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Ogryn... I have a feeling we're not in Ponyville anymore.

Lug awoke with a start, covered in a shoddy mix of mud, leaves, and twigs. He didn’t know where he was, but he did know that everything hurt, and that his left arm was broken. He groaned as he tried to rise, his legs wobbling precariously as his strength failed him. Falling back to the forest floor, he closed his eyes, recalling how exactly he ended up in this mess. Right. He had punched Applejack, and now surely all the ponies would hate him. The guilt and fear came crashing back into Lug mercilessly. He was going to be thrown out again, and he was going to be all alone.

Again.

He had hurt someone that had provided him a warm place to stay and a station to work, and how had he repaid her? By sending her flying into a fence. Sure, he got mad, but nothing excused what he did. There was no justification, and when the memory of the mean pony reared its ugly head, he recalled her biting words once again.

‘You do not belong here.’

He found himself bitterly agreeing with her. He was just a big stupid monster that punched things when he got upset. A beast that spat in the eyes of his benefactors, and he was as lowly a creature as his old commissar thought him to be, undeserving of kindness or comfort. The loathing that Lug harbored for himself in this moment made him want to break everything around him, which only further solidified the conclusion that he was a monster. There was nothing he could do. No way to lash out at the world or to fix what he had done.

This was it. He was going to die in this dark forest, cold and alone.

The Ogryn couldn’t help but curl into a ball amongst the squalor of the woodland ground, sniffling lamely as he tried to shut it all out. Though try as he might, he couldn’t stop the influx of thoughts, both good and bad. Hopeful and hopeless. Something deep within him, something he still hadn’t noticed, something new… Spurned them on. Lug was sure he had never thought so many, well, thoughts, in his life. He could feel something changing. But now wasn’t the time to dwell on unnecessary ruminations, not when survival was once again paramount.

The howling of beasts set all of Lug’s instincts into overdrive, easily crushing the novelty of stringing together somewhat complex thought, and the backbreaking weight of what he had done.

He willed himself to get up, and his muscles replied, now fresh with adrenaline that came with the roaring instincts that screamed at him to move. As he stood up, he took in his surroundings. He was at the bottom of a cliff, it would seem. To his back was a rocky wall, and the sight in front of him was much the same. Another howl in the distance told Lug that he needed to get going, and so he did, letting the heavy Bullgryn armor fall to the ground so that he could conserve energy.

As he trudged along the game trails of the forest, he began to notice how heavier his right foot felt to the rest of his body. When he looked down to inspect it, he found that it was turned to stone, and so was his shin. He grunted in irritation and resumed his search for shelter, sparing no time to wail or whine at the misfortune. He didn’t know how it happened, only that it did, and that it was going to be a problem.

Although he heard birdsong, it was harsh and discordant, nothing like the soft tittering of the birds back in the whitetail woods. It did nothing to ease his nerves, and only added onto the stress of being stranded yet again in a foreign, potentially hostile environment. With his relatively uninjured limb, he grabbed his Club and let it rest on his shoulder, his eyes scanning for any potential threats. Considering everything was a potential threat? Lug wasn’t doing all that well.

Sometimes he’d run into creatures he couldn’t even begin to describe, nevermind comprehend. They often scared him. But he couldn’t show weakness, not here. It was a luxury he could no longer afford, and he couldn’t exactly afford getting into a fight in his current state. Though luckily enough, all it took to scare them away was a good scream and a show of strength.

As he walked, his stomach began to gurgle, reminding him painfully of his hunger. He needed to eat, but he couldn’t risk eating any of the plant life here, nor the fruit that sometimes hung so plumply from the boughs of the dark trees. He needed meat. And he needed it soon. So, he began to hunt. As an Ogryn, one can be assured that they are nearly always the meanest creature in a wilderness environment… But nature always finds a way to sweep your expectations.

