A Tale of The New Beginning

by zmg

New horizons

Luna's eyes began to open, and with a yawn she started to unzip the sleeping bag. She stood up. In front of her were glimpsing remnants of a campfire, a few steps further laid the blanket with only one pony under it. She started to look around for a lost person. Did he betray them after telling them to join him? No, that can't be true. Maybe he went to the forest for something.

She thought that Guarding Hart might know something. There was a slight hesitation, but that didn’t stop her from bolting towards the guard. After vigorously shaking a still-asleep Hart’s body, she sprung up.

" W-What's happening! "

" Do you know where Arrin is?" Luna exclaimed with distress.

" What do you mean? He's right ... there " She saw that there was no one next to her. She started to panic and nervously look around, when a voice from behind caught her attention.

" Seriously, I'm gone for less than an hour and you two panic?" Emerging from the forest behind with a small boar on his back.

" Where were you!? We were worried about you. "

He dropped the boar near the dead campfire. " Ehh don't worry, I'm not the type of person that would leave his people behind."

Saying that he began to re-create the campfire. " You know what, take care about the fire and I'm going to prepare this boar for lunch."

And with that, he disappeared into the forest once again.

After about thirty minutes, he returned with the boar without a skin which was impaled onto a stick. Arin was welcomed by a nicely burning campfire and two ponies beside it.

" I see that you did what I asked you to do." Saying that he picked up two sticks and dug them near the campfire. They were meant to hold the animal steady on top of the fire. He placed the stick with a freshly caught dinner, and began rotating it.

" Soo, how was the sleep?" He asked while making sure not to burn the food.

" We sleep well, but tell us what you were doing in the forest instead of sleeping. " Luna replied with a sense of concern.

" I couldn't sleep, so I thought that I may as well find something to eat, and as you can see, I succeeded." He said this while pointing at the boar.

" You mean meat? I don't think ponies can eat it." Guarding Hart pointed out.

" Let's find out," Arrin answered with a smile. Both ponies looked at each other and replied at the same time.

" We don't think it's a good idea."

" It's either this or grass. You choose." He answered, not even bothering to look at them.

" I think I may try," Guarding answered.

" That's more like it. Now you only need to wait till it's ready. "

It took almost thirty minutes for the boar to cook perfectly on both sides. Arrin cut it into pieces and put them on the bigger leaves that he found in the forest. He didn't even think twice before biting into the juicy meat. Ponies, on the other hand, still couldn't do it because of the fact that they were eating another creature, and about the consequences of doing so. The first to break and try was Luna, slowly and hesitatingly she took a small bite out of it, only to experience the explosion of taste in her mouth. She started to devour it like there was no tomorrow. Seeing that, Guarding decided to give it a try, and she wasn't disappointed. The meat tasted delicious - crunchy outside and juicy inside. It didn't take long before the whole boar disappeared, the only things left were two full ponies and a happy human.

" That was the best thing I ever ate." Guarding Hart exclaimed with an expression that looked too exaggerated, and unnecessary.

" See? I told you it's not that bad. Unfortunately, we can't sit here and do nothing. Since the sun has risen, we need to move out to find an exit from this forest."

" You're right, but weren't you telling me that you knew a way to exit this forest quickly?"

" Yes. Yes, I was saying something like that. Now watch and learn from someone who has experience with it. Since it was the main reason that I found myself in that clearing where everything started." Seeing that, he began to spin around with closed eyes, then he suddenly stopped and pointed right in front of himself. "Here we're going in this direction."

" You're joking, right?"

" You got any better ideas than this?" He asked while crossing arms.

She sighed and looked down at the ground. " No, I don't have any better ideas."

"Then let's get going. We will reach something interesting eventually. " He said this as he took Guarding Hart in his arms.

"Thou art right, we shall get going." Luna exclaimed while trying to not fall behind.

---

They were going straight for almost three hours without success. The forest at this point became so dense that going through it was either really hard or would be impossible if not for Arrin, who cut a path through, with his blades. Luna and Guarding began to lose hope of finding anything, but Arrin continued on without hesitation. There wasn’t any exhaustion present in his movements, nor did he feel it, which made both ponies look at him with surprise and concern. Finally, Guarding Hart couldn't stop herself from asking about this.

" Hey, aren't you tired after this whole walk?"

