My Little Human: The Beginning

by SSA

Chapter 6 or Let the Nightmare Begin

"Ah think Ah'm drunk." I stated, "An tha's hard to do, draco - dragonkin have a big tolerance for alcohol normally." I swayed slightly and almost fell over before Dash caught me and lead me over to a big arm chair.

"I figured that one out as soon as you started talking like Applejack." Dash stated, I think she was a bit tipsy, but I couldn't be sure with her fuzzing in and out of view. The party had wound down around 2AM and now everyone was moving off to steady themselves and take hangover cures before the dawn. You'd think people would show restraint with the Princess coming here, but I'm guessing that in a small town like this they didn't have that many parties.

The only people left in the library were myself, Dash, and one guy who passed out against the door frame of the kitchen. I could have used a cleansing spell but I didn't want to slur the words. Last time that happened I lit everything on fire that was touching me, not pretty. Dash was still here because she hated drunk flyers and had even insisted that I get an inhibitor bracelet from her saddlebags. Think had a pretty complex lock and my guess is that she wouldn't fly until she could get it off.

I stretched luxuriously in the comfy chair and felt my eyes start to close, "Nope." Dash said, crushing me to one side, "You're not going to sleep any time soon."

Y'know, usually I'm glad that I don't get overly nauseous even when I'm fall down drunk, but I kinda wanted to puke on her, just for spite. "Fine, ok, sure, what?"

She just looked at me for a few seconds... And then she freaking passed out on me! Not cool. Well, cool that I had a reasonable hot chick passed out on top of me, but not cool all the same. I should probably call for Twilight. My left arm was cramping. I cant feel the toes on my left foot, and I can't lean forward to see if they're still there. I should... Really... Call... For... Twilight... ZZzz

"So you're saying that you can, from this chamber, place small, unobtrusive thoughts into anyone's head?"
"In theory, yes."
"But of course you don't, do you?"
"Oh, I would never be so callous as to use such a thing to change who people are."
"But you might use it for little things, like, you know, horse puns?"
"Horse puns?"
"Don't play innocent with me, I know you still sometimes find it amusing that you created humanity, unicorns, and pegasi from small equine creatures, you've said it enough times."
"I won't even dignify that with a response."

"SPIKE! WAKE UP!" I really regret not using that cleansing spell, but I can feel my toes now, and my hair. My hair hurt. Ow.

"I'm up, I'm up." I stood and stretched, "What do you want?"

"It's almost sunrise, c'mon, we have to get to town hall." A sight, a stretch, and what do I not feel, why, my armour of course. I looked down at my clothing. Nope, no armour, no sword or dagger belt, no cloak, nada, just by black undershirt and pants, Tartarus, even my socks were missing.

"One second, I'll be right there, don't start without me!" Running about with a hangover is no fun. I should still be drunk, I was pissed not 2 hours ago. Damn dragonkin body, won't even let me enjoy inebriation for long.

"Sure, just hurry up, I want you to be there so I can tell you I told you so when it all goes to Tartarus." She seemed almost happy at the prospect of eternal night and her teacher being dethroned.

I then started the arduous task of finding my armour. It was all a dark violet, made from the hide of what was once a very nasty dragon that had set up territory around Camelot. The Princess herself had to dispatch the beast and, as a present for my 10th birthday, had 4 suits of armour made from the hide, donating the rest of the material to the dark guard. Violet was more their colour than the day guard. I generally used my everyday armour, double thick vambraces with internal plating, soft boots, and a breastplate that covered from neck to thigh. Usually strapped to my left hip was a dark blue scabbard with a fairly plane blade and a dagger at the small of my back. Occasionally, when out on a mission, I'd take a bandolier of poisons and throwing knives, but generally I just had the one pouch of powdered blue nightshade. My large forest green cloak completed the ensemble and I was ready to go. I hope they haven't started without me.

As I ran towards town hall I reflected on how people must view me in this quiet rural town, running about in full battle armour. About the palace it seemed like the correct thing to do, I was the Princesses adopted son and I had trained with the royal guard every night after my other lessons and making sure that Twilight got some sleep. Celestia had even had some dress armour made for me so that I didn't have to wear the stiff tuxedos that the Camelot elite enjoyed.

Is that lightning over the town hall, and screaming people running from it? Did I hear evil cackling? Is that? Yes, that was the body of a royal guard shattering the window and falling lifelessly to the ground. And now town hall was engulfed in a tide of starlit blackness. And now there was more lightning and some sort of humanoid made of shadow exiting the building at high speeds. Well then, I appears as if there is a dark enchantress on the loose, let me just pull up my cowl and stand really still. 'No one look at me, I am but a shrub.'

Unfortunately my great disguise didn't fool Twilight and 'the crew.' She was walking toward me with an 'I told you so' look on her face, I hated that look. She didn't even have the good grace to just be smug, she had to rub my face in it too. "See? I told you, I TOLD you that Nightmare Moon would reappear tonight but no, you were all like," She badly mimics my voice, "'Twilight, nothing ever happens when you read a new prediction, just relax and make some friends.'"

"I never-"

"Well, ha! I was right and now we need to find the Elements of Power before Nightmare Moon brings about an eternal night!"

