"But... how doeth that..." Fleetfoot's voice jarred Garrosh from his focus on the Element of Laughter's elaborative words. The small, sky-colored mare wasn't given much of a chance to finish her thought though, as Charger articulated those same thoughts for her.
"Yeah, how does that tell us anything? Did ya just wake up this morning and go, 'Hey! I bet that big ugly brown guy's at the train station; I better go check'?" The Shadowbolt said, doing his best "Pinkie Pie" impression. The attempted mimicry left Garrosh with an even bigger headache than originally, and judging by her grimace, it hadn't done Fleetfoot any favors either.
The orc was quick to butt into the conversation, but not for any of their reasons. No, he had discovered an apparent flaw in Pinkie's story elsewhere. "They have valid points, Laughter, but I myself must ask, did your night not end when you and Magic separated?" He paused only a second to see almost everyone else's faces turn to that of investigative realization. "How did you come to know what had happened to her after you had returned home?"
"Darling, haven't you learned not to ask such things to Miss Pie by now? She never gives a straight answer." Generosity mumbled compassionately - if a bit snobbishly - to Hellscream from behind her hoof. Garrosh only had enough time to give the unicorn a starkly confused look before Pinkie herself joined in.
"Well if you silly-heads would let me finish the story, you'd have the answers, wouldn't ya?"
"I doubt it..." Garrosh grumbled under his breath. He rolled his eyes when the pink mare cleared her throat to continue. He was beginning to regret allowing her to tell the tale.
"Twilight! Twilight, wake up!" The Princess of Friendship's bloodshot eyes snapped open at the sudden sound of Spike's voice. The dragon was never, ever up before her, no matter the circumstances. Him being up, let alone coherent enough to speak that clearly - or at all - meant that either there was some form of apocalypse ensuing outside, or that he had seen a spider or a centipede. She almost hoped it was the former as she threw the covers from her hide.
"What!? Wha--what is it, Spike?" Twilight bolted onto her haunches, scanning the room for the dragon, her vision too fuzzy to see much of anything. Blinking a few times, her vision only starting to clarify, she found him standing right by her bed, his chin resting on its edge, sporting a cheshire-grin that could've given the Mane-iac a run for her money. It was one of his excitement grins, or, as Twilight liked to call it, his "Can I have something?" face. It didn't take a pony with Shadow Spade's deductive reasoning to figure out why he was making that face, and Sparkle herself wasn't too shabby in that department.
"Can we go see him today, huh?!" Spike asked, wringing his claws like a madman.
"Ugh, It's too early for this..." Twilight mumbled as her hooves rubbed what remained of the sleep from her eyes. "What time is it, Spike?"
"Seven o' clock, come on, can we go?!" The dragon wined, desperate with anticipation, giving Twilight his best puppy dog eyes. Twilight could count with the feathers on half her wing after a crash how many times she'd refused those eyes. While Spike rarely used them from the start, it let her know just how excited he was to finally to see Ponyville's newest resident. It brought a groggy smile to her face.
"...If you make the coffee, we'll go within the hour..."
"YES!"
"Wait, if that is what you told the dragon, then should I not have met him by now?" Garrosh's question halted Pinkie Pie for the second time in a five minute span, earning something of an exaggerated sigh from the earth pony. The question seemed to breath renewed life back into the Princess of Friendship, who had been sitting down next to a consoling Rarity with a defeated slouch ever since the orc had yelled at her. Twilight's head lifted, her gaze meeting Hellscream's once again. The yellow eyes of the orc having lost a significant amount of their fiery rage from before, the alicorn was quick to smile at him, even if it was her usual nervous one.
"Well... he can be a bit shy around new... faces." Sparkle said, retaining her abnormal grin. She then turned her eyes to a bench all the way across the street, where a newspaper lay angled awkwardly for no foreseeable reason. "Spike! I think he wants to meet you now!"
