An Ogryn in a Pony's world

by An Odd Hermit

Workin' hard, or hardly workin'?

After Applejack had led Lug into the barn, he immediately plopped down onto a pile of hay, content to simply lie there in his somewhat prickly new bed. Though, it did take a couple minutes of shifting for Lug to create an Ogryn shaped indent in the hay pile so that it’d be more comfortable. Daffy had curled up on the hay as well, directly up against the right side of his head. The Ogryn felt a small smile tug at his lips, happy that he and the little bunny had grown so close.

Though it was a literal barn meant for storing tools and hay, Lug thought it was pretty nice regardless. Back in the Militarum, they always seemed to be short of Ogryn sized sleeping rolls. Don swore that they had them, but… Lug never got one. He noticed the commissar always looked oddly satisfied seeing the large abhuman sleep on the cold floor.

Lug’s old commissar was mean to him, even when he did as he was asked, yelling at him for the slightest mistake. He reminded Lug of his papa, and Lug didn’t like his papa. Don had always told him that the commissar was mean to him because he was an abhuman, But Lug never quite understood why. Just because he was different, he was bad? Lug found that rather silly.

Staring up at the barn’s roof, he was quite thankful for the bedding he was given. Though… Applejack said something about it being temporary. Was he going to have to sleep on the floors again? Well, if so, he didn’t mind too terribly much. As long as he got to sleep in the barn. He would’ve been upset if it were because of his old commissar, but, if the pretty pony ladies wanted Lug to sleep on the floor… He would. If that would make them happy.

Lug wanted the pony ladies to be happy. They had been so nice to him, nicer than his big sister even! And that was saying something, because his Big Sister was the second nicest person ever. His mama being the first nicest.

He missed his mama.

Lug quickly shut down that train of thought as he punched himself in the face, shaking his head afterwards. Big Ogryns didn’t cry, he told himself, seemingly forgetting the time not so long ago he was shedding manly tears over a platter of apple fritters. As the soreness faded, he cleared his throat and began closing his eyes, welcoming the dreams to come.

And for a good few solid hours, he slept peacefully, but a gentle prodding on his cheek disturbed any chance of that. A familiar voice drawled in the darkness of the barn. “Lug! Ah yew awake? It’s me, applebloom!” whispered the little filly, continuing to prod him.

He opened his eyes to find her right beside his head. Though he had to squint to see her in the darkness, he could still make out her relative shape. “Yea, yea.. I’m awake. Wot d’ya need, lit’l Applebloom?” he responded groggily, rubbing his bleary eyes. He wanted to go back to sleep.

“W-well, ah jus’ wanted t’see if ah could sleep with yew tonight. Ah’m not scared of the storm or nothin’! It’s jus’...” She explained quickly, giving up her fallacy halfway through as a particularly strong gale of wind rocked the barn. “...Ah didn’t wanna wake up the others n’ be a bother.”

She finished with a sigh, and Lug finally noticed the harsh storm that battered against the barn. Though it wasn’t like she was totally lying. But storms at night always seemed to play tricks on the little filly’s mind, and she could’ve swore she saw a monster in her closet. And considering The Ogryn was the strongest looking creature she knew (next to her big sister of course), she figured that he could protect her from any night-time beasties.

This reminded Lug of how he’d often go to his Big sister in the dead of night when he had a bad dream. Though she smacked him over the head for waking her up so late, she’d always scoot over to make room on her bed for him. The fond memory sparked a smile in his eyes. Maybe he could do for Applebloom what his big sister always did for him.

“Course’, lit’l bloom. Make yerself comfortable. Dat mean ol’ storm ain’t no match for a fully grown Ogryn!” Lug said proudly, raising up a fist and curling his bicep. The filly beamed and hopped up unto Lug’s chest, padding around in a circle before stretching out as much as she could. It was like the Ogryn was one big warm mattress. A mattress that smelled a little funny, but warm and comfortable nevertheless.

As Applebloom rested there on Lug’s chest, she let the strong thumping of the Ogryn’s heartbeat wash away all her worries. And despite the storm that raged outside, she soon found herself drifting to sleep. Once she did, Lug decided that he’d better sleep as well, following in her hoofsteps as he finally shut his heavy eyelids.

﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌ꕥ﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌

Once again, it was the standard Ogryn dream. Big battle, win, get award, feast, repeat. Though this time, A more lucid Lug began noticing more and more of the people in his dream get replaced by the colorful ponies he had befriended the day before. After all was said and done, he found himself the most lucid he had ever been in a dream.

He was within a large cathedral that he had visited in his youth. The same one his papa always went to in the morning after he had finished drinking his angry juice the night before. But that wasn’t what was strange here.

He wasn’t alone. Lug could feel another presence with him in the dream, and almost like on cue, the presence spoke.

“I have seen where you have come from, Creature of war.” Said a regal, feminine voice. Lug whipped around to look at the speaker, and found a taller, darker version of the ponies he had met. This one was odd, though. Her mane seemed to flow as if it were under water, and it was speckled with glittering stars. She had a horn like Rarity and twilight, but also wings like rainbow dash and fluttershy.

But that wasn’t what he found startling. He shifted uncomfortably as her cyan eyes bored into his, full of distrust and disapproval.

“I do not interfere with the dreams of our ponies, unless a nightmare requires me to step in. But you are not one of my ponies, are you, beast?” she said in a needlessly accusatory tone. And Lug didn’t like that one bit. He scowled as he pointed a finger at her.

“Now, there ain’t a need fer any of dat none sense! I may be big n’ all, but I ain’t no beast! I’m an Ogryn! An’ there’s a diff- diffar- driff-” he stuttered, his gaze becoming unfocused as he fussed over the word he was trying to say. He grumbled as he kicked a pew in frustration. He looked towards the mean pony with another scowl.

“I don’ appre-sheeian-ate you bein’ so mean t’me. I didn’t even do nuffin’!” He said hotly, crossing his meaty arms as he spoke. The mean pony curled her lip as she listened to him.

“It matters not what you’ve done, but rather what I fear you will do. Your dream showed me more than enough. You are not from Equus. Nay, not even this plane of existence. You come from a realm of eternal war,” She said, narrowing her eyes at him.

“And you most certainly do not belong here.” She finished coldly, slowly moving towards him as she matched Lug’s scowl with her own icy glare. Her words hurt Lug more than he cared to admit. Finally, after a whole lifetime of war and fighting and unrest, he found a place he could simply live without worry… And she claimed he didn’t belong?

Maybe she was right.

He was a brute. A beast of war, bred for conflict. Always ready to spill blood whenever he needed to. And that probably scared the mean pony.

But Lug, unlike other Ogryn, wanted to be so much more than that. He wanted friends. He wanted a family. His Big Sister always told Lug that he was a lot smarter than the other Ogryn. Maybe that’s why he only ever got along with the bone ‘eads. Perhaps it’s the enhanced intelligence that led to him wanting more out of life than blood and war.

Maybe he wasn’t as content with life in the imperium as he thought. His short time here with the ponies had certainly shown him that there was a lot more life had to offer, other than fighting in an endless war. Actually, ever since he got here, he’d been thinking a lot more than usual. It was the strangest thing.

Lug himself was surprised by this train of thought as he stood there, staring at the ground with his head hung low. But still. The out-of-the-blue reprimanding by the mean pony, creatures he thought would always treat him kindly, made his face flush with shame. He felt a pang in his nose and his eyes grew watery, but he chanted that same mantra in his head that kept them back. Big Ogryns don’t cry. They don’t. No sir. His Big sister and his mama always told Lug that he was a good Ogryn, and they never lied, not ever. He didn’t have to listen to this.

Meanwhile, the mean pony watched Lug with a curious expression, still laced with distrust however. She saw the mental conflict that raged in his mind as his dream shifted around them, the cathedral warping and twisting. As his head hung low and his face reddened with shame, she felt for the briefest of moments that she had made a mistake.

Lug sat down heavily on a pew, a loud groan escaping the wood in response. His arms were folded and he refused to make eye contact with the mean pony, turning away from her. The pony in question, on the other hoof, found this rather childish. She scoffed, shaking her head at the immature display. Like some colt giving his mother the cold shoulder.

“I suggest you-” She started again, though was interrupted as the Ogryn spoke.

“No! I ain’t listenin’ t’you. I’m ah good Ogryn, and Good Ogryns don’t deserve to get treated dis way. No sir.” Lug bit back, finishing with a very audible ‘hmph!’.