"What? What do you know about what's happening here?" Dash screamed at Twilight, "Are you a spy?" We both looked at her like she was an idiot, "What?"

"Ok, listen, we need to go to the library, I'll explain on the way."

"So, Applejack kicks the apples out of the trees, what do you do?"
"I use this here hammer."
"You use- I don't even- How is that even... Wow."
"Eeyup"

... and that's why I need to find a book on the Elements of Power." Twilight finished, "But I don't know where one is!"

"Here it is!" The pink one exclaimed.

"How did you find it?

"It was under E."

"Oh, I guess that makes sense." No, it didn't, I knew for a fact that this library wasn't organized alphabetically by title, or alphabetically at all. And there was that tickle in my throat again. Did she use some sort of magic? "It says here that there are 5 known Elements of Power, 2 secondary elements, and one unknown element. The 5 main elements are Leadership, Mercy, Courage, Focus, and Understanding. The secondary elements, which were to be given to the most trusted of commanders are Duty and Control. Together, the five main elements could create and destroy wondrous things; but, when a spark ignites the five, an unknown sixth element is revealed and their power grows exponentially. The last known location of the elements was in the ruined castle at the centre of the Everfree forest."

"The Everfree forest?" The other exclaimed.

"Well, we're doomed." Applejack stated, "It's been nice knowin' y'all, but this'll be mah last goodbye."

"Now now, that seems completely melodramatic, I've heard that the Everfree is dangerous, but it certainly can't be all that bad." Twilight tried to reason.

"But it is!" Rarity exclaimed, "It's filled with ghouls and goblins and nasty little critters."

"The most dangerous beasts live there." Fleuretta (I could never call her "Shy") mumbled, just audibly.

"And not to mention the dragon that lives there, y'know, no big deal or anything." Dash muttered.

"I still don't see what the problem is." Twilight's exasperated sigh made me wince, she would not be making friends with that tone.

"Twilight, you remember, the Everfree is poisoned with the residual magic of the battle of the Princesses a thousand years ago and because of that all the creatures are bigger, meaner, and more magically resistant than your normal creature. Hell, some people think the forest as a whole is a sentient creature, though it's yet to demand civil rights, so we're not sure."

"All excellent reasons to give up hope, however, the real question is this. You wanna die sitting around or trying to survive?"

Applejack sighed, "Don' got much of a choice, do we?"

"Collect your gear and meet back here within the hour." The others nodded and filed out, "Spike, we're gonna need some firepower out there."

"You got it." I strode over to the wall and found the magic box. Most libraries were equipped with the basics for magical spells, free to be used for a small fee if you didn't want to buy your own personal kit. It was pretty basic but I only needed chalk and a few gems. The summoning circle took about a forty minutes to set up properly and by then Applejack and Dash had returned, needing the least amount of time to prepare and it was pretty obvious why.

Applejack had simple added some thick steel vambraces and a heavy leather jacket to her ensemble while Dash just needed to grab her bike and a short sword that was now strapped to one of the saddlebags.

I stepped into the circle and raised my hand over the amethyst in the centre and began to chant. Summoning is pretty hard unless you have a permanent spell set up where you left the object like what I had in the parchment and quill section of the storeroom, had the silver circle commissioned and helped to inlay it into the stone myself. Without something like that giving a clear target it's like putting 3 darts in the triple 20 zone on a dartboard which not only presented a 2D plane to hit, but rather a 3D array through which your dart must fly without hitting any of the nodes before getting to the target.

Needless to say, it took a lot of power and even more concentration, which is why I nearly lashed out with my claws when one "Pinkie Pie" bounced into the room and nearly broke my concentration. A few moments later Fleuretta also entered, followed by Rarity. Their talking almost made me lose the spell several times, but I worked through it and eventually the circle lit up and I poured my fire into it. Once I had the blade in my hands I saw sorely tempted to go on a rampage with it, didn't they know that magic takes a lot of work?

Strapping the blade to my belt, I stepped out of the circle and surveyed what these rural townsfolk thought 'attired for battle' looked like. A quick scan showed what I pretty much expected. No one had brought anything that could be called a conventional weapon beyond Dash's sword. Applejack appeared to be planning to punch and kick her way to victory. Fleuretta had what looked like a kitchen knife, though it was probably covered in some pretty terrible toxin, and had no armour to speak of. The pink one was in some of the most ridiculous clothing I had ever seen, though from how it hung on her shoulders I was sure it was stuffed to be brim with knives and daggers, probably enough to be called light armour. Rarity had seen the biggest change, though. Gauntlets and some strange looking goggles adorned her hands and head. Most likely magic enablers for quick spell casting, and she was actually wearing something reasonable for a fight to the death with an evil goddess of the night, i.e. some thick jeans and a leather jacket, though I noted the bright embroidery on the hems of both garments, but you can't win all of them, and I was having trouble winning just one.

"Ok everyone," Twilight called as she descended the stairs, staff in hand, "Let's get there before the world ends." Not the most motivational speech, but I'll take what I can get.

Author's Note:

How's everything so far? Like/Dislike what I've done with the characters back story and personality?

Comments

[Henrik Madness]

Beautiful