//------------------------------// // Chapter 6: No Fear // Story: Courageous // by SleeplessScribe //------------------------------// Courageous Story 1 Chapter 6: No Fear By: SleeplessScribe I felt like I had been hit over the head with a boulder. My head was throbbing, my whole body was weak, and everything everywhere was sore. Everything from my sight to my memory was a blur, keeping me from recognizing any of the faces that met me as I finally came to. “Gilda, hey, you alright?” I could at least recognize gender, and this was a male. My vision wasn’t completely screwed, so I could make out blurred shapes. I was surrounded, and apparently on my back. There wasn’t enough detail to actually figure out where I was, but judging by the fact that I wasn’t dead, it was at least somewhere friendly. I had bright colors on all sides, and as my vision slowly adjusted, I realized it was all those ponies from my last visit with Dash. After I figured that out, I found myself wondering if this really was a better alternative than what I just came out of. Looking around at all the ponies, there was only one thing I could respond with. “I’d be a whole lot better if I wasn’t in the custody of the Dweeb Patrol.” I thought it was a decent comeback, until the bright orange one from a long time ago stepped up right next to my head. “Really, Gilda? Is that how you not only greet your best friend’s big brother, but also thank us for possibly saving your life?” My eyes widened, and I would have jumped up had my current condition allowed for it. “Nova? Wait, what, how are you here? Well… at least there’s still one cool pony around here.” The Pegasus rolled his eyes at me. “Alright, drop the ‘cool’ act. You were inside this giant cloud monster, and we need to find out why.” Shaking my head quickly, the mere mention of that… thing brought back a few memories. Some events were still foggy, but I could recall most of what had happened up until I lost consciousness. “It was my father, he put me in that thing. I knew he wanted to punish me, but he’s been different lately. He’s been even more rude, cruel, and just plain terrible than normal, and I’m not the only griffin he’s made into these monsters. There are even more, and I’m sure more are being made as we speak.” I let out a loud cough. That little speech had left me breathless, forcing me to pant a bit as my chest rose and sank. It was odd that none of them looked angry, and even more strange was the fact that we were inside. I couldn’t tell exactly where, but I did know I was in a bed, and the entire place was made out of wood, so it had to be a decent ways away from their lame town. As soon as I was done talking, the nerdiest looking of them all stepped up beside Nova. I don’t think I’ll ever understand why Dash decided to hang out with losers like this. She said, “Gilda, please, do you remember where he is right now? If what you say is true, he could have an army of those things marching on Ponyville right now!” I got that she was worried, but did she really need to shout like that? My head was already pounding, and her volume didn’t help. Lucky for her, there was no way I could forget the settlement I was born in. “Deep in the Everfree Forest, there are some old ruins. Go all the way through that, and the village will be right at the edge of the forest on the other side.” The unicorn gave a nod as she began to trot away. “Girls… and Nova, get yourselves ready. I’m going to send a letter to the princess to let her know about this. There’s no doubt in my mind she’ll want to act.” She didn’t actually get very far, seeing as she was now in the arms, or legs, of the elder Dash. “We don’t have that kind of time, Twi! We could go through there ourselves, right now, and just let the princess know when the trouble’s been dealt with. Let me ask you something: what is the difference between A: Send Celestia a warning, having her send guards to check out the scene, determining whether or not the situation actually demands action, and then receiving orders to go take care of it, and B) going there now, taking care of this ourselves, and letting her know everything’s okay? Answer: four hours!” The blonde dweeb was the next to speak up. “I’m with Nova on this one. Who knows what could happen by the time we-“ “Twilight!” Another male voice came from below us, and before I knew it, that weird, scaly thing was running up the steps. Despite how little I cared about these dorky ponies, that creature piqued my curiosity. He started waving around a scroll, handing it to the unicorn that was talking earlier. “It’s from Princess Celestia!” Anybody that could read that fast was even lamer than a regular nerd. “She’s already seen what’s happening. The Princess believes the Elements of Harmony will be necessary, so let’s go get them now!” All of them took off, save for Nova, who froze in front of me with a smug grin on his face. “Don’t