//------------------------------// // Part 4 // Story: Starting Life Anew // by Frosty the Batty //------------------------------// “I… Uh… Who… What?” She spluttered. Arian and me just stood there, Arain keeping her stoic expression while I kept my smile. I like smiling. “Hello.” I waved. “Do you know how long it’ll be before any of us get to Tea- the Princess?” I nearly slipped Teacup’s nickname. “Uh...” Her elegant voice wavered. “It… it shouldn't be too much longer.” She glanced at the line in front of us. “Another seven minutes at the most.” “Alright!” I nodded and the mare shakily turned back around. Soon other Canterlites took notice of my cloaked form and Arian. And pretty soon some of them were gawking at us, while other just gave wary glances every once in awhile. While the line was moving at a steady pace a white, blond stallion cut in front of me. He either didn’t notice me or didn’t give a flying rat's ass. But no matter, karma’s a bitch. And that is a well-known fact in this world. And it was also pretty soon that we made it to the front of the line. Well, there were still two ponies in front of us, but we were getting close anyway. I wonder how Teacup hasn't noticed me yet? She must either be that focused or that bored. “Next.” Yup, she’s that bored. Now there is just one pony in front of me and Arain… Wait, how the fuck has she not noticed Arian? Wow, she’s really out of it to not notice a dragon the height of a pony. “Ah, Prince Blueblood. What do you request of me this time.” Oh, this might be interesting. “Aunty.” Aunty!? “I would just like a little more allowance every week. I need the extra bits so I can maintain my fabulous physic.” The blond stallion in flicked a part of mane to the side. *AUNTY!?* “No, Blueblood. I have told you time and time again, you don’t need any more bits. Request denied.” Teacup droned. “But-!” “No ‘but’s Blueblood. Next.” The stallion huffed in annoyance and stomped off. I stepped into Teacup’s line of sight, and just like I expected, her face brightened like the star she controlled. A wild grin creasing her face, and I think she nearly jumped up to pounce me or something. She certainly moved to do so had she not caught herself. “Day Court’s adjourned!” She yelled. Me and Arian look behind us, seeing no ponies around, we turned to each other, and I shrugged. We turned back to Teacup and she practically glomps on me. Putting me in an embrace that, to any normal pony, would threaten to break their ribs. Luckily, I’m no normal pony. “I missed you too, Teacup.” I wheeze, it was still pretty difficult to breath though. “Ember you finally came back! Oh, I’m so happy!” She kept hugging me while I tried to breath properly. Not that it mattered. I was elated too. “You have no idea how happy I am...” I hugged her back. “Oh, I don’t know. I may have some ideas…” She giggled at that. Same old Teacup. “So you’ve been handling this place pretty well huh?” Her vice grip on me eased up a little. Allowing me to look up at her. “Yes, I have. And Luna has been taking up on her old duties as well.” Oh yes! Moony! “How is Moony? I’d like to see her.” “She’s been well. But I know she’ll be even better when she sees you.” We let go of eachother, I change to my human form, and Teacup leads me to Moony’s room. But before any of that could happened Teacup noticed Arian. “Oh. I’m sorry. Are you Ember’s friend?” “Yes. More or less, I am.” She simply answered. “Oh, well. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” Teacup held out a hoof for Arian to shake. Arian looked to me warily. I nodded and she took the outstretched hoof and shook it. I think Arian’s blank tone and attitude took Teacup by surprise, but she didn’t seem to bothered by her presence over all. “If you two will follow me please.” We nodded and followed teacup. “How do you not get lost in this place. I know you’ve been here for… a while. But still...” I heard Teacup laugh a little. “You know your way after a while.” She replied. Earning an amused snort from me and an eyeroll from Arian. My little princess, Arian and me made it to Moony’s room unmolested. The doors to her room looked cool, and just like her style too; Navy blue doors, white little spirals here and there, and crescent moons serving as door handles. “Do be quiet, she’s asleep.” I nodded and she opened the doors with her magic. Moony’s room was… simple, to say the least. Right in the center was her bed, styled a thin crescent moon, and a dim lantern hanging off the tip of its top corner, and there was a curtain hanging off the top part too. And she was sleeping the day away in it. To the left is an average-sized desk with a bookshelf on each side of it, and to the right was a midnight styled door that led to what I assume is her personal bathroom. And there are these cool tall lamps that look like dead trees, they look pretty cool. I return my attention back to the little -little by human standards- pony princess slash my little princess and quietly walk over to kneel next to her bed. God it looks comfy in there, if she had a smile oh fuck that’d make the scene all the more adorable. Even her hair has changed too, huh… cute. *Precious.