The First Night
He usually didn't sleep too well. For most of his life, he'd lived being woken up by something that required him to act immediately. Because of that, he had gotten a bit too used to only getting a few hours of sleep, rather than the healthy six to eight.
As it was, he was a little groggy when he just... woke up.
That didn't mean he didn't appreciate the extra sleep, of course.
Looking up from his position, he glanced out the window and found that the moon had risen. Feeling somewhat annoyed at himself, Emerald rolled directly out of bed, catching himself before he hit the ground, sending a nice little shock through his body, waking him.
He took the time to find his bag, and rummaged through it for a moment, and pulled out a black strap, which he fastened to his torso, the belt portion going through the space between his wings, fitting rather well despite it's age.
Oh how he loved this bag. Having dozens upon dozens of enchantments woven into the damn thing, it was like a little pocket dimension all to himself. It was was one-of-a-kind too. The area inside the bag was about the size of Canterlot Castle, and was even modeled after the place, though he wasn't sure how they'd managed that. He'd kept all his personal items in the thing, including treasures he'd collected, money he'd earned, and pretty much everything else.
Thankfully there was some sort of enchantment that kept someone else from using it properly, since if someone ended up taking it they'd have everything he'd ever truly owned.
Not the best idea, in hindsight, but he'd live with it.
Once the strap was on, he searched through the saddlebag once more. He quickly found what he was looking for, and pulled it out. It was a long, custom black locust spear, of thestrali design. It's dark brown shaft showed it's relative age. The shaft of the heavier-than-it-probably-should-be weapon was a bit shorter than he was long. The heavy steel spearhead appeared to belong to a short sword rather than a spear. Unlike most spears, made to be particularly good for thrusting, Emerald's spear was made to slash and cut, rather than to stab.
Many asked why he simply didn't get a sword, only to be ignored.
Honestly, he just preferred the extra length. If he couldn't kill his enemy before they got past his range, he'd simply burn their head off anyways.
Regardless of how awake he was, he yawned momentarily, before heading outside.
The cool air hit him hard, washing over his body with relish. His gaze trailed up to the moon, and a small grin lit up his face, growing slightly more as his eyes trailed over the numerous constellations he knew by heart.
Once Emerald finally moved out of his thoughts, he rummaged through his bags once more, before pulling out four metal stakes, each one baring a dull red orb atop. Sound suppressors. Once activated, a large dome appears and removes all sound from within the dome. Only special disruptors were able to prevent the spell from activating around certain points.
They were rather popular during the old wars before Luna's banishment. However, certain flaws were discovered that removed them from active service. For starters, after activation, anything that moves into the dome is not affected by the spell. Not only that, but it was found that the spell can't enter other places. It washes over any obstructions, rather than enter into them.
Awful for military operations where assassination was necessary, but perfect for keeping a bunch of little townsfolk from wondering 'What the fuck is going on outside?!'.
Emerald took off, gliding gently over the town as his eyes flickered over each and every building, searching for the perfect spots to drive the suppressors into the ground. He spotted a large apple orchard north of the town which would easily be out of the range of the suppressors. He frowned slightly, but ended up shaking his head.
He'd deal with the orchard later if he really had too.
Finally spotting the four corners of Ponyville, Emerald dived down and began placing the suppressors in their proper places. It took a few minutes, but eventually they were all in place, and, with a little pressure atop one of them, the dull red orbs glowed with a faint light, before a large dome of cobalt light encompassed the town, before fading away.
Emerald stared for a moment, before reaching into his bag once more, and bringing out a star shaped necklace and putting it on. He stepped into the barrier, feeling the spell wash over and disperse over him, causing the necklace he wore to glow with a soft light, before it faded.
Nodding to himself, Emerald began the first of what was to be many nights.
His first stop was to be the border of the Everfree so that he could gauge the level of danger it posed to the town as well as monitor any animals who strayed too close.
Thankfully, it seemed the animals weren't too keen on venturing close to town. It made sense though. From what he'd heard, the creatures of the Everfree rarely took the time to leave the forest, likely due to the sheer amount of ponies making hunting harder.
Although he'd been surprised at how, dare he say, bold the ponies were.
After all, building a schoolhouse less than forty feet from the forest's edge meant they had to believe nothing would ever happen, right?
Well, that or they were stupid, but, given that this had to do with a bunch of foals, he honestly hoped they were just bold and not stupid.
Regardless of what previous evidence would imply.
He hummed lightly, still hovering above the schoolhouse, before shrugging and moving off, intent on further patrolling the area and getting a feel for the general job.
As he thought, the apple orchard was too far out of the way for the suppressors to work, meaning he'd have to patrol around it every so often. What he hadn't expected, however, was the small cottage he spotted away from town.
