An Epic for Gilgamesh

by zaleacon

Episode 4: A Diamond in the Rough

The storm came without any warning. Within mere instants of its arrival, rain poured from the sky with a kind of rage not seen in years, highlighted by crashing thunder, monstrous winds, and lightning that stabbed across the clouds, which left the sky pitch-black. Indeed, it was a storm unlike any seen in the confines of Ponyville for many years.

A figure stumbled across the dirt road, fur dripping and caked in dust and mud. Its movements were erratic, awkward, and pained as it slowly pushed itself through the rain, coughing all the while. Its claws were cracked and bloody, and its eyes were distant and unfocused, as if it had no specific target. But even then, in that case, it still had something that it knew it had to do, regardless of the outcome.

Images passed by it, mere figments of its goal: A sign, unreadable in the darkness, some houses, and lights that shimmered from the sides of the path like candles. Everything was in the back of its mind as it stumbled, as it dripped, as everything began to hang in the balance. It was so close to its goal, and it had been running for far too long.

The figure finally found the building that it had been seeking since its journey's start, and reached up to hit a single hand to rap against the door – only to find its consciousness fading away, and its body slamming into it instead as the world began to go dark.

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-- An Epic for Gilgamesh --

-- Episode 4: A Diamond in the Rough --

-- Written By ZaleAcon --

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Gilgamesh awoke to the sound of something slamming into his door. He let out a groan of irritation as he wrenched himself away from the floor and upward. Cracking his neck and shoulders to force them into losing their stiffness, Gilgamesh stepped over to the door and pulled it open.

"Took you long enough!" snapped the equine with the stupidly-colored mane, which now clung to the side of her head and dripped from the rain. "Sheesh… I've been knocking for the last ten minutes!"

Putting aside his grudge against her for the wretched injury imparted on his first day in the odd land, Gilgamesh said, "Indeed? My apologies for keeping you waiting for such a massive amount of time." He stifled a yawn in an effort to appear more ready. "What seems to be the problem, pray tell?"

The equine rolled her eyes, and shook her mane in order to keep it out of her face. "Ugh… why am I even bothering?" she muttered, and coughed. "Er… yeah, Twilight wanted me to get you. Said it was somethin' important, I think." She rubbed the back of her head, looked away, and nodded.

Gilgamesh stood tall, pulling the trident from its position beside the door. "Very well," he heroically declared, "then allow us to be off and give your ally the assistance that she requires!" He bounded out into the rain, taking a position beside the dangerous pegasus.

"Um… okay…?" she responded, cocking her head at his brilliant display. "Yeah, let's just get going before you, uh…" She rubbed the back of her head again. "Yeah… let's just go."

Without further ado, the rainbow-maned equine – Gilgamesh swore that was all he noticed about her, although he didn't quite remember her name from their first encounter. Technicolor Blast? Something like that – flew off into the distance, although her eyes were trained upon Gilgamesh and his massive, muscular frame. He could hardly blame her, of course; even in the freezing rain and crackling lightning, he would focus all of his energy on keeping such a dangerous and powerful adversary in check as well. Clearly she was more savvy than Gilgamesh had initially assumed her to be.

"Hey, are you gonna just stand there, or are you gonna move?!" came the telltale shout of the rainbow-maned equine. "We don't have all day, y'know!"

Gilgamesh rolled his eyes in a brilliant display of sarcasm, but nonetheless complied to her wishes and began to run down the path. The day prior had granted him with much in the way of learning his way around the so-called "Ponyville," allowing him to learn of the various locations that made up the town in between his bouts of playing the piano. Granted, he had various chances on his first day, but certain complications made that difficult.

"Okay, seriously! Stop staring off into space already!" she growled. She pushed her sopping mane out of her face.

Gilgamesh sighed and stepped forward, finally beginning to walk down the path after the equine. The rain fell quickly, but his helmet was able to keep his head dry. His torso and upper arms were not so lucky, and nor was the trident. Gilgamesh sincerely hoped that it would not begin to rust.

His footsteps were heavy on the dirt path, his feet leaving imprints on the now-muddy road that led towards the giant, extremely conspicuous tree that housed one Twilight Sparkle. Gilgamesh mentally scoffed at the absurdity of the name, and the names of every creature in the land. Vinyl Scratch? Octavia Melody? How could any parent be so cruel as to name their child something so much like what their eventual profession would have them become? None of it made much sense to him, but then again, who was he to judge the name of a creature? He had once served Exdeath, after all. Actually, did Exdeath name himself? Probably. Maybe.

Before he had enough time to question where what bizarre tunnel that train of thought had emerged from, Gilgamesh found himself standing in front of Twilight's not-very-humble abode: A massive tree that twisted off into the sky, and that somehow managed to stay alive despite its innards carved out of it. But that was another tangent that he could explore on a different day.

The rainbow-maned equine flew down to ground level, and opened the door without so much as knocking on it. "Hey, Twilight," she said casually, "I got Gilgamesh."

Gilgamesh stepped into the room behind her. He was contemplating whether or not he should have dried off his arms when Twilight interjected, "Great. Thanks, Rainbow. Hey –" she turned to him "– would you mind coming over here and taking a look at something for me?"

Gilgamesh grimaced and sighed, but complied nonetheless. How many times did Twilight need to awaken him early before her sadistic and evil heart would be satisfied? "Of course," he said instead, puffing out his chest. "Whatever can I grant you assistance on?"

"Could you come and take a look at this," Twilight repeated, gesturing to the chair next to her. "I… er, I'm not sure how to say this. I think it'd be best if you saw it for yourself." She stepped to the side, and Gilgamesh walked over to take a look at whatever she was referring to.

In the chair was a figure that looked extremely similar to a werewolf, but appeared far more feral. Its jaw was rather large, its eyes took up a good portion of its face, and it had blue-gray fur that covered its entire body. It was clad in a simple vest, and its large, clawed hands were covered in dirt and dried blood.

