Freedom Gained and Freedom Lost
Crystal blue eyes flecked with tiny specks of brown scanned the impossibly large drop below. Content he breathed in thin mountain air. His legs dangled over the edge of one of the many gravity defying platforms that Aria’s cities rested on. Aria was a pure conundrum in its make. One major city made up of countless smaller vastly spread-out municipal cities; all of which wrapped around countless mountain peaks and faces. There was no reason for Aria to be built the way that it was. No history of war or other such danger that would suggest that building a city so disconnected was paramount. Yet here Aria stood flowing, dipping, and rolling across it's likewise named mountain range. If he looked behind him he would see the inhabitants of Aria going about their daily business. Men and woman, buying and selling goods while young children ran around the legs of the adults as they played in the busy streets of the city. He ran his hand through his long, messy black hair, as he got up and began to walk along the edge of the platform.
The young man smiled as he began to teeter off the four thousand meter drop, he felt a light breeze ripple through his mostly backless shirt. Then, with a joy filled scream, he jumped off the railing-less platform into the void below.
The rushing wind around him flung his hair back and billowed through his clothes as he continued to drop. For awhile he just let gravity do her magic as he tumbled helplessly through the clean air.
Then, with a quick spin he righted himself and went into a nosedive, and with his hair trailing behind his head, due to the force on his body, he began to count...
Three…
He could feel the moisture in his eyes dry up as the gale wrapped around his body. His light brown khakis and dark green shirt violently rippled around his body as he increased in speed.
Two…
All sound around him was drowned out. The air pressure around him tugged at his body as he fell to the bottom of the mountain pass. His ears have long since popped leaving a, although not unpleasant, heavy feeling whistling through them.
One…
He could make out the details of the forest that spread out around the base of the Aria.
‘Now!’ he yelled internally.
A black aura of magic suddenly encased him, covering him with a transformation spell that came to him and all humans more natural than breathing. He could feel the tension as his bones creaked, broke and formed painlessly as new muscle was shaped to cope with his transformation. The aura disappeared to reveal large black feathered wings that sprouted out of his back. They cracked open as the feathers caught the wind and propelled him up as he angled his dive out. With a few great beats of his wings he soared through the mountain range, and away from the mountain city.
With a shout of excitement, he began an aerial performance that only he could see. He stretched his wings wide and slanted himself down to do a wide loop in the sky, then brought himself swiftly up to break through a puffy cloud. The moisture fell off his well preened wings, keeping them light and dry as he continued to dance elegantly through the air.
He, himself, would never admit it to his friends but, that was what flying felt like to him. It was a breathtaking solo dance that allowed him to spin and twist throughout the great expanse that was the sky. Ahead of him, there was a small group of children racing each other on small wings that marked early adolescence. He did a large turn to avoid flying into them. He slowed down and he shouted greetings to the small group, but he did not stay long enough to actually talk to them. He nearly met the halfway point, and was not going to let anything get in the way of the first two week vacation he had in eight long months.
He finally broke through the rocky, mountain terrain that marked Aria and was gliding over the immense valley of Dyffryn. His dark figure flew past many of the small towns that were dotted along the lush green landscape. He began to beat his wings harder to get enough air to break through the cloud line again. This was because he knew the deeper he went into Dyffryn the more people would be flying through the air and the last thing he needed was to crash into a school of children…again.
“No one remembers that I saved all five of them from falling.” He muttered to himself. The fact that he single-handedly caused their sudden descent was not the most important part of that little misadventure, well, to him at least.
The children’s mothers on the other hand, were a different story.
Shaking his head of those painful memories he began to speed up again. When he made it through the valley, he spotted the foothills that marked the hidden city of Dissimulare. The foothills stood out to him like a beacon of light shining brightly through a darkened night.
He stopped beating his wings and stretched them out to their fullest length. He couldn’t keep the large grin off his face as he made his slow descent. Once he past the hills his right wing angled up in an almost lazy way, and he circled back to the large clearing that was in front of the foothills. With practiced ease he landed in the middle of the clearing which ended abruptly at the thick foliaged that was the Dividing Woods.
Once again his dark aura surrounded him and, with only a five second pause, the now wingless human began his walk to the base of the hills. He casually walked up to the hidden entrance at the base of the second largest hill. He then pushed past the magical barrier shielding the entrance from intruders and waved to the soldiers on guard. The black haired man then jogged through the large lobby that separated the doorway and staircase that led underground. Reaching the stairs he began to climb down the great staircase into the hidden underground city. Finally as he came to the end of the large stairway, he paused to look up to the massive, well lit cavern that was the first floor of Dissimulare.
