Equinox: A Tale of Harmony from behind the Elements

by Battle Damage

Finding Balance V: A Diamond Most Rough

One year, Seven months ago

We sat at the bar's counter, drinking water, and thinking, mourning our lost tribe. We stared at ourselves in the mirror image of the liquid life. We were about four and a half feet tall, had dark grey fur that was almost black, and wore a black leather jacket that covered the seventy seven black Neziac markers that covered our body, giving us the godly strengths of Nezorax, the Karmacin God of Angelics and Demonics. Along our forehead was a silver line that curved down towards the bridge of our nose. Under our jacket was a blue unicorn horn that we would use in our rituals On the back of our left paw were several more of the tattoos. The first was the symbols for 'avenge those who have died unjustly' and the second was 'send to Oblivion.'

We are a Shaman Priestess, the pathway for the gods' words, the would-be healer for our tribe... if we still had one. They had long been dead, and a Diamond Dog without its tribe was like a timber wolf without its pack, no use to any-dog.

Our tribe had crossed over the border when we were younger, just barely old enough to stand at the knee of the current tribes priest. We were one of the first Diamond Dog tribes to cross over the border and into Equestria. But our bad reputation preceded us everywhere we went. Every town and city already knew of us. We were politely turned away, or just outright chased. It wasn't until We found a clan of zebras who lived near a nameless town in a nameless desert and were willing to to trade with our tribe for what we needed. We lived a stable life for a time and both of our groups prospered. That is. . . until 'it' happened. It was nearly a year later. We were on our way back from a successful trade, when we noticed something was wrong. The earthy smell of our camps central bonfire was absent from the air, as was the sound of pups playing. It was as though our encampment had been muted by some unseen magical force. No such innocence, however. Put on edge, we made our way towards the camp. What we saw changed our life. There, in the center of the camp, stood a large group of unicorns. Scattered around them were the bodies of our entire tribe. Every female, male, pup, young and old, all of them, had been murdered.

We asked the group what had happened, crying tears such as we have not repeated since. They told us, their voices filled with hostility, that we weren't Equestrians, that we didn't belong in 'their' country, and so long as we remained, our fellow dogs would be hunted and killed. And that's when she, the dog we once were, snapped. We had drawn the Neziac symbols for 'kill' and 'suffer' and 'oblivion' on the ground in front of us. The group of unicorns simply stood there, dumbfounded as their bodies, their very souls, were eaten away. They slowly disappeared, their faces contorted into images of immense pain. And we sat there watching and smiling as their consciousnesses vanished, leaving nothing behind. No blood, no bones, even their souls were stripped from them and destroyed.

That had happened two weeks ago, and ever since we had been traveling, trying to find a place to stay. We were turned away everywhere we went. Some of the ponies were outright hostile and would chase us out of the town or city. Some were indifferent. But most were kind. They would let us stay for several days before asking us to leave, feeding us, nurturing us.

"Hey! I'm talking to you!" said a loud, gruff voice shaking us from our memories. Turning around, we found a unicorn stallion with light brown hair, hazel eyes, and a brown mane standing several feet behind us.

"We are sorry.This one did not hear you." we replied to the obviously drunk stallion.

"You're in my seat." the stallion said forcefully.

"We apologized. We meant no insult to your honor." we said as we slipped off the bar stool.

"Why can't you talk normally huh?" the stallion said as he purposefully bumped into us. Our eyes widened and we gasped. Nodog touched us. Nodog except our parents, and our predecessor shaman, was allowed to touch us. But they were dead. And so we would not be touched. Turning around, we grabbed the unicorn by his mane and slammed his head into the counter and then threw him into the wall. We weren't going to kill him. . . hopefully. We just wanted to teach him a lesson.

We ducked beneath the stallion as he tried to tackle us to the ground, and we kicked out and raked the bottom of his stomach and he screamed as our razor sharp claws cut into his more intimate parts.

"This one feels that the shadows should remove the sand from your soul."

"Ya'll have outstayed your welcome dog." the stallion said, holding his crotch as blood oozed through his hoof. As he said this a large group of stallions grabbed us by our forearms and hind legs. There were a group of twelve stallions that held us down and they kept our arms away from any object, which meant we couldn't draw any Neziac symbols to help us. Yes, we had our tattoos, but with twelve full grown stallions holding us down we couldn't write any symbols.

"Then this one will wait in the dark forests of solitude until the shadows call our true name." we replied.

"'and why do ya'll keep speaking in those damned riddles. Sweet Celestia, you're more annoying than a zebra." the stallion said as the others slowly carried us towards the bar door.

