The Mysterious Wayfinder
Part 4: Wayfinder, the Bleeder
Wayfinder was a rather powerful unicorn, if he did say so himself, but against five thugs was a bit much. A butter-colored mare cowered behind him, furiously trying to get her front door open without looking at it. “Oh my, oh my!” she whimpered, wings fluttering back and forth.
“Look, just stand to one side, pretty boy. We got business with yellow feathers there,” one of them said, lifting a pipe and resting it on her shoulder. “If she can’t pay, well, we’ll find other ways to help her settle her debts.”
“That’s quite far enough,” Wayfinder said, horn igniting. “I’m sure Miss Fluttershy fully intended to pay you back, perhaps sooner than you think.” It occurred to him, not for the first time, to wonder how such a tender thing had gotten involved with such sharks. Something about loans and expenses for her animals. Their discussion had been interrupted by the five rather shady-looking collectors.
“Well either way, mare’s gotta pay,” one of them had a chain wrapped about his foreleg. He loosened it, getting ready even as he spoke. “No bits is no problem to me, but it’s a problem to our boss.”
“And who might this be?” Wayfinder wanted to know. “And exactly how far into his or her debt is Fluttershy?”
“The bill says twelve grand, we’ve not seen half of that in over a year,” A crowbar came out of somepony’s saddlebag. “Time to pay the piper, then!” All five stallions tensed, then rushed forth.
“Ruffians,” mumbled Blueblood, his accent slipping out for a moment. Fluttershy cowered, throwing her welcome mat over her head and curling into a ball on the stoop. Golden magicks leapt from the ground, incasing the yard in an aura of yellow. A collosal, golden fishbowl appeared from nowhere, turned itself upside down, and slammed around Fluttershy’s house and property. Instead of water, it filled with the Wayfinder’s aura. Every unicorn within a ten mile radius sneezed, most of them having no idea why. The five attacking ponies drifted through the air, defying gravity, shouting and swearing as they did. “Have you no idea how to treat a mare?” He almost couldn’t hear himself over all the shouting and panicking. “Twelve thousand bits, is it? I can produce in her place, I assure you.” Turning as his forehead beaded with sweat over the spell, he fished into his saddlebags. The bag of bits floated forth, mooshing lightly against one of the shady stallions. He grabbed at it, somersaulting slowly over and over himself. “Now, your word that you shan’t bother this mare again?” he asked. He was met with more shouting and swearing, for they were bumping into each other like so many slow motion ping-pong balls. “Your words, gentlecolts!” Wayfinder’s horn flared brighter, seizing them and bringing them bodily close.
“What’ll you do if we don’t, huh?!” One of them demanded. “She takes out another loan, she’s back in with us!”
“I of all ponies know the reality of the world is a bad one. Throwing money about really does solve a good number of problems.” Wayfinder set them on their hooves, beyond Fluttershy’s fence. “But at the same time, money tends to start most problems in the meantime. And considering I am getting this mare out of debt out of the kindness of my heart… you’d rather not see me angry.” The masked stallion scowled.
“Oh yeah?!”
“Yes,” Wayfinder corrected. The stallion in question leapt forward. Blueblood tapped him with his horn, “Sleep.” He said. His attacker dropped with instant narcolepsy. The others looked rattled. Sleep magic was pretty big mojo. Snapping the consciousness of another was like snapping a bone. Not easy, but those that could were to be feared. “Take him and go, before I place bits in the proper hooves to make your lives… inconvenient,” he said delicately. This seemed to give them pause, and the Wayfinder’s horn flared brighter. Their lost weapons brandished themselves in thin air. “Take your friend and never return. I’ve memorized your faces and cutie marks,” he gestured as he spoke. “Leave this mare in peace.”
“Uh-huh-h-h-h, you got it, pal!” They were back-peddling hard away from their own implements. “Just uh, forget about us huh? We ain’t worth the effort!” When they’d gathered up their friend, they stampeded away. There was silence.
