Dwarves, as I know it. (ver. 1.1)
What is there to say about the dwarven race that isn’t already known? Most know they are a short race of humanoids around 4-5 feet tall. Most have a love of gold that is so great they would rather die than leave behind a single gold piece.
An odd thing about dwarves is the one with the longest beard is always looked to for what to do in a time of a crisis.
Being a race filled with fierce fighters and powerful miners the dwarves are widespread... underground at least. Defending their homes and clans from anything that would threaten them.
Dwarves have very few solder types and one is feared and respected more than any other. That type is the dwarven berserker. Stout warriors with thick builds and even thicker beards, they charge blindly ahead the front lines with axes or hammers overhead yelling obscenities and war cries.
A berserkers weapons are made differently, in place of sharpness they had durability. In place of practicality they had more durability. And in place of looks they had even more durability. Most dwarven berserker weapons looked like oddly shaped hunks of blunt steel. It was required though. A normal made weapon would crack and break after the 1st few blows.
A dwarven berserker wears little to no armor, it gets in the way after all, and no matter what hits him he doesn’t falter, pain and fear are completely banished from their minds, replaced by rage and fury instead. It is said the only way to kill a berserker lost in his rage and fury is to behead them. Broken and missing limbs only seems to increase their blood rage.
The one armed berserker Glenn Strongarm proved that point. He was famous for his skill with a 2 handed greataxe. When he lost an arm fighting against hordes of goblins and orcs, he simply picked up his greataxe with one hand and finished the fight.
He was lucky a dwarven healer saw it happen and quickly stopped the bleeding of his missing arm. The healer had a hard time telling him to hold still so he could stop the bleeding, Glenn wasn’t about to let the fact he was missing an arm stop him from defending his home and clansmen.
Respected for their battle powers and relentless assault, and feared for the same reason. No one wanted to be near the berserker on the battle field if he fell into the dreaded blood rage. Not many were washed away by the blood rage. Taught to ride and direct the rage or fury toward their enemies. The banning of enchanted armor with the berserker runes greatly reduced the number of friendly fire deaths.
But in the heat of battle one can lose himself. No longer distinguishing between friend or foe. Swinging only to keep the blood flowing, that is the blood rage.
And if there was one thing that all dwarves are famous for...
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A small group of miners had just broken a wall that led into what appeared to be a natural cave formation. Hoping they had broken into some kind of hidden vault, filled with gold and riches instead of goblins and orcs again.
They sent a runner back to fetch more torches and some fighters just in case.
“I dun like it in here Bob, It be far too warm. This might just be another volcanic lava tube...” the dwarf with the longest beard snorted
“Boy grow some more hair on your chin and toughen up. Even if it is a lava tube that just means gems or a gold vein should be nearby.” They walked a ways farther and saw a faint red glimmer in the distance.
“I hope that red glint is a ruby vein and not magma oozing in...” The dwarf named Bob ran over to the glint and began to dance in place
“We struck pay dirt lads! Lets get started!” The dwarfs began to dig away extracting the raw rubies from the wall and mining away other nearby walls in search of more.
After a time one miner spotted a blue glint in the distance, but this time what they found wasn’t more gems, but a stone gateway of some kind with two blue flames above it.
After a few hours the runner returned with torches, 3 fighters and a berserker. They were disappointed in the fact is was just a normal natural cave with only a few gems inside. But the odd inactive gateway gave rise to some questions. It had a light blue fire on both sides. Dwarves being unable to use magic were at a loss for what to do with it. Holy healing magic from their gods is a different story.
“Should we perhaps contact the humans? Maybe they could send a mage. Maybe it leads to a treasure trove!”
“If it does, I don’t want to share it with some crummy human, I say we figure this out our selves.” All the dwarves nodded in agreement. Clearly this gateway was dwarven make, it was crafted of stone. So there must be a way to activate it.
The small group of dwarves spent about an hour looking around it until they realized it had dwarven writing along the rim of the gateway. They weren’t exactly looking for writing, they figured it would have a lever or a button of some kind to turn it on. What they read was shocking, and disturbing to a dwarf. The dwarf Bob yelled in a rage
“It wants a Ruby or Emerald to power it self?! What kind of self respecting dwarf would make such an evil creation?!” the runner decided to speak up from the back
“Well we did find that vein of ruby, perhaps we should just toss one of the reject gems into it? Maybe it does lead to a treasure vault.”
