//------------------------------//
// A Little Work and Play 
// Story: Bringing Out The Worst In Others 
// by Murder Knight 
//------------------------------//

I stumbled out of the outhouse weakly.

Well… that was awkward.

I’m blaming the food.

You shouldn't have tried eating hay.

The awkwardness followed me back to the household and soon, I was greeted by the sight of Sunshine’s suppressed giggles and everybody else’s suppressed smirks. The plate that held my half-eaten breakfast was now empty, probably finished by Sunshine if her proximity to my plate meant anything.

I held up a hand, “Not another word.”

The suppressed smirks just got wider. I sighed and retreated out of the room. There was no way for me to salvage the situation. Instead, I went to retrieve my sword.

So what do you plan on doing now? There’s not really much you can do here.

What do you suggest then?

Twist some values, turn beings into their own antithesis, break some wills, take your pick.

Why didn’t I see that coming?

I attached the sheath to my belt and sat on my bed. The Ring had a point. What would I do and where would I go? I could return to Earth, but what do I have for me back there? A crappy house and five life sentences. Or I could start a new life here. A life of peace and contentment.

... Nah. Last night, you told me something about using his power. Please finish.

I knew you had it in you! Now, what we’re doing is not ‘magic’, what we’re doing is bending reality to suit us. Like Discord from the show.

How do I do it?

Just actively will something to happen. Try changing the color of your sheets.

I looked at the gray sheets.

Turn into yellow.

The sheets turned yellow. I would have been surprised if I hadn't expected it.

Turn back to normal.

The sheets went back to its original shade of gray.

Do I have any limits?

Use it to make gigantic changes at one time or several major changes in a short period of time and my maker’s soul will awaken and use you as his new host body. I shouldn’t have to tell you that that’s a bad thing for both of us.

How will I know my limits then? I don’t know what counts as major.

Pain. A lot of pain. That would be my master stirring a little. You’ll be safe once it ebbs away.

A loud knocking on the door startled me, “Coming!” I heard Tempered shout. I decided to stay in my room, just in case. I heard the door creak open.

“Captain! What brings you here?” I felt a shiver up my spine.

“Tempered Steel, thine Princess has asked me to gather up mine men to capture an evil sorcerer in the Everfree.”

I think he means us.

“Of course I’ll join you! But really, drop the language. Only nobles do that now.”

The other voice sighed, “Fine. The rest of the men are in the city. Gather up your weapons and armor. I’m giving you until the sun reaches its peak.”

It was then that I decided to sneak towards my open window.

“Hey, I have a friend here who can help us. He may not look much, but he’s an extra able body should we run into any threats.”

Fuuuuucckkkk.

Don’t run. This is the perfect opportunity to get to civilization. You get to be escorted by a guard with actual fighting experience to the closest city, and throw off some suspicion by being on a search party looking for you.

But the Princesses can sense us. How do you think did they almost find us when we first got here?

That’s because a lot of energy was released when we teleported, and any being with sensitivity to energy would have felt it. But you’re not exactly releasing energy right now. You can do stuff; just don’t go overboard with your ability.

I calmed down greatly after I heard that. It was a good thing that I calmed down too, because Tempered chose that moment to burst into my room. And I don’t think that jumping out of the window would help my reputation.

“Need a job?”
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

An hour later, I found myself standing in a group of about ten guards, all in their enchanted golden armor. Apparently, gold is a very good conductor of magic. Or so Tempered told me. A plain pony in armor with a distinctive look waved me over.

He stretched out his hoof, “I am Captain Blunt Hoof. Tempered Steel told me that you could help us.” I shook his outstretched limb, “I can help, provided I’m compensated appropriately.”

Blunt Hoof chuckled, “You freelancer types are all the same. You will be rewarded after the search party returns,” his gaze hardened a bit, “Just make sure everypony is in one piece when you return.”

With those parting words, he turned around and started talking to all of the other soldiers present. As noontime approached, more and more guards started to trickle into the city square. By the time the sun reached its peak, there were about fifty guards of various ranks standing around. Blunt Hoof then divided us into ten groups of five. Except for mine, which had six, including me.

“Our orders are to capture any practitioners of dark magic in the Everfree forest and the areas beyond it. We are to check every abandoned fort, witch lair, and burial field which we have cleared out in previous operations. If you encounter a Khanate raiding party, avoid killing them if possible. Party leaders are as follows: Ice Block, Tempered Steel…” I stopped paying attention at this point to look over my group. Three Earths, a pegasi, and a unicorn, all in plain armor with no distinctive markings.

