A Bit For Your Thoughts?

by Kihano

And There Goes The Neighborhood

Ponyville, Morning

Fluttershy didn't lower the hoof that shielded herself out of reflex and hesitation, even though the shock wave of the explosion already passed. Slowly and cautiously, she lowered down the hoof and turned her head to face the source of the explosion. She couldn't see much though, due to the cloud of smoke and dust that was still present, obscuring and blocking any hopes of vision as to what was happening.

She didn't have to wait long though, as a blue rainbow blur shot out of the smoke before stopping mid-air to turn and face it again. Rainbow Dash glared at the cloud of smoke while cradling both her hooves, wincing slightly at the familiar throb of numbing pain that coursed through them. Whatever it was she hit, it was definitely not a brick wall.

After what seemed like an eternity, the smoke finally cleared up enough to reveal her adversary, who now held a grey shield in front of him. Rainbow Dash couldn't help but be slightly awed and intimidated by the shield. The shield itself was steel gray at the edges with hints of purple in the center, but that wasn't what caused the fear and awe factor. That factor was mainly caused by what was situated on the center. A ram skull with eyes that seemed to glow a demonic red.

'Vanguard, the most badass shield I have in my wares.'

Lowering the shield, K looked up to Rainbow Dash with an impassive expression and a raised eyebrow, which caused her to grit her teeth in irritation at, what she deemed as a mocking gesture.

"Is that all you got?" K said in a disappointed tone, obviously taunting her into making a reckless move. "Frankly, I expected a better performance from you."

Whether he meant it as expectations of the reincarnation of The Storm Spirit or of an Element Of Loyalty, could be up for debate. But it didn't really matter to K, seeing as the taunt did it's job and Rainbow Dash was once again charging at him, albeit slower than the last one.

"I'll show you better performance, you freak!"

K merely responded with another raised eyebrow, as he mentally dismissed Vanguard back to his inventory and summoned another item.

Rainbow Dash continued in her charge, but not before getting the feeling that something was off. She would've continued to ponder what it was that gave her the uneasy feeling had it not been answered to her in the form of a tornado suddenly forming around her, throwing her up high into the air where she was flung about.

K didn't wait for the mini-tornado to dissipate, reflexively dismissing Eul's Scepter Of Divinity and rushing forward. With another mental summoning, a simple steel gauntlet with a studded leather wrist guard was now equipped on his right hand, which he raised up in preparation, mid-charge, for a simple knockout punch.

Although K couldn't help but feel disappointed at how easy this was, he merely chalked it up to him having more experience and awesome equipment. The tornado quickly dissipated, allowing a dazed Rainbow Dash to let gravity take place and free fall, right into the path of K's gauntlet.

That was the plan at least, were it not for a lasso suddenly wrapping around said gauntlet and jerking it backwards, causing K to grunt in surprise and lose momentum, falling on one knee and the other foot skidding a bit on the ground due to the sudden inertia. Eyes quickly following the rope to its source, K found it in the form of an orange pony with a brown stetson hat worn over a blonde mane, rope tightly gripped between her teeth, as she threw her head back pulling along his arm, which shook with exertion as a tug of war between him and the orange pony began.

At the corner of his peripheral vision, he idly took note of Rainbow's uninterrupted descent to the ground, unceremoniously dropping on her side, as several other ponies rushed to her with worry evident on their expressions.

'So these are the famous Elements Of Harmony, eh? Let's see, there's Loyalty,' Rainbow, after reassuring the others that she was fine, tried to steady herself as she shakily stood back up on her hooves.

'Honesty,' Applejack glared at K, rope still firmly held between her teeth as she tried with all her strength to pull him towards her. Whatever good that would do, K had no idea.

'Kindness,' Fluttershy looked between him and the others with a worried expression even as she desperately tried to gain their attention and explain the situation.

