Tales of a Wizard: Flesh Masks

by Applechip

Chapter 5

“Now I know how this sounds, but I swear it’s all true,” Twilight tried to explain to her friends, as they sat at one of Sugarcube Corner’s dining tables. Twilight’s friends were simply gaping at her as though she’d started spouting nonsense and random profanities to the assembled group.

“Darling, are you feeling ok?” Rarity asked looking back at Twilight.

“Yes, I am fine! I am telling the truth and I am not insane!” Twilight shouted back, a sense of frustration growing in her at her friends not taking her seriously.

Twilight’s friends began shooting each other nervous glances. The memory of when Twilight had enchanted her Smarty Pants doll and caused a small riot was still fresh in their minds.

“I believe that you think you’re telling the truth. But sugarcube, you’re saying things that just don’t make sense,” Applejack replied.

“Yeah, like you expect us to believe that some weirdo aliens dropped out of the sky then turned into ponies?” Rainbow Dash exclaimed.

“Hence my ‘I know how this sounds’ comment, but I swear it’s true! You don’t have to take my word for it, look at this letter from the Princess.” Twilight took out the response from Celestia and laid it on the table for the group to see.

“What’s this about a veil?” Applejack asked.

Twilight tilted her head and looked at the letter quizzically. “I think that’s how they got here in the first place. I wanted to ask Dresden about it but never really got the chance to, but Celestia seems to know about it. That’s more than enough proof for me.”

“I hadn’t heard anything about disappearances. Is something bad going down?” Rainbow asked Twilight.

“I don’t know exactly, but Dresden and Michael say it’s probably because of some kind of monsters they were chasing called Red Court vampires.”

Applejack rubbed a hoof under her chin, “Can’t say I ever heard of ‘em.”

“She-she doesn’t mention anything about, well, what they are,” whispered Flutteshy, who till now was content to sit in her seat and just listen to her friends.

“They said they were something called human. I have no idea what they’re supposed to look like. When AJ and I found them they just looked like any other ponies.”

“I don’t know about all this alien nonsense, but if Celestia wants us to meet them I think I can give them the benefit of the doubt,” Rarity chimed in.

“I suppose I can too. But Twi, are you sure they can be trusted?” Applejack asked.

“Of course they can be trusted you silly filly,” rang Pinkie Pie’s high pitched voice from somewhere in the nearby kitchen. As soon as Twilight mentioned that there were two new ponies in town Pinkie had abandoned the conversation to rush into the kitchen and begin preparations for her customary ‘welcome-to-ponyville-party’.

Twilight thought back to what she saw inside of Dresden’s soul and what drove him to fight against the monsters that he claimed were now loose in Equestria. The images and scenes she saw were intense and alien to her way of thinking. So much so that most of it she was still trying to decipher. While the details of the event had escaped her, Twilight knew that the Red Court had taken someone very dear to Dresden away from him. It’s from this event, and from the many other horrors he’s witnessed, that an ocean of hate and primal rage spawns from. He has the base need, not desire, need, to see as many these monsters die in as much pain as possible.

But to counter-balance this, Twilight saw that he has the massive strength of willpower necessary to keep his emotions in check. Twilight saw a massive wall of light holding strong against the ocean of rage and emotions, like a dam holding back a flood. This wall seemed to be made out of everything that Dresden was clinging to make his life just a little brighter, whatever friends and family he had, his mentor, and his brief experiences of joy. From all of these rose an incredibly strong desire to protect others, to protect those that needed his help and to spare them the same life of pain and suffering that he’d been subject to.

Standing atop the wall was Dresden as Twilight had seen him. He stood with his hooves planted firmly in the wall beneath him as he scowled at the darkness beyond the wall’s limits. It took a few seconds for Twilight to realize that the darkness seemed to be physically moving, trying to reach out and engulf Dresden. He shouted defiantly and drew from the ocean of rage behind him to launch large bursts of fire at the encroaching shadows to keep them at bay. Twilight couldn’t help but feel awed for his fortitude and saddened for what he had to go through to protect those around him. She also knew that if something were to happen and he lost those closest to him, then Dresden would fall and all that would be left would be directionless rage and an all encompassing darkness. He would become something far worse than the monsters he hunted.

“Yes, he can be trusted. He may not tell us everything from the get go but if the creatures he’s after are here, then he will not stop until they are all d-dead,” Twilight stammered, surprised at her own choice of words. “He wants nothing more than to stop them and protect as many of us as he can. So yes, I trust him.”

As if on cue, a familiar voice thundered from outside the bakery. “Get back here and get your ass kicked like a man!”