A team of Redshirts. We could use them as meat shields while we run around and stab the threat in the back.

“… and Altaïr. That would be all.” My hood hid my look of surprise to everybody but Blunt Hoof, who was in front of everybody else. The pegasus in my group reared up, “But sir! He is not part of the Royal Guard!” she made no attempt to hide the disbelief in her voice.

Or we could murder her while no one is looking.

Was it just me or did I see him smirk, “With all due respect, Private, if Tempered is to be believed, then he has a much better track record than you.” The look on the pegasus’ face went from incredulous to angry to blank resignation in less than five seconds.

Blunt Hoof looked at the rest of us, “Any other objections?” his voice held a menacing tone, “Good. Then let us be off.”

The groups left one by one until only my group was left. I turned to the pegasus mare, “Any suggestions on where we should go?” She stared at me silently for a few moments before jabbing her hoof to the north-west, “Whitetail Cemetery. A large yet rather unknown cemetery. Good place for necromancers.” Her voice was as neutral as can be.

The ‘professional’ act then? She must be sore over you being the party leader.

As long as she doesn’t do anything stupid.

We walked in silence until we reached the destination. The pegasus wasn’t kidding. The cemetery was as big as a football field. She also wasn’t kidding about the necromancers. In the middle of the cemetery was a pony in black robes surrounded by half a dozen undead ponies. I glanced at my own group and stifled a groan. The three Earth ponies looked frightened but determined, the unicorn constantly looked back as if contemplating fleeing, and the pegasus still had a stoic face.

You could rush them anyway. You won’t die.

And let them see me get impaled? That would do wonders for their suspicion.

I motioned for them to move behind one of the house thingies that dotted the landscape. They complied almost too quickly. The pegasus turned to us, “Alright, now here’s the plan. Gold Rush and Whole Grain, you need to sneak to their right and wait for my signal to charge. Cherry Tap and I’ll sneak to their left. Altaïr here will guard Blueblood while he incapacitates the necromancer and his minions from afar.” I waited until she was done before pointing at the crossbow on the unicorn’s back, “Or we can just shoot him in the head.” Her eyes narrowed, “Our orders are to capture, not kill,” she hissed.

I felt my patience thin out, “I’d rather minimize casualties than risk your lives in an idiotic attempt to keep blood off your hooves.” I turned toward the unicorn, “Do you think you can do it?”

He nodded, although I felt panic radiate off him. He levitated the crossbow off his back and aimed at the necromancer, who was busy reanimating his ninth body. He looked hesitant. A frown made its way to my face. I don’t have time for this. I subtly used my power to push the trigger. The necromancer glanced towards us as the report sounded before getting domed by a bolt. His minions fell at the same time he did.

Boom. Headshot.

The Earth ponies looked relieved but also a little saddened. Blueblood wordlessly replaced his crossbow and started trotting away. I didn’t even have to look at the pegasus to know she was throwing me a hateful glare. I ignored her and walked up to the necromancer’s corpse.  Around his neck was a small pouch containing a small book, a few gold coins, and a fancy dagger that was probably ceremonial.

The stench of the rotting cadavers nearby was very distracting, so I quickly took the pouch and left the bodies to their final rest. I caught up to the rest of my group as they left the cemetery, “Well, at least we eliminated the source of the dark magic,” Blueblood solemnly said.

“And saved us from doing it ourselves,” a gruff voice interjected.

Several dogs sprang from behind the trees and from within bushes. They wore simple iron armor and most had wooden clubs instead of the maces and spears I saw on some, but they greatly outnumbered us.

I would say three to one.

One dog stepped towards us with a grin on his face. His armor was very distinctive from the others. The chainmail undershirt, shiny chest plate, the symbol of crossed spears on the shiny chest plate, and the large halberd in his paws told me he was the leader.

“I am Deigo Noyan! Prepare yourselves!” he shouted.

I unsheathed my rusty sword. Behind me, I heard someone mutter, “We are so dead.”

The dogs charged at us, likely trying to overwhelm us with numbers. Some dogs were waving their weapons around wildly. I was quick to take advantage of that, I lengthened the weapons of the ones who were waving. I smiled a little as the dogs around them yelped in surprise and turned against them.  The other dogs who I presumed were friends of the assailants, turned to aid their companions. The few who were not involved charged at us.