The thought of a huge treasure trove for the price of a single flawed ruby seemed like an incredibly good deal. So after 20 minutes of hesitation they tossed a small red gem into the blue flame above. The flames turned red and the stone gateway began to shimmer a blood red color, and a layer of red filled the once empty space.
“Does anyone smell sulfur now?” before the other dwarves could answer a flaming whip shot out of the red gateway and hit a miner across the face. They all turned to face the portal and witnessed a huge demon step out holding the flaming whip and a flaming great sword at its side. Its muscled body and horned head just looked down at the dwarves in glee.
“BALROG!” The 3 fighters and berserker wasted no time and rushed at it. The runner turned tail and ran down the tunnel, hopefully to get reenforcements, and the miners just stared in awe.
“DON’T JUST STAND THERE! FIND AN EMERALD AND TOSS IT INTO THE RED FLAMES YA LAZY GITS! THE RED GATEWAY IS OBVIOUSLY HELL IT SELF!” Bob the dwarf with the longest beard shouted at the top of his lungs,
While the fighters kept it busy he and his fellow miners could work on changing the gateway before any more of those foul beasts could get through.
The 3 fighters made a semi circle around the Balrog while Glarin Ungard the Berserker fought it.
Glarin was your typical berserker, using two dwarven berserker made battle axes and a simple chain shirt.
He hadn’t done anything great like Glenn Strongarm yet, but perhaps he could get the title Balrog Slayer.
Glarin stood in front of the Balrog and could feel the heat emanate from it. He smiled and dropped his head down inhaling and exhaling rapidly. He grit his teeth, inhaled and looked up at the balrog, eyes filled with a rage.
Rage activated
“I’M GONNA TEAR OFF YER HEAD AND USE IT AS A PUPPET!” Glarin bull rushed at the Balrog and body slammed into him. The balrogs natural body heat began to sear his flesh and the creature just looked at him confused until an axe caught it off guard.
The Balrog jumped back in pain and lashed out with its greatsword. Glarin parried the blade away with his left axe and struck it with his right axe cracking the blade of the sword.
The balrog quickly retracted his sword before it could be broken and brought the whip up bringing it down with a loud snap around Glarin’s arm that he used to keep it from hitting his face.
The balrog smiled at the dwarfs foolishness and tried to pull it back, knocking him off guard. The Balrog was shocked to find himself being pulled instead. With a mighty tug the flaming whip was pulled bringing the balrog tumbling down on its face.
The demon of flame was mad now, if it couldn’t beat him it would simply have to dominate his mind. It began to cast the spell when one of the dwarven miners yelled out.
“I couldnt find a flawed Emerald! Do we really wanna use this to close the gate?” Bob wasted no time in taking it from him and tossed it into the red flame. It soon turned green along with the gateway entrance.
”KILL THAT BLASTED THING” The 3 fighters began to close in and Glarin rushed at the balrog once again, axes above his head as it tried to cast the spell.
The Balrog finished its spell and sent a shadow of its mind directly at the Berserking Dwarf. Time seemed to slow to a halt as the Balrogs shadow entered Glarins mind.
When it was inside it was face to face with a giant red dwarf foaming at the mouth. Its muscles rippled and flexed as it brought its fists up into the air and swung them down making a gust of wind that was soon followed by a vicious shout from the giant dwarf.
The Balrog yelled in frustration as it canceled the spell, only to find the dwarf flying at its face. The monster dodged backwards to keep its head from being split in half from the dwarfs rage fueled axe swing. The Balrog tumbled backward with the weight of the dwarf landing on his chest and they were both pushed through the gateway.
As they tumbled through the gateway, the flameing monster lashed its whip out in an attempt to keep itself from falling too far from the gateway. The whip wrapped itself around the top of the stone gateway, but they both proved too heavy and the gateway collapsed with Glarin on the wrong side...
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Fluttershy was in the Everfree forest because a family of bunnies had asked her for help. She wasn’t about to turn down a relative of her little Angel bunny. So she followed the little bunnies back to their home. Luckily it was just a simple cold they had gotten and Fluttershy gave them some herbs and a few other things to eat so that they would recover.
It wasn’t until she was about to leave when she heard shouting and the sounds of a fierce fight happening.
‘Was somepony being attacked by an animal?!’ she thought in a panic. She rushed over to where the sound was coming from and stopped, she hovered slightly in the air staring in shock and awe at what she saw.
On the right side stood a creature that was at lest 8 feet tall and looked to be made of flames. It kind of looked like a Minotaur except the legs weren’t as small, and it looked far more deadly than Iron Will ever had.
