Tales from a lost pony

by Zen Gale

Chapter 7: A brief respite

"Zen, are you going to be okay?" Octavia's concern filled voice softly called out to the darkness surrounding the light glow from her magic powered lantern. When she got no answer, her voice became more of a whisper. "You saved me you know, you shouldn't feel bad about that."

"Octavia, I...I killed somepony," Zen finally responded flatly before frustration and sorrow crept into his voice. "How could I not feel bad about that. Sure he was going to hurt you, but."

"He would have done much worse and you know it!" Octavia sharply retorted.

"But."

"No, Zen, no buts. Now listen." The slightly darker part of the room they were in a solid shifted about at Octavia almost nurturing tone. "You did a terrible thing, but to a terrible pony who was going to do worse to me. I think in this case it's justified, and I'll thank you appropriately in time, but now isn't that time nor is it the time to wallow in self pity. We may be safe for now, but how long before that group finds this spot? We need to keep moving as soon as the sun rises." The figure shifted and lowered itself to the ground, but made no noise of protest. With a sigh, Octavia followed suit turning off the light before laying down herself.

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Morning came, and as it's rays of sunlight cascaded through the broken windows,they fell upon the sleeping form of Octavia. As the beams struck her face, the mares eyes fluttered open. Not one to break routine, Octavia sat up groggily and stretched before walking over to her cello case. Retrieving the instrument from within, she began to play a series of exercises that slowly transitioned into songs. After her morning practice was complete, and the instrument put safely away, she turned to regard the distraught Pegasus from last night, only for her eyes to fall on the broken floor. Casting her gaze about the room, Zen was nowhere to be seen.

"Zen?" She called out with worry and irritation. "Zen, where are you," but she didn't get a reply. With a huff, she exited the room and wandered down the hallway, looking into the various offices on either side. Most of which were either filled with rubble, or missing half the room. Four rooms down, she finally caught a flash of red. Zen came into view as she trotted into the room, he was trotting around a desk which he'd laid the cleaned scythe on. The pegasus seemed to be studying the weapon with a keen eye and a giddy expression. "There you are Zen!" the mare yelled causing him to jump in surprise, "what are you doing? Do you have any idea how worried I was when I woke to find you missing."

"Gah!!!, sorry Octavia. I just couldn't seem to sleep."

"Because of yesterday?" She said. The statement's effects were immediate as Zen's ears drooped and his head lowered, but only for a few moments before they shot right back up.

"Yeah, partially that....., and partially this!" He finished with much more energy and a gesture to the weapon on the desk. "Do you have any idea what this is?" He asked as excitement crept into his voice.

Octavia took a step closer to inspect the weapon herself and see if she could figure out why the pegasus was so excited. This was certainly no farm tool, with the straight metal shaft, a spiked pommel, it's long double edged curved blade with some weird looking etching done on the flat of the blade, The top edge continued onto the other side of the shaft where formed another spike. This was a lunar guards weapon, but it was just one of a dozen, nearly every other lunar guard went with the differently styled pole weapon. "It's just a lunar guard scythe, what's so special about that?"

"Ugh, it's not the scythe, but this." He gestures to specifically the engravings on the blade. "Do you have any idea what these are?" Zen was almost bouncing in his excitement.

"Some fancy decoration?" Octavia asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Wah?! No, no, these are runes! This scythe is enchanted with runes, and I think I might know what these particular ones do." Bringing himself to a low hover just off the ground, Zen hefted the scythe in his fore hooves. "Now all I should have to do is focus and..." the runes on one side of the scythe began to glow in a pale whitish blue. "Haha, yes it still has a charge!" Zen yelled excitedly, before looking back at Octavia. She didn't share his enthusiasm though. Her expression was shifting from one of surprise to worry as her gaze remained on the scythe. Confused by her reaction Zen looked back at the weapon to see the glow still growing brighter. Small sparks of energy we beginning to dance in the air around the blade as the energy built up.

"Oh, they don't seem to have put in the limiter..." Zen said in a shrinking voice. As realization donned it's place at the forefront of his mind his eyes shot open. "Oh crap...."

"What?" Octavia asked with growing concern. "What'll happen?"

"Well, if I don't release the energy soon....it'll.....kind of.....explode?" Zen continued in uncertainty as the glow continued to grow the sparks becoming more erratic and violent.

"WHAT!?!"

Zen cringed away at the outburst from Octavia. As the pent up energy reached a point where it made a faint humming sound. "Oh that's not good."

"Then what are you waiting for! Release the energy already!" Octavia screamed in panic.

"Right, right, ummm.....Let's see, this is a offensive rune, with no limiter, and rapid charge time, which means it's a less complicated spell..." The pegasus mumbled to himself as he shifted the scythe over his shoulder. "If I'm reading it right, this should...." Zen swung the weapon over his head in a downward slash while focusing on his innate pegasus magic. The effects were instantaneous, as the pent up magic launched itself from the scythe in the form of a blade like column of energy. The condensed magic cut through the thin wall of the building and sailed through the open air on the other side, disappearing out of sight somewhere in the cities lower districts. Distantly there was a small explosion of smoke followed by the shifting and collapse of a small building. Both Zen and Octavia merely stared open mouthed as they watched the scene play out before them. Zen broke the silence first, "Wow, Octavia, did you see that!" His enthusiasm exploded by the end of that short statement as he turned to regard the mare at his side.