Gilgamesh stared at its unconscious form for several seconds, and turned back to Twilight. "And?" he finally asked, cocking his head slightly. "What is it that you want me to do here, exactly?"

Twilight flushed. "I-I just thought that… since you're the expert on hands, you could help us understand what happened to him!" She turned away and grimaced. "Well, there is Lyra, but she's kinda… um… yeah."

Ignoring that last statement of the creature called "Lyra" – Gilgamesh swore that she had to be a musician, too, given her name; if she wasn't, he would have been amazed – Gilgamesh continued. "Yes, but what does that have to do with anything? What about that dragon that you always carry around with you? His claws are far more like this creature's than my hands are!"

Twilight just sighed. "He's asleep right now, and I didn't want to wake him up."

"But it was alright to rob me blind of any chance of slumber I had?!"

"Spike's had some bad experiences with diamond dogs in the past, and… well… yeah. Besides," Twilight quickly added, not daring to meet Gilgamesh's narrowed eyes, "you seem more knowledgeable in how hands and claws work! I just wanted to find out why only his are so badly damaged."

Gilgamesh felt his eye twitch in annoyance, but again he complied. "Fine," he muttered, "just give me a few minutes, and I'll have you your results."

"Really? Great!" Twilight said, and she looked over at her friend. "Thank you for getting him here again, Rainbow. I have a few questions for you, too, if you don't mind."

Rainbow – Rainbow Dash, that was her name! – merely shrugged. "Sure. I don't mind."

Gilgamesh crouched down to look over the wounds, grimacing as he did so. He had very rarely seen such a mess of one's hands; it appeared to be less of a case of there being a single large wound, so much as many smaller cuts across the creature's flesh. As he wiped away the blood to get a closer look, he could hear Twilight and Rainbow Dash speak.

"So, they didn't tell you anything either?" Twilight asked. "Nothing at all?"

"No. They didn't say anything about a storm," Rainbow replied, her voice having a bit of an edge to it. "Ugh! I mean, the least they could've done is say something about all this! Nopony even had time to trim the trees or anything!"

Gilgamesh scraped the blood and dirt from the cuts, and further examined them. As he'd thought, there were many small wounds across the surface of the creature's hands, some of which were line with small rocks. Had it been digging for something?

"Still, they should've at least said something," Twilight pressed. "I mean, considering the size of this storm…"

"I know, I know! But they didn't, and that's what bugs me – no, that's what bugs all of us! Even the guys in charge of scheduling this storm seemed confused by it!" Rainbow huffed. "There was literally no warning about this thing coming!"

"Maybe it blew in from the Everfree Forest?"

Rainbow Dash scoffed. "Ha! I doubt it. Clouds from the Everfree don't enter this area, normally. They can't. Not unless they're pushed in, I mean, but nopony'd be that stupid."

Yes, there seemed to be residue of some kind around its cracked and broken claws. Underneath them was more mud, and even more tiny rocks. But under what circumstances, Gilgamesh wondered, would a creature dig so quickly? What had it been after?

"Well… do you think it could have been intentional, then?" Twilight asked.

"I doubt that, too. It'd take an army of pegasi to move that many clouds into position so quickly, and there'd be no point into doing something so complicated – if it was an attack, I mean. Yeah, I'll admit that they do look like they might've come from the Everfree, but still."

"But what about a unicorn?"

"Moving all those clouds?" Rainbow laughed. "Sorry, Twilight, but it'd take a genius to move all of those clouds like that… without proper planning, I mean, but who'd plan something like this out? Not to mention the effort a pony'd need to use just to do all of this…"

Twilight sighed. "Well, if it wasn't a pegasus, wasn't a unicorn, and wasn't by natural causes, then what could it be?"

"Can't say. I'm sorry, but I really don't know. The guys over at the weather institute are looking into it, but we won't know anything until then."

"I guess not."

Gilgamesh continued to look over the wounds. The blood could easily be explained, and the dirt under the claws could, as well. But the question still remained: Just what was the creature digging for so frantically?

"I have the results," he announced, and looked over at the two equines.

Twilight blinked. "Really? What happened?"

Gilgamesh nodded and stood up. "Well, it's not exactly conclusive, but… it looks like he was digging for something, but got his hands really cut up in the process. Oh," he added, "and it doesn't look like a simple attempt at digging, either; it seems really frantic, like he had to hurry."

Rainbow stepped over, and looked at the creature's claws as well. "Huh. It does look like that. And I've never seen a diamond dog in such rough shape, either…"

Gilgamesh said nothing at the species' name, but chose instead to continue on with his analysis. "Whatever happened, these wounds are still open. I'd advise that you clean these out and bandage them up as soon as you can. Otherwise, they might get infected."

Twilight nodded. "Right. I'll just… Wait a second, why do you seem to know so much about this stuff?"

Gilgamesh merely shrugged in reply. "When you spend as much time fighting as I do, you grow to learn that cleaning out a wound is a very important procedure. Too many battles can be lost when one of your hands is swollen up." He paused for a second and cringed at a particularly painful memory. "Ugh… And when I say too many, I mean 'one.'"

"I, uh…" Rainbow Dash murmured, her wings seeming to have been pulled in even closer than usual. "Um… I don't really know what to say to that, but…" She coughed, and cleared her throat. "Right so, uh… what now? You guys want me to wait, or…?"

"I think it'd be for the best if you both wait here until he wakes up," Twilight said. She looked outside and shuddered. "Yeah, that weather looks too dangerous, and I don't want to risk you getting hurt, Rainbow Dash. Oh, and, uh… and you too, Gilgamesh," she added as an afterthought.

Gilgamesh rolled his eyes in response. He wanted to bring up the fact that he had braved the storm, figuratively and literally, and looked over a creature's wounds just because Twilight asked him to, and that he had not even been thanked for it, but refused to do so. He was going to be the bigger man in all of this, no matter how much effort it would take him to do so.

"Very well," Gilgamesh said. "I have no qualms with waiting within this impossible building until this creature finally awakens. It cannot take too long, I would imagine."

