//------------------------------// // Chapter 3: Answers // Story: Kurai the Forsaken // by Seth Typofather //------------------------------// Siting at a sturdy table on the floor due to his height, Kurai patiently waits in a secluded room to be told whats going on. He hears chatter going on outside but blocks it out to enjoy the comfort of peace and quiet for the first time. Before long Celestia disturbs that solitude and slowly trots over to the other end of the table as he tracks her movement under his helmet, she finds a place to sit on a pillow placed on the other end. “I’m sure you have a lot of questions that need to be answered, Kurai.” “Yes, I do.” He replied, his voice raspier than expected now he was clearly heard. Celestia nodded with a small smile. “Then ask away.” Kurai thought for a moment, every question begging to be asked but one stuck out most. “Where am I?” Clearing her throat as if she was expecting this, the Princess of the Sun began explaining. “This is the world of Equestria, no doubt your world different from this. We pride ourselves on seeing each other as equal no matter what our appearances, but we do judge on actions. The land of Equestria you are in at this moment is Ponyville, a small modest town and home to my protege, Twilight Sparkle, the lavender unicorn. You were lucky to have come in this land, not all places are as welcoming as Ponyville or Appleoosa.” After the monologue she noticed Kurai sitting there slightly confused from his shoulders slouching. “Am I confusing you or boring you?” Fixing his stance he spoke quickly. “Sorry, I have not spoken to anyone without breaking their neck or stabbing them in a long time.” Celestia was taken aback at this response, to know this creature took to killing as if were nothing but sport. “Don’t worry, I won’t kill anyone here, unless they bother me.” Putting on her bravest face the princess was terrified to the core. “I can assure you this place is peaceful and its inhabitants kind.” A roaring of laughter was emanating from Kurai as if he had heard the funniest joke in the world. “If I had a soul for every time I heard that one!” He continued laughing hard. Trembling she slid back a bit, though the princesses were naturally immortal they can still be killed by an assailant. And for the first time since the Changeling invasion, she feared for her life. Not at the hands of some demonic creature from Tartarus, but from an unknown creature that she did not know anything about. She collected her wits and calmly asked. “What do you mean by that?” Her words leaving her trembling lips like broken notes. Steadily, he stopped laughing and rested his elbows on the table. “Well you see, in my world there was a certain girl. Her beauty drew men all over the land just to win her heart, or simply to touch her tail which was so fluffy and soft it put the best of beds to shame.” Celestia grew more interested at the mention of his world. “I traversed through the painted world of Ariamis to meet her, I had to deal with so much creatures,” He slammed his fist onto the table, cracking it. “just to meet that…ignorant creature. Half goddess and half dragon, the daughter of Gwynevere and the great traitor Seath the Scaleles. Crossbreed Priscilla. Why I even bothered was anyone's guess, but her tail was so legendary and even a hair could be turned into a great weapon that could smoothly cut ones soul from their being before they even bled out. Sorry, I did not mean to scare you. I just hate being told rubbish.” Hastily the princess got up and galloped to the door before speaking, “Uhm, it-it’s fine, I just need to talk to everypony outside for a moment.” Closing the door behind her, Celestia exhaled with relief that she came out in one piece and fell to her flank on the ground before everypony who ran to her, Twilight being the first to speak. “Princess?! Are you alright? We heard laughing going on in there, and it sounded like he was threatening somepony…” She hugged her mentor to help the trembling princess come at ease. ----------------------------- “HE WHAT?!” The collective shouts from everypony in the library was powerful enough to wake a hibernating deaf dragon, maybe a whole nest. Having heard what Celestia told them about Kurai was a shock enough, but to know he is sitting in a nearby room was even more alarming. Applejack spoke first out of the group with extreme alarm. “We gotta get rid of that monster!” Big Macintosh agreed with the usual ‘Eyeup’. The others however had other points of view, and began arguing over wether to get rid of him, trust him or turn him to stone to which Discord angrily refused to happen to anypony. “Enough!” All the arguing ceased at the sound of Celestia using the Royal Canterlot Voice, something she only used for addressing a large crowd, or in this case, grabbing an arguing groups attention. “No stone, no banishments. We have had enough of such punishments over the years, stone put Discord through boredom which lead to his insanity, banishment lead to my sister becoming mad with loneliness. If we do that to somepony from another universe without at least giving it a chance what would that say about our way? We judge on actions done in this world, his world from what Luna tells me was hostile to begin with so we can never judge him until he does something beyond horrible in Equestria. Am I clear?” All in the room simply nodded before getting distracted by the sound of a book being read aloud. While Celestia was