• Published 28th Aug 2012
  • 476 Views, 2 Comments

the Other Side of the Coin - Hydradagon



destiny should be thought of as a coin, while ones destiny is always true, what about the other?

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The third fragment

2:30 P.M., Two weeks earlier

And stay out! Came the voice of a maroon earth-pony stallion just as a small, light-brown unicorn was forcibly thrown from the town via a large catapult near the entrance of the town.

The unicorn landed with a thud onto the season-hardened ground just before the rest of his belongings followed suit.

Getting up from his surrounding area of freshly barren tree’s the small stallion groaned as he pulled on a beanie over his cracked horn back onto his head. “Well that was rather rude, note to self; ponies from Hoofington do not take kindly when somepony mentions magic” the unicorn stated to himself as he reached into his tattered, bulging, saddlebags to pull out a map of Equestria labeled “Buckfire’s map”. Opening up the map revealed a scape of red x’s marking area’s that were useless to him and his cause.

Marking an X much larger than many of the other’s on the map Buckfire began to search for an area on the map that he was still willing to travel to “now then, aha!” the small stallion said as he found a small town a few weeks travel from his current position. “Hoofton? Didn’t I just come from there?” the unicorn said, puzzled he glanced back at his current position on the map and saw that it was marked “Hoofington”

“Why would anyone give two towns names that are so similar?” Buckfire continued to rant to himself before picking up his possessions and sighing as he saw the almost completely unused path before him.

Several days of travel had been uneventful until the sky had darkened, blocking out the sun “Hmm, the pegasi weren’t really acting like it was going to rain this morning, I wonder what made the change their minds” Buckfire said looking up expecting to see pegasi putting the finishing touches on their dark masterpiece of moisture but instead seeing the sky void of pegasi and completely filled with a sickeningly dark shade of pink.

“well then, that’s certainly new” Buckfire said just before a brown liquid began to drip off of the clouds in a fashion that seemed very reminiscent to sweat. Almost as if it were a faucet the moment the first drop of the liquid fell to the ground, every last droplet poured out of the clouds on command, completely soaking Buckfire and everything around him in the sweet smelling substance.

“CHOCOLATE MILK, WHY CHOCOLATE MILK, HOW IS THAT EVEN POSSIBLE?” The red-headed unicorn ranted as he searched for a place to take shelter in. As he kept searching his efforts became more and more withdrawn and forced as now he drenched to the core versus when there was still hope of drying off.

Almost as if a godsend Buckfire came across a fairly large overhang that steadily transformed into a cave underneath a cliff where he would be able to find shelter from the chocolate rain. Buckfire immediately ran under the overhand and began peeling his saddlebags from his saturated fur. Hoping to at least rid him of the feeling of unbearable cold Buckfire gathered nearby logs from just outside of the overhang, getting several splinters in his teeth in the process. After he deemed that he had gathered enough firewood Buckfire closed his eyes and attempted to gather his focus for a spell; sparks coming out of the crack in his horn all the while.

Then, in a single strong pulse, magic flowed freely out of his horn in a beam onto the firewood; causing it to light ablaze almost instantly.

“well It’s good to know I at least still have the energy in me” Buckfire said, sighing. After upwards to a half hour the rain began to switch to a more tolerable drizzle, still uncomfortable; but was now bearable. Resting his head on a large rock facing away from the outside Buckfire waited for the rain to cease completely. Just as he began to fall asleep, Buckfire heard loud, clunky footsteps approach and in a voice that was unnaturally deep he heard “Mind if I come in and, Dry myself?” Still sleepy Buckfire was fairly eager to see a face during one of his travels.

“huh, oh yeah, come on in” Buckfire replied as he heard the loud footsteps coming closer “So stuck out her too-oouoahh!” Buckfire screamed as he saw a behemoth that was exactly twice his size, gulping in fear Buckfire retreated to a corner, now realizing that the giant was a pony “h-h-how is that possible?” Buckfire stuttered as he questioned the large pony.

“what, me being so tall” the Dark brown stranger replied

“y-yeah, should it be possible to get that tall” Buckfire wondered, truly curious as he had never seen anypony of that size before with the exception of Princess Celestia.

