McBoyd
Act II
A Little Piece of Armageddon
Chapter VIII
The Monster Within
Doc flew closer after launching himself towards Twi and the three stallions, his sights still zeroed in on the grey one, pulling back a punch with his left…hand as he grew within mere feet of his target. The grey one didn’t move and simply stood his ground, his once surprised expression growing a miniscule smile on one side of his muzzle as Doc approached, eventually getting close enough to give him a devastating blow into the tip of his snout. The mangling sound of crushed flesh and bone could be heard as the hit sent the grey one twenty feet backwards, leaving him to limply tumble and slide across the dirt after making contact with the ground. The other two monsters were unresponsive of Doc’s attack, hesitating as he stood in between them and spun clockwise on his left hind leg, kicking the red one in his abdomen with his right hind-hoof. The blow sent him back half the distance of the grey one, skidding on his hind hooves as he clutched his middle with both fore-legs and gave a deep grunt. Doc stood up on his spider-like legs, lifted himself over Twi and gave an identical kick to the black one.
The stallion narrowly blocked it, still sending him sliding and kicking up dirt behind his hooves for the next few feet. Doc was relentless though, launching himself to the black one and giving a quick jab to his face while his defenses were down, followed by several other strikes to his left and right ribs, sternum, fore-head and stomach in that order as he stood back on his hind-hooves, making the black one give an agonizing grunt with each blunt impact. With the black one standing there, dazed in pain for the moment, Doc spun his sights around quickly to look at the red one and noticed him quickly recollecting himself. Doc frowned deeper at this, turned back to the black one and jammed his right hind-hoof into the black one’s left kneecap, sending it directly in the opposite direction and shattering it with a mighty, fleshy crack, accompanied by a bloodcurdling scream from the stallion’s throat.
Doc watched as the black one fell to his other knee, hollering in agony and gripping the area around his kneecap, all bones in it turned to unsalvageable pieces of internal shrapnel. Doc could sense the presence of somepony behind him as the red one reared up above his back, preparing his fore-hooves for a downward strike onto his head. Doc reacted in a flash, sending the same leg that broke the black one’s knee back and up at an obtuse angle with his other leg, colliding with the unsuspecting stallion’s chin and knocking him back once again. To finish the black one off, Doc let his hind leg come back down to earth, reversed the clockwise momentum of his rotation, spun around and bashed the left temple of the black one’s head with a strike strong enough to loudly crack his skull and send him flying passed Twi by inches, skidding and sliding next to the grey one, who was now surprisingly standing back up on his hind hooves, watching the conflict unfold with his hands grasping each other in front of him. He smiled perfectly and deviously, despite the strike to his nose earlier having given the sound of broken muscle and bone. He stood without a noticeable scratch, as if that attack had never even happened.
Twi gazed away from his ominous form and back to Doc, seeing him dash up to the red one on his spider legs, galloping on them with multiple, horrific thuds against the dirt. He finally retracted and lifted them up behind his back to land on his hind hooves, standing before the red one just before giving an uppercut to his chin with his left hand, sending him a few inches into the air, then again with the adjacent hand, and then loudly jabbing his left hand into his stomach as the red one remained suspended in the air. His ribs could be heard snapping as he hovered there for a moment, bending from the impact and involuntarily spitting from his gaped muzzle, only to have Doc wind up his right hand in an arch over his head and to the red one’s forehead with tremendous force. He flew a far distance through a luckily unoccupied space in the encircling crowd and directly into a brick wall, cracking it slightly as his body flattened and made an imprint in the hardened clay. He fell out of the cracked brick and onto his knees, but before the red one could fall flat on his stomach and face, Doc raced up to him in an instant, wrapping his dark fingers around his face with his right hand and slamming his skull into the brick wall.
The insanely powerful bash made extremely loud cracking sounds as the wall and his cranium shattered from the force of Doc’s super-powered blow. Doc then violently scraped the red one’s face across the now jagged brick for several feet of the wall, leaving a wide smear of blood in its wake. He eventually ended his brutal mangling of the red one’s face and swiftly dragged his half-limp body back into the circle, letting it bump and bounce against the dirt and rocks behind him until Doc reached the center of the circle. He slowed down with a skid to his right, let the momentum of his stop flow through his right fore-leg as he spun around, then tossed the red one high up into the air. He lifted himself on his spidery legs as this ragdoll of a body came back down, finally dropkicking the red one directly in his sternum with amazing power.
The red one’s body flew halfway across the square, then bounced and skid next to his companions the same way that his dark counterpart had done, directly next to grey one. The grey one looked at his fallen accomplices, staring with his devious smile and drooped eyelids, not lifting a finger to assure their safety before he turned his head back to Doc and saw him, barely a foot away, all legs terrifyingly bared and retracted for a strike as his mouth was horrifically wide open, screaming bloody murder before finally making physical contact. His upper spider legs stuck into the ground behind the grey one loudly, barely missing the other two stallions as his lower legs supported the ground behind him. He was forced to suspend himself before the grey one as his bared, pointed fingers were caught by the grey one’s skeletal hands, locking into each other as Doc pushed furiously. The grey one didn’t even budge under such force…just kept his evil expression of a smile accompanied by his half-drooping eyelids, holding Doc’s devastating fury back without breaking a sweat.
The grey one bent Doc’s hands back, quickly overpowering him and forcing him to lower his suspended state back down to his hind-hooves as he retracted his lower spider legs. They looked eye to eye for a moment, then the grey one continued to overpower Doc, pushing him down further as he kept his dastardly, smug expression right in Doc’s face. Doc could be heard struggling and pushing to fight back, but he couldn’t, the grey one amazingly stood tall, still too strong even for Doc’s horrifically devastating power. So Doc grew angry, pulling back his lower right spider leg…and sending the large, pointed tip of it jetting through the grey one’s stomach and out his back.
