• Published 11th Apr 2022
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Legends of the Past - TwilightVanguard58



A chance encounter with a strange creature in the Everfree forest kick-starts the greatest adventure Twilight and her friends have ever been on.

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The Forest Giant(revised)

It was a beautiful Sunday morning in Ponyville. The warm summer air carried a feeling of peace and harmony as Celestia’s sun did its job of warming up its little ponies with a sense of safety. Even the mysterious Everfree forest that chilled the hearts of the citizens could fight off the warming embrace of Celestia’s light.

It was on this lovely morning that Fluttershy found herself in deep thought. On the surface she seemed like a mare that had everything she could ever dream of. She had a job she loved in caring for all the little animals of Ponyville, she had the most supportive friends she could have ever dreamed of and that’s not mentioning that she was an Equestrian hero. She even managed to overcome her debilitating shyness without losing herself. By all intents and purposes she had nothing to complain about.

But…

“Is this really all there is?” she muttered to herself while looking into the light brown liquid filling her cup.

“What was that, Fluttershy?” asked a posh voice, shocking the canary mare out her thoughts.

Speaking of friends…

“Sorry Rarity, I’ve just had a lot on my mind lately.” she explained to the alabaster mare. She had decided to have tea with the fashionista to catch up and have some “mare time” before they had to go on with their days.

The fashionista in question gave her friend an understanding look, “Would you like to talk about it?”

“W-well…”

Fluttershy was hesitant to say anything, not wanting to bother her best friend with her most likely trivial worries, but looking into Rarity’s understanding eyes let her know that it was alright, “…do you feel…content with your life?”

Rarity was caught a bit off guard by the question but quickly collected herself, “I don’t really have anything to worry about and I’m quite proud of the success of my boutiques so I would like to say yes, however…”

“Yes?”

Rarity’s expression suddenly became much more somber, “I really thought I would have found my special somepony by now.” She really was happy with her life but the fact that she still hadn’t found her Prince Charming prevented her from being fully satisfied.

“Oh Rarity, I’m sure you’ll find a nice stallion soon.” Fluttershy said, trying to bring her friend's spirits back up.

Rarity looked up at the pegasus and gave an awkward, fake smile, “R-right, of course, a nice… stallion.” She shook a lingering thought out of her head and got back on topic. “Darling, am I safe to assume that the reason you ask is because you are having your own grievances?”

“I’m not sure.”

“Care to elaborate?”

Fluttershy took a deep breath to try and calm her nerves, to little effect, “It’s just that I have everything I could ever ask for but I still feel…empty? Unfulfilled? I’m not completely sure how to describe it.”

Rarity seemed to be in deep thought at Fluttershy’s explanation. It was admittedly not much to go on and eventually she just got up and gave her best friend a comforting hug. One that the shy pegasus graciously returned.

“I’m sure you will find that missing piece one day, darling. I’m sorry I don’t have any better advice to give you.”

Fluttershy ever so slightly tightened her embrace. She loved all her friends but she always felt a little bit closer to the alabaster mare. Yeah, she could be a bit prissy sometimes, and definitely a bit of a drama queen, but Fluttershy could always count on her to listen to her problems and help her as much as she could. Maybe it was just because kindness and generosity go so well together.

“It’s ok Rarity, just having you listen is help enough.” she said with a soft smile.

The two mares broke off the hug and Rarity gave Fluttershy the same soft smile.

“I’m glad. Oh! Why don’t we go to the spa today? I think we could both use a bit of relaxation.” Rarity enthusiastically said.

Fluttershy couldn’t help but giggle a little bit at how giddy her friend got at the mere mention of the spa, “That sounds lovely, but I have something I have to take care of first so would you mind if we went later this afternoon?”

“That’s fine, but what is it you have to do?”

Rarity was a bit curious as she knew that Fluttershy had already fed her animals, and if there was a sick critter then she wouldn't have even come to the boutique.

“Oh, the Dragon Lilies are blooming so I’m going into the Everfree to harvest them. Me and Twilight were going to do it together but then she got called on that royal investigation in the south.” Fluttershy explained.

“Dragon Lilies?” Rarity asked, having never heard of the herb before.

“It’s a flower that only blooms every twenty years. Its petals have incredibly powerful medical properties and they never wilt. Twilight wanted to run some experiments on it and I wanted to have some for emergencies.”

Rarity nodded in understanding, “Ah yes, I can see why you would want some, but are you ok in going into that dreadful forest by yourself?”

