Wisp

by Corsiva

Chapter 4

Hayseed Swamp; Underground - Breaking Dawn

"We don't bite, you know." Steadfast nearly whispers out, reserved to remaining unmoving otherwise save for his rather parched lips. Of a few moments silence renewed once more, he falls back on his namesake. "Wanted to thank you, however. For all that you've done for us."

Through subtle breathing does his ears pick up letting him know that which has been in silent observation, does so still from safe distance. Of much closer, does the light snoring of passed out from exhaustion mare send ripple to that of more delicate reception. Having awoken to dull ache of bone, but not agony like what felt of an eternity, he finds his own reluctance shriveling to the need of understanding.

"Little sis can be a bit of a pain as well, so for that I'd like to apologize." Steadfast continues onwards. "While drifting in and out I caught just enough of what was said to know things may have gotten a bit heated between you two? She's just used to ponies talking something nice even if they do something otherwise. So you're throwing her off a bit."

Of yet even more...

"To be quite honest, I was surprised and considered myself a bit closer to death than I had hoped." He lets off a bit of dry and irritated chuckle, "Only got a passing glimpse but I can tell you're something of an oddity? Even here, if I am to figure. Yet you know quite a bit?"

Pursuit continued even as light friction of soft steps tells him of an vacating audience.

"But betting you still don't know why we're here." He opens his eyes to the cease of receding movement. "And you still helped us. You could of walked away, and left us to our tormentors. You also could of left us to die after releasing us from their shackles, but you didn't."

"I need no one else to remind what is right and what is wrong, E'quus." Tall and lean gives reply in his usually flat tone, of voice that seems to demand something else entirely. "I have no yearning to be cruel nor the ability to erase memories that prove otherwise."

"So is that why you've been watching us for the past few hours in silence?" Steadfast cranes his neck to look up, sideways on his bedding, to that of now much clearer figure. "You know my mother always said it's best to talk about it when it's fresh and honest."

"I...may have been unnecessarily unpleasant onto your sister." Tall and slender begins to lean against hollowed out bedrock of his right side. "I believe she was just unfortunate enough to have been the first of your kind to make personal meeting with me."

"If the first, then why do you make such personal observations of our Princesses?" Steadfast asks without negativity, just genuine curiosity. "Not many a pony, if they were to hear you speak of them in such an manner, would remain as docile as my sister had."

"They are but just a part, but one nonetheless." He responds with just a bit more in his voice, "It is what it is."

"You don't seem to fancy the swamp any more than I." Steadfast makes idle, but cautious, observation.

"It is but a prison, of any hope to redemption swallowed like everything else."

"Can you not leave?"

"I could of left long ago." Tall and lean states with an inkling of disgust, "But I hesitated, and not even that is possible now."

"But why wouldn't you try and go home, if this is not there?"

"Home must be something one can still find claim." Tall and lean sighs with the shake of his head. "You wouldn't understand."

"Cloudsdale." Steadfast edges out before coughing a bit, "I can see it. I can even visit. Hay, I was born there. But I cannot live there."

"But did you get to choose, E'quus?" His voice a bit more stern as he begins to walk closer. "To forsake through one's own actions or decisions is of one thing that reflection can give closure. Of which, I was simply not granted the consideration."

"My little sis, regardless of even the most expensive accommodations, cannot live in Cloudsdale any longer." Steadfast continues, "You see Cloudsdale is made of clouds, and through birthright do only pegasi get to call it home. We live in Canterlot now, have been for years."

"Then you have family." Tall and lean comes close enough to need to crouch in order to be comfortable in conversation.

"Yes, I have family."

"Then you always have a home."

"...yeah I do, I guess." Steadfast drifts into silence to contemplations of innuendos. Shifting to and fro, he wiggles a bit under nerves rattled anew to the thought of having actually been lead when having intended otherwise. "And I know if lost, they would search for me."

"You presume much, E'quus." He softly mentions with heavier sigh.

"You do not think that they would come to your rescue?"

"After such a time, I should hope not." Tall and lean tilts his head, "To do so still would not bode well for their health, nor would my mother's culture support such denials." His eyes traveling back to severed pegasi wing bone, "Some things are too obvious to ignore."

"Is... that how you were maimed?" Steadfast goes tit for tat with his own stare.

"Ah.." Tall and lean lifts but the stub mid bicep down, "Consequence to a conscience, I'm afraid. But not of how I got here."

"Then how did you get here?"

"I was, for better a word, an explorer of things best left to the passing squabble of drunkards and the like. It wasn't of noble cause, like that of my elder siblings, much to the disdain of my mother." He moves his gaze back into that of the stallion's own. "She would always mumble against the influence of her late husband, my father mind you, of how I, like him, always kept my eyes to the ground and not forward.