* I thought before a mischievous smile broke out. With villainous delight I reach and poke her right on the tip of her nose. Which wrinkled as she rolled to the other side. “Mmmmff...” She murmured unintelligible words that ended with her sniffing. It didn’t wake her up, so I moved to the other side and poked again. This time putting a tiny bit more force into the poke. This time she scowled and scrunched her muzzle. “MMmmmmM.” She huffed and rolled to the other side. I glance back at Teacup and Arian and Teacup’s close to cracking up. That poke didn’t wake Moony up so I tried a third time, poking her nose a little harder. “Mmmmhmm… Five more minutes Tia...” She mumbled, oooh, that’s a new nickname, I like it. I stifled a snort and poked again. “Mmm leave us alone, Tia. We had a long night yesterday...” Ok, now she’s awake. Time for surprises! “Wakey wakey sleepy head.” A sound akin to glass shattering came from nowhere as Moony’s eyes opened. I can see veins on her eyes. She gave me a once over and nearly jumped out of her bed in fright. “Gah!” *Thunk!* She instead hit her head against the top part of her bed. Apparently hard enough to cause stars to fill her vision for a second. Indicated by the little moons with tiny versions of herself riding them around her head. Even her ever-flowing hair seemed to ‘glitch out’ as it spasmed like a corrupted video playing. But it only lasted for a brief second. “Ow...” She started rubbing the sore spot. And I was trying my best not to laugh out loud. Once she noticed me she froze. For like, a second. “Ember?” She breathed, as if not believing my being right in front of her. “Hey Moony.” I opened up my arms just in time to grab her and pull up in a bear hug. Then she started openly crying into my shoulder. Aw… she missed me that much. Now I’m crying damnit! “We… never… thought… we would… see thou again!” She hiccuped. I just sat there and stroked her hair. That’s a weird feeling, it feels like my hands are going through hair. But said hair looks like a solid… mass of star stuff. Weird… “It’s ok Moony. I’m here now. And that’s what matters.” Moony and me just continued to sit there as we held each other. ‘Tia’ eventually came to join in on our hug. I notice one missing and look back at the door. Arian is just standing there, eyes shiny from the tears she’s holding back. Aw… “So, how thou been this past milania?” Moony asked as she pulled away. “And, less importantly. How have thou been alive all these years.” She wiped a tear from her cheek. “I’ve been well. Can't say I wasn’t depressed a couple times. But other than that, I’ve been fine. As for how I’ve managed to stick around. Discord.” Moony did a double take. “P-pardon?” She stuttered. “Discord put a curse on me that makes me immortal.” “O-oh.” She paused, taken aback. “Well. We guess we owe him thanks.” She smiled. So it seemed to have forgotten that he did this to me all those years ago... “Speaking of which, has he… you know?” “Oh! He has!” Teacup exclaimed. “Though, I still don’t trust him too well. But he has shown he has no ill will so far. I have faith in him.” That got me to a chipper mood. “Really!? Can I go see him then!?” “Of course you can!” Both of them said. “Come, we shall all go.” Teacup said and they lead me and Arian to a train station. “Since when did you get a train station?” I asked. “Not long ago, maybe about fifty years?” Teacup said unsurely. While she was getting tickets there were guards surrounding the four of us. Which gave me and Moony some time to catch up. And catch up we did. She said she gained the ability to visit ponies in their dreams. And because of that she took it upon herself to become the defender of dreams. Keeping ponies happy in the dream world. “That’s amazing Moony!” I praised and she blushed. “How do you do that?” “Well, we were just sleeping one day, and we found ourselves in the dreams of another pony. From then on we learned to control and manipulate the dreams of others. It is quite exciting.” “I can only imagine!” She chuckled. “We could possibly bring thou along if thou would like to?” She queried. “I would love too Moony.” Just then Teacup returned, no tickets to be seen. “I have completely forgotten I have a personal