“it’s a bit uncommon to get this tall, but it’s definitely possible; especially among Earth ponies” the stranger explained, “so do you have a name or do I have to keep calling you nameless and colt?”

“my names Buckfire” Buckfire replied now curious to know what kind of name such a giant could have

“Well then Buckfire, nice to meet you kid, names Masher, Button Masher” Masher said, giving a warm smile to Buckfire

“Gamer huh? Never could get a handle for things like that” Buckfire said, hoping to make conversation while staring intently on the hot coals in the fire.

“THAT’S GENIUS, HOW COULD YOU FIGURE THAT OUT FROM JUST A GLANCE” Masher said, Visibly surprised.

“oh yeah” Masher said now sporting a sheepish smile across his face “I usually forget about that thing, I try not to decide who a pony is based on their cutie mark, after all, they aren’t all knowing, what if a pony gets one that doesn’t suit them” Masher said with a large yawn afterwards “well kid, I suppose we should hit the hay, I don’t know about you but I need to travel in the morning and I’m hoping that this Irrelevant storm is over after I wake up” Masher said, crawling on top of a pile of hay

“Oh yeah, that reminds me, where are you heading, I mean, if you don’t mind that is” Buckfire said as his eyelids began to flutter open and closed.

“I never mind, I’m heading off to Hoofton, a friend set me up with a new life there” Masher said, sleep forcing his voice to change into something that was almost soft.

“I see that’s actually where I’m traveling to as well” Buckfire said as sleep also caught him. Oblivious to the fact that his last statement had fallen on deaf ears as Masher had already fallen asleep.

Waking up just after sunrise, Buckfire had come to realize that his newly found acquaintance was nowhere near the camp and had seemingly taken all of his belongings with him. “I suppose he ditched me as soon as the rain had stopped, oh well; we’re heading to the same place anyways” Buckfire said just before he began to feel an unnaturally warm breeze from directly behind him “Masher, I really hope that’s you” Buckfire said in a mock hopeful voice.

Turning around revealed a beast much larger than Masher ever was, the gruesome creature was lion-like in shape adorned with blood-stained fur but with Chimera wings and a menacing scorpion’s tail on the other end, already dripping poison in anticipation of feeding off of its new prey. Buckfire was had become the target of one of the fiercest common predator in Equestria; the Manticore

“oh buck me sideways” Buckfire said in a cuss that was common for him during his travels whenever he came across trouble in the wilds. Abandoning his belongings Buckfire took off in full Gallop away from overhang cave hoping in an effort that he knew all too well would be fruitless that he would outrun the Manticore “A Manticore nest, of course it just had to be a Manticore nest, Why not a regular chimera’s nest, or a Giant scorpion hive, or even a lion’s den; I could’ve handled one of those. But of course life had to give me all bucking three” Buckfire yelled in pure anger as he ran away with the Manticore following suit.

Buckfire knew that he would be able to continue running for an extended period of time, he a great deal of endurance from his travels, unfortunately the same could not be said for speed and Buckfire was sure that if he wasn’t able to formulate a plan as to how he was going to escape that he would indefinitely become Manticore chow.

“come on, okay, I’m not in a valley there are rocks everywhere” Buckfire stated to himself as he strung together a plan that he hoped would save him

“okay, this just might work” Buckfire yelled hopefully as he ran under an arc that was just barely big enough for himself.

After Buckfire went through the arc the Manticore made no effort to change its course and go around; the Manticore tried to go the same route Buckfire had traveled on.

“hehe, heh that actually worked” Buckfire said as he no longer heard the sounds of paws against gravel but now heard the Manticore thrashing wildly against its stone prison. “what was that you silly Manticore, you want out, well you don’t get out, you’re going to be trapped in there forever; that’s what you get for trying to make a meal out of me” Buckfire taunted as he walked around the Manticore’s face all the while the Manticore began thrashing all the more wildly.

Then suddenly, The stone that was holding the Manticore prisoner broke and released the furious beast. The Manticore instantly lunged at Buckfire at which point his horn glowed with a brightness the like of which Buckfire had never experienced before, and even in mid-day the light it produced outshone the sun from a short distance away. And then after an intense beam of Magical plasma where a two ton Manticore once stood, milliseconds away from ending Buckfire’s life was nothing more than an extended pile of ashes with Buckfire standing overtop them, dazed and confused “d-d-did that just happen” Buckfire questioned as he saw the pure grey ashes already being blown away by the wind. “Okay then, that definitely needs some improvement.

