Beginning of a Legend: Baldric Gareth

by InsaneJustin

Chapter 5: New Friends

Chapter 5: New Friends

Baldric awakes from his slumber in the morning after a long night of partying, pony style, as the pink one had called it. He sees Scootaloo asleep on his chest, and around him he sees other ponies asleep under the open air tent that was made for his party.

“Hey wake up Scootaloo” Baldric strokes her mane, they way you would pet a dog. “I need to get up and find that Twilight Sparkle pony” Scootaloo opens her eyes and looks at Baldric a bit shocked

“Hey! I’m not a pet!” Scootaloo jumps off him and blushes “Just because we’re friends doesn’t mean you can pet me you know!” she exclaims.

Friend? When did I say we were friends?

“Ha-ha, sorry Scootaloo, just needed to get up is all. Won’t happen again I promise. But if you’ll excuse me I gotta go find twilight.”

“Alright then Baldric, I’m gonna go find Fluttershy, maybe she has something a human can eat. Also knowing Twilight she’s gonna be at the town Library, being a bookworm and all.” Scootaloo points to the left with her right hoof.

“Food? Tell her I eat meat and vegetables and I'll drink anything. Thanks Scootaloo I’ll see you later.” Baldric waves to Scootaloo and walks off in the direction she pointed in for the Library. Baldric wonders to himself after awhile What’s a Library?

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Baldric arrives at a huge tree, huge even to him. The tree was filled with windows and was made up to look like a house.

Well let’s see, I sure as hell can’t read this pony language… actually I can’t read at all. The sign in front of the door had a picture of what looked like a big book. Well I sure as hell aren’t the smartest, but I’m sure this is a place that sells books. Scootaloo did say Twilight was a bookworm, maybe they would know more.

Thinking a place that sells books must be a place a bookworm would hang out, Baldric walks over to the door and knocks.

Baldric hears a sudden rushing to the door “Just a minute!” yells a young male voice from behind the door “can’t believe twilight makes me clean up her messes and answer the door…” the male voice seemed to be stressed.

The door opens and Baldric sees a small purple and green lizard creature “Umm, Hello little lizard I’m looking for one called Twilight Sparkle.”

“Little Lizard?! I’ll have you know I’m a fire breathing dragon!” the little dragon is clearly upset at the little lizard comment. “My name's Spike, Spike the Dragon, and what are you supposed to be? Some mutant hairless pony?”

Baldric is taken aback, was this little dragon the one that he heard about the day before? “My apologies young dragon Spike, I didn’t know, but you wouldn’t happen to know where Twilight Sparkle is would you?” Baldric gives him his classic big grin.

“Yeah she’s inside, let me go get her.” Spike walks back grumbling to himself and returns a few moments later with twilight. “If you need me, I will be upstairs cleaning up again…”

Twilight looks at Baldric with some excitement “Oh I found that book Baldric! I was up all night researching it and I found out everything we would need to know. And from my reading we should be able to send you back once we get it and I run some tests!”

“That’s great! But uh, about that dragon Spike, I seem to have upset him, I didn’t mean to. I called him a little lizard and I guess I hurt his feeling.” Baldric says with a sad note in his tone.

“Oh Spike? Don’t worry about him; he’s just cranky because he’s been up all night helping me.” Twilight looks back to where Spike went. “I guess I should let him get some sleep now since I found everything I needed.”

Cheered up that it wasn’t entirely his fault for the dragon's anger he asks Twilight “By the way I have a question for you.”

“Yes what’s your question Baldric?”

“What’s a Library?”

Twilight gets a confused look on her face. “You’ve NEVER heard of the Library? It’s one of the most wonderful places ever! There’s so much knowledge contained within a book that can tell you of adventure, romance, and even history. It’s how I found out about that magic artifact after all. The library is a place filled with books that anypony can read.”

“Wow, that sounds amazing, I wish I could read.”

Twilight gasps at this statement “You. Can't. Read?! I’ll have to teach you to read at least a little so you can at least figure your way around town by reading the signs.” Twilight’s horn glows for a minute and a large table N chair appears along with a big book. “Now I’ll show you the basic’s for a bit…”

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After some time Scootaloo comes along with Fluttershy and sees Baldric sitting at a huge table with Twilight on top of the table reading things out of a book to him.

“What do ya suppose is going on over there Fluttershy?”

“Umm, I have no idea, but it looks like Twilights reading him a story.”

They approach and hear Twilight say “now repeat after me, the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.”

Baldric runs his finger across the page repeating “the quick…brown fox jumped…over the lazy…dog.”

“Good Good! You're getting the hang of it!” Twilight looks over and sees Scootaloo and Fluttershy. Behind them was a wagon filled with some boxes and 2 jugs. “What do you have in the wagon girls? I’m just teaching Baldric how to read a bit of our language is all.”

Scootaloo jumps forward “We just brought some breakfast for Baldric, we weren't sure what humans eat exactly so we brought a bunch of stuff for him to try.”

Twilight levitates all of the items up onto the table “Perfect! I can teach him what the symbols on the boxes and jugs mean! While he eats!”

“Umm, I’m sorry Baldric, we don’t um, carry meat…please don’t be mad…” Fluttershy starts to shake while looking at the ground

Baldric sees her begin to shake and a feeling he hasn’t felt before deep down wells up. A bit flustered he says “Oh, Don’t worry about that Fluttershy! I’m sure what you brought will be delicious! Don’t be sad! Thank you for bringing the food all the way here for me!”