"Suffice to say many wishing to be left alone often went deep aground, and not many of my mother's ears favored the dirty work needed to explore that far down." Lifting his right arm to let his hand rub the sides of his chin, "Well, that and their darker cousins, of course."

"Darker cousins?"

"Ah, one of three against the mold." Only to crack a smile, "You know I would have been incarcerated back home for saying that?" Finally letting his arm drop in relaxed over knee rest. "You have three kinds. The Highborn, Woodland, and Drow. My mother was Highborn, and of strict doctrine the choices to move forward in their society is straight and narrow. But I'm an half breed so most doors never opened."

"I'm not sure that I'm..." Steadfast scrunches his brow, "...you shouldn't ever call yourself that."

"Of such stigma, do I take the utmost pride." He responds with just the hint of intolerance to well intended scolding, "Once more, you needn't nor could you understand. But less I forgo my requested story, I suggest you remind yourself of such without a voice, for now."

"...alright."

"I had ventured far from what you could call my Canterlot, if I were so bold as to compare. Dealing with many a wanderer, and even further of those who would welcome such lone passing for the platinum in your pocket, I established somewhat of an reputation." Pulling in his nostrils to quick inhale, "Of which finally made word back to my mother, who out of desperation sought compromise over obedience."

With a few moments of understanding silence, tall and lean continues on.

"I was given but few choices, of which none would allow further compromise or reconsideration. I could leave behind my name, and continue on like I always had. I could also seek official employment with sanctioned expeditions involving many throughout our alliances."

"So, you were a treasure hunter so to speak?"

"Tomb robber. Artifact smuggler. Morally inept perhaps?" Tall and lean shrugs, "Well that is what I was considered by my elder siblings. Outside of the Highborn lands, across the great Ocean of Tears, I was just considered profitable at the very least. As luck would have it, my father's namesake still held some weight in some parts, and I made sure to ring ever true to it's melody."

"Was he also, um, profitable?"

"Humans don't quite enjoy Elves, of any kind. Albeit, of all three, only the Drow and man have ever waged true warfare. To that point, by being with an Highborn, and like her onto him, they lost more than they gained socially. I heard he died to kobolds, actually."

"Kobolds?"

"Canines. Very aggressive as a whole, mind you, unlike that of Gnolls." Taking notice to further confusion, "Gnolls are also canines from back home, but are of lesser progress than that of Kobolds. However, they can also be peaceful and generally just prefer the be left alone."

"Sounds a bit like Diamond Dogs." Steadfast does the favor in return, "Gnolls, not Kobolds."

"...and Kobolds, if you haven't so easily forgotten." Finally opting to slowly lean backwards until he plops down on his rear, he crosses both of his legs in seeming uncomfortably looking comfort. "But no, he wasn't, nor from what I heard ever had been, very profitable to anyone."

"Is that why you refused to tell Moxie your name?"

"Do you have bards upon your land, by chance?"

"What's a Bard?"

"Your enemy, it would seem." Of no further explanation to rather inquisitive but growing in glare stare, "But as you presumed, yes, I left both my name and my shield behind. With my decision made, I found myself no longer welcomed in my homeland of but an second time."

"So you came to Equestria?"

"Against my will, quite." His voice riles with a bit of sarcasm, "I found myself tolerated well enough in quite questionable territory to get far enough inside to not be able to find myself any way out. I essentially have become my own most sought after boon."

"Well, sorry to say but I still don't get it then. If this isn't home, and it's obvious never going to be, then why not leave and try and make one elsewhere?" Steadfast offers suggestion to mask further inquiry, "Plenty of other lands not occupied by us ponies you know? And regardless of what you may think of us, we allow safe passage to any whom follows our laws while within our borders. The Princesses make sure of it."

"It matters not." Tall and slender begins to unfold his legs with hand on one knee, "Nowhere could I go that I would be free to be free."

"...free to be free?" Steadfast watches as left rises to the right, sideways view permitting.

"You needn't understand. You only need to be on your way as soon as you can, if for your own good." Lending the tilt of his head to go along with his stare, "The medicine numbs the pain, but of nothing stronger can I give you to mend the wound itself."

"Woozy."

"Hmm?"

"The smell, is pretty powerful." He lets only one chuckle escape before the cringe, "Oh...I really shouldn't do that..."

"You are...much like that of your sister." Tall and lean surprisingly restarts their idle conversation, "She shielded you, of many reprisals she never faltered. Was not what I had expected." With short pause, "..and you take the pain, that I know too well, well yourself."

"Moxie's never needed anypony to do what she wants to do, regardless of what comes next." He drifts his head upwards a little more along with light lift to give eyesight to that which slumbers farther down on the ground, "Like sleeping fourteen hours a day."

"I do not think I will ever fully adjust to your home's rotations." Tall and lean gives casual, but strange mention.

"Rotations?"

