Secrets of the Everfree forest

by King Beardo

Chapter 3: Old Secrets and New Friends

Secrets of the Everfree forest
Chapter 3
Approx. 15 hours after ‘incident’

---

Arkus…… that name, it seems familiar somehow, I decided to query mother for any information, “Mother, do you know him?” The only time I’ve ever heard that name was when a Brown Royal spoke of his father, usually with disdain.

“I don’t know son…” She shrugged at me; she then turned towards Arkus and asked, “Do I know you?”

The behemoth heaved his immense shoulders and shrugged, “You could say that, I mean if that truly is Night you both should know me, quite well I should add.” After speaking he turned his covered face towards me. “Anyways, it’s a pleasure to ‘meet’ you Captain Night Echo, if you have any questions please ask.”

I stood there watching him warily for a moment before continuing, “Okay, question one: What the hell do you mean by Mother and I should know you ‘quite’ well?” Arkus’ large body shifted as I asked this.

Even though I couldn’t see his face I knew he was eyeing me with grief, the question must have depressed him a bit. After a minute of silence he finally spoke with a sigh and a grim tone, “Well, there are some questions I can’t answer just yet, that answer will have to come with time.” He looked to the ground.

His avoidance of the question agitated me. Why was he so damn protective of his identity, he’d sooner or later have to speak to Brown Royal anyways? Who does he think he is saying he ‘knows’ us and we should ‘know ‘ him.

“Bullshit, you can tell us right now,” I looked at Kylios, “OR Kylios, if he doesn’t tell me I will revoke his placement in my squad.” I hissed. This statement made Arkus snap, as his entire body tensed under his armor before quickly walking over to me.

Arkus then attempted to put me in my place, “Your squad?” he growled, “What about Stampede, he GAVE HIS BLOODY LIFE FOR YOUR MISSION, tell me you forgot about him already, I DARE you. You don’t deserve his spot Night Echo. Not acting like that you don’t, I’m willing to bet you haven’t even thought of asking how he died, have you.” His face was inches from mine; I could see his narrow glowing purple eyes through the dark in his helmet. I could feel the heat off of his breath; if he wanted to he could turn me into a six foot tall bon fire, right then and there.

He shocked me with his sudden animosity nevertheless I instantly responded in like manner, “ARE YOU BUCKING KIDDING ME, HE DIED IN MY FORELEGS ARKUS! He took an arrow to the throat….” I started to tear up, again.

“Yes, he did get shot, but he died attempting to try and save you! The trajectory that the arrow was flying at would have ended up in your chest, and then you go and nearly die anyways, I expected better from you Night.” As he finished he walked back to Kylios’ side. “Don’t forget your superior’s sacrifice so soon.”

I stood there silent for what seemed like an eternity with a blank look on my face, ‘What…. He sacrificed himself for me?’ I fell on my knees in shock, not only did he die in a mission I had set in motion because of a feeling in my gut but he also died because of my failure on the battlefield, because I had forgotten my training in the heat of a battle. I huddled up against the wall with my head resting on my knees.
All I could think was of how foolish I had just been, I practically just spat upon my best friend’s death calling his former squad my own without even earning it, as a matter of fact it was my fault my friend was dead. He deserved better, not to die on some folly I had started. My insolence caused all this. I failed him, again.

Twilight sat there shocked at Arkus’ sudden outburst, Arkus reminded her of somepony but she couldn’t quite remember who it was, he was serious but also he had a sarcastic side to him. Not to mention that he somehow knew her. Twilight snapped out of her daydream then turned her attention towards her now broken son, “Hey now, it’ll be alright.” She wrapped her foreleg around Night’s shoulders.

Kylios stood there with an emotionless expression almost statuesque, “You think you were a bit harsh on him?” he asked Arkus without even looking at him.

“No, I should’ve been worse on him but he nearly died.” He remarked impassivle while leaving through the door, before exiting Arkus turned around to Kylios, “I’ll be out at the training grounds if you need me.” With one last glance at me, Arkus left.

Kylios waved him off then sighed, “Well, that was different. It normally takes a helluva lot more to piss ol’ Arkus off.” Kylios then caught himself and silently cursed for being so oblivious to what he said around me.

Kylios walked over to me and stuck his hand out offering to help me up, “He won’t be like that forever, just let him hit a training dummy for awhile and He’ll be back to normal in no time!”

Mother let go of me, albeit reluctantly, as I took his hand in my own only for him to start investigating it. “Good, that’s all the answer I needed!” Kylios suddenly adopted a new warmer, friendlier look. His sudden change in expression puzzled me.

“What do you mean?” I asked in confusion.

Kylios looked at me and frowned a bit, “Well, the hand is the most difficult part of the human anatomy to accustom to, especially if you have never had any humanoid limbs. You simply took my hand without confusion which means your mind and body is agreeing just fine, which is good considering the aftereffects of mind/body confusion are not typically ideal.” He then turned to Twilight and began, “Tell me this though Miss Sparkle, do you or Night’s father have any human ancestors? I need to know about them all if so, even very distant relatives!”