The words from the young alicorn's mouth caused a confused frown to form upon Hellscream's face. The orc watched in fascination as the newspaper crinkled, hopped down from its place on the bench, and began floating across the road toward their group. Garrosh was no expert on dragonkind, unless it came to finding chinks in their scale-formed armor, but he knew that no dragon could hide behind a sheet of paper that small, even as a hatchling. He quickly thought back to all of his previous encounters with the creatures, wondering if any had had the magical capability of polymorphing. He came up empty. To him, this either meant that the dragon he was about to meet was very magically inclined, or was at least a master of illusion spells. The orc felt his muscles tense up, making sure to seem outwardly calm as he got to his feet and slid down from the train station's platform onto solid ground. Garrosh was no fool, he knew that dragons were not to be trusted, and he was not about to be caught off-guard by this one, no matter what kind it was.
The orc however, was embarrassingly mistaken, at least in his own mind, for what he witnessed next definitely caught him off-guard.
"Uh.... Hi." The small lizard mumbled, his few-inch-wide claws scratching at the back of his head self-consciously after hesitantly throwing the newspaper aside. Garrosh couldn't find his voice as he fixed his gaze upon the unexpected creature, his features as blank as his brain. This "dragon" was not even the size of an egg of the Blue Dragon Flight, which to his knowledge, was the smallest Flight of dragons known to Azeroth. The creature that stood before him could in no way, shape, or form, lie within the same species or phylum as the monster he had slain back in the Everfree Forest. "Spike" had to be some kind of domestic reptile, for him being dubbed the title "dragon" was simply impossible to conceive.
"Hellscream, dear, are you alright?" Garrosh was snapped from his motionless stare upon Spike by the amused voice of Rarity. The orc shook his head and fixated his eyes on the small reptile yet again, but a second look did him no good, for he still didn't see a young form of Deathwing, or any other noteworthy dragon in the creature before him. Despite this, Garrosh still could be polite (or at least withholding,) when he wished.
"I... am well enough." The orc spoke in a semi-hushed tone, still holding his gaze on Spike. Garrosh couldn't believe he was about to conclude it, but the large green orbs that stared baitedly back at him held a child's innocence that even most orc younglings lost very quickly. However, there was something about both his form and his eyes that felt off to Garrosh. He watched as the emotions in the pools of green changed from childish curiosity to a look much more melancholy as the seconds of silence lingered on. It didn't take long for the child to cast his eyes to the ground, his claws tangling themselves in obvious discomfort.
Once again, Hellscream couldn't believe it, but it pained him. It pained him to see such hope in something so small leave it. He felt so conflicted, so out of his element, as though he grew weary of being blindsided by the purity and innocence within the youth of this place, and yet by the same token, didn't.
Hellscream went to a knee to inspect the "dragon" closer, his weight hitting the ground, causing a small ripple in the dusty earth around it. The sound brought Spikes gaze back to him as he failed to suppress a startled jump. The action caused Garrosh to crack a small, almost inquisitive grin as he extended his hand forth to the hatchling.
"Greetings, Spike, Aid to the Elements." Garrosh spoke in his best politicized manner. The dragon was quick to shake his hand as well as his claws could manage.
"Nice to meet you, too!" Spike said loudly, giving out a nervous chuckle. "For a second there I thought you weren't gonna say anything."
"Hmph, your appearance merely took me aback." Garrosh explained as he rose to his full height, maintaining his tone as one would to an equal. Spike's head craned upwards, a look of awe upon his face as he stood in the orc's vast shadow. "From the stories I'd heard, I expected a much..." Garrosh paused, searching for the proper word. "more intimidating entity... I had not expected one so young."
"Heh, yeah, I get that a lot..." Spike's newly-formed deadpan expression allowed a cordial smile to tug at it.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, tiny lizard meets his whacked-out lookin' comic book hero, I'm about ta cry." Charger broke in, earning instant glares from both Twilight and the mentioned party member. "Can we get back ta how you mooks found us now?"
"You may, but I've lost enough of my brain power attempting to understand half the nonsense Laughter's offered." Garrosh said, shooing his bodyguard and the pink mare away with a distasteful gesture. Pinkie only seemed to let his words get to her for a fraction of a second, judging by the comical sad frown. It was quick to snap back, but not before the orc had seen it, locking the image away in his mind for later use as he once again sat down on the platform's edge.