"The sun, and the one moon." Of yet more strange mentions, does he mention. "I am used to much slower." To which he finally turns his back and makes his way back through darkened hollowed bedrock corridor, of soft footsteps eventually leaving nothing the same.

"You can stop acting now, sis." Steadfast speaks once more, "I know you snore."

"No I don't!" Moxie jerks upright in glare to sideways stare, "I can't believe you would do such a thing, Steadfast."

"What did I do?!" He responds in higher pitch, followed by cringed aftershock.

"Okay! First, you didn't even try and wake me up to let me know that you finally woke up!" Moxie lifts her foreleg to hoof in point, "Second, you were leading him on with your questions." With another jab and low growl, "Third, you said I was a pain."

"Okay." He responds in kind, "First, I hit you with one of the sticks that makes up this wonderful bed to try and wake you up, which you just snorted and rolled around on." Nodding his head towards her to which she looks down in slight embarrassment, "Second, that's our job and I'll be damned if the best I can inform the Kingdom if we make it back is that it might be male, talks in old doctrine, and hates ponies."

Of his own tirade, and uncomfortable thumping upon his mid backside, does the growing glare continue to do as such. "Okay, what?"

"If we live through this... I'll remind you." Her expression beginning to soften, "And we are going to live through this, okay?"

"I should be dead, Moxie." His voice low enough to rob the air of any sense of relief, "I lost too much blood. I haven't even eaten anything for days, and yet, here I am, in pain but alive. And you? After all the blows they gave, even you should still be laying down in pain."

"W-well maybe, we're just.. hey my welts are gone..."

"It's this cave, I think." He begins to think aloud, "Maybe that's why he brought us here?"

"I see nothing but bedrock, Steadfast." Moxie lifts her left brow, "And he hasn't exactly made us feel the most welcome."

"Maybe not in words, but he put me on something better than the ground, gave you a blanket, and even came back to check up on us." His own lowering to match Moxie's southern drift of her own, "He apologized Moxie. Let it go."

"Well, then, I will when he says it." She taps her hoof against the hard rock below, "To me."

"You've never really cared about such things before, you know."

"Never had somepony save my life that made me feel bad about saying thank you, either."

"Wait. You're actually offended by that?"

"It's mean!"

"And secondary!"

"And we do, in fact, have had Bards in our history. They sang stories in melody!"

"What does that...! Then why did he say they were my enemy?"

"Because you suck at being subtle."

"Oh, coming from the stiff log sleeping on the floor?"

"I. Don't. Snore."

"Will the both of you cease your infernal ruckus!" Comes the strong but distant yell from darkened corridor, it's echo hitting Moxie and Steadfast several fold as both go wide eyed in surprise. "Worse than the snore!"

"That was rude, Mister I'm too good to give out my name!" Moxie yells right back to the even wider eyes of her slightly upright brother.

"Moxie!" He attempts to chastise, before remembering whom he was talking to, causing him to hunker back down a bit.

"So yeah, I wasn't asleep and I heard you talking to my brother!" She continues to yell into the dark, "You know it's very very mean to make somepony feel bad about being saved! And I won't apologize for being proud of who I am either!" To her words, do her ears also flick to the ever increasing tap of footsteps until once more does the features of alien face gleam of light. "S-so there."

"Then perhaps it is finally time for you to pony up to your claim, E'quus." Lifting his forearm to give point with single slim appendage, "In return for the assistance granted in releasing you from your bonds, I ask nor will I accept anything in return. However, for bringing you further, you made promise of your Princesses to reasonable reward."

"Well, yes, I did say such a thing." Moxie looks down before back up, "Maybe you could make your request personally..."

"Don't come back."

"What?"

"Do not look back, after you go." His words, soft and monotone, carry an different weight than expected. "In bringing you into one of my havens, I have also given away it's location to all that surround me. That, E'quus, was the mistake I made mention when we first spoke. I may have set you free, and lent further aid, but do not mistake that for anything but the need to not lose anymore sleep."

"You truly consider ponies a threat to you?"

"I consider none of you a friend. Nothing that has happened this day or night could hope to change that. At best, you've only secured that as things stand, neither do I consider all of you an direct enemy." Narrowing his eyes a bit, "But I know how easily that will change."

"Then why did you tell my brother all of that stuff about yourself if you want us to leave you alone?"

"I wanted to show just a taste of what I've been forced to walk away from already, E'quus. What I've had to deal with, on my own, time and time again." Lifting his forearm and clenching his hand into a fist, "I do not intend to walk away, forced or asked, any longer."

"We're not here for any such thing!"

"You have your lives, whether you accept the reasons why matters not to me. But if you return here then I will be take back what I harbored." Stomping his foot to the sudden violent cracks sent out in spiderweb like pattern, "Tell the Princesses the very same, and if they so wish to grant boon for your lives, then I only ask that they send no more that would force me instead to take it away."