***
The crowd flinched at this, had Doc just killed this stallion? They thought this, but only for moments as they looked to the grey one’s face…unchanged…as if he hadn’t even felt it. It remained this way as Doc pulled the leg out of his stomach and stabbed him with the adjacent one, then again, and again…and again. The strange thing is that Twi didn’t see a drop of blood pour from the gaping hole in the grey one’s abdomen…just ashen dust, pouring out onto the dirt below him in miniscule piles. Twi looked at it, then turned her gaze away from anything else that might further damage her psyche, finally realizing this as a chance to get out of the middle of the battlefield and run back over to her friends. She did so quietly, then looked back to the conflict to see several more stabs by Doc as she felt Spike mount on her back. Doc eventually pulled both of the legs back simultaneously and shouted, preparing to stab the grey one with double the force. But as both legs grew near, the grey one reacted, swiftly hopping up, retracting his hind legs to his devastated stomach, and then kicking with them to deflect the incoming strikes, knocking Doc’s lower legs away into the dirt before the grey one retracted his hind legs again, released his grip on Doc’s hands and jammed both of his hind hooves directly into Doc’s face.
He flew back with a furious grunt, but was able to recover himself before landing in the dirt by flipping backwards mid-flight and landing on his skidding hooves in a hunched stance. He stood up after skidding a few feet backwards, panting loudly as he stared at the grey one in his battle ready stance, ready for the fight to go on as blood began running down his scalp and face in a thick line. He continued his glare at the grey one as the pale stallion stood still and tall, his stomach now a gaping, ravaged hole in the midst of his torso. But he remained with a careless disposition, somehow ignoring the pain with his hands casually behind his back. A second later, he reached into a pocket inside his jacket and pulled out the two gloves he was wearing before. He slipped them back onto his hands, moving his fingers in them to get comfortable, then lifted them up on his sides…finally colliding them, clapping slowly before he quietly spoke.
“Bra-vo…”
He began clapping slightly faster while he took a few steps forward. As he took those steps, his once practically-dead companions began lifting themselves up off the ground. The black one lifted himself up, keeping off of his deformed hind leg until he flicked it once, giving a loud crack and a grunt before rolling it on its joints…it was instantly healed. The red one stood up and tilted his head to his left, lifting one side of his face higher than the other, the side Doc had scraped across the wall, and it definitely showed. It was horribly replaced with torn flesh and lacerated skin…until it began putting itself back together the way Doc’s healing would re-stitch a wound. The last cut soon closed, his X shaped scar still remaining untouched as the stallion lifted his left fore-hoof up to his chin, gripping it before readjusting his jaw bone with a quick flick, loud crack and mild grunt, then opened and shut it again, good as new. The grey one took his last step, the hole in his stomach that was once a foot in diameter now closing quickly as he clapped a final time, leaving his hands holding each other and speaking happily.
“I’m so proud that you finally released your true potential! I had almost begun thinking you had grown stale in your fighting skills. Oh, but you sure proved me wrong, eh? *ghahahaha* *sigh* Fine job with the sparring today Conquest.”
He turned around and spoke over his shoulder.
“I look forward to seeing you again tomorrow!”
The black one ceased his leg’s rotation and the red one turned halfway, still dragging his wrecking ball of a tail behind him until it began to retract towards him, shortening and shrinking until it came to the base of his spine as a short, spiky tail of pure, gleaming steel. They began turning and trotting away with the grey one as he lastly said, “Farewell for now!” and sauntered away with his goons through the crowd that quickly stepped out of their way. Doc felt his exhaustion grow as he stood, breathing deeply as he watched his enemies just walk away from such an unbelievable fight. He mentally dismissed them before turning around slowly and beginning to walk back as well, keeping his eyes trained to the ground. He only made it a few tired steps before he coughed several loud and painful times, falling to his knees as he did so. This alertedly caught everypony’s attention before they watched him, choking on his own breath several times before sitting back on his bent knees and keeping his eyes closed as he continued to pant loudly. He let his fore-legs hang and relaxed his neck, but the four spider legs that stuck out from his back remained alert, raised and prepared to strike. He opened his eyes droopily, looking at the dirt before his expression changed to one of realization and he began looking around him slowly with his demonically tinted eyes.
The crowd stared at him, petrified and hoping to just wake up from the horrible nightmare that lay before them. Ponies Doc had hugged and taken pictures with shuddered as his gaze came over them. Mothers held their children close, and acquaintances, whether new or old, took steps back without hesitation. After looking to his sides and seeing ponies like Derpy, the caramel colt that had thanked him, Soarin and Spitfire all flinch at his gaze, he looked up in front of him to see an even more degrading sight. The group...his closest friends…were more scared of him than anypony there. All the girls, Pinkie, AJ, Flutters…everypony looked at him like he was an abomination they had never known in their entire lives. Mac stood battle ready, extremely nervous, but prepared to protect his sister and her friends from this strange thing that had possessed his once good friend. Doc looked to each of them individually, seeing the fear and disgust in their eyes…until he looked to Twi and felt the true impact of the situation. Her violet eyes were twitching in terror of seeing her new best friend like this, keeping a hoof to her muzzle as she took steps away from him and began crying, a horrified Spike hiding from his sight behind her shivering head.
***
Doc’s shoulders sank and his muzzle fell parted, now panting softly as he slowly looked down while his hands came up to meet his sight.
“What have I done?” he said quietly and pitifully, staring at them before lifting them to his head after a short pause, covering his eyes before gripping his hair tightly. He closed his eyes, sitting for a few moments as his back arched down at an ashamed, slow and constant rate, eventually straightening as he suddenly stood back up, accidently startling everypony in the crowd before he ran out of town square on his hind hooves like a human. The crowd terrifyingly parted as he passed, but still got a glimpse of tears escaping through his closed eyelids as he passed. The crowd, every single pony that resided in Ponyville, was silent as they had no idea what to think next. The only noise that could be heard was Twi’s voice as she lifted her concerned hoof in the direction Doc had ran.
“Doc?” is what she said, speaking to nopony at all before placing her hoof slowly and quietly back to her lip.
