//------------------------------// // Ch. 4 Aftermath in a Town Obsessed // Story: Misunderstood and Mutated // by TheGoldenDragon //------------------------------// [Luna’s POV] Luna lighted in the town square of the quaint village Surehoof Springs. She had heard many nobles mention this place as a place for an enjoyable winter vacation, although they would make it clear that they could care less for the earth-pony residence. Many ponies were moving from building to building, not in panic but possibly in search for or investigation of something. The foals were standing at the doors watching the movement and rubbing their eyes, a few holding blankets. One pony stopped in her tracks when she notice Luna standing there watching, the mare bowed respectfully then turned and ran in another direction. The mare approached a stallion who was few blocks away, and said something to him while pointing a hoof at the Night Princess. The stallion quickly approached and bowed. “Princess Luna! You grace this small town with your presence. I’m Ridge, Mayor of Surehoof Springs. How can I assist you?” “Why are some many of your citizens up this yearly in the morning?” Luna inquired. “I suppose you wouldn’t believe me if I said getting ready for winter, would you?” He replied half laughing. “I certainly would not.” She replied flatly. He sighed heavily. “Come with me all show you.” He said as he walked up the slope of the mountain away from town. As the walked he explained that about three months ago the hot springs stopped working right, the flow was periodic and muddy. “Most of us were starting to lose hope, but we wouldn’t talk about it. A bit too proud I guess.” He clarified. “Why tell me this?” asked Luna. “Well, not three hours ago the springs began to flow like nothing had ever been wrong. And just before that we were woken up by some incredible ruckus.” He pointed to a patch of overturned dirt and snapped trees. “Thats all the damage caused.” “Medulla did this!” Luna spat barely containing her anger. “Well,” Ridge began to declare matter-of-factly, “That all depends on which one was this Medulla character.” Luna almost seemed shocked. It was then she realised that she could just barely sense Medulla’s sleeping mind. She rushed towards the cottage on the other side of town where she felt he was. Ridge raced after her yelling things like, “Wait!”, and “You don’t understand!”. By the time she was nearer the cottage, he yelled, “Don’t let her into the cottage!” Five earth ponies jumped in front of the door. “Stand aside!” Luna commanded, but her voice wavered a bit unsure of what was happening. “Sorry, Princess.” One of the ponies said very sheepishly. “If you let me explain for just a second, and promise to not do anything rash, I’ll tell them to step aside. Deal?” Ridge held out his hoof, inviting her to shake on the promise. “Fine!” Luna said very flustered. “I was about to tell you that there were two creatures fighting. Some of us came out to see what was going on. The bigger one came towards the town and stopped looked like it was concentrating real hard on something. The smaller one got between it and then shot some kind of beam at the other freezing it solid, just after the bigger one sent out some kind of wave through the earth that likely would have torn this town apart. The smaller one absorbed the power somehow, looking really beaten up after words. It was then that we heard it say something about the bigger one hurting innocents and wanting to see death. The smaller one then utterly destroyed the bigger one, it evaporated. Now the smaller one may have gotten violent at the end, but that was only because it wanted to protect us. It passed out, and we carried it here to help heal it. If this smaller one is that Medulla you were talking about then I won’t let you take it away, at least not until it’s healed up properly.” Ridge’s eyes held a fire as he spoke. “I wish to see him at least. I promise I won’t harm him.” Luna said in the most reassuring voice she could make. The ponies stepped out of Luna’s path. As she walked in, the she saw just how severe the injuries Medulla had sustained. Just from outward appearance at least one leg was badly injured if not broken, he might have suffered a concussion, and a variety of scrapes and bruises all over his body. “Oh my.” she muttered under her breath. The mayor seemed to notice the look in her eyes, “You should have seen the other guy, looked like he’d gone a few round with an Ursa Minor before Medulla killed him.” He continued, “I don’t know when he’s going to wake up, so could you maybe enter his dream and tell him thank you from us.” Luna scowled slightly, “He’s either not dreaming or intentionally blocking me out, but I would if I could.” “We’ll send word once he’s healed, but he’s a not our prisoner, he’s a guest of honor, considering that not only did he save our town from immediate destruction, some believe his killing that bigger beast brought back the springs.” Ridge’s eyes gleamed with joy. “I’ll inform Celestia of this. Please delay his leaving as long as you can.” Luna requested as she walked out the door, “I must return to Canterlot to make way for the sun. This has been... most informative.” [Medulla’s POV a few hours latter] Something felt wrong, I wasn’t passed out face first in the dirt anymore, I was in a bed… That’s when I remembered the last thing I saw before I fainted. “Get your paws off of me you Damn, Durty, Flower Hedgehogs.” I yelled as I thrashed around. The thrashing was not a good idea; I hit my head against the headboard of the bed, and I felt something pop in my