“Whew,” Blueblood murmured. Bloodthirsty debt-collectors always had to be shown force. Thankfully this battle had not drawn blood. “That was a close one, huhm?” he turned to check on Fluttershy, who was peeking out from under her own welcome mat.
“I… I… thank you ever so much,” she said softly. “I just needed a little money to pay a vet’s bill or two, then there was interest, then there was compound interest…” the yellow mare trailed off miserably.
“Twelve thousand bits is more than a little bit, I’m afraid,” he cocked an eyebrow to scold her.
“I thought I’d never get out from under them! You saved me!” she slowly rose, dirty and a little roughed up from the yard-encompassing aura. She clung to the stoop so she wouldn’t float about like the debt-collectors had.
“Oh, forgive me,” Wayfinder dropped the spell, smiling kindly. Everything in the yard obeyed gravity again, and the massive fishbowl vanished. CLANK. Wayfinder blinked twice, a line of red going down the side of his head. Crimson blossomed in his golden scalp. “Ow,” he said rather plainly, then dropped like a puppet whose strings had been cut. The crowbar that had been floating in the anti-gravity spell clattered away.
=-=-=-=
Hazy vision and a warm hearth was the first thing that Prince Blueblood became aware of. He stared at the flames. “You’re okay, it’s alright,” a tender voice told him.
“Mother…?” Blueblood wondered softly, his vision slowly sliding into focus.
“O-oh no, it’s me. Fluttershy,” the yellow mare leaned into his vision with a warm, wet cloth. “Y-you were bleeding everywhere, and you were too heavy to get to a doctor right away…” she mumbled. “I hope it’s not creepy that I took you inside!”
The white stallion moaned, turning over and feeling his bandaged head. “My mask!” he blurted suddenly. “You know who I am!” his world shattered in icy panic. “What have you done?! My secret identity!” his eyes were huge and panic laced his veins.
“I uhm… I’m sorry,” Fluttershy smiled, her brow knitting with concern. “I have no idea who you are. D-does that make you feel better? I-I hope it does, you shouldn’t sit up so fast.”
“Y… you don’t?” Blueblood said, sitting up. “But everypony knows who I am. Everypony!” his royal ego felt a blow as she tilted her head, screwing up her face as she was trying to identify him. But the blank expression returned and he stared at her. “You… you honestly don’t know my face? My cutie mark?” he lifted the blanket he was under. His flaps were still on.
“I figured you had covered them for a reason, like your face. At least your, uhm, backside wasn’t bleeding.” Fluttershy blushed as she said it. “Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it like that…” she trailed off, her mane falling over her face. Blueblood felt himself smile just a little, he decided he believed her. This Ponyville country bumpkin (of a cutie) honestly had no idea what Prince Blueblood looked like. He could be anypony to her. She dabbed him again with the pinkened rag. It was soaked with hot water. He eased himself down a bit. “There there,” she murmured, pressing it to soothe him.
“I… erm… thank you,” Wayfinder mumbled, red in the cheeks. “Nopony’s taken care of me like this in a long time.”
“It’s the least I can do, with you paying off my debts like that! Those stallions might’ve… might’ve…” she trailed off, upset at the very thought.
“Just promise me you’ll go to a proper bank next time, yes?” Wayfinder said, looking up at her from where he lay. “I can only help any pony once, then I must step away,” he told her the rules.
She nodded somberly, dabbing at his face here and there. “So I should just call you ‘The Wayfinder’?” Fluttershy asked softly, studying his handsome, rather chiseled face. There was a short silence of their rosy-cheeked staring at one another. She flinched and quickly reminded herself not to stare at his handsome features. “O-or is it just ‘Wayfinder’? N-not to be nosey! You just saved me is all and…” she trailed off again.
“Just Wayfinder is fine. The ‘the’ just tells ponies there’s only one of me,” he smiled, relaxing under the heated cloth for a moment. “Thank you, Fluttershy, but I must be goi--!”