She looked to her friends and they did the same, gazing at each other for assistance before they silently looked back in the direction Doc had left. Twi stared there for a moment, retracting her lips as she began shaking her head and lowering her sight. Her head followed her eyes down as they slowly closed, eventually reopening suddenly as she looked back up and began galloping in the direction Doc had gone. Her friends noticed her running, held out hooves as they wanted to tell her to stop, but understood partially what she was doing before following a moment afterwards. The crowd separated again, wondering just what they were doing going after such a monster. Still, they stepped aside all the same, letting the six mares, stallion and baby dragon go trotting off to their possible doom, hoping that they knew just what the heck they were doing. They sped along a dirt trail to the outskirts of town until Pinkie raced up next to Twi, asking loudly due to the loud sound of their hooves meeting the hard soil.
“Where are we going?!”
“I think I know where he ran off to.” she replied in the same volume, “Just follow me!”
Spike, who was still on her back, leaned next to her head and asked her somewhat quietly.
“Are you sure you know what your doing?”
She sighed while looking downwards before responding.
“Not at all. But I can at least hope.”
Several minutes later, Twi spotted a hill on the right side of the trail they galloped along, a lone tree at its pinnacle with a spectacular view of the Everfree forest and the enormous mountain range just beyond it. At the tree’s trunk, Twi saw an oddly shaped silhouette and finally exhaled her held breath, absolutely relieved that she was right on her assumption.
“This way!” she turned and said to her friends before making a hard right off of their galloping path.
Her friends followed close behind, anxious as to what they might find at this place they hadn’t an ounce of knowledge on. They pulled themselves up the mildly steep hill, approaching its peak and seeing the figure slowly come into recognizable view. It was a white stallion, his lower back against the bark of the tree, while the rest of his spine was sadly arched forward. Jet-black lines branched out like dead, crooked trees along his skin. He had hands that replaced the fore-hooves that sat in his lap, four fingered and drenched in the darkness that stretched across his body, which lead all the way to his heart, a black bulge in the center of his chest. The lines led up his neck and along his face, curving around his emotionally dead mouth and feeding into his eyes, lightly shut as tears streamed out of them. The four giant spider legs that came from the points in his back lied against the ground on his sides, just as joylessly limp as the rest of his body.
They approached slowly, as to not disturb him and possibly send him running off again. But as they drew closer, they quietly spread into an evenly spaced line, side by side along the stallion’s right, each getting a clear line of sight with this thing that used to be their happy-go-lucky friend. Twi approached slightly more than the rest, speaking to him in the most timid voice she and her friends had ever heard her speak in.
“Doc?”
His eyes opened in surprise, pitch black with glowing, carmine rings in their centers, staring down at the dirt by his hind hooves for a moment, then slowly lifting his head to look straight out at the scenery he and Twi had appreciated the day before. That was his only reaction for a time, just staring out in astonishment. He breathed slowly and heavily through his slightly gaped mouth as he gazed out blankly. A moment later, he finally swallowed nervously, parting his lips again and turning his head up to Twi. He looked up at her, thick lines of tears streaming down his face as he gave a weak smile and forced out his next words from his tired lungs.
“Hey Twi…”
She gave a similar simper back in a nervous response, somewhat happy to hear the voice she had begun to miss. Doc looked amongst the group, all of his friends that risked their own safety just to come and see him. Doc spoke to them with the same tone of fatigue.
“Hi everypony…”
They all reacted skeptically, turning their gaze away and giving a single nod to show recognition. Doc smiled anyway, looking back out to the scenery and resuming his astonished, but now sort of sad-smiling stare. In that moment Twi finally found what she was looking for. This was Doc, as changed as he was, it was still him under all that darkness and despair. This is the friend she had happily made over the last six days. The one who kept all of her friends happy and even saved one of their lives. The one who told tales of far off lands and dreams of spreading peace throughout the world. This was who this doctor was, Twi and the rest of her friends were just going to have to accept that. He only continued to stare off into the distance for a moment longer before he looked down at his hind-hooves, swallowed again, sniffed as he wiped his right nostril with a flick of his dark thumb and spoke once more while looking at the ground.
“So…uh…”
He looked up at all of them and continued with a forced and exhausted smile.
“I…guess I have some explaining to do…don’t I?”
***
“Alright…” Doc sighed as he pressed the middle fingers of his hands together through the skin on the upper bridge of his nose, “where to begin?”
Twi and her friends sat around him in a circle, making sure to avoid his spidery legs as they rested in the healthy green grass, relaxed as they could be in a situation like this.
“W-why not start with telling us who those…ponies were?” Twi suggested calmly.
Doc looked to her interestedly as she spoke, then let his gaze fall to his hind hooves as he sighed through his nose. He put his clenched left hand to his muzzle and softly tapped it against his lips twice, showing it in his face as he thought hard about what to say. Then his eyes widened as the thought struck him and he began his explanation.
“Alright,” he agreed, “but I think I’ll start that with a question. Do any of you believe in…well…immortality?”
The group looked amongst each other for a moment.
“Well…” Rarity remarked, “The alicorns that rule Equestria live for thousands of years at a time…so I assume that by common sense…Yes?”
She looked at everypony in the group that had given their attention to her, seeking approval in her guess. Nods were passed in recognition, followed by everypony turning their gaze back to Doc as he spoke.
“Alright…” he responded, “…then do you believe in immortality outside of royalty?”
They looked at each other again, but only momentarily before they turned back to Doc and shook their heads lightly.
“Okay…last question.” he said, “Have any of you ever heard of a story called ‘The Four Horses of the Apocalypse’?”
They all grew slightly concerned looks on their faces as they thought roughly the same thing.
What could a story with that kind of title have anything to do with those ponies?
Even Twi thought this until she answered Doc’s question slowly.
“I…don’t think so…What’s it about?”
He inhaled and exhaled once more, then began.
