//------------------------------// // Ch. 1 So long and thanks for all the EXP! // Story: Misunderstood and Mutated // by TheGoldenDragon //------------------------------// [Shining Armor’s POV] “I hate being useless!” I shouted as I pounded myhoof on the desk, leaving a small impression in the wood. My two lieutenants guarding the door shared looks, the silent conversation was very obvious, they argued over who would console me first. The one to the right, Storm Bolt, a silver pegasus with electric-blue eyes, spoke, “I don’t enjoys this any more than you. I’d love to be out there kicking Discord to the curb, but Celestia’s order was clear, no pony was to interfere with the Bearers or him.” The other Flame Razor, a burgundy unicorn with ash gray eyes, then chimed in, “Besides they’re the only ones that even stand a chance against that chaos dem-” “But that includes Twily, and if I can’t even protect or help her then what kind of brother am I?!” Shining Armor interjected. They both shot nervous glances at each other, and wisely agreed to shut up. The silence was almost unnerving. Thunder crashed in the distance and a variety of unnatural sounds from the surrounding area could be heard. Then came an uncanny voice that seemed to emanate from all around, “Well, well, young Shining wishes for power to protect. Do you remember my voice?” The lieutenants didn’t seem to hear the anything. “Did you hear that?” Shining asked aloud. “Nothing we haven’t for the last ten minutes. Why?.” Flame Razor responded. “Just a sec ago there was a voice.” “Not that I heard.” Retorted Bolt with a worried look to Razor. “They can’t hear me. I’m speaking directly to your mind only, so you only need to think a response. I'll ask one more time, do you remember me?” the voice chimed again more clearly. “Must be hearing things, I’m just wound up over all of this.” Shining responded to calm his lieutenants. I think so, but it’s like trying to remember an old dream, Shining thought. “Not great, but good enough. I sparred with you in many of your dreams. Now, if you want to be able to protect your loved ones again come to the main barracks, alone.” Shining Armor apprehensively rose from his desk and started walk out of the office. “Just gona check on the patrols, no need to follow.” “Sir, I’m going with you to make sure you’re not going to try and get yourself involved in this whole Discord business.” Flame Razor interjected. "I promise I wont try to involve myself, and if I do you can be the captain of the guard when Celestia fires me. Now I’m ordering you, stay here!” Almost all of guards were out on duty, since the spirit of chaos itself broke free. The guards he passed would quickly saluted him then continue with their jobs after he would salute back or nod. The marble corridors seemed to echo with every step. The walk to the barracks was largely predictable but something was off, aside from the sky acting irregularly under the influence of Discord, why was he following this voice he barely recognized. "Because protecting those you care about is so important to you that you would risk almost anything for them. I assure you that I didn't lie about sparring with you in your dreams, I was helping you reach your true potential as quickly as possible, like I've done with every pony that became Captain of the Guard for about the last millennium." The voice declared with astonishing confidence. That's an awesome claim, but I can't just take your word on that ya’ know: Shining rebutted. "True, ask Stone Sentinel about me when this is all over. I implied that I would give you power to protect, and I will, once you've arrived I'll teach you two powerful warding spells that no unicorn has ever learned in exchange for something quite small."The voice retorted. It wasn’t long before he arrived at the main barracks. The dimly lit room was packed with metal frame bunk beds, the floor was a series of stone slabs, and the walls and ceiling were granite supported with steel struts. Luckily it was completely empty. "Great, you're almost here, pull up the slab that sounds like a drum when you stomp on it in the north-west corner, and you’ll know what to do from there." I just thought, what are you and what do you need from me in return for these spells?: Shining questioned. “‘What I am?’ you might call me a spirit confined to one physical location, but you can make your own judgment on what I am once you come down, ‘What I want?’ is a little magic energy to sustain me for another century or so.” Shining Armor walked to the north-west corner, as all the memories of his time as an initiate in the royal guard flooded his mind, and the brutality of the first weeks. The slab was right up against the corner of the building where no one would have any good reason to stand. Lifting the stone magically without breaking it was a bit of a challenge. Once removed, a dusty stairway was uncovered. Each step seemed to be shaped directly from bedrock, it was impossibly smooth. The stairs went down fifty feet and opened into a pitch black room. The darkness was unnaturally oppressive, like the light was being forced from the room. Shining lit his horn to push away the darkness, he was able to get a general idea of the size of the room, but he still couldn’t make out the back wall very well. The room was rather small, not including the height of the room it was only about the size of Blueblood’s bathtub (which for some reason could easily hold three fully grown minotaurs, Dear Celestia he’s spoiled.) “Dear God, his tub is actually that big, DAMN!! It may as well be an extra large party sized hot tub! If cleaning that monstrosity is a punishment, then that could explain why so many new gaurdsponies have nightmares of falling into a giant bathtub and not being able to escape. It’s a punishment, right?” the voice said now come from directly in front of him. Yes, and if it’s been too long since it was last cleaned it can be very horrific. Shining responded. He walked slowly forward to find where the voice seemed to be coming from. A statue began to emerge from the darkness. It was a circular pedestal holding up a strange looking creature. The head appeared almost cat-like. The part of the body that was upright had two odd appendages coming from just below it’s neck and resting on it’s lower appendages, it was somewhat muscular. These upper limbs ended in claws that instead of being tipped with talons had three of some kind of bulbous orbs. It’s lower body was almost disproportionately larger than the rest of it, what he assumed to be it’s flank was much wider than any other part of it, the lower limbs were relatively thin and ended in elongated claws without talons. It was in a posture similar to how he’d seen some dragons and most minotaurs sit, and its tail was looped over and behind its head. The closer he approached the statue the more he felt that such a creature simply should not exist. “Hey, calm down this is just a piece of artwork to anchor my spirit