Rivalry Of The Gods

by ZergPony

Chapter III

“And so, our Lord made the heavens his abode, leaving his earthly essence behind, to guide us in our endeavours. Shattering the center of the world, to protect us against the south-folk, that infested our lands. Their pride becoming their downfall, as the one blessed by ice, cast them into the Sundered Gorge. May we forever walk in the light of our deity”

Arch-prophet Isley, year 1 AtS, Winter Solstice, The Grand City Of Fayfall

o.O.o

In his quaint little house, Hoofington’s metalsmith, named Alloy, started to stir from his rest in his small bed, as a single beam of sunlight shone on his face.

He yawned widely and began stretching his legs out in a peaceful manner. He scratched his head, and ruffled his already messy grey hair even more in the process.

He had a slight headache, and his mouth was a little dry from last night, but he was mostly fit for today’s work. As he made his bed, he began thinking back to the previous evening’s events. Alloy knew he shouldn’t have been out with the boys late at night on a sunday, but he couldn’t help it when they had asked him to join them. He was usually swamped with so much work that he almost never got out anymore.

He and his friends had ventured to quite a lot of bars, had had some drinks, flirted with the cute barmaids, heh, it had really been an enjoyable evening. He was actually one of the few of his comrades that could actually hold his liqour quite well, but even he had succumbed to its embrace eventually.

One after another, his friends had made excuses to leave, as they clearly couldn’t keep up with his constitution, until only he had remained, a last bottle of cider in his hooves.

He decided he would enjoy said bottle outside, in the lovely starlit night, which their beloved princess had put her being into creating, and that he did.

Wasn’t there something else? Oh yeah! he thought, and grinned a little. After a little while, when he had finished singing his favourite song, he had had something like a lucid hallucination.

Seemingly out of nowhere, a creature came up to the bench he sat on, and well, just casually sat there, eyeing him. Alloy had never ever had an hallucination like that before, he thought it was kind of cool that his imagination could conjure up something so odd.

Clearly being a gracious host to his new creation, he offered the creature a drink, it had accepted it, and even emptied the rest of the bottle!

Well, it looked like he did, after all it wasn’t actually real, he mused. Nothing as weird like that exist, but it was a nice enough alcohol-induced dream either way.

The creature had chatted with him, but it sounded like some kind of noise a bird would make, so Alloy hadn’t understood a single thing what it had said to him. The friendly pony had smiled and nodded along anyway, just because things aren’t real, doesn’t mean they don’t have feelings, right? Right.

Alloy wasn’t even surprised when he sat up to take his leave, that the creature had risen as well, albeit unsteadily, as he swayed a little back and forth.

Hah! Alloy had thought, what a wuss. Half a bottle of apple cider, and he was already tipsy. Feeling bad for his imagined companion, he motioned for the creature to follow, as in he could come along to his house if it wanted.

It followed him, but he knew it would have anyway. Hallucinations aren’t bound to just disappear whenever you want them to, especially when you’re drunk as a skunk. Alloy led the way and soon they were at his workshop, that also was his house.

He opened the door to let them both in, and while inside, the creature’s belly growled. Alloy had chuckled at the display, but had nonetheless showed him to his pantry, where the creature quickly devoured some cheese, bread and vegetables lying around.

Satisfied, the being patted its stomach, and then let out a great yawn. Alloy showed him to a couch in the living-room, which the creature was grateful for. It nodded towards him, like offering thanks, and then laid down on the mattress. Sleep following it quickly as it started to snore.

Yeah, that was one crazy night alright, maybe I-, he was cut off as his stomach started to whimper. Well nevermind, breakfast first. He finished tidying himself up and opened his bedroom door to get some food.

What he didn’t expect was as soon as he walked outside the door, a loud snoring noise could be heard from his living-room. The pony stopped dead in his tracks, his eyes widening.

Wha-? What in Celestia’s name was that? It couldn’t surely be…

Sneakily, he went over to the room where the snoring came from, and he tilted his head to have a look. Yeah, in there was still the creature from yesterday, peacefully resting on his brown couch.