go anywhere, now.” With that, he was off. “Oh, ha ha, very funny.” ------- It was quite clear that I was the only one who didn’t understand what was going on. All the girls were rushing to the library, and I was just dragging behind, hoping that they’d tell me. As soon as we entered the library, Twilight led us into another room I had yet to see, opening a display case. Inside were five shiny, gold necklaces with even shinier gems inside, and a head crown thingy. At the time that all this was happening, I didn’t realize it was actually a crown, but even now that I do, the “head crown thingy” will always be its official name. As Twilight put a necklace on each mare, I noticed that the gem inside resembled their cutie marks as well, and even the head crown thingy was similar to Twilight’s. “Alright, girls, let’s go!” I hoped they didn’t think I was going to stay out of this, because if they did they were in for a rude awakening. My sister was the only one of the six flying, leaving me enough room to just cruise by them. “I know you all didn’t forget about me, right?” Twilight opened her mouth, but Rainbow was never bad at talking fast. “Sorry, bro, but this is kind of a job just for us. I hate to say it, but you won’t be much help.” These girls could move fast when they wanted to. We were already entering the forest when my sis was finished. “So? Rainbow, when was the last I listened to you when you told me I couldn’t do something?” She couldn’t even respond. The mare let out a long, drawn out “mmm”, but nothing more. Ideas started flowing through my head as we made our way. Watching them just run through the forest like they were made me wonder if they had already been this way, as they seemed to know every turn to take and not one of the six wandered off. Finally, I had a plan figured out. “Hey Twilight, if more of these monsters are being made, do you think this guy is using the griffins from Gilda’s village to do it?” I’m sure if she wasn’t running, she would’ve rubbed her chin like she normally does. “That’s not a bad hypothesis. Why do you ask?” “Well, we’ve learned that we can’t just bust the clouds and that your magic doesn’t work on them, right? We obviously can’t ask the princess to move the sun again, but what if you all focused your efforts on trying to free the griffins?” “That could work, and it’s at least worth trying to- look out!” Too late. It was like a repeat of the river accident except without the ferret… or the river. I hadn’t noticed my sister rising up to fly over the ancient arch, and now it was going to have a permanent print of my face on it. “Alright… that hurt.” Twilight was the only one that actually came over, but at least all of the mares stopped and turned around. We were off again once I was back on my hooves, and before I knew it we stood before the massive wood posts that made up the walls of the griffin settlement. I wish I had had a stopwatch with me; it didn’t feel like it took us any time at all to get here. However, the question now was how to get in. There was a huge gate, but something told me a simple knock and a polite hello wouldn’t grant us entry. The studious unicorn turned to my sister, but I was already poking my head up above the posts before she could say anything. Well, at least before she could say something to Rainbow. “What can you see, Nova?” More than I would have liked to. The village consisted of grass huts that were lined up along the inside of the wall, one longhouse on the left and right each, and a large altar in the middle. At that altar stood a griffin larger than any I had ever seen, with wings as black as night, a head of dull grey feathers, and fur that was darker brown than the trees at Applejack’s farm. Standing around the altar were more of those monsters, and more, normal-looking griffins sat before the big guy. I honestly did not want to see what he was doing to them, so instead I turned to the inside of the gate, slowly and quietly making my way towards it. The remarks from the girls were audible even through the wall, but they were extremely muffled. “And just what are you doing in the domain of Krieger, pony?” Now the girls were shouting for me, as the big griffin was not only looking at me, but was already behind me before I could even open the gate. “You trespass on my land, and as the chief of this village, I punish trespassers with death.” Despite how freakishly big and scary this dude looked, I honestly wasn’t frightened or intimidated. Giving him a grin, I leaned against the bar that kept the gate locked, wing situated underneath it. “What did you say? Sir, I’ll have you know I am not trespassing, I’m from child services, and I’ve received a report from your daughter that you’ve been very abusive!” His cocked brow and crooked beak made me want to laugh; I was honestly expecting this guy to get angry, but the reaction he gave was priceless. “Excuse me?” Rolling