//------------------------------// // 0.5 The Timid Summoner // Story: Against the Dark One // by Hidden Brony //------------------------------// “Mom? Dad?” a tiny voice rang out. “Where are you? This isn’t funny anymore.” A little girl with long pink hair fumbled around in the dark in her house, searching for someone. Anyone. “Mom?” she called out softly, rounding the corner. From the next room came the sound of snuffling and the ripping of flesh. What she saw would terrify her for the rest of her life. A wolf sat with its muzzle inside her father’s chest, rooting around for the tastiest bits. She gave off a little ‘eep!’, quickly backing up. The wolf raised its head at the noise. Its muzzle was stained red. It looked at her, and raised its flews in a growl. She watched in horror as a small chunk of something solid and dark red dropped off of the beast’s muzzle. She could swear she heard it speak. “Prey.” She shrieked as it started stalking after her. She turned and ran as fast as she could. She couldn't hear the wolf behind her as she bolted out the front door of her house. When she looked behind her, she saw the wolf padding out of the doorway. “Toy. Fun” Tears streamed down the girl’s face as she started running down the dirt road outside of her house. “Just leave me alone!” she shouted at the wolf. The creature, for its part, stayed just inside her vision as she ran. It paused when she yelled at it. “Druid.” It raised its flews in another growl. “Tasty!” She shrieked again as it lunged at her, dropping to the ground and burying her head under her arms. She heard scrabbling, like claws over stone, and peeked up at the wolf. What she saw instead was a translucent shimmering dome-shaped barrier that seemed to be both there and not at the same time. A voice called out. “Begone, wolf. Trouble this girl no more.” The wolf growled. “Prey. Mine.” There was a flash as a hammer materialized out of nowhere and slammed into the side of the wolf, sending it flying into a nearby tree hard enough to splinter the meter-wide trunk. She looked at the source of the voice to see an unimposing man. He was a thin man, more than a few inches short of six feet tall, with medium length red hair and piercing purple eyes. He looked at her, and his face softened. “Are you okay, little one? Physically, I mean. I know you’re not okay mentally right now,” he said softly, dropping the dome over here. She looked at her shaking limbs, before slowly nodding. The strange man gave her an encouraging smile. “Can you tell me your name, little one?” She shrunk away from him. He sighed, “It’s okay, little one. I’m a friend.” She looked at him, before deciding that nothing was lost talking. “I-I’m F-Flutter.” “Flutter?” he asked. She nodded and he smiled. “That’s a beautiful name. I’m the Summoner. Have you heard of me?” Flutter nodded again, and he gave her a small smile. “Hopefully good things, right? I’m going to take care of you from now on.” Flutter looked between him and the house in panic. His face fell, “I’m sorry, Flutter. Your parents were friends, but it probably hit you harder.” She sniffled, before launching herself into the Summoner’s chest. He held her as she cried for what felt like forever to the young girl that had just lost her parents. Eventually, she passed out, too tired from crying to keep awake. With a flash, they were in a stone room. He placed the girl in the middle of a large bed more fit for three full grown men, before sitting down on a chair. He stayed awake as the girl sobbed in her sleep. When she finally woke up, she drank the water he brought her and ate the breakfast he made for her, then went back to crying. The next few days were like that. The Summoner, the ultimate paragon of his craft, put all his own needs, including sleep, and all his other projects on hold to spend nearly a week caring for a crying ten year old. He made sure she ate and drank enough, and cared for all her other needs. At the end of the sixth day that had passed as such, Flutter eventually got burned out. She stopped crying and just stared at the Summoner. He spoke for the first time in nearly a week, his voice coming out cracked from a parched throat, but still strong and confident, “Do you feel better?” She shook her head, causing him to sigh. “Too much to ask for, I guess. You need to do something to get your mind off the pain.” She looked at him in confusion. “You have the gift. I can feel it. You can do the craft.” “Druid?” she asked. He froze, looking down at her in shock. “Where did you hear that term?” She shrunk into the bed in fear, and he sighed and shook his head, “I’m not mad, Flutter. In fact, it’s just the opposite. I just want to know where you heard that term.” “The-the wolf said it, after I yelled at it,” she said quietly. He sat in contemplation for a moment, before smiling at her, “Then you’re doubly special, little Flutter. You were born with the ability to speak to animals, and it just didn't show until now.” She muttered softly, looking down at her feet hanging over the side of the bed, “Big help it was.” “Hey,” he said softly, placing his fingers on her chin and guiding her head up to meet his gaze. “What you have is a wonderful gift. Don’t let a single encounter ruin your entire opinion of this ability.” He stood up, holding a hand out to her. “Here, let’s go practice your other gift.” “My other gift?” Flutter asked. “Summoning,” the Summoner said simply, smiling. “Grab my hand, and we’ll get started.” Flutter stared at his hand for a few seconds before tentatively reaching out and grabbing his hand. He helped her stand up off the bed, and with a flash, they were somewhere different. It was a relatively large room, about a hundred meters square, and made of solid stone. It was lit by ghostly floating lanterns. He immediately went into lecture mode. “I don’t know how much you know about magic, but forget all of it. Summoning is a form of sorcery, and therefore not truly confined to any form of rules. If you have the imagination and the power to back it, you can do it.” Flutter’s head spun. Wat. The Summoner continued. “First we need to make you summon your first object. It can be anything.” He looked at her expectantly. She looked from him, to her hands, before looking back to him. He smiled, “Just