I trudged along through the Everfree forest for some time, thinking about how I'd gotten in the position I'd been. It seemed like such a short time ago. Then again, being chained up for a millennium and a half tends to distort your perception of ti-
Just then it finally hit me.
Mom. Dad. Jenny. Hell even Richard, the ass.
I've been here for a thousand and a half years, if Discord's right. And he usually is.
Unless time flow is different between worlds...
And as I screamed my rage to the heavens, I remembered...
-----
(Dullahan POV – 1505 years ago)
“So, you're really into that Golden Sun game and whatnot, right?”
I glanced over at Richard from my DS after inputting the final command for the round. “Yeah?”
“So who would you say is the total badass in it?”
“Honestly?” I scratched my chin a bit as I thought. “I'ma have to go with Dullahan.”
“Cheh, yeah right. You always side with the villains.”
“No, Dully's not a villain. He shows up in the second game as an optional boss guarding the most powerful summon, with access to the second most powerful. He tends to gloriously slaughter unprepared parties. Even with all the cool shit in the game, you can't win unless you overlevel, or know what's coming.”
Surprisingly, Richard nodded. “Alright, and while that is pretty cool, that doesn't put him in the realm of total badass.”
I just smiled at him. “Oh yeah? Well, he also shows up in the THIRD game. Implying that either in the second game, the party wasn't supposed to kill him, or he doesn't let a little thing like dying get him down. Plus, set up the right party, you can summon him to do his signature move, which also tends to murder things in a glorious fashion.”
Richard was, needless to say, hooked. “Dude. That's awesome. I just got the greatest idea.”
I looked over at him from the game, inputting the commands to recover from the latest round. “Listening.”
“Right, so you know how Suzy throws bitchin' costume parties?”
My smile grew a bit. “Yeah, that last one was crazy.”
“What if you go as this Dullahan guy?”
I frowned instantly. “Where am I gonna get a suit of plate armor sans helmet, a shield as half as big as I am, and a sword like his?”
-----
(3rd POV – Celestia – Current day)
“My student, the danger Dullahan poses is nothing like Discord. Where Discord was content with changing the world to suit his whims, Dullahan is capable of bending the very forces of nature to his desires. I will teach you everything I know about fighting him, but even then, we will have to be prepar-”
An explosion rocked from the Everfree, and smoke billowed from it. The ponies could vaguely hear shouting coming from the forest.
“The forest! The animals! Who would do such a thing?”
Celestia sighed and lowered her head. “Dullahan tends to let his emotion get the better of him, and his magic responds in kind. I would say, right now, he is very angry.”
Dragon fume! Searing beam!
A long ribbon of fire leaped up from the aflame forest and crashed into a nearby field. A searing hot beam lanced from the treeline and made its way to Celestia, who put up a shield and waited for it to dissipate, though she did seem to strain a bit.
An armored bipedal figure wielding a sword seemingly made of crystal stalked out of the forest towards the gathered ponies.
Luna, who hadn't had time to leave yet, instantly rushed the figure.
Said figure responded by raising the sword to the sky.
It was then that the ponies noticed the figure was missing a helmet. And a head. Mostly because that was when it 'spoke' to them.
Oh, blow it out your ass, Luna! Mighty Guard!
The voice was deep and commanding. But it was what the sword did that caught the eyes of every pony but Luna.
The sword flashed red, and a similar red aura covered the figure before vanishing as quickly as it came.
Luna didn't notice or didn't care, and moved to strike the figure's right hand, the one that was clasping the sword.
The blow glanced off, and the sword came around and smacked into her side, sending her careening into the newly imprisoned Discord.
And before you get any ideas, Celly! Element Swap, Jupiter! Greater Ward!
The sword flashed purple, and a purple aura coated the figure and vanished just as swiftly, before the figure sheathed its sword.
Celestia merely stared at the figure. “Dullahan.”
Celly. I'm only going to ask this once. Where the fuck did you take my goddamned SHIELD?!
“Question for a question, Dullahan. How did you get out? The chains were meant to be unbreaking.”