He had been treated badly by authority figures nearly his entire life, and he was done with it. Lug was sick and tired of being pushed around. You can’t push around an Ogryn! Especially one that didn’t want to be moved. Simply can’t have it.

The childish display thoroughly confounded the mean pony. She knew he was a simple creature, so maybe she should have expected this. Regardless, she stomped her hoof down and opened her mouth to fire yet another venom-filled rant, but her cyan eyes couldn’t continue drawing ire as she stared at Lug’s hunched over form. The words died on her tongue.

Despite being so large, he looked so... small. His hands gripped his shoulders now, and his knees had been drawn up to his chest. She had expected the creature to rage and lash out at her, but he seemed he’d rather curl in on himself than do anything rash. The feeling that coming here was a mistake only grew. So much so that she couldn’t ignore it.

“...And Good Ogryns don’ urt’ the lil’uns’. Mama always said so, an’ Mama’s nevah wrong.” Lug said quietly, his voice tinged with a sadness the pony couldn’t quite place. The mean pony’s gaze softened as that feeling became a realization. She didn’t need to come here and meddle with the creature. She had jumped to a conclusion and instead of confronting a monster, she needlessly hurt an innocent’s feelings.

She sighed softly and reached out to Lug, but drew her hoof back when she felt the instability of the dream. He was waking up. But she hadn’t amended this yet! She needed more time! Though before she could speak and try to apologize, the dream went up in smoke, leaving the dark pony standing there in the void. Alone, with the weight of her mistake.

﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌ꕥ﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌

Lug woke up to Applejack standing over him with a lit lantern, a light smile on her face as she rested her hoof on the ogryn’s shoulder. He let the memory of the mean pony wash away as he groggily grumbled a greeting. Was it morning already? He blinked away the sleep in his eyes and leaned up to see the soft light of the morning, the darkness of the barn a few shades brighter.

“Ahlright sugarcube, it’s time t’start yer first day here at Sweet Apple Acres! There’s ah lot t’do, but with your help, we should be done in no time at all!” Said AJ, excitement evident in her voice. The Ogryn’s help was going to be HUGE. Quite like he was. Maybe Lug could even help Big Mcintosh till the fields. Cracking his back with a groan, he plucked the still sleeping filly and rabbit from where they slept and draped them on his shoulder as he stood. He gave himself a few slaps to truly wake up, the stinging pain chasing away the morning bleariness.

Applejack opened the barn doors and led him outside, where the cold nip of the morning greeted his bare arms. Not that he minded, of course. Lug quite liked the cold. He thought it was pretty silly how his arms and fingers went numb. But, this wasn’t that kind of cold. A simple early morning chill, nothing more.

AJ had Lug sit down on the very same bench he had the day prior, and after some time waiting, he was given yet another large platter of apple fritters. The Ogryn thanked Applejack gratefully and dug in, noticing some fried eggs on his platter, too. The smell seemed to wake Applebloom and Daffy, and they roused from their sleep, Applebloom mumbling a good morning while Daffy simply squeaked. The little filly leapt down from Lug’s shoulder, once again helped by Lug as he caught her mid-air and set her down, all the while eating his hot apple fritters.

Lug watched Applebloom sleepily stumble her way inside the farmhouse as he ate, amusement coloring his features, chuckling through a mouthful of fritters. He figured that the days with the apple family often began early. Nothing he wasn’t used to, living half his life in the Militarum. As he got down to his last fritter, he broke off a chunk of it and handed it to Daffy, who squeaked in thanks and grasped it in her cute little paws to chow down on the tasty pastry.

“Awrighty, Lug. It’s time fer yer tour of Sweet Apple Acres! Let’s get ah mosey on!” Announced applejack as she exited the farmhouse in a trot, followed by Applebloom and another, much larger looking pony. He had a red coat and a green apple on his flank, and he had given lug a friendly nod, which Lug returned.

Lug then quickly got up to follow the group of ponies, his lumbering strides quickly catching up to them, though he had to slow down considerably to match their pace once he did. “Yes, sah! Thank ye, sah!” said Lug, already treating AJ like his boss.