my eyes, I slowly began to lift my wing, taking the bar with it. “Oh, wait, that’s wrong, I’m the guy that can stop your evil plan without even touching you!” I had no idea the nostrils on a beak could flare, nor that they could puff out smoke. “You dare to challenge me, fool? That cocky attitude of yours will be your undoing!” He raised one of his claws to strike me, but I was already in the air, and the gate was open, allowing my friends to get in and almost trample the chief. Once he saw what had happened, he let out an angry roar that I just stuck my tongue out to. “Rise, my beasts, and kill them all!” After that incident with the arch, I had definitely learned my lesson about paying attention to what’s around me, so I didn’t really want to risk looking down at the girls to see how they were doing, seeing as how I now had a giant chicken nugget chasing me. The griffin charged at me, but I eased to the left and watched as he went right passed me. “Smooth move, knucklehead!” Once again, he roared and charged after me, but I was way too fast for him. I made my way towards the trees that pressed up against the sides of the wall, coming to a halt when I was right in front of one. My speed created a decent gap between the two of us, which gave me time to look down and see that my idea had worked; Twilight and Rarity were using their magic to pull griffins out of their cloud traps while Pinkie, Rainbow, and Flutters grouped them all together so Applejack could tie them up with a lasso. As each one was freed, the cloud monsters disappeared, but there was no more time to watch. I flew up quickly, and moments later heard a loud clunk. Mr. Big and Bad turned to me again with a furious glare, and that was when I learned that griffins actually had teeth. With my tongue out, I blew a raspberry at him. “You’re too slow!” History continued to repeat itself, though this time I touched down and took off again, leaving him with a mouthful of dirt as he pulled his head out of the ground. After spitting it all out and turning to me, he was met with the amazing, breathtaking view of my rear end before I started breakdancing in midair. “Come on, step it up!” When I first was peeking over the wall, I had failed to notice the red flags that were flying at each corner of the settlement, and as Krieger met my altitude again, I pulled one off its pole and waved it. “Toro! Toro! Uh… griffo! Griffo!” He was panting a little bit now, but that didn’t stop him from shouting and roaring like a maniac. “I’m going to rip you apart!” Well, if by “rip you apart” he meant slam himself right into the flagpole, he carried out his threat pretty well. At this point, his head was covered in lumps, and the skin had even broken in some places; I could see a little blood in certain spots. I waited for him high above the altar, and this time, instead of immediately charging at me, he took a few seconds for his breathing to return to normal. “This game of tag is boring.” I wanted to say more, but I had to finish the last steps of my plan, and distracting myself with taunting more than I needed to wasn’t part of it. Instead of leading him into something this time, I flew in continuous circles, and, like an idiot, he followed me. Stunts like this were foal’s play for me seeing as how one of the first practical lessons at the academy tackled dizziness. The big guy, however, was not so fortunate. After a decent bit of time leading him around, he slowed down until he was at a full stop and fell to the ground, too dizzy to move. I landed beside him with a smug grin on my face. “Told you I’d beat you without even touching you. Alright, girls, he’s all yours.” They all nodded and stood in a straight line before Krieger, and their Elements began to glow. The ground shook with their power as Twilight’s horn, as well as her eyes, shined brightly. Within moments, the other five were blasting beams out of their necklaces and into Twilight’s head crown thingy, and out of her horn came a bright, powerful rainbow that struck the massive griffin and… set him on fire. My jaw almost dropped as I saw him become quite literally a fried chicken, but I was able to keep my mouth closed when I saw that the dark body was a shell itself, and after it had burned up, a smaller, but still decently large griffin was left on the ground, still breathing, but obviously too weak to move. That’s not all, either; the smoke that had risen from the flames was moving. It looked like it was moving towards Canterlot, but it disappeared before it got there. Raising my hoof to my lips, I let out a loud whistle and clapped my hooves together afterwards. “That. Was. So. Awesome! Did you see that? Out of nowhere, you all just went Supermane on this guy!” In the midst of my excitement, I felt many a hoof patting my back and two lavender forelegs around my shoulders. “Nova, that was amazing!” My sister chimed in, seizing the