Oh Celestia, what now?

Everypony there, including Fluttershy, went to the window to see what the commotion was. From their vantage point they could see the minotaur, Iron Will running for his life from a familiar dark grey unicorn who was hurling what looked like balls of condensed air at the fleeing minotaur.

Fluttershy let out a small squeak and whispered, “Is that…”

Twilight face-hoofed several times before answering, “Yes, yes that’s Dresden. Wait here girls, I’ll be right back.” Twilight ran out of the shop and nearly crashed straight into Michael. They took a brief second to reorient themselves.

“I’m sorry Ms. Sparkle, but would you help me get Harry under control?” Michael asked.

“Was about to ask you the same thing,” Twilight responded. Then without a further word, they both turned and chased after Dresden and the retreating minotaur. Leaving the several confused mares to mutter amongst themselves in the sweet shop.

---

I chased after the self proclaimed ‘Iron Will’ with several bowling ball sized orbs of condensed air floating beside me. With a whispered word and a thought, I shot several of the orbs at the minotaur. They were by no means lethal, but they would still leave a decent impression in whatever they hit. Two of the orbs flew past Iron Will’s horns, one clipped his left arm, while the forth hit him square in the back and launched him forward. He staggered at the sudden forward momentum but quickly regained his footing and continued fleeing.

I stopped my pursuit at the edge of town, just before the cobblestone became open fields. I stood and watched as the minotaur ran as fast as he could for the distant hills. On pure instinct, I snorted a puff of air and stomped my hoof into the ground in a ‘so there’ fashion. Satisfied that I had driven away the source of trouble from the mint-green unicorn mare I turned back around to see if I could help salvage her groceries, only to find Michael and Twilight running up towards me.

“Mr. Dresden, just what do you think you’re doing?” Twilight roared at me in such a perfect angry mother voice, that I momentarily forgot I wasn’t a six year old caught stealing a cookie.

Right beside her was Michael actively trying to restrain the livid Twilight. “Harry, would you please explain what just happened?”

I merely shrugged at the two of them, “He was being a jerk, and he had it coming. He shoved a pony into a mud puddle and crushed half of her groceries.”

Michael, who knew my protective nature well, instantly pieced together the rest of the story. Twilight meanwhile was just getting started. “So you just attack him!” she exclaimed.

“No I did not just attack him, not at first anyway. I went up to him and told him to apologize to the lady. Whereupon he turned to me and yelled, and I quote, ‘Somepony tries to criticize, Iron Will will penalize!’ Then he started trying to hit me, so I responded in kind. It was purely self-defense.”

Twilight seemed mollified, but by no means content with my explanation. “You chased him out of town that was not self-defense.”

“Well self-defense is the excuse I’m sticking with, besides do you really want someone like that here? I mean how many decent ponies do you know that talk exclusively in the third-person?”

That seemed to put a smile on Twilight’s face. “Ok you’ve got me there, but it was still risky. You could’ve gotten hurt,” she scolded, looking me over to see if I had sustained any injuries.

“Oh don’t worry about me, I’m fine. He was just all show. Now if you’ll excuse me, the mare he knocked over probably still needs some help,” I finished as I trotted past the two.

Michael, who was no longer restraining Twilight, at least looked satisfied with my explanation. Twilight was just standing there, still trying to piece together the events that had just happened. Her eyes were darting around in her head as she made the various logic connections. She never even noticed that I had left.

I made my way back down the path I had run and over to the mint-green unicorn mare. She was still sitting on the side of the road desperately trying to get the copious amounts of mud out of her coat and mane. I took a look at the groceries on the ground and levitated those that weren’t crushed or covered in mud into a single bundle. With the groceries floating beside me I trotted over to the mare, who by now had managed to get most of the mud off, and presented the salvaged goods.

“Here, you dropped these,” I spoke in as soft a voice as I could manage.

The mare turned to look at me and with a slightly shaky voice said, “Th-thank you. Where’d Iron Will go?”

I smirked at that, “Last I saw, he was running back home with his tail tucked firmly between his legs.” My voice softened when I noticed several minor cuts and bruises on her body. “Do you need any need any help?”

She shook her head and got back to her hooves, “No, no I think I can manage. Thank you again. I’m Lyra by the way, Lyra Heartstrings.”

I smiled at her and began to turn away, “I’m Harry Dresden. Try to be a little more careful with your groceries from now on.”

“Harry Dresden? That doesn’t really sound much like a pony name.”

I paused and turned back to face Lyra, “Oh, well that’s because-“

“Harry!” Twilight’s shouted from right behind me, “We really need to get going, right now. Goodbye Lyra,” she finished as she pulled me away from the perplexed looking Lyra.