"I certainly hope not," Twilight murmured, and looked over to the window. The sky outside was still pitch-black, with the only light coming from bolts of lightning that stabbed through it. "And hopefully the weather gets better soon… I'm getting worried about the others."

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. "Oh, I'm sure that they're all okay! Well" – she placed a hoof on her chin – "most of 'em, at least. I just hope that Fluttershy was able to get all of her animals to safety before the rain started…"

"Yeah, me too," Twilight admitted, and she looked over at Gilgamesh. "And what about you, Gilgamesh?"

He rolled his eyes in reply to Twilight's foolish comment. "Ha! I would not be so worried. Considering how dangerous the creatures of your little village appear to be, I would not fear for their safety!"

"'Dangerous?'" Rainbow asked. She blinked, and pressed a hoof to her forehead. "Please don't tell me that you're still annoyed about me running into you on your first day here…"

Gilgamesh merely gestured to the wound on his chest; its size had neither increased nor decreased, but the injury had become a disturbing shade of dark-blue. An eternal reminder of just how terrifyingly powerful the equines of Ponyville were, so he would always remember it as.

Rainbow Dash sighed. "Oh, c'mon! It was just an accid–"

"An accident? Ha! Accident or not, the facts still remain that you rammed into me at an immense speed without once bothering to change your trajectory!" Gilgamesh folded all of his arms, glaring at the equine as she brought back painful memories of two days past.

Rainbow Dash grit her teeth and flew up into the air, her wings moving in such a manner that she should not have been feasibly able to keep afloat, especially since there was no wind. Although she seemed to be saying something, Gilgamesh could not quite make it out, as he was far too busy questioning exactly how the wings worked. Was it some manner of magic? Perhaps the same kind that allowed them to "move clouds," as Rainbow Dash had claimed? And if it was, then what was the purpose of the wings? Perhaps they were merely some sort of decoration? But in that case, why would they flap as if they were actually flying like a bird? Maybe they actually were necessary to keep a pegasus in flight?

"Hey! Are you even listening to me?!" snapped Rainbow, bringing Gilgamesh back to reality. "Seriously, would you quit doing that? It's starting to creep me out…"

Gilgamesh blinked, and briefly contemplated on the strange tangents that he had recently embarked on. "Oh, my apologies," he said. "I dozed off somewhat, there."

Rainbow Dash's left eye started to twitch furiously. "Gh…"

Before any other words could be uttered, Twilight stepped in between them. "Hey, would you two stop this?! It's bad enough that the storm outside is so strong, but I don't want to have to deal with the two of you at each others' throats all night, okay?!"

Rainbow scoffed and turned away. "Yeah, yeah. Whatever."

Once more, Gilgamesh's reply was merely to roll his eyes in yet another display of sarcasm towards his newly-found rival. However, as she apparently did not see him – evidenced by the fact that her back was to him – Gilgamesh instead decided to let out a deep, dramatic sigh. He turned away from her so as not to have to face the impossible colors that made up her mane, focusing his gaze on the figure by the fireplace.

"Okay?" Twilight repeated, and she sighed. "Sheesh… It's not like it's gonna be a sleepover or anything; it's way too early for that. And besides, I'm sure that the weather'll clear up soon. The clouds can't hold that much rain, after all! … right?"

"I hope not," Rainbow Dash grumbled, turning back to Twilight. "I don't wanna have to spend any more time than necessary around… him."

Gilgamesh turned to look at her, his eyes narrowed into a glare. "Likewise. In fact, I would rather brave the storm than waste any further time here!" As if to accentuate the point, he began to bravely and heroically step towards the door, eyes set on the darkness outside. It was hard to believe that it was only ten in the morning, but that was not at the forefront of his mind. However, he stopped in front of it upon viewing the weather, and briefly contemplated whether or not he would want to go through the rain again. After reaching a conclusion, he sighed. "Never mind."

When he turned around, he could see Rainbow Dash's lips curl into a small smirk. "Yeah, even I wouldn't go out there."

That only tempted Gilgamesh even more. The worry of rust ruining his new trident was one of the only things keeping him from running outside at the moment. Actually, now that he thought about it, would rainwater actually do that much damage to something made out of metal? Because it was so controlled, would it have an immensely adverse affect on his trident?

"Um… Hello?" Gilgamesh was vaguely aware of a hoof being waved in front of his face. "Gilgamesh? Are you feeling alright?"

"Just ignore him, Twilight," muttered Rainbow Dash. "He's been doing this a lot today."

Gilgamesh blinked, and looked the two equines over. He hadn't had any problems with all of those random tangents beforehand in his life. At least not that he remembered. But here he was, questioning so many things about their world – dimension, maybe? He had been banished by Exdeath to the interdimensional rift, after all – and never had thought to ask any questions on the matter. Even if he could learn everything based on small snippets of dialogue that he caught between any two of them, several things still were unknown to him. Did that count as a tangent? Probably.

"Um…" he said eloquently, "I just realized that there is much that I do not know of your world… would you mind if I ask you any questions?"

Rainbow cocked her head slightly. "Questions? Wait… you mean you're not from around here?"

Twilight rubbed her temples. "Believe me, Rainbow," she said, "it's confusing to me, too… but from what I understand, Gilgamesh doesn't come from our universe… somehow." She lowered hooves, but then raised one up to her chin. "Huh, now that I think about it… I haven't really told you anything about here at all. And I don't think anypony else has, either…"

"No, unfortunately." Gilgamesh sighed, and leaned against the wall by the door. "I haven't had the chance to learn anything about here from any of you, really… besides the obvious facts. Unicorns use vaguely-described magic, pegasi can fly and move clouds, and the other equines – the ones without wings or horns – seem stronger. And like I just said, your magic doesn't make any sense."

"Our magic makes perfect sense!" Twilight said indignantly. "Levitation is levitation, teleportation is teleportation, and everything else functions just like you'd expect it to be used!"