Fluttershy slightly gulped. She was admittedly still a bit intimidated by the Everfree. Even though she had become braver through all of her adventures she still felt something off about her dark, wooded neighbor. But she had a job to do and she wasn’t going to let a little apprehension stop her!

“I’ll be fine. The flowers aren’t that far in the forest so the worst I should run into are timberwolves, and ever since Twilight got her own royal guards and Spike hit his growth spurt they tend to stay away from us ponies.”

Rarity seemed reassured by Fluttershy’s words, “Alright, I trust you. I’ll come by the cottage around 1:00 and we can have our spa day.”

“That sounds delightful Rarity.” Fluttershy said in her soft voice.

“Wonderful! Well I shouldn’t keep you any longer, darling.”

“Alright, thank you for the tea and I’ll see you later.” Fluttershy said as she walked out of the boutique and made her way to the Everfree, unaware that her life was about to change forever.


Maybe I shouldn’t have come here alone.

Fluttershy thought as she was making her way through the forest. Against her best efforts, she still found herself on edge being amongst the dark trees, whose canopies almost completely blocked Celestia’s sun. She knew she didn’t really have anything to worry about. This was a generally quiet part of the forest that rarely, if ever, saw monster activity and even if something like a manticore were to come up she knew how to handle those. By all logic she had nothing to fear.

Unfortunately, none of that mattered to Fluttershy. Her eyes would dart between the dark demented faces hidden within the trees. If she didn’t know better she would have sworn that the shadows themselves were watching her. She suddenly heard a bush rustling and, against her better judgment, went to investigate. She approached the rustling bush with quiet trepidation.

“H-hello?” she questioned, unable to completely hide her fear.

The bush stopped moving at her question and she just stood there in an awkward silence for a minute. It was only when she decided to start leaving did something suddenly jump out at her.

“AIIIEE!”

She let out a high-pitched scream before dropping to the ground and covering her eyes with her wings. After a second of cowering she decided to uncover her eyes to see what great and terrible beast was about to make her its lunch. She slowly looked to find that the evil creature of the bush was…

…a squirrel

She let out a breath of both relief and frustration.

“Get a hold of yourself Fluttershy.” she scolded herself before walking up to the squirrel and asking it about the Dragon Lilies, which it was happy to point her in the direction of. After thanking the squirrel she said goodbye and went on her way.

Thankfully it didn’t take her much longer to find the elusive flower. She came to a small clearing in the forest. It was probably about ten feet in diameter which made it just big enough to let a little bit more of the sun’s warm rays through to the ground. And there at the edge was her prize; ten Dragon Lilies.

The flowers were beautiful. Their petals were an iridescent black with reddish-orange borders that made them almost seem like they were on fire. They also had a pleasant summer aroma with a hint of smokiness. Before she could get too distracted with the beauty of the rare flowers, she got to work harvesting them. She figured this group of ten would be enough for her purposes so she carefully placed them in a special compartment in her saddlebags so that they wouldn’t get damaged. The whole ordeal only took her about five minutes.

With her work done she started to make her way out of the clearing but stopped when she felt the ground tremble slightly. Thoroughly confused, she stopped and looked around to try and find the source, all the while the trembling got worse. It wasn’t long until a sudden cacophony of wildlife spooked her and she barely reacted in time to fly out of the way of a massive stampede of Everfree animals. It was composed of animals of all shapes and sizes, from small rodents to large buck deer. She was shocked to even see timberwolves and cockatrices among the stampede. However, none of that mattered more than the look in every single creature’s eyes.

It was the look of pure fear.

Now Fluttershy might not have had a mystical seventh sense like Pinkie, but she did understand animals better than any other pony. She knew there was only one thing that could spook a collection of both predator and prey so thoroughly; an apex predator.

Fluttershy was also, though at that moment she wished was, not blind, and could see with her very much functioning eyes the cause of the stampede. It towered over everything else at thirty feet tall with muted yellow scales. It had two powerful legs with wicked sharp claws, but the true indication of its identity were its four serpent-like heads on four long, flexible necks.

It was a hydra, and it had all eight eyes trained on the canary pegasus.

Oh dear.

That was all she had time to think before jumping out of the way of a strike from one of the great predator’s heads. Fear turned into adrenaline and Fluttershy started galloping as fast as her hooves could take her from the multi-headed monster, not caring which way she went. The hydra chased after her but its bulk was making it hard to catch the far nimbler pegasus through the trees, though it still kept her in its sights. Fluttershy was weaving through the trees, survival and fear the only thing on her mind. She wasn’t even thinking about why a hydra of all creatures was this far into the Everfree and not in the bog. She was too focused on getting away.

