The Mystifying Adventures of Occult Readings and Gallant Knight

by Giftmak3r

Reunion with a Princess

"Occult. Occult." Gallant's voice echoed throughout the room. "Are you ok?"

Groggily Occult rose from his position on the floor to catch sight aof a fairly upset thestral. "Greeting Gallant, I see we're still alive." he chuckled.

"Occult I'm about tired of waking up like this. Is this kind of thing normal for you?" Gallant asked as he stretched his wings. Occult, deciding to follow his lead got up and began stretching as well.

"More often than you would think Gallant, but right now we need to discuss your reckless behavior. I told Ilatzi to keep you in the hospital. Why did you disobey?" Occult chastised only to recive a frown from his young companion.

"You mean you just expected me to let a homicidal demon eat you? Fat chance." Gallant shot back.

Sorry Occult, I shouldn't have told him.

Occult sat back an groaned. He wouldn't be getting anywhere with this conversation and he was too exhausted to deal with it if he could.

"Are you alright at least?" He asked. Gallant's more aggressive pose shirked back disarmed, the young colt seemingly not expecting the question.

"Uh yeah I'm fine, what about you?" Gallant asked back much more relaxed now. Occult stretched and pulled the muscles in his body, he didn't really feel pain anywhere other than his soreness and aching horn.

"I'm going through mana exhaustion, similar to what you had when you first woke up in Ponyville." Occult explained.

"So uh...... did we win?" Gallant asked.

Occult was startled by the question. To be entirely honest he did not expect to wake up at all. The only way to determine whether they won or not was to see if the sun had come up while they were unconscious. So caught up in his thoughts Occult Readings didn't notice the crowd of ponies walk into the room with him.

A coughing noise was made and drew the attention of the two stallions in the room. Before them stood Princess Celestia and seven other mares. Some of which Occult could recognize while others were unfamiliar to him. Though through simple deduction he figured the darker colored alicorn with a moon for her cutiemark was how Princess Luna looked before the possession. Occult immediately bowed before the princesses.

"Occult Readings, please rise." Celestia's heavenly voice rang out and he rose to see her caring eyes. "I see you've gotten yourself into trouble once more?"

"Sorry for the trouble Princess, just doing my duty." Occult replied.

"Yes you always were so diligent." Celestia said with a tired smile. Occult beamed at Celestia's praise, he always did enjoy pleasing her since he was a child. All his troubles were always worth her smile.

"And thou must be the stallions that helped save mineself." The alicorn next to Celestia spoke. If her appearance wasn't enough to prove this was Princes Luna her expertise hiding the discomfort in her voice as she spoke so majestically cemented the fact.

"We are Princess Luna. We had wanted to thank thee for weakening mineself. We fear what Nightmare would have done hadst thou not slowed her." Luna said looking dejected and keeping her eyes off of him. Occult followed her eyes and saw that she wasn't looking away from him, but at Gallant, who was behind him.

"Gallant Knight this is Princess Luna. She's not the same as Nightmare Moon, there's nothing for you to fear." Occult said in as reassuring of a tone as he could. Gallant didn't seem to have a difference in mood after he said that though.

"what about the other thing?" Gallant whispered in response. Then it snapped for him. Gallant was worried about how the princesses would respond to him as an outsider. And he did promise Gallant that he wouldn't tell anypomy about his... condition.

"Oh that, that's nothing to worry about. We can talk about it later if you want, but for right now why don't you introduce yourself?" He prodded. With that Gallant stopped hinding behind him. At least a little.

"Um hello I'm Galant Knight and I'm.. er it's a pleasure to meet you princesses." He said quietly not meeting either princess eye to eye.

"Um yes so Celestia. I know Pinkie Pie, but who are the rest of these mares?" Occult asked.

"Oh yes, these are the element bearers. They are the ones who found the Elements of Harmony and purified my sister." She said with pride in her voice. "Twilight, would you and your friends like to introduce yourselves?"

"Of course princess!" The purple pony exclaimed. "Hello Occult Readings, Gallant Knight. I'm Twilight Sparkle."

"I'm Rainbow Dash, fastest flyer in Equestria. Also I gotta say it was super cool that you two faced Nightmare Moon all on your own." The cyan mare with a rainbow main said.

"Howdy, I'm Applejack." The orange mare said with a thick country accent.

"I'm Rarity." The white mare said in a sophisticated manner.

"I'm Fluttershy" the yellow mare squeaked.

"Heya, I'm Pinkie Pie. But you already knew that didn't cha Culty?" And I'm gonna throw is all a 'Congratulations for defeating Nightmare Moon and Wellcome to Ponyville Party' when we get back to town!" The energetic mare all but screamed.

"Pinky darling, didn't we already have a party for Readings a few weeks back?" Rarity asked.

"Yeah, but we still need a welcome party for Gallant Knight silly." She giggled. The news brought a frown to Gallant's face.