There was a knock at the door. Both Ponies froze. “Fluttershy! It’s me, Twilight! Are you home?! I felt a huge magic spike coming from your house! Huge! Are you okay?!” the purple mare knocked feverishly.
Blueblood forced himself to his hooves, swayed, then steadied again. Fluttershy danced around him in case he should fall, silent and panicking. She found his blood-stained mask and offered it to him. He took it despite the gooey outside and smell. Putting the bands around his head, he pulled it snug.
“I-I’m coming in! Sorry!” Twilight suddenly CRACK’d into existence in the middle of Fluttershy’s living room. The yellow mare hunched, startled, and Wayfinder stepped back so his ears wouldn’t catch the blast directly. The push of mana almost knocked him down in his weakened state. “Wayfinder?!” The purple mare gasped. “Was that magic spike you? What’re you doing here?”
“He was helping me, Twilight,” Fluttershy put in quickly. “He’s quite nice, you see.”
“I must be going!” Wayfinder announced rather loudly. “Stay out of trouble from now on, Fluttershy!” he bade, horn igniting.
Twilight’s horn flared to life, cancelling his teleport spell, “Wait, please! I saw you with Princess Celestia! Please, tell me who you are! Why do you wander around with a mask like tha… is that blood?!” she gaped at the wet stain over half his face, then saw the bandages. “What’ve you been doing?!” she shrieked, alarmed.
“Tell me, Twilight Sparkle,” Blueblood was annoyed by then. There were very few unicorns that could match his raw power. Cancelling somepony else’s spell was like slapping them on the ass. “How many magijules can you conjure all at once?” his horn flared a bright gold. He couldn’t do this. He couldn’t be cornered, not even by somepony that meant well. Fluttershy was a risk to his identity as it was!
“N…. Nineteen thousand,” Twilight said slowly, her horn lighting defensively.
“I’m not so powerful, my goodness!’ Wayfinder said, reaching into his pockets. “But I’m afraid I’m--- not-open-for-questions!” he lanced an item at her, black and shiny.
“Meep?!” Twilight reel’d when an anti-magic circlet fitted itself over her head like a bizarre game of ring toss. Her horn went dark.
“Farewell!” Wayfinder disappeared into thin air, then reappeared just outside the window with a flump of for big hooves. “Oof?!” he shouted, disoriented. Why, he’d only gone maybe six feet! He shook his head quickly, trying to get his nerves and concentration back.
“Come back here!” Twilight rushed past a panicked Fluttershy, tugging at the stupid black ornament that had attached itself to her mane and head. “Ow!” she shrieked when she pulled on her own scalp. She was too powerful to be contained like that, he should’ve known better than to attack her! The dampener crackled and strained, but Twilight triumphantly teleported through the wall and outside to the Wayfinder’s side.
CRACK! Poof! He teleported a distance away, then she followed.
Poof! CRACK! Onto Fluttershy’s chicken coop.
CRACK-Poof! The Ponyville bridge.
Poof-CRACK! Somepony’s house.
CRACK-Poof! Sweet Apple acres.
Poof-CRACK! She followed him wherever he went.
CRACK---- he’d made a phantom noise and Twilight teleported to a rooftop to see where he’d gone. Wayfinder pushed himself into shadow, right under her nose. He’d not actually gone anywhere at all. “Wayfinder?! Wayfinder!” Twilight called back and forth. “Please! Come back!” she called. “I’m not going to hurt-- urgh! Get off’a my head! I can’t concentrate!” The mare started to wrestle with the anti-magic circlet.
Wayfinder took the opportunity and fled down the alley, then out of sight, then teleported to safety. He slumped against a building, sweating and panting. She was so strong, even with that dampener on her head. It was worrisome, that raw amount of magic power. He heard her shouts fade with distance and he relaxed. A dribble of blood went down the side of his face. He sighed, wishing he wasn’t such a bleeder.
Fluttershy, who’d been watching the teleporting exchange from her window, swore she would never take out a loan from anypony again. She could have one or two less pets and be more careful with her monies from now on.
END OF PART 4