On the left side was a creature no taller than she was, it had a red mane that stood up in what was called a Mohawk she believed, not many ponies sported those. On its chin was a huge beard that had several braids in it.
The smaller one appeared to be severely injured as it was covered in burn marks and had blood dripping down its arms. Was that big flaming Minotaur hurting the smaller creature? Fluttershy opened her eyes in fear and disbelief as the smaller creature raised what looked like an axe in each hand over its head and began charging at the flaming Minotaur. She was even more surprised by what it said.
“DIE YOU FILTHY DEMON” The smaller creature leaped into the air at what she now knew as a demon, and landed upon its chest with both axes digging into the monsters collar bones. The monster yelled in pain and rage and ripped the small creature off its chest and blew flames from its mouth into his face.
The smaller creature didn’t even flitch at the flame or yell in pain, it simply reached down and ripped an axe from the balrogs collar bone. Then without hesitation lifted it up and brought it down upon the top of the monsters head ending the spout of flames. It collapsed to the ground and began turning into ash.
Fluttershy stood in horror at what she had just witnessed. She knew the flaming creature was a monster of some kind, but she didn’t know of any creature made of flame like that. The smaller creature stood back up, seeming to ignore the obvious 3rd degree burns all over its body. It picked up both of its axes and began to walk in a direction, only to stop and fall backwards.
What was she to do? She wanted to help the smaller creature, the urge to nurse it back to health was growing, and she couldn’t live with her self if she left it out here to die from its injuries. But what would happen if it attacked her when she tried to help?
Fluttershy gulped and slowly flew over to the smaller creature and hovered above it looking down. Her eyes began to fill with tears as she looked at its face, both the beard and hair she had seen before had been burned away and its face was nothing more than a giant blister with black scorch marks.
As her tears landed upon the small creatures face, it opened it's eyes...
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Glarin was having trouble opening his eyes and everything he saw was hazy, the fire had damaged his eyes for sure. He could feel a coolness landing upon his cheeks and what he saw was a yellow and pink blur with wings. He could hear crying and assumed the water landing upon his face to be the tears of some angel. If the red gate had lead into hell, than surely the green one was a heaven of sorts.
This angel must have seen him fight that Balrog demon, and was now mourning over his soon to happen death. Why that gateway led to the human gods and not dwarven ones was a mystery to him, but none the less. With a raspy voice he spoke
“Do not wet your eyes over my death pure of heart Angel. I die knowing I stopped that evil creature from harming anything in your realm.” He suddenly heard a gasp
“No...I don’t want you to die...” Glarin let out a raspy chuckle
“I never thought my death would bring tears to an angels eyes...” Glarin closed his eyes and before losing consciousness he could hear the word no repeated several times over until all was silent.
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Glarin opened his eyes in a state of shock to find himself covered head to toe in bandages. He felt around and saw that all his limbs were still attached and he even had a decent sized beard growing back already. He was glad the balrogs flame didn’t burn him so badly his hair wouldn’t grow back. The guys back home would think he was a short human woman if he couldn’t grow a beard.
He looked around the room he was in and noticed it seemed to be a decent sized home. Surprisingly the bed seemed to be made just for him. Surly this was that angels home and she had somehow healed him back to full health.
Must be some of that divine holy magic he heard those humans talk about so much. He briefly wondered how long he had been there to have this much hair grow back. When he turned to the left he noticed a yellow animal of some kind with wings laying in the bed next to him sound asleep. It reminded him of those Pack Horse's humans brought into the city for trading.
But it was smaller than he remembered, was he a giant in this place? Also it had wings, was it a mutant?
“So the angels have pet pack horses ehh?” What struck him as odd was this pack horse had the same color scheme that the angel had, with the yellow and pinks. Maybe they just like having their pets match them in colors?
Glarin shuffled himself out of the bed and tucked the blanket around the sleeping horse and walked around the room looking for something to wear. He couldn't find his pants, but his axes and chain shirt were on top of a nearby dresser.
After a moment he turned around to the sound of shuffling and saw the horse standing next to the bed looking right at him. He smiled and waved at it as he put on his chain shirt. When the chain shirt was around his head so he couldn’t see, he heard a soft feminine voice
“I’m so glad you’re awake, Twilight had come by and did her best with some healing spells, but they wouldn’t take very well for some reason. So we had little Daring cook up some healing ointments. You were asleep for 2 whole weeks...” Glarin finished bringing the chain shirt over his head and looked around the room. It was still him and the yellow mutant horse. ”...I had to funnel feed you soup as you slept to make sure you wouldn't starve. I’m sure you're famished though...” That’s when it hit him, the angel he thought he saw was a talking mutant pack horse. A talking pack horse with a wing mutation, or perhaps it was an angel horse, angels were supposed to have wings right?