" Nope, it's not that tiring."

" You’ve been holding me in your arms this whole time. Maybe you should take a break from carrying me? I think I might be able to stand on my own. At least I hope..."

" Nah, you're more of a warm and soft pillow than a big and heavy rock."

" Y-you mean that I'm light, even though I wear full armor. It weighs around 60 kg by itself."

" Now that I think of it, it really is starting to look odd. But still, I don't feel tired. Moreover, I don't think you're heavy, so let's just leave it at that for now. "

" OK" was all she said while looking down.

They continued their walk through the forest for a few minutes in complete silence, and after a while, they arrived at another clearing. Arrin looked around in search of any signs of civilization. It was then, when an idea poked up in his head.

"Hey Luna, your wings are still working right?"

" They really hurt when we use them, but yes, we can still use them for flight. Why are thee asking thou?"

"So could you fly up and look around for anything resembling a town?"

" We think that we may try."

She began to slowly rise above the ground. The pain in her wings was really strong, but she refused to give up, especially in times of need like that. It took her several minutes to rise high enough to get a glimpse of the surrounding area. Looking around, she only saw trees as far as the eye could see, but as she was about to fly back to the ground, she spotted something that caught her attention. It was smoke far up in the horizon, to which she smiled to herself and began to fly towards her companions.

" You found anything out there? " asked curious Arrin

" Truly, we did. We’ve found smoke far away to our left." she pointed her hoof in the direction of the smoke

" How far do you think it is?" asked an interested Arrin.

" about half a day away from here, with our current speed."

" Seems pretty far away from here. " Said concerned by that Guarding Heart.

" Indeed it is pretty far away from us , but that only means that we need to increase our speed a little bit." Said positively, Arrin.

" I don't think we can do that." Said ex-guard

"We can. I just need to tie you to my back with vines, then I can use both of my hands to guide us through the forest." said Arrin while looking for suitable vines.

"Please say that you aren't serious about that." Said scared of the idea Guarding Heart

He wasn't joking, and after a few minutes, Guarding Heart found herself safely attached to Arrin's back. To her surprise, it wasn't as bad as she thought it would be, though sometimes she felt a pinching pain caused by the organic rope. They resumed their way through the forest, but this time it was much faster than before because of Arrin, who used both hands to quickly cut through flora. At their current speed, it took them only seven hours to reach the exit from the forest. After they left it, they found themselves on a large meadow with a few hills and a small amount of trees on them. The grass looked like a lime colored ocean, with lily-like flowers scattered in random places. It was divided by a long but thin river.

The sky had a light blue color with one cartoonish-looking bright yellow sun. To say that the view was astonishing would be an understatement. Further away, the smoke was visible, and when they got closer to it, they saw a village beaming with activity.

" Well, it looks like we've reached our destination. " Said Arrin, pleasantly surprised at the amount of ponies and structures in the village.

" It would seem so, but what now? "asked, still attached to Arrin's back, Guarding Heart.

" Now we need to gather as much information as we can, because without any knowledge about this place, things can go really bad for us. " said Arrin, caught in his thoughts.

" It sounds like a plan, but how do you intend on getting information without entering the city? " Asked Guarding Heart from behind his back.

" I have something that will help her with it, but first we need to find a good spot. Like… that mountain!" He pointed at the biggest hill in their surroundings and began to walk towards it.

The hill wasn't as far as they thought it was, but it took them twelve minutes to get there. When they arrived, Arrin pulled a strange device from his backpack, one that the ponies weren't familiar with, which made them pretty curious and scared at the same time.

" What is that strange device of thee?" Luna asked with a scared expression on her face.

" Oh, you mean binoculars? I thought it was pretty common everywhere."

" When we ruled, there was no such thing." Answered Luna to Arrin's surprise.

" Huh, interesting. But anyway, this is a strong pair of binoculars, strong enough to allow seeing things in space, but that's besides the point. We will use them to spy on the village.” He said this while setting up his binoculars.

" Pretty interesting device." she said while looking closely at it.

" Indeed, they are really useful and interesting tools." he said with a small smile on his face.

" Hey! Could you maybe put me back on the ground?! It's not really comfortable here." exclaimed angrily, guarding Heart.