talking, Kurai somehow left the room without anypony noticing and is now sitting and reading a book on magic, clearly amazed by everything it had. “Hmm, raise horn and imagine a spinning cyclone enveloping your being. Rather simple for a transformation spell, the dukes archives was tougher than this…” The element of magic gawked at his response, a transformation spell was learned by only the highest level unicorns. To call it simple was simply insulting the effort many unicorns had put into just getting the basics of such a spell. Before Twilight can scold the creature reading her book without asking and insulting the unicorns efforts he raised a long stick, almost as tall as him. From the looks of it, a small pouch on his waist somehow spat out the stick. He focused his energy into it, now glowing a field of odd energy surrounded him and began covering his body. A bright light suddenly expanded as he spoke the incantation out loud, usually unicorns spoke the words in their minds. As the light slowly dissipated, in his place stood a robust unicorn still wearing the armour but shaped to his fitting. His short mane can be seen in the back of his helmet, clear white. His cutie mark had the appearance of a sword crossed with a staff but was immediately obscured by his armour moments after the transformation was complete. “This will do if I am to live in this world. I also reverse read the spell to change back but, this will take some getting used to as I used hands, not my head. Or…“ He turned to see Pinkie Pie tossing a lunchbox onto the table with her mouth before eating its contents, she did miss breakfast to come here after all. “…my mouth." ----------------------------- Kurai followed a disgruntled Applejack to her home, apparently having a large barn meant she was the only candidate besides the royal sisters to keep him under a roof. He was offered to be taken there but having heard stories of how snobbish the Canterlot Elite are simply turned him away, so the barn was the next best thing. As the sun was slowly setting in the distance, no doubt Celestia finally getting to it, Applejack turned to face him with a stern glare and spoke. “Now, lemme get some ground rules set. First, you show respect and you’ll get respect in return. Second, do not leave the farm without askin’ and saying where you’re goin’. And last but most important rule,” She pointed with a hoof to his pouch. “no weapons.” It was surprising how blunt she was to him, but Applejack was the element of honesty after all. Kurai simply nodded. With that she smiled and walked on, telling him about her family at the farm. “You’re new here, so I’ll tell you who is who before we arrive. My older brother you just met at the library, he also lifted you all the way from Fluttershy’s cottage. Apple Bloom would be my little sister, she can be a tad reckless with all this Cutie Mark Crusaders nonsense she and her friends do all day. Now Granny Smith is as you can tell from the name, my grandmother, though her age doesn’t stop her from bein’ as energetic as can be.” Applejack laughed at her own description of Granny Smith before turning her head to the large stallion following her. “Do you remember anypony from your family?” Without a seconds delay he stopped dead in his tracks, feeling as if she had offended him the orange coated earth pony turned to face him. “I’m sorry, did I hurt your feelings…?” “No. I just don’t remember having a family, the closest to a ‘brother’ I had was Solaire. He was a jolly fellow, I wonder if he was sent here to…” He paused to remember the world's name. “…Equestria as well. Anyway, it’s getting dark. Should we hurry to your farm?” Hearing his little story she forgot how quickly the moon rises as the sun sets, Applejack nodded and walked onwards with Kurai to Sweet Apple Acres. Having read about farms in books he expected something such as pens for all sorts of farm animals, instead what he saw astounded him. A simple home near a barn surrounded by acres upon acres of apple trees, all bearing fresh apples to be harvested next morning. It must have taken years, no, generations to make such a magnificent harvest. The trees spread all across the land and over the horizon, surprisingly enough they still went on. ----------------------------- Meanwhile in Canterlot… “Sister? What’s the matter? You have not spoken a word since having a talk with that creature.” Princess Luna had been staying nearby her older sister, clearly worried. Celestia to this point had been deep in her thoughts, blocking out Luna. Using her magic she opened the doors to the throne room and calmly approached a stained glass window, as expected the stained glass had formed into Kurai standing over a small fire with his hand over it. “I need to get a letter sent to Twilight right now, tell the chefs to wrap up my food and have it sent to my room.” Knowing her older sister, there was nothing stopping her once her mind is made up. Luna reluctantly flew to the dining hall, hoping Celestia would talk tomorrow. Dear Twilight, I want you to keep an eye on Kurai, something about him seems very off. I feel as if we do not help him feel at peace here, he will slaughter everypony he sees. This feels odd to say but I beg of you and your friends to not let such a fate happen, make sure he does not get the chance. Other than that, make him feel welcome. Kindness given is kindness shown, we do not want to make a mistake like with Discord. Yours sincerely, Princess Celestia