As he attuned all his rudimentary senses for the sole purpose of finding prey, he began to pick up on the guttural snorting that was relatively reminiscent of cattle. He approached the small clearing the noises came from, club at the ready as he parted the trees. His eyes spotted a creature he, once again, could not describe. But it looked plump. With the head of a boar and the body of a large, black buffalo, Lug had stumbled upon a catoblepas.

The brutish creature looked strong, powerful muscles rippling under its coarse pelt. But Lug instinctively knew he was stronger. All it would take to bring the hellish beast down is a couple strong swings of his club to the head. Lug didn’t even see it as a potentially dangerous monster, but instead as walking protein and energy he needed to survive.

He slowly approached it from behind, club raised above his head as his eyes narrowed. Just a few steps closer now, and he’d be within clobbering distance, and his dinner would be his to claim.

But things rarely ever went well for Lug.

A snap echoed in the newly fallen silence, and Lug realized that he had just thrown away any chance at a sneak attack by stepping on a dry stick. The Catoblepas whipped around with furious eyes to look at him, its ugly snout snorting visible, caustic air as it pawed at the ground. It looked quite ready to charge. But, of course, Lug had other plans.

The Ogryn charged with a warcry, making the Catoblepas flinch back as it tried to recover from the shock. When it did, the creature charged him, sickly tusks ready to gore Lug and spread his guts all about the forest floor. When it came into range, Lug swung hard at the beast’s head, a loud crack announcing the blunt weapon’s contact. But the beast just kept coming, regardless of its half-caved-in skull.

Lug couldn’t dodge, and it wasn’t even in the Ogryn’s repertoire even if he wanted to. All he could do was use his club as a shield to help soften the impact. The beast then rammed into Lug with all the force its failing body could muster, pushing back the weakened Ogryn’s club until it was directly against his chest. The catoblepas scratched up Lug’s ribcage as much as it possibly could before Lug retaliated with a swift fist to the cranium, finishing the job.

Lug stood back and bellowed a challenge to the sky, making the cacophony of the forest go silent with his animalistic fury. When he came back from the adrenaline-fueled rage, he clutched at his wounded ribcage as he dropped his club, wincing from the sharp pain that heralded the wounds. His legs were starting to get weak, but he couldn’t fall here. Not now, not with a fresh kill. Picking up his club and strapping it to his belt, he hoisted the corpse onto his shoulders and began searching for a place to eat, because he sure as hell couldn’t eat here.

It took a few hours of agonizing hiking, but he finally found a cave where he could begin to take apart his kill with his bare hands. He had no knife, so he had to use his hands and teeth to rip open the hide and eventually tear it off. He threw it into a corner and got to work emptying the animal’s guts, just like his Big sister drilled into him. It took her nearly a month to teach him how to field-dress an animal. Only then, after watching her do it countless times, did it finally stick.

Lug threw the guts out of the cave as he exited it, making sure no other creatures were watching and waiting for him to let his guard down. When Lug’s eyes failed to notice any sign of danger, he slowly went back inside. He pulled up a rock to sit on and he started simply eating the beast raw. He didn’t know how to start a fire, it was a process far too complex for his pea brain to comprehend, but he knew that his gut could probably take it. Even if the meat was tingly on his tongue.

As he sat there in the darkness of the cave, the emotions that he had fended off by way of keeping himself busy all came rushing back to him. All of a sudden, he didn’t feel so much like a Big Ogryn anymore. He felt small. When Lug felt small, he felt vulnerable, and when he felt vulnerable, he often curled up into a ball. Which is precisely what he did.

As he lay there on the cold, rough cave floor, he began to weep silently. He wanted to see his friends again. He wanted to play games with Applebloom and eat with Applejack. He wanted to pet Daffy, who disappeared sometime during the whole chore incident. He wanted to see Fluttershy again, the nice pony lady who reminded him so much of his mama. He’d even take rarity or rainbow dash. He wouldn’t mind sitting through a whole bunch of questions with twilight. He just wanted somebody, anybody, to be there with him.