“A long time ago, back in the somewhat earlier days of Equestria’s founding, there stood beings that were unlike any before them. They were strong, powerful and eternally free to roam the planet to their hearts’ desires. Some of these beings were admired and followed, such as the kings and queens that have lead our country to what it is today. Some lived reasonably peaceful lives, just as you and I…until they finally went mad from the depression of their losses…and disappeared, never to be heard from again. But there were some…”
Doc paused for a moment, like he had just regained a bad, deeply suppressed memory.
“…some who held horrible names and horrendous pasts. They denied living by life’s rules only for the absence of purpose within it. In lamens terms, ‘Why live by life’s rules, if life itself doesn’t even matter anymore?’ was their code, motto and the words they lived by. But certain ones, about four to be specific, actually had a job doing the exact same things these other horrible and ungrateful ponies did. They were supposed to destroy and pillage any location they wished, bringing a horrible end to anypony who dared to even look upon them, should they choose. These four…”
He paused again, and in the exact same way.
“…these horrible…‘justifiably’ evil four were called the ‘Four Horses of the Apocalypse’. Each was unearthly, with destructive mutations and devastating powers. The first of them…”
Doc held up a single, dark finger.
“…was strict, angry and of a thick, blood red. He called himself
‘War’.”
Twi’s head began flooding with thoughts of the red stallion.
That stallion, one his size, power and fury is the living embodiment of war itself…and Doc had just angered it with a deeply physical assault.
She began shaking at this tale and of knowing what the red stallion was and still is, thinking that he could practically obliterate them and the entirety of Ponyville at any moment. Doc continued after saying War’s name.
“The spirit that drove mortals to hate and kill each other, one of the true meanings of an Apocalypse. The next one…”
Doc held up another finger.
“…walked alongside him, sadistically humorous, maniacally evil and a coat black as night…referring to himself as
‘Famine’.”
Everyponies personal integrities were slowly beginning to crumble, first at the fact of knowing just what the red stallion was, and now knowing for certain that the savage, dark, and malicious black stallion was in on this terrifying ordeal as well.
A devious pony like him, with that kind of power and absolutely no way to fight back. We’re doomed.
Doc continued in relation to the black one’s name.
“The one that left prosperous civilizations with nothing to live on, bringing them to a slow…painful…and ‘entertaining’ demise for him to sit back and enjoy. Still, these two merely followed in the wake of their leader, the true meaning of a worlds end.”
Doc held up his third finger.
“He was grey and lifeless, walking the world’s surface and leaving a dark, dead hoofprint with each step he made. He was the very essence of cruelty, fiendish was his smile and dastardly were his deeds, constantly boasting as he called himself ‘The end of all’ in one way or another. Although, he was vaguely right, he was the end of all, but in a different way than most would think. He actually turned out to be something unpredicted by anypony…the feared and demonized spirit that is met by everypony at one time or another, but is constantly hated and denied to give his sweet embrace if any feel it is before their time. His true name…what he really was…was
‘Death’.”
That was it. That was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Everypony’s comprehensive state just fell apart and their blood ran cold as ice. That grey stallion, the most horrible sounding of them all, the only one that was able to resist and even overpower Doc’s rage was the physical being of death. Twi lowered her head as she thought.
That was why he had bony hands instead of hooves, and why Doc went into a rage just before he touched me. Twi thought, He had that ‘cold touch’ that was rumored to kill anypony on contact…He was about to kill me just to make Doc mad.
She continued to shudder and grasp the triceps of her opposing forelegs as Doc continued.
“They wandered as one for ages beyond observation, only asking for one thing, their ultimate goal…They were looking for their fourth. Don’t be mistaken though, they were not going door to door recruiting any stranger to be their missing link…they already had one. They just…‘misplaced’ him. They searched high and low, across the entire world even, following clues that would lead them to their last. He was…a bright white stallion, strangely compassionate despite his demonic profession, only wanting to help others rather than hurt. He was like an exact opposite of his brethren, who only knew him by a terrible… horrible…and unfitting name…
‘Conquest’.”
They all looked at him, shocked by the message that had just hit all of them like a brick to the skull. They wanted to know the truth about Doc, to see if they could help in any way, or at least know the past of an old friend so that they might be careful of what to say around him. Now that the truth is finally within their grasp, it slaps them in the face, leaving them to stare at this embodiment of such a malicious act for what felt like minutes. The grey stallion’s vile voice echoed in their heads as they thought.
“Hello, Conquest…tis been a long time.”
With their eyes wide and unmoving on Doc, he responded in the way he would anytime he ends up being the center of attention. First, he stole a glance at several of his friends, then popped a smirk with a single chuckle just behind it. Next, he looked to the bottom left of his darkened eyes and scratched the back of his mane with his right hand, letting it glide up across his scalp and to his forehead. As it reached the peak of his brow, he felt a wet spot and a small zing of pain, bringing his hand down to visible level and seeing a splotch of smeared blood at the base of his palm.
“Oh woops” he said in a quick, innocent and casual tone before shutting his right eye and looking in the direction of the injury on his scalp with the other.
It sealed itself shut with a small fleshy noise, cutting off the small stream of blood going down his face, which had been running like a small river throughout their conversation. Doc didn’t raise his hands and use his magic for that wound, he merely willed it shut, just as the three stallions had done with their injuries mere minutes ago.
“So…” Twi broke the silence with a severely terrified and surprised tone, “if those…t-three stallions were looking for their fourth…and they came to you…”
“Yup.” Doc answered casually with a half-smile.
Dash followed Twi’s guess at understanding, same inflection in her horrifically withered voice.
“And…if they were those ‘strong, powerful and eternal’ things you talked about…then that means…”
“Exactly.” he replied in his calm tone, “Ponies like that, such as our monarchs or ponies like the three you all met today, are called ‘Immortals’, obviously. And now, if you put two and two together…it’s pretty clear now that…”
“I’m one of them…I’m an immortal…the spirit of Conquest…the fourth horse of the Apocalypse.”