picture something, the more detail the better. Once you have it pictured, try to will it to existence. Just believe that it is there, and it w—” He was cut of by a snarl as a translucent yellow wolf materialized in the room they were in. It stalked towards the duo, making the Summoner frown. The wolf then spoke, in plainly understandable language, “Prey.” Flutter’s eyes widened and she started backing away from the wolf. It stalked towards her, growling, “Druid. Tasty!” “Begone, wolf!” a false image of the Summoner shouted “Trouble this girl no more!” With a wave of a ghostly red hand, the not-wolf shattered into a thousand pieces. Flutter started bawling in terror, and the Summoner dismissed his own phantasm. As his clone vanished, the real man stooped down and grabbed the traumatized girl. “You’ll be okay, little Flutter,” the Summoner said, holding her tight. “You’ll be okay.” “I don’t feel okay,” she wept into his chest. “When will it leave me alone?” “When you’re strong enough to beat it without my help.” He hugged her tighter. “Summoning is all willpower. Eventually, you’ll be strong enough to win against the wolf. “Promise?” she asked through her tears. “I promise.” —*~*~*— A golem materialized in the room. It was twelve feet tall and blocky, seemingly crudely carved from a shimmering yellow rock. It squared off against a three foot tall red goblin that stood more still than any of its kind had a right to. With a swiftness betraying its size, the golem charged and swung a massive fist down at the smaller creature. The goblin held up a hand, immediately halting the strike. Cracks appeared on the ground underneath the creature from the force of the strike, but the red creature was unhurt. “Better, but not good enough,” the Summoner said from behind her. Flutter turned to give him a quick look, finding him in the same position he had been the entire day. He was laying on a vacillant red hammock, wide brimmed hat pulled down over his head and one arm hanging off the side of the construct. “I’m trying, dad,” she groaned, readjusting her golem for the next strike against the much more experienced man’s construct. When the arm swung down, it was once again blocked, more cracks appearing in the ground. “That goblin is really tough, though.” The Summoner scoffed, “Flutter, you have more than enough strength to smash that goblin into putty, you just refuse to use it.” “I don’t,” Flutter exclaimed. “This thing is swinging as hard as it can. I’m breaking the floor!” With a wave of his hanging hand, the Summoner wiped all trace of the cracks off the floor. “No you aren't. Those were illusions, flat constructs on the floor.” Flutter groaned, dropping onto the ground. She hugged her legs, pouting. “Don’t be like that, Flutters. You’re doing well, but you aren't doing your best. That’s all I want from you.” “Everything I can give,” she muttered. “All the effort you can throw into your studies. You have as much, if not more, talent in you as I do. If you truly apply yourself, you could easily crush the tiny fraction of willpower I put into that goblin.” The summoner stood up and the hammock disappeared. “Something is holding you back, and I think I know what it is.” Flutter looked up at him, cocking an eyebrow. “And what’s that?” With a flourish of a hand, a red wolf appeared out of thin air. Flutter jumped to her feet in a fraction of a second and was backed against the nearest wall as fast as she could get there. She lost concentration on her construct, causing it to vanish. The Summoner looked at her. “Break it.” She swallowed, before summoning a massive yellow hammer. It swung against the wolf with the full intention of sending the offending red beast flying. The exact opposite happened when the two constructs came into contact. The massive hammer shattered into rapidly dissolving shards, and the wolf remained untouched. Flutter sank to the ground, placing her head on top of her knees and hugging her legs tight. The Summoner shook his head, sighing. He walked up to the wolf and tapped it on the head. Cracks appeared where he contacted, spreading all around the construct. When the cracks formed a complete web all around the unmoving beast, it shattered into a million tiny shards. He walked towards her, “This construct was programmed to break whenever anything touched it. The tiniest touch, as just demonstrated, would cause it to shatter.” He kneeled down right in front of her, and she looked up at him. “That means that the hammer broke before it even hit the wolf. You truly believed that you would lose, so you did.” “I–what?” she asked. “Really?” “Yes,” he said, standing up. “That is the only thing holding you back. You lack the will to win. The drive to succeed.” “But if I get really good, I’ll have to leave!” she exclaimed, eyes going wide. “And if I have to leave, then I lose you, too!” He looked at her with a sad look in his eyes, “I see now that keeping you secluded in this building, even if it is by your own volition, was a mistake.” He shook his head. “I hate to do this to you, Flutters, but it is time for you to leave.” “You–you’re kicking me out?” Flutter’s jaw dropped as she jumped up and grabbed onto the short man’s chest. “Was I not good enough? Did I make you mad? I’m sorry, give me another chance!” “The problem, Flutter,” he said, hugging her back, “is not you. You are as good as you are going to be from living in this building.” He pulled her off him, grabbing the sides of her head to force her to look into his eyes. “You need to experience the world outside. Live life a little. You will always be welcome back to visit; you've been my daughter for nearly a decade, nothing is going to erase that.” “I don’t want to leave,” she sniffled. “I want to stay right here.” “And that’s why I have to do this.” The Summoner kissed her on the forehead. “You’re a kind, beautiful young girl, Flutters. Don’t let anyone say any different. Go out and live a life. Love, make a family, become the greatest adventurer in Equestria, it doesn't matter what you do. Just do it to the best of your ability, you understand?” Flutter sniffled again, before nodding. He smiled. “I know you’ll do me proud. Go pack your stuff. Make sure to pack a raincoat, it gets rainy in the Baltimare area at this time of year.”