Alloy carefully rubbed his eyes with his hoof, blinked a couple of times, before continuing to stare at the one sleeping a couple of meters in front of him.

But, but-? he started, it was just supposed to be some silly hallucination!

Even so, the creature on the couch was still there, and it didn’t look like it was going to vanish into thin air.

Then yesterday was-? Oh, dear Luna! What was I thinking? he had unknowingly shared a drink with a creature, he’d never seen before, one that looked like it existed in some weird children’s fantasy-story. Also, he had invited said fable into his house and-

He turned and looked towards the open pantry in the kitchen. Nothing, nada, zilch, zip. Everything in there had been scarfed down by the creature last night.

Alloy facehooved. Son of a diamond dog! He really could only blame himself though.

The pony jumped a little as the snoring changed tone for a while, then went back to the regular pace.

Alloy had a bigger problem at hoof, he realized. If the one sleeping on his couch was real, which clearly the pantry spoke for, then what would happen when it woke up? Just because nothing bad occurred yesterday, it didn't mean that the weird creature would be as nice as it had appeared the night before.

He counted the possibilities. It could just be that, it ignored me because it ate so much food so that it got too full last night, if that’s the case...oh dear.

Nothing warranted that the creature would pass up the opportunity to eat some delicious pony-meat, Alloy clearly didn’t like his position right now.

I could just sneak out, and get some guardspony to relieve me of it, but what would I say? Oh, excuse me, sir, but there appears to be some sort of mythical creature sleeping in my living-room, could you come and get it? Not very likely, and there could also be the off-chance that it’s actually friendly, and didn’t want to hurt him at all. Alloy wasn’t a bigot after all, he thought even manticores deserved a chance, as long as they didn’t sink their teeth into him.

“Okay, think Alloy, think”, he grumbled quietly to himself.

His eyes wandered to corner where he kept a long pair of pliers he used in his profession. Silently he went and grabbed it with his mouth. He had to confirm something about the creature first.

Gently, he stepped forward, pliers still in his mouth, extended towards the creature’s face. Carefully, he put the tip of the pliers near the being’s lips and dragged them down slightly.

Alloy noticed the set of teeth in its mouth, there was definitely canines in there, but they didn’t appear to be very sharp, also it looked like it had molars in the back. So it wasn’t a herbivore, but neither was it a carnivore.

Thanks for teaching me at least that much about teeth, dear cousin. Your boring anecdotes were actually useful for something.

The creature stirred slightly at the touch, but didn’t wake up.

Alloy retracted his pair of pliers, and wiped away some sweat that had formed on his forehead. So, he had confirmed the possibility that the creature might just not eat him, should it wake up, No use beating around the bush.

Alright, he said, and gulped, here goes nothing. Alloy poked the animal gently in its side, and waited for it to awake.

o.O.o

Vess floated around in the Dreamlands, there wasn’t much to see really. The realm didn’t really function the same way when you had gone to bed drunk.

Fragments of his memories came and went by, only showing small snippets of his life prior to now.

If he tried, he could notice that he was in a large tunnel, the one that led to the stronghold in the mountains, where the cloaked man and his entourage had went ventured through to get to its gates.

Sapphire Keep, that was its name, and its massive black gates towered far and wide over any man standing before them.

Next, a flash, and he was inside. His new accommodations, which were basically just a room with a simple bed, a desk and candlelights. To Vess however, it was the equivalent to a noble’s quarters.

Then he met with his supervisors, or teachers that they prefered to be called. They were a mix of men, old and young; some who treated him fairly, others no better than his old patron, and beat him when he made a mistake during practice.

Vess never complained though, as long as he didn’t have to starve and wonder every night if he would make it the next day, he would endure any hardship they threw at him.

Once again his memories flashed, and were gone, but this time they didn’t reappear, which could only mean one thing, it was time to wake up, and was something poking at him?

Vess slowly opened his eyes, blinked twice as his gaze fell upon the brown roof over him. He put his left hand over his mouth and yawned loudly, then proceeded to scratch his chin, which he noticed had grown a stubble.