He didn’t want to be alone. He wanted so badly to tell Applejack that he was sorry, and beg for her forgiveness. He wept until he eventually cried himself to sleep, letting the blissful oblivion of unconsciousness take him.

And no dreams or mean dark ponies disturbed him.

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When Applebloom had retreated to her room after being told she couldn't come, she found herself pacing, furious that she hadn’t been taken with her older sister to go find Lug. Applejack and her friends had left an hour ago to go looking for him, and they’ve yet to come back. She stamped her hoof and looked out her window, glaring at the wooded horizon. She wasn’t just going to stay put when her friend was in danger.

She needed to round up Scootaloo and Sweetie belle. She wouldn’t be able to do this without them.

With determination in her eyes, Applebloom ran out of her room, down the hall, practically leaping down the stairs, and then sprinting out the door. She had passed the broken fence where they had found applejack when a small fuzzy critter stopped her in her path. It was Daffy! The little rabbit squeaked a few times at Applebloom, pointing at her back.

“Yew wanna come too?” Applebloom asked, Daffy nodding rapidly in reply. “Well hop awn! ah’m gonna need ahll the help ah can get!” She said enthusiastically. Daffy then hopped onto her back and held onto a tuft of her mane, squeaking loudly as she pointed forward. Rearing up, Applebloom let loose a positively adorable whinny and set off running once again. It was almost nighttime, so she yanked a lit lantern off one of the fence posts as she ran past with her teeth.

She raced to Scootaloo's house, throwing pebbles at her window until she opened it. The tomboyish filly poked her head out and looked down at Applebloom with quizzical eyes.

“Applebloom! You’re okay! Me and sweetie belle thought you got eaten!” she shouted down to her, only to be shushed harshly by the yellow filly.

“Quiet, Scootaloo! I’m on a secret mission, and me n’ daffy need yer help!” She whispered-yelled up at the little pegasus after setting down the lantern.

“Who’s daffy?” She asked, prompting Daffy to reveal herself and wave at Scootaloo. The orange filly waved back. “Y’know what, count me in! I love secret missions!” She replied with gusto, making sure to lower her voice. She jumped out of her window and flapped her little wings as hard as she could, slowing her descent by a little so she wouldn’t get hurt. “So, what’s the secret mission?” she asked, looking just about ready for anything.

“Lug got lost in the everfree forest, and we need to go rescue him!” She said, stamping her hoof. Scootaloo just looked at her with a confused expression.

“Uhh.. First off, who’s Lug? And second, The EVERFREE FOREST? ARE YOU-” she began incredulously before getting cut off as Applebloom shoved her hoof in Scootaloo's mouth, getting shushed quite harshly once again. The yellow filly’s eyes glanced at a nearby house’s window as a light flared to life. “Yew need t’be quiet! And Lug is the big feller we ran into yesterday.”

Scootaloo’s jaw dropped at this revelation as applebloom removed her hoof, and shook her head wildly. “No way! That thing nearly ate us, and we thought it ate you applebloom!”

That little comment earned Scootaloo a stern smack upside the head, which the orange filly responded with an ‘ouch!’ and a hiss. She rubbed the spot Applebloom struck her. “He’s nawht a thing, he’s mah friend. He doesn’t EAT ponies, dummy. And he’ll be your friend too if we manage to save him!” She explained, her voice laced with irritation.

“Fine, but if we get eaten by timberwolves or something, that’s on you!” Scootaloo said begrudgingly. Applebloom gave her a steeled smile and ran off in the direction of Rarity’s boutique, Scootaloo in tow.

Applebloom repeated the same process and explanation with Sweetie Belle, who was more reluctant to go. Scootaloo and Applebloom had to cut a deal with the white filly to fill in for her when her older sister, rarity, wanted to play dress up. It was a hard deal to make, but in Applebloom’s mind, she’d do anything to save a friend. Even if that meant being subject to 3 hours of trying on tight dresses and thick makeup.