carriage.” I promptly burst out laughing and Moony suffers only a little gigglefest while Arain playfully facepalms. Blushing, Teacup instructed two of her guards to go fetch the carriage. They came back sooner than I expected, that may be due to my laughing the entire time. Teacup tried telling me to stop but her red face only made me laugh harder. Even her guards smirked a little. But for the sake of moving along I managed to calm myself down and get in the carriage. It was more comfortable to sit as a pony so I stuck with it. “So what’s this town like?” I ask and the carriage lurches forward. Arian quickly directed her attention to Moony. “It is very quaint.” Moony cooly answered. “The ponies residing there are a very friendly bunch.” “Cool.” I look out the window and watch the trees speed on by below. I never question how two pegasi are able to pull a gilded carriage with ponies and a dragon inside it. Magic. “So, Teacup...” I said after a while, she turned to look at me. “‘Aunty’?” She flinched hard when I asked that. “What have I missed? While I had ideas that you or Moony would do something like that, I never thought you’d go through with it.” She started heavily blushing again, score! “Ah… I… Well… I got… bored?” She shakily answered with a strained, toothy smile. I just shrugged and accepted it. I mean, she’s a grown mare, she can do what she wants. And I can’t give her shit anyway. Oh, yes… all those bitches. And yes, I mean diamond dogs, some of them. Ha! Try getting that image out your head! The carriage eventually started descending and came to a stop. The side door opened on its own and we all got out. Me and Arian being the last as I changed to human form. It seems we landed right beside another train station, but this one was smaller. “Well, here we are!” Tia dramatically waved her foreleg towards the small town. I took my time gazing at it. Right ahead is what looks a carousel-looking building, and it was tall too. And either side looked to be filled with shops. And besides all ponies freezing and gawking at me, it looks to be alive with activity. And I guess this town has the market separated from residential. The residential district must be more towards the other side of this place… And there was a purple castle off in the distance…. Wat? “Well, it does look a little quaint, more homey in my opinion.” I turned the my little princesses. “Well? Aren’t you going to show me around?” “Of course!” Teacup said with a nod. I looked to Moony and Arain. Moony was absolutely beaming at me, and Arian’s as stoic as ever. “Even though there isn’t much to show, I think...” I heard her say under her breath. I just chuckled all the same. It really didn’t matter, I was with them once again. The girls took me and Arian on a short tour around the town. And while Teacup was right that there wasn’t much to look at in the sense of the town itself. I found myself intrigued into the ponies and sceney. The ponies, for the most part, were still a little shaky around me, but I think that since their princesses were pretty much guiding me around they quickly relaxed. There was even this little kid that slowly walked up to me. His name was Pipsqueak. And he was so fucking adorable. I don’t know what it is with these ponies. But it’s like staring at puppy beagles. Anyway, Pipsqueak, or Pip as Moony told me, was just a little curious about me. And he quickly scampered off once he was satisfied with my answers to his questions. And that’s when the ponies really let up, some of the more adult ones started asking questions, even this one green mare that almost tackled me. But this really light yellow mare held her back by the tail. Looked like it hurt. “Princess!” An urgent-sounding pony rushed up to Teacup. I turned to look at the pony and- *Another alicorn?* My brain did a backflip and all thought processes grinded to a halt. *Where did she come from? Her hair’s not flowing like Moony’s or Teacups’s. Could she be artificial? Maybe.. she’s a lot shorter for an alicorn if that’s the case.