***
“So Doc, wuh’d ya say you were gonna do when ya get back ta town again?” AJ asked Doc as they walked “calmly” on the trail back to town.
After concluding their conversation, Doc decided they would head back to the town square and see if they, or at least Doc, would try and sort things out amongst the townsfolk. They walked in an unorganized, distanced group, like hikers on a wide open trail, not really caring to stay in any formation as their minds were already too tired to care…either that, or they still wanted to keep a little distance between them and Doc, just to be safe. Despite their disorganization in travel and the fear in their minds, they still walked, suppressing the same terror they first held in seeing Doc in the way he is, and few in this supposed “band of brothers” had it much worse now knowing the truth than others. Doc walked steadily, suspending his strange, demonic legs above the ground and retracting them high above his back. He replied to AJ’s question.
“Like I said,” he answered, “I’ll try and explain myself as much as I can to the townsponies. All I can hope for is that they can believe everything as well as you guys have.”
Twi happened to be trotting directly behind Doc, letting her curiosity finally get the better of her as she nudged Spike with the back of her head and directed him to what she was looking at, followed by them both lifting their necks a little higher than normal and getting a clear view of Doc’s exposed back. They saw that the crooked lines from his heart fed around his sides and into four circular spots that looked just like the one on his heart. There was only a “minor” difference between them and the one on his chest, though. These were the spots that Doc’s demonic legs protruded from. It made Twi and Spike cringe a little, thinking of how Doc has stored those in his back all this time. It must have been painful. Although, they were forced to stop peeping as Doc perked his head up and spoke.
“Oh, almost forgot.”
He turned his head to look at the legs and continued.
“It’d be wise to not walk back into the square with these sticking out of my back.”
He closed his eyes, as if he was focusing on them. They straightened vertically, towering above everypony as they stopped to look, just before the legs gently slid down into the spots they came from, making a horrible fleshy noise until they fully escaped into his back. Doc gave a slight grunt as the pointed tips of each appendage disappeared into his loins, opening his still darkened eyes slowly and concluding with a tired smile.
“Much better.”
Pinkie, of all ponies, looked at him concernedly and asked him a question, her normally energetic and happy tone absolutely gone from her voice.
“W-where do you even keep those?” she asked.
He smiled after looking at Pinkie and answered.
“If an Immortal has something as big as these growing out of their bodies, it tends to come out of little geysers like these, see?”
He bent his back outwards, giving emphasis to the four spots the legs were protruding from, now giving a resemblance to black barnacles on the side of a boat with smooth, flat tops. Everypony flinched slightly at the strange sight, giving suppressed “ew” sounds and slightly disgusted grunts through closed teeth. Doc kept his smile despite their somewhat rude reactions as he replied to them.
“*heh* I expected as much.” he said happily before straightening his back, returning it to a normal, relaxed curve, “That’s how everypony reacts if they find out.”
Fluttershy asked in a voice surprisingly no more timid than it usually is.
“Y-you mean other ponies know about this besides us and the townsfolk?”
He perked his ears to her as he listened, then spoke in a much calmer and quieter voice than usual, trying to not startle her more delicate state.
“Oh yeah. In my earlier years, I used to just walk around with them out, using them to get around and stuff. Man, I was a reeeal idiot back then.”
He looked at his “friends” with happy chuckles, still sensing the small fear left in them through their forced and unconvincing smiles. He turned his gaze downwards to his front and sighed, lowering his smile slightly and speaking in a pathetic but humble tone.
“*heh* Listen to me…making it sound all ‘interesting’…”
His shoulders sunk a little.
“I’m sorry I got all of you mixed up in this.” he said shamefully, “I can never repay you enough for dealing with it so well. I was an idiot in my early years...*heh* and I haven’t changed a bit. ”
His smile continued sinking, eventually leaving no trace of happiness left in his face as he looked to the dirt in front of him, his body half way turned in the direction of his now guilty, ashamed friends. Doc felt a hoof on his shoulder, catching his attention as he reacted the same way he had done several times before, perked ears and slightly widened eyes just before turning to the item of interest; this item now being the kind, purple unicorn he knew as a true friend, giving him a real, honest smile.
“Don’t beat yourself up about it,” she said kindly, “you had no idea they were even showing up.”
AJ offered a re-assuring “Y-yeah!” before she continued nervously.
“How ‘re you supposed ta know they’d come outta nowhere? Raht Big Macintosh?”
Mac gave a slightly nervous but reinforced “Eeyup”, only wanting to assist her sibling and Twi in making Doc feel better. Doc chuckled once, turned his head to them and spoke in a slightly happier tone.
“Thanks…it’s nice to know that you all care…not saying I ever had any doubt.”
He looked slightly farther to his left, looking at Twi as he chuckled. She smiled wider at him, her eyes showing sympathy and acceptance until she frowned only a little for her suggestion.
“Uh..Doc…” she said, pointing twice at her eyes and notifying him that his eyes were still retaining their demonic darkness and scarlet glow.
“Oh! Yeah.” replied Doc before he closed his eyes and tilted his head down in focus.
The dark lines across his body slid back up his legs and away from his hands, now being relieved of the darkness and returning to the cylindrical shape of a nice, normal hoof. The dark bloodlines receded from his eyes and back down his neck, all sliding back to a single location, the black spot covering his heart. Most of the lines were gone from his body, all except for four thin ones that fed around his sides and into the small geysers on his back like a harness, and several that lightly branched out from the still darkened spot on his chest, exposed by the dangling bits of torn shirt hanging off of his wrists and waist. He opened his eyes and his group of friends were happy to see them back to normal again, a black ring sitting in the middle of a calm, experienced white. He was back to his old self again…well…more or less. He turned his gaze to his friends and continued.
“Thanks for reminding me. Anyways, it’s not…entirely true that I didn’t know they’d be coming. You all remember that letter I got before everything went nutty, the one with the weird symbol on it?”
They all nodded, feeling slightly more comfortable interacting with Doc now that two of their friends were defending him from his own humility, as well as his appearance being defaulted.