With her friends by her side, Applebloom felt she could do anything. Leading the girls back to the farm, she followed Lug’s tracks to the edge of the Everfree forest. That’s when Daffy leapt off her back and began sniffing at the tracks like a hound, taking off into the forest as soon as she got Lug’s scent.

How Daffy could even pick up Lug’s scent was beyond Applebloom, and she simply chalked it up to the same ambient magic that gave some wild animals sentience. As the little rabbit sped off into the forest, the three fillies hardened their eyes and ran after her.

It was pretty hard to follow the little bunny, but with Sweetie Belle's magic, she’d managed to make her glow in the dark so that the rabbit would be easier to follow. Daffy lead them through the sea of dark trees with an expertise that made Applebloom wonder if Daffy had lived in the Everfree before.

They went through winding trails and down steep hills, racing through the bushes and vines. Soon enough, they came upon a clearing that showed signs of a conflict. Lug’s tracks were all over the place. There was definitely a fight. Especially if the blood that splattered the grass meant anything. Daffy turned to Applebloom and pointed in another direction, before once again sprinting in the direction she directed. With a groan, the unicorn and pegasus followed Applebloom as she took off after the rabbit. They weren’t built for this kind of endurance running, and were beginning to become fatigued.

Applebloom’s ears swiveled wildly in all directions as she ran, trying to pick up on any sounds the Ogryn might be making, anything at all. But all she heard was the wild noises of the night as all they had to lead them now was Applebloom’s lantern and the glowing Daffy. She didn’t care how dangerous this was. She needed to find Lug, and soon.

And as if the universe deigned to heed her plea, Ask and ye shall receive.

Daffy led them into yet another small clearing, but at the end of that clearing was a cave. A familiar scent wafted into her nose amidst the earthy smells of the woods as they approached it. It was Lug! She raced into the cave to find the giant sleeping fitfully, and she nearly dropped her lantern in horror at what she saw, her eyes immediately beginning to brim with tears.

He was filthy, and without the armor she last saw him wearing. But that’s not what had her so worried. The Ogryn was wounded. The space just below his chest was covered in wounds. The blood had seeped out and stained the shirt Lug had been wearing, though now somewhat dry as the bleeding had stopped some time ago.

She looked to her friends to find them standing at the cave entrance, their eyes wide with fear as they stared at Lug’s sleeping form. They obviously had not gotten over how big and scary he looked.

If only they knew how nice he could be…

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Lug woke up feverishly, his head pounding. He didn’t want to open his eyes. Everything hurt even more, especially his stomach. Maybe eating the Catoblepas raw wasn’t a good idea. But then again, Lug was never known for good ideas. He was just a big dumb brute that ate anything put in front of him. He groaned as his stomach was wracked with another wave of pain.

That’s when it was revealed he wasn’t alone. After he groaned, he heard two ‘eeps’ sound off nearby, and immediately heard the all too familiar drawl of his first friend.

“Lug! Yer awake! We’ve been lookin’ all over the Everfree for yew! Me n’ mah sister were worried sick, And here ah find that yer hurt!” She cried, a sob in her voice as she clung to the Ogryn’s side. Meanwhile, Lug was completely still, his mind in shock.

She came looking for him? And not to get revenge? She was… Worried about him? But he hurt her older sister! When he opened his mouth, Her eyes became hard as she scowled, putting a hoof on his lips.

“No! No talkin’! Once we get yew outta here and all healed up, THEN you can explain yerself. And until help gets here, I ain’t leavin’ yer side.” She said, ending with a sniffle. She grumbled as she snuggled up next to him, calling him all sorts of names. But Lug didn’t mind, he was just glad that she was here.

And then, bursting out from Applebloom’s mane, was Daffy. The little rabbit jumped up onto his chest, squeaking rapidly as she shook a paw-finger at him. He assumed she was chastising him for being dumb and running off. When she finished her cute little tirade, she wrapped her fluffy arms around Lug’s chin in a hug, nuzzling his nose. When she broke away, she simply curled up in the crook of his neck. It warmed his heart.