"Did you want me to tell the rest, Garrosh?" Twilight asked, her ears peaked upward on her head, appearing rather genuine in her desire to take over. Garrosh nodded bemusedly as he moved his hulking arms from resting at his knees to at his sides, shoving a poorly positioned Fleetfoot onto her stomach, pinning her there with his heavy palm resting over her entire back. The small "Ack!" didn't garner the attention of any who were present, and the feeling of fur was lost on Garrosh's rough, stone-like hands. He was then too focused on hearing Twilight out as she prepared to recount her part of the morning's debacle. Though, in his subconscious, Garrosh did indeed wonder why the station platform felt uneven, even though both his hands were resting on it.
As Twilight cleared her throat to begin, a multi colored blur crossed the orc's vision, earning both his undivided attention and ire all in one second. "Hey, my part of the story was the coolest! Why can't I tell him?"
Twilight gave a very exasperated and sufferant sigh. "Fine, Rainbow, you tell him."
"Ancestors help me..."
By Rainbow Dash's own words, her Monday morning had started out on the boring side, her predominant activity merely being lounging around her cumulus-constructed home. After sluggishly indulging in the usual morning rituals of hygiene and grumbling endlessly to herself about how terribly sore she was from yesterday's combat (she omitted that part of her reminiscence for obvious pride-related reasons,) she had decided to go flying leisurely about the town to help relax, stretching the morning stiffness from her wings. The routine would have normally consisted of her heading to Sugarcube Corner for breakfast. From there, her normal day would begin, were it not for the sighting of something abnormal along her way there.
Her new "friend," standing ever tall, loitering in the midst of a few of the Wonderbolts and Shadowbolts outside Ditsy's house. Rainbow hadn't thought the orc would stay the entire night there, but when she thought about it a little more, she couldn't name any other place he could really go. Yes, he could have gone back to the medical tent, but she was sure he had no clue how to navigate Ponyville as of yet.
if Rainbow was being totally honest with herself, she hoped dearly that he didn't stay in the town long enough to find out.
"At last! Now that you creatures are finally through with your endless blatherings, we are leaving for the mountain city!" Garrosh bellowed, causing every living creature within a mile to jump. Rainbow rubbed at her ears from the volume of the shouting, even at her considerable distance, but still kept them trained on the orc. She couldn't hear any of the other ponies speaking due to her altitude, but she wasn't about to fly so low as to gain Garrosh's attention. Rainbow saw the remaining Shadowbolt speaking, but would have to be content in hearing nothing.
"I grow weary of this! The train to the mountain, you fool! Lead me there!" Warchief once again did his utmost to break the collective vicinity's ear drums, the words very clear to her at the least.
"Dad used to call Canterlot 'The Mountain City...'" She thought with a confused frown, remembering fondly how much of a nerd her father could be sometimes as her hoof found her chin. As far as she knew, there was nothing she could think of worth anything in Canterlot to somebody like him. Stopping only briefly to realize just how annoying it was to even have to think of the term "somebody," she resumed her mental quest to guess the beast's intentions as she hovered there, mostly concealed by cloud coverage, but no matter how harshly she wracked her brain, Garrosh just didn't seem like the kind of person (another annoying word to have to search up) to require anything from such a place, "What are you up to, leather-head?" This, she simply had to investigate.
"Alright, alright! We get it, Okay?! According to thith map, the train thtation's just patht 'Breethy's General Goods Store' and 'Golden Oaks Library! We'll take you there quietly if you don't throw anymore tantrumth, okay?!" Fleetfoot, the remaining Wonderbolt yelled back. Talking at the same speed Fleetfoot could fly was something Rainbow didn't think was possible, but she managed it well enough.
"Good, now, lead me to this train station before we must butt heads once more." The orc said after a moment of silence. That was all Rainbow needed to hear. Hellscream was headed to the capital of Equestria for sure, conveniently where the amount of damage he could do if he was provoked would be beyond devastating before anyone could stop him. Far be it for Rainbow to think this was a good way to start the day, but she didn't have time to complain. She didn't even have time to race over to Mayor Mare's place to mark herself down for "absent-to-work." She was sure she'd understand, but right then, she felt that both herself and her friends were the ones needed for this emergency more than any other.
The mare didn't waste a second more. With directions that weren't faulty, Hellscream would be at the station in a matter of minutes. Her speed made her confident that she could gather up her friends within that time frame, but the train schedule was a complete mystery her. If the time scheduling favored the orc, he would get away for certain; there would be nothing she could do about it. Rainbow readied her wings for their highest gear, and bolted straight for the home of the friend that lived farthest from their destination: Fluttershy.