* “Yes, Twilight?” Teacup responded. So that’s her name. Cool. “I received your letter and came to the train station as soon as possible. But I didn’t find you or Princess Luna there. So I looked for you and-” Teacup raised a hoof. How has the pony not noticed me or Arian yet!? What is it with these ponies!? “Twilight. Please, calm down. I sent you the letter inform you of our arrival. Not to turn Ponyville upside down.” So that’s what this place is called. Nice. “Oh, right.” Twilight blushed. “Eheh. Sorry.” She giggled, red-faced. “Uh… Tia? You never told me there were more alicorns. She an actual one?” The purple fur and haried alicorn finally noticed me and Arian. And, her reaction was… definitely not what I expected. What I mean is she blasted me with a bolt of raw magic. Of course, it didn’t do anything to me. I’ve learned long ago I can absorb magic blasts, or any spell directed at me for that matter, well before they can do any damage. And even then only ponies as powerful as Teacup or Moony can and easily incapacitate me. For apparently an alicorn like Twilight it would take a lot to take me out. “And that was unexpected.” Twilight went on the defensive. Opting to jump between me, Arian, and Teacup, crouching and wings unfurling. “S-stay back!” She shouted and her horn started charging up again. My response to that? Laughing at her face. “What!? What are you laughing at!?” She demanded. “Nuh… nothing. Twilight. Whew, oh man. Tia? You mind explaining who I am? I need to catch me breath… Whoo.” While I got my breathing to a normal pace Teacup briefly explained who and what I am to this Twilight. Soon five more ponies joined. One had light blue fur with a really familiar rainbow hair, her cutie mark was a cloud with a bolt of rainbow; pegasus. Another had bright pink fur and dark pink hair, her cutie mark was three balloons; earth pony. The third pony had really light yellow fur and long light pink hair, three butterflies made up her cutie mark; pegasus. The fourth has orange fur and blond hair, and she’s wearing a cowboy hat; earth pony. Her Cutie mark was of three red apples, well I’ll be damned… Heh, she knows what I’m thinking. I wonder what generation she is? Anyway, the last pony has pristine white fur and dark, almost royal, hair, her cutie mark consisted of three rhombus-shaped diamonds; unicorn. And they were all just staring at me and Arian, but mostly me. And the pink one was beaming at me for some reason. Actually, that smile reminds me of a pony I kinda knew a while ago… “Oh… Oh. OH! Ohmygosh! You’re! You’re… you’re...” Twilight eyes rolled up and she fell over... What just happened? “Um… Tia? What happened?” “She apparently already knew who you are.” “Then why did she blast me magic? And why did she just faint?” “I’ll explain that later.” She turned to the five ponies. “Elements of Harmony.” What? “I would like you to meet, my good friend. Ember the human.” The ponies reacted like one would normally expect: Slightly confused at first, but then recognition. Especially the orange one, aaand her cutie mark’s apple related. Oh wow there’s going to be some explaining to do. Well, I can just chalk it up to Discord’s curse, which is the truth. *WHAT!?* *Gasp!* “You’re the human from old stories!?” The pink one asked. “Depends, what stories are we talking about?” I managed to shove some very particular thoughts to the side. “The ones where-” She was interrupted when Teacup used her magic to close the pink one’s mouth. “That is enough. Pinkie Pie.” Oh, that’s her name. Huh… Cool. Pinkie Pie nodded, her mouth still being held closed. I shoot Teacup a questioning glance. “I will explain later.” She calmly stated with a gentle smile. “In the meantime. Could you help me carry Twilight back to her home?” I shrugged. “Sure.” Before Teacup can do anything I pick up Twilight and drape her over my shoulder. Everyone gives me a weird look. “What?” “Nothing.” Moony answered. “Let us proceed to Twilight Sparkle’s home.” That’s her full name? Cool. All of us nodded and the girls led me to a literal tree house. Like, the tree itself has been hollowed out, and from the sign in front of it, it’s a library, and it has multiple stories. A tree house slash library. If the pony on my shoulder lives here it’s no wonder that she has at least read about me… I wonder what ponies have written about me over the years. Even Arian was kinda wide eyed! And another thing, the place inside is bigger than what the tree would allow, took me a second to remember there are a few spells that can do that. Dimensional Displacement they called it? Nah, that sounds like a spell one would use to travel through dimensions. Could they even have a spell like that? Maybe… And there’s a fire place... Why? And how? “Can you place Twilight on the sofa please?” Teacup asked, I obliged. “Gently.” The ponies took their own part of the sofas to sit on. “Damnit.” I chuckled, instead of flopping the unconscious pony on the sofa. I gently placed her on it. I made her look like a sleeping puppy. She’s probably gonna freak again when she wakes up. Her types usually do that a being that was thought to be legend turns out to be real, speaking of which… “So, ‘stories’?” I ask nonchalant as I use a little bit of chaos magic to make a chair my size to sit on. Teacup cleared her throat to get everyone’s attention. “As you can tell