//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 // Story: Legion // by DarthMalentai //------------------------------// If I were a rich man, Yubby dibby dibby dibby.. I mentally sang to myself. I had lost track of how many times I had sung that or any of the other songs I was able to memorize. The sun was high, yet I felt no heat upon my body, and the birds sang their merry tunes. Being a statue is not fun at all, although others would probably say otherwise when my sword had basically become a target for some rings. I heard the faint rumble of probably another class of children coming. ‘This should be about 2,000… or was it 3?’ I questioned. I mentally shrugged, and waited for the group to appear. “…and this class is Legion,” I heard a feminine voice speak up gesturing towards me, of course my facing was towards another statue, as if I was ready to attack Him. Yes He was a very chaotic character indeed, and the thought of he and I being friends at one point was something that left me….sickened. “Does anypony want to take a guess as to why?” The teacher spoke up, looking over her students. None of the students said anything, only looking at my face and the rage plastered all over it. “Well? Anyone?” The teacher asked, clearly undisturbed by me but hell the children all were stepping away slightly. I mean yea, I was pretty pissed off when I got turned to stone, and I have to tell you…rainbow it is but warm it ain’t. If you are confused let me brief you… -1672 years ago- “GOD FUCKING HELL JAMES, GET YOUR FUCKING ARMOR ON AND LET’S GO!” Susan shouted. Susan was dressed up like an assassin from Assassin’s Creed (you can pick which one cause they all looked alike for me). Upon her attire were a few ‘weapons’ plus the hidden blade. She had the whole costume for a year and the weapons were actually mine. (A boy and his toys right?) The weapons, when hit together, just thudded, no clang of metal (Or else I would not have been able to do battle with my nemesis every other day) so therefore, they were acceptable for where we were going today. PaxEast. One of the some odd amount of conventions almost completely dedicated to games, and the one that was only like 3 blocks away from where we lived. “Sheesh Susuan, could you be any louder?” I calmly yell back, applying the final touches onto my face. “If you tried to make this stuff look like read blood, you would need patience.” “Oh you want blood? Come here,” I heard her teasing voice call back to me. Yes when we fight with the toys I usually end up bleeding at the end but hell is it worth it. “I can make a pre-“ “If you want to do that then we could just not go…” I said back, my back was still killing me from a few days ago, a pretty solid hit to my leg caused me to fall and mess up my back just a little. “Fine but HURRY , I wanna get there this year!” She started to whine. +_+_+_+_+_+ A half hour later found us at the line that had already started to form for the convention. I saw a lot of people just wearing shirts, or little things from various games, but the thing that popped out at me were some guys (and ladies too) wearing various wings, and vibrant colored wigs, or in the one case of a lady, a white simple dress with a large amount of blue/green/pink hair with a horn and grown sticking out of said hair. “Oh god,” I heard Susan blurt out, before snickering. I turned my head towards her, my left eyebrow raised in question. “That is hilarious.” “What is?” I asked. All Susan did was point the group out, and I looked and then immediately looked back at her, still confused. “Why is that hilarious? They are just expressing themselves, not much to be funny about that.” “You mean you don’t recognize the one in all pink?” Susan questioned, which prompted me to look again, and notice that, who I initially thought was a woman, was actually a guy. That guy happened to work at the same place I did, and if I remember correctly, he was supposed to work today. ‘Oh woe is me for if the boss found this out.’ I thought to myself. “Why the hell is Carl here? And why is he in that getup?” I asked, and Susan pushed me a little. I looked towards her, and she motioned for me to go and investigate. So I did. As I approached the group, Carl noticed me and went pale, and also started to back away a little. The group saw this and the few who connected where he was looking, turned to see me walking nonchalantly over. The White one looked towards me, and I noticed that, she was taller than me by a good foot. “Ahh… OK?” The white costumed one said, thoroughly confused. “What’cha want? And why you scarin’ Carl off?” “Well Ms…” I inquired. “Stroganov, Anise Stroganov,” She filled in. “Well Ms. Stroganov, Carl here is supposed to be going to work today. Right, Carl? ” I spoke out, hiding my irritation but also wondering why he is dressed up in a ridiculous fashion. “Also if I may so inquire, who are you all supposed to be?” The group gave weird names like “Rainbow Dash” or “Fluttershy”. Ms. Stoganov gave “Celestia” and after a little bit of silence they saw my face was still blank. “Sorry, but haven’t you heard of “My Little Pony”?” One of the ‘Rainbow’s’ asked “Can’t say I have sorry. I do have to ask…” They all looked at me, some getting ready to retort, and I looked at them. “Who the fuck is Carl supposed to be? Cotton Candy?” The whole group just stood there, and one or two looked towards Carl, who was still kinda scared, and started laughing. Now if you are confused. Put bald, mid-30’s some man, in all pink, and have what looks like 50 dollars’ worth of cotton candy stuck to the top of his head. After a bit more conversing with the bright group, I walked back to Susan. She didn’t seem that happy with how long I was gone but ignored it when I came back, because I was wrapped up in a hug. “Enjoy the talk?” I nodded. “That’s good. So… I was wondering if you…” The next hour was filled with waiting, talking, more waiting, the bright group came over to talk with us, Hell Susan got many compliments for her costume, and I for mine. At around 10, the doors opened, and people slowly made their way through. The next few hours were spent looking at everything there, and especially the merchandise that was on hand. Some of the tables at some pretty nice stuff, there even was “My Little Pony” stuff being sold for god only knows why. That doesn’t even fit with the games, and with the brief description the bright group gave me, it was all ‘girly’ based things but since the fandom was full of adults, then ‘girly’ doesn’t fit. Apparently there was a game that was going to come out but it had gone under. Few of the tables had replicas of various games (Of course