The city was built fairly deep underground, and was divided into four large floors that held hundreds of platforms of varying sizes and heights. The only way to get from one floor to another was by the gates that sat between each floor.
The first floor was set aside strictly for agricultural and farming purposes. As Dissimulare is the largest city in both vastness and population size the first floor was also the largest floor in order to feed its inhabitants. The cavern was kept well lit with many small holes that dotted the sides of the hills and spread out into the surrounding area. A permanent shield spell intertwined with an amplifier, was cast over these holes in order to only allow sunlight and rain in. This spell also allowed for the sun and rain effects to be heightened in both intensity and distance that they cover. The name given to this floor was Fare for its greenery and its close location to the outside world.
The second floor, however, had little to no natural light; though it was still bright because of a larger permanent spell that was cast on the underside on the first floor. This was fine for the people on the second floor as it was a mishmash of residences, schools, markets and institutions. Therefore it had no real need for the natural light that was needed for growing crops. This floor was named Fusion for its chaotic and messily built nature. It is not uncommon to find a high school in the middle of a fish market, or a mansion attached to the side of a preschool with the residents of said manor having no relations to the preschool at all.
The third floor was originally just a wide spread of markets but the many people who had businesses there moved in to live on the top floors of their stores. This caused the third floor to be filled with residents as well. Houses were soon built to combat the growing families. There are hundreds of thousands of stores and markets on this floor, each with its own way of buying, selling and trading goods. As this floor is constantly filled with people coming and going at all hours of the day, and thick crowds, it was named Pulse.
The fourth floor was the second largest floor of Dissimulare, and also where most of the residences, schools, and all the factories lay. Made to combat the increased population and need for a higher education, the fourth floor also holds all of the higher colleges and universities that are in Dissimulare. In the middle of this floor, the first defence military of the human lands is held, as it was the first organized military that the humans made with their new found freedom. The F.M.D.D.H.L. (The First Military Defence Division of the Human Legion) was the pride of Dissimulare. As this floor of Dissimulare was made to be a shining example of what humans could accomplish when pushed to the brink, it was named Paragon.
Looking down at the Fare. The young man continued to run down the only stairway that connected the floors in the city together. Once he hit the first platform in the Fare he ran to the edge and with a new flash of black and green tinted magic he spread large green insect like wings and dived the rest of the way down. The air around him shook, leaving a strong gust of wind that rattled through the farm yards and orchards of the Fare. With a twitch to the left he shot through the long tunnel that was the first gate in Dissimulare and into Fusion. With one last nose dive he speed to the second last wall platform in Fusion, passing hundreds of thousands of humans living their lives in the safety of Dissimulare.
With a light flutter of his green pair of wings he landed on a ‘not so busy’ street of the second platform. His wings dropped into a resting position on his back as he jogged to his destination. Finally, after hours of flying he made it to the familiar wooden green door of a slightly lopsided house.
He had started to feel weak at the end of his journey. Conquering Wind’s reign, he couldn’t even summon his feathered wings for the last dive. However, seeing that green door with its claw marks, faded paint, and scorch marks, he felt as if the last hours of flying never occurred and with a tired smile he walked up to the door.
He raised his hand and knocked. Then he waited.
Behind the door he listened carefully to the light footsteps of the person inside walking up to the entrance. Then he patiently watched as the door knob turned.
As the door open he was greeted with the sight of an older woman in her early thirties. Her dark brown hair was almost black in colour and incredibly messy, with parts of it sticking up in odd places. To try to combat this she kept it in a ponytail which was tied off low with a light blue ribbon.
Her grey, brown flecked eyes widen in surprise and gradually filled with tears. She slowly put her hands up to her face as if in disbelief of the young man standing in front of her.
The young man smiled wide as he looked at the woman who he knew was seconds away from breaking down into tears.
She raised one of her hands as if to touch what she knew was a naturally pale face.
“Zachery?” She whispered.
He smiled widely at the woman in front of him, for the first time in eight long months.
With shining blue eyes Zachery answered back, “Hi mom, I’m home.”
“…and that’s why I now have the next two weeks off.” Zachery said as he brought his teacup to his mouth.
He had just spent the better half of an hour telling his mom about his time in Aria, and how he had came about his first long term vacation.
Finally after thousands of years of near constant surveillance, the seven divisions of Human Military Defence decided to let its militants have a break. This meant that soldiers that were sent over to other divisions for the Human Legions’ mandatory year long exchange program could visit their family and friends.
Once Zachery heard about this, he spent the two months before the break putting his things in order. He wanted to be sure that the minute that the vacation started he would be able to quickly leave.
Looking into her own cup his mother hummed lightly, swirling the tea around.
“What is it?”
“Its nothing… don’t worry about it, I’m just glad that you came home.”
