To Err is Equine

by RLYoshi

6: From Solution to Adventure

Turns out I didn't need to wait more than a couple of days for the result of False's attempts to contact the princess. Being a member of the Royal Guard, she could easily get to her to tell her things, and as soon as Celestia heard about how "the evil Windigo" had been caught, she didn't hesitate to follow False back to her home.

As the princess entered the earth pony's home (yes, False is an earth pony after all), she likely expected to see me tied up on the floor, struggling to break free. Or maybe stabbed in the chest, a pool of blood forming around me.

She didn't expect me to be casually sitting on the couch, flipping through a newspaper. I glanced up at her, my heart almost stopping, but I mentally assured myself that False had everything under control.

"Ohai," I greeted nonchalantly, going back to my reading material. Celestia looked at False with a confused expression.

"I thought you said you captured him?" she asked.

"Look at him," False replied. "You think he needs to be captured, even if he was evil?"

"I heard that!" I called, not taking my eyes off the paper.

False ignored me. "I just told you that to get you down here quicker. He's not evil. If he was, he would've...I don't know, done something. He's had plenty of chances."

"He was always being watched back in Ponyville," Celestia argued. "There weren't any chances then."

"No, but there were after that," False shot back. I almost cringed at how snappish she was being with the princess. "He and I were the only ones who knew he was here, and I couldn't exactly watch him all day. He had multiple opportunities to escape, attack me, or do anything really. But he hasn't."

Celestia narrowed her eyes. "You left a potentially dangerous creature alone several times a day?"

"He's not-"

"Look at him!" Celestia demanded. They both turned to me. I just kept reading, pausing only to scratch my face. I looked at my hoof after doing so.

"I didn't know you could scratch without fingers," I noted out loud. Shrugging, I went back to the paper. False shot Celestia a smirk.

"See? Not dangerous," she stated. Celestia sighed, then trotted over to me. I looked up at her, still holding onto the paper like a shield.

"Arrell." Her face had pretty much no emotion on it, so I couldn't tell what she was thinking.

I tried to say "Yes?" casually, but my fear took over, so it came out as more of a squeak. She didn't seem to notice, but False did, judging by her giggle.

Celestia didn't speak. Instead, she lit her horn, and I suddenly felt myself being held in place. Panicking, I tried to struggle free, but it was pointless.

"Hold still, Arrell," Celestia said quietly. Her voice didn't sound angry. Instead, it sounded...apologetic? ...nah, that was probably me getting hopeful. Either way, I found myself complying, halting my attempts at breaking free while staying completely scared out of my mind.

Suddenly, her horn glowed even brighter...and I blacked out.

---

I tried to run away from the searing flames, but I couldn't even budge. The fire hurt me even more now than it did as a human; back then, at least I could move, but here, I felt like I was...melting.

I collapsed and stared at the ground as my vision blurred. All I could see now was the flames as they engulfed my body...and then a voice called to me.

---

"...rell? Arrell?"

My eyes snapped open to see a familiar wooden ceiling. I turned over onto my front and stood up, groaning as I felt my joints crack. Once I was fully awake, I turned my head to see Celestia looking at me in worry.

"Ohai," I greeted as I took a glance around the room. Bookcases, wooden walls, a sofa that I had been sleeping on. Twilight's library? Twilight's library. Why am I back here?

"It's good to see you awake," Celestia responded with a smile. "You had been unconscious for at least a day, and then you suddenly began screaming."

"Why was I unconscious?" I asked, having trouble recalling previous events.

Celestia shifted uncomfortably, but explained anyway. "Back in False Front's home, I decided to try and use my magic to search your mind and body for the feeling of evil that I sensed before. However, in order to find it, I had to put you to sleep temporarily."

"Did you find it?" I asked, nearly pleading.

She nodded. "I did find it, but...strangely, I cannot remove it. All I could do was block it off inside of you."

I let this thought process in my brain. "So...I have an intense evil, powerful enough to make you want to capture or kill me to keep it away from other ponies...just trapped inside of me, unable to get out?"

"Yes."

I facehoofed. "Yeah, I don't see anything wrong with this picture!"

"What do you mean?"

