The Sound of Music (Yet Another SI)

by VirgowithCheer

Chapter 4: Rise Up, Rise up!

Well! This is back! Sorry about the whole falling of the wagon of it, just started focusing on other things across all these sites and platforms...but now it's back! No idea if anyone even noticed it disappear in the first place, but there ya go.

Still own nothing, still don't claim too, you all know the song and dance by this point. So, let's just move on, shall we?

Sheepattle was a wonderful place filled with answers to questions I never would have thought to ask. Such as 'what continent am I on' or, 'what animal does the local populous consist of?'.

The answer to both, apparently, was Sheep. And Goats, Rams, and apparently a few assorted Ponies and Zebra spread in the mix. Most didn't travel far enough to reach Sheep lands, but the few that did were generally either pretty hardy or there for specific reasons.

I was neither of those things, but that didn't stop me, with good cheer, a smile on my face, and no small amount of songs from busking my way through the city right into a fairly nice hotel and library visit.

The local history book read like it was half a DnD manual, and half a transcribed documentary, so it was certainly better than the dry bundle of papers I had been expecting. But it was still a long read that took a few days, and could absolutely do with a summation from an outsider with only bare interest in it.

What it basically boiled down to, keeping in mind what I specifically cared about at the moment, The Sheep Continent was directly above the borders of Equs, where the Ponies lived smack dab in the 'center' of the world as a trade conglomerate to the surrounding capitals and populous. Through them, wood and high quality items such as specialty furnaces and gemstones were sent North, and in return the Sheep keep Gravity nice and tight against the planet.

Yeah....that took a moment to comprehend. Evidently, all Races had some kind of inherent magic to them that they could do better than others. Ponies shifted depending on where their magic pointed, Zebra's could preform advanced rituals and spell 'shortcuts' with rhymes, and Sheep were all about that push and pull.

They were even ruled by their Alicorn equivalent, called the Overgoat, and had been for the past hundred or so years now. Not a long time by the standards of immortals, but the position itself seemed oddly strange, and kind of shocking.

Long ago, in the 'Age of Darkness' because giving exact dates would just be so much work, the Sheep continent was ruled with an iron hoof by one Grogar, the First Overgoat.

I also recognized the name from all the fanfiction featuring inserts into said goats life, but felt that those PROBABLY weren't totally accurate to the current circumstances. Still took note, but not much beyond it.

So, anyway, Grogar wasn't really happy with just one land under his yoke, so he set his sights on the land directly below.

Only problem? He got met with sword and shields hot as the sun and quiet as the night. His forces were routed, and the goat barely escaped back up north as a bleeding wreck. But the thing about ruling a nation cruelly and with zero mercy?

You tend to get annexed real quickly if they notice any sign of weakness in their oppressor. So they took advantage of his injured state. RUTHLESS, advantage.

Sheep and everyother race they could get to join in piled on the magic, forcing so much raw pressure and magic into one space that the Overgoats horns were shore clear off, and his body was reduced to a single pinprick which they sealed in a box with magic-draining chains, and then dropped in the deepest ocean they could find, an enchantment to make sure it could never float to the surface again.

Evidently, they had put a LOT of thought into how to get rid of Grogar. Who knew?

But, right, Overgoat. Basically, having THAT much magic exposed to something physical leaves a mark, so the horns he left behind are now kept as a symbol of office, as well as a massive multiplier to whatever Goat, Sheep, or Ram' magic to wears it, selected by popular vote to try and ensure that they don't get another power-starved dictator in charge. They also kept the name just as a final spite to the bastard, so that was a fun bit of trivia.

And, now, they keep the planet turning and grounded as they should in the last few years, the end. Of where I care.

At the very minimum, it helped me make up my mind on leaving this place as quickly as I could. Rather not float off into space and all.

But that was all when and good, I had money I could have been making in the moment after all.

"Oh, it's the green, it's the green, it's the green that I see~" I hummed to myself as I straightened out the hair around my horn, casually messy but still good enough to not stick out. MAN, finally bathing made me feel like a person again!

And now, to earn my keep!

END OF CHAPTER

Author's Note:

Welp! Hope it was worth the wait! And a Merry Christmas to all who wish it! If not, Happy Holidays!