Buckfire quickly found his way back to his camp, his excursion with the Manticore still leaving him shocked as he never expected he would have been able to take such a powerful life. Buckfire made sure to collect some of the ashes of the now deceased Manticore so that he would never forget that he needed to learn how to control his magic.

Finally at his destination in Hoofton Buckfire couldn’t help but wonder if he would ever see Masher again, He had only received a few hours head start, but in a virtually infinite landscape, even if his destination was a fixed point there was no guarantee that he would see masher again anytime soon.

Within the boundaries of Hoofton Buckfire found the area fairly easy to navigate, the whole town was layered around a large central building and the buildings around it seemed to span out based on their importance and relevance to the central building. Unfortunately this still left him confused as to where his own destination could be.

Just like many of the other cities and towns Buckfire had been traveling to, he was in search of a library with a very specific book, unfortunately most of the towns Buckfire had been too either didn’t have that specific book, or in the case of Hoofington; Did not allow any kind of Magic in general.

Deciding to simply ask one of the townsfolk Buckfire approached a black earth pony with white hair “excuse me, do you know where I could find the library Mrs….?”

“Spectra” the mare replied “and the library is in the second district of town on the westernmost end”

“okay thank you very much” Buckfire replied after he got the information that he needed

“oh, I haven’t seen you around before; are you new here” spectra asked with a smile

“depends on what I find in the library, I’m looking for something specific and so far all of the other libraries that I’ve been to haven’t had it” Buckfire stated now eager and impatient to look for his book

“oh okay then” Spectra said with a hint of disappointment in her eyes as Buckfire left “I really hope she stays, she seems nice enough and I would love to have more friends” spectra said before turning around to go her own way.

Reaching the library showed a large twisted spiral-like building made of stacked logs that pierced the sky almost ten stories in height. “wow, this library is anything if not impressive” Buckfire said as he walked into the library to see it crammed completely with books with the exception of a few dozen long-tables on each floor and a crammed central area near the entrance where one would check out their books.

“hello, I was wondering if you had a book” Buckfire addressed to an elderly completely grey Pegasus stallion with a name marker that read “Tome”

“We have many books her Ma’am” the stallion

Somewhat irritated Buckfire explained “I am a stallion”

“Terribly sorry” the stallion continued in a voice that was perfectly monotone and sounded utterly bored.

“anyways, I’m looking for a specific book, it’s titled horns: advanced physiology and repair” Buckfire said, not expecting any promising results despite the sheer size and Grandeur of the Library

“we have the exact book that you’re looking for” the grey stallion replied and was already flying slowly up to retrieve it from one of the higher shelves. “here you go, have it back in three weeks, no exceptions. Thank you”

The moment Buckfire touched the book he was already eager to read it and never bothered to move out of the small central area “okay, it’s say’s that depending on the damage done to the horn and based on the amount of sophisticated magic that can already be performed decides the level of spell that must be re-learned in order for the horn to heal properly, see chart on page 863” Buckfire promptly opened to that page and came to realize that as he couldn’t perform any type of sophisticated magic he would have to begin his training by re-learning Mage-light.

No sooner had Buckfire begun to attempt Mage-light than an enormous silver Pegasus walked into the library followed quickly by an averaged sized purple Pegasus, Buckfire wanted to see the pony who was obviously even larger than Masher but unfortunately Buckfire couldn’t afford to lose his concentration right now as the book specifically instructed that a pony cannot stop the process of relearning a spell once it’s started or else the horn becomes permanently stuck on that phase of healing.

Now with renewed determination Buckfire continued the spell until he heard a familiar unholy deep voice boom out something very peculiar “I WILL RIDE A BICYCLE OF NIGHTMARES INTO YOUR FACE” was all he heard before same titan-like silver stallion was abruptly shoved into Buckfire causing the spell to be disrupted and instead pour out raw energy, Buckfire was able to say “ah! NO! I ALMOST HAD IT” before the pain of his horn’s healing coming to an abrupt stop caused him to slip into unconsciousness.

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