"Saying something like that may bring the Princesses themselves." Moxie stiffens to the further narrowing gaze, "You're basically saying that you've claimed part of our land, and will kill ponies if they come here. That's not going to...!"

"If that is your wish, then we will word it exactly as so." Steadfast interrupts that which almost doubles over from looking back in shock.

"Steadfast, what are you saying?!"

"I'm thanking our host and taking no more that what's been offered, before we overstay our welcome." Letting his muzzle dip and rise in subtle nod to the flattened ears downwind, "We need to go."

"From the south?" Tall and lean looks up onto the bedrock ceiling with an scrunched brow, "...not alone either." His words causing his two guests to also look up with even greater confusion, "You have company, as do I."

"I don't see or hear anything." Steadfast flicks his left ear several times with one eye slightly opening wider, "Wait... are those?"

"I hear it too!" Moxie, standing upon all four hooves, cranes her neck down in order to grab hold of what she once slept upon for tolerated comfort, taking hold with her teeth in order to sling it over her backside. "Hop on, brother."

"Um.." He vigorously shakes his head, "I think I'd rather walk?"

"Get on!" To which embarrassment awkwardly complies, in sideways straddled compliance. "Ready!"

"You E'quus act like you haven't a natural sense when it comes to being hunted." Tall and lean shakes his own head at the silly spectacle, raising his hand into the air, fingers held into a fist suddenly spring out and apart, along with what used to be solid bedrock. Acting as if nothing had happened, he lets the ever shifting sand plow against his legs as muffled yells and screams of surprise and pain fall down into the ever rising pile now even threatening to take over head that of doubled up guests.

He begins to close his hand once more before several more seem to drift down willingly, oblivious to that which remains hidden behind dust filled veils. Remaining silent, he slowly finishes closing his hand once more into a fist as empty space closes back onto itself.

"Is everypony okay?"

"I've got sand in my... I got sand everywhere!"

"Pffffffffffff"

"Hey isn't this almost like that time we went after those Diamond Dogs?" An overly cheerful voice calls out, hidden still from clear view.

"Cept we're the ones done been chased down the rabbit hole and ah got bit by some stinkin rattler?"

"Oooh, my head... must of hit a stupid rock when I dove!"

"You hit me, Miss Rainbow."

"Clover?!" Comes the unified voice to the opposite side of the sand encased pony pile, their yell causing only further disturbance as sand flies out against the renewed yells and screams of those pushed aside, "Clover! Calm down! Don't go and...!"

"Moxie?! Steadfast?!" Sergeant Clover bolts out from underneath that which binds him, pulling in sliding slope others in his departing wake, "I-I thought you were dead! I found.. I saw Steadfast's... Hey say something alright? I can't really see with all this sand in my eyes!"

"Brother, you've got to calm down, okay?" Steadfast nearly yells, to the quick turn of eyes clenched shut stallion now looking his way with ears pivoted full forward, "Listen, something helped us and you really, really, need to calm down okay?"

"I heard two voices!" Loud and cheerful only increases twice fold, "Yay! They're alive!"

"Private Moxie? Corporal Steadfast? Oh thank Celestia they're okay." Another figure slides forth from underneath the large pile of sand, giving her lavender coating an hard shake with wings extending out to do the same, "They said somepony helped them?"

"Not somepony, something." Moxie attempts to inform with her eyes nervously shifting about as the tallest figure in the cavern now appears no where to be seen, not even blotched under sandy haze. "You all really need to... to... Princess?!"

"One of them! Hehe.. heh..." Princess Twilight flutters her eyelids in the hopes of clearer vision, "And... AHH!"

"I expected something entirely different." Tall and lean, now not so tall and lean, squats down mere inches in front of shocked lavender. "One is to be pearl white, and the other like nightshade, and of greater stature." He tilts his head, "Perhaps you are one of their offspring..."

"Hey!" One eye forced open, does Cyan tear herself from the pony sand pile, "You better stay away whatever you are!"

"Regardless.." He continues to stare into widened eyes, composed not of the faint red veins of irritation, but dilated pupils.

"What's going on? Whose that voice? Ow! Stop kicking!"

"Something's attacking Twilight!"

"What?!"

"I'm running out of time.." Tall and lean casually raises his forearm with his elbow resting on same sided knee, closed hand opening into flat hand point straight above with bedrock raising up only around him and the Princess before him, "..and so are you."

"Twilight!? Blast him or something!" Rainbow Dash yells just as she gets free, making weighted leap with sand weighted wings flapping to little avail just as she slams into perfectly oval outer enclosure, slamming her front hooves to even lesser progress. "It's a trap!"

"No it's not!" Comes, once more, unified voices from over and behind.