She was so focused in fact that she didn’t notice the stray root poking out of the ground or the ledge next to it.

She hit the root at full speed and started tumbling down the ledge, hitting one of her wings against a rock on the way down. By the time she hit the bottom she could see that she was now in another clearing, this one a bit bigger than the last at about twenty feet in diameter. She could also feel the pain in her wing and leg. While her leg definitely hurt, her main concern was her wing which, going by its bent and mangled from, was almost definitely broken.

I need to get out of here and see a doctor before this gets worse, she thought to herself. However, she was brought out of her thoughts by a certain mass of scales and bad attitude crashing into the clearing. With her wing broken and her adrenaline finally running out there was no way for her to get away from the hungry predator. Even the Stare, probably her most powerful trump card, would be useless due to the hydra’s multiple heads. As Fluttershy kept backing away she came to a horrible realization.

She would die here.

Having no more options she just closed her eyes and waited for the end, tears flowing freely. Having finally cornered its prey, the hydra prepared its heads to strike the yellow pegasus. It would all be over soon…

Thoom

The hydra stopped its strike, now wearing a confused look on all of its faces. Fluttershy, equally confused, opened her eyes. While grateful to still be in one piece, she was wondering why the hydra stopped.

THOOM

She felt it that time, as if the Earth itself was shaking beneath her hooves even more than from the stampede earlier. Whatever it was that was coming was big…

THOOM

very big.

The hydra, remembering its prey, shook its heads and let out a hissing roar, gaining Fluttershy’s attention. It started approaching her once more, small amounts of drool dripping from its mouths.

CRAAAAAAAASH

Fluttershy was just fast enough to get out of the way as one of the mighty trees of the Everfree fell into the clearing. The hydra slowly backed away from the fallen piece of lumber and Fluttershy was surprised to see a look of fear on its faces. It was then that Fluttershy looked behind her and then up…

… and up

… and up

… and up until she found herself staring into two silver orbs that were larger than her entire body.

The shadows of the Everfree were able to hide most of the details of the giant but Fluttershy could tell it was well over one hundred feet tall, probably closer to two hundred. As it kept staring at her she couldn’t help but tremble at the sight of the colossus. When it began to take a step forward she curled up into a ball on the ground, expecting to be squashed like an insignificant bug.

When the giant set its foot down it shook the earth enough to actually lift the canary mare off the ground an inch. It was quickly followed by the second leg, and a second earth rattling stomp. It was then that Fluttershy realized that she hadn’t become a bloody smear on the ground and, still trembling, stood back up. She was surprised to see that the forest giant was standing over her in an almost protective stance.

The hydra had managed to shake off its fear and stared down the giant before letting out a hissing roar that caused Fluttershy to shiver in terror. The giant, however, was completely unfazed and let out a sound that shook her to the very soul.

It wasn’t loud.

Nothing that low could ever be loud.

It was not meant to be loud.

It was meant to be felt.

Its low, rumbling roar shook the entire area as well as the bones of both the hydra and the canary pegasus. It was setting off every alarm telling Fluttershy to run, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it. While the hydra was also trembling, it somehow was able to still hold its ground and weakly snarl at the titan before it. It was then that the giant did something Fluttershy wasn’t expecting and stood up on its back legs. This new stance nearly doubled its height, putting it on par with an Ursa Major. Fluttershy, while still scared, couldn’t help but be curious as to what it was doing. She didn’t have to wait long.

The mighty colossus slammed its front legs back on the ground.

The tree falling had caused a small tremor. The giant’s steps had caused the earth to shake. The display of power she just witnessed?

Caused an earthquake!

Where its front legs came down were large craters and the vicious shaking of the earth caused entire chunks to shoot out of the ground at sharp and odd angles. It was violent enough to fell several more of the massive trees surrounding them and it was when the minor apocalypse subsided did the hydra finally wise up and run off with its tail between its legs.

Fluttershy was in shock to say the least. On one hoof, she was standing underneath what was probably the single largest creature she had ever seen, that could cause earthquakes with its sheer weight alone. While it seemed to be protecting her, it could have easily done so just so that it wouldn’t have to fight to eat her. On the other hoof, it still hadn’t turned to attack her, even with the hydra gone. Actually when she thought about it, she realized that her giant savior hadn’t moved at all. Concern now replacing her fear, she took a step forward to check on the creature.

Squish

She stopped when she stepped in the wet patch of grass.

That’s weird.

She didn’t remember this patch being wet before. She lifted her hoof to her face and gasped at the crimson liquid staining it. Immediately looking to the ground, she could see that there was a steadily growing puddle of blood. She let out a louder gasp when she saw that the blood was originating from the giant of the forest.