Well, not like I can shave or anything right now, heh, who knows, maybe I’ll look good in a beard, wonder what Lara would think, he mused to himself. Wait, a moment, it feels like I’m forgetting something...oh shit!

He quickly sat up in the couch as he remembered that he wasn’t actually in his old abodes anymore. The Dreamlands sometimes messed with your head a little, before you were completely awake, making it slightly hard to distinguish memory and reality.

Sitting up, he heard something breathing heavily in his vicinity. He gazed forward and locked eyes with a small, yellowish-coloured horse. Vess’ sudden actions must have scared it, as it stared at him with its big blue eyes, as if he was afraid.

Ah, yes. The jolly fellow I met yesterday, now I remember, he thought to himself as he looked around.

The room was kind of small, but not without furnitures and decorations. It sported a fireplace, some small paintings of landscapes, and some rugs.

I take it this is his place, well, how quaint, he thought, before looking back to the little animal.

The equine still stared at Vess, with a large pair of pliers in its mouth, almost like it was preparing for Vess to strike at him, if given the chance.

Oh dear, seems like someone has gotten to their senses. I take it he really didn’t know what he was getting into last night. Well drunken ignorance has its charm I guess, sure saved me the trouble of finding a place to crash in.

“It’s alright, my friend, I’m not here to harm you, I merely needed someplace to stay for the night. I have been traveling for quite some time now, and I was utterly exhausted.”

The horse continued to stare at him, until it let out a: ‘oOooOOoooO’.

Vess slapped himself for forgetting, right, language-barrier, whop the fucking do. Alright, new plan.

He started motioning to the horse, making himself as unimposing as possible. He sunk back into the couch, almost laying back, then he gestured with his hands, in what he thought would calm the little horse down.

The grey-maned horse cocked its head to the side as if in confusion, but seemed to be relaxing a little more than before.

Great, seems like certain gestures are universal, wouldn’t want to cause a misunderstanding where I accidentally insulted his mother or something, he thought while smirking to himself.

The little horse let out another neigh, that sounded like he was going to give Vess the benefit of the doubt, reinforced by him slowly getting closer.

Vess laid even more back in the couch, indicating that he wasn’t going to make any sudden moves.

He was now just in front of Vess, still eyeing him for good measure, but then nodded politely, put the pliers down and put one of his hooves up towards him.

Vess thought for a couple of seconds, until he recognized the gesture. He put out his own hand, and grasped the pony’s hoof, and they both greeted each other.

“oOooOOOo”, said the horse as it pointed to itself, and then back to Vess.

Again Vess had to think what the little horse tried to say, but it became clear that it was trying to tell him its name. Still sounded like gibberish nonetheless.

The horse noticed his confusion, then pointed to himself, his tattoo on his flank, then back to himself, uttering the same neigh.

The young mage looked at the pony’s side, only now noticing the strange mark that was upon its behind, two metals that seemed to come together via smelting.

Huh? Is he telling me that mark represents his name? Why would someone tattoo their own name on their ass? he thought to himself. Nah, it has to do with his profession, he did carry some metal pliers after all. So he’s kind of like a smith, then? Still, seems weird to advertise what you work with on your butt...

“Vess”, he said after a while, and pointed to himself, but not gaining any more understanding from the horse as he with it. He considered to actually perform some magic in front of the horse, but wasn’t sure he would have a positive reaction to it, probably not.

The greeting was cut short, as Vess’ stomach growled again, just to make sure its owner wasn’t forgetting about it.

Vess sighed, and looked pleadingly towards the pony, which just shook its head at him.

He motioned Vess to follow him into another room, and the man complied, rising slowly from the sofa.

The pony pointed to a pantry, that was all but empty, some dried up breadcrumbs laying in the middle, then pointed at Vess, with a seemingly sour look.

Uh, oh, did I eat all of his food yesterday, well bummer, must have been starving, he thought, as he raised his hands up, like he didn’t know how to remedy the situation.

The little horse put its right hoof to its forehead, and rubbed it slightly, like he was contemplating the situation, but soon he gestured for Vess to stay put where he was.

It went off to a drawer, pulled out a small sack from within and went back to him. It then revealed the contents of the sack, small golden coins jingled as he dropped it on the floor.