"That thing just kidnapped Twilight!" Rainbow yells right back with an crooked scowl on her scrunched up face.

"He may hate us but he saved our lives." Moxie receives mixed, with mostly shocked to the negative against actions just taken, reactions save for her eldest brother, who just just keeps moving closer and closer. "It's complicated but you need to calm down and not make things worse!"

"Worse? Worse?!" Rainbow almost sneers as she does full turnabout off oval bedrock, "We're being chased by a bunch of Diamond Dogs and Dragons, my best friend is poisoned, we're now underground and something just trapped another friend under solid rock!"

"Why does it hate us?" Sergeant Clover pushes aside any and all personal reservations with having to focus on going forward.

"He only appears to hate the Princesses, actually." Steadfast poorly worded reply giving further rise as the other mares from behind his brother all jump towards the enclosure, showing varying degrees of concern. "She isn't in any danger!"

"How do you know?" Fluttershy asks with eyes taking focus on that of life threatening wound, "You're wing!"

"Don't worry about that... Listen! We need to get ready to move out of here as soon as they come out of there." Steadfast once more addresses even as more eyes shift onto what should have greater consequence, "I'll explain later, but we can't stay here."

"Ain't leaving without all of us, partner." Applejack hobbles about, "What ah'm hearing and what ah'm seeing ain't the same, neither."

"Tell me about it..." Moxie mumbles.

"To whom does it align." Sergeant Clover, once more, attempts to ask of further clarity.

"As far as I can tell, none." Steadfast gives far too casual of tone in reply, earning irritation in return. "It's complicated."

"How can you be so sure that this is not a trap to use the injured to lure others in?"

"Because it is alone."

"From what we have seen with our own eyes, Steadfast, that might not be the case much longer."

"It does not ally with them, Clover. I can assure you of that."

"How can you be so sure?"

"I have seen him draw their blood with my own eyes, brother, along with several of their very lives."

"Wait, what?" Moxie turns her head to look back in side stare, "It only chased them away Steadfast!"

"I know what I saw, when you tried to carry me on your back." He softens his gaze to the one of renewed confusion and worry, "I only saw those who stood their ground swallowed up in it, but those who ran he let go, if that means anything."

"No way!" Moxie attempts to further argue, "When I look around the only thing that I saw were pillars of... r-rock."

"I've seen those many times over, once I traveled far enough south, myself." Sergeant Clover looks down before back up, "If each of those represents an life ending confrontation, then that only serves to cause me even greater concern."

"But you've seen how brutal they are then, brother!" Moxie, pushing aside unknowns, reminds herself of whatever is. "And you heard Steadfast. He let those who ran go. If he hadn't come along when he did then neither of us would of... been okay."

"The concern, Moxie, isn't only the what, but also of the when." Sergeant Clover quirks one eye, "Some of the rock pillars are quite long standing, with moss and even long dead vegetation such as trees and vines growing around and even encompassing some of them inside the trunks."

"But that would take..."

"Decades." Applejack fesses up to her profession and passion, "Ah might not be from all around but ah know mah trees. If yer figuring what ah'm figuring too, then this here stranger done been out here for ah long time." Tilting her muzzle down and then up, "Not fighting ponies, either."

"Well what if nopony lived to tell?" Rainbow budges into the conversation while kicking one of her back hooves to loud clop, "Cause even if it hasn't been attacking ponies it's been killing for years and while I don't like Diamond Dogs that still doesn't give it the right."

"They broke my wing off so I couldn't fly away." Steadfast grabs Rainbow's attention most of all. "Put us in chains far too tight and dragged us through the swamp, myself literally. They would yank, choke, and drag us through mud and water and push us down on rocks on the whim. Moxie was shielding me as I lay dying while they beat her until they had enough." Letting his head slightly tilt, "We weren't even alive to them."

"There have only been seldom reports of any missing pony to the Hayseed Swamp, over the last few decades." Sergeant Clover adds in, "Of those, even fewer were their remains never found, and in the cases that were, often to the same misgivings given onto Miss Applejack."

"How did he lose it's arm?" Fluttershy cuts through the tension like a hot knife, dull edge of no, of further respect none other given.

"He only said consequence to a conscience, and left it at that." Moxie gives the butterscotch mare her reply, "I think he lost it fighting?"

"We're not that far northeast of Dodge Junction, but along that border to the Hayseed enough guards are posted that nothing can really happen without us knowing." The Sergeant alludes with thinking aloud, "But we're just far enough east that the rough sea along the coast serves as a fine barrier to hinder any real surveillance of activity. Farther north and it amounts to the same alongside Dodge Junction. We're at the very edge."

"The very edge of what, Sir Clover?" Rarity, still using her magic to try and clean herself, "Of safety? Danger? Because as far as what we've seen this kind of place shouldn't even exist outside the Everfree." Of letting her inner agitation flow out, "Oh how I hate this swamp!"