" Oh yeah, sorry Guarding, I completely forgot about you." Arrin said it with shame in his voice. After that, he put her gently back on the ground. " Ok, since we're done setting it up, let's see what’s happening over there." Arrin looked through his binoculars.

---

While pointing at the outskirts of the village, Arrin saw that there were no walls around the city, which made him wonder whether the city is so insignificant that no one even bothers to build a wall around it, or whether it's so safe that there's no need for walls. He decided that overthinking it would not make anything better, so he looked deeper into the city. The architecture of the city was that of the medieval age: the walls of the houses were made out of either clay or wood, and the roofs were made out of thatch. The majority of the buildings looked pretty similar, with a few exceptions being shops and restaurants. Looking even deeper into the city, he saw what looked to be the main street, where ponies were grouped around the stands with various things. It was also home to the three largest buildings in the whole city. The biggest of them had big writing on it that said 'Hospital'. The other building was what he assumed - a town hall and the last one was a building that resembled a tavern. The next thing he tried to do was find out how many guards were present in the city, he spent almost six minutes, only to discover that there were none, which made him smile just a little. There was nothing more for him to find, so he picked himself up from the ground and hid the device back in his backpack.

" Alright, I think that I’ve learned all that I could about this place. At least for now" He said this while packing his spying equipment.

" So what exactly did you find out?" Asked curiously, Guarding Heart.

" The most important thing that I’ve found out was that this city must have really insignificant value for the country, since there are no guards or a wall around it." said Arrin while pointing at the city.

" It's pretty common for the cities and villages in Equestria to be left like that. The only places where guards station themselves are in Canterlot and the villages around it." Guarding Heart explained.

" Damn nobility and royalty, they only care for themselves. But that will ultimately make our goal easier." He exhaled with a hint of anger in his voice.

" We want to remind thee that we were royalty as well." said an irritated Luna.

" And I want to remind you that you are ex-royalty now, but that doesn't matter now because I see that you are different than most." said Arrin without a care in his voice.

" Do you really think that?" asked Luna.

" Yes, I really think so. I also really think that you need to wear that blanket when we get to the city." Said Arrin while giving her the blanket.

" Why would we need that?" Luna asked, caught off guard by that.

" So you won't be too easy to spot." Said Arrin while putting a blanket on Luna

" We don't think that it will work." Said still unsure of the idea.

" Ok, but to make you even less suspicious, I would recommend that you take off your regalia and stop using that "we" part, no one speaks like that."

" Thou art not right, it's the royal we. Every ruler uses it." She said proudly

" Not to sound rude, but no one uses it anymore, not even Princess Celestia." Guarding pointed this out.

" Why would our sister stop using it? When we ruled together, we used it all the time." She looked down in disbelief.

" And from what you were telling me, it was over one thousand years ago."

In that comment, Luna started to move her mouth as if she wanted to say something. Only to be left speechless, knowing that Arrin was correct, that it had been so long that everything she had known before was now gone. Equestria she once knew was no longer there, she just had to accept it. But will she be able to do that? No, she had to do that for herself and her new friends.

" Th... you're right," she said after a brief pause.

" Hmm, it surprises me that you've already accepted it, but it's a good surprise." He said it with a small smile on his face.

" Alright, they may not recognize Luna, but what about you? You're clearly going to stand out from everything in town." Said Guarding Heart while she gestured her hoof around him.

" Well, they'll be a little less afraid and considerate now that I'm about to carry you. Or I think so at last. And to make it more realistic, we're taking you to the hospital."

" Wait, so you're telling me that you're going to just go inside a building that’s filled with ponies?" she said with a hint of confusion.

"I am, but don’t worry. Your health is more important than a few crooked looks. Okay, we should get going." Arrin said, as he took Guarding Heart in his hands and began walking toward the city.

The road there wasn't as long as he thought it would be, they stood now right in front of the welcoming sign, ' Welcome to Lilywood.'

Who in the hell names a city 'Lilywood?' He thought to himself while going inside the city. It appeared more alive up close than it did from afar, which surprised him a lot. The buildings were more colorful, and the ponies around him were more interesting than he had imagined them to be. They were all staring at him with a look of terror and suspicion in their eyes. But for now, his plan has worked successfully. None of them were freaking out too much because they saw him carrying a guard to the hospital, which made them think that he had good intentions. They arrived at the hospital without being interrupted, then stopped right in front of the reception, where doctors took Guarding. Both Luna and Arrin had been waiting in the hall for a few minutes, so Arrin decided to start a conversation.