“Mom you and I both know that I know you better than that,” flawed crystal blue looked into troubled grey, “please, tell me what’s wrong.”
She put her cup on their small coffee table and sighed, turning her full attention to him.
“It's just... is this really a good idea? Don’t look at me like that, you know I am glad you are home, but what if something happens? Won’t it take awhile to gather up the squads for a conflict?” She turned away from him to glance into her cup, “I know that this break will be great for the overworked soldiers, but…I just don’t think this is a very safe idea.”
She looked up as a sudden weight caused her to bounce a little on the couch. Turning to where the weight was placed, she watched as her eighteen year old son sat down heavily beside her.
“Don’t worry about things like that, there will still be many people, squads or whatever at the bases and patrolling around. Just, not as many. It’s perfectly safe,” he smiled wide as he relaxed in the worn couch, “anyway random subject change here, where’s Emma?”
Turning her head to the wall clock she replied, “She should be coming home in the next hour or so.”
“Hmm, that gives me enough time.” Zachery muttered to himself.
“It gives you enough time for what?”
In one quick fluid motion he got up and walked to the kitchen. “I would need to buy some peppers, asparagus; I don’t think we’re short on rice…”
“Zachery what are you doing?”
“Hey Mom, do we have salmon?”
Still confused and slightly mad at being cut off she replied, “No, I used the last of it a couple of nights ago, and will you stop cutting me off and tell me what is going through your head already?”
Turning on his heel he smiled at her exposing sharp canines, “Isn’t it obvious? I’m going to make my two favourite girls dinner.”
Shifting a large backpack to a more comfortable position, a young girl continued her long walk home. Straight, dark brown hair tied in high pigtails bounced along with each step after laboured step she took.
Emma hated her fifth grade teacher. How could someone who hates kids that much teach kids? It made no sense to her. It wasn’t her fault that those two ink jars exploded all over her teacher and the classroom.
Even if she was the one levitating them… outside of scheduled practice…over her teacher’s head… while spinning them rapidly…
Still, she didn’t need to give so much homework to her. It just wasn’t fair.
‘Who has the time to read ‘Magic and you: A children’s guide for proper magical use’ anyway?’ She thought angrily.
How the kids at recess treated her after didn’t help her mood either. That bully Michelle kept on following her around and making fun of her mistakes. Just because she had a little trouble at control didn’t mean that she was bad at magic. It just meant that she needed more practice.
“At least James and Logan helped me chase her off. I should have turned her hair green or something.” She said to herself darkly.
Finally after what felt like hours to her, she walked up to a familiar green door and angrily pushed it open with a little more force than necessary. She dropped off her bag at the base of the stairs and stomped into the kitchen to join her mother at the table.
Amused at her daughter's antics her mom, Jocelyn, asked an old question that many parents had ask their children throughout the ages.
“So, Emma, how was school?”
“Mom, it was horrible! I hate Mrs. Yuen and Michelle and homework and school and everyone in it, it’s so, so stupid!” Once Emma was done with her tirade she placed her head in her arms and slumped heavily on the table.
“Now, now Emma I’m sure it wasn’t so bad.”
“Moms right Em, you can’t let those kids get to you. Fifth grade was never that bad.”
Angrily Emma raised her head and glared at Zachery, staring at him dead in the eyes, “What do you know? Besides, school can be that bad.” With that, she put her head back on the table.
“Fifth grade is much harder than the military anyways Zach…,” she trailed off, at this particular moment realization dawned on her, “wait...”
With a sharp intake of breath she whipped her head in the direction where she heard Zachery’s voice.
There, standing clad in a light pink apron and wielding a spatula was her brother. He grinned down at her, messy black hair tied back to keep it out of his face and tired eyes just as bright as his smile.
“Hey Emmy, did ya miss me?”
Slamming her head into his chest, she wrapped her arms around him in a death grip. Light sobs rocked her body as he tried to hug her back without touching her with the greasy spatula.
Smiling at the display that was currently going on in her kitchen, their mother got up to set the plates.
Her mind was filled with the joy that can only come from seeing her two children safe and sound.
‘Finally, things are looking up.’ Jocelyn thought happily.
“…and that’s why that drill instructor in Basic hates my guts, and why I spent the better half of three and a half weeks scrubbing the sixth, eighth and tenth landing platform clean with a hand brush.”
After the little reunion in the kitchen was done they sat down for dinner. During this time Zachery filled them in on all the adventures he had in Aria, good and shockingly bad. His latest story left his mom and Emma staring at him with wide and disbelieving eyes as they tried to process what they had heard.
“Zachery, how in the seven great cities did you get enough used feathers and tar to pull that off?” His Mom asked him in shock.