“Oh my goodness, you’re hurt!” she yelled out before being silenced by the explosive crash the giant made when it hit the ground.

Apparently the universe wasn’t quite done with giving Fluttershy surprises because she could only stand there slack-jawed as the earthquake causing giant that had saved her life started shrinking. It kept getting smaller and smaller until instead of being the size of an ambitious hill, it appeared to be just a bit larger than Princess Celestia.

It took her a second to come back to her senses and remember that size-shifting aside, the creature was still injured and needed help. She ran up to it and had to fight to keep the contents of her stomach from making a return to the outside world.

It was bad.

Morbidly bad.

It was covered in cuts and slashes of various sizes, all bleeding, but by far the worst was the massive gash running from the base of its neck to its flank. The huge wound almost seemed to be pulsating and she had seen enough injured animals to know that if she didn’t get it back to the cottage to stitch it up the giant probably would not make it to the end of the day. She was starting to panic. She attempted to lift the now smaller giant onto her back but found that he was, unsurprisingly, much too heavy for her to lift even if she didn’t have a broken wing. She was about to lose hope until she looked up and saw a familiar robin and had an idea.

“Excuse me, Mrs. Robin” she yelled out, gaining the small bird's attention, “I don’t mean to bother you but my friend here is horribly injured and I need help to get it back to my cottage. Could you go get Harry? Y-you know, if you don’t mind” she asked timidly.

The robin looked into the concerned eyes of the kind pegasus that had always helped her and her family and gave a chirp to accept her request.

“Oh thank you so much! Please hurry though, I don’t know how much time it has left!” she added with slight worry.

With a final nod the robin was off. While Fluttershy was relieved that she was getting help, she still needed to find a way to stop the bleeding. It was then that she felt her saddlebags and remembered the reason she was in this situation in the first place. She quickly dug into her bag and brought out one of the fiery, black flowers.

“The Dragon Lily.” she said to herself before getting a look of determination. She ran up to the mighty beast and helped it chew and swallow the powerful medicine. After the longest couple of seconds of her entire life she saw the flower take effect. The bleeding completely stopped and some of the smaller cuts completely closed. The larger wounds, especially the massive gash, wouldn’t completely close and it would still need medical attention as soon as possible.

It was another ten minutes before Harry burst into the clearing. Now with the help of a large brown bear, they got the giant on Harry’s back while Fluttershy held up its head and neck. They started on their way back to Fluttershy’s cottage. They were about half way there when the creature started making noise.

“…must…save…have to…protect…the angel…” the creature mumbled in a deep, masculine voice.

Fluttershy nearly stopped in her tracks. It, no He had just talked. This was not just some strange animal that decided to protect her. He was sentient. A cavalcade of questions suddenly burst into her mind but she shook them away.

I can ask questions later. Right now he’s hurt and I’m the only one who can help him,

Fear and confusion were replaced with resolve and determination.

She would not let her savior die.


Fluttershy burst through her door with her mysterious savior draped over her and Harry’s backs. After helping the bear quickly, but gently, set the giant down on her couch, the piece of furniture straining under the weight, she went straight to her medical cabinet and grabbed the stitching equipment, as well as rubbing alcohol and gauze to properly mend his wounds. With the necessary equipment in hand she got to work.

As she was cleaning the large gash she was both surprised and relieved to find no sign of infection. With the worst wound cleaned she got to work stitching it closed and wrapping gauze around his torso. With the adrenaline seeping away she started becoming painfully aware of her own injuries that needed attending to. Seeing nothing left to do with the giant she looked to herself.

Overall she wasn’t as bad as she had thought; some minor cuts and bruises and a sprained hoof. Even her wing, while most definitely broken, wasn’t nearly as bad as it could’ve been. That didn’t stop it from hurting like hell though. Being friends with a pegasus like Rainbow Dash since fillyhood had taught her quite a bit about treating pegasus wings, though doing it to her own wing would prove more of a challenge. The most painful part would be setting the bone so, taking a wooden spoon to bite down on, she took her wing in both hooves she set it with a quick jerk.

“MMMMMM!” she let out a muffled scream through the wooden spoon in her mouth. The pain was incredible but thankfully only lasted a second. With a few tears in her eyes she wrapped the wing tightly enough so it wouldn’t damage itself more.

Now that everything seemed to be winding down, and nopony was knocking at death's door, she decided to take a closer look at what this giant of the Everfree looked like in more detail.