Ember, my little ponies may or may not have created tales about you.” “You’re kidding...” She pouted and I laughed. “Hehe. But seriously, stories like what?” “Oh, nothing much. Slaying dragons, helping me banish Nightmare Moon,” Moony flinched, poor girl. C’mere! There there. “helping us defeat Discord the first time.” “The first time?” I ask while stroking Moony’s hair in hopes to calm her down. The five ponies cast confused gazes at my cloaked form petting Moony like a dog. “Well… he may have escaped once...” She winced. “Really? How?” I was genuinely curious as to how Discord escaped. Wasn’t he turned to stone? How would he escape? “Ever since we imprisoned him, we had him moved to the royal guardens, and there he stood for centuries. Until a few foals on a field trip cause enough chaos for him to break out.” Oh… That, kinda makes sense. I guess? “Oh… And you managed to catch him again?” At that she smiled. “It was actually these six mares that caught him and put him back in his stone prison.” “... And he managed to escape again?” I stated more than asked. “Actually no. I decided that he should be reformed.” Teacup replied. “And he has shown improvement.” She added and Moony cooed. “Oooooooh. That explains a lot.” I then remember why we came to this town in the first place. “Where is he anyway?” There was a long pause and the yellow one raised her hoof. Oh god she’s so shy! How cute! “Yes? Uh… What’s your name?” “I-it’s, uh... F-fluttershy.” She whispered. It was almost inaudible, by my sensitive ears heard it just fine. “Fluttershy, nice name.” I remark. “So you know where Discord is?” Fluttershy nodded. “Can you take me to him?” “O-of course. Do you know him? From the sound of it...” She trailed off. “I’m an old, old friend of his.” I emphasize the word ‘old’. “Oh, well, ok. Um… if you want to go see him, can you follow me, please? If you don’t mind.” “Of course I don’t mind, shall we go?” I turn to the rest. “You all can come if you want.” I offer, but they murmur in the negative. “Ah’ll come, if ya don’t mind.” Except for the orange one. The orange earth pony got up from her place and joined. Arian just silently got up and joined. “Alright then. Shall we?” I ask Fluttershy and she meekly nods. We then head out the tree house. “This way, please.” She turns off to the right, we follow. “Names Applejack partner!” The orange one, Applejack holds out a hoof and I reach down to shake it. Applejack briefly flinches when I grab her hoof, I pretended to not notice. She does the same to Arian and the pony doesn’t flinch at all. Why not? “Nice to meet ya Applejack. I assume you already knew who I was when you first saw me?” She nodded eagerly. “Granny’s told me n’ Mac a lot o’ stories ‘bout ya. But ah never thought those stories be’d real!” “Well. I have been gone for a thousand ears… So… Yeah… Speaking of stories though. What stories are you all talking about? Or are what Teacup said all of it?” “‘Teacup’?” “That’s my nickname for Celestia.” “Ok… Well, it's true, whenever ponies would talk ‘bout ol’ legends there was never a time where you weren’t mentioned. Ah’ve heard stories that ya slayed dragons, diamond dogs, gryphons, minotaurs, even windigos!” “Windigos? But those things have been extinct for over a thousand years! I’ve never even met one.” Applejack just shrugged in their pony way, which was lowering their front letting their withers protrude a bit. “But the one about killing a dragon is true though. That’s where Arian comes from.” “Really?” She turns to the black dragon and she nods. She turned her head back to me. “Do ya mind if ya tell me that story?” I glance at Arian, she nods. And out the corner of my eye I see Fluttershy tense up in her walking. “Sure. But there’s not much plot to it.” I said. “Ah don’t mind.” Applejack grinned. “Alright then. It started when I was walking around a few volcanos...” I decided that I would get to know this world better, since I had nothing else to do with my immortality. And the volcanoes were very interesting, I hated it. There were dragons everywhere. And not the is nice kind either. Well, there were some… gentle ones, those were all females. Males usually either wanted to make me their next meal or roast me, not the kind of roast on MTV. But this time there was something different. Two dragons were fighting, one I recognized instantly, she was one of the more nicer dragons, I was proud to call her a friend. Pink scales, magenta spines, and amber slitted eyes. Ceraph if I remember her name correctly, and she was fighting this red dragon. It took me a second to realize that there sat a black egg in the nest behind her. And Ceraph looked like she wasn’t winning. With speed comparable