Everfree Weather

by Midknight Defender

Ch. 2 - Meet the band

"Ohmigosh, you can talk! I mean, all the animals talk to me, but you talk with words! A talking dog!"

Kal flinched as the yellow pegasus leapt at him, hooves outstretched, and looked up in astonishment as she―that voice made it a she, for sure―proceeded to pet him from neck to flank with a forehoof.

"Are you hurt? Are you hungry? Would you like some tea? I'm sorry for Mister Squirrel; he gets very protective of me out here. Sometimes monsters from deeper in the forest try to eat me before they realize I'm a friend. He probably didn't see you very well."

Kal struggled to his feet, trying to make sense of the mare in front of him and what was going on.

"I'm... fine... please stop... the petting." That was not dignified, he thought. Since when does getting kicked by a horse feel so good?

"Oh, my! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend you!" The pegasus drew back almost as quickly as she had leapt forward, seeming to shrink in on herself as her muzzle turned slightly pink.

"I'm not offended, just... confused. I've never met a talking pegasus before." Kal shook himself to straighten out the fur ruffled by the sudden petting.

"But... but all pegasi talk!"

"Not where I'm from. Horses of any type don't talk, they just eat grass, poop, pull carts, and get ridden by adventurers."

The pegasus blushed furiously at that. Ridden by...? "Oh dear. No talking ponies at all?"

"But," Kal smiled, "I'm happy to meet one. My name is Kalamadea. I know it's a mouthful, so most folks just call me Kal. I'd dismiss the wolf form spell and greet you in my proper form, but someone seems to have made off with all my clothes." He chuckled ruefully and rubbed the backside of his head with a forepaw, then stared in amazement as the pegasus seemed to shrink again.

"Hey, are you alright?"

"I'm fine, thank you. I'm... Fluttershy.

"What was that?"

"I'm Fluttershy."

"I'm sorry. Something seems to be wrong with the enhanced hearing part of my transformation spell." Kal moved closer and poked the pegasus with his nose. "One more time?"

"I'm Fluttershy." This time, he was able to make out the words in the barely-audible squeak.

"Did I say something wrong?" Kal sat back, still struggling to understand the sudden change in Fluttershy's demeanor.

"I'm sorry. You just surprised me. I'm trying to be less shy with other ponies, but until you said you were using a spell, I thought you were a... you said wolf? But timber wolves are made of wood... " Fluttershy tilted her head, still a little withdrawn.

"Timber wolves. Made of wood. Not even I would have come up with that pun." Kal groaned and lay down with his paws over his face. This seemed to encourage Fluttershy a bit.

"So if you're not a wolf, and you've never seen a talking pony before... what are you?" She rose to her hooves again, and took an uncertain step forward.

"I'm an elf. A wood elf. No, we're not made of wood. We walk on two legs, tend to live in the forests, and our magic is usually tied to nature in some way."

"I think I've heard of something like that. Lyra―one of the ponies in town―is always talking about two-legged creatures called, I think, hummins? She says they had no fur and couldn't use magic."

"Humans. They're taller, uglier, shorter-lived, and they very definitely can use magic, if not with my style and aplomb." He sat up and posed with his nose in the air.

Fluttershy giggled slightly, at that. "Oh, I shouldn't laugh. That wasn't a nice thing to say."

"The truth can be funny, even when it isn't nice." It was Kal's turn to chuckle as his stomach butted into the conversation. "Um. Did you mention food a little bit ago?"

---

"And then he spoke, and he was so cute, Twilight, I couldn't stop myself. I just had to pet his fluffy little sides," Fluttershy bubbled.

"I think it's great that you made a new friend, Fluttershy. But..." Twilight Sparkle hesitated. "You said he looked like a timber wolf, just not made out of wood?"

"Yes! But he didn't seem to believe me when I told him how strange that was. And then he told me he was using a spell to look like that." She wilted, but continued. "I almost ran away when I realized he wasn't really an animal."

"A spell?" Twilight perked up at that, pointedly not-noticing her friend's momentary embarrassment. "To look like something nopony's ever imagined? I have to meet this... elf," she said, lingering over the strange name. "What other magic does he know?"

"I don't know. I fed him a bunch of Pinkie's Secret Surprise Ultra Double Choco-mazing Awesome Muffins of Frosty Doom, and he fell asleep on my couch before we could talk more. He really seemed to like those."

TWILIGHT!

"Well, at least―"

TWILIGHT!

"What was―"

"TWILIGHT!"

CRASH!

The whole library rumbled as a blue streak crashed through the window.

"Twilight! Fluttershy's in trouble! There's a monster asleep in her house! It's teeth and belly are huge! And I think it swallowed her whole!"

"Hi, Rainbow Dash." Fluttershy raised a hoof.

"Hi, Flutters. Twi! We gotta rescue―FLUTTERSHY!" Rainbow swept her up in a hug. "I thought you were eaten!"