“Well,” he continued, “let’s just say that an ‘old friend of mine’ was doing their job well and gave me a little heads up on it. I’m sorry, I’ll explain more about me and a lot about that drawing later on, but as of now, I have a whole town to regain trust from, and they should be right over this hill.”
He turned his head back up the trail, looking up a gently sloping hill that they had just happened to stop at the base of when they began their conversation. He trotted up it, his friends following close behind him until reaching the peak and seeing Ponyville once again. They could see the gap of buildings that Doc and his friends had ran out of almost fifteen minutes ago, one of the many entrances into the square from the town’s outskirts. The only difference now were fortifications resembling Sweet Apple Acres during the parasprite attack or Apploosa before their battle with the Buffalos. Produce carts were turned sideways at the corners of the buildings, thinning the road to only a few feet of space. A few villagers crouched behind them, armed with improvised weapons like gardening hoes, rakes and shovels, involuntarily shaking them violently, still scared out of their minds of Doc and his immeasurable power. The rest of the ponies in town were standing just behind the ones at the carts, crowded together to witness Doc’s return, practically expecting him to go on a rampage once again and tear the whole town to pieces. Doc looked down on them from the hill’s pinnacle, his friends close by as they heard him sigh.
“Yup,” he said, “thought they’d react this way…”
Doc trotted down the hill, his friends still keeping close as to show the town their acceptance of him, or rather to stop them before they started chucking rocks, but hey, I’m not being specific here. They approached, the townsponies readying their violently shaking “weaponry” in the direction of Doc as much as they could, inexperienced when it comes to conflicts like the battle of Appleoosa, and even that wasn’t designed to kill anybody. They were never a fighting sort of village, as represented by the two “identical” stampedes of bunnies that happened a while back. Their main course of action for a situation like that was to panic, run into their houses, pull the doormats in and hide, and that’s just for a miniscule rush of cute, hopping, foliage-eaters that were no bigger than a table lamp. Something like this, something that could cause some serious damage and get ponies killed (which it won’t) shook them to the very core. That, and the experience of watching somepony they loved so much commit such a degree of destruction sent the worst chills up their spines they had ever had in their lives. Doc could see every bit of this as they slowly pointed their “weapons” towards him, still incapable of ceasing their violent shaking as he approached. It was going to be difficult explaining himself without giving anypony a heart attack if this is how they react to almost everything. Doc and his band of sisters (and brother) halted as they saw somepony coming out from the crowd and approaching them through the space between the carts. A sandy colored coat with a wavy white mane, the Mayor of Ponyville proudly revealed herself to them as the town’s representative. But before the group could actually react in any way, she said to Doc something nopony thought she would…and in the calmest tone out of anypony there.
“Doctor…I thinks it’s time the town knew the truth.”
***
Doc timidly made his way through the crowd, unnecessarily putting his tail between his legs (the expression, not literally) as the eyes of the ponies who used to trust him looked up to him in fear, as if he was some sort of wrathful, unpredictable god. The Mayor cantered in front of him, keeping an unexpectedly calm and normal persona as they walked past one concerned pony after another. They eventually reached Doc’s caravan through the crowd. Doc and The Mayor looked at each other and nodded simultaneously, as if they had some sort of plan. Doc trotted up to the caravan and began undoing the secure on the large, leather strap that wrapped around it. It slid off the roof limply, hitting hit the ground behind the caravan just before Doc began fiddling with the corners of the folded wooden platform that stuck to the visible side of the caravan, hanging by securities that held it to the wagon’s wall. The townsfolk watched him as he worked sternly, crowding themselves around the caravan from several meters away, giving Doc a little distance to work, and of course, as a precaution from the monster they thought he was. Twi and her friends stood front row in the crowd, interested to see how Doc would explain himself to an entire town over the course of a few minutes. Doc swiftly slid on his knees across the dirt to the other wheel of the caravan’s visible side, followed by him unfastening an identical security for the other corner of folded platform. Gravity did the rest of the work as the large planks unfolded, just as they were designed to. This platform was the wood used to stand on while ordering something from the caravan’s marketing window, large enough to be a small stage and perfect for a merchant with many loyal customers. Doc climbed up onto the platform and walked to its center, readying himself for his explanation to the dozens of ponies that had come to see him leave, but are now scared (and very interested) as to what he will do next. They looked up at him and watched as he slowly sighed in and out through his nose, his eyes shut before he opened them and began his speech.
“Uhm…Hi…I’m Doc.” he said timidly, “As you can see, I look a little different than as you may normally know me.”
He paused, looking to the lower left corner of his eyes and letting an awkward silence fall amongst the scene.
“Jeez, I’m sorry.” he said, breaking the silence as he scratched the back of his head with his hoof, “I’m horrible at speeches *heh*. So…I…”
He stammered before the Mayor climbed non-formally onto the stage herself and helped him in her proclaiming and calm tone.
“What he’s trying to say is that he’s sorry for you all having seen him like that.” she said, “It’s a very long story about the Doctor’s past that he would be glad to tell. I only ask that you give him a chance to explain himself and listen to what he has to say…just as I did so many years ago as a child…and believe me…he hasn’t changed a bit since.”
The Mayor has known Doc since she was a filly? That must mean Doc really is immortal. Twi thought, just as surprised by the Mayor’s assistance and word choice as anypony else in the crowd.
“Thanks Ivory.” Doc said to the Mayor as she walked off of the stage via the steps on the front, then looked back out at the crowd, restarting his speech with a less bashful and more leading tone.
“Yes, I do have a story to tell that’ll explain a lot about me and even more about just who those…freaks were.”
He sighed in and out of his nose again before continuing.