As we walked away Michael began scolding me, “Harry, it would probably be best if the fact that we’re not from Equestria didn’t become common knowledge.”

“Besides, it’s time you met my friends,” Twilight said as she turned us towards a large building I assumed was Sugarcube Corner.

When we entered the bakery I was assaulted by a wave of raucous laughter. Almost everypony there was laughing themselves silly. A quick look around told me that these were the same ponies that I saw immortalized in Twilight’s soul.

One cyan-coated pegasus with a rainbow mane and tail was rolling around on the floor, crying slightly from the intense laughter. “That was awesome! Did, did you see the look on his face? I thought he was going to wet himself.”

“Now Rainbow, there’s nothin’ funny about chasin’ somepony outa town,” said an orange earth pony who was trying and failing to hide a massive smile.

“Will you all calm down!” shouted Twilight, appalled at her friends’ reaction to what I did. Only when they finally stopped laughing or chuckling did Twilight proceed. “Ok, Mr. Dresden and Mr. Carpenter, these are my friends. This is Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Rarity, and Fluttershy,“ she said pointing out each in turn. “Wait, where’s Pinkie Pie?”

“Here I am!” came an extremely high pitched voice from right behind me. After I was finished with my heart attack I turned to see a bright pink earth pony that was somehow balancing a tray of cupcakes on her head.

“Ohmygosh, so you two are the two new ponies! I get to make two new friends! What do you like to do? What does you cutie mark mean? We need to have a party! Do you like cupcakes? What am I saying everypony likes cupcakes, here have one!” she finished her breathless onslaught of questions by taking one of the cupcakes in her hoof and forced it into my mouth.

As I staggered over to a corner of the bakery gasping for air after being force-feed a cupcake, Twilight walked up to confront Pinkie. “Now Pinkie, we had a talk about this. You don’t force-feed anypony. You remember what happened to Bon-Bon after last time?”

“Yeah, sorry about that Dresden,” Pinkie said while bouncing on the spot.

“Don’t, don’t worry about it,” I replied, still coughing up bits of cupcake.

Rarity turned to face me and gave me an approving smile. “I must say, thank you for driving away that horrid minotaur, Iron Will. He’s caused enough problems around here already. Anypony who can stand up to him is more than welcome in my boutique. Stop by anytime, we will have to get you some decent clothing.”

“While I don’t really agree with what ya did, that was a might impressive,” Applejack added.

I felt a slight tap on my shoulder and a whispered, “Um, thank you.” I turned to see Fluttershy crouching on the floor next to me. When I turned my gaze to her she let out a small squeak and tried to hide behind her pink mane.

Holy mother of God, that is the single cutest thing I have ever seen in my entire life. It was all I could do to prevent myself from trying to hug and comfort her. But a large part of my brain was still screaming at me to do something. So I offered her a hoof, which she just stared at for a second or two before accepting it and being pulled back to her hooves. That seemed to calm her a bit.

The only pony present that didn’t seem happy, or at least content, with that business with Iron Will was the still grumbling Twilight.

“Alright girls, the Princess wanted us to get these two brought up to speed on almost everything we’ve done here. So let’s get started,” Twilight directed at her friends.

Michael and I took our seats at the large table the group was sitting at, and they began to fill us in on the various adventures they’ve had in this quaint little town. They explained everything from how they met, to how they earned their places as the bearers of the Elements of Harmony, to all of the lessons they’ve learned since they’ve known each other. It was rather heartwarming really. It was when they had finished recounting story about a swarm of ravenous insects called parasprites, when I had to point out a few problems I saw.

“Hold on, Celestia is supposed to be over a thousand years old right?” I asked.

“Right,” answered an energetic Pinkie Pie.

“But she’s never seen a parasprite before?”

“Yeah, I was wondering about that too,” added Rainbow. All of us looked towards Twilight for an explanation.

Twilight shuffled slightly under the gaze of her friends. “I don’t think she leaves her castle that often. I mean the entire time I was training under her she only left Canterlot for the Summer Sun Celebrations or for business trips.”

“Ok, well what about that business with getting the dragon to leave? There’s a huge dragon threatening to spread smoke everywhere, and instead of sending trained professionals, she sends you and your friends.” I thumped a hoof on the table for added emphasis. “No offense,” I added quickly.

“Well that was more of a diplomatic mission. If a contingent of guardsponies showed up to get the dragon to leave that could’ve been seen as a hostile act.”

“I suppose,” I grumbled. I hadn’t even met this Celestia yet, but I was already having doubts about her.