Sight-seeing was all but impossible at the speeds Rainbow Dash achieved in a matter of seconds in the air. The buildings of the town, the dirt roads, the vast, green meadows, the clusters of trees, they all merged into a swirl of colors as they turned to stretched blurs. It was a sight the Element of Loyalty was very much accustomed to, but it was also one of which she never grew tired. The feelings brought to her by the speeds she attained were another thing she loved. Rainbow could feel each and every little feather on her wings parting and closing with each flap. Her fur offered virtually no resistance to the stinging winds as they washed over her, failing to slow her by even a hair of her wing power. While galloping, hoof-to-hoof combat, and lounging around on the ground each had their respective charms, Rainbow bore no doubt that in the sky, where she and her kind truly belonged, there was none better than her at anything. From tricks and maneuvers, to racing and dog-fighting, she was confident that the sky favored her over anyone.
All of those feelings, sensations, and the adrenaline, much to her disappointment, abated as quickly as they'd come. She slowly extended her wings to halt her speed's buildup without injuring herself, and began going in loose circles around the small cottage near the Everfree Forest's border. Rainbow could swear it took longer for her to land than actually getting to her friend's house. Her face clearly showing her boredom of the lazy loops, it brightened up as soon as the dirt of the cottage path met her hooves.
"Fluttershy!" Rainbow screamed out as loudly as she could, hastily galloping over the small bridge to skid to a halt in front of the cottage's door. Her hoof stabbed at the doorbell several times before her friend finally answered her. A rather groggy, bed-maned Fluttershy opened the door and immediately stepped aside to allow her friend entrance into her abode. She'd apparently elected to sleep in after all that had happened. If Rainbow hadn't been in such a hurry, she'd have found herself wondering how the animals in her care felt about that. "No, I don't have time for tea or whatever, I need your help." Dash chattered briskly. The butter yellow pegasus' droopy eyes shot open, and her ears perked up at the words.
"Oh? What did you need, Rainbow?" The words were barely above a whisper, especially with the slight rasp of a freshly-awoken voice box, but in the long years they'd known each other, Rainbow Dash had honed her hearing specifically for her quiet friend.
"Leather-head's heading to the train station for a first class ticket to..." She hesitated, not quite sure if she should risk officially suggesting the name "Canterlot" just yet. "...somewhere, and I wanna find out why. I need you to go get Applejack and Rarity, and then meet me at the market square, got it?" The prism-maned mare instructed as she turned to take off again. Her hearing helped to keep her wings tucked to her sides as Fluttershy spoke up.
"Who's leatherhead?" Was the first thing she asked, cringing slightly at the not-so-subtle insult.
"Garrosh! The orc dude, remember?!" Again, Fluttershy cringed.
"B-but didn't Princess Celestia say we should give him some space to adjust? I mean, if I was on a whole new planet, I wouldn't want ponies I barely knew following me around all the time..."
Rainbow Dash opened her mouth to counter, but closed it immediately. Shy had a point, even if the gruff cyan pegasus didn't want to acknowledge it. Even so, she wasn't concerned with what the orc wanted or didn't want, she only cared about keeping him in check. It took her a few seconds, but she managed to form a counter-argument.
"We're the Elements of Harmony, Shy! It's our job to make sure he stays out of trouble, and that ponies around him don't try to mess with him." Yes, that was a fair counter-point, was it not? Rainbow could practically see the gears inside her friend's head turning a different direction, and suddenly her point of view changed drastically.
"Goodness... you're right!" Rainbow gave an internal cheer and a not-so-internal "hoof pump." Perhaps her conventions weren't as terrible as her friends had believed.
Of course, she found that they were even worse than her friends believed, once Fluttershy finished her thought.
"Ponies who aren't from around here aren't very kind to newer things, and Garrosh could end up hurt if they get him into trouble. I'll go get Applejack, you go tell Twilight as fast as you can!" Fluttershy did her best to sound commanding, but the fact that her shout was around the volume of a normal pony's indoor voice had ruined it. Rainbow's jaw had dropped at her friend's words, and by the time she had given her head a shake to refocus, her butter-yellow compatriot was already well down the dirt path to Sweet Apple Acres.