Octavia didn't return the enthusiasm. In fact, she didn't even look at him. Her eyes were locked on the gaping hole and dust could from the destroyed building far below, while her mouth slowly opened and closed in shock.

"Umm...Octavia? Hello, Equestria to Octavia." Zen continued, waving one hoof in front of her face.

Octavia blinked a couple times before she finally shifted her head to look at anything other than the gaping hole in the wall. Unfortunately for Zen, her eyes fell on him. 'WHAM!' Octavia had brought a hoof across Zen's muzzle, knocking him out of the air and into the desk the scythe had been sitting on earlier.

"OWW! Geeze Octavia, what was that for?!" Zen yelled at her as he rubbed his stinging face.

"You nearly killed us!" Octavia glared a hole through him as she continued, "what if you hadn't figured out how to release the energy hmmm? How did you even know what kind of rune that was?"

"Well, I think I mentioned it before but, I was an intern at Magi-tech industries." Zen says with a wave of his hoof. "They developed the runes, and it was partially because of a paper I wrote on them that I got into the program." Zen's statements did little to ease Octavia's glare.

"So, you knew that was going to happen?" She asked with cold rage as her eye twitched.

"Well, not exactly. I didn't really have too much time to...." Zen trailed off as the mare's glare somehow managed to get even more intense. When she lifted a hoof, Zen cringed and threw up his own to cover his face. "Please don't hit me!"

"Now why would I do that?" Octavia forced through gritted teeth and forced smile.

"Umm"

"That was a rhetorical question..."

"Oh...Well, at least we know it works and, 'WHAM'," Zen didn't have time to finish before a striking similar grey hoof slammed into him again, once more knocking into a wall. From his now upside down position, he watched as Octavia stormed out of the room leaving him with nothing but the scythe and his thoughts that went something like this. 'Dang she hits hard.

A few minutes after Octavia left, Zen rolled onto his hooves. One rubbed his now very sore right cheek, while he limped over to the scythe that had flown from his grasp when Octavia hit him. Using his wings to bring him into a hover, he hefted the scythe in his fore hooves before gently flying out of the room. The trip back to their makeshift camp wasn't long enough for further contemplation, and he arrived to see Octavia already packing up their things. With a sigh, Zen landed and threw his pack over his shoulder and wing. "Sorry..." he muttered while adjusting the strap.

"It is alright Zen," Octavia replied in a calm and level voice. Zen's head shot up before she continued, "I should trust your judgment, especially on matters that I'm not as knowledgeable about. Just do keep in mind, if you ever scare me like that again, it won't be my hoof hitting you upside the head." She finished the threat with a soft smile that was colder than ice as she trotted out the door.

Zen shivered at the remark before flying after her. "Hey wait up," he called to the departing mare. The two ponies set off down corridors, gradually working their way back to the crashed airship they'd used to get inside. As they walked down one last corridor they passed the corpse of the copper stallion, the blood from his head wound having long since coagulated. Off to the side however lied another corpse, or rather, the remains of a corpse. There was a torn up suit of armor, completely soaked in blood, covering some chunks of flesh. A splatter of blood covering a large portion of the wall behind the heap. Zen stopped by the remains to look down on them for a moment. Noticing the pegasi's stop, Octavia turned to regard her companion.

"Zen? Did you know that pony?" She asked seeing him eye the former guard. His dark armor had kept him hidden from her sight the night before.

"No, but it's thanks to his death that I got the scythe and was able to save you. I...I just wanted to say 'thank you'. Kinda wish we could bury him, but the grounds a long way down, and even then it's unlikely we'd find dirt." His head lowered as he continued, "still though, we should get going Octavia. Thank you guard, I'll keep the scythe for now, and use it to keep others safe." With those parting words, the duo left the building. Climbing out of the armored hull of the guards ship, they set off down a skywalk once more headed towards the tower that continued to linger in the distance.

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Back in the bar, Zen had stopped speaking for the longest pause in his story yet. Cheery Notes looked up in confusion as to why he wasn't continuing. He was watching her with curious eyes, that would drift to the notebook, that had moments ago been rapidly filling up with notes and quotes from his tale.

"Why did you stop? That can't be all of it." Cheery asked hopefully, her eyes actually taking on a slight gleam of excitement at the strange stallion continuing the story that sounded almost too much like fiction to be real.

"Heh, well aren't you just 9 kinds of excited. Sorry, but it's getting late," he said with a sweep of his hoof gesturing to the almost entirely empty bar, "and I've got some ponies waiting on me." As he stood, Zen continued talking. "Don't worry, we'll continue tomorrow," and with that he stepped out of the doors chuckling while leaving behind the still question loaded Cheery Notes at the table.

After a moment she turned about to regard the barkeep who was busying himself cleaning glasses. Clearing her throat to get him to look up she asked one of dozens of questions that jumped about in her mind. "Do you have any open rooms for the night?"

Author's Note:

Yay, chapter update much quicker than the last one I think, and only posted at after 5am...awesome...