“Forget that, where did you get a scarecrow made of glow in the dark wood anyways?” Emma asked eagerly.
“Same place I got the firecrackers that were filled with orange and black sugar.” The black haired teenager happily replied.
Zachery laughed at the look of horror on his mom’s face and the excitement on Emma’s, “You know what they’re calling it? ‘The Incident of Terror Night’. I can see why, you can still smell the candy corn in some places and on some people at basic.”
“Wow Zach. can you teach me how to do that?”
“No,” Jocelyn said coming back from the shock, “Zachery will not teach you how to do that, and if I hear anymore talk about teaching such nonsense I will have you both grounded, am I clear?”
“But mom…” Emma said, her lip sticking out in a cute pout.
“No buts, and Zachery,” she stopped to glare at her giggling son, “will you stop laughing. I don’t care how old you are, I can still ground you.”
He struggled against his laughter as his mother’s glare intensified, “I’m sorry it’s, been so long since I saw both of you, and we did something like this together. I can’t help it.”
Emma looked at her mom and started giggling; this brought her mom into giggles as well. Soon all of them were laughing at the obscenity of it, candy corn and all.
“How did you get caught?” Emma asked between snickers.
“Apparently the stuff they use to make the wood glow stains skin.”
After dinner, Zachery and Emma sat down in front of the television to watch the news, while their mother went to clean up dinner. Zachery, feeling guilty about the mess, had offered to clean up but she very quickly and painfully reminded him who exactly he and Emma had inherited their Wild Class magic from. So he now sat, watching the old TV, waiting for the four o’clock news to start.
“I don’t get it. Why are we watching this?” Emma said as she sat cross-legged on the floor of their living room, "Most of it is proper… propa…”
“It’s propaganda Em.” Zachery muttered helpfully.
“Right. Most of it is propaganda anyways.” Emma finished.
“Well I may be on break but I still want to know what’s going on in between the divisions," Zachery replied, "also I heard rumours that they’re going to begin work on making a new floor for Dissimulare.”
“What? A new floor hasn’t been made in forever!” She exclaimed excitedly as she stared at the T.V. with renewed and undivided attention.
Seconds after her exclamation the report started and the screen was quickly filled with random pictures of propaganda flickering on and off the display. Emma flinched at some of the images and Zachery could see why. There was a picture of a large pony, most likely a stallion, about to step on a bloody cloth wrapped bundle of what could only be a baby. Underneath the picture was a caption.
‘Will your family be safe from an invasion?’
He really did hate the violent propaganda that all the cities showed through their news broadcasts. Especially since no one has actually seen a pony in thousands of years. Even after the griffins gave them word of the tyrant king’s death and the rise of his daughters taking the throne.
‘They really need to stop showing these things,’ he thought, ‘all it’s doing is scaring the public.’
Once the morbid display ended the opening song for the Human Legacy News started up. Afterwards the screen was filled with a woman with a painfully large smile on her face grinning at the camera. Her red hair was tied into a tight bun, and her already pale skin was made almost white due to her make up.
“Welcome to HLN News, here to bring you all that’s new in Dissimulare and beyond. Weakening of the forces? The first long break in all the Free Human Legion’s military’s operations history, how will it affect you? We will bring you more about this exhilarating story at six.”
“Is that why your home so early?” Emma asked without turning from the television.
“Yeah,” Zachery replied while relaxing into the couch, “the Generals got together and agreed that being in a constant state of wartime was a little much for the forces. So we got a two week break, but don’t worry, there are still a lot of people at the bases who can’t be parted with their work.”
“Huh, well I guess that’s alright, as long as you’re sure it’s safe and that everyone put lots and lots of thought into this.”
“Of course I’m sure, when have I ever not put thought into what I do?”
“News has just broken,” a cheery voice brought both of their attention back to the T.V, “we bring you the topic of the day, reckless flying? Who is the blur that knocked off the young spring peaches in the Strong’s farm before they had time to ripen?”
‘What.’
Zachery began to sweat as the next picture on the screen was a black and green blur rapidly flying through Fare. The picture was then followed up with images of mostly green peaches littering the ground. After that the next image that came up was an interview with an angry young farmer, he glared irately at the camera, medium length, dirty blonde hair in a mess and dark brown eyes flashing. His large arm muscles were prominent through his red plaid shirt and his jeans were dirty and stained. His huge six foot frame took up the camera and dwarfed the interviewer next to him.
“Now ‘ah dun’ know who's the low down dirty varmint who gone an’ knocked off mah families peaches and scared our chickens,” his face change from annoyed neutral to a dangerous and pointed angry while large sharp canines were now visible to the world as his voice raised. The frightened interviewer beside him began slowly inching away, “but when I find him, I’m gonna take his lousy by the Three dammed neck an’..!”