to a lightning strike I rush to her aid. Using my magic to create a large club to clonk on red’s head. It worked, kinda, sent him backpedaling. He let out a feral roar and bathed me in scorching fire. Imagine what I felt when I didn’t put up a barrier? But I was going warrior mode, bordering berserker so it more or less felt like a warm bath. Despite my burning flesh stating other wise. Looking back… that was a dumb thing to do. As soon as the flames ended I used my magic to create my favorite sword. And then used it to slash at the dragon. And while I was too fast for him to track, my sword did jack shit against his scales. If anything it seemed to piss him off even more, which made it more difficult to dodge his stomps, slashes, and chomps. “Look out!” I heard Ceraph shout. I stupidly turned around to see what she meant by that. Realizing I fucked up, I tried to dash to whatever direction was deemed good enough to dodge whatever red was gonna do. But all I managed was a single step before reds jaws clamped around me. *Fuck me.* I thought. I tried moving to wrench his maw open but nothing. I could feel my talons against his teeth, so that’s a plus. I felt gravity shift and I began sliding down the fuckers throat. I didn’t like the idea of becoming this guy’s next meal so I thought quickly, and a very dark idea came to mind. I created my sword again and cut into the tender flesh. I kept at it until I cut through his windpipe. And got charged again as my reward. Red thrashed around and eventually bit the dust, allowing me to crawl out his mouth when he stopped moving. With him gone I went over to Ceraph. She didn't look good. There was a deep, long gash going down her chest and belly, one of her eyes were cut open, some of her spines were snapped in half and some were missing all together. I saw that she was still breathing so I thought I could do something to save her. I tried using my magic, but nothing happened. There wasn’t anything I could do. “Ember...” She wheezed. I rushed to her head and looked into her one good eye. “Yes Ceraph? What is it?” She coughed up some blood. “I am not going to make it...” She coughed some more. “Please, take my egg.” “What?” I was taken aback. Dragons never gave their eggs away. “Please, *cough* take it, take it far away from here. I’m not going to make it much longer, please… save my child...” She eye started fluttering closed. “Ceraph?” She let out her final breath. “Ceraph?” I held onto a part of her head, no response. “God damnit...” I let go and turn to the egg. It’d be shameful to leave her egg here. And I didn’t want an innocent soul to be wasted, so I took the egg back home… “And after I discovered she needed certain things as an egg it didn’t take long for her to hatch.” I finish. We made it so some overgrown house teeming with wildlife by the time my story ended. Discord isn’t out here, maybe he’s inside the house? Applejack and Fluttershy were reeling. I kinda warned them. “So, where’s Discord?” “H-he’s i-inside...” Fluttershy stuttered. Oh god damnit. “Hey, I’m sorry. I should’ve warned you about that stuff. I didn’t mean put a damper on your mood or anything...” I reach down and scratch the pegasus behind one of her ears. “A-ah know ya don’t mean anything by that. But… tah hear it like that…” “What do you mean?” “Ah mean like… somepony would tell it like you slayed the dragon and rescued a princess or somethin’. And leave out all the messy stuff, apparently.” “Ooooooh. I see.” I shrug to myself and look back to the house. “Arian, stay with these two. I’m going inside.” “You got it.” She nodded curtly. I wish she wasn’t like that… Pushing those thoughts to the side, I walk inside the little house and close the door behind me. “Oh! I didn’t expect you to be back so soon Fluttershy!” There he was, sitting on a sofa facing away from me, tending to some small animals. “From what Rainbow Dash told me,” Rainbow Dash? Must be the blue pegasus. “whatever happened must have been really important.” A nasty smirk curved my lips as I got a devious thought. “Well, it certainly was important.” The draco jumped from the sofa and spun around, freezing with a fixated gaze at my cloaked form. “Hi.” I wave. “E-ember?” He nearly choked out. “Yeah, it’s me. Finally huh?” He nodded slowly and we stand there for who knows how long. “Well? Are you just gonna stand there or-” He teleports over to me and pins me to the floor in a full nelson hug. Wrapping his snake-like body around me like an anaconda seizing its prey. I then felt a pair of mismatched arms wrap around my neck as Discord's face comes into view. Tears streaking down his goat face. “Missed me that much huh?” “You haven’t the foggiest idea.”