chance to rub my head for once. “Yeah! You took on that big turkey all on your own!” I could only assume that all six of them were going to throw their two cents in, and now it was the timid pegasus’ turn to speak. “That was very brave of you. Woo hoo.” Okay, I have to admit, the way she whispered that “woo hoo” was utterly adorable. Up next was Little Miss Prissy, and hearing something good about me come out of her mouth was like hearing my sister deny a race. “Fluttershy is absolutely right, my dear. Well done, Nova Dash, well done!” In typical Pinkie fashion, the bouncy mare was jumping around all of us, not to mention speaking faster than I could fly. “Great googly moogly, Nova you were all bam boom boopity bop and then all whammo boom boom and then all reeow pow! That looked like so much fun!” Oddly, Applejack seemed the least impressed out of the bunch, though she still sounded like she was decently surprised. “I don’t think I’ve seen anypony move like that since my last rodeo!” At this point, I’m pretty sure my face was about as red as the ends of my mane. “Ah, stop it, you all. I was just having fun, really. I needed to keep the big oaf from messing with you all while you freed the others, and what better way to keep someone’s attention than making them mad?” They all started laughing, and before long I was laughing with them. Who’d have imagined that such a serious situation would end in all of us like this? * * * When we finally got back to Ponyville, the sun was starting to go down. After all the Elements were returned to Twilight, everypony went their separate way to take care of things they needed to finish, and although my sister went back home for some r and r, I decided to stay with Twilight. I was still completely hyped from what happened, and it took Twilight using her magic to hold me down for me to finally get under control. “Phew, thanks Twi. I was starting to go Pinkie Pie for a second. I told you that you would somehow become my leash.” She let out a giggle as she walked up to her door. “Not a problem, but I am curious; why did you decide to walk home with me?” “Well we did kind of leave a huge mess in your library.” The mare rolled her eyes at me, the smile still on her face as she opened the door. As we entered, I saw that the entire place was spotless. “This is what happens when you have an amazing assistant like Spike helping you out. “Speak of the dragon, and the dragon shall appear!” Indeed he did. I had never actually seen Spike before, so the sight of the little dragon jumping out of the door to what I have dubbed “The Element Room” was a bit of a surprise. “And he comes bearing another letter from the princess.” Twilight returned the Elements to their proper locations and then took the letter, reading it aloud. “My faithful student I have received word of your recent success, and would like to extend my congratulation. I realize that it is rather late, but I would like to ask that, if he is still with you, you have your friend Nova Dash come to Canterlot Castle. While you and all of your friends have earned much praise, my sister and I have something we would like to discuss with him specifically. I will also be sending you a gift very soon, so look forward to it. Sincerely, Princess Celestia” I stared at the letter with a raised brow. “Um, I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not. Do you think I’m in trouble?” She playfully nudged my shoulder, shaking her head. “I highly doubt it. I’d be excited if I were you! Then again, I’d probably be halfway out the door already if I were you.” After a light chuckle, I did as she said and made my way to the exit. I froze before I opened it, though, and turned back to the unicorn. “Before I forget, I have something to ask you: do you think you know me well enough yet?” This time, I was kinda half serious half joking, and all genuinely curious. It took a few moments for her to finally form a legitimate sentence to respond with. “Honestly, I don’t think so. You’ve got me curious about you now, and I should pretend to be angry at you for that.” With that, she gave me the perfect opportunity to mess with her head just before leaving. “Well, I’ll try and keep my schedule open enough for a date or two, how about that?” My plan was to speak, look at her face for a moment, and then leave with a smug grin. What happened was me leaving with a face about as pink as Pinkie’s tail after hearing her response. “I’ll think about it, Nova, I’ll think about it.” Either she was being completely serious, or she was a really good actress and was now patting herself on the back for turning the tables on me. Actually, both was also a possibility. Regardless, I had to calm myself before I entered the castle, so I did a few tricks on my way there. I was nowhere near the acrobat my sister was, but no matter what anyone says, I was, am, and always will be faster. To be continued...