Emma looked her brother in confusion as he had just jump in front of the T.V and quickly turned it off. When he got up to face her, his face was paler then usual and he had the fakest smile on his lips.
“I think that’s enough of that for today.” He said weakly.
Emma was by no means stupid so she immediately saw through his façade, her eyes widened as it dawn on her as she looked at his long black hair and nervously twitching light green wings.
“Zachery, what did you do?”
“Nothing.” He said much too quickly.
She looked back at the now black T.V and spoke carefully, “Was that Thomas?”
“I don’t know, maybe, hey do you want to play a board game?” Zachery asked changing the subject.
Emma looked back at her brother and sighed, “When he finds out that it was you who did this he’s going to come after you, you know that right?”
“Then as my last request, can I ask that we play a board game?” He said holding up a game ‘Dissimulare: Paragon Edition’.
“Sure, it’s not like I have anything to do anyways,” she said getting up to grab the game’s box, “but I want to play as the gear.”
Hours later Zachery opened his eyes to an empty living room.
‘What happened?’ Zachery thought, as he lifted his head to find out that there was a puddle of drool on a the board game he and his sister were playing, ‘I must have fallen asleep, I guess I did over do it with the flight in.’ He thought as he remembered his mad dash from Aria to Dissimulare.
He groaned as he got up and looked at the time. The clock read eight-fifty, “Damn it’s been that long?” He walked to one of the windows and looked up at the ‘sky’. Sure enough, the bright blue had long since gone and in its place was a dark reddish purple.
Sighing he lifted his arms and stretched, breathed in, and, taking a whiff of underarms, began to cough.
‘I need a shower.’ With that mental proclamation he then walked up the staircase and went straight into the small bathroom.
After a long warm shower and a change of clothes he walked back down the stairs. Just as he finished turning off the last light someone began to knock at door.
Freezing, he slowly turned around to face the door.
His mind wandered and he pictured the entire Strong family with Thomas on point ready to show their displeasure of losing their peaches by slowly breaking every bone in his body. He even pictured little Cathy standing there with a heavy two-by-four in her tiny grasp.
With a long suffering sigh he went to open the door. Zachery was never one to put off confrontation, unless it was a life or death situation, and he was pretty sure Thomas or his family members wouldn’t outright kill him.
Injuring him badly enough to leave him in a hospital bed for a week on the other hand…
He steeled himself for the punch to the face that he was sure that was going to come from the brick wall that was Thomas, then he swung open the front door and jumped back.
Only to be dragged back through the door frame by two strong arms.
“Thomas wait…!” His voice was cut off as his face was forcefully dragged down into a large chest, which he noted was way to soft to be Thomas's, as a very high pitch voice shrieked and threatened to break every window around them as he was smothered.
“By the Three, Zachy I missed you so much!”
“Mmmh..? Mmmmh..!”
“Dearest Elizabeth I believe that you should let go of Zachery before he suffocates.”
“Why is he always the lucky one?”
“Hush yourself you perverted street rat.”
Once his head was free of his confinements Zachery took in a large intake of breath, and turned to glare at his captivator.
Standing in front of him was a young woman slightly shorter than he was. Her hair was a startling platinum blonde that fell all the way down to her back. Her eyes were a dazzling shade of green that shone in the bright light of the street lights. Though the thing that stuck out the most was the size of her assets, which Zachery realized he spent the last minute face first in.
Coughing in his hand to hid his blush he awkwardly responded, “It’s good to see you too Izzy.”
“Oi! What’s about us,” complained a dark skin dark haired man, his long dark brown hair swayed as he glared at him, “come on! We haven't seen youse in months.”
“What Nico’s trying to articulate is that he has missed you and, as you are now back, wishes to start a loving relationship with you,” Short silky black blue hair was cut into long bangs that complimented a beautiful honey coloured face. She bowed, “I wish you both the very best in your endeavours.” She then took quick side step to the right, avoiding a hard blow to the head from Nico.
“Nico, Mayumi it’s good to see you both in so high spirits,” Zachery said, then added with a sheepish grin, “don’t take this the wrong way but why are you guys here so late?”
“Isn’t it obvious, youse comin’ with us to the club.” Nico replied while trying to get a few good hits on Mayumi.
“What, why?”
“It is your first day back and as your companions we wish to treat you.” Mayumi elegantly stated as she danced around Nico’s blows.
“Yeah so change those clothes and come with us, Thomas is already waiting for us. It’s going to be so fun.” Elizabeth said bubbly.
“I-I’m kind of tired from the trip here so…”
“That’s great, now youse can wakes up with some music.” Nico stated giving up his assault.