to this plane, and because I can’t be sustained by the aether itself so every so often I have to ask somepony for a little magic energy to sustain me. In return, if they need encouragement, I reward them with knowledge of a spell they might need.” The voice responded quickly. “Why don’t the princesses just feed you regularly? If it’s safe to assume they’re the ones who put you hear.” Shining questioned aloud. “They’re busy with the Discord situation, and yes they did. And before you ask, they hid me here so that I could easily train and evaluate the guards in their dreams without causing too many problems, or at least that’s what I’ve chosen to do.” Replied the voice. “Do you have a name?” Shining wondered. There was a short pause before the voice responded, “You know what, It’s been more than a thousand years and yet I never chose a moniker… How about Medulla? That sound like a cool name to you?” Shining pondered the name for a second, “It’s okay.” “Great now just pour a little of raw magic into this statue, it will help sustain me and then I can teach you the spells, deal? Also we may want to hurry I can sense that Twilight is upset and distressed about something, one of her friends has just gone, so is Discord, and panic is spreading because Discord just pumped a massive load of chaos magic into the world.” Medulla’s voice held such incredible urgency that Shining felt he had little choice if he wanted to help. His horn began to glow a little brighter as a stream of energy flowed from him to the statue. Then something seemed to snap and everything went wrong, the flow increased beyond what he intended and he couldn’t stop it. The stone began to crumble away in thin flecks, revealing a pink creature underneath the encasement. As the last piece of stone fell away the flow of magic cut off. Before Shining armor could cast any defensive spells or attack the creature, the creature snapped the bulbous orbs on its claws then a wave of electricity radiated from that point hitting him and he couldn’t do anything. [Medulla’s POV] I slowly levitated myself off the platform so I could stretch my back a little and reach my full height. In this body I was about six feet seven inches, not counting the buffer I gave myself for floating because who needs to walk anyway. I almost hit my head on the ceiling during the stretch, and had to bend my head just slightly while on still touching the ground. Shining struggled against his own unresponsive body as lighting arced from nerve-ending to nerve-ending and along his horn. “First thing, these," wiggling my fingers, "are called fingers and they are part of what is called a hand, talk to a minotaur about them because hands are the BEST.” I ‘said’ without moving my mouth, and shot him an annoyed look. “Do you have any idea how tiring it is to hear a pony describe anatomy they have no direct reference for? Really they should at least ask what it is when they’re not sure it’s just rude otherwise. Second,” Pointing to my feet, “these are called feet.” I moved a little to the left and continued after readying Shiny’s mind quickly, “Really? calling me a liar. While I understand why you think that, if you look back at everything I said and interpret it all metaphorically the only real lie was saying I needed the magic energy to survive, and that could be seen as a half truth if you consider freedom as a necessity of life. Well that and claiming I've done this before.” After another quick reading of Shining’s mind I responded with as much sarcasm as a thought can convey, “WELL I NEVER!!! That sort of language is most unbecoming of one courting a princess! I‘ll still teach you the spells, although the word ‘spell’ may be a bit inaccurate when I use them, but for you spell may actually be a good word for it. Here!” And with that I touched a finger to his horn and focused on implanting the two moves I had intended on giving him. “The first one I call Safeguard, any spell meant to alter but not harm is completely negated for a duration, you may be able to adjust some of the parameters for your needs. The second I call Magic Coat, it reflects any alteration spell back on the caster, I know you’ll find a way to make it even better.” I informed him. “You really have no faith in your mentor. And even though you may not believe me, I swear that should I cause direct harm to any you love, that I will gladly let you personally throw me into the heart of a volcano, or any such punishment you see fit.” I declare staring straight at him, but it didn’t calm him as much as I would have liked but it would be enough assurance for now. I turned away from him because of his last thought, “Well I’m escaping now because 'now' was the best time, there will be almost no collateral damage. And I’ll admit however distasteful I find this kind of manipulation, I did use you, because you were so desperate and vulnerable. As to why, I need to investigate some anomalies in the mental landscape I’ve noticed, because no other entity seems to even realize they’re here.” “Tell Tia that… that she had me all wrong and we need to talk this through like adults, and that I am truly sorry for all those thing, especially for that town… b-because I didn’t mean to...” I thought as solemnly as I could as I looked him right in the eye. “Finally some free advice for you.” I said in a more cheerful tone, “That idea you’ve had rolling around in your mind for the past month or so, why are you hesitating? If she cares about you half as much as you care about her, then you have nothing to worry about at all. And that would likely be an understatement, she is almost a literal embodiment of love, and you’ve been together for how long? If you can’t trust me about this that’s fine, but really the ‘logic’ of this situation is staring you right in the face and you don’t see it yet.” Giving him a smirk, as I let some joviality enter my thoughts. “But alas I must say goodbye for now, hopefully the next time we meet it will be on more even conversational ground. You should recover from that Thunder Wave soon. And thanks for all the training we did, because even teacher gain some experience while teaching.” I thought to him. I snapped my fingers again and after a few seconds hole in reality large enough for me to walk through formed. I moved through the portal quickly so that what came next wouldn’t be seen by anyone. Once I was on the other side, the wormhole collapsed into nothing behind me and I was floating in a flower covered field on the slopes of a mountain near Canterlot, the city was now just a splash of white on the cliffs. My vision began to blur and I doubled over as I felt bile climbing my throat. I dry-heaved all over a patch of daisies. Sorry daisies... Why can’t I actually have Teleport? Gravity was not meant to be used like that at all. I groaned to myself. This place is way to open, I need a place to meditate and eat in private. I thought as a floated lazily towards one of the many crystal cave entrances.