"But there's almost no practicality to it!" Gilgamesh replied. "Levitation and teleportation I can understand, and I can even understand the uses of magic to move the sun and moon, and to control the weather; even my universe has magic like that. But the thing that annoys me is that there are so many spells that just don't make sense. There is a spell to craft mustaches! What is the purpose of something like that?! And I am probably safe to assume that that is hardly the only spell that doesn't make any sense!"

"Most of the magic here is used for professions," Twilight countered. "Even a spell that can make a mustache grow has a use around here, because it's part of a barber's job!"

Gilgamesh sighed. "Maybe," he admitted, "but the magic in my universe is entirely based around being useful and practical. The power to call down lightning at a moment's notice, to make an inferno rise up from the depths of the earth, to be able to call down meteorites, and to create tidal waves all have some purpose!"

Twilight stared at him for several seconds. "But our universe doesn't focus on fighting," she said, her voice suddenly calm. "There are some spells that are used to fight, but most of them are fairly mundane."

"Wait… how did you guess that–?"

"Every spell that you just listed was some kind of attack, right?" Twilight asked. "We don't have a use for the ability to summon tidal waves, or to bring down meteorites, or anything else like that save for research purposes." She grimaced. "Although I do wish that we'd learn more attack-based magic, considering the constant threats to Ponyville we get, it's not our main focus."

Gilgamesh let out yet another sigh, and sunk back into the wall. "Well, explain this to me," he said. "How is it that a giant tree that's been completely carved out is still growing?"

Twilight completely froze. If Gilgamesh did not know any better, he would have sworn that he'd somehow broken a sort of barrier with those few words, and completely confused the equine. "Well, that's…" she started, only to pause and place her hoof on her chin once more. "Huh, that's actually not a bad question. I think that it's because the tree is… uh… Wait, no, that makes no sense! Um, maybe it's… uh…" Her voice trailed off, and Twilight began to mutter about how the library was able to keep growing and producing leaves despite it being so cut up.

Under normal circumstances, Gilgamesh would have dismissed the thought, but the problem he had was not so much that the tree was still alive – after all, a tree could live for years even after a creature took up residence inside of it – but that it had obviously been completely cut to pieces and polluted so greatly. Then again, wasn't the Great Tree of Moore in a similar state? It was completely carved out, much like Twilight's house, and it was also a sort of host to the four crystals of his world. On the other hand, Gilgamesh was no botanist, so he could hardly claim to understand how trees worked.

"Wait, I think I get it," Twilight said, with sudden confidence. "Just because the tree's been cut out doesn't mean that it's dead. I mean, it is kinda weird how it still has all of its leaves in mid-Autumn, but that's not important, right? Well, since it's still alive, the tree can still produce leaves and get nutrients and everything like that."

"Huh, that's actually pretty fascinating," Gilgamesh replied, making a mental note of that for later.

Rainbow Dash had just been quietly observing their odd conversation, before she turned to the diamond dog in the chair. "Hey, wait a second… I think he's waking up!"

As if by an extremely contrived coincidence, the creature's eyes slowly opened, revealing their greenish-gray color to the world. He let out a low groan and rubbed his head, before he looked around for a moment. Suddenly, his eyes grew large, and he let out a gasp.

"What…?" the creature rasped, his voice sounding pained. "Ugh… just… where am I…? Wait… I think… I remember that…" He froze, and looked between all of the faces. "Wait… did you pull me… out of the… rain…?"

Twilight stepped over to him. "Yeah," she said, "you fell into my door earlier today… do you remember that at all?"

"Fell… into your door…?" The diamond dog placed a bloodied hand on his chin, before his eyes widened again. "Yes, I… I came… looking for… for you…" He broke out into a fit of coughing, seeming to choke on something.

"Hey, are you alright?" Twilight asked, sounding extremely concerned. "Are you sick?"

"Yes, I'm sorry…" He coughed again. "I just… needed… to find you… before it was… too late…"

Rainbow Dash flew over to him. "Too late? Too late for what?"

The creature's eyes met theirs, and he coughed once more. "C-cave in… at the mines… The rain… it eroded… the soil and the… rocks fell…" He fell into yet another coughing fit. "T-tried… t-to… help the others, b-but… claws broke on… the rocks… Others are… are trapped…"

Twilight's eyes widened in horror, and Rainbow Dash's wings instantly pulled back to her sides. Gilgamesh stepped over to the diamond dog. "Trapped? You mean in the mines?"

"Y-yes… I was lucky… but they… they're going to…!" He coughed again, hacking heavily into his bloody hand. "Dust… dust in my lungs, but… I-I should… b-be okay… But… the others… they'll suffocate…"

"Why did you come to me for help?" Twilight asked. "I mean, of all the ponies around here…?"

The diamond dog groaned, and struggled to his feet. "Ugh… I needed… magical help… You… were the… closest…" he rasped. "Sorry… I don't… want to… cause any t-trouble…"

Twilight grimaced, seeming to understand that she did not have much of a choice in what was to occur next. "Where are the mines?" she asked. "Or… what direction are they in?"

"You… you really are going t-to… help me…?" the diamond dog asked, his eyes widening once more, before he broke into yet another fit of coughing.

"Of course!" Rainbow Dash interjected. "We're not the kind of ponies to just leave creatures when they're having trouble with anything. Just tell us where those mines are, and let us worry about your friends!"

The creature's eyes began to water. "Th-thank you, but…" he groaned, still struggling to keep on his feet, "I… cannot just… make you all… g-go on y-your own… The mines are… h-hidden… and the e-entrance is completely… b-blocked…"

Gilgamesh blinked, and looked over the others. "Wait a second," he said. "Don't I get a say in this, or…?" He trailed off towards the end of that thought, his eyes having met Twilight's. She glared at him with a strange, cold kind of rage that he had only very rarely seen before, and kept her eyes interlocked with his own. After several seconds of having his soul pierced by Twilight's gaze, Gilgamesh muttered, "N-never mind."