After my short bout of questions, Twilight and her friends returned to regaling us with their tales. From there the stories quickly became jumbled, skipping back and forth between great periods of time as the different story tellers wanted to get their personal adventures told first. It was near the end of all the stories that Twilight finished recounting her tale about Pinkie’s ‘Pinkie Sense’ and how she learned that she shouldn’t try to explain every little thing.

“Oh, so Pinkie’s precognizant,” I stated glancing over at the pink mare.

“She’s what!” Twilight said immediately. A manic gleam in her shone in her eye as she detected an explanation for a problem she thought unsolvable. Evidently I’d just thrown that particulat lesson out the window.

“Uh, precognizant, it means she has a natural magical ability to detect the near future.”

“But she’s an earth pony, she doesn’t have any magic." Twilight looked from me to Pinkie, trying to make sense of what I was saying.

“Then how do you explain how cutie marks appear? I mean they are supposed appear on your flank after you have a personal realization about yourself right?" I looked around the table for a confirmation.

“Right, my sister’s still pullin’ her mane out tryin’ to get hers," Applejack chimed in.

“Well if that’s the case, then I highly doubt that cutie marks are a genetic trait. It’s more likely that it’s a form of magic unique to the ponies of this world. But for something like that to work there need to be at least some form of magic in the pony in question to act as a catalyst. So it stands to reason that all ponies have at least some scrap of magic in them, but only unicorns can actually tap into it,” I explained to the group at large.

Twilight’s eyes were becoming increasingly large as she took in the information and processed it, looking for any fallacies in my logic. “But how does that explain ‘Pinkie Sense’?” Twilight asked.

“Well if I had to guess, I’d say that Pinkie has an unusually large amount of talent in seeing into the near future. But without a horn to control her talent, it manifests itself as physical reactions to future events. I imagine it took a while to figure out what all the different little twitches meant?” I directed at Pinkie.

“Yep, it took a few years to figure out some of them, others I just kind of knew what they meant,” Pinkie answered, completely unfazed by what I had said.

Twilight was still staring at me, completely taken aback at the sudden and unexpected nugget of information. Then her expression turned to something greedy as she undoubtedly began gathering other questions for me to answer. I really didn't like that look in her eyes.

Uh oh, she’s going to keep me up all night with her questions. Maybe I can beg Applejack to take me in for a night.

Michael had evidently noticed Twilight’s face as well and had guessed its meaning because he chose that moment to ask, “If I may interject, does anypony have a spare room I can use for tonight? It’s just that with Spike back at the library it’s going to be a little crowded and I don’t wish to intrude any more than is necessary.”

I immediately shot a glare at Michael, who was decidedly avoiding my gaze.

“You can stay with me, I have a spare room you can use,” Rarity offered, looking over Michael’s brilliantly colored mane and coat.

Michael gave Rarity a polite nod, “Much appreciated Ms. Rarity.”

With my only excuse to leave the library gone I glanced back at Twilight, who was still looking at me like a vulture would look at a wounded rabbit.

Gulp.

Before Twilight could begin her questions Pinkie suddenly shot out of her seat and shouted, “That’s enough story time, now it’s party time!” Pinkie threw her forelegs up towards the ceiling and confetti rained down on us all.

She began running around clearing room for a dance floor and setting out food at a pace I didn’t think should’ve been possible. Soon enough there was a disco ball hanging from the ceiling and there was a moderately paced rhythm thumping throughout the bakery.

All the others began moving around, dancing, playing games, and otherwise enjoying themselves. Twilight, Fluttershy, and Rainbow had all taken to the dance floor, trying to match the beat of the music around them. When I saw Twilight, I had to try very hard to not burst out laughing. Wow, she cannot dance, I thought to myself. My tail began twitching again.

“Oh, you have got to be kidding me!” I said as I gave the traitorous appendage my best death glare.

“Your tail twitches around Twilight a lot too?” came Pinkie’s voice from right next to me, making me jump again.

How does she keep sneaking up on me?

“Yeah, I can’t figure out how to get the thing to… Wait, your tail?” I gaped at Pinkie, hoping she wasn’t saying what I thought she was.

“Yeah, my tail twitches whenever something’s about to fall down. Don’t know why it happens around Twilight more often than most.” She gasped coming to some realization, “Do you have ‘Pinkie Sense’ too?”

“Oh ok, no that’s… well never mind about that. Listen it’s getting a little late and I’m kind of tired so I think I’ll just go and head back to the library,” I said, hoping to get to bed before Twilight could corner me.