It then motioned for Vess to sit down, as it picked the pouch up again, pointed to itself, and then outside, then back at Vess, and made a cross sign with its front hooves and frowned.

I’m going out to buy breakfast, you sit tight, don’t let anyone see you, don’t go outside, he thought. Makes sense, I guess? Not going to complain if it means I can get something to eat!

Vess nodded towards the horse, and took a seat at one of the chairs in the kitchen, which in all fairness was way too low for him, so he wasn’t very comfortable.

With that the little equine creature trotted up to the front door, strapped a saddlebag on its back, and proceeded to go shopping for food, at least that’s what Vess hoped he would.

o.O.o

Alloy trotted quickly through the streets of Hoofington, which were now filled with many of its inhabitants. He shuddered a little as he walked. Winter hadn’t quite made its presence to the town yet, but he could still feel the morning chill hanging in the air.

He felt relieved that the creature seemed friendly enough, but clearly it was hungry, and well, so was he. So he had no choice but to leave it there in the meantime, he couldn’t in Celestia’s name ever bring that out in the open just like that. The less understanding ponies would freak out if they saw an unknown creature walking the streets, and he would most certainly have a messy situation on his hooves.

Obviously, the creature was intelligent, it had its own speech, but nothing that seemed to make sense. It was just gibberish to him, which only reinforced the issue that it couldn’t be allowed to go out alone.

Alloy pondered if there was any way for the creature to appear inconspicuous, it was fairly long, and kind of lanky, its appendages reminded him of that of a monkey.

The pony halted abruptly, why was he so eager to help this creature anyway? It given him quite the scare, eaten up all of his food, and not given anything back to him in return.

Then again, they had shared drinks together, and even though Alloy could sometimes be quite brass and crude, if you had shared a drink with somepony, you were practically buddies, at least that’s where Alloy’s moral fibres were.

Heh, maybe it’ll come back to me, in a karma sort of way, he thought, while he picked up the pace again. Alloy also considered to stop calling the creature ‘it’, since it most probably was male, it just felt right for the pony to do so.

Not very long thereafter he arrived at the market. He went up to the usual stands, where he knew he could get a fair deal, bits changed owners, and after visiting a bakery, he proceeded to return to his house.

On the way back, he looked towards one of his friend’s shop that now had recently opened, which was an antique store.

A thought crossed Alloy’s mind, who turned and made his way for the boutique.

o.O.o

Vess had gone back to lay on the sofa, the kitchen chair really not doing wonders for his back at all. He lazily played around with his magic, conjuring up a tiny ice shard, that he manipulated into different forms. It was good practice to be honest, and as long as he kept it simple, the two sources were kept in balance.

He abruptly stopped when he could hear the front door open up. Quickly, he dispelled the figure, sat up in the couch, eagerly awaiting the pony’s return, who hopefully carried food with him.

His wish were granted, as the yellow-coloured pony, which at closer inspection had a grey-ish tint in its coat, appeared. In his saddlebags, loaves of bread stuck out, and Vess could definitely smell some cheese in there as well.

Vess licked his lips at the prospect of food, he had worked up an appetite now that he had practised his magic.

Luckily, the horse didn’t see this, as it could probably given him the wrong idea, he trotted to the kitchen, with Vess in tow, and laid his saddlebag down on the kitchen table.

Vess wanted nothing else than to devour whatever was inside those bags, but he knew he had to play the humble guest, he was at the little horse’s mercy, in a way. So he gently sat down at a chair, and waited patiently.

The horse noticing his longing blick, rolled his eyes and pulled out some bread and cheese from the bags, and gave it to Vess.

Vess grinned widely, took out his skinning knife and proceeded to slice the bread, and the cheese up, cutting to a sizeable snack, and popped it into his mouth.

The freshly baked bread almost melted in his palate, the wonderful cheese tickled his taste buds. Soon there was nothing left of the delectable treat, and he patted his stomach, which seemed content, for now.

Then the grey-maned equine pulled something else out of his saddlebag, a pair of large horns, that he also placed on the table.