“This is the story of ‘The Four Horses of the Apocalypse’…”
And so, he told the same story his friends had heard minutes ago, almost word for word, save a few changes here and there. Ponies in the crowd gave very noticeable reactions to the revealing of names and the hints to who the stallions were by the similarities of traits that Doc mentioned between them. Although, Twi, her friends and the Mayor sat still, unmoving as they already knew these facts, but still listening like the good and loyal friends they were. Doc concluded by revealing himself as the spirit of Conquest, letting everypony’s astonishment die down before speaking calmly, rather than waiting for any questions.
“Yup…I’m an immortal stallion, same as the other three you met today. I have been so for as long as any of you may have known me, and much longer before that. For years, my original job in this world was to be somepony who could make any place and all life in it disappear in the blink of an eye. But I decided to spend those years doing what I love, and what all of you know me for, helping good ponies like you in any way I can…and keeping you all happy.”
His shoulders sunk a little and a smile crept up along his cheeks as he looked out at everypony across the square. They were his friends, the ponies that inhabited one of the few places on earth Doc knew he would always love, no matter what they thought of him. The crowd looked up to him in slight suspense, most of the fear gone from their eyes as they wondered just how he would conclude such a speech. He lowered his head slightly after scanning from left to right over the crowd, widened his smile even further, then looked back up to the crowd before concluding.
“That’s all I ever wanted for anypony…for you all to be happy…” he said before letting his head and gaze fall once more.
He looked back up after a short pause and continued.
“Now…look, you can react however you want to all that’s happened, whether you chase me out of town or just go on as you normally would, but I just want you all to know that…all other towns those three have caught me in, I’ve chosen to leave and never come back. But this town….this town is just too-[ungamn-important for me to leave behind by choice…so, I’ll leave the choice to you.”
He sat down on the wood of the platform in the strange, humanoid way that he does, on his rump with his knees bent and his forearms resting on his kneecaps.
“I’ll give you a few minutes amongst yourselves to decide,” he said, “but please, and I do mean this…you may take your time.”
***
As the crowd members began turning to each other and whispering options and agreements, Twi could hear a vast majority of them leaning towards throwing Doc out so the town would not be caught in the crossfire of their rivalry. There were a few arguments of Doc being too good of a guy to just be thrown to the wolves like that, but those were quickly hushed, ignored or disproven. It eventually crossed a line to where Twi could hear it all around her, making her take several steps forward into the half circle space the crowd made in front of the stage, turn around to everypony and speak in the most commanding voice anypony had ever hear her speak in.
“Oh come on! Would you listen to yourselves!” she yelled angrily.
This caught everypony’s attention in a fraction of a second, filling the area with silence as all eyes went to her. She continued speaking to the crowd while making her way up the wooden steps and to Doc’s right side.
“This is our doctor we’re talking about!” she said, pointing at Doc, “You know, the one that has kept us happy and healthy in some of the most amazing ways?! I mean just think about why you even came to this stupid square in the first place!”
She began pointing to random colts and mares in the crowd as she asked them the same question.
“You! Why are you here?!”
A nervous, middle-aged colt answered her.
“Uh…b-because one time, the doctor fixed my broken leg.”
“Right! Now you! Why are you here?!”
A young filly, about as old as herself, answered quietly.
“Uh…h-he g-gave me medicine that s-saved my husband from a horrible illness.”
“Good! And now lastly…!”
She turned her entire body to her left and said to Doc in the same volume of speech.
“Why are you here, you friendly, demonic weirdo?!”
He stood straighter and said in the same tone without hesitation.
“To serve for the greater good of those around me and insure their safety, Ma’am!”
“Precisely!” she responded, actually quite surprised by such a professional and militarized response, but satisfied of how good he reacted to such a yell.
She continued without giving a hint of her amazement.
“That’s why all of us are here! If Doc has the heart to cope with an unearthly body filled with an immortal soul whose purpose is for destruction like his, then I’ll gladly stand right by his side until the day he stands by my death bed!”
“Heck yeah!” she heard a slightly rougher voice call from the crowd’s front row, followed by AJ trotting up the stairs and to Doc’s left, continuing in her own public speaking voice.
“This girls talkin’ sense,” she said, “and Ah think she’s one a’ the onleh few that c’n willin’ly git up here an’ admit that she c’n stick to a friend as good as this big guy! Anyponeh else got the moxy ta do that n’ stand up lahke the poneh they think they are?!”
“You bet I do!” Dash called proudly, making her way up the stairs and next to Twi in this line that was slowly building in length.
“I’d never leave a friend like him hangin’!”
Each of Doc and Twi’s closest friends, including Spike, Mac and even the Mayor made their way up in their own style, saying their own things and showing their loyalty to a good friend. After everypony made their way up and got into their spot of the line, Twi spoke, pretty much concluding this little speech they all had made.
“You all see now?!” she said happily, “This is why we’re here! To be good ponies and friends in each of our own ways, and to never back down when a friend…no, anypony needs you. This is this guy’s purpose, to defend and protect those he loves. Do you really want to deny him of that?”
The crowd looked amongst each other, waiting for somepony to say something in astonishment of the group’s loyalty to their friend. What came from the silence were a small series of applauds and inspiring *Woo!*’s from behind the crowd. Everypony turned their attention to the noise, seeing Soarin and Spitfire, daredevils of the generation, cheering him on like real fans, stomping their hooves against the dirt happily and cheering as loud as they could. This changed everypony’s outlook on the scene, seeing celebrities like them cheering him on and giving him support, soon coaxing them to do the same until slowly, the entire crowd began cheering and applauding like a grand audience after a fantastic show. It made Doc smile, looking down each side of his line of friends as they looked back at him, smiling just as he did.
“Thank you everypony, thank you.” he said to the crowd humbly, slowly bringing all of their cheers down to an attentive crowd of listeners as he continued in a deep, humble speaking voice, one of a real leader, “I give my appreciation for all of this, but I do not deserve your praise. I’m just a normal stallion, nothing special, and I would like it to stay that way. But as of now, since I have your approval of my stay, I merely ask that you go about your regular lives and let me do what is necessary with those stallions. I promise I will not let you down or get any of you caught up in this more than you already have, and if I know one thing…it’s that when I make a promise…no matter how difficult, crazy or impossible it is,”
“I always keep it.”