“Hold up Lass, you’re saying you were one of the ones that helped heal me? Brought me back from the brink a death?” The angel horse nodded her head
“And you’re an angel horse right?” She looked at him confused.
"I’m not an angel or a horse, I’m just a Pegasus pony.”
"And a pony is...?"
"A small equine..."
"And an equine is...?"
"um...a pony, horse, zebra..." Glarin had no clue what a Zebra was, but he knew what a horse was. And ponies were just small horses? His idea of being a giant among angels was quickly being destroyed.
"So then, I'm not a giant?"
"um, well, I'm not sure... Are you supposed to be?" Glarin felt a pang in his chest. One of hurt and sadness, the kind of pain one feels when their hopes and dreams are stomped upon in a brutal and cruel fashion.
“Urgh, so then, you're a talking Pegasus pony?” She looked confused
“Don’t all ponies talk though?” That’s when it hit Glarin like a ton of rocks, he wasn’t on his own plane of existence anymore. He never heard of the humans talk about flying talking ponies before.
Sure when they got drunk in the beer hall they would spin wild tails, but never anything like this.
That blasted gateway took him someplace crazy with crazy talking ponies. But then again, maybe the humans had a thing for talking ponies and this was indeed a heaven.
“Not where I’m from lass...” Glarin used a hand to rub his forehead for a moment “Tell me Lass what’s your name?” The pony seemed to blush at the fact she had forgotten to introduce herself.
“Oh um, m-m-my name is f-f-fluttershy...” Glarin smiled at her sudden timidness
“Well for what its worth, thanks for saving my life. My name is Glarin, Berserker of the Ungard Clan. From what I remember it would seem the gateway that brought me here was destroyed and I’m stuck here for now.” Glarin put a hand to his chin and stroked his stubble for a bit then his stomach grumbled.
“Oh, of course you’re hungry! Follow me downstairs and I’ll get you something!” Glarin held up a hand
“1st things 1st lass, you know what happened to my pants? I would have to get those back before I get something to eat.” The timid pony nodded her head
“Oh yes, they are downstairs, follow me...you know, if you want too...” Glarin chuckled again
“I want to follow you lass, so lead the way.” Glarin followed her downstairs and saw all of the critters downstairs, they all stopped for a moment to stare at him, then went back to what ever they were doing.
Glarin saw his pants on the sofa with a furry white critter sitting on top of them. The white critter was all snuggled up cozy like.
“Oh Angel, our guest needs his pants back...” the furry white critter just looked up at the pony, yawned, then hopped off the pants without much of a fuss and went back to sleep. Glarin took his pants from the pony and put them on.
“I didn’t think Angel’s were so small, I thought they had wings too.”
“Oh no, Angel bunny isn’t an actual angel, that’s just his name.”
“Oh so that’s a bunny? I never seen one of them before.” Fluttershy tilted her head
“You’ve never seen a bunny before?”
“Nope, just heard about them, Dwarves live underground and rarely come above ground except to trade with the other races.”
“Oh um, well let me get you something to eat...” Glarin nodded his head and followed the pony to the kitchen.
Fluttershy went through her fridge and brought out a bunch of things. Apples, tomatoes, Pears, lettuce, Hay, eggs, bread, and even a muffin.
Glarin looked at all the food wide eyed and slowly picked up an apple.
“I never thought I would get the food of a king...” Fluttershy just looked at him confused
“What do you mean?” Fluttershy asked as Glarin greedily ate the apple letting the juice drip down his face.
“Normally food for the commoners like me is a mix of roots, grubs, Rock crabs, various rocks, and whatever else is left, or found, all mashed into a bland flavorless paste. Gruel we call it.” Glarin began to eat the tomatoes. He then looked at the bread in a bit of disgust, but when he picked it up had a confused look on his face.
“Why is this bread so soft? What kind of rock flour did you use?” now it was Fluttershys turn to look confused.
“Rock, flour?”
“Do you not use rock flour when you make your bread here?”
“We um, we use wheat flour...”