'Generosity,' Rarity, who was wearing a dark purple scarf, was not allowing Fluttershy to talk, as she dramatically fretted over her, hugging her tightly and making exaggerated but worried expressions.

'Laughter,' Pinkie didn't seem to care about whatever tense mood was in the air and went as far as giving him an ecstatic grin and an excited wave when she caught his eye, not worried in the slightest.

'And finally, Magic.' Twilight was looking at him with curious but cautious eyes, no doubt wondering what kind of creature K was but holding that thought for later in case he was dangerous.

'And not only that, another reincarnation,' K looked pointedly at Twilight. 'Though I'm not sure of this one. With that level of magical energy, she could be Carl's reincarnation, or maybe even Rubick's own. Heck, maybe she's-'

A surprisingly strong tug at his right arm that nearly made him fall over brought him out of his thoughts. Looking at the rope, still wrapped around his wrist, in irritation, he closed his eyes and focused on the boots he was currently wearing, giving a mental command.

'Grant me strength.'

Boots flashing from green to red, K felt power surging through him and with a shout of exertion, easily tossed his constricted arm forward. As a result, a startled Applejack suddenly found herself airborne and hurtling towards the group of mares as an orange blur. She would've continued in her flight, were it not for the purple aura that enveloped her and carefully floated her to the ground.

He observed the ponies tense up, understandable with his now glowing red eyes, as he subtly fingered the Blink Dagger tucked underneath his cloak. Rainbow Dash was now standing steadily and glaring daggers at K. Fluttershy, no longer muffled by Rarity's hugs, was still trying to gain their attention to no avail, Angel suspiciously being nowhere to be found. Rarity was looking at him with a nervous but determined expression, carefully levitating a pair of... goggles? over her eyes. Applejack had recovered quickly enough and was now glaring at him, as well as eying the rope still wrapped around his wrist. Pinkie still looked unworried about the entire scenario and was keen with hopping in place and giving him a very bright smile. Twilight's horn was surrounded with a purple glow, ready to cast a spell should he make the first move.

The two sides looked at the other in apprehensive silence, not wanting to make the first move so that the other could capitalize on it. Off to the side, Angel hopped onto a tree branch to get a vantage point, grinning from ear to ear at what would be a pretty good fight. Frowning when both sides just opted to stand there giving each other a stare off, Angel took it upon his... paws to remedy that. Whipping out a carrot, from who knows where, he slowly held it horizontally with both paws and swiftly brought it down on his knee.

*SNAP*

Ears twitching at the sound, K abruptly threw the Blink Dagger towards the amassed group of ponies, prompting Twilight to shoot a spell bolt at it, deflecting it. In that time, K was already rushing towards the group with Rainbow and Applejack retaliating with a lightning induced charge and a propelled tackle, respectively. Easily sidestepping the tackle and rolling under the ball of lightning, K quickly muttered an incoherent incantation under his breath before bringing his hand forwards, which was surrounded with a red aura.

'Chaos Warp.'

A reddish magic bolt shot from his hand towards Twilight and the others. The bolt should've collided with them and randomly teleport them to an undisclosed location near or far, if it weren't for the emerald that suddenly got in its way and took the effects of the spell, blinking out of existence.

K looked on as his spell was easily countered, disbelief and incredulous evident on his face as he faulted in his step. This moment of distraction was all Twilight needed to fully envelop K in her aura, who noticed a little too late.

Uuup.

K couldn't help but flail his arms wildly as he was suddenly jerked up into the air, the aura not quite holding him in place, as he unwillingly did back flips and front flips. Suddenly he felt something... not quite enter him, but more of forcing their way in, causing him to go uneasy. As quickly as that feeling came, it left, physically and literally. He could literally see a wispy image of him leaving his body and enter...

Twilight's.

Her eyes, which were closed, snapped open, a glint of something evident in them. K couldn't help but feel something familiar with what ever it she did and that look in her eye. It reminded him strongly of Rubick whenever he analyzed and stole... Oh shit.