left leg, “Why must I be so stupid sometimes?” Ponies started rushing in, and the ones by the bed, stood up. They were very curious about me. I sat up to get a better look at all of them, and suddenly felt the need to vomit. “Is there a bucket anywhere?” An orange mare lifted a bucket on her foreleg. I quickly levitated it to my mouth, but by the time it reached my mouth I didn’t need it anymore. “Nevermind. it passed… is it okay if I keep this?” All of them nodded like bobbleheads. “Okay thanks…” I stored the unused bucket in my inventory. All their eye’s widened when the bucket seemed to disappear in my hands. “I just stored it away in case I need it in the future. I call it my bag, I can carry almost anything in it, but it does take some focus to pull stuff out. If I want to use something during a fight I put it in a special slot in my bag, I guess you could call it.” I was having a hard time gauging the room even with reading their minds. That was when a slightly larger, mud-brown stallion came into the room, He had a mountain peak as a Cutie Mark. The smile on his face was intense, as if the was the first reason he’d had to smile for a long time. “WELCOME TO SUREHOOF SPRINGS!” He moved immediately to my bedside, and began to shake my hand so vigorously, I felt my shoulder pop. “I can’t thank you enough for saving this town!” “Well Ridge, it is Ridge right, It would be nice to have a little more space in this room.” I was starting to feel claustrophobic with more than half the town trying to fit in this room. “I know you all want to thank him, but you’ll all get a chance so go about your day until then, got it!” Ridge began to push people out of the room, a few still hung around. “How do you know my name?” “Well everyone in the room thought it as you entered, I read your mind to verify, and when I first arrived found your name attached to the concept of 'authority figure' for most of the townsponies.” There was silence for half a minute before I spoke up again, “Sooooo, the hot springs working again?” “They started working almost immediately.” There was so much happiness in his voice and mind, that I couldn’t help but smile a little. “Good, ‘cause…” I got distracted again, it was maybe ten seconds before I was able to remember and continue, “because I could use them to heal faster.” The ponies still in the room seemed a bit confused about the pause. “Something on your mind?” The mayor said. “No, not really, it isn’t even worth mentioning, unless a mare named Mountain Rose is a married or underage relative of yours.” I couldn't completely lie to these guys, they had probably saved my life. “No, but I do know her, how do you know her name.” Ridge eyed me warily. “Like I said not worth mentioning, heh… but those hot springs, could I take a dip?” I tried to make my thought as calm as possible to make sure the subject was back on track. The mayor looked at me like that wasn’t even a question. “And why in the name of Tartarus and all the demons within would we not let you do that.” “Awesome! lead the way.” I started to move out of the bed, but the hoof of one nurse pony, I think she was the one that patched me up, pressed against my chest stopping me. “You’re nowhere ready to to walk, I’m still not sure if your leg’s broken or not.” She barked. I looked at her right in the eye with a smirk and said, “Who needs to walk?” and proceeded to float off the bed and out the door. Okay my left leg still sent waves of pain through me, but I knew that the hot springs would fix that right up. The Mayor walked ahead of me pointing out landmarks, we waved to ponies on the way. As I walked something very unexpected happened, a polaroid photo popped into existence through a butterfly shaped portal and hit me in the face. The moment it did so I heard a female voice say, “Time, the real final frontier. This is the token of Max Caulfield, the Master of Time. Its mission: to seek out those who would protect others and tear down tyrany; to boldly go before me so that I may be called when the time is right.” I quickly bagged it, along with all my other tokens, I’d found quite a few over the hundred years of freedom before my stoning, but I never had any reason to use them until now. Most of the Pokemon I’d encountered before were either complete no-threats or so utterly docile that they couldn’t intentionally hurt anyone. “What was that?” Ridge must have caught a glimpse. “Think of it was a possible friend letting me know their mailing address. But ignore that for now, I need to get my chill on in those hot springs.” I waved my hand to motion that we should hurry up. I could feel the healing properties of the water restoring me to my full strength. As I sat there I mentally scrolled through all the summon tokens I’d found. A key blue keyring with gold dots, I had attached a key made of water to it along with a small dragon claw that had red, purple, and blue flames emanating from it, those three just seemed to go together in an odd way. Sam Aran’s badge thing that looked like the screw attack item from smash bros. A genji medallion. A perfect black diamond. And a blue coin with a tornado on it, just to name a few. Over the course of an hour, I removed the bandages and wrappings, revealing that my wounds had fully closed, heck my leg was good as new now. As a dried myself off with a focused Sunny Day, the mayor walked in and said something that would have surprised me a lot more had he not rehearsed it in his head ninety time on his walk here, “The Parade in your honor is about to start.” The only thing that really surprised me was how fast they prepared it.