“Hmm, never heard of a wheat rock before. I’ll have to get me some of that. Anyway...” Glarin took a huge bite out of the bread and continued to speak with his mouth half full “...This food is normally reserved for the king and royals, bought from the human lands.” Fluttershy just dragged a hoof back and forth on the ground
“Oh I see...but this food is nothing special...” Glarin chuckled a bit
“Maybe not to you lass, but to me. This, This is far better than anything I have ever eaten in all my 300 years of life.” Glarin got to the hay and stuck it in his mouth and stopped for a moment “This reminds me of the tasteless gruel... what is it?”
“Oh that’s um... Hay...”
“Hay you say...” Glarin shrugged and continued to try and eat it, only to start choking as he tried to swallow it. Fluttershy went and got him a glass of water which he drank quickly to get the hay unstuck from his throat. When he finished choking he looked at the glass in a bit of confusion.
“What kind of clear ale was that lass? It was completely flavorless.” Fluttershy just looked at him in confusion again for like the 4th time that day.
“That was just water, and what’s, ale?” The dwarf just blinked and looked at her in his own state of confusion.
“Water as in...what you use to clean clothes and stuff? That’s drinkable?”
“Um... yes? But what is ale?” Glarin just looked at her some more
“Please tell me you have some kind of Ale? A Stout? Wine? I’ll even settle for a pint of that dribble the humans call beer.” Fluttershy just shook her head
“I’ve never heard of any of those before...” Glarin felt sick all of a sudden.
What kind of horrible place was this to not have alcohol? No wonder that gateway was abandoned. One led to hell and the other led to a world with not a drop of Ale to be found.
But which side was the bigger hell?
A side filled with fire and demons, constantly fighting for your own survival. Or this peaceful place... All the time in the world to drink, But not a single drop to drink. Both would be a dwarven hell, but this dry world seemed to be the worse of the two. At least the other one would end your misery after awhile.
Glarin fell to his knees and put his hands to his face
“No Ale...No pints...Only cleaning water to drink...I wish I would of taken that home brewing class now.” Fluttershy went over and put a hoof on his shoulder
“Oh... I’m sorry I didn’t mean to make you upset... Um, would it be ok for us to visit Twilight now? She would want to see you.” Glarin looked up at the yellow pony, she was giving him a soft smile
“Aye lass, I suppose we should, You said she was the other one who helped make me better again right?” Fluttershy nodded her head “Alright, so it would seem I owe my life to the two of you then, and the third one called Daring? Lead the way...” Fluttershy led him to the front door and they walked outside.
“This is a mighty big cave here...I can't see any walls...” Glarin looked at the trees then looked up “Where did the ceiling go?” Glarin’s eyes opened up in shock “We’re outside, above ground, aren’t we lass?”
“Um.. Yes, is that a problem? I remember you said your people lived underground...” Glarin shook his head.
“No its just... well you have wings, just make sure you catch me before I fall too far into the sky... I don’t wanna get lost up there.”
“Oh um... ok....” Fluttershy started walking next to Glarin to be sure she could catch him if he did start to float away.
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The walk through town was kind of awkward, all the ponies and griffins seemed to stare at the both of them. A small bipedal creature that was the same height as Fluttershy, except it was furless and obviously well muscled. The two axe looking things it carried over its shoulders were the cause of some alarm. If it wasn’t traveling next to Fluttershy the townspeople would assume they were under attack.
When they reached the library Fluttershy knocked on the door with Glarin standing behind her. A purple pony with a horn on top of her head and wings as well opened the door
“Hi Fluttershy what brings... its Awake!?”
“Um, yes Twilight, Glarin here woke up a little while ago... I thought it would be nice for him to meet the other pony that saved his life.” Glarin bowed in front of Twilight
“If I heard correctly, I’m to assume you were the one that used some of yer fancy healing magic on me. I thank you kindly for saving my life. Both of you...If you don’t mind, could I come inside?” Twilight was a bit stunned to see this small creature speak perfect Equestrian but quickly shook away her shock and let them inside.
“Oh um, let me get you some tea, I’ll be right back!” Twilight left to the kitchen and came back about 10 minutes later with some tea and set it upon a small table in the main room.
Glarin watched as the ponies horn began to glow with a purple aura along with the tray filled with stuff.
“Such a powerful display of magic! Are all ponies as adept at magic?” Twilight became flustered
“Well I, this is actually quite a simple technique, all unicorns can do it...” Twilight shook her head momentarily “... anyway tell us about your self, Fluttershy said she found you fighting some manner of fire Minotaur.” Before Glarin could get a taste of the tea he set the cup back down.