She walked into her living room and couldn’t help but crease a small smile at the giant peacefully slumbering on her couch. The first, and most obvious thing, she noticed was his size. While it was a bit difficult to guess his true size due to the position he was laying in, she could tell he was somewhere around Celestia’s height. However, unlike Celestia’s slender frame, he was covered in massive muscles that would put Bulk Biceps to shame. At first she would have likened him to a wingless dragon, but now that she could get a closer look at him she realized that wasn’t exactly the most accurate description. For one thing, now that she was up close she could see that instead of the large, keeled scales that dragons were known for, he was covered in small polygonal scales that she would have never been able to see unless she was as close as she was now. Said scales were also a lovely shade of dark crimson. His front legs looked similar to those of a large earth pony, though instead of ending in a hoof it was almost like they ended in fleshy stubs. They also had large spikes where thumbs would theoretically be. His back legs looked more like traditional dragon legs, even ending in large claws, though they were much stockier than any dragon she’d ever seen. His tail was extremely long, nearly as long as his neck and torso combined, and seemed to end in a whip. The neck, like the tail, was also of extraordinary length. It wasn’t flexible like a snake’s but instead seemed to be thick and muscular like a giraffe’s. Finally, she looked up the long, muscular neck to look upon the giant’s head, and was surprised to find that it looked similar to that of a pony stallion.

She stood there staring, mesmerized by the strange creature laying on her living room couch. She had never seen anything like him before and wondered if anypony else had. He was also sentient so it was probably important to find out what he was sooner rather than later.

She thought about asking Spike for help, since Twilight was currently out of town, when another thought occurred to her. What would her friends think of him? Pinkie Pie and Applejack were in the Crystal Empire at the moment, though Fluttershy didn’t think it would be difficult to explain the situation to them. Applejack had a good head on her shoulders and was always willing to listen while Pinkie would probably just want to throw him a party. Rarity and Rainbow Dash, however, didn’t exactly have the best histories on getting surprised by strange creatures so if they saw the one here…

Knock knock knock

She was broken out of her thoughts by someone knocking on her door. She started to panic a little, she had no idea who could possibly be at her cottage. It was then that she glanced at the clock and noticed that it read 2:00 and suddenly remembered her conversation earlier.

“Rarity!” she whisper screamed in realization. With all of the craziness that had just happened she forgot all about her and Rarity going to the spa, and she was now a whole hour late.

Knock knock knock

"Fluttershy, are you home, darling?" Rarity asked through the door.

"Y-y-yes, I'll be there in one moment" Fluttershy replied meekly before making her way to the door.

When she got to the door she opened it just enough to reveal one of her teal eyes and a bit of pink mane, "H-hello Rarity…"

"Oh thank Celestia, I came here earlier but you weren’t home so I figured I’d just wait for you at the spa. After nearly an hour and you still hadn’t shown up I began to worry and decided to come back here." Rarity explained, said worry clear in her voice. She then noticed how much Fluttershy was trying to hide behind her door and mane. While this wouldn’t be too out of the ordinary usually, she never did this with Rarity, which caused said mare to raise a brow, "Are you alright darling?"

"I'm s-sorry for worrying you Rarity but I'm fine, I just got…um…lost?" Fluttershy said through the door.

Rarity had known Fluttershy for a very long time. They were extremely close, considering the other to be like a sister, and Rarity knew Fluttershy was many things; kind, sweet, shy. A good liar was not one of those things.

"…lost?" Rarity asked incredulously.

"Lost." Fluttershy lied.

"You never get lost in the Everfree." Rarity truthed.

"W-well there's a, um, f-first time for e-everything, right?" Fluttershy said unconvincingly.

Rarity's face became hard and her voice had a soft authority to it, "Fluttershy we've known each other for a very long time now and I consider you my very best friend so believe me when I say that I know when you are lying." Her hard glare then softened considerably, "Please darling, I just want to make sure you are alright and I can't very well do that while you hide behind a door."

Fluttershy knew that she had no way out of this, and she also knew Rarity was right and felt horrible for lying, but before she could say anything the giant let out a low, rumbling growl from her living room, causing her eyes to widen as she hoped Rarity hadn't noticed it.

She noticed.

"What was that?" Rarity asked a bit frantically.

"Oh, that was a…um…um…a surprise! Yes, a surprise, no peeking!" Fluttershy blurted, desperation seeping into her voice.

"Fluttershy, it may be a bit uncouth of me but if you do not open this door by the time I count to three, I will let myself in!" Rarity nearly screamed.

"Um…"

Oh no.

"One…"

Is she serious?