"Great," Twilight said, suddenly with a great cheeriness, and turned back to the diamond dog. "We'll all be glad to help you with this." She extended a hoof. "I'm Twilight Sparkle."

"And I'm Rainbow Dash, the fastest flier in Equestria!" declared said pony.

"Gilgamesh," uttered the one who bore that most grand of names.

The diamond dog looked between the three and smiled slightly. He coughed once, and took Twilight's hoof. "My… n-name is Grant…" he rasped.

"Of course it is," Gilgamesh muttered, willfully attempting to ignore the obvious pun in an effort to preserve his sanity.

Twilight looked him over, and nodded. "Alright," she said. "I'm not exactly excited, since… um –" she gestured to the nearly impenetrable wall of pure darkness outside the door "– that. Are you sure you're alright to lead us in that weather? I don't want to risk anything, especially with your wounds still open…"

Grant gingerly touched one of his hands, and winced. "Ugh…" He coughed again, and said, "I should… b-be fine… J-just need to… to wash out the… w-wounds…"

"Really?" Rainbow Dash asked, cocking an eyebrow in disbelief. "'Cause you don't exactly sound like you're gonna be fine. Can't you just tell us where the entrance is, and let us take care of it?"

Gilgamesh nodded. "Going out into a storm of this magnitude with lungs as full of dust as yours would do naught to assist you," he declared. "You have already played your part in this, have you not? Much as I loathe entering the maelstrom, more so I would despise a creature to suffer more than necessary!"

Grant passed Twilight a look, and she shrugged. "Yeah… we don't understand him, either. But they're right; risking yourself any more than necessary would be too dangerous."

"Dangerous…?" Grant hacked, and he chuckled. It was an ugly, broken sound, followed by yet another fit of coughing. "Danger… is something th-that… we all have to… all h-have to f-face…!" He held up his left hand to his mouth, but was unable to stop another violent attack. "Ugh…! It… d-doesn't… matter anymore… I am the one… who t-tried t-to… t-to help them… and I… I am the o-only one… w-who kn-knows where the mine's entrance… is…!"

Rainbow Dash, Twilight, and Gilgamesh exchanged a glance, before Twilight looked over at Grant. "Um… fine, we'll take you with us. But you've got to promise that you won't do anything stupid, got it?"

"Right…" Grant replied, attempting to hold in another coughing fit. "I-I'll… do just that…"

Rainbow looked at him uneasily. "Yeah, uh… just how far away are the mines?"

"T-two miles… north of here… Th-they're in the m-mountains…"

Gilgamesh grimaced, and let out a deep and dramatic sigh. "Very well, then!" he proclaimed. "Allow us to seek out your comrades, and we shall pierce the stones that bind them in the darkness! Come, my friends, and let us journey into the abyss of despair!" He pulled the trident free of its bindings, and angled it upwards.

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah. You know big words. Now, can you actually talk like a normal pony… person… whatever you are? I mean, sheesh!" She deepened her voice, as if in a mockery of his own. "'Yea, allow us to traverse this most magnificent of mountains and scale the mighty–'" She stopped, and reverted her voice back to normal. "See what I mean?"

"You…! You would dare to mock my dialect?!"

Twilight pressed a hoof to her forehead. "Um… you guys…? I think that we have more important things to wo–"

"Nopony even talks like that!" Rainbow Dash said, interrupting Twilight. "You don't even talk like that ninety-percent of the time!"

Gilgamesh felt his eye begin to twitch. "I talk like that all the time! My vocabulary is verbose and powerful!"

"If by 'powerful' you mean 'from five-hundred years ago,' then you're doin' perfect," quipped Rainbow Dash.

Twilight took a single step forward. "Um… you guys…?"

"I am powerful! Far more so than you, at any rate."

Rainbow Dash flew straight up to him, her eyes boring into his. "What did you just say? You wanna say that again?!" she growled.

Gilgamesh glared directly into Rainbow's eyes, matching her efforts at intimidation. "I would be quite glad to do so! I, Gilgamesh, am far more powerful th–"

"You guys!" Twilight snapped, causing the two of them to jump in surprise. "You can argue about that later – actually, no, bad idea. But we have something that we need to do now, understand?!" She glared between the two of them, who now faced away from each other. "I said, understand?!"

"Fine, whatever," muttered Rainbow Dash.

Gilgamesh rolled his eyes. "Of course, though my point still stands firm."

"Good…" Twilight muttered, "now let's just go before Grant's friends have to suffer because you two can't get along."

She pulled the door open with her magic, and slammed it behind her after she'd exited. She was quickly followed by the others, including Grant – who, Gilgamesh realized, still had yet to wash out his wounds, and who seemed as if he was trying to keep himself from falling over with every step he took.

However, Gilgamesh said nothing on the matter. He was far too preoccupied with how all of the hurricane-esque clouds had been transported to Ponyville in the first place, and questioning just who had done so.

As the rain splattered around his feet, on his chest and back, and just on his general vicinity, Gilgamesh's thoughts on the matter only continued to be piqued. Actually, as he was thinking about it, how many questions had he thought of in that day? He certainly was very curious as to how the equine-based universe worked, and how so many odd things could happen in it. Even in his universe, the strangest thing to occur as a result of magic was… the crystals, now that he thought about it. Where had they come from, even, and how did they hold such magical power? And why did Exdeath long for them so badly? He had claimed something about using their energy to recapture the power of the rift, but Gilgamesh had not been given all of the information on the matter.

Gilgamesh grimaced, the reality of the rain, wind, and cold air coming back to him instantaneously. He really needed to stop going off on all of those odd tangents, no matter how much he longed for the knowledge. Then again, the only times that he ever had been able to focus entirely on a given subject was during either a battle – sometimes verbal, but more often physical – or any other interesting moment that he could think of, such as when practicing the piano.

However, he knew that paying attention at the moment would be in his best interest, with the area in front of him literally impossible to see were it not for Twilight's horn lighting up, so he decided that it would be best to simply listen in on the others' conversations.