I deflected a spear with my sword and tackled the owner. Yelping in surprise, he lunged forward with his jaws open. I gave him rusty metal to eat and pushed the head off my sword. Seeing no immediate threat, I scanned the battlefield for any other combatants.

A few meters next to me, one of the Earth ponies was unconscious. Standing over her was a dog with a club, a problem I quickly remedied via sword to the back. The other two Earth ponies were faring quite well, ganging up against a single dog. Blueblood was busy disabling the dogs who survived the infighting. Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted the pale yellow hide of the pegasus. I turned to see her facing off against Deigo.

Growling, he poked at the nimble pegasus with his halberd. Focusing on the halberd, I made it denser. He poked at the pegasus a few more times before panting a little. Letting loose a frustrated snarl, he started sweeping the air with the axe part of his halberd. After a few swipes, his panting became a little more pronounced. Grunting, he turned and saw me blankly staring at the fight. With a start, he looked around and saw that he was the only one left of the raiding party. He snarled at the pegasus one last time before dropping his halberd and running.

Unfortunately for him, Blueblood spotted his shiny armor. Poor Deigo soon found a bolt in his knee. One of the Earth ponies provided us some rope. After a brief struggle, we had a prisoner of war in our hands, or hooves.

I looked over my group and saw no serious injuries, although some of the bruises looked nasty. The Earth pony that was knocked out woke up after a few minutes, slightly confused as to why we weren’t dead, but perfectly fine.

Aside from the occasional death threat from the dog, the rest of the trip was spent in wary silence. The sun was already setting by the time we got to the gate. The guards at the gate had a double take when they saw our delivery package. One of them managed to muster up the courage to approach him.

“Looks like your adventuring days are over,” he sneered.

Random locals trailed behind us as we ventured into the city square. By the time we arrived, there was a pretty large crowd jeering at the dog and cheering us on. Inside the square stood two other parties. I saw Tempered Steel walk up to me, his mouth slightly ajar.

“Are you sure you don’t know how to use that sword?” he muttered, still looking at Deigo.

“No, I definitely don’t know how to use it,” was my reply. Tempered gave me a confused look before shrugging. We talked about a few other topics as well. Apparently, his group gave up after going through six different forts and finding nothing.

He opened his mouth to say something when another search party returned. He nodded to me and cantered over to the other group. I saw a bench nearby and made a beeline for it. Hours of walking don’t feel good if you’re not used to it. The search parties were all starting to come back now that it was getting dark. Most arrived with no interesting happenings on their patrol. Finally, Blunt Hoof’s group arrived. I was already rather desensitized by surprises now, but I still wasn’t really expecting Blunt’s mouth to drop all the way down to the floor when he saw Deigo.

“Wha-!? But… how!?” he spluttered out. After calming him down, I gave a brief run down on what my group did. His newly restored stoic expression cracked a bit after I told him we were heavily outnumbered. I handed him the pouch and he asked me to stay put. I went ahead and complied, I didn’t really have much to do anyways.

I wonder how much he’s going to pay me.

You do realize that you can simply materialize money?

And cause inflation? I’d rather not.

A little while later, the mutterings of the crowd, which was slowly dispersing, became much louder and pronounced than before. I snapped out of my thoughts and saw that the crowd was staring at me. I stifled a sigh, “What the hell did I do to you guys?”

I heard coughing behind me. I slowly turned around. Behind me was Blunt Hoof, and two alicorns bent on my death or imprisonment. I resisted the urge to draw my weapon, stood up, and waited for them to make their move.

Celestia met my leveled gaze. After a few moments, she spoke up, “There art not many beings who can meet mine gaze. Tell Us, Altaïr, what art thou?” 

“I am just a simple wanderer. There is not much else to tell.” Diplomacy skills activate.

“That cannot be all. A simple wanderer could not have laid low a necromancer and a Noyan one after the other.” Goddamnit Blunt Hoof.

“It was Blueblood that bested the necromancer, and while I did take down a few raiders, it was the combined effort of the group which captured him and decimated the raiding party. If you wish to commend someone, commend the entire group.” It’s always good to give credit where it’s due. You never know when a grudge pops up and stabs you in the back because you didn’t mention them.