"Two…"

She is.

"THREE!" Fluttershy jumped out from behind the door as Rarity charged through the door and into the living room. She froze, eyes wide and jaw nearly hitting the floor, when she saw the crimson giant resting on the couch.

Fluttershy walked in and, preparing for the chaos that was inevitably about to unfold, could only manage to say a single word.

"…surprise?"

Fluttershy couldn’t bare to see Rarity’s reaction so she was standing there, eyes sealed shut and holding her breath, waiting for Rarity to scream at her for not only hiding a possibly dangerous animal in her home but also lying to her about it. After about a minute of continued silence she slowly opened her eyes to look at Rarity and was surprised by what she saw.

Rarity was completely silent, though it appeared that her shock had faded away. In fact she seemed to be fascinated by Fluttershy’s giant houseguest.

Maybe a bit too fascinated.

“Um, Rarity?”

No answer.

“Rarity?”

Still no answer.

Fluttershy started poking Rarity’s shoulder to get her attention, “Rarity, are you alright?”

“…his scales are such a lovely shade of red.” Rarity finally answered.

“Wha-”

“I mean look at him Fluttershy! It’s not like Big Macintosh’s bright red coat, his are more deep and rich. It’s just so natural! Why, I could make an entire line up of dresses based on this color alone, maybe even a couple of suits!” She then walked up to the giant and ran a hoof along his muscled body, a noticeable blush on her cheeks, “Not to mention he is quite handsome, and those muscles…”

“Rarity, you're drooling.” Fluttershy deadpanned, though there was a slight blush on her own face.

That seemed to break Rarity out of her insanity. Her blush intensified while she wiped her mouth and cleared her throat, “Y-yes, quite sorry about that darling. I may have gotten a bit out of hoof there.”

“It’s alright, this is a bit of a strange situation.”

Rarity looked over at Fluttershy and for the first time noticed her bandaged wing.

“Darling you’re hurt!” Rarity gasped out. She then shot an accusatory look at the unconscious giant, “He didn’t…”

“Oh no, no, no!” Fluttershy cut in. “He was actually the one who saved me…”

“Dear,” Rarity started, her face softening, “I think it’s about time you told me everything that happened to you in that nasty forest.”

Fluttershy nodded and began. She told Rarity about the stampede, the rogue hydra and her tumble down the hill that caused her to break her wing. She was finishing up explaining how the giant saved her from the hydra when they were interrupted by a loud crash.

Looking over they saw that one of Fluttershy’s birdhouses had been knocked over by the giant’s whip-like tail. Looking closer they noticed that he appeared to be extremely distressed; his entire body was shaking and his tail was swinging around erratically. Fluttershy started to become worried that something was wrong and jumped forward to try and comfort the giant while Rarity tried to limit the damage done.

“It’s ok, I’m right here.” she started comforting him, unaware that in the chaos that his wounds had started to reopen.


Everything was dark. Why couldn’t he see anything? For that matter, where even was he? He tried to remember but everything kept coming up blank, he couldn’t even seem to remember his own name. As he started to get frustrated he looked around the dark void he had found himself in, as if that would magically give him answers.

“Hey there!” a perky feminine voice suddenly called out.

Jumping in surprise, he turned to the source of the voice. Before him was quite a strange creature. She was small, about five feet tall, and was covered in dark, navy blue feathers that caused her to almost seamlessly blend in with the void around them, if it wasn’t for the fact that they seamlessly transitioned into a mellow white on the edge of her tail and wing feathers. She had long, curly feathers on her head tied into a long tail that fell over her shoulders. It too was edged in a mellow white. She was looking right at him with amber eyes and a wide smile on her face. Looking closer he noticed that her teeth were small, but sharp and pointed. He recognized them as the teeth of a carnivore. He could also tell that in addition to the wings on her arms she also had a pair on her legs, giving her a total of four wings. Underneath the wings on her arms he could see sharp claws. She had the same sharp claws on her feet, though he noticed that one claw was slightly larger than the rest on each foot. She looked almost like a weird bird and was, in a word, absolutely adorable.

“Who and what exactly are you?” he asked, having trouble keeping a small smile from forming. He didn’t know why but he felt compelled to feel happy around her, almost like he recognised her.

She giggled, “Well to answer your first question, my name is Lucimena, Lulu for short. At least, I’m the memory of her, and I know she’s very important to you. As for what, I don’t know!” she explained, never losing her perkiness.

“How do you not know?” he asked a bit incredulously.

“Well because you haven’t remembered that yet silly.” she said with her hands on her hips, as if it was the most obvious thing in the universe.