" You know, ever since we met, there's been one question that's been on my mind." He looked at Luna, completely covered in her robes.

"Yes, what is it?" She looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

" I wanted to ask why you trusted me enough to join me in the first place?" He inquired, raising his hands.

" Well, you see, I've joined you because I saw that you weren't as bad as you looked. You could’ve just killed me, but you chose to help. You even defeated Nightmare and set me free from her, is that not a good enough reason to trust you?" She asked

" It still amazes me how easily you can trust someone you've never met before. To be fair, I haven't let down my guard even for a second until now."

" So you don't trust us? " She inquired, her voice tinged with disappointment.

"Well, not really, I just call it half trust, which means I trust you but not completely. I'm still afraid that you will backstab me when the chance appears." He said it with a thoughtful expression on his face.

"I would never do that, it's not the way to success." She was shocked by his sentence.

" And that's where you are wrong." he said with a fake smile on his face "If something stands in your way, it's only natural to destroy it."

"No, it's not. You can always search for other solutions." She tried to convince Arrin with the best argument she could find.

" Perhaps you are right..." He said this sternly.

Luna managed to convince Arrin, or so she thought. It made her wonder what made him think that way. Was it something from the past? Or maybe that's just how he was? She couldn't say for sure since she hadn't known him for too long. The fact that he still doesn't remember anything from before he arrived here wasn't helpful at all. The only option that she was left with was to wait and see what was going to happen later.

" So what will we do when we exit the hospital?" She asked out of curiosity.

" We need to look around and gather some guidance. There may still be a lot of useful information and items we can find here."

" But we don't have any money to buy anything." Luna said, turning her head to him.

" That's why we need information, good information in the right hands can change the fate of the whole world." He said it with such confidence that it made Luna stop and think about it for a moment.

" Those are wise and accurate words." She finally spoke.

" So how long is healing Guarding's leg going to take?" He asked

" Well, to be honest, I don't know. But it's not going to be too long."

Guarding Heart entered the room with a fully healed leg at the exact moment she said this.

" There are no bandages? You just get it healed instantly?" Asked now, dumbfounded, Arrin

" Yup, that's what healing magic does. It's really rare but extremely useful." Guarding Heart responded cheerfully, now fully healed.

" Healing magic? Hmm, I think I've heard of it before, but it was known by another name." Arrin said to no one in particular.

" Anyway, what's the plan?" Asked Guarding.

" We need to get as much information as possible before we start to plan anything else." Said Arrin.

" So where do we start?" Asked Luna.

" There's no better place for that than the tavern. And I think I know where we can find one here." Arrin said with a slight smile on his face.

" But why do you want to go to the tavern?"

" You two really don't get it?" He sighed and began to explain his thoughts.

" We're going to the tavern because people are a little bit less afraid to talk among themselves, plus if someone is drunk, you can get everything you want from them." Arrin explained, to which both mares were surprised.

" Now that you speak about it like that, it really starts to make sense." Luna was still a little upset that she hadn't thought about it earlier.

" Let's go! I want to get over it as fast as possible."

They all did as said, and after a few minutes, they found themselves in front of the entrance to the tavern. Arrin hid himself even deeper into his robes. He now looked as if he were made out of pure shadows. His eyes still glowed from under his hood, which made him even more intimidating. He inhaled the air into his lungs and entered the tavern. He expected only a few ponies to be present at that hour, and he wasn't disappointed to see a few regular ponies enjoying themselves. What he didn't expect was to find nearly thirty guards scattered throughout the tavern. He could only say one thing "Fuck." But so as not to raise any suspicions from the guards, he moved casually to the only unoccupied table in the whole tavern, which, fortunately for them, was right in the corner. Now all they needed to do was wait and listen to the talking ponies, which they did. They listened for about thirty minutes, and learned much more than he was expecting.

Among the many things he discovered were numerous affairs from the capital, such as telling about how much the princess was disappointed in her student for failing her. But, among all of that data, the most intriguing was the one that he overheard from an older pony in fancier armor, which meant that he was higher in the ranks than the others. Arrin's smile grew with each word he overheard. Apparently, Equestria's military is in no shape for any organized operation or regular fighting, because it lacked discipline, proper training, and numbers to work effectively on such a vast territory as Equestria. He was happy with what he got and was about to leave, but at the same time the doors to the tavern opened and a pony in armor marched in.