“That was no simple fiery Minotaur lass. It was a Balrog, surely you have heard of them before?” Twilight just shook her head and Glarin rubbed his small growing beard for a bit. “Well let me put it this way, a Balrog is nothing but an evil demon of fire that delights in the suffering of others.”
“What were you doing fighting such an evil monster?!” both ponies seemed to ask simultaneously, Glarin raised his eyebrow at the question.
“My job of course, some miners had found some old abandoned dwarven portal and we turned it on. Turns out 1 way led to the Balrog’s home plane, while the other led to this plane. That creature and I were fighting when we stumbled through. Then that blasted monster went and broke the gateway with its whip...” Glarin took a deep breath
“So you’re stuck here...forever?” Glarin just sighed and picked up his teacup again
“So it would seem that way lass...” Glarin took a sip of the tea and shuddered “Is this dirty water lass?” Twilight got a confused look on her face.
“No its tea, I admit I’m not very good at making tea...but I didn’t think it was that bad...” Glarin raised an eyebrow at the purple pony who now looked sad.
“Oh no Lass, I’m sure its wonderful tea... I’ve just never had any tea before... or heard about it until 2 minutes ago.”
“Then... what did you drink where you come from?”
“Dwarven Ale, or a dwarven stout.”
“Strange, I’ve never heard of Ale or stout before, I wonder if its some exotic drink...” Glarin just gave a hearty laugh that ended with a pout
“Don’t you worry your pretty little head over it lass, I suppose I will just have to make due with, water and tea...” Glarin gave a sigh and drank some more of the tea with a shudder. After which he made a low whine noise
“Um Glarin, do you remember anything after you finished fighting that demon?” Glarin thought for a moment and just shrugged.
“Can’t say that I do Lass, But I do remember having a dream where I protected some cute dwarven angels from some manner of shadow Warg’s. But that was probably just my mind going crazy from my near death.” Twilight and Fluttershy blushed a little for some reason, but Glarin didn’t seem to notice or care
“Well ok then, but I guess you have a few questions, so how about we trade a question for a question?” Glarin nodded his head, a trade of information for information seemed good.
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Glarin, Fluttershy and Twilight spoke in length with each other about the difference in cultures, Twilight learned a great deal about dwarves in general and Glarin learned a great deal about ponies in general and the pony lifestyle.
Glarin was greatly depressed that nothing of conflict ever really happened here except the odd bit of trouble, or some lost fillies in an ‘evil’ forest, but that hasn’t happened in a year or two now. The evil forest did intrigue him and could provide some entertainment if things got dull, Also the aggressive nature of the griffins seemed like a good way to pick a fight for some fun. But no killing, how would you know the winner of a duel?
“So your saying...Magic is common place around here?” Twilight just nodded her head.
“Well I guess it’s a good thing dwarves are resistant to magic then. Well, and a bad thing if your healing spells are arcane based and not holy...” Glarin shook his head and smiled “ You both saved my life, and for it I owe you a debt of which can never be repaid. So I offer my allegiance to you both.” Glarin took a low bow in front of both ponies who just looked at him with a bit of shock
“Well you don’t have to do that... I mean it's not needed...” Glarin shook his head
“I won't take No for an answer, I’m also making you honorary members of my Clan, if you ever need help just let me know. And um... You wouldn’t happen to have some kind of tether so I don’t float away when I fall up do you?” Twilight just shook her head with a light chuckle
“For the last time Glarin, you won't fall up, gravity doesn’t work that way.” Glarin just nodded his head
“Well if you say so Twilight. But if I start falling up, I just hope someone’s around to save me.” Twilight and Fluttershy just chuckled a bit at the dwarven superstition.
“So where are you going to stay Glarin?” Glarin rubbed his beard in thought again and just shrugged his shoulders.
“I don’t rightly know... That forest does seem like a decent place...” the door to the library opened and in walked a purple dragon that stood eye level with him followed by a small pink pony. Before Twilight could say anything Glarin shouted at the top of his lungs
“WYRMLING!” The purple dragon jumped up in fright and began to run out the front door as some strange bipedal creature rushed at him.
“TWILIGHT HEELP!” Twilight ran out the front door of her library to see Spike being chased in a circle outside, She then used her magic to amplify her voice
“STOP GLARIN!” Glarin tripped over his own feet at the loudness of her voice. He then began to float up into the air. Little did he know it was because of Twilight’s magic.
“Someone save me, I’m falling UP!” Glarin began to make swimming motions toward the ground while Twilight just sighed and chuckled at his panic.