“Or Zachery, would you prefer for us to tell Thomas that he has left his farm during its time of crises, for nothing?” Mayumi said while checking her hair in a small hand mirror.
“Okay, okay I’m changing.” With that Zachery walked back into his house for a change of clothing and to leave a note for his mother to sigh at early the next morning.
Thomas wasn’t a very violent guy, but he did have some issues with controlling his anger when he got riled up. However, unlike most people with anger issues he knew he had problems and learned how to control his temper, step back and breathe. Sure he may lose himself from time to time but who doesn’t? The reason he strives to keep calm is because he knows how intimidating he can look. This fact was punctuated with the glances of unease his six foot form was getting from many of the people milling outside of the grocery store/club.
He really hated causing people concern, which is why he was currently filled with guilt about the interview he had earlier today. Determined not to get friends banned from their favourite club, he promised to himself that no matter what has happen to a large part of his family’s livelihood, he was not going to lose it again.
So he did nothing but smile kindly when his friends landed beside him.
His friendly front didn’t fade when realization hit him, as he saw the black and green form that was his absent friend walk hesitantly up to him.
He laughed along as Nico and Mayumi began bickering again as they entered the grocery store and made their way to the top floor where the club was.
Only when Elizabeth had went to find them an empty table and Nico and Mayumi where deep into their latest pointless argument did he turn to Zachery.
Putting his arm around Zach’s shoulder to keep up his illusion of friendliness to the club goers around them, he whispered in his ear. His voice was calm, steady, and filled with enough malice and venom to kill a fully grown hydra on the spot.
“Now ‘ah know ya’ were the one t’ knock off my farms peaches, but ‘ah want everybody t’ ‘ave a good time t’ night. That’s why I’m goin’ to let you go, but ‘ah wants t’ see ya’ bright and early at the farm tomorrow for some work,” at this point Thomas had a large part of Zachery's shoulder collarbone in an excruciating death grip, “or I’m going t’ drag your skinny arse out ya’ bed by ya’ hair so my brothers can see who cause our family to lose our east acre’s peaches. I’m ‘ah clear?”
“Crystal.” Zachery wheezed out.
“Good,” Thomas let go of Zachery only to give him a jarring ‘friendly’ pat on his back, his face mirroring pure happiness, “it’s good to ‘ave ya’ back buddy.”
No, Thomas wasn’t a violent man, but he refused to let anyone get away with hurting his family even if he had to negotiate a compromise with the use of a little force.
Once the five of them sat down at their table with their drinks, they began to talk through the loud, booming music of the club about the time they had spent apart.
“So, whiles youse were gone, I got myself a job in const’uction.”
“Really, where?” Zachery said looking at Nico.
“In the Fa’e, they need more space up there.”
“Dun yah know it, crops are gettin’ smaller every year.” Thomas said taking a sip of his drink.
“Nico, even an utter fool such as yourself should know the basics in manners, can you not see that dearest Thomas does not want to talk about such things?” Mayumi said with mock annoyance.
“Shove it yah freakin’ harpy, I was goin’ to ask how I can help him look for that rat. I knows a couples of, friends, that cans help put the little rat in his place.”
“So Izzy!” Zachery interrupted with an almost invisible sheen of sweat on his face, “What have you been up to during my transfer, anything new?”
“Oh,” Elizabeth said, a little caught off guard, “umm, nothing too big or important, just the usual things mostly. I went on a couple of dates, and started teaching part time at the Saga University in Paragon; you know the history and literacy based one.”
“What!” Four voices spoke up at the same time.
“Huh? Why are you all looking at me like that? Stop it please; it’s making me feel weird.”
“Dearest Elizabeth,” Mayumi began, “I pray that you do not believe I am being too forward but, when did you embark on a career in teaching at an University?”
“I told you I was going into teaching.”
“Ya’ said nothin’ about a University.” Nico interjected.
“Sorry I guess I forgot to tell you that, oh!” Izzy turned her green eyes to Thomas' brown unconsciously changing the subject, “I almost forgot to tell you! Your dad wanted me to give a message to you. He said that he wanted you to break two of the ribs of the person who ruined your families peaches for him,” she laughed nervously, slightly uncomfortable, “Thomas your dad can be scary when he’s mad, though I don’t think taking someone’s wings off with a potato peeler is the best way to solve things.”
“So! Izzy,” a painfully widely grinning Zachery chirped, drink firmly gripped in his hand, “what else did you do at the University?”
“Forget about the University, dates with who?”
“Just some guys like, um, I think his name was Conner ‘O Austin. It was kind of hard to get his name. He wouldn’t stop talking.” Elizabeth said while she remembered the date.