" Attention!" The mysterious pony screamed.

Arrin knew it was most likely the sergeant of those troops, so he did the only thing that came to mind.

" Hide in my cloak, Guarding!" He said that to her, and she immediately complied.

All of the guards were now standing at attention, and the command pony had entered the room completely and was now inspecting it with his eyes. He moved his gaze to an older pony dressed in fancier armor.

" Corporal, have you hung the posters as I've asked?" He asked an older pony that turned out to be a corporal.

" Not yet, sir." He answered with a small amount of fear.

" Then I beg you to tell me. What are you doing here!"

" We will do it right away, sir!"

" You better do it!" He shouted to which all the guards runned outside leaving a few things behind them in a hurry.

Arrin sighed and allowed Guarding to come out from under his cloak. He then stood up and walked to one of the tables, where the guards had left two scrolls in a hurry. He unscrewed the first one, which turned out to be a map of the whole continent, which he was extremely grateful to have. The second one wasn't as pleasing as the first one, it was a picture that presented him and Nightmare Moon right beside each other, with "wanted" written below.

" Damn it... We need to go as far away from the city as possible."

" What?! We just got here." Guarding half-asked, half-yelled.

" Trust me, I will explain everything. but first we need to get as far away as possible before things become ugly for us." Arrin exclaimed and quickly moved out of the tavern, with two really confused ponies behind him.

Exiting the city wasn't as easy as entering it. Arrin led them through the back alleys and constantly looked around for any guards. Arrin thought that they would successfully exit the city without being noticed, but the moment they entered the meadow, they heard shouts from behind them. When he looked behind him, he saw three guards running in their direction. "Shit!" he said under his breath.

" They found us, we need to run back to the forest!" He told his companions behind him.

They didn't need to be told twice, and all three of them started to run back to the forest. He knows that if they manage to return to the forest, they will lose their tail, but if they don't, he will be forced to put an end to the lives of three guards. He would rather avoid them so as not to draw any more attention to them, since killing more ponies definitely wouldn’t go unnoticed, which won't do them any good in the long run. Unfortunately, Guarding wasn't as fast as the rest, so with every second, she got closer and closer to the guards that were chasing them.

Arrin knew that if he didn't do anything, they would capture her. And so he did the only thing that came to his mind at the moment. He ran up to her and held her in his arms, which may have caused her to panic at first because she wasn't expecting it. But after noticing that it was Arrin who grabbed her, she visibly calmed a bit. Now that Guarding was in his embrace, he sped up again to his normal speed. He knew that the way back to the forest would take a few more minutes, and he was mostly sure that he would endure that much effort. Luna, on the other hand, was having some difficulties. Will she withstand all this running? He wants to keep away from fighting at all cost, but if the need arises, nothing shall stand in his path. After a while, the guards had lost interest in them, but they hadn't stopped fleeing. The forest was right in front of them. He was already sure that they wouldn't be safe in here for long, especially with the wide variety of critters living here. But it will give them a moment to think about their actions.

They finally ran into the thick greenery of the forest, and immediately collapsed on the ground, panting heavily. He knew that they were tired, but he was also aware that they couldn't allow themselves to rest. The guards will be here shortly with the reinforcing troops, even if they’re too afraid to enter the forest, it’s still a threat. He sighed and began to walk in the direction of his theoretical friends.

" Hey, I know that you are tired and all but I'm afraid that we can’t afford to rest. We need a strategy, and we need it fast. These guards will be coming here any minute now " Said Arrin

" But how can we plan something? Even if we do, we don't even know where we are." Said visibly unsettled Guarding Heart

" That may be true but I allowed myself to borrow a map from one of the guards. " He said while pulling a map from his belt.

" Is this the reason why they were chasing us in the first place?" Asked Luna with a small hint of anger in her voice.

" No, they were chasing us because of that thing." He said while pulling out another scroll and tossing it to Luna. She looked at it and hesitantly unscrolled it. The thing that she saw there made her ears slap flatly on to her head.