Vess eyed the stallion, peculiarly, and picked them up in his hands. He shrugged at the horse, not knowing what he should do with them.

The grey equine pointed first to his mark, then on the horns, lastly at what seemed to be Vess’ head.

Err, come again, he thought, looking confused.

The horse sighed, took the horns back, then motioned for Vess to follow. They both stopped at the fireplace, where the stallion grabbed a picture from the top of it, and gave it to Vess.

Looking at it, he could make out the grey horse, standing next to a large burly creature, with a bull’s face and horns sticking out of its head. It took awhile for it to click for the mage. The horse wanted to disguise him, possibly crafting a helmet of some sort that would look like he was a resemblance of the creature in the picture.

Vess frowned, would it actually fool the locals? It did seem by the horse’s intention, that the other inhabitants of the town, might not look at him with as much understanding as this one did, but could they really be fooled that easily?

Noticing his frown, the little horse pointed towards the mage’s hood, while making hoof- gestures of him putting it on.

Oh, make holes in the hood, and wear the horns under! he thought triumphantly, that’s so silly, it may actually work, and the hood could probably hide some of my facial features, well if it can give me some leeway through the town, who am I to complain?

He grinned towards the stallion and nodded in compliance.

The horse, relieved that he understood motioned for him to follow him once more, this time they arrived in the little horse’s workshop.

A metallic smell embraced the room, and Vess almost felt like he was back at his old village, where he used to watch the smith repair horseshoes. It was almost a little odd, that he horse this time, was the smith. Regardless, Vess pulled out a chair for himself, as the horse started the procedure of making him an improvised disguise.

o.O.o

Princess Celestia and her sister, Luna sat down in the sun goddess' chamber, the two rulers eyed one another, both with a worrying face.

They had both felt a slight disturbance in the magic veil that surrounded their world yesterday, but had shrugged it off as an overreaction, or plain stress. It wasn’t until they had conversed during breakfast, that they both had had the same foreboding feeling.

“So, dearest sister, what art thou thoughts? What is this intrusion that hast plagued our minds?” Luna asked.

Celestia only shook her head. “It was too vague for me to get a proper look at, dear sister. I’m not sure whatever could have caused us this uncomfort, but for some reason it felt familiar, and definitely not in a good way.”

Luna frowned to herself. “Mayhaps, tis’ merely superstition then, Tia. I for one, only felt it for a brief moment as well.

The sun goddess sighed. “I truly wish it would be only that, Lulu, yet I can’t shake it off as that, considering our past endeavours.

“Ah, yes. Our kingdom has certainly had its fair share of dark hours,” the moon goddess looked down in her teacup.

“Lulu, I didn’t mean it like that, you know that.”

“Yes, sister. I know. I have long forgiven you for your actions, as you have done with mine.” she said, slipping into a more casual way of speaking. “I agree with you on the point that the disturbance felt familiar, something even further back than the fall of our brother, Harmony.”

The sun goddess' eyes widened in fear “By any slight chance, do you think that-?” Celestia started.

“I-I cannot say, my hopes lies with it being untrue and false,” she said, as she quivered at the thought. “However, if it turns out to have a hint of truthfulness to it, Equestria, nay all of Equus, might heave with the torment of the consequences.”

Through the balcony in Celestia’s royal quarters, the chill of winter danced upon a roguish wind at its own desire. The sun and the moon goddesses worried that, outside of the castle walls, somewhere in the world, the first seed of evil might have been sowed, a seed that could easily shake the foundation of the land.

Author's Note:

Phew, this chapter was a bitch to edit. I hope the progress isn't too slow-paced. I really want to develop the characters before jumping into action.

Also, if there are some kind soul that would want to act as an editor, give me a holler.

//ZergPony

Comments

[Strat]

Woo minotaur disguise! This can't possibly backfire!

[Tome Turner]

Alloy's new name is oOooOOOo

[Nightmare Daniell61]

Hmmmm i only have two guys im editing for....i would be willing to help you OP :D

(sooo what do you say? you just have to give me a schedule so i can make due with school being a bitch...)

*waves at jjames*

~nightmare