"The sand of this heated land has worked its way into the cracks of your soul and nodog shall remember when the shadows call your name." we said, almost on the verge of tears. Not because we were sad, no, it was because we couldn't fight back. They were touching us and we couldn't do anything about it. When they reached the bar doors, they shoved us through and we stumbled and fell. As quickly as we could, we darted for the closest shadow, letting its protective curtain fall over us. We couldn't look into the light. The sunlight hurt our eyes immensely. But it wasn't physical pain we felt... it was different, like something was trying to tear at our already broken mind. Closing our eyes, we let the Neziac tattoos on our eyelids guide us. Each tattoo granted us great powers, such as superior strength, skin akin to an oak, and many other things besides. But the tattoos were more than that. Each tattoo had its own gestalt consciousness comprised entirely of psychic energy. Which meant that all of them could talk.

Taking a deep breath and keeping our eyes shut, we stepped out of the shadows and into the light. We made our way towards the desert, relying on our hearing, smell, and the advice of our voices . Natural sight is of course impossible through closed eyes, but we didn't see in colors. We saw with an open mind. We saw good and evil.

We saw the evil that was hidden in the land of Equestria. Others only saw what they wanted to, what they were shown. They never looked deeper. They never looked for The Truth. And so we had decide to take it upon ourselves to rid this world of its injustices, so that our future pups could live without fear, without being the target of hatred.

As we walked through the town, almost all of the ponies gave us a wide berth, avoiding us as much as they could.

"SSSee how they avoid you. SSSee how they hate youuu..." whispered a hissing voice in the back of our head.

"They are like the leaves of the season of fallen leaves, they live briefly and then die. They know not what they miss."

"But you can sssshow them the True Path when they do not want to see? That you can make them sssee the error of their wayssss? Blind fool."

"But there is no harm in trying. You cannot blame them for the arrogance they have been raised with." said another voice, elderly and sophisticated in it's speech.

"You do realize that our host is on the edge of insanity as it is? Why antagonize her even more?" said yet another.

"Kitty!" we heard a voice call out from our surroundings. Shaking our head, we left the arguing voices to their own devices. We were sitting on the edge of the town and in front of us was the southern edge of the forest known as the Everfree. In our moment of insanity we had been carving Neziac symbols into the ground in front of us. Cocking our head to the right, we stared at the symbols. They read 'Show this one the way towards the path of-' followed by several words that we didn't recognize. The sun was setting and it was dark enough for us to open our eyes.

"Kitty." said the voice again. Turning around we saw a grey pegasus filly with a blond mane and golden eyes running towards us. Kitty was the filly's nickname for us and for the three days that we had been in the nameless town, we had formed a quick friendship with the filly named Gold Star. Mostly because we were both outcasts and that the filly found our way of speaking humorous.

"Little one, it is almost time for your shadow dreams. Why do you still walk with the wakeful?" we asked the filly.

"I just wanted to say goodbye."

"Then goodbye small one... and may the gods watch over you."

"I'll miss you." Gold Star said as she hugged our leg.

"This one will miss your company." we replied as we knelt down and hugged the filly. "But do not worry, this one will be back after the Mare in the Moon walks among us once again."

"I hope that's soon then." Gold Star said with a yawn as she let go and with one last look at us and then ran towards the town.

We began our journey elsewhere. but were swiftly halted by an uneasy presence. We were being watched. Not very well we might add.

"Those who hide with the shadows cannot shield their presence from one who lives in them. Reveal yourselves." we called out to the two ponies who were hiding in the trees. The first, a pony with white fur, a white mane, and red eyes, dropped from a tree on our right and the other, a pony with a silver mane, a white coat, and yellow eyes, landed clumsily on our left.

"Where's your tribe, shaman?" the one to the left asked respectfully, getting up from his clumsy fall.

"This one's tribe has gone to the spaces between spaces." we replied, slowly turning from side to side so we would know where each stood at any given moment.

"What's that supposed to mean?" the one to our right asked.

"They're dead idiot." the first one replied.

"So is this who we're looking for?"

"That's what the pri-... mother said."

"Then... uhm... if you would please come with us?" the second one asked us.

"This one does not see the need to travel with you." we told the two stallions that were making us nervous. We could not comprehend why, but they seemed strange.

"Don't worry. We just want to make sure you make it across the forest all right."

"Then we guess it would be acceptable to share this cursed night with you." we replied. As we turned away we saw another pony standing behind us. The mare had blue colored fur, a purple mane and tail, and bright green eyes. There was a sudden pain throughout our body.

"Welcome to Equinox." the mare said right. Then darkness.

Comments

[the silver-maned pony]

I like the premise. It's pretty interesting.
My only gripe is the grammar, but I digress.

[Battle Damage]

3579929 I completely agree about the grammar. I had written my chapter in the third person first... and then Ales said that he wanted the prologues to be in first person... after I finished.

[The Notebook]

3583743

You have done well. I myself have used "Mine" rather than "This one" but I'm absolutely loving your use of her.

[Battle Damage]

3584914 Glad you think so