" O-oh my..." She finally said

" What happened? What is It?" Asked curiously Guarding Heart.

He sighed. "Take a look for yourself." He pointed at the piece of parchment in front of him.

" You two are already wanted?! You really need to be a big deal that the princess sent the whole country to look for you. " Guarding half shouted.

" Yeah, she's wanted because she's a sister of your ruler that turned evil. And I'm wanted because I technically wanted to kill her in self defense." He spoke defensively.

" It doesn't matter why they are searching for us. What matters is that they are searching. And most importantly what are we going to do now? "

" That's where our map comes in. We just need to look around and maybe we'll find something of value." He unscrolled the map once again, and started searching for the town of Lilywood. After a moment he finally found it.

" Ok so we're somewhere in here. And in my personal opinion we have only two options which are: stay deeper in the forest or move north closer to the cold environment because I doubt that they will be searching for us there."

" May I add another option?" Asked Luna.

" Sure. As long as it's not surrendering it may be a good option. "

" Do you see that red dot in here?"

" Yeah but why do you want to go… what is It called? Ponyville? My god who named your cities "

" Yes I never liked it’s name as well. But it's not the town of Ponyville that I want to go to. It's something close to it, and that thing is my old castle that was abandoned after my banishment. I believe that we can still find something useful here. " Luna explained.

" Sounds good and all but wouldn't there be a lot of ponies around? It's still a historical thing after all."

" Nopony would be there. Mainly because from what I can see on the map, the forest took control of the surrounding area. " She pointed at the place that she thought the castle was.

" Now that sounds convincing, but are you sure that the risk is worth it? "

" Trust me, it is."

“ Ehh, I trust you on that one. But I say that we should go deeper into the forest and set up camp for the night. It's not a good idea to travel in the dark for the time being." he sighed.

"But wouldn't the night give us extra cover?" Asked Guarding Heart.

"It would" He pointed a finger at her. "But as you just proces they will expect it."

"But are you sure that they won't be looking for us in the forest?"

“Of that one I’m not certain, but I know that they will send a search party to find us, because they think of us as normal bandits. But we’re not bandits nor are we normal and we will show it to them.”

“ And how do you intend to do that”

“ I don’t know as of yet but I can think of a few things. But we will think about that later, for now we need to move and find somewhere to sleep.”

"Ok, we will be right behind you." Said Luna

---

The path through the forest wasn't one that could have been described as simple. But after thirty minutes of going deeper into the foliage, they finally found a place for the night. It was a small cave on the side of a small mountain. The entrance itself wasn't big enough for any predator to sneak in, which made it even better to hide from potential guards going that way. It didn't take them long to set up a comfortable sleeping area. The skin of the boar that Arrin had hunted earlier made for a perfect sheet for him and Guarding Heart. Because of Arrin's request, they did not start a fire at that time to reduce visibility at the expense of sleeping in the cold.

"Sleep well because we need to move the moment that the sun shows up on the horizon." Arrin said while wrapping himself in a blanket.

"Good night, Arrin." Both Luna and Guarding said it almost at the same time.

Sleep soon took both of his companions, leaving only him with a mind full of questions. questions that would be left without an answer for a long time, or so he thought. In the group of things that weighed him down the most, there was one question in particular. Why was he here? and who he was before he got there? If the books he discovered in his backpack are any indication, then that would mean he was a blacksmith with a passion for potions.

'Ugh, it doesn't make any sense! Why would I be a blacksmith when I have such a skill with the sword?' He thought to himself, but no matter how much time he spent thinking about it, nothing useful came to him. It was as if something was preventing him from remembering, or perhaps he didn't want to remember? And even if something sent him here, what was the purpose of it? The only thing he accomplished so far was becoming a criminal and teaming up with two ponies that stayed with him only because they were afraid of him. Perhaps only time will tell what will happen next. After a few hours of thinking, he decided that it would be wise to at least try to get some sleep before he would need to go into this alien world again. The last thought he had before falling asleep was that no matter what happened next, he would discover his past and endure any hardship that this world could throw at him, for his own sake.

Author's Note:

I'm really sorry that it took so long. Fortunately, there's a big chance that I will have some more time in the near future, so the story should be updated faster than it currently is. But no promises. Thank you for reading, and have a wonderful rest of the day... or night, depending on when you read it.
Zmg