And down. (just to remind you.)

Falling flat on his face, K quickly rose to his feet though he did so with a pained expression, but the moment he saw the ponies, he visibly deflated. The other Elements of Harmony were already there, all of them standing behind Twilight, whose horn was glowing an ominous (at least to him) red. It flashed brightly and let loose a red bolt, similar to the one he had conjured earlier, but this one was faster and tad bit smaller. It didn't really make any sort of sound when it impacted him, just gave him a queasy feeling of something grabbing onto him.

'Well fu-'

*ZWHIP*

And then he was no longer in Ponyville, instead he was in what appeared to be a really dense forest standing right on top of a small garden of blue flowers. Better yet, there was no sign of anything that could be considered a landmark and help identify his current location. One setback of Chaos Warp is that if the target can teleport at will, its practically useless, something to give the user time at best. Fortunately for him, K could use magic, so with the image of Ponyville in mind, he focused and snapped his fingers.

Silence.

Another snap of his fingers.

Still nothing.

This time he furiously snapped his fingers in rapid succession.

Sorry try again later.

Barely holding himself from screaming out in frustration, K tried to calm himself down. There was something in this forest that was interfering with his magic. Knowing that he could do nothing else until he could find the source of whatever it was that was disrupting his connection to his mana storage, all he did was sigh and look up to the sky to summarize his situation.

"I am so screwed."

The blue flowers beneath him were completely forgotten.

Elsewhere, Morning

A random diamond dog found himself questioning its existence. Was this all he was destined for? To dig around like his fellows searching for crystals? Not even bothering as to ask why?

Looking up to the sky, he closed his eyes and clapped his paws together.

'Faust, if you truly exist, give me a sign. What is my destiny?'

A sharp whistling sound from above caused his ears to twitch and reflexively look up. Seeing nothing, the diamond dog squinted his eyes and it suddenly hit him. Quite literally.

Groaning in pain, he rubbed at the comical bump that grew on his head, wincing through gritted teeth. Looking down beside him, he found the culprit, in the form of an emerald. He didn't know why he suddenly grew fascinated with it, it was just like any other emerald, nothing about it was special in anyway. He took it in his paws, tracing the edges and shape, when a random thought came to mind.

'I could make a fine spear out of this.'

That line of thought made him stop. Was this his answer? To be a craftsman? A blacksmith?

He looked up again, clenching his paw around the gem, face set into a determined expression.

'Then so be it. I shall be a blacksmith, not only for my kind. But for all! And I will be remembered as the first diamond dog blacksmith in existence!'

And with determination fueling his every step, Azbidian's reincarnation set fort on his journey.

Author's Note:

This story was updated as of 06/19/2015

Flame with little amounts of fuel, helpful criticism is appreciated, and thank you for reading.

Comments

[NoLongerSober]

Can't say I liked the deus-ex feel Twilight's {assuming} magic had there. Doesn't seem like an ancient and very powerful entity should be able to be poofed away. Besides that, not a bad chapter.

[Gotland]

More

[ChronoMitsurugi]

I thought he was supposed to be a merchant who keeps dangerous artifacts out of the wrong hands?
...I have no idea what's going on.

And what's with all this about reincarnations? Just how many random fics do you have in this story? Its like those scenes where a group yells out a bunch of random things cause they are pannicking and the one rational member has to try and put all of it together to make a believable excuse so they don't get in trouble.

[Eliseo221]

6119512 thank you for so eloquently putting exactly what I was feeling complete change in direction from (basically) one chapter to the other. (atleast that's how it felt)

Author: I think I'm done with this...the original concept sounded appealing, and I understand that you are world building, but the (to me) sudden change accompanied by the way the m6 where acting just doesn't do it for me...I'll keep tracking tho, and I'll be on the lookout for more chapters to see how this develops, maybe I will read later, who knows. Good luck