Baldric rips the top off one of the boxes and pours it into his mouth, chews and swallows it. “Yum that was good, I can’t wait to try the others” Baldric’s left eye closes a bit as he winces from the aftertaste, he looks at the box and sees a picture of a bunny on the front.

“That box you just ate was rabbit food Baldric, was it really that good?” Twilight gives Baldric a funny glare.

“Yeah, it’s really good; since two cute ponies took the trouble to bring it here for me.”

"Cute?!" Fluttershy and Scootaloo blush slightly.

Baldric grabs another box that was slightly bigger than the others and looks at the cover. “Hey Twilight what’s this animal on the box?”

“Hmm, that’s a bear, it says bear chow, keep your bear's coat nice and shiny” Twilight make's a funny face “Bligh, bear food, are you really going to eat that?”

“Of course! I’ll try anything once!” Baldric tears the top off and grabs a handful and shoves it into his mouth, surprisingly, its better then the rabbit food, and has a bit of a meaty texture to it. “Mmm, this one is really good, what’s in the jugs?”

“It's water!” shouts Scootaloo from under the table.

“Ah good, life giving water” Baldric samples the rest of the foods and drinks from the water jugs.

“Well since you’re eating and trying out things you like, I’ll tell you more about the artifact were going to look for.”

So as Baldric eats the random assortment of different pet foods, twilight tells him about the artifact and its last known location.

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“Hmmm” Baldric eats the last bits of food from the box marked alligator chucks. “Well it sounds like I’m gonna have to make a trip to these Crystal Mountains then.”

“Yes, and when we get there we can search for the old pony Minotaur city hidden in the mountains! I wonder what old historic things we will find” Twilights enthusiasm along with her tone get higher “Oh my gosh, I can’t wait to see what a city that housed both ponies and the Minotaur’s looks like!”

Baldric raises an eyebrow “What makes you think you’re coming with me? This sounds dangerous; I couldn’t risk taking you with me.” Baldric stands up and crosses his arms.

“Mister, you don’t even know where the crystal mountains are, let alone what you’re looking for exactly, I would have to come along with you, and the rest of us are going to go as well just for good measure. After all we are the elements of harmony, and nothing can stop us when we’re together.”

“All of us? Who’s this all of us?” Baldric uncrosses his arms.

“Why the Mane six! First me, Twilight Sparkle, then there’s Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity and Rainbow Dash.” Twilight looks Baldric in the eyes. “There’s no way we would let a new friend go on a dangerous mission alone.”

There’s that word again, friend. Had they already considered me a friend?

“Friend?” Baldric pauses for a moment then speaks “Even more reason I can’t let you go with me, I… I don’t want to lose any more friends. You can’t go with me! Just give me a map and I’ll do it myself.” Baldric looks Twilight in the eyes “I don’t want to see you and your amazing friends get hurt.”

“Pish posh darling” says a voice from behind in a regal manner. “Besides, I even went through the trouble of making you a new outfit for the journey”

Baldric turns around and sees Rarity, Applejack and Rainbow Dash “You guys…” Baldric says in a low tone.

“I need to see how this fits you, and its durability has been doubled as well, I used a new method I picked up in Canterlot awhile back. Actually the method involved magically embroidering gold with the thread, but I used steel in hopes of making it stronger, so it’s not only fashionable darling, it’s also like flexible Armor!” Rarity Beams at the thought of making something so useful for such an occasion.

“Oh, you gotta try it on! I bet it looks simply Amazing!” shouts a pink pony sitting on top of Baldrics head. “I bet this new adventure will test out Rarities handy dandy mandy work!”

Baldric takes the new outfit from Rarity “You guys…Fine, come along, but at the first sign of trouble, I want you guys to run and hide…ok? I don’t think I can handle losing such good friends.”

“Don’t you worry bout us none Baldric, we can handle ourselves just fine.” Applejack stomps the ground causing small cracks to appear “We have seen our fair share of battles, fighting ain't nothing new to us.”

“Yeah! And besides, I’m so radical the bad guys will be too awed to even fight back properly!” Proudly shouts Rainbow Dash.

“Well, alright then. Let’s get things settled here; I want to leave as soon as possible.” Baldric walks behind the big tree and changes into his new outfit. Surprisingly, it’s a shiny steel color and cold to the touch, however, it was silky smooth and felt just like the T-shirt he was just wearing. The pants as well felt just like the fancy pants and were silky smooth. They also had the same jewel shield pattern embroidered on them. Baldric walks back out from behind the tree with his old outfit crudely folded in his arms.

“Thanks Rarity for making me two outfits. And might I add, this doesn’t even feel like armor at all, it feels like I’m wearing those fancy clothes I had before.”

“Well of course darling, just because you want protection doesn’t mean you should suffer with uncomfortable clothing that looks horrid.” Rarity flips her purple mane back “besides I am the most beautiful here in Ponyville, and as such I make the most beautiful.”

“Now get ready to leave girls, we're going to have to take a train to a town called Hollow Shades before we head towards the mountains.” Says Twilight.

With that the mane six and their newest friend Baldric set up to leave for an adventure. Making sure everything will be ok for when they arrive back to town.

The next day Baldric and his six new friends ride in a train, well except for Baldric who had to ride in an open air transport car, northward to a little town called Hollow Shades to begin their journey to the crystal mountains to find an old town in hopes of finding some clues on how to return Baldric back to his homeland.

Home huh…I do want to get home, but if it means my new friends would get hurt. I’d rather stay here, besides I’m pretty sure they all think I’m dead anyway. Baldric continues to ponder on his current situation as the train travels toward its destination.