scaled or wooden or plastic), and few even sold figurines. Though one table we passed gave me pause. Sitting off the left in the back of the stand was a replica of the gladius and shield that appears in Ryse. I felt my hand subconsciously reach towards my fanny pack (Screw you all for laughing at me). Susan noticed me not walking beside her and looked around for me, saw me, then saw what I was looking at. “Oh no. You are not thinking of getting that are you,” She asked, exasperation clearly apparent through her words. I just looked at her, then back at the weapon and shield, then back at her, wiggling my eyebrows. “Please don’t.” “Please do,” the stall keep said, obviously bored out of his mind. “You are the first to be here and even see my wares, Marius.” “Sorry but my name’s James. Nice to see you noticed who I dressed up as,” I responded, only to see the stall keep bend below the table, and pull up something I never would have guessed. The helmet he wore in the midst of the story, Not that ‘Damocles’ crap but the silver and gold helm with the red fin. “Sir, I may want to ask for your hand in marriage.” All of a sudden the stall keep burst into laughter. After it subsided, he looked to me, and then to my wallet. I pulled out $250 but he shook his head and only took $50. “All I have to say James,” He said as I took the helmet and the weapon and shield. “ Is that you have fun. Nice seeing you.” As I put on the helmet I felt a weird sensation, but it quickly subsided, and I took up the sword and shield and went off with Susan. “Have fun? Wha-” All of a sudden a bright flash alerted me that something has gone bad. I looked to my left and Susan is stepping away from me, her eyes wide. Everyone around has the same face, and I decide to look down, and notice something akin to Galaxy Quest. “Aww…Fu-”Then I black out. +_+_+Equestria, Present Day+_+_+ I watched as one of the children, a unicorn who had a purple/faded pink mane come forwards. It was cute to see her shaking a little, but I did feel sorry for them all. If only Celestia had let me be in a better pose for when I was turned to stone. “If its name is Legion, why is there only one of it?” She asked, and the teacher made up of some BS excuse saying I was left behind by the rest, and that the rest had apparently drowned in a storm that had raged for a month. As other students had voiced up questions, and a certain pinkish grey filly with a tiara made fun of the three who were asking the most questions, I had kinda lost interest in what they talked about and looked at the landscape again. After a few hours, I head some stone shattering. Then… He popped up. “JIMMY!” Discord all but shouted at me, and I looked towards him. I already told you Discord not to call me that, and remember… We aren’t friends. I said, glaring at him, and the stone façade was literal. I still don’t trust you after ditching me with the princesses. “Oh yea… But no worries,” Discord said with a smile. This was going to be dreadful, and I could easily tell. “I want to form the group we had back up, and start making things go haywire again!” He was too happy for his own good. Oh yea sure let me check my schedule… Oh looks like I am full, maybe take a rain check in… oh I don’t know…NEVER! I shouted back, still distrustful of the draconequus, who started taking a forlorn appearance. “Oh woe is me when I can’t trust a friend, and here I thought we were going to create delicious chaos together. I mean you and your spectral legionnaires a-” We are not going to work together again. I don’t trust you, I do not like you as a friend, I do not want to help you in trying to take over Equestria once, and like hell I am doing that again. I retorted, keeping my anger down but the venom was enough to get through. “Fine, fine. But I am letting you out at least. What you do then…well you decide…” he stayed quiet for a minute. “Oh well. Time to fly solo and have some fun. Ta ta Jimmy,” With that Discord snapped his claw and I felt the stone surrounding me start to break off. -an few days later- I looked at my pedestal and thought about how long I had been trapped. How much time had passed since those who I could call friends had died. All those events in their lives I had missed due to a really large mistake on all parties. From behind I hear armor clanking, hoofsteps, and turn around to see two guards look towards me. “Halt, By the name of Princ-”One started to shout. “I know, I know. ‘Stop, you’re under arrest,’ I would love to see you stop me but I am not something that should be threatened,” I taunt, seeing if their training has been upheld or not. “Quick, private, go tell Princess Celestia that there is a beas-”The older looking of the two started. “Belay that order, private. Instead tell her that the Legion once again marches,” I look towards the guards, and the private gets the full glare that only a trained (or self-taught) warrior could give prey. “And tell her that I wish for my shield to be returned if I am to protect this land form things that go bump in the night.” “You are not in a position to make demands, monster,” the older guard said. “Monster? Wow that’s new,” I step aside, and motion for where the statue had been. “So you have heard the story of Legion?” “What does that have to-” They both looked at me, getting tense. “Oh so you have heard of it. Remember anything about the ghosts that followed in the wake of Legion, as he walked through armies that tried to stop him, Armies that vastly outnumbered the lone soldier yet were cut down by invisible swords? Armies that hunted the lone being?” Looking at them I could see that they started to shrink back. I raised my sword to them. “So… want to know what happens to those who stand in the way of freedom?” They immediately fled. I waited a minute or two. Then I laughed. I laughed so hard that it started to hurt. After a minute or two of laughing I picked myself up mentally and proceeded to jog towards the castle, towards a sudden tugging sensation. Having this only happen one other time (Granted losing all three items had made the tugging become more like throttling so the current sensation was rather pleasant). Finding an open set of doors, I jogged through and followed the sensation towards the source. After some time (and a decent amount of knocked out or wounded guards) I arrived at the source of the tugging but didn’t exactly help that the guards here numbered around 30 and yet had only taken me a minute to knock them all out. Opening the doors I saw something I had wished not to see in quite some time. “Hello…James.” Celestia spoke, while she hefted a rather large hammer. “Remember Mr. Happy? He missed〜 you.”