***
“Wonderful speech Doctor!” Rarity mused as she and the rest of the group, including the Mayor, stood on the platform of Doc’s caravan once he convinced everypony in the crowd to go home and rest their minds.
Doc was inside the caravan at the counter while everypony remained outside, same way it’s always been. They all decided to have a little chat in the residual moment of this interesting day.
“You sure made all of this feel much easier on the mind when you expressed your thoughts!” Rarity continued.
“*heh* Thanks.” He replied, scratching the back of his head with his hoof, typical Doc reaction to any compliment, “I guess I’m just used to it. Then again, I really couldn’t have done that without your guys’ help.”
He scanned the batch of good friends in front of him, each now with a real smile on their face and not a hint of fear in their gleaming eyes.
“You all are just…*sigh* so amazing…”
“Look whose talkin’.” said Spike, finally speaking to Doc after such a long period of silence. He stood on Twi’s back, leaning over her scalp as he continued.
“We’re amazing and you’re the first immortal outside of royalty any of us have ever met. Give yourself some credit for cryin’ out loud!”
He slid down Twi’s neck on his chin as he spoke, lying across Twi’s spine on his belly and looking around her neck to still get a clear view.
“*heheh* Thanks again.” Doc replied, “But really, I don’t need any credit on my part. I’m just a regular guy, one of a million. Not making myself feel important keeps me focused on what really is, like all of you.”
“Well ya can’t argue with his morals.” AJ offered to the group, then turned her attention to Doc, “But still, jus’ cuz ya don’t need ta feel important, doesn’t mean ya always shouldn’t.”
Doc looked down with a smile, sighed, then looked back up to say the same thing for a third time.
“Thanks…”
“…But…listen,” Doc continued, steering his tone to be slightly more serious and weakening his smile slowly until it turned into an unemotional flatness, “I know for a fact that those stallions are going to be back tomorrow, and I want all of you to be ready for anything. Don’t challenge them and don’t let them get inside your head. They may try to connect with you in an attempt to gain trust, and I’m not saying to shun them off at every turn, but just…be careful. There actually have been times when they’ve only come to socialize and not cause any trouble, but then again, they’ve also come bearing just the opposite. Please…I can’t stress it enough but…be careful. I can take anything they throw at me, anything, but I’ve seen what they can do to, no offense, mortals. They together are three fourths of The Apocalypse, and they will stop at nothing until I join them and we are back to the way it used to be.”
Everypony in the group looked at each other in slight concern as he spoke, but listened carefully and nodded as he finished, perfectly understanding the seriousness of the situation. He quickly scanned over them, seeing all of their recognitions through a simple bob of their heads, followed by him smiling and continuing.
“Good, now make sure to get some rest. Tomorrow will definitely be a day like no other.”
“Oh, and one more thing.” he said in the tone he had just recovered moments ago, calm, tired, and very humble as his friends had just barely begun to turn their attention and walk away, “Twi…Dashie…AJ…Ivory…all of you…thank you so much. I’ll make sure you all go down in history for being the only few to stand up for something like me. It will take me an eternity to pay you back.”
They smiled at him, but before they could give any appreciation, he continued once more.
“Okay, now you can go home and get some rest *heh*. I’ll see you all tomorrow.”
He turned his back from the counter and began swiping the other counter top with his hoof. Everypony in the group said minor farewells to each other and eventually made their way home, all except for one purple unicorn and her dragon assistant who stayed back to say something they just had to. Twi approached the counter again, attempting to remain silent as she made her way across the slightly creaky wood of the platform. When she reached the counter she could see Doc pulling things out of overhead cupboards and placing them on the counter that sat on the other side of the caravan’s inner walls. She watched his back as he worked, putting the pieces of equipment back together with strengthened movements, all of the very prominent and surprisingly etched muscles along his back and shoulders being put into the effort as he pulled and pushed on things out of Twi’s sight. She looked at the four raven barnacle-like geysers on his back, thinking about them only for a moment until quietly knocking on the wood of the counter twice. She caught Doc’s attention as he perked his head and ears, then turned his head slightly to his left and spoke to her in a friendly tone.
“*heh* How’d I know you would still have more to say?”
“Call it a hunch.” Twi replied, just as friendly as him, “But I do still have a question or two.”
“Alright,” he said as he turned around and placed both hooves on the counter simultaneously, “hit me.”
“You explained a lot to us today, but I have a gut feeling there’s more to it than just that.”
“Then yo’ gut be speakin’ the truth.” Doc said in a humorous accent, “*heh* I have sooo much more than just one little story to describe everything about me. Believe me, I promise I’ll tell everypony all of it in do time, but as of now, it would just be better for all of us if those secrets remained behind closed doors. Anyway, anything else?”
Twi put her hoof to her muzzle and tapped it twice in thought as she looked to the top of her eye sockets. She eventually looked down and saw the pendant Doc was still wearing around his neck by the thick brown string, now revealed by the lack of his shirt. It was crescent-shaped, bending to Doc’s right and of a color like a pale, midnight blue. It appeared to have miniaturized craters in it and a hole at the top of the crescent tip which allowed the string to loop through and secure it with a minor knot. This little pendant around Doc’s neck that he had kept hidden all this time was a cartoonish rendition of a crescent moon. She looked back up at him and asked him about it.
“I…noticed you were looking at the moon on the roof of the library a few nights ago.” she mentioned, “You had that little necklace with you, and you seemed to be kissing it, telling the moon you were sorry. Why?”
He looked down at his chest to see the little moon pendant, taking his elbows off of the counter and lifting it gently with his right hoof. He elevated it, getting a good look of the entire thing in the palm of his hoof. He raised his other foreleg up and slowly caressed the curve of the pendant with his left hoof. He smiled reminiscently at the little charm, looking at it for a few moments until he looked back up and answered, gripping the pendant tightly.
“Like I said, Twi…all in do time.”