Rainbow Dash gave an exasperated groan as her hooves found themselves pulling at her lower eyelids. Her closest and oldest friend was worried not only about a big brown behemoth rampaging throughout a new city, but about ponies of said city getting him into trouble and somehow hurting him. The pegasus had known as soon as she'd woken up that this would be a long day, but now it would seem (if this was any indication) as though it would never end.
"H... How the buck did you beat us here?!" Rainbow screeched, much to Twilight's discomfort. As Dash's alicorn friend rubbed at the ear closest to her, and after admonishing the overly-competitive mare with a simple shout of "language," Rarity huffed out an answer.
"In all my life... I've never had a problem keeping up with... Fluttershy of all ponies! That changed... today." Rarity managed to pant, holding a hoof to her chest and lowering her head as she continued trying to catch her breath.
"Ah'm gonna be honest too; ah had trouble keepin' up." Applejack pitched in, giving a shrug as she clearly bore less trouble catching hers.
Fluttershy on the other hoof, seemed absolutely no worse for wear. That was, until five pairs of eyes were all suddenly upon her. Already her form began to slink under the attention. "I--I wasn't sure when the train was supposed to leave. If we miss it, than Garrosh is on his own in a big city! We can't afford to miss it, or he could get hurt. He's still injured you know."
"Fluttershy, I'm sure he'd be just fine in any city of Equestria." Twilight reassured her with a confident chuckle. "...And even if the citizens there aren't, he can take care of himself..." She mumbled the latter half of that sentiment, giving a small shudder as she remembered the impact of the first debacle involving the beast. "That reminds me. Rainbow Dash, did you ever find out where it was Hellscream was getting a ticket to?"
"I did, but I can't remember. I think it was Canterlot, but I'm not sure." Rainbow replied as if present at a Wonderbolts' debriefing. She couldn't help but notice the sudden terror in her friend's eyes as they widened considerably at the mentioning of the capitol's name.
"Well, why don't we just ask him?" Pinkie Pie Piped up out of nowhere with a hoof pointed out toward the train station.
At first, the five mare all scanned where Pinkie had pointed, but the only thing they could see was a mobile cart vendor who was adjusting his harness as he trotted onward. Rainbow however, had a nagging suspicion that Pinkie hadn't just seen through an inanimate object this time. She once again took to the sky high enough to see over the cart, and low and behold, a giant brown lump had made itself comfortable sitting on the edge of the train station's platform. Rainbow wasted no time in bursting the ear drums of everyone in her intimidate vicinity.
"FOUND HIM!"
Hellscream had to intake an extremely deep breath so as to not to give in and smack the cyan mare out of the air from where she hovered. He had known that it had basically been a solid half an hour since she had really annoyed him, but he hadn't expected her to repeat her entrance line in the same, ridiculously loud volume.
"Aaannddd that's how we ended up here." Rainbow finished with a satisfied grin on her muzzle, a set of teeth showing that looked very breakable to the orc at the moment. Garrosh's anger was apparently showing on his face, which prompted a few of the other five mares to begin a mixed competition of who could scold Rainbow Dash's lack of manners hardest, or at least whine about it.
"That was not only unnecessary, but it was down right rude, Rainbow Dash." Rarity spoke with a reproaching glower at the pegasus. One thing that Rainbow's story did help Garrosh with however, was remembering each of the mares' names. He was sure he would still mix up who was who from time to time, but he was fairly certain he now knew them indefinitely.
"That hurt my ears... and I'm over here!" Spike grumbled, rubbing at the green flaps on either side of his head. The orc had let the multi-spectrum pegasus off the hook in his own mind in favor of testing his memory of their names to their coat colors. Hellscream's frown faded away as his new mind-game overtook his concentration. He was vaguely aware that the mares were now more interested in arguing with Rainbow Dash over her irritating antics than anything else.