It was a bright little thing, completely covered and surrounded by vegetation. He could see numerous animals making their home around, as well as inside, of the thing. Even spotting a hen house and animal pen, he felt he could give an accurate guess as to who lived here.
The resident animal lover, hermit, and Element of Kindness, Fluttershy.
Emerald frowned slightly, glaring at the offending cottage. This area would likely be a lot harder to take care of. His eyes trailed over the animals around the cottage, stopping on a large bear, as well as a manticore he could spot just beyond the treeline.
...
Perhaps Fluttershy's little friends would keep her safe for him?
He sighed, landing back on the edge of town.
The orchard and the cottage could be an honest problem if anything ever decides to go after either of the two mares. Of course, that's assuming something actually chooses to go after them in the first place.
He supposed he'd just have to keep an eye out for some vibrations from those two directions more than he usually would.
He shrugged.
He'd burn that bridge when he got to it.
Literally, if he had too.
A low growl broke him from his thoughts, bidding him to turn. The Everfree treeline seemed to suck in all the light that dare try to enter the uncontrolled domain, leaving the two, soulless green eyes to peer at him from the darkness as the only light capable of existing within said darkness. A putrid scent finally struck his nose, causing it to scrunch at the stench emanating from the body of rotting wood in front of him.
The timberwolf prowled out of the darkness, revealing it's oaken body to the thestral. Wood replaced muscle and sap replaced blood for the creature in front of him, allowing it's never-ending hunger to exist.
The two beasts stared each other down for all of a moment, before the wolf pounced forward.
The blur of brown barely had time to witness the flash of steel, before it's head was disconnected from it's body, falling to the ground, lifeless.
Emerald stared down at the corpse of the predator he'd killed. It was young and alone, likely it's small size had allowed it to be shoved around and away from its sources of food by the rest of its group, and it had come to him for an easy meal. He huffed, having been expecting a much bigger, much stronger wolf to have the gall to exit the forest, if any at all.
Regardless, he couldn't just leave the corpse here. It could lead to dissent amongst the town if anyone saw it.
Emerald let a savage, wicked grin split his face, before a cloud of blue fire spewed from his maw, consuming the kindling that had once been the wolf. The scent of burning oak overtook the smell of rotting wood as the body burned before him, the wondrous blue light illuminating the area around him, cutting through the darkness.
He grinned.
Tonight might just be a little entertaining.
Or not.
Unfortunately, for him at least, the timberwolf was the only thing remotely interesting that had happened to him during the patrol.
Well, he supposed that wasn't entirely true. He had found an interesting set of notes underneath a cloud home, which, if Emerald remembered correctly, belonged to Rainbow Dash, the Element of Loyalty. He couldn't help but scoff at the idea.
A lazy pony who tended to put off all of her work until the last second was supposed to be the embodiment of Loyalty?
Ridiculous.
Regardless, the notes he'd found were from some griffons, as was apparent by the chicken scratch they called writing. That wasn't what was interesting, rather, it was the fact that they were all threats of varying degree. Given how none of them addressed having received a response, it was likely Rainbow never saw them.
She didn't seem the type to periodically check underneath her own house.
The moisture in the cloud probably soaked into the paper and caused them to fall through the cloud's floor. Part of him wondered how they managed to get the paper to stick to a cloud door in the first place, but he quickly disregarded it.
He sighed, reading over the threat letters.
They mainly spoke about how Rainbow hurt a friend of theirs and how they wanted to 'return the favour'. From the looks of things, they very well might attack this week.
He sighed. It was way too early to deal with this shit.
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Acctually, no I didn't even notice... and please don't call us that
9046015
Understood. Although my point does stand. Chapters will be getting longer. I know I'd be sad if a story I was reading updated, only to have a couple hundreds words less than what I was expecting.
Still, I'm glad people are actually reading this anyways, so I've no room to argue, really.
9046197
True, but a warning always helps
Nice! Liked and followed.
9059818
I had a feeling I might be going a little overboard sometimes, but I personally can never tell. As for the its/it's, I've always had an issue with that. I can never tell which one is right for the given situation. The pacing for this story is one of the things I'm absolutely terrified about! I worry that either I'm going too quick or too slow, and I guess it ends up showing itself in those little paragraphs that I never catch.
Oh this made me happy. I was worried that Emerald would come across poorly to you guys, and it's nice to see someone happy about his character, even if his character has yet to fully come into the light. As for the whole breathing fire thing... Traditionally, thestrals are bat-ponies, however in this Equestria, thestrals are a little more complicated. I can't into the details as to why that is, because if I do it will spoil a pretty big plot point in the future, but don't worry, it will come up.
Thank you for the criticism, I'll definitely be considering it as I go along. I'm glad you've enjoyed it so far!
What a dry story.
9625524
Good stories always take time to get going dude.
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