“Glarin calm down! I’m just holding you in my magic, I don’t want you to attack my number one assistant.” Glarin froze for a moment and then realized he was indeed covered in a purple aura. He looked over to the smallish purple dragon and saw it was hiding behind his new clansmen Twilight.
“By Moradin’s beard, you tamed a wyrmling Twilight?!”
“I don’t know what a wyrmling is, but this is Spike, a baby...” Twilight quickly corrected herself and cleared her throat. “...I mean young dragon. He is my number one assistant, and I won't have you attacking him... Or anyone for that matter.” Twilight gently lowered Glarin to the ground and looked around to the ponies and griffins that had gathered around to see what all the screaming and shouting was about.
“Spike here is like a little brother to me...” Twilight nuzzled Spike. The townspeople seeing that whatever conflict seemed to be over, went back to their daily lives.
“I have made a mistake, Any friend or family of Twilight is a friend to my clan as well. The same goes too you Fluttershy.” Glarin nodded his head at Spike who just kept a watchful eye on him. Glarin looked over the pink pony who was thinner than a stick.
“Who’s this cute little pink lass? She the wymlings girlfriend?” The small pink pony suddenly had a look of rage on its face.
“I. Am. Not. Pink! Nor am I a Filly! And what are you supposed to be? Some hairless ape? What’s that short scruff on your face supposed to be? Dirt?” Twilight, Spike, and Fluttershy both dropped their mouths wide open, half expecting Glarin to fly into a rage and attack him, instead Glarin broke down almost into tears.
“It’s true, this short beard of mine. I’m like a human woman! Look at me! No hair on my head anywhere!” Daring was shocked himself, he didn’t realize what he said was that mean. He approached Glarin who sat on the floor moaning to himself.
“Hey, I-I didn’t mean it, really. I just get upset when I’m called pink. I’m really just light red. But being mistaken as a filly is a first really. But you aren’t a pony so its an honest mistake I guess.”
“Light red laddy?” Daring nodded his head.
“Yeah, we got off on the wrong hoof I suppose, Names Daring Star, what’s yours.” Glarin mumbled to himself for a bit.
“Daring? As in my 3rd savior who made some healing ointments?”
“Those were for you? Fluttershy had just asked me if I knew how to make anything for severe burns so I made ointments for her.”
“Well, Zecora didn’t have anything for severe burns, but I remember you getting that book from the nurse, so I thought, maybe...” Twilight shook her head
“Never mind all the details Fluttershy, lets get back inside now. We need to figure out where you’re going to stay Glarin.” Glarin just raised his eyebrow a bit.
“Stay?”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
After they all got settled back inside the Library they had a somewhat heated discussion on where Glarin was going to be staying. By a vote of 2v2v1, then a vote of 2v1v1v1 Glarin was going to stay with Daring until he could get a home built himself.
Glarin had insisted they just give him a shovel and pickaxe. He would just get to work on digging himself a home. It felt strange to not have any walls after all. But Twilight and Fluttershy insisted he just stay with one of them. Spike voted against letting him stay in the library and actually voted for him to stay with Fluttershy. Until Daring said he wanted him to stay at the farm, saying he could help out around the place and what not, so Spike switched his vote.
Glarin had to give up on his idea to just dig a new home as both mares refused to let him do as he pleased. With a sigh he agreed to stay at Daring’s home until he could get himself a proper home first.
With such a peaceful land he hoped he could find work with the local blacksmith. He may not of been a master smith, but he was a dwarf. He would be damned if some pony could out smith him. Metal work ran through a dwarfs blood, next to ale and pride.
Although with time, it would seem the ale in his blood would be replaced with water and tea. Hopefully it wouldn’t make him any weaker.
Never the less Glarin had decided to stick with Fluttershy for the rest of the day as she said something about going to the market. Twilight had other plans, something to do with sending a letter to her teacher. Daring had to head back to his home with Spike to tell them the news. Glarin shook his head and turned to look at Fluttershy who was just watching him as they walked toward the market.
“So Fluttershy, could we perhaps visit the local blacksmith? I was hoping to get some work, maybe even teach him a thing or two.” Fluttershy nodded
“Yes of course, I need to do some grocery shopping so I can keep my animals fed... The blacksmith is nearby anyway.” Glarin nodded his head and they continued along unhindered
Many of the ponies seemed to give them a wide berth as they walked by. The griffins didn't seem to care either way. Some would stare while others tried to act like nothing was wrong. Glarin didn’t mind or really notice for that matter. He was fixated on what the ponies and griffins used as currency.