Twilight tried her best to answer, “Well, not on my side Prince. Dark Echo might have had some, but he never really talked about his family anyways. None of his relatives I had met had anything even vaguely human about them either. ”

The Prince slightly frowned again, “Miss Twilight, human DNA isn’t very different from Equine DNA as both races are of sentience, a mix breed doesn’t necessarily have to have traits from both sides.” The Prince turned back to me, “I guess that means we’ll be researching your family records then Night, there might be more to your blood than we know. Well unless you know of any relatives.” I shook my head, and then a certain question occurred to me.

“Wait, Prince Kylios if Human and Pony DNA are similar, why does the Centaur have a half human and Pony body?” I felt dumb for asking but it was nagging at me and had to be let out. Ponies knew very little about the Centaur, mostly just anatomy and tactics for the military’s use. It’s odd how such a distinct mix breed race so genetically close to ponies were as alien to us as the Animal-heads were. I’ve heard that there was a reason for our lack of knowledge but nopony knows of that either.

The Prince’s expression quickly changed from happy to serious in a blink of an eye, “Miss Sparkle, would you kindly leave Mr. Echo and I alone for a while, oh and please check up on the other Elements please? I will have someone retrieve you when we are done.” Twilight audibly sighed and reluctantly complied. After she left Kylios waited a moment and then did a sound seal on the hospital door with a snap of his fingers, he then turned back to me. “Night, there are some things that the Humans of Rea’Deagias regret doing and hate talking about, the topic of Centaurian Genesis is no exception.” He then closed his eyes, after about 30 seconds nodded to an unseen presence, opened his eyes and turned his gaze back upon me. “I will tell you but as it is a well guarded royal secret no information about the forming of the centaur leaves this room, do you understand me?”

I nodded although suspicious, “I understand, but if it’s so confidential why tell me. I can take a no for an answer. Anyways I might-----.” I was interrupted by Kylios before I could finish.

“I don’t care if you don’t want to know. It carries relevance to your mission and maybe even your ancestry. I was going to tell you but later on, but it seems you should know now.” His dead serious tone was intimidating to say the least. He turned to the wall facing the window with his hands behind his back and continued. “Back about 150 years ago….”

---

Canterlot Royal Infirmary
Waiting Lobby
16 Hours after ‘incident’
Twilight Sparkle

Twilight trotted down the halls thinking about her friends. It had been hours since she’d last seen the other Elements of Harmony. Upon entering the waiting lobby she was greeted by several of her friends and their sons\daughters, except one. Applejack was sitting in the corner of the waiting lobby with Storm Fury, Fluttershy, Terra, Knight-General Macintosh, and Macintosh’s Personal Guard.

Applejack had calmed down since the last time Twilight had seen her hours ago. Because of Night Echo’s condition Twilight had told Applejack and Wing Commander Storm Fury about their son, Fury simply nodded and sat down with a grim look where as Applejack broke down hysterically. Since Fury knew how to deal with losses he easily calmed AJ down.

“Hey AJ, are you feeling any better?” Twilight asked nervously from afar.

Applejack forced a smile for her friend, “Yeah a lil’ bit, thanks fer askin’ sugarcube.”

Twilight saw through the forced smile, what she really saw was pain. “Look, Applejack if you want to, we can visit Night in a little while when him and the prince are done talking. Then you can ask him what you’ve wanted to. You want to do that?”

“Naw sugarcube, he needs his rest and I don’t wanna interfere.” Applejack protested and Twilight nodded sullenly.

Rainbow Dash had walked over during Twilight’s conversation with Applejack, “Hey girls sorry I’m late, Spitfire wouldn’t let me go early.” Rainbow turned her attention to Applejack and moved to her side putting a wing around her protectively, “Hey AJ, I’m truly sorry for what happened to Stampede. If it helps you can know that you’re not alone in this situation, I lost Blaze so I can understand.”

If anything, Rainbow had learned manners from joining the Wonderbolts; before she was impatient and emotionless save for sarcasm, but now she’s and understanding, loving, and non-pushy pony.

Applejack then spoke back to RD, “Thank ya kindly RD it does help to know y’all can understand.”

Rainbow Dash smiled, “Why wouldn’t we understand and care, it’s what best friends do! Love you guys, my son wants to talk about something so I’ll see ya later.” With a wave of her hoof RD trotted back to her excessively needy son.

Applejack then turned to Twilight, “Come ta think of it, why aren’t you spending time with Night still Twi?”

Twilight looked back at AJ, “Well the Prince started talking about something confidential and I was asked to leave. The Prince said that when they were done he’d have somepony retrieve me.”

Applejack looked confused, “Too confidential even for the Royal Court Wizard? Why does Night get to know but you don’t? Sounds like bad apples if you ask me.”

After this the worrywart in Twilight started to show. ‘Why would The Prince tell my son but not me? That is weird.’ As she started to pace and silently think to herself Applejack and the others resumed the conversation they were having before.

---

Royal Canterlot Infirmary
Night Echo’s Room
During the previous scene….