“The Vice Captain? That guy is famous! A really powerful guy like that s’posed to be rich.” Nico spoke, trying and failing to hide his worry.
“Yeah I guess but he only wanted to sleep with me, and he called me the rudest names when I didn’t let him touch me.”
“I’ll kills ‘im!” Nico barked while slamming his hand on their table.
“I don’t think that murder is the right way to go about things, but that does remind me of something that he said, Zachy.” Izzy turned her bright green eyes into Zachery's tainted crystal blue.
“Hmm?” He put down his drink as he found that he was once again the subject of attention. Slightly rotating his still sore shoulder and giving Thomas a pointed look he answered to her, “What is it Izzy?”
For a second she looked hesitant, then gathering her thoughts she spoke again in a hushed tone to keep any passerby’s from listening in.
“Do you… do you think it’s a good idea? For the seven divisions to let their guard down I mean. I know that there hasn’t been a sighting in thousands of years, but I can’t help but worry about something really bad happening.” She finished looking unsure of herself, green eyes clouded with worry.
Sighing Zachery combed his fingers through his long unruly black hair. He could slightly feel the stares that he was getting from his friends. Even Mayumi was looking at him with concern sparking through her coal eyes.
“Wow, you just like to put me on the spot don’t you?” He tried to joke, but his smile was met with determined and uncertain faces.
Changing tactics he went for the direct approach, “Look, guys, it’s been four thousand plus years since the last sighting. Even if those monsters still have any idea of where we went, we are less than legends to them. You know how they fully destroyed the bodies of the slaves who couldn’t get away in time. Even if a body wasn’t destroyed it’s long gone by now. Thousands of years of decay and all that,” Straightening his back he looked them dead in the eyes, “there is no way in hell that they can find us.”
Slowly the tension at the table began to be released as they relaxed at Zachery’s confident statement.
“Sorry, I guess I was worrying to much, but it’s hard not to worry when you sit in on some of the more ‘in depth’ history lectures at the university.” Elizabeth stated apologetically.
“Aw girly, youse got nothing to worry about, how about buy your next drink? Gets your mind off this stuff.” Nico said while smiling kindly at the platinum blond.
“Oh, Nico you don’t have to do that…”
“Nah, it’s okay, youse my friend”
“Well then as your friend can I bum a drink off of you?”
“Buzz off Zach.”
“Dearest Nico, as we are all companions here you should not mind paying a round for us all to enjoy.
“I’ll end your mis’able life!”
“See if they ‘ave any peach beer.”
“Oi, youse too?”
“Yep.”
The rest of the night was spent with the five of them drinking, trading stories, laughs, and making fools of themselves on the dance floor. The past hour’s unease was forgotten as they enjoyed each others drunken company.
Zachery watched as his closest friends get drunker and more unsteady as the night dragged out with mirth, but even though he was surrounded by the night’s enjoyment, some annoying phrases kept him from enjoying it fully as they ran through his head.
'…I guess that’s alright, as long as you’re sure it's safe…’
‘well I guess that’s alright, as long as you’re sure it's safe and that everyone put lots and lots of thought into this’
‘I can’t help but worry about something happening’
And, of course, the darkest thought of all that would weave itself between the others.
‘Will your family be safe from an invasion?’
Pulling out of darker thoughts, Zachery gave himself a mental shake.
‘What am I worrying about?’ he thought, ‘dinning said it’s been thousands of years. No one is going to find us here.’
Zachery took another sip from his drink as he watched Thomas and Nico get into a peach beer drinking contest from across the club. Izzy was drunkenly cheering the both of them on while Mayumi was making confusing movements on the dance floor that could be roughly classified as dancing.
Smiling one of his genuine smiles he quickly downed what was left in his cup, and began to stagger over to them to join in on their drunken debauchery.
‘We were safe in hiding for four thousand years and we will be safe for another four thousand, it’s impossible for anypony to find us.’ With that thought secure in his head he began to make the most of his first night back.
Far away in the land of Equestria in the little town of Ponyville, a certain purple alicorn was once again staying up late in the library of her tree house. Ever since she became an alicorn she became much more determined to learn all there was to the magic of friendship. So, she began to study more often and later into the night as her newfound alicorn powers cut away a large part of her normal fatigue.
Although like all things that live she became tired, and in her tiredness she lost control of her magic during what should’ve been a simple levitation spell.
This started a chain reaction, her uncontrolled bolt of magic slammed into a mirror then began rebounding off every reflective object in the tree house. As the bolt gained speed she dropped to the floor and covered her head with her hooves.
The bolt lit up the library in a purple glow and the noise from the energy woke up a young purple and green dragon that was sleeping peacefully in her room.