“…right… so basically you’re a manifestation of Lucimena…”

“Lulu.” she interjected.

“…Lulu, and you’re apparently important to me but you don’t know why because I don’t know why?”

“Yepperoni!” she exclaimed, fluttering in the air a bit.

I guess those wings aren’t just for show.

Well, considering he couldn’t remember anything else and every fiber of his body was telling him he could trust this adorable little creature, he decided to do just that.

“Ok Lulu, I trust you. Is there anything else you, or I guess it would be myself, needs to tell me?” he figured he’d get as many answers as possible out of her.

“Hmmm…” she fell back down to the ground with a thoughtful expression. Suddenly the entire void started to shake and Lulu started fading away.

“Oh damn, I guess I’m out of time. Don’t worry Terra, you just have to be strong and you’ll get your memories back. I may not be there physically but I’m in your head now and that also means I’m with you in spirit.” Her face softened considerably as she said this when her eyes widened in realization. “I almost forgot! Don’t forget to look after the angel, you’ll know her when you see her…” she got out before fading away completely.

Angel? He thought to himself what she could’ve meant by that when he noticed that the void, which was still shaking violently, seemed to be filling itself with large trees. He also noticed that he was also growing in size. By the time the shaking finally subsided he now found himself in a dark foreboding forest and several times his previous size.

He nearly doubled over in pain.

He was suddenly stricken with unimaginable pain, which made him aware that in addition to his new gigantic size he was also covered in injuries, including a very large gash that he would much rather not think about. As he was wondering what just happened he heard a high-pitched scream in the distance, followed by a much louder roar.

He knew whoever was screaming needed help so, gritting his teeth and ignoring the pain, he started making his way in the direction of the scream as fast as possible. Due to his new weight he couldn’t really run, but the sheer size of his steps meant that he still made it to the source of the screaming relatively quickly, all the while shaking the earth. He made it to a clearing and finally saw the source of the screaming and paused at the sight.

Standing before him was a pegasus, how he knew that he wasn’t really sure. Her fur was a buttery yellow, which was accented amazingly by her rosy mane and tail. She had a slender build with larger flanks, said flanks having three pink butterflies embezzled on them. Her wings were large and seemed fluffier than Lulu’s, though one was definitely broken. He couldn’t help but find her beautiful.

He couldn't say the same about the hydra quickly closing in on.

Knowing what would happen if he didn’t do anything, he went to help the beautiful pegasus but found that all of a sudden he couldn’t move. He tried to move again but to no success. He was completely stuck somehow, not even able to close his eyes or move his head.

Which meant he could only watch as the hydra approached.

As the multi-headed predator got closer he continued to try and fix his sudden imitation of a statue, until it was looming over the canary pegasus. When the hydra reared its heads back to strike he let out a scream to stop.

No words came out of his mouth.

He could only watch as the pegasus was ripped apart and devoured by the beast. He felt something wet stream down his face as the hydra left, its belly full.

The forest, along with the now blood-stained grass, started fading away until he was left alone in a black void again, though this time he still had his injuries. However, the pain of his wounds was nothing compared to the pain he felt in his soul for failing to save the pegasus.

How pathetic…” a voice called out.

He looked up at the voice and saw nothing. The voice was definitely a female’s voice, but he could clearly tell it wasn’t Lulu. While Lulu’s voice was filled with joy and perkiness this voice was filled with menace and condescension. It sent a horrible chill down his spine.

Do you want to know why you couldn’t protect her, my little fool?” she asked with a chuckle.

He nodded.

Because you’re weak.” she hissed right into his ear.

He tried to say something to argue with the voice but once again nothing came out. While he couldn’t see the source of the voice, something told him that it was smiling.

I mean really, you just stood there and watched as the poor mare got ripped apart. I wonder if it hurt when that beast tore off her wings and legs? I wonder if the last thing she saw before it bit her head off was you, someone that could have saved her from this horrible fate, just watching?” she kept asking with obvious glee.

The words were hitting him like a freight train. He should've been stronger damnit! Why couldn’t he just move? He could have easily fought off the hydra but he just stood there. He didn’t even have the decency to try and scream at it to stop. He just stood there and watched her die like it was some sort of late-night entertainment.

The voice was right. He was weak.

You know, I think you need to be punished for your inaction, but what should the punishment be?” the voice asked itself. “Oh, I know! What better punishment than to leave you here alone, stewing in your own guilt until nothing is left except an empty husk.” the voice proudly stated.