I turned my head at the new voice. Twilight had walked in from a different room, unnoticed. She didn't look surprised to see me, for whatever reason. The princess probably told her about how I was safe already.

"Never mind," I sighed. "Good to see you again, Twilight."

"You too, Arrell," she greeted with a smile. "The princess told me already what happened."

Knew it.

"So...am I safe?" I asked, turning to Celestia.

"Not quite." Oh crap. "While I am fine with letting you go free, I still plan to keep an eye on you for a little while, just in case. The seal I placed to block off the evil within you should be enough to keep you from accessing it, deliberately or accidentally, but I just want to make sure."

I swallowed nervously. "So...now what?"

"For the next while, I'm allowing you to do whatever you want...within reason," she added with a mild glare. "However, I insist on keeping a member of my Royal Guard nearby at all times."

"So, I'm basically on probation?" I deadpanned.

"In a sense," she replied with a shrug. She turned her head. "False Front, could you come in here please?"

I looked over at the door Twilight had come through earlier. Now, False walked through. I have to admit, I was surprised to see her again. I had a feeling that once the whole thing with Celestia was sorted out, I'd have headed back to Ponyville and wouldn't see her anymore.

"False Front, I am assigning you to watch Arrell for however long I deem necessary," the alicorn proclaimed. False merely nodded, and Celestia nodded back.

"Hold on," Twilight suddenly broke in. "Princess, why do you need one of your guards to watch Arrell? Couldn't the girls and I do it?" She was asking not out of curiosity, but because she thought Celestia didn't trust her enough. I could tell.

"My faithful student, while I have the utmost faith in your abilities, I believe this is for the best," Celestia comforted her. "We do not know enough about Arrell as of now, and I cannot task you with watching his every move. It would distract you from your work. However, this sort of thing is what guards, such as False Front, are supposed to do."

"Plus, I probably won't be staying in Ponyville my whole life," I added, walking up. "Until I know exactly what I'm gonna do here in Equestria, I'm probably going to try a lot of things. Travelling, honing my skills as a Windigo, and all that. Would you really want to leave your friends and home just to listen to me make bad puns for who knows how long?"

Twilight thought about it for a second, then smiled. "I guess you're right...sorry about that."

I shrugged. "It's cool."

There was a brief silence before everypony in the room, sans me, facehoofed simultaneously. I just smirked.

"I warned you."

---

After chatting for a little bit more, Celestia decided she needed to head back to Canterlot, and left. Twilight went to explain to her friends what just happened, taking Spike with her. So I was left all alone with False in the library.

"Wait, where's Risk?" I suddenly asked out loud when I realized it was just the two of us.

"He went out to practice something while you were asleep and hasn't come back yet," False explained. She nudged me. "By the way, you still owe me two favours."

I sighed. "Yeah yeah, I know. Let me guess, they're gonna lead to some annoying fetch quests that take me days to complete?"

False blinked. "What? No. I don't even know what I want to use them for yet."

So instead, she'll save them until she's trying to get me to do something extremely dangerous and life-threatening, and then call on one of her favours to make me do it. Because that's so much better.

"Anyway," she continued, derailing my train of thought. "How long until you start travelling, do you think?"

"What do you mean?" I asked, slightly absentminded.

"You said you'd be leaving Ponyville soon," she reminded me. "Sightseeing and training and stuff like that."

I shrugged. "Probably tomorrow or the day after, but I know I won't be staying away. Ponyville's probably gonna be my home. I'm just going a safe distance away so I don't destroy it while training."

"And how long do you plan to train for?" False raised an eyebrow.

"The first time I leave? Probably several days, maybe even weeks. I won't return until I've learned how to do the things normal Windigoes my age can do. After that, if I leave to perfect a new power or test a theory involving my skills, it'll probably only be for a couple of days, if even that much. It's the sightseeing that'll keep me away from Ponyville for long periods of time." I paused, then looked at her suspiciously. "Why?"

"I have to follow you, remember? I want to at least know what I'm getting into." She sighed, not sounding particularly happy with this fact.

I smirked. "I also want to know what I'm getting into. Too bad I can never find out until it's too late."