He looked up to the side to see the two other fillies he saw when he first arrived had been with her. They still looked rather scared of him, but it seemed they’d rather be inside the cave with a big monster that was Applebloom’s friend, than stay out there where there were a lot of OTHER monsters that weren’t their friends.

He would’ve chuckled, if the action wouldn’t reopen his wounds in the process and irritate his already VERY upset stomach. Instead, he simply gave them a friendly nod, as that was all he could muster. That seemed to slightly alleviate their fears, as they then settled next to applebloom.

As they began to doze and rest their weary hooves, Lug thought it’d be best if he too slept. Though as he closed his sickly eyes, he heard something that filled him with dread. The howling of wolves. And they were getting closer. The sound woke the fillies, who were now quaking in fear. He slowly got up, disturbing Daffy from her sound sleep, but she squeaked no complaint.

Then the canine howling of wolves sounded off close by. Too close. He rushed forward out of the cave despite his aching body and protests of the fillies. He saw nothing. He was about to go back inside when he heard the bushes begin to rustle, and then he saw it.

A massive pack of glowing, yellow eyes staring back at him. It reminded him of the genestealers, the Tyranids. He slid his club from his belt and clutched it in his good hand, his knuckles going white. Like the fight with the catoblepas, he was not going to get out of this unscathed. “Stay inside the cave, lil’uns. Don’t come out fer nothin’.” He growled, steeling himself.

He side-eyed the pile of guts near the outside of his cave and internally smacked himself. He remembered that his big sister had told him that he couldn’t just leave the guts on the ground willy-nilly, or else predators would find the camp. Lug had no time to dwell on his mistakes, his instincts once again kicking into overdrive as his weary muscles once again filled with adrenaline, albeit weaker in force since the last few times. He couldn’t afford to drag this out. He needed to end this quickly. And so, he charged.

The wooden wolves seemed to expect this and broke into a loose circle around the Ogryn, barking and snarling at him as he swung wildly. Each time he went to swing for one, it leapt out of the way, just in time. It frustrated him to no end, and the sun was beginning to set. The forest was getting darker with each passing minute, and so were his prospects of surviving.

When he approached to swing, they went back. When he went back, they approached. Lug knew that if this dragged on, he’d certainly perish. With the second warcry of the evening, He charged at the biggest wolf, abandoning his club as he grabbed it by the neck and slammed it into the ground repeatedly. This, of course, prompted the rest of the pack to immediately jump him.

He felt sharp teeth sink into his flesh in various places, ripping out chunks as they assaulted him. Lug spun around with the alpha in his hand, using their leader to beat them off, dropping and rolling and jumping and swinging. He could feel his adrenaline slowly ebbing away, and as if they noticed this, they began attacking in earnest. Lug desperately fought them off, his fists caving in wooden heads as they bore down at him relentlessly.

Now he was practically at their mercy. He was tired and his lack of food was detrimental. He felt his scabbed over wounds reopen and fresh blood began to spill from the gouges in his ribcage. For a moment, he genuinely thought he was going to die here. He’d die fighting, yes, but not on a battlefield. He’d die pathetically at the paws of woodland beasts that he normally wouldn’t have trouble with. What would his big sister say? What would happen to the scared little fillies in the cave? He wasn’t just fighting for himself now. He was fighting for them.

As the wolves slowly whittled away at him, Lug’s life flashed before his eyes once again. The same old pains and traumas resurfacing, the life he had just recently realized was so incredibly bleak. And then they appeared. The fleeting yet sweet memories of his new friends. Daffy, Applebloom, Applejack and her colorful friends…

Lug knew he did them wrong, and that they probably hate him now... But he wanted to see them. To be with them. To laugh with them. To cry with them. To experience life beside them. But most importantly, he wanted to see them. One last time.

One. Last. Time.