He could only agree with the voice. His inaction had caused the painful death of an innocent and he deserved punishment. He sunk to the ground and started slowly closing his eyes, not even noticing the voice chuckling or the black smoke encircling him.

“It’s ok, I’m right here.”

His eyes shot open at the new voice. It seemed to be driving off the chill coming over him, as well as dispelling the shadows. This new voice was also that of a female but this one was soft and filled with warmth, as if it were the voice of an angel.

‘Don’t forget to look after the angel’ Lulu’s words suddenly rang through his head.

NO! the antagonistic voice screamed out before being silenced by the angelic voice.

“Everything will be ok, you helped me so let me help you.”

As the angel kept speaking white light started to overtake the black void until he was completely blinded. When the light faded he found himself in what appeared to be a cottage.

He also found himself locked with a pair of beautiful teal eyes.


Fluttershy had managed to calm down the giant and was surprised to find herself staring into a pair of silver eyes. She wanted to ask if he was ok but found that she couldn’t get the words out. Rarity, who had just noticed the giant was awake, was the one who finally broke the silence.

“Goodness darling, you gave us quite a fright. Are you ok?” Rarity asked.

Her question broke them out of their impromptu staring contest and Fluttershy took a few steps back while hiding behind her mane. The giant, instead of answering Rarity’s question, lifted his head up a little bit to get a better look at the two mares. One was a unicorn with a white coat and purple mane. She looked like she put a great deal of care into her appearance, but he had a sneaking suspicion that there was an underlying natural beauty that the make-up only enhanced as opposed to covering up. She also had an air of professionalism to her. When he looked over to get a better look at the other mare his eyes went wide in shock and his mouth went slack.

A yellow pegasus with a pink mane.

‘You'll know her when you see her’ he now understood what LuLu’s words had meant. This pegasus was the one he had to protect.

The two mares were about to speak but then he stood up to his full height and their jaws dropped at the specimen before them. While they could tell that he was large when he was laying down they still weren’t prepared for his actual size. At 7’6 he was easily a full head taller than Celestia herself. He stood with a powerful aura that would make Shining Armor jealous, but it was also warm and protective. Even covered in bandages they could see his large, chiseled muscles that gave him his powerful build. The two mares found themselves blushing at the sight.

And then he finally spoke.

“You’re the one from the forest, the one getting attacked by the hydra. The angel.” he said, looking straight at Fluttershy. She could feel her cheeks heating up even more from being called an angel. They burned even more when he added, “I’m so glad you are safe.”

Rarity was surprised by just how deep his voice was, but also that it had a large degree of warmth to it. Like that of an older brother or father. It gave her a feeling of safety and trust. She shook her head and started fanning herself to focus on the task at hand. She still had questions.

“Excuse me sir,” she said, getting the giant’s attention, “I had a few questions for you, but I believe introductions are in order before we get to all of that.”

She gestured to herself and Fluttershy, “My name is Rarity and this shy beauty that you graciously saved, which I still must thank you profusely for, is Fluttershy.”

Fluttershy. So that was the angel’s name. He thought it was quite appropriate. With a warm smile he looked at the two mares.

“It is a pleasure to meet you Miss Rarity and Miss Fluttershy, but,” he used his tail to gesture at his own bandages, “I believe I owe you two just as much thanks for helping me.”

“My, what a gentlecolt, but I must admit all the thanks should go to Fluttershy. She was the one who patched you up.” Rarity said, giving Fluttershy a sly look.

“I-i-it was th-th-the least I c-could do.” Fluttershy finally stuttered out.

He looked at her and with a tone filled with warmth said, “Well thank you anyway Miss Fluttershy.”

Something in his voice calmed her. She didn’t quite feel like she had to hide from him. She felt safe. “You’re very welcome.” she said, a small smile on her face.

“Well now that we have introduced ourselves, how about we put a name to dear Fluttershy’s hero?” Rarity said.

“Oh yes, I would very much like to know your name!” Fluttershy said excitedly. “That is, if you don’t mind us asking…” she added, slipping back into her timid voice.

His name? Right, of course he needed to tell them his name. He remembered that Lulu had called him something in his dream, but what was it? Oh yeah! She called him…

“Terra, you can call me Terra.”

Author's Note:

As some of you probably read on mu blog post this story went through a bit of a rewrite and the first 4 chapters are being revised to match that. If you don't know what I'm talking about you can find the details in said blog. These revised chapters should most just be fleshing out and better flow but there are going to be some changes so I would still recommend rereading them if you read through them pre-revision.

Of course I would still love and and all constructive criticism!

Next time: Fluttershy checks out some books