"Of both, Miss Rarity." He turns his head to the side to look back. "He's standing guard."

"Well I couldn't even see before it disappeared along with Twilight, but I can plainly hear tell that it is not an pony. Also, that it does not seem to fancy our kind in any light." Rarity arch's her brow, "For whatever reason would you come to such an... assumption?"

"It's a dead zone, where we are now." The Sergeant attempts once more to explain. "Neither the Dogs or Dragons are able to encroach farther and through that are they unable to take the lives that they would so easily be able to. And of the strange creature that I have absolutely nothing else to go on other than the only known contact was saving the lives of ponies? If it hates us, then that's a kind of hate I can live with."

"Um...W-well I can certainly see how you might approach such an conclusion then." Rarity looks down for a moment. "But what if what it guards isn't what lays behind, but farther below?" Finally looking back up, "And what if we ponies were to suddenly, somehow, get in it's way?"

"So what did it look like?" Pinkie directs her question towards greatly annoyed cyan. "That way when it comes out we won't be scared!"

"Tall." Rainbow seems to slur out from the corner of her muzzle, "Tall, thin, and stupid looking."

"How tall?" Pinkie tilts her head.

"What?" Rainbow finally gives the pink party pony more direct attention, "How the hay should I know?"

"Rainbow, ya just said it was tall." Applejack hobbles over closer, "So fess up, girl!"

"Uh, sorry?" Rainbow switches her stare to the apple farmer, "Totally forgot to get out the tape measure during the sudden foalnapping."

"Now don't be getting all sassy, Rainbow." Applejack quirks her right brow, "Don't need things getting any worse than they already are."

"Mind giving out some details, Steadfast?" The Sergeant turns back towards his doubled up siblings.

"Male? Well maybe. Strictly bipedal, with fullest stature meeting to the very tip of Princess Celestia's horn while lowest to my own eyes. Upper limb appendages like that of an Minotaur's hand, but from what I can tell nothing quite like that of the lower. There also lacks any sign of an tail. Of facial features it has forward facing eyes along with incisors and with molars, omnivore in any case."

"...and of any behavioral traits?"

"Territorial, to say the least. Prone to absolutes in action rather than compromise. Has an rather extensive range in dialect, but shows signs of forced isolation in his social interaction. For example he saved our lives but made sure to speak too bluntly to the consequence of such, causing Moxie to feel as if her being saved was wrong. But he also gave her bedding to lay on just afterwards, along with medicine for my pain."

"How is..."

"Furthermore, he also shows signs of favorable moral compass. Disgust to cruelty. Firm to his word, even if he disagrees with his very own. But also seems to demand the same when given from others onto him, which I find fair. He also has seen no reason to hide his less than favorable view of ponies or the Princesses, or even of our home in general, though he could of done quite the opposite to mislead us."

"And did he ever explain why he..."

"He would not explain why. Just that it is what it is, in his own words. However that may be, he has also admitted to Moxie and I being the first ponies to having interacted personally with him. But it is his descriptions of his home of origin that causes me the greatest confusion."

"What do you mean by...?"

"Where he heralds, it seems that time flows differently." Steadfast's statement causes all of those before him to widen in eye or tilt their heads, to which he begins to offer more when the rumbling from behind Rainbow Dash causes all faced forward to now do sharp turnabout.

"...why?" Twilight softly speaks to the erosion of that which once shielded their words. "Why didn't you ever come and ask for our help?"

"Like you could offer it!" Tall and lean retorts with heavy grit and rigid glare.

"You never gave anypony the chance!" She steps forward, mere inches between nose and muzzle, eyes darting from tall and lean's to that of stubby upper limb. "Take off the cover. I want to see it."

"You are not in the position to ask any such thing, E'quus." He intensifies his glare, "Take your kind and leave, without dawdle."

"Twilight!" Rainbow rushes over along with the others, save for The Sergeant and his two siblings, "You okay?"

"No, I'm not." She continues to stare onto that of well covered stub.

Rainbow looking behind to the varying degrees of concern and curiosity, and finally onto that which almost matches Twilight in intensified stare. Looking back with her own, she fixates on that which causes two of six the greatest focus. "Well?"

"Take it off." Twilight once more repeats in stern tone. "You can't tell me all that and just expect me to trot away."

"Twilight? Deary? What's going on with you?" Rarity, getting more nervous by the ever intense passing moments, softly questions.

"You need to leave, before that which has trailed you make their arrival." He once more tempers his words, "You further endanger even myself by refusing to listen to proper reason! You have been given warning of what Xyran has in store. You should take heed and make haste!"

"And what of you? If they capture you, then what?" Twilight tempers down just the same, but still on the line. "We can help you. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna especially would do whatever they can to..."