Behind the alicorns, Blunt Hoof desperately looked at the crowd behind me before making a frantic ‘come here’ gesture. A few ponies walked into my peripheral vision. I turned my head and saw my group form up in a straight row.

Celestia smiled, “Indeed,” Luna turned to Blunt Hoof, “See to it that these members of the Guard get a promotion.” Blunt Hoof saluted, “Yes ma’am.” Then he walked away, but not before glancing at us and pointing to a large sack next to two Guards.

Luna caught me flicking my gaze to the sack, “Thy payment is the standard five bits hiring fee for a mercenary, as well as the four bits per hour mercenary rate. That sums up to twenty nine bits. However, for the capture of a Noyan, all the members of thine group will be given five hundred bits to split amongst yourselves.”

I could spot most of the members of my group sweat a little when Celestia mentioned five hundred bits. Only Blueblood kept his stoic gaze.

It must be worth a lot.

Yes. Gold coins are valuable. Thank you for pointing that out.

Celestia returned her gaze to me, “If thou ever needs work, just speak to Captain Blunt Hoof. Thou hast proven to be an asset. Now, We will leave you to discuss the splitting of the reward. We have a Noyan to imprison.” With those words, she and her sister walked away from us and towards Deigo.

My patrol group surrounded the bag as soon as they left the Princess’ attention, “So what’s the split?” Gold Rush eagerly asked while I counted out my pay from the sack, “You can split it amongst yourselves, I have no need for more gold,” Blueblood stated with no arrogance in his voice. I looked up to find him smiling good-naturedly at us.

I think I like this Blueblood better than the other one.

No kiddin’. Crossbow bolt for a mark is manlier.

“So a hundred to one then,” I chimed in. Five minutes later, we were done counting it out and I started missing paper currency.

This is going to be a bitch to carry around.

The three Earth ponies had already left a little while ago to get a container for the gold, leaving Blueblood to guard their money from any would-be thief. The pegasus, having already found a unicorn neighbor to levitate her stuff, walked up to me, an uneasy smile on her face, “Sorry if I was a bit rude to you today, it’s just that you were so similar to the dogs and I barely knew you. If we fought that necromancer, we might have been too tuckered out to fight the raiding party,”

I hid my surprise at her statement from her, “Apology accepted,” I said. Her uneasy smile turned into a relieved one, “If you need anything, just ask for Thunder Strike. I owe you one.” With that, she flew off, her unicorn companion letting out a surprised yelp and dashing after her.

I said my goodbye to Blueblood and started my search for an inn to stay in.

Really? ‘Inn to stay in’?

I found one near the entrance. It was dirt cheap, a bit a night. The innkeeper seemed kinda shady though. The Italian accent, handlebar mustache, shifty eyes, and a smile that just seemed a little bigger than normal were warning me to not mess with this guy.

I paid him for my room and went straight for the bed as soon as I stored my sack of bits in the closet. I was immortal. A shady innkeeper won’t scare me. I lay down and closed my eyes, my sword beside the bed.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The Ring felt a presence nearby. Around it, silence reigned. Which meant that there was only one explanation. It was not physical. It focused on the presence’s energy and narrowed it down to its bearer’s thoughts. With a little bit of effort, the Ring entered its bearer’s dream.

It was a dark and stormy night. The night of its bearer’s first murder. Drawing on some of its own power, the Ring dispelled the dream. In the empty void, a frustrated sigh was heard, “We know thou art here! The necromancer’s death may have fooled Our subjects, but your malignant presence made itself known in the realm of dreams.”

You are not welcome here.

“Then come and face Us, craven filth!”

Such strong words, from a weakling!

The Ring could tell that he struck a sore spot when Luna replied, “WE ART NOT WEAK! WE ART THE NIGHT ITSELF! WE CONTROL THE MOON!”

Do you mean that tiny, pathetic rock which merely reflects the light of the sun? Face it, you are nothing compared to your sister. You are not worthy to face me. If the Ring had a mouth, it would have grinned. NOW BEGONE!

It drew on as much energy as it dared take without stirring his creator’s soul, and unleashed it in the form of a miniature sun exploding right where it guessed Luna was. Sure enough, he heard a yelp of pain followed by the presence vanishing.

Satisfied with its work, the Ring returned to the physical world, only for its metaphorical grin to be wiped off its metaphorical face.