Applejack cracked a wry smile as she glanced back at him, and Applebloom gave a short giggle. Lug wondered what was so funny. “Wot ya laughin’ for?” He asked, giving the ponies an inquisitive gaze, his eyebrow raised. All this did was elicit more laughter from Applebloom as Applejack opened her mouth to respond,

“Didn’t expect yew t’be the professional sort, Sugarcube.” She held an amused glint in her eyes that complimented the grin she wore. Lug snorted, briefly shaking his head. His big sister always told him to address his Higher ups properly. Considering he’d be working for Applejack for the foreseeable future, she was technically his superior in the chain of command.

“Mah big sistah always said dat ah Good Ogryn respects his high’ah auh-tor-ity, sah!” replied Lug, the botched pronunciation of ‘authority’ earning him a chuckle from the Red pony. The Ogryn didn’t mind it when people laughed at him. Don and his friends always laughed at Lug when he did something he wasn’t supposed to, and the man told Lug that there wasn’t any harm in it. And if Don said so, it must be true.

Lug missed Don.

Applejack took Lug all around the farm, showing him large swathes of ripe cornfields, bustling apple orchards, and even a vineyard for grapes. It was all rather impressive to Lug, who’d never been on a farm before. Not even during his time deployed in the Militarum. After the tour had ended, they had found themselves back in front of the farmhouse once again.

“Ahlright, Lug. We’re gonna go through ah few things t’see what yer good at. '' said AJ, already leading him towards the Orchard. Maybe he was going to start by picking apples. “Sah, yes sah!” Lug barked back, startling Daffy. Applejack shook her head in amusement as they went along the fenced path, the summer breeze flowing past them and around the idyllic landscape.

For the first task, Applejack set him in front of an apple tree full of ripe apples, a bevy of empty wooden containers surrounding it in certain spots. When he went to pluck an Apple from its place upon the tree, Applejack clicked her tongue. “Let me show yew how we do it here at Sweet Apple Acres, sugarcube.”

And as promised, she did in fact demonstrate with a nearby tree with similarly placed wooden containers. She confidently trotted up to it, turned to face Lug, reared up on her front hooves, and gave the tree one strong buck. Somehow, that was all that was necessary, as all the ripe apples then fell from the tree in droves, landing directly into the seemingly haphazardly placed containers. She lifted her muzzle into the air and crossed one hoof with the other, a blatant show of pride. “See? Easy as pie. Now yew try it, Lug.“

He figured it wouldn’t be too terribly hard. Daffy leapt off his shoulder as he turned to face away from the tree. He got on his stomach and lifted himself up, trying to match the motions Applejack had gone through. It took him a minute to figure out what he did after getting on his stomach, but soon enough, he reared up on his forearms and shot out both his feet towards the tree.

Lug expected to feel contact with the tree immediately afterwards, but, apparently he had fallen short. Not something you’d ever expect from an Ogryn, considering how tall they are, but! Here we are. He landed hard, his stomach getting rocked from the rough impact with the ground. He groaned lightly, turning over on his side, a feeling of light frustration beginning to well up within him. Applejack said it was simple! So why couldn’t he, one of the most simple beings in the universe, do it? He wasn’t about to call Applejack a liar, no sir. So the only logical conclusion was to blame it on his own inadequacy.

He gave it a few more tries, his frustration only growing. In a bout of short anger, he punched the tree square in the middle. A classic Ogryn problem-solving technique. It didn’t really hurt much, but it did elicit a gasp out of AJ and Applebloom. When he turned to look at what they were gaping at, he saw that the empty containers were now full, and the tree was now barren of apples. The sight made him smile, and his previous frustration had diminished significantly.

Applejack was quick to recover as she gave Lug a few good pats on the thigh. “Well, yew may not be made fer buckin’, But yew pack one heckuva punch! That’s for darn sure.” She said, nodding approvingly at Lug’s work. “Now that we know yew can do the apple-buckin’- or, would it be apple-punching? Well, regardless, now we can move onto the other chores.” She continued enthusiastically, quickly taking the lead as she directed Lug towards the next task.

The next task was apparently tilling the soil. Normally, it was Big Mac’s job, which was the name of the Red pony that had been walking with them. But two is always better than one it would seem, as AJ had strapped him up to a large iron tilling plow, and set him to walk in a straight line in the field. Seemed easy enough.