"To find a use of me?" He begins to stand back up, to which all but Twilight backs up a hoof. "I do not need you to coddle the truth before my very ears under the guise of good intentions. I have absolutely no intentions of being used any longer as a source of fuel for any banner of war."

"They would never do such a thing to any living being!"

"They threw their entire world into turmoil!" He looks down now at full stature, "So much so that one of your own sought to create a means to destroy them, only to cast it away in shame once those children finished having their planet altering spat!"

"I... I can't speak of such things." Twilight looks up with her expression remaining strong, "But nopony is perfect, not even them, or him."

"I know that, damn you!" His temper, and otherwise refined dialect, causes even Twilight to take a hoof back. "You would dare ask me to venture forth only to find better reason to convince the hatred in my heart that it has true merit? Have you no sense to leave better off left alone?"

"A bad pony wouldn't be afraid of becoming a bad pony." She switches her stare back to his arm.

"Not a pony." He quips, "Listen, you need to go!"

"It's you, isn't it." She almost whispers.

"What madness do you speak of now?"

"Girls?" Twilight looks back towards her friends as the wake of her deep sigh dawns slow realization onto their expressions.

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me!" Rainbow erupts with a scowl.

"Are you sure, sugarcube?" Applejack confesses to some doubt, "Ah mean, this just isn't...."

"But we can't stay with Applejack's condition..." Fluttershy's eyes shifting to orange rear leg, of once ever swollen infection, grabs her full attention. "A-applejack? Are you feeling any different?"

"Well, it sure ain't hurting like it..." Applejack takes notice of the slight lack thereof, along with what once caused even more with pressure to have gone mostly unnoticed, with her rear hoof planted firmly to the solid rock floor. "Hah! Can't keep an apple down, do ya see that?"

"So it is this place, isn't it." Steadfast makes inner thoughts spoken aloud to the attention grabbing statement. "Something here is healing us?"

"It's not healing you." Twilight speaks with the same grab of attention, "It's keeping you strong, inside and out, for the time being."

"So ah won't lose mah hoof?" Applejack cannot help but let some glee escape in her pitch.

"It isn't so simple." Twilight begins to explain with contrasting expression to what should be otherwise to the words. "We're all being given a small boost from condensed nearby energy. But once we leave, the drop will be much harsher than the rise."

"Ah...darnit.."

"Unless of course the condensed energy stays nearby as we travel, all of us will find ourselves severely drained shortly after."

"C-can we have some, Mister...?" Fluttershy moves forward with her soft plea, her nervous but partial smile evaporating once tall and lean turns his back and walks away to the closest wall of rock, slightly hanging his head down as he faces it in silence. "P-please?"

"...damnit."

Ears begin to flick towards the faintest of murmurs.

"...damnit."

Of no distraction, idle rage flows into without fail along with the light clops of hooves backing up farther.

"Hey we just need a little bit!" Rainbow pushes past her own reservation for the sake of her friends in need.

"...damn it all."

"W-well if ya go and help, ah can pay ya back!" Applejack fumbles on what her hoof be worth in apples or bits.

"Maybe.. maybe we can have something made to keep you warm?" Rarity nearly stutters through, "Y-yes! I can make sure of it. You would have the finest attire that hooves can find throughout the land." After slight hesitation, "If you would only let us borrow enough to make it through?"

"...by an orc's forsaken mother."

"What's an orc?" Pinkie looks up, directly down to the side of once distracted but redirected empty stare. "But you're our friend now. And friend's don't let their friend's down when they're in trouble!" She adopts a soft smile, "We're sorry we couldn't find you before the meanies did but you know, it only feels bad because you're fighting it!" She then taps her front hoof to his leg, "We promise we won't forget about you, now."

"You know not what you ask, overly pink one." He continues to look down with an nearly blank expression, "There is no trinket or mere object to be broken off and given on the whim. To take but a piece, you would have me give all, for all that's left otherwise has been destroyed already."

"What do you mean by that?" Rainbow Dash adopts an confused stare, to the gradual increase as once wayward hand raises and begins to unravel that which once hindered plain view. She switches her view to that which only shows deep sorrow, and hint of guilt. "Twilight?"

"I'll explain when we're all back home and safe." She slightly turns her head to give almost whispered reply.

"You test my patience, E'quus." Tall and lean interjects himself back in conversation without invitation, "To talk so casually as if you've already secured your cargo, within earshot even. But perhaps that is just more of what it was, still is."

"You're acting like you have to follow us all the way back to Ponyville!" Rainbow once more loosens her grip on her temper.

"He would have to, actually." Twilight reaffirms what already conflicts, "Steadfast will go into shock before we even got that far past the edge of the Hayseed." Before taking a deep dry swallow, "...and what was over a day shall become less than an hour then, as well."