Yeah well maybe if you were THERE to maintain them, or hadn't left me alone for a thousand and a half years, they might have been more inclined to hold me! Once Dissy gave me my sword, I had all the strength I needed to get free.
“I see. And to answer your question, your shield is in Canterlot, under heavy guard. It was one of the few relics we did take with us. We could not risk any other pony getting a hold of it.”
That's surprisingly smart of you. Nonetheless, I'll find it sooner or later. You'd best hope it's sooner. Now my other question that I have for you.
And at this the figure stalked up to the sun diarch and somehow growled.
Where. The fuck. Are my pets. WHERE ARE THE DJINN?!
At the sudden menacing sound, Luna stirred herself and pointed at the armored figure. “Cur! How didst thou stop what was previously an effective means of disarming thou and rendering thou harmless?”
The figure turned towards Luna and let out an amused chuckle. Somehow. Oh, so little miss moon is getting up? Well, if you thought that I was just going to let history repeat itself, you must have thought me a fool! I thought of that technique ages ago, and only just now got to use it! I'm glad to see it worked, though!
The figure turned back to Celestia and growled again. Question for a question, Celly. Where are my fucking Djinn? What the fuck did you do with them?!
Celestia flinched a little at the profanity and anger with which the words were projected. “I...I do not know...”
The figure snarled and reached out to grab Celestia by the neck. Her horn lit up and slung spell after spell at the figure, but they all bounced off it, each time letting off a purple flash. The ponies nearby all screamed for their princess, but the figure merely yelled at them.
STAY BACK, ALLA YA! Miss Sun here has a question to answer, otherwise things are gonna get reaaaaal dicey in here.
Gasping, Celestia managed to answer the figure again. “Dullahan, when we took your armaments, we saw four odd creatures, briefly, but in a span of seconds, they had disappeared. If those were your pets, your 'djinn', then they have been gone as long as you have.”
The figure growled at her and threw her to the ground. You expect me to believe that in all that time, you never once thought of looking for them, of hunting them down so that you could see what our relation was?
The figure drew its sword and pointed it at the sun diarch. I find that hard to believe, Celly. Element Swap, Mercury!
The sword flashed purple, then blue, and the figure continued. Maybe a cooler head will help you remember. Diamond Dust!
Instantly, winds whipped up, but these were no normal winds. These were cold, artic winds, carrying a hint of ice.
But soon it wasn't just a hint, and soon huge chunks of it were flying around, battering into ponies.
While they were all dealing with not gaining ice-induced head trauma, nopony noticed the huge figure walking off in the direction of Canterlot.
So all of the chapter titles are going to be head puns?
...
Alrighty then.
Awesome-sauce
Dullahan to do list:
Retrieve shield.
Retrieve Djinn.
Smack Celestia and Luna around.
Inform the sisters of an even greater possible threat than me.
This is gonna be fun.
3958959 Looks like it's heading that way.
Curbstooomp..
most excellent
Awesome, but I wonder when he's gonna give his warning to them?
Either way, he's definitely one badassed motherfucker.
Good job! :D
Alright, that was fucking awesome and I eagerly await the next chapter.
heads up!
Alright this is a fun read. I have never played the game but this is interesting
Those chapter titles… oh, lord… the author's a Pungeon Master… Ah, what the hell, Imma follow anyways!
huh. jumping on the bandwagon, are we?
img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120303232911/monstergirlquest/images/7/74/Dullahan_small.png
Not the same one, but the one I know best. I will have to read this story later on.
Pacing, too fast. What even is pacing?
Try to describe situation more... And perhaps separate the lines slightly more, more often?
And the orientation of the text is unusual compared to what I usually find on the website.
Other than that, I am interested. But could you perhaps add some information for people who have not played the games? Please, descripe Dullahan completely and in detail maybe?
I need details of his appearance.
Other than that, good work so far.
3961807
...You actually nailed it in the League story. Probably cause you pulled it from the picture.
3961815
Right, now how about scale? How tall is this guy?
3961829
Five and a half feet from boot to neck.