"That was just Kal. He really liked Pinkie's muffins." Fluttershy nuzzled Rainbow reassuringly. "Um. Could you put me down, please? If that's okay with you."

"What? Oh, sorry." Rainbow let go of her friend and sat back on her haunches with a small laugh. "Just glad you're not monster chow."

"Were you looking for me, Rainbow?"

"Yeah, Pinkie said she gave you the last batch of her new experimental―hey! Did he eat all of them?" Rainbow laid her ears back in sorrow. "Everypony who tried one said they were the most radical thing she's ever invented."

---

"Mmmrrrh. Strangest. Dream. Ever." Kal sat up slowly, blinking sleep from his eyes.

"Oh, good, you're awake. I wanted you to meet everypony."

Not a dream? Kal looked around the room, vision still blurry. "Uhm. Fluttershy, why does it look like a rainbow exploded in this room?"

"Hah! Because the Rainbow is here," a brash voice replied.

Shaking his head, Kal managed to focus on the speaker, a violently colorful pegasus. "You're as bright as a fae drake."

"Dragons are awesome. I'll take it. Name's Rainbow Dash." She stuck a hoof out, expectantly.

Kal tilted his head, then tapped it with a forepaw. "Kal."

"Kal, I wanted you to meet everypony. These are my friends," Fluttershy said, gesturing around the room with a wing.

"Welcome to Ponyville! I'm Pinkie!" A pink pony bounced up and down on the coffee table. "I brought more muffins!"

"Ah'm Applejack. Got any apple-related issues, ah'm yer pony." A bright orange pony in an overly large hat nodded from one side.

I'm going to go blind.

"Anypony who can make Fluttershy that excited about meeting somepony new is a pleasure to meet, darling. I'm Rarity." A relatively normal-looking white unicorn perched demurely on the sofa. Normal, if you overlook the violet mane and tail styled like a cascading waterfall.

A purple blur popped up in front of him, and Kal jerked back and focused on the purple unicorn nose-to-muzzle with him.

"I'm Twilight Sparkle. Fluttershy tells me you look like this because of an illusion spell? How did you come up with this appearance? The idea of making a timberwolf out of flesh and blood is so strange! I wouldn't believe it if I hadn't seen it. She says you're something called an elf? Can we see what you really look like? What other―" She cut off as a grey paw rested on her nose, eyes crossed to stare at it.

"No, transformation spell. I didn't. Not really. Good thing you can see it, then. Yes. Not until I find some clothes." Kal smirked. "You remind me of a mage I once knew. She got like that anytime someone brought a new book to the Library of New Tanaan."

Twilight blushed and sat back. "I like learning about new things."

"Don't mind her. She's always like that when something new shows up in town."

Kal looked down at the small purple and green lizard that had addressed him from the floor. "Ahnok, dovah, ahrk pruzah grind."

"What was that? I'm Spike."

"Ahnok, dovah, ahrk pruzah grind," Kal repeated. "I said, 'hello, dragon, and well met.' In draconic." The common tongue exists here, but a dragon doesn't speak draconic?

"Can you teach me?" Twilight, Spike, and Fluttershy all looked at each other and giggled at having spoken at the same time.

"This is the first I've heard of dragons having a different language." Spike scratched his head.

"And where did you learn it? Even Princess Celestia never mentioned dragons having their own language," Twilight continued.

"Darlings, please pardon the interruption, but I do believe there is a more important crisis here. Kal, you said you are in need of clothing?" Rarity's gaze was locked on the wolf, starry-eyed.

Author's Note:

Yes, I'm aware that's a different variety of draconic. EverQuest languages were randomized text unless you happened to know the one being spoken.

Comments

[Nimnul]

Meridian 59 predates EverQuest by 4 years (1995 vs 1999), if you're only counting MMOs with 3D engine.

Of course, EQ1 still got an expansion every six months until 2016 and has another one coming late this year or early 2018, while M59 is open source by now and the original two devs seem to run it out of their basements.

I never played M59, I just remember reading an article about it sometime before EQ came out. That's headspace I'm apparently NEVER getting back.

Very nice to see a crossover adventure story, though. I'm following!

Edit: Oh good, now you've got me nostalgic for spamming each other with gibberish to drive up language skill back in the day, haha.

I remember that time very fondly, when an MMO could have 100k players and be considered wildly successful. Nowadays whenever someone makes a new one they're like "We'll totally crack 10 million" and inevitably fall short.

[LostArchivist]

Interesting...

[Midknight Defender]

8819387

Yeah, no, it's crap. I consider it a rough rough rough draft now. At the time, it was just me, out of work on injury pay, bored out of my mind, and trying to get the old creative juices flowing like they used to back before I joined the serf-force. It's either dead or something that will be completely rewritten with a proper outline planning what will happen, because I do once in a while get an idea for where this could go, and if enough stack up, then maybe...

But thanks