"You creatures...all of you, must so enjoy the power you continue to hold over me." Tall and lean turns about and begins to walk away, to which to his continued annoyance, is followed by the many cumbersome clops of the weary and unsure. "But soon, that too will come to an end."

"We're not trying to take anything more from you." Twilight clears her throat for clearer voice, "But thank you for giving it."

"But how are we going to return it?" Fluttershy asks through lack of knowledge to make realization. "That's stealing."

"I'm sure if we just throw it back into the swamp it'll be okay." Rainbow makes uncaring remark to the same ilk.

"Rainbow, that wasn't nice. He seems to really care about us having to borrow it." Fluttershy softly chastises her friend.

"Sounds like some kind or rock or something. Only so much you can do with a rock, Fluttershy."

"But maybe it's unique? O-or a gift from somepony important to him?" She throw back, "Or maybe he needs it."

"Well if it's so important than why'd he say he went and destroyed the rest, huh?" Rainbow makes solid comeback.

"If ya got what's needing to be gotten, then somepony's bound to come'a knocking." Applejack attempts to interject some wisdom, "Or did ya go and durn forget that this old fella been fighting against them wild looking Diamond Dogs and strange Dragons?"

"Maybe they just don't like each other?" Rainbow retorts, "Suuure surprises me."

"Girls!" Twilight looks back in shock.

"But they have some good points, Twilight." Rarity chimes in, "Why destroy something that has benefit to others, even if not to oneself?"

"Yeah!" Rainbow bolsters to the increase to her side of the court, "Sounds like he just didn't want to share until he had to."

"And ah'm telling all of ya that yapping about something you don't all understand is a fine way to get yerself in trouble." Applejack lightly snorts, "The fella is helping us. Ah say leave well enough alone." With a hint of worry, "Mah hoof depends on it, ya hear?"

"Sorry/okay/fine." Comes three conflicting in unison voices, before another takes focus for all.

"What?!" Twilight yells in surprise to something instantly fetched from memory of etched book illustrations. "Can't be.."

"Remnants." Tall and lean continues to stride as shallow corridor opens up into an massive expanse, of molded bedrock etching into worn of artistically cut marble and granite underneath their approach. Of further sequences of stone, even further out of place, does that of age old and long forgotten underground home take hold of all save for that of the one in forefront. "Of yours, and my own."

"That.. that's a cutie mark.." Twilight nearly gallops forward, past that which continues his own steady pace nevertheless to the ever passing clops of all save for that of still doubled up bringing up the far rear. Twilight stops just before the front temple mount. "Starswirl the Bearded!"

"Starswirl the Wicked." Tall and lean, now bringing up the rear, garners several less than thrilled return expressions, along with those of shock and one of ears laid back in guilt. "Starswirl the Cruel. Starswirl the Coward."

"Now see here!" Rarity flares up, "Of the one to so scornfully lament all of ponykind holds as high as any. Now you've so far been ever so helpful to our plight, but there is absolutely no need to say such hurtful things of one not still able to defend his very name."

"That is rather fortunate, for his sake." Tall and lean continues to ask past and inside that of partially destroyed complex.

"Why would you say such a mean thing?" Fluttershy asks in genuine concern for the sudden change in demeanor.

"Because if he were still alive I would rectify that myself." He finally comes to a stop. "For he is the very reason not only did I lose my life, but I've been forced to live onward in another, still aware of all that has been lost. Cast from my home, my world, into one not capable."

Letting his one hand reach out, he drags his fingers along rotted wood that seems to flake into dust.

"I think this is of an greater mistake than the one even he made. But you would, like the other, ask for more. Never satisfied. Never enough to quell that which you cannot help but demand more, for you have never become so parched to know nothing ever will, again." His fingers finally dragging over hard cover of book, strangely of quite favorable condition. "But that is something you need to live through, to understand."

Of those, many of whom beginning to fill with visual reservation.

"So be it then." Taking the book into his hand, "I will see for myself what you shall offer, and give only that which in return." His eyes makes direct contact with that held up in hand. "I have been spared nothing, and for your actions here and consequence onward, neither shall you."

With an weary silence settled onto many a nerve in and all around, not even a clop rings out. But of a few passing moments more, that which once was is denied to the sudden vibrating impact almost directly above. With gasps and huffs ringing out, another impact resounds even closer, and continues several fold until all stand firm or hunkered down. Of smaller contemplative eyes, do they slowly give rise onto underside above.

"Or you."

Comments

[Adamanthys]

Well this got interesting fast...

You sure have my attention now. Loving both the narrative style and plot you have going on.

[Corsiva]

5624518

Very satisfied to hear that, Adamanthys. I somewhat feared that the introduction arc was growing too long but wanted to make sure that I set up the paths by which the story will move forward, even if there are going to be several, so readers could judge early.

Thank you again for the solid feedback!