With his final desperate push, Lug willed himself to go on one final assault. The wooden wolves yelped in surprise as the Ogryn went on the offensive once more, pushing past his exhausted limbs and screaming muscles, past his lack of energy and blood, bellowing his defiance as if screaming in the face of fate itself. Spines broke and heads were crushed as he raged, making his will a reality.

He felt a song well up from his soul, one of defiance and perseverance. The human nature that defied the impossible, spitting on the shoes of the ever growing odds. It was screaming at him to keep going, to keep striving, to go on despite it all. To rage against the unfairness of reality, to get back at the universe for all the wrong it had wrought. And as the song reached a crescendo, he felt something snap inside him. Like a chain holding him back, now gone.

His fists erupted into furious, whipping fire as crackling energy raced across his body. His eyes were aglow with the bastard lovechild of warp energy and equestrian magic, melding together to empower the Ogryn as he fought. Each punch atomized a wolf’s head, simply obliterating it from existence in a shower of splinters. The energy that flowed through him made him forget all about his wounds as he continued his onslaught, his mind clearer than it had ever been.

And that’s when he realized the song inside him wasn’t just inside him. It EMANATED from him. The ambient equestrian magic was responding to his desperate bid for salvation, and combined with the newly awakened warp energy, it transformed into a grand orchestra. As Lug finished off the last of the wolves, the orchestra began to quieten as the newfound energy left him. His work was done, and the threat was eliminated.

When the foreign power went dormant once again, the fatigue and exhaustion from the fight caught up with him all at once. He fell to his knees, his knuckles as bloody as a mess as the rest of him. His blood and the green goopy fluids of the beasts he just slain mixed together to paint a masterpiece of gore and grime that coated the Ogryn’s body, and he released a deep sigh.

Unconsciousness quickly claimed him.

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The three fillies, followed by daffy, rushed out of the cave to greet the miniature battlefield that Lug nearly lost his life in. They gaped in a mix of awe and horror as they saw the 20 something timberwolf corpses littered around an unmoving Lug. It must have been one of the biggest packs in the forest! They were horrified with all the death, but in awe of how Lug fought them all off alone, and won. Applebloom brought her lantern up as she maneuvered her way through the small pond of corpses, inspecting the now brutally wounded Ogryn.

The sight made her eyes fill up with tears once again, after she had thought she’d already cried them all away.

The bushes rustled again, and the three fillies whipped around to see what new horror would spring from the depths of the everfree, only to feel a rush of relief when Applejack and the rest of the gang burst out of the underbrush. A gasp of horror escaped the lot of them when they arrived on the scene. Fluttershy looked positively sick as she stared at the bodies of the timberwolves, though as usual, she was the first to act. She rushed over to Lug and opened a first-aid kid that she had with her, using a white fluffy rag to clean the many wounds

When they noticed the three fillies, they rushed forward, gingerly stepping around the field of corpses. Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow dash respectively, all looked positively furious. For the next 10 minutes, the three fillies were admonished and reprimanded by their older counterparts, but Applebloom interrupted them before they could continue further.

“Now ain’t the time fer this, Applejack! Lug is HURT! He did all this to protect us!” She wailed, Shoving her hoof in the unconscious Lug’s direction. It seemed that in the shellshock that came with arriving at such a brutal scene, they had forgotten the very reason they came to this wild place.

Fluttershy was furiously attending to the Ogryn’s wounds, working with haste. “Applebloom is right, girls. Lug is hurt very badly, and we can’t move him to my cottage, or else we’ll risk hurting him even further.” She said, deeply serious. When the wounded were involved, all previous shyness seemed to evaporate from the pony as she ordered the others to construct a makeshift stretcher.

It seemed that the tone of her voice helped the others out of their stupor, as they immediately began working on getting a stretcher constructed by order of Doctor Fluttershy. After the stretcher was made, they painstakingly laid him onto it, making sure to gently set him down. It took the combined efforts of Pinkie pie, Applejack, rainbow dash, and twilight to carry the Ogryn inside the cave for further treatment.