And it was, in fact, easy. All Lug had to do was move forward and stop when the plow reached the end of the field. Simple as pie, As Applejack had said. He didn’t know how to make pie, so he didn’t know how simple the process was, but he just took her word for it. AJ had been very pleased with how easy it was for Lug to plow the field, and with such speed! She made a quick joke about how Lug might just replace Big Mac, prodding him with her elbow. The large red pony chuckled nervously at that revelation, trying to keep the worry from his eyes.

After the plowing, they had moved onto a lot of other chores that required a steady hand. Which, of course, all ended in some kind of accident. He couldn’t collect eggs from the chickens, as he was far too big to even reach into the coop, and when he did get an egg, he pulled it out only to find that he had crushed it unintentionally.

Then they tried to get him to help clean out a water chute, which he accidentally sealed off completely when he applied a little bit too much pressure to the thin metal. Applejack assured him that it was fine, but Lug noticed she was also getting rather frustrated, which in turn revived an old fear in the Ogryn’s soul. The nagging anxiety began to tug at his heart, stressing him out and amplifying any frustrations that came with each and every shortcoming of the day. Applebloom and Big Mac had long since gone about to do their separate chores.

Near the end of it, Both Lug and Applejack were positively fuming. This time around, She had Lug trying to use a hammer that was far too small for him, to fix a fence by adding a couple new nails. Each missed swing collided with the fence, breaking it more than fixing it.

“Now come on, Lug! Hoof-eye coordination!” AJ said, reprimanding him as Lug had missed once again. Her face was fixed into a scowl as she stood beside him, pointing at the nail that stood proudly amongst the wreckage of the now ruined fence.

“I know, sah! I’m trying, sah!” He said, trying his hardest to concentrate on hitting the nail. Though it seemed that the harder he concentrated, the harder it was to hit the nail. The edges of his vision were starting to blur red with anger, intensifying with each miss.

“Now-”

“Yes, sah!”

“You’re doin’ wrong, see here, you gotta-”

“Trying, sah!”

“No! Look, you’ve got it all-”

“BE QUIET!” Bellowed Lug, rage overtaking him for a brief moment, seeing nothing but red. When his vision cleared and his breathing calmed, he blinked dumbly at his outstretched fist, a smidgen of blood decorating his knuckles. He unclenched the fist and inspected the red liquid, confused as to where it came from. When he lowered his hand to ask AJ what had happened, that’s when he saw it.

Applejack’s limp form, unmoving, sprawled over a newly broken fence… And the only words that could be put together in his shocked brain was the memory of the mean pony, and words that had cut deeper than he realized.

‘You do not belong here.’

He got up from where he had been kneeling, hands shaking and eyes wide. He took a few terrified steps towards Applejack’s unconscious body, his knees quaking as tears threatened to overflow from his sockets. He gently shook her, hoarsely calling her name.

“A-a-applejack?” He stuttered, his voice distraught and quiet, choked with emotion. When she did not move, he let out a small gasp, his hand flinching back as if he had been electrocuted. Was she dead? No, she couldn’t be, but she wasn’t moving… And when he subconsciously thought the situation couldn’t get any worse, He heard a familiar voice that now filled him with an unspeakable sense of dread.

“Applejaaaack! Luuuug! Lunch is ready!” Called Applebloom’s dulcet drawl, blissfully unaware of what just transpired.

And Lug didn’t want to be around to see the look on her face when she found her sister’s limp body. He at least had the courtesy of moving her onto the path instead of the fence, before doing something he never considered ever doing in his 26 years of life.

Lug ran.

He ran, and ran, and ran, his sight blinded by the tears that overflowed in his eyes. He ran until the muscles in his legs screamed at him to stop. He ran until his surroundings got darker and more compact, until his ears were filled with the howling of monsters and the breaking of branches as he sprinted through a dark forest. Creatures that Lug didn’t care to stop and gawk at quickly got out of his way, as the Ogryn had become a one-man stampede, crushing anything that got in his path. All the while, a striped equine watched this all unfold, being sure to stay well out of the path of his unintentional rampage.