The door to the library opened at that point, and Risk walked in. The dirt covering his body had been cleaned off, but aside from that he looked the same – broken horn and all. I mentally cringed, seeing his horn still useless. He smiled upon seeing me.

"Twi told me you were back," he greeted, holding up a front hoof. "Good to see you again."

I knocked my hoof against his in my first literal brohoof. "Same to you. You up for an adventure?"

He chuckled. "I'm up for anything."

Risk Reward joined your party! I couldn't help myself from making an RPG reference, even if it was just in my head. I looked over at False, who groaned.

"This isn't gonna end well," she declared with a shake of her head.

False Front joined your party...rather reluctantly.

"I'm part of the group, False," I replied with a grin. "Of course it's not gonna end well."

---

Author's Notes: Here you go, have some pictures of the OCs. The images won't show up, so I'll just link them:

Risk Reward

False Front

Whenever I introduce a new OC from now on who will be important, I'll put a picture of them in the Author's Notes at the end of their debut chapter (or a later chapter if they don't become important for a while). This is what a couple of you suggested, so I hope it works!

Comments

[shadowless_night]

train ..... i like trains
also LOL rpg style like a boss

[RLYoshi]

1155812 I so need to make that joke now!

[xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

1155818
Was that a New Vegas reference there?

[RLYoshi]

1159125 Not a deliberate one...

[xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

1159136
Oh, 'cus when you send Cass back to the Lucky 38, the game says, "Cass has returned... reluctantly... to the Lucky 38."

[RLYoshi]

1159180 Nah, that was just a joke I did. More of a reference to Paper Mario, in a sense; when Bow joins your party, the text reads "Bow has joined your party...like it or not!", but inverted in this sense.

[Dusk Apollo]

So where is an image of Arrel?

[RLYoshi]

1159211 Being a Windigo, I wasn't able to create him in a Pony Creator, and since I suck at drawing I can't draw him.

Just imagine him as one of the Windigoes from Hearth's Warming Eve, but with hind legs, more pony-like hooves, and the size of Big Macintosh. He's not very distinguishable from other Windigoes appearance-wise...yet.

[Dusk Apollo]

1159229 ...yet
FORESHADOWING
So later he gets some strange ability/power/etc. I absolutely couldn't see that coming!

Sarcasm aside, I'll see if I can make a decent image of 'im.

[RLYoshi]

1159347 I meant appearance-wise. So he'll just look different in the future, probably by gaining an accessory of some sort that I wear in real life, like a wristwatch.

And that'd be awesome, thanks!

[AliCentaur Br0ny]

Great chapter.
I predict that the seal is going to come loose at some point. Because seals like to come loose and not leave well enough alone.
Onward to adventure and discovery!

[AppleTank]

1160682
Especially when random hermits jump out of bushes and slam a hoof into one's stomach.
1155812
Hey, that cute turtle has a button on it! I wonder what it does?

[AliCentaur Br0ny]

1164491 Eeyup. Confound those random hermits! Sometimes they should just very well leave things alone as well. Maybe not always, but sometimes.

[Dusk Apollo]

1159497 I'll try to have it by th'end of th'week.

[RLYoshi]

1165646 No major spoilers, but by the end of the next chapter, Arrell will have a watch (on his front-left leg specifically), so I'd suggest adding that in if you want to keep it as accurate as possible. Don't have to, obviously, but I'm just letting you know so you don't feel like you have to redo the picture later.

[Morphile]

I made a statement, so I have to post this. BABALITY!!!

[Literature]

I shrugged. "It's cool."

I SEE WHAT YOU DID THERE.

[Lucky424]

Would you really want to leave your friends and home just to listen to me make bad puns for who knows how long

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[drone009]

imagine a very whiny voice.

GIVE ME THE HOTDOG! I WANT THE HOTDOG! GIVE IT TO ME! GIVE ME THE HOTDOG!

[Assasin_Asha]

I shrugged. "It's cool."

Why do I think "I'm cool." would fit better here?

Oh well, I'm terribly late for the party so it's not like it matters.

[StandbyForTitanfall]

I shrugged. "It's cool."

prettyblogswag.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/cool-cat.jpeg

[JazzyWaffles]

RIP OC pics