As he was laid upon the cave floor, Fluttershy noticed the catoblepas corpse and immediately looked away. She couldn’t bear to. She made sure to take a quick look at lug’s teeth, and she divined that he was an Omnivore, so she didn’t hold it against him. But she also knew every part of that creature was poisonous. It was a miracle Lug had survived so long. “Rainbow dash, I need you to go fetch Zecora. Fly as fast as you can!”

Rainbow dash asked no questions as she zipped away with haste, leaving a contrail of rainbow as she went. Fluttershy went back to tending to Lug’s many wounds while Twilight studied his anatomy. She assured the others that it was so in the future, they could better treat any wounds or maladies. Applebloom and her friends sat nearby, big round eyes all concentrated on Lug. He had risked his life to protect them from the timberwolves, and by the looks of it, he wasn’t out of the woods yet.

“I-is he gonna be ahlright, Fluttershy?” Asked Applebloom, her voice wavering. In return, Fluttershy gave the sweet little filly a soft smile.

“I’m going to do everything I can, Applebloom. I should be able to stabilize him, at least. When morning comes, we’ll fly him on the stretcher over to the hospital, so don’t you worry.” She replied, giving Applebloom a few pats on the head. The yellow filly’s friends pressed close to her, trying their best to comfort the distraught Applebloom.

Beside Lug, Applejack looked down at Lug with remorse and anger. She had her hat in her hoof, pressed against her chest. “Oh, Lug... Yew big ol’ fool. Ya didn’t have t’go and nearly get yerself killed…” She whispered softly. Fluttershy came to her side and placed a hoof on her withers, asking her to take the fillies home.

Applejack nodded, placing her hat back atop her head, taking rarity and the fillies with her as she left the cave. Applebloom cast one last worried glance at Lug before going to follow her sister home.

Fluttershy simply returned to tending Lug’s wounds, when all of a sudden his breathing quickened and his eyebrows furrowed. Fluttershy and twilight shared a worried look before the yellow pegasus gave all her attention to the unconscious lug.

“M-mama… Where are ye… M-m-mama, I-I’m scared.” whimpered a feverish Lug, tears trickling out of his eyes, his face twisted into that of fear and pain. Lug’s sleep talking took twilight by surprise, but Fluttershy was quick to act, taking one of Lug’s bandaged hands in her hooves.

“It’s okay, sweetheart. I’m here. Mama’s here.” cooed the yellow pegasus. Lug unconsciously held onto her hoof as whatever she was trying seemed to work. His breathing slowed, and his fearful, pained expression seemed to wash away as his whole body relaxed. Fluttershy began to lightly stroke Lug’s face with one of her wings, humming a soft lullaby.

Twilight, on the other hand, was busying herself with her magic. She scanned Lug’s body from top to bottom, and quickly had a look of baffled incredulity on her face. She looked at the now peacefully sleeping Ogryn with new, curious eyes. She needed to study this further.

Two energies resided in Lug, and Twilight estimated that they had been steadily growing as Lug spent his time here among the ponies. She knew one of the energies was the Equestrian magic that existed in all things, but she was completely dumbfounded by the other. It was chaotic and… Almost angry, constantly shifting. Though curiously enough, it was being tamed by the innate harmony that Equestrian magic held, making whatever it was more pliable. Although both energies were rapidly fading, becoming the size of bits, she believed that they were now a permanent part of Lug’s physiology.

She was scribbling furiously on a long piece of parchment, documenting everything she could about this phenomena. As she finished writing about three scrolls worth of information, she stared at Lug’s unconscious form.

Twilight came to the conclusion that this goliath had a lot he could teach her, whether he knew that or not.

And she, for one, could not wait to begin.

Author's Note:

Man, this chapter was quite the doozy, wasn't it?

I know it might be a bit early to be throwing new powers into the mix, but I thought it'd be a nice way to explain Lug's increasing intelligence.

I hope y'all enjoyed!

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An Ogryn in a Pony's world - An Odd Hermit

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