Lug’s legs soon buckled under his own weight, everything below his right knee feeling a lot heavier than normal, exhaustion overcoming his fear and grief. As he slid, he caught a glimpse of a ruined castle, before suddenly plummeting…

As he went over the edge of a cliff.

﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌ꕥ﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌
When Applejack finally woke up, she found Granny Smith, Applebloom, and Big Mac standing over her, their eyes wide with worry. Her jaw throbbed with pain, and her skull was wracked with a headache. All she could hear was a buzz, but as that buzz died, she could catch the concerned voices of her family asking her a barrage of questions, and if she was alright.

“A-ahm alright, ah think.. Did y’all s-see where Lu-” She stopped mid sentence, the memory of what happened rushing back to her. They had both been quite frustrated with how things were going, and Applejack had just kept pushing, not seeing how enraged the Ogryn was becoming… And one thing after the next, she woke up with a splitting headache and a sore jaw. While what he did was absolutely not okay, she felt partly to blame for it.

“What happened here, AJ?” Asked Big Mac, gazing at the broken fences. Granny smith and Applebloom both stared, their worried eyes demanding an answer. And with a heavy sigh, an answer she gave.

“Lug sent me flyin’ with ah right hook across the jaw- But it wasn’t all his fault!” She quickly added after seeing the looks of horror on their faces. She knew what it was like to get blinded by anger. Not to this extent of course, but she’s done things she’s regretted in blind fits of rage, things she sorely wishes she could take back. "We were both gettin' mighty tired n' frustrated, and ah kept pushin' him."

She got up with a moan, a hoof on her head as a fresh wave of pain throbbed across her skull. Judging by the tracks of the Ogryn’s boots, he left in quite a hurry, likely after he realized what he had done. She could only begin to imagine how Lug must be feeling right now.

As she looked to see where he had run off to, she soon came to the harrowing conclusion that Lug had run directly into the Everfree forest, and by the looks of the trail, he wasn’t going to be stopping anytime soon. She needed to find him, and fast, before something terrible happened. The poor giant was probably scared out of his mind.

“Ah need t’gather the girls. Poor feller's gone and run into the Everfree, and we’ve gotta find Lug before he gets hurt.” Applejack said with determination, stamping her hoof.

“Let me come with yew! Ah can help! Me n’ him’re friends. He’s probably hurtin’ more than yer jaw does right now, and ah’m confident ah can calm him down!” Explained applebloom, her voice surprising the adults. Not many would willingly charge headfirst into the everfree, especially not a filly, and especially not to rescue somebody that just struck their sister. It just went to show how strong their bond had become over the past couple of days.

As much as Applejack agreed and wanted her to come, she couldn’t. “Ah’m mighty sorry, Applebloom. The everfree is unpredictable and there’s no tellin’ what we’ll run into in there! Ah don’t know if we’ll even find him. Yew’ve gotta stay, no buts! Ah wouldn’t forgive mahself if somethin’ happened to you on my watch.” She said sternly, her heart aching as she watched the filly visibly wilt before her eyes.

Applejack then turned to Big Mac and gave him a sharp nod, his eyes hardening as he got the message. Rearing up on her back hooves, she broke into a full sprint, willing her hooves to carry her as fast as they could.

She hoped beyond hope that, wherever Lug was right now, she would reach him in time.

Author's Note:

I sincerely hope you all enjoyed the third chapter! I know it got pretty dramatic rather fast, but it should calm down after the next chapter.

Speaking of the next chapter... This song should give you a hint of the general vibe of it.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=8y4Sz8_Oq1M&si=EnSIkaIECMiOmarE

Comments

[Ace striker]

Love it keep going

[stone125]

epic

[Bronycommander]

nicely done!

[Booster Spice]

Lug needs a Cragodile Club.

Strange, Id have thought AJ would have a better handle on Lug, unless she still hasnt managed to work out he is more restrictricted than all three CMC on a vendetta against a piece of pastry?

She got a heavy hauler there. thats at lleast something instead of keep pushing.

[rikithemonk]

I like this.

Please continue.

Monk
"not only was love blind but it must have some severe mental disorders too." -Recteik Shade

[Venlin]

Good thing that she was a earth-pony. That hit could have killed her if she was anything else.

[Alladd]

I'm more concerned for the forest and lug Seriously an ogren on a rampage is not something to take Lightly