"So," Gilgamesh heard Twilight say, "you seem pretty well-spoken, Grant."

Grant smiled, although it was somewhat creepy, given the low lighting. "Yes…" he rasped, and coughed. "I am… I am a m-merchant… so I h-had to t-teach… myself t-two languages… in order to… to make any fair s-sales…"

"A merchant?" he heard Rainbow Dash say. "Huh. Whaddaya sell?"

"Gemstones, m-mainly…" replied Grant. "B-because the sp-specialty… of… d-diamond dogs is… d-digging… I have to… h-have to m-make use of m-my…" He burst into yet another fit of coughing, and shivered as the rain dripped down his fur. "S-sorry…"

"Don't apologize," Twilight said, and she shivered as well. "Ugh… Yeah, don't worry about it. A merchant, though! Where do you sell your wares?"

Grant's smile fell a bit. "I… h-have not made… m-many sales… r-recently, at least…" He coughed. "I-I have… had t-trouble getting any s-sales f-for… for the past f-few months… Not m-many stalls a-are… are available… P-ponies don't… seem to want… a diamond dog… i-in their town…"

Rainbow Dash stepped over next to him. "What? That's ridiculous!" she said, but she placed a hoof on her chin. "Although… I guess that I can see where they're comin' from…"

Grant cocked his head. "Why would… th-that be…?"

Gilgamesh stepped closer to them; he wanted to hear the reason that such racism was present amongst the equines of Ponyville. Whatever the reason was, he imagined it to be nowhere near as bad as one might expect.

"Two years ago," Twilight said, "a friend of ours got kidnapped by a group of diamond dogs near Ponyville. And… well, let's just say that the townsponies aren't really the most forgiving when it comes to something like that…"

Rainbow Dash scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Funny that they were so quick to forgive when Spike went insane and kidnapped the same pony… and attacked several Wonderbolts, and destroyed a good portion of Ponyville, too."

"W-well," Twilight quickly added, "Spike's just a kid! He didn't really have any control over what happened to him…"

Gilgamesh smirked. "Please. When I was just a child, everyone in my village feared me! Age means nothing in a matter like that. If he caused more trouble and was forgiven very quickly, and the 'diamond dogs' caused trouble on a smaller scale and are still despised, wouldn't you consider that to be racism?"

Twilight fidgeted uncomfortably. "Um… can we change the topic?"

"Actually, no," said Rainbow Dash. "For once, I think I agree with Gilgamesh about something…" Her face twisted slightly as she realized what she had just said. "But… uh… y-yeah, he has a good point. I mean, even if we overlook the fact that diamond dogs literally enslaved Rarity, it's not really that fair that they still get such a bad rap when Spike could have killed dozens of others, and he got off without being charged with anything!"

"I… I guess not," Twilight admitted. "But… No, you're right… I'm sorry, Grant, I honestly didn't think tha–"

Grant rolled his eyes, and a small smirk appeared on his lips. "H-ha… Don't w-worry about it so much…" he rasped. "B-believe me… a l-lot of diamond d-dogs are j-just… complete… j-jerks…" He chuckled again, which quickly changed into another coughing fit. "M-most of the… o-ones I… kn-know are decent… b-but maybe it's… j-just th-them…"

"Good thing you don't have to send any more letters to Princess Celestia, eh, Twilight?" chuckled Rainbow Dash, before she changed her voice once more. "'Dear Princess Celestia: Today I learned that being racist is bad, and that we should accept ponies – er, creatures – based on how they act, not on how they look. Your Former Student, Princess Twilight Sparkle.'" She instantly burst out into laughter, and Gilgamesh could not tell whether she was literally crying with mirth or if it was just the rain that was dripping down her face.

Twilight flushed. "R-Rainbow!"

"What? It's funny!" Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes, attempting to get herself under control. "Besides, didn't we already learn this lesson with Zecora? I mean, you'd think that the ponies would've learned by this point."

Grant looked over the two, obviously suppressing yet another fit of coughing. "H-huh…? I d-don't… quite understand j-just… just wh-what you… are t-talking… about…"

Gilgamesh looked between the three figures, but decided not to question whatever they were speaking of. Under normal circumstances, he would have wanted to learn of this "Zecora," and likely have gone off on yet another strange tangent about what kind of creature he or she was. However, he had once again began to question the storm, as the cold atmosphere made him shiver.

It would have taken something powerful, Rainbow Dash had claimed, to move the clouds in such a manner, but what could hold such strength? It would have to be something immense. And why did he care so much? He may have been asking too many questions, now that he took the time to think about it. But what could have been responsible for the storm? Natural causes seemed an impossibility, given that the pegasi were the ones in charge of the clouds. In that case, it would take an army of pegasi, an individual of immense magical ability, or some combination thereof.

Gilgamesh placed a hand on his chin. "Or perhaps…" he mused, "I've been looking at this the wrong way since the start…"

Twilight looked back at him. "Huh? Hey, Gilgamesh, what are you talking about?"

Gilgamesh blinked, realizing that one of his tangents had escaped his mouth. "Oh, nothing," he lied. "It's merely something that I'm curious about. That's all." When she continued to stare at him, obviously unconvinced, Gilgamesh said, "Honestly, it's nothing of importance; just something that I'm thinking about."

Rainbow Dash smirked, and shook the water off of her mane. The obvious insult could be seen in her eyes, but neither she nor Gilgamesh said nothing.

Ignoring her rudeness, Gilgamesh replaced his hand on his chin. Magic in their universe would never be able to move so many clouds with such ease, but what about a good shot of Aeroga, or even just Aera? Wind magic such as those could easily cause a storm such as that to occur. Maybe. He was just going off on another random tangent, Gilgamesh was sure, and he was almost certain that he was incorrect; perhaps it was merely some freak accident, but again, he could not be sure.