"Twilight Sparkle, the purple alicorn... Rainbow Dash, the blue pegasus... Applejack, the orange earth pony... Rarity, the snow-white unicorn... and I'm sure the yellow pegasus was Fluttershy. That means the fully-pink equine is Pinkie Pie, Element of Laughter." Garrosh's thoughts were as loud as if he were conversing with himself. He all but blocked out the world around him as he began to run through as much information about his new companions and environment as he possibly could. Greatmother Geyah had taught him that refection on the unknown was the most effective way to make it known. He'd be willing to use just about anything from his home world at that moment, even if it were just a mere thought process. That lesson had belonged to Geyah, and so it was something he recalled fondly. He no longer saw any use in listening to the mares' endless squabbles, and he had decided then and there to grant his poor mind a chance to catch up to his body.
Still, the things Garrosh had learned in the past three days alone would have kept the Kirin Tor awake for weeks on end, profoundly sleepless in a crazed thirst for knowledge. How was he, a mere warrior, no where near a scholar's level of intelligence, supposed to have a snowball's chance in Hellfire Peninsula of retaining, let alone understanding any of the things this world had given him on a meaningful level. The former Warchief felt not only overwhelmed, but homesick as well. That was a given, he supposed. If Geyah's words rang true, and they usually did, then this place was to be his new home for a great amount of time. Finding a good set of armor and a weapon of war caliber were simple and achievable goals, but a question nagged at him like an infected wound. It was something he never even allowed himself to think about until the present.
"what am I to do after that?" There it was; he'd dared to think it, and now there was no turning back. He had no home, no clan, no people, and it would remain that way until he had done something. Only, the purpose and the very means of completion of the Greatmother's trial were as hidden as two poisoned daggers beneath a cloak.
For the first time in Garrosh Hellscream's life, despite being surrounded by new acquaintances, he felt alone. Completely, and utterly, alone. Bereft of both purpose and existence, dead to all he'd considered important, a version of Hell he'd never considered.
"Can you pleathe get your arm off me!?" The feeble lump under his hand rasped out. Somewhat glad to be snapped from the now very caustic confines of his own mind, Garrosh looked to the sound. Fleetfoot was indeed flat on her back under his clenching hand, currently using both her front and back legs to keep as much weight off of her barrel as possible. Garrosh quickly tucked both his arms across his chest, freeing the lithe mare. Only seconds passed before he found himself in that dreaded place yet again, having failed to use any of the conversations taking place around him to stave it off.
He didn't feel like talking, and even with his overalls to clothe his back, even with the warmth of Equestria flowing past him in the summer's breeze, the warrior felt a cold sting nipping at him. Garrosh's eyes wandered to the dirt only a few feet in front of him, engaged in a staring contest he could never hope to win, with the earth itself as his opponent. He cared not; his eyes did not see, and his mind would not grant him respite.
The sight of the mighty orc's lifeless stare, his weary features, his silent mouth had caught the tiny pegasus' attention. He normally would have insulted her small stature or her supposed lack of a backbone for staying mute so long under his fist. She wondered understandably why he'd foregone the opportunity.
Garrosh felt eyes upon him, but found his words unable to make any use of the feeling. All he could ponder was once the train arrived, and he had his battle gear in-hand, what came after? Where was he to go next, and why was he to go there? What was he to do next, and why was he to do it? What was the next step of his short-sighted plan? What was the next part of his journey? What was the next chapter in the story of his life?
In vain, he tried to amuse his mind with the strange and sometimes silly history and traditions of this new world, silently praying that he would find some small detail that could offer similarity to his lost home, something, anything that could offer him some form of peace.
Peace.... It was something he'd not searched out in a very long time, and he would not find it that day.
His cup ran over with only questions. Answers to questions like the ones that plagued him were found by mages or priests, not by warriors.
".....Garrosh?" Fleetfoot's plying voice was just above a mere whisper, and it was easily drowned out by the following sound of a train's horn.
Garrosh's time to think and reason had run its course. It was time to reach the goal at-hand. With only this in mind, the son of Hellscream got to his feet and trudged slowly toward the newly arrived train carts, feeling as abandoned and as alone as the empty silence in which he wallowed.
Gone was the Orc who had lost himself to the innocent spirit of a single child at the simplest of meals. Gone was the orc who could truly remember any fruits of diplomacy. Gone was the Orc who had conversed amiably and cordially with the ponies assigned to escort him.
Gone was the Orc who had once believed he would ever see his homeland again.