“Back about 150 years ago Humans and Ponies lived together in a glorious Alliance. Together we had the power to move even the staunchest gryphon leaders away from war when no one else could. But with power comes corruption and arrogance…” The prince shifted in his armor and continued, “With corruption and arrogance comes black magic; etcetera, etcetera. As humans and ponies were both proud of their appearances and the fact that half Pony/Human children normally looked like only one of their parents, we got a grand idea of tweaking some of the DNA on both sides of the children with black magic…” The Prince again shifted, “Thus the birth of the Centaur, the half Pony/Human horrors you fought yesterday. At the first we were proud of our new ‘creation’ but their quirks started making themselves apparent to both sides: excessively violent, hateful, and cruel…” The Prince stopped for a moment, which gave me the chance to ask a question.

“But I thought that Humans and Ponies loved peace, what made the Centaur so twisted?”

“I was getting to that part Night, let me finish. As I was saying, they hated everything that wasn’t Centaur. We tried for years to figure out what was wrong with them, funny thing it had never occurred to us that it might have been the black magic we pumped into them while in the womb… After about 20 years they finally snapped: mass homicide in Rea’Deagias, summoning rituals for Nightmare Moon in Equestria, massive terrorism threats to Gryphia. Shit just hit the fan practically overnight and we had to stop them. Some delegates proposed a mass purge, others proposed mass exile, and the Pony diplomats proposed banishment to another dimension. It actually ended up being a mix of all three. The very few Centaur that didn’t show hatred were exiled, the thousands that did show hate but never acted on it were banished to a different dimension, and the rest of the Centaur that took part in any of the crimes against the alliance were executed…” The Prince looked down from the window to the Everfree and sighed; “Now apparently the exiles have grown exponentially and want revenge for their exile.” Kylios turned to face me, “They’re also looking for something in the Everfree but we do not know. I will speak to the Sun Goddess of that matter. Tell me Night, are Minotaur common in Equestria?”

I thought for a moment then answered, “Well no but there was a lot of Minotaur at the Centaur base. Why does that matter anyways, I just thought they were mercs.” What would those brainless towers of pure muscle need with peace loving ponies? Minotaur hate the environment of Equestria, they think it’s too fairytale like. Minotaur have been seen in Equestria before, but they are usually mercenaries or exiles.

Kylios facepalmed, “It means that either the Minotaur has allied with the Centaur, or they’re enslaved by them. Yet another crime against nature… bah forget it your probably right Night, I worry too much.” With a snap of his fingers Kylios summoned the black robed figure from before, “Syn would you kindly retrieve Miss Sparkle?”

“Of course, right away my Prince.” It said in a sinister gravelly voice as it blinked his red glowing orbs and disappeared. Not even a second later he returned with the lavender mare obviously shaken from the teleportation.

“Thank you Syn.” Kylios waved off the magus.

“I live to serve, milord.” And with a ‘poof’ he was gone again.

Kylios glanced at her puzzled, “I thought you have had teleportation experience Miss Sparkle?”

Mother shot Kylios an irked look, “Not when I’m taken by surprise! Ahem, excuse me it’s just that he really startled me.” She caught herself for nearly snapping at royalty.

“No no, its fine; I’ll make sure that Syn next time gives you a chance to brace for it. He has a bad habit of doing that.” Kylios then glanced out the window at the now falling moon, “The Sun goddess will awaken shortly and I need to speak with her, so if you two will excuse me I will be in the Royal Antechamber.” And with one final snap of his fingers he was gone in a bright light.

A few moments of silence passed by awkwardly and I decided to break it, “You know mother, what happened to my nurse from before?”

“I don’t know hun, but you defiantly scared her.” She chuckled. “She’s most likely home by now though.”

“Well I hope she doesn’t get in trouble for leaving me and going home. I felt really guilty for scaring her, heh.” I got up from my bed and decided to experiment with my new body. I decided to first pick up a pencil and try to write or draw. To my surprise my ‘hand’writing was better than my ‘hoof’writing , I simply shrugged it off and decided to do a self portrait of my now deceased pony body. After about 15 minutes it was done, it didn’t look expertly drawn but it looked better than anything I could do with my hooves before. Why was my Human body much more skilled in such menial tasks?

“Mother, I think I wanna try combat with this body already.” I stated with an excited but calm tone.

“Tomorrow, you need your rest dear----“

“No mother, please I need to get this body ready for battle, I’m having one of my feelings again…” The last time one of my ‘feelings’ only proved to get my friends hurt.

“Mr. Echo, listen to your mother. She knows what she speaks of, trust me.” A familiar voice bellowed from the door.

I turned to see Arkus leaning against the doorframe with his arms folded, “Oh hey Arkus about earlier I’m sorry… I was a fool to so quickly claim the D.O.H. as mine.”

“Yes and accept my apologies as well, it’s not exactly Draconian custom to berate a superior for anything.” He then held out a giant armored claw, “Friends?”

I nodded, shook his claw and smiled, “Yes, friends.”

Comments

[User_Name555]

Arkus=Spike? Probably not, but still.......................

[Zelda Spectrum]

Aw, why cancel it? I'm really enjoying it and I really want to see where the story goes!

[King Beardo]

1093880
I'm thinking about trying again, hence it still being up and not revoked. I cant help but be really unsure about it