"Um Pinkie? I appreciate the offer, but I don't plan on being in town long enough to warrant a welcome party." Gallant said apologetically.

"About that. Occult, I want to speak to you. Alone." Celestia comanded. Occult was shocked to hear that tone of voice from her. It almost sounded like she was upset.

"Very well Celestia." He responded before turning to Gallant. If Celestia asked him about Gallant directly he couldn't just lie to her, but he swore to Gallant that he wouldn't tell. "Gallant?" He started before the young colt put his hoof forwards waving at him.

"I'll trust your judgment." He said simply before the pink party pony got in his face to barrage him with questions about what his favorite pastries were.

He was led outside of the room by Celestia as the rest of the ponies stared talking to eachother or asking Gallant questions. It wasn't long before they could no longer hear the other ponies.

"Readings." Celestia panned in a completely neutral tone. It shocked Occult as he's only ever heard the princess use that tone when she was upset with Blueblood.

"Yes Princess." He responded trying to hide his unease as best he could.

"I understand that life was hard for you growing up. That's why I took you in. That's why I've been..... lenient when it came to your hobbies." Celestia explained with her voice geting harsher and harsher by the moment. "I'm going to give you a chance to explain why that colt is with you and your explanation better be good."

Occults legs were trembling and the room temperature must have risen twenty degrees. "Well you see princess... Gallant isn't a uhmm... normal colt." He began only for the temperature to raise further.

"Occult!" She practically barked causing Occult to whimper.

"NO PRINCESS! It's not like that!" He shouted hurriedly.

"Explain." She demanded.

"When I first met Gallant I was imprisoned by Diamond Dogs. When I tried talking to him I noticed something was wrong. After a while I eventually found out that he wasn't really a pony." He explained as best he could. He didn't really want to have to give up this information, but the princess gave him no choice.

"And what do you mean by that?" She asked. Not quite as angry but still clearly upset.

"He claimed to have the memories of an adult human and I'm inclined to belive him." Occult sputtered out. He was weak and tired. To have Celestia be this angry and distrustful of him was emotionally draining.

"I see." Celestia responded somberly walking over to him she engulfed him in her wing, pulling him closer to her like she used to. "I apologize for jumping to conclusions Readings, I should have known better."

"Don't worry about it Celestia, it's fine." He responded weakly leaning into her.

"So what do you plan to do next?" Celestia asked in her motherly tone as if she wasn't shouting at him moments ago.

"I'm not sure Celestia. I don't know what did this to him. The Yrvarni is the only demon I can think of with soul swapping abilities, but such a demon shouldn't possibly be strong enough to pull a human here." He explained as Celestia stood there absorbing all the information.

"You and Gallant may come with me to Canterlot in order to access the royal archives." Celestia offered.

"That's the thing Celestia, Gallant is brave and stubborn. Once I find out what had done this to him he will surely want to come along, but he's ignorant of demons and magic. He knows nothing of this world. It's too dangerous." Occult sighed.

"So what do you want for him?" Celestia asked as Occult shuffled in discomfort.

"I think he needs something stable. Maybe somepony in Ponyville can watch over him while I do my job. He can't read or fly so he's need to go to school and learn to fly from a local pegasus." He groaned. It hurt him to say but whatever had brought him here had to have an extrodanate amount of power. He couldn't in good conscience let Gallant face such monsters. It was Occults job to face those demons anyways.

"I can arrange for that to be taken care of Occult." Celestia said.

"Than-"

"So with that taken care of how about you tell me about yourself?" She asked.

"Huh?"

"Occult Readings, I haven't seen you since you've burned down Trottingham and stopped the resurgence of ponypox. I worry about you sometimes you know." She said in that caring tone of hers.

Occult smiled. Even if he was exhausted Celestia was right, he hasn't spoken to her in ages.

Comments

[John bostock]

Can't wait for next chapter ☺️

[Ali della Morte]

learn to fly from a local pegasus

Uh, I don't mean to be rude, but I hope you do realize that the structuring and make up of the wings of a Pegasus and a Thestral are vastly different. There's no way a Pegasus would be able to teach Gallant how to fly.

[Giftmak3r]

11063732
I appreciate the help you're giving me but this issue will be addressed in the plot don't worry. Also, Occult Readings is a unicorn who doesn't know how to fly. He wouldn't have thought about that.

[Ali della Morte]

11064007
Alright. I look forward to seeing more of this story. And again, I didn't to be or sound rude with my comment.

[Giftmak3r]

11064431
No I actually really appreciate your comments.

[StarzGecko]

Wait how did he burn down a whole city? Wait a moment is that why Pip squeak moved to town because the city burn down

[ramdom_player201]

"Occult Readings, I haven't seen you since you've burned down Trottingham and stopped the resurgence of ponypox. I worry about you sometimes you know." She said in that caring tone of hers.

This sounds a bit like the time he destroyed Zecora's hut. I'm sensing a pattern.