Whatever the case was – whether it was an accident or on purpose – the fact did not change that the water from the rain had been the cause of the diamond dogs becoming trapped underground, and of the pain that Grant had gone through trying to dig them out of the mine. If it was from natural causes, then it could not be altered, but if it was done by a living being – which Gilgamesh sincerely doubted, given the oddly friendly nature of the ponies of the universe, and especially since everything was usually eye-searingly bright in color – then that would mean that it was likely some sort of attack or sabotage.

Just like the monster that had attacked the other night, no one knew just what it was, or where it came from. The only thing that any of them knew for a fact was that the accidents all began only shortly after Gilgamesh had been banished by Exdeath. What if he was the cause of the accidents, and what if his mere presence was what caused the anomalies to occur? It was a terrifying thought, fearing that the world was bending around you in such evident ways. He just hoped that that theory was not the case.

"Ah…" Grant's voice snapped him back to reality. "W-we… are here…"

Before the group stood a massive mountain, likely several-thousand feet tall. The wall of the mountain was covered in rocks and soil, which varied in size from massive boulders to mere pebbles, all of which were wet from the rain. The dust seemed to hang in the air, visible in the light produced by Twilight.

"Well," Rainbow Dash said, cracking her hooves, "let's get digging so that we can get outta this storm." She flew over to the large pile of stones, and started to kick at several. Because they were all so wet, many of them began to slide over each other with surprising ease, falling down and causing the pile to lower.

Twilight went to help as well, using her magic to lift several stones into the air and throw them behind her, taking the ones that Rainbow Dash was unable to move on her own.

Gilgamesh pulled the trident from his side, spun it for effect, and rushed at the pile. He placed the tips of the spear beneath the largest boulder that he could find, and catapulted them over his head. However, as he did so, the sound of snapping wood echoed throughout the area; the trident splintered, and the tip and shaft had completely separated from each other. Although enraged that such a thing had occurred, Gilgamesh simply threw the pieces of the broken weapon behind him and commenced lifting several stones using his eight arms.

However, the minutes passed and not a single one among them could see the entrance to the mine. Rainbow Dash began to groan whenever she bucked at a piece of rock, Twilight panted heavily and her horn began to shoot off sparks, and even the almighty Gilgamesh let out groans of frustration even as he tried to use all of his arms in order to clear the path. It appeared that their efforts would be futile, for no matter how hard they tried, the pile seemed to be just too large. The three of them simply did not have the energy to continue their crusade.

After several more minutes passed – although Gilgamesh was not sure how many, for he could not even think of anything to distract himself from the pain – Rainbow Dash collapsed onto the rocks, panting heavily in a mixture of pain and fatigue. "N… I can't do any more…" she groaned, her voice sounding broken up. "Just… just too many…"

An idea struck Gilgamesh in that moment, one that he would never have even considered beforehand. Although he was in considerable pain, he pointed downwards, sincerely hoping that one of the spells that he thought would never be necessary would actually have some sort of use. "Missile!" he declared, and watched as the titular magic weapon emerged from the aether surrounding him and crashed into the rocks. When the dust from the initial impact cleared away, several rocks had been reduced to rubble, but the entrance was still not exposed.

Gilgamesh was actually surprised that the thought had never come to him before, but was not about to complain. Shouting "Missile!" several times in succession at the top of his lungs, the rocks began to completely shatter into oblivion, until absolutely nothing remained of the place directly in front of the entrance except for various small pebbles.

Having caught her breath, Rainbow Dash stepped over to him, and looked down at the cleared area. "U-um…" she managed to sputter. "How did you even…?"

"Magic," replied Gilgamesh simply. "Magic… and missiles."

Twilight and Grant joined them, and both looked down at the area that had been cleared. "Well, I guess that's one way to do it," Twilight deadpanned. She stepped down the rocks, and looked into the depths of the cave. "Hey, wait… I think I can see them! Hey, Grant, are these your friends?"

Grant stepped down after her, followed by Gilgamesh and Rainbow Dash, and looked into the thin entrance to the mine. He squinted his eyes, and said, "Y-yes… I think that's…" His eyes suddenly widened, and he ran over to the others. "B-Basil…!" Grant gasped. "Rupert, a-and Diana…! Jet…! It's… I'm g-glad to s-see… th-that you're a-all… o-okay…!" He broke out into another fit of coughing.

Although Gilgamesh was trying his hardest to avoid slamming his palm into his forehead at the various and obvious puns that made up the names of the five diamond dogs, he could only find a strange warmth in his heart as the friends were reunited.

Grant turned, and gestured to them. "Th-these… are the ones who… who h-helped you… all…! T-Twilight Sparkle –" he gestured to her, and looked as if he was about to start coughing again "– Rainbow… D-Dash –" he gestured to her "– a-and… and the one wh-who… opened… th-the path to get to all of you… G-Gilgamesh…" He pointed to the swordsman in question, at which point Gilgamesh puffed out his chest with pride.

"It was no problem on my part," Gilgamesh replied. "I simply did what was necessary to help those in need."

Actually, now that he thought about it, why weren't the other diamond dogs all coughing like Grant had…? No, that wasn't important at the moment; that could be questioned later.

One of the diamond dogs, who had near-black fur, stepped up to him and smiled. "Thank you… for helping us," he said, although his language sounded extremely strained, such as him placing the accent on the wrong syllable in "helping." He continued, "We would have… died… if you… um… hadn't come."

"Again, it is not a problem in the slightest, for I am Gilgamesh!" he replied. "I am the most grand of swordsmen, of warriors, and the one who can destroy rock with ease!"

"And humble," he heard Rainbow Dash mutter from behind him.

Gilgamesh continued, ignoring her statement: "I protect those in need, and I shall do whatever is necessary in order to keep the lives of innocents from falling into disarray! And," he added regretfully, "I could not have done it alone." Loathe though he was to admit it, Gilgamesh could not deny that the others' help was completely necessary in helping the pun-based diamond dogs escape from what would have been a terrible end, and to pretend that was not the case would be to defy his own sense of honor.