Very nice! I love how the story is. I would like to read more good sir. Faved and Liked.
GGRRrr
[Very interesting story, I have yet to read a story with a human as a BAD guy.]
GGRRrr
[Since your chapters were posted a day away from each other, I am going to assume you are going to update somewhat frequently.]
GGRRrr
[Can't wait to read more.]
3959011
Notice his to do list has saving the world at least priority and "getting his stuff back" at the top. It's pretty cool stuff, but saving the world seems more important. I guess he is just a bit... Head strong.
3963073
Yah, but ta be fair.
There's a very good reason he wants his stuff.
3963085
I'm pretty sure, I don't know anything about this guy or the game he is from but I can tell that his stuff is important, I just don't want to get aHEAD of myself. (Lol head jokes are fun right now) he seems HEAD strong, though I don't think Celestia and Luna have known him to stick his neck out for anyone... you kind of need a neck for that LOL
3959414 At the rate he's going he'll do it after he's regained his full power and defeated both the Princesses, and maybe the Elements.
Story about one of Golden Sun's biggest challenges?Djinn in Equestria? You have my attention good sir.
3963073 I'll be honest. I hate you for that pun right now. But then again, I suppose it's to be expected with the titles.
3963609
I got a million of them, but I don't think you want to hear them.
You know, I'd quit bothering with leaving comments if you'd stop deleting them.
What, did you expect absolutely no one would ever leave anything less than a positive comment? Well, how about this: if nothing else, the story has pretty good spelling and grammar, so at least the writing is fine. There's several words in all-caps (please don't use all-caps in a story), but that's not that big of a deal. The problem, as I've mentioned, is that so far this does nothing new. Every one of these stories seems to do the exact same thing, with the only thing changing being the character involved. I'm guessing the princesses overreacted to something and imprisoned him for a thousand years? Normally I wouldn't make such a big assumption, but considering how this is following the exact same route as the other fics like this, it wouldn't surprise me in the least. Not only that, but how is he still even sane after a thousand years as a statue?
I think my biggest issue with these stories is how they all involve the protagonist having been imprisoned over a thousand years ago, yet coming out fine. Not only that, but they involve the princesses going straight to the worst punishment they can come up with without considering anything else.
3963073 YOU...THAT PUN.
Anyhoo, this is great! Go on!
3964101 He shoots a lance of fire into town, sets the forest on fire, almost and freeze's Celestia's head.
I don't think he's sane.
3964101
See, look at that. Something with constructive criticism.
And yeah. They seem to follow the same formula. Agreed.
The one reason why I think he's fine, though, is that he's not exactly alive anymore...
huh, yeah, this is good. chapters are kinda short and don't make him an absolute villain.
Does Luna call everyone knave?
3968259 Only the knaves
He`s yelling out and broadcastimg his every move, hooray :/
I can see this as being a hate/hate/hate relationship.
Let's get Cadence in to provide some love.
4162461 Yeah lets. I wonder how he will meet Cadence.
4041557 that in line with such characters
I can just hear the RAGE IN HIS VOICE! It's glorious!
Pets, don't you mean friends? I mean, Djinn are sapient and all, plus they might not like that label as it were...
Also, I'd probably like to see the look on Celestia's face when he mentions the word "friends"....
3963073 NOPE!
heads up...
Huehuehuehuehuehuehue
But seriously though I like this already
Sleep (on a school day) at 12:37 AM < carry on reading
The flashback in this chapter isn't a prologue. It's part of a prologue, but I'm not giving this a thumbs up until there's a complete explanation of what the tartarus happened to bring about Frank's transformation into Dullahan.
Also, I'm glad to see our "protagonist" is no pushover. The Royals didn't really get anywhere in their efforts to disarm him... heh disarming sounds like it would be even worse for someone without a head...
Why did I never read this before? Golden Sun is like my favorite handheld duo of games of all time. Too bad Dark Dawn was so easy (combat-wise).
Loving the Dullahan stuff. "Oh, you have a sun Celestia? Well I have Megiddo!"
Save the djini!