He knew they used something called bits from what Twilight had told him, but he had no idea the bits were gold coins, He had assumed it was something a pony would want, like a sugar cube or something. He heard about how humans gave their horses and ponies sugar cubes and carrots as treats.
“I see you use gold coins as currency, do you use copper and silver as well?” Fluttershy just looked at him for a moment then shook her head.
“No, and our bits are no longer pure gold, they’re a mix of silver and gold...you know...” Glarin shook his head to say he didn’t know “oh well... I don’t actually know why they changed it... don’t be mad at me...” Glarin just chuckled
“I couldn’t get mad at you Fluttershy. It’s fine, I’ll probably figure it out later.” When they got to the 1st stall it was for tomatoes...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
After some well-done haggling and fondling of his axe handles along with some menacing glares when Fluttershy couldn’t see, she had filled up her saddle bags to the brim with food thanks to Glarin. Fluttershy couldn’t believe her luck with the shopping list this week. Glarin seemed to be really good at the haggle game, even if he did seem outraged at times.
She had heard him talk about the dwarven love of gold, but the way he haggled to save as many of her bits was a shock.
They were outside the local blacksmith now and away from the market. The Market had never been haggled in such a way before. It would need time for them to recover.
Glarin opened the door to the blacksmith and noticed how empty and unused everything looked.
“By Moradin’s beard, is this place abandoned ?!” At the sound of his shout, a black earth pony came out of the back.
“Well what brings...” he stopped momentarily to look at the small biped standing in his smithy next to the towns well-known animal caretaker Fluttershy. “Can I.. Help you?” Glarin snorted
“By the looks of this smithy it looks like you’re the one that needs help.” The black pony sighed
“I guess you could say that, I was never much of a Smith, but Ponyville really needs very little done besides the sharpening of kitchen knives or farm tools. I tend to get rusty from the lack of work.” Glarin just shook his head in disappointment
“Aye times ‘O peace can make a blacksmith rusty, unless of course, that Smith was a dwarf, or taught by one.” The black pony raised an eyebrow
“Am I to assume you are such a creature? A dwarf as you say?”
“The very same lass. Now, Let me show you the masterwork known as Dwarven Steel!”
Glarin had told Fluttershy to head on home, he would be fine, but he had to teach this smith some of the basics of dwarven craft work. He was no master smith, but he had learned enough to keep his own weapons and armor in top shape. He learned the ponies name to be Hammer Strike. Odd at that. And he also learned he was male, a Stallion. He kept forgetting ponies don’t grow beards, he had assumed the town was filled with females. They all sounded the same to him as well.
After a good 3 hours Glarin had the smithy up and running at full capacity once again. He had shown the pony the basics of dwarven craft work. Hammer was shocked to learn such techniques. How the steel had to be heated until it had a certain glow, then hit until that glow faded a few shades then heated again.
He had always thought you heated it as hot as possible and beat it until it became a dull grey color. Glarin had told him that will only make the steel weaker in the long run.
Glarin had convinced him to give him a few bits in exchange for his help around the smithy, and even more bits if he could continue to teach him dwarven smithing techniques.
Glarin was a bit troubled at 1st, handing out dwarven secrets, but shrugged when he realized he was stuck there for good. If he had a smith capable of fixing his stuff it was worth the risk.
He left the smithy a few bits richer. Holding gold in his hands felt good, even if it was tainted with silver. He hoped he could get even more as time went on, perhaps he could amass a nice pile. He was sure this world had gems, he just had to figure out where to get them...
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would love to see more of this man! i love Dwarves and i love MLP(obviously) so this is like perfect for me! also do i see alot of LOTR inspiration? any way brilliant job on the first chapter and i would love to see more!
3483622 yeah, the main base was LOTR, but I also looked up other dwarven Lore from other games and actual mythology. Also included the joke lore of them eating rocks.
lol Dwarven superstition that if the go above ground the fall upward to the sky
oh i hope he gets to taste Sweet Apple Cider
In your story synopsis you say "...Orcs and Goblins invade in mass..." which is slightly incorrect. You probably meant to say the french phrase en masse. People don't really say in mass and if your going to say the phrase in English it would be in a mass and even then its weird.
... At some level, I'm sad this story isn't more influanced by Dwarf Fortress.
Get rid of these:
1st, should be spelled out as first, and if your planning to spell the number two then at least do it by saying second
But, all in all, This chapter is somewhat read-able... Seriously tho. This chapter needs to be edited