Rainbow Dash blinked, and flew up beside him. "Wait a second… did you really just say…?!"

"I cannot deny the truth," Gilgamesh noted simply, and turned his gaze back to the four creatures that had almost suffocated. "It was only thanks to both Rainbow Dash, Twilight Sparkle, and Grant" – Gilgamesh felt his credibility as a warrior begin to vanish as soon as those pun-based names left his mouth – "that I came here in the first place; the three of them convinced me to come this far, and to help all of you."

Rainbow Dash and Twilight simply stared at him for several seconds, before the two of them glanced at each other. "Well… this is just, um…" Rainbow said. "I'm not sure what to say, actually."

Gilgamesh rolled his eyes. "Please," he said. "Do not act as if it is such a revelation when I merely listed a fact. All that I did was blow up the entrance to this mine, and nothing more than that." And go off on very strange tangents, but Gilgamesh had no plans to mention that part.

"Well… um…" Twilight stammered. "Th-thank you, I guess."

Grant nodded and smiled. "H-ha… A-and here I… w-was… c-convinced th-that… that you were… n-nothing but a b-braggart…!"

Gilgamesh grimaced, and turned away. "Oh, come, now! Me, a braggart? Absurd! But, that being said, I am a bit sad that my trident shattered beneath this mound of boulders, but I can always purchase another if I must."

"Wait," said the dark-colored diamond dog, prompting Gilgamesh to turn around. "You… said you were a… a warrior, right…? Use… swords…?"

He placed a hand on his chin, and cocked his head slightly. "Um… yes, I do. Why do you ask?"

The diamond dog stepped up to him, and handed him a long and thin bundle of cloth. "Here," he said. "Found it… in mine. Our thanks… for helping us."

Gilgamesh gingerly took the bundle. "Thank you," he said, and began to unwrap the cloth. As he pulled the last bit of the fabric away from the object in the center, Gilgamesh noticed the familiar steel of a sword's sheathe, and removed the blade that it held.

The weapon was certainly a double-bladed sword of some sort, but it appeared to be odd; the blade was made of a dark-blue and semitransparent substance, etched with various markings across its surface. Its hilt was a darker blue than the blade itself was, and had a thick grip. Looking over it, Gilgamesh estimated that the weapon was at least two feet in length, and four inches across.

"This is magnificent," he whispered, feeling a finger over its edge. "Sharp, too… Where did you find a grand weapon such as this?"

Grant stepped over to him and smiled. "It w-was… something th-that we found i-in… our s-searches a-awhile ago… B-but it's not… worth… m-much…" He coughed. "Y-you k-keep it… Gilgamesh… a-as o-our thanks… f-for everything…" He broke out into yet another fit of coughing, and turned to Rainbow Dash and Twilight, his smile instantly falling off of his face. "I-I'm s-sorry… that we d-don't have… much e-else to… g-give…"

Twilight shook her head and grinned. "Don't worry about it, Grant," she said. "We didn't do it for a reward or anything like that. We just wanted to help you guys out when you needed it."

"And… h-help us…" Grant rasped, before the smile reasserted itself, "y-you… you did…"

"Well, in that case," Rainbow Dash said, and she cracked her left foreleg, "let's get heading back t' Ponyville! I think the others're probably waiting."

"Probably," Twilight repeated, "especially since the rain looks like it's stopping."

Everyone in the room looked out into the distance, as the darkness began to give way to sunlight that slowly crept over the horizon. Gilgamesh instantly questioned the probability of such an event happening, especially just after their journey finished.

"Hey… l-look…!" Grant said. "Th-there's… a r-rainbow…!"

Of all of the cheesy, contrived, and ridiculous ways to end a massive storm… that was the only one that Gilgamesh had fully been expecting. And, for some reason, rather than feel annoyed at the sheer amount of coincidences in that universe, the feeling that he held was one of strange warmth and an odd happiness at the sight. But that was probably just because he didn't want to have to walk back to his new house in the rain and risk getting the new sword wet.

In any case, Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and he all bade farewell to Grant and his friends, and began back on the path towards Ponyville, watching as the afternoon sun appeared over the clouds.

---

Gilgamesh sat before the wooden behemoth, the night sky showing outside of his window. The small light above him pooled over the various papers, and he once again looked over the keys in an attempt to learn how to uncover the instrument's secrets. At last, after careful preparation, Gilgamesh placed two of his hands on the mandated keys shown before him, and began to play yet another scale.

Surprisingly, the result was not entirely terrible.

Gilgamesh sat back and cracked his fingers. It wasn't bad, maybe, but it certainly could use some improvement. So, with his new weapon laying beside his bed, Gilgamesh began to practice once more, eager to best his newest foe.

Author's Note:

Well, I managed to keep it to around two weeks, at the expense of my entire weekend, of course. I honestly had no idea what I was going to do when I came into this chapter; all that I knew I was going to do was beginning, ending, and a few other minor details. Some things even changed altogether throughout this chapter's production.

I had a lot of fun with Gilgamesh's "tangents," mostly because he seems like the kind of guy who would question everything around him that doesn't make a lot of sense. Plus it was enjoyable just to play around with his personality and to see just what goes on inside of his head.

Anyway, I hope to get the next chapter out soon, but I can't promise anything. Mostly because I only have a very vague premise, and not much else to work with, but I'll see what I can do. At the very latest, I'll try to get it out by the fifteenth, but, again, I'll make no promises.

Comments

[Tatsurou]

Well, I must say, I liked this chapter and the way FF magic interacts with Equestrian magic. I am now picturing Twilight trying to cast Missile.

[Chaos Nightmare]

What was the sword that he got?

[zaleacon]

3565564
I have plans to go over that in a later chapter.

[Cerulean Voice]

Great, now I feel like a complete idiot for not seeing how the Diamond Dogs' names are puns.

[SonicANIMEfan2013]

Now Gilgamesh has acquired "Broadsword" and Piano Skills leveled up

[ledezma25]

3580088 I still don't see it >.>