Luckily when the bolt eventually did hit an object it was one of the only empty spaces of wall in the library. Unluckily the charged shot broke through and left a large hole in her tree house wall.
Running down the stairs the young drake looked over the mess and called out for his caretaker.
“Twilight? Are you okay? What happened?”
“I’m alright Spike, it was just a slight misfiring.” She said while rubbing the back of her head.
Spike looked at the newly made head size hole in the bookshelf wall, “Ah Twilight you should see this.” He said one small claw pointing at the damage.
Ears falling down on her head and eyes going wide Twilight ran to the hole.
“Oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no! What did I do?”
“You mean other than punching a head size hole in the wall?”
“Spike this isn’t funny! What will Celestia say?” Twilight panicked, “I have to fix this!”
She put her head in the hole to assess the extent of the damage, Spike watched as she suddenly stiffened, not moving from her spot.
“Um Twilight are you okay?” Spike asked as the seconds ticked by and she stayed still.
Twilight slowly pulled her head from the hole her horn covered in a light purple glow. As she walked backward an old dusty book that was covered in the same purple glow came out of the newly made hole. Slowly she put the book on the ground and the glow faded away.
“Twilight why is there a book in the wall?”
“I don’t know Spike.”
Carefully she blew the dust off the cover revealing the words underneath that made the title.
‘Humans: The Lost Race of Equestria’
Reading the title over again Spike turn to Twilight and saw his confused look reflected in her face.
“Twilight what’s a Hu-man?”
“I don’t know Spike, but I intend to find out.”
And with that she opened to the first page of the old tome.
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Be there human magic?
Here it is, the first chapter of my first fanfic. As this is my first time doing something like this, I would like to have lots of constructive criticism about the first chapter. That means telling me what you don't like. Don't worry I'm Canadian I can take it. : )
PS. Referring to the question about human magic...
you just have to keep on reading if you want to find out. : )
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I want to update this story every month to give me the time to do all the editing/adding that's needed. So I'll say expect a new update in the next three weeks.
3659665 i die a little bit inside every time i have to read Nico's monologue
That spell needs a name. I am going to go with some sort of translation of "the god infuser" in referance to "god in the machine"
Anyone care to translate that? google translate doesn't always understand grammer
Nice start. Here's to hoping that zach is op enough
Murhpys law strikes again
I spotted at least two dozen spelling errors and grammatical errors such as this:
That should be 'happened'. I can understand if English is not your first language though.
Wow, I'm just starting this and there's a lot to cover. First, why 4000 years? How are they able to not only remember what happened, all that time ago, but also keep a sizable military force in that time; if no one has seen hide nor hair of a pony for that time. How did they escape? Ponies are described as monsters so why weren't they pursued. How come ponies don't remember humans but vice versa? So far I like your story. The Irish accent is 'ard to 'ead, and that character seems to have a lot of issues from a personality standpoint. What I'm trying to say I s that there story raises a ton of questions that need to be addressed and I hope to see what you do with it.
6404298 Well, I'd say it relates to the big events in mlp. Thuosand for NMM, thousand-ish or more for Discord and Sombra, and another thousand and change for the windigoes and Hearths Warming's eve. Sounded like a slave rebellion/escape, and you can build an exonomy around a military, so long as the things you spend the big bucks on don't get destroyed or lost, and you don't have to constantly train, arm, and supply thousand of new troops from battlefield losses.
Interesting story so far. I'll have to keep an eye on it.
Only a single connection point between entire city sections? That's just horrid design and logistics must be one hell of a pain.
Could do with an combing over, whilst nothing major pops out there are little things, some of them cause tense shifts. Missing "ed"s or having "s"s in their place causes bits to be in the present tense, and this can be off throwing.
Also of note, "it's" is used as a contraction for "it is," as a possessive it's spelled "its" without the apostrophe. I know this is a bit odd, since usually it's the other way around for words, but that's just how it goes.
On an unrelated topic: Sometimes I feel weird being one of the few preferring mechanical flight over having natural wings.
Give me a Bristol or de. Havilland any day.
cdn.airplane-pictures.net/images/uploaded-images/2011/4/30/133225.jpg
upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2b/De_Havilland_Dragon_Sywell_2006.jpg
Nothing beats the roar of a piston engine and the rip of a prop blade.
7924594
Eh. We are ok with either, Mechanical or biological. Though we do slightly lean towards biological.
That made no sense. Please fix.
3660943
To preface. This comment is mostly for new readers.
Nico's dialogue has been changed. I was going for a New York accent, and since I have never actually heard said accent in real life, I messed it up. It should be easier to read what he says.
I know I'm like super late to the party and all but I thought I'd check this story out. So far I like what I'm reading. I hope this story does not get to violent. *worried human noises
Now that's convenient