Almost immediately the pink mare’s poofy hair began deflating and fell around her face, and her normally bright pink coat turned several shades darker. “Oh, ok. If you don’t want to stay you can go.”

Curse my chivalric nature. I just can’t stand to see a lady sad. “You know what, never mind. I think I can hang around here for a while.”

That cheered her right back to her normal self. “Yay! Ok, so what do you want to do first? I have pin the tail on the pony, there’s the dance floor, I’ve got some board games around here, or you could get something to eat! I have cake, cupcakes, candy, cider, soda, sarsaparilla, and so much more!”

I was only distantly paying attention to what she said and just nodded my head. Ok, just stay long enough to make Pinkie happy, and then duck out to get to bed before Twilight catches you. Sounds like a plan.

But that plan didn’t work out so well. Whenever I hinted that I wanted to leave, Pinkie would appear out of nowhere and guilt me into staying. She was evidently determined to see me stay as long as she could manage. Pinkie's methods for keeping me at the party started out more or less harmless, like pushing me onto the dance floor or challenging me to some random game, which she always won somehow. Then as the party dragged on her methods became more forceful, like hefting a huge meal in front of me and not leaving until I'd eaten most of it, or actually forcing my head into the bobbing for apples bucket and holding me there for several seconds.

It was only after avoiding what seemed like the third murder attempt, did I come to an important revelation about the pink party pony. Hells bells, I've been in war zones less painful than this mare's party.

The party went on for a few hours until everypony decided that they had had enough and went to their respective homes. Pinkie tried in vain to keep her friends there, but was forced to concede defeat and allowed us to leave. Rainbow and Fluttershy both darted into the air upon leaving Sugarcube Corner’s front door. Applejack waved a hoof in farewell and galloped of towards a large collection of apple trees I saw on the distant hills. Michael followed Rarity back to her boutique, and I walked back towards the library with a Twilight that had already begun her onslaught of questions.

She mainly asked me about how I worked magic and what I thought about her different theories she had on various magical applications. This went on until well after midnight. I was curled up in her guest bed with my head under my pillow, trying to drown out the purple unicorn that was discussing her idea of creating miniature point to point portals.

“So to help out the mail service, I had the idea of enchanting the local mailboxes to allow for instantaneous deliveries,” Twilight ranted about her latest thought. “I’d have to create a central teleport nexus and then link each individual mailbox to the nexus. I wonder how I’d identify each address though. Harry do you have any-“

“TWILIGHT!” I shouted, cutting her off. “I am tired, I want to sleep. Please go to bed.”

“But I have more ideas that I want your take on,” she moaned.

This mare was tap-dancing on my last nerve. “Twilight, if you do not let me sleep I will set one of your books on fire.” I wouldn’t, and she probably knew that too, but it got the point across.

She huffed out a breath of air. “Fine, I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Goodnight, Twilight,” I said with an enormous sigh of relief.

“Goodnight, Harry,” she responded as she closed the door behind her.

Finally some peace and quiet, maybe tomorrow we’ll actually get somewhere with this Red Court business.

You really should be careful what you wish for.

Comments

[Gytrash]

What a threat that was. I wonder if he is going to come to the conclusion that Celestia is a massive troll.

[esopbelac117]

If you haven't decided yet, i think you should side with Trollestia rather than incompetent leader Celestia. It just seems like that personality melds better with Harry's as well as being a little more realistic. Living for thousands of years with near omnipotence would most likely cause a case of extreme cynicism. Tia probably just hides it well, masking it with her natural benevolent nature. Also interested in what Harry will see when he soulgazes the Princess, i believe they will have a lot more in common then either of them would have originally thought. Its 12:05 and i have to be at work in 7 hours, Private Insomnia reporting for duty on the USS procrastination.

[Aziraphael]

I can honestly say that I've never been a fan of the whole "ponies are retarded in and more than a thousand years never bothered to conduct even a basic magical scan on an earth pony up until some random person who's never been to Equestria before tells them the earth-shattering revelation of basic logic" thing. Seriously, the belief that a thousand years of magical researchers had never considered that line of reasoning at least enough to test it is absurd.

[fractalman]

As if on cue, a familiar voice thundered from outside the bakery. “Get back here and get your ass kicked like a man!”

Ah, Harry dresden, you chauvanistic pig.

“But she’s never seen a parasprite before?”

My interpretation is that she was letting Twilight save face. She did speak of an infestation with... a verbal wink for sure, maybe a literal wink.
8348859
Twilight did, in fact, hook Pinkie Pie up to some sort of (presumably magic scanning) machine, and wasn't able to get anywhere. It's quite possible that earth pony magic just blends in with the background magic of Equestria.