Chapter 4: Fear of the Dork
“Finally a challenge worthy of my prowess!”
The sun was already setting when the party proper started. Ponies had been arriving slowly at first, but eventually the crowd had gotten quite impressive. The mood was very cheerful, set by colorful paper lanterns and music booming from Pinkie's gramophone. Ponies were really enjoying the party, dancing, drinking and having friendly conversations in small groups.
Crull and Pinkie did an admirable job preparing Sugarcube Corner's backyard for the celebration. Three long tables stood there, each bearing huge bowls of punch and tasty snacks, varied enough to appeal to widely differing tastes. Confetti, streamers and balloons complemented the lanterns with a wild array of colors. As the sun finally disappeared on the west, Luna's moon shed its light upon the yard, adding to the atmosphere.
Crull was sitting in his place at the head of one of the tables, sipping his punch. Pinkie had wandered off into the crowd to look for those of her friends he hadn't met yet, or something like that.
“I'm sure you will get along with them! I mean, you managed to befriend Fluttershy and Rarity, so you'll have it easy now!” she said before trailing off. It was about fifteen minutes since she'd left.
The Chaos Lord did not socialize much when Pinkie wasn't around. It wasn't hard when she was present, but things weren't so bright during her absence. The pink mare made sure to present him in front of 'everypony', but despite this being his introduction party, the ponies avoided him. They seemed nervous and scared while in his vicinity. Although Crull liked being feared, this state of matters didn't just sit right with him for some reason. He tried relieving the tension by yelling a hearty greeting every time a pony made eye contact with him, but it only made matters worse, to his surprise. 'Anypony' (Crull was starting to get used to the pony-specific terminology) greeted that way would back off awkwardly, looking for 'somepony' else to talk to.
“Why do they fear me?!”, he kept thinking. “They surely have not heard of me before I arrived here!”
He scratched his bald head and took another sip of the punch. Holding the glass with an armored hand was a challenging task. It was too easy to apply too much pressure and cause the liquid container to shatter.
“I will not stand for it!” Crull yelled in his head as he stood up. He was proud of the fact that he was starting to form progressively more complex thoughts without vocalizing them. It seemed convenient in this... society. “These ponies... are going to LOVE ME!”
On the other hand, their love would be too much. He froze in his standing position, hands resting on the table, as he gave the matter some consideration. If love was too much to ask for, he'd at least settle for...
“ADMIRATION, if possible!”
After that thought, Crull ventured into the crowd of ponies, looking for those suitable to become his friends, sure of the fact that Pinkie would easily find him if need be. He still didn't understand why he was doing this, but something inside him was compelling him to form friendships. He'd already come to terms with that. Fighting this world's influence hadn't yielded positive results.
Crull noticed a small group of ponies indulging themselves in some small talk. He walked up to them, making sure to expose all of his huge, sharp teeth in an outgoing, friendly smile.
“HELLO!” he started. “I'm here to make FRIENDS!”
The ponies looked at him with confused expressions on their faces.
“Uh, that's okay...” a yellow mare with orange mane and tail replied, hesitation in her voice.
Crull was content that the pony was willing to cooperate, oblivious to her tone of voice. He remembered one of the many things Pinkie told him while they were waiting for the ponies to come. Hugs are one of the best signs of close friendship.
“So you do want to befriend me! This PLEASES me! Let me give you... A HUG!”
“Wait, what?!” the mare only managed to let that out before Crull embraced her in a gentle, friendly hug that squeezed the air out of her lungs. The other ponies gasped, expressions of terror visible on their faces.
The yellow pony squirmed, trying to free herself of Crull's loving embrace, but it was clear that she was getting weaker with each second. The Chaos Lord himself was painfully oblivious to the fact that he was hurting her, having closed his eyes in an expression of bliss.
Finally, a brown stallion stepped out of the group.
“Let go of her, you brute! You're hurting her!”
Crull dropped the mare abruptly, surprised by the male pony's words.
The stallion walked up to his friend, who was now lying on the ground, trying to catch her breath and get over the shock caused by her hitting the ground.
“You okay, Harvest?” he said.
“Just... give me... a sec...” she managed to mutter, gasping for air.
Another mare from the group, a cyan-coated one, looked at Crull with disdain.
“You should be ashamed of yourself! You could've seriously hurt her!”
Crull backed away a bit before answering.
“Are you really that... FRAGILE to be left breathless by a simple hug?!”
The ponies looked at him with disgust. The brown stallion helped the mare he called Harvest get back on her hooves.
“Let's go, everypony,” he said. “There's no reasoning with this guy.
As they walked away, sending Crull angry glares, the Chaos Lord realized that he didn't take one factor into account when hugging the pony. Wearing his armor while giving others embraces was probably not the best idea.
“By Khorne!” he yelled at the sky. “I was such a FOOL!”
This attracted the attention of other nearby ponies, who looked at him funnily. Crull noticed that and backed away, looking for another group of ponies he could try to befriend, hopefully with better results this time.
***
Crull was sitting in his place at the head of one of the tables, sipping his punch. Alone. It looked as if there was an invisible forcefield around him, through which ponies couldn't pass. Of course, that was not the case. The party guests were simply too angry or afraid of him (sometimes both) to come close. The warrior couldn't understand it. He did his best to make friends, but his efforts were always in vain, only making the ponies back away from him.
He noticed Pinkie emerging from the crowd. She walked up to him slowly, head lowered. She was not her usual, cheerful self.
“Dashie and Applejack are busy putting out that little fire you started at the lantern display,” she said, looking around nervously. “And Twilight is busy fixing those winged cider mugs you made by squeezing magic out of Lemon Daze.”
She looked up at him, sadness in her blue eyes. “Things are not going well, Crullie. This party is turning into a disaster.”
Crull could read a lot from her expression and tone of voice. He'd managed to make a bad first impression on Pinkie's closest friends without even meeting them.
“I... apologize.” he said, not yelling for the first time in his life. Seeing Pinkie in that state of sadness and disappointment did that to him. It felt like having the Ultramarines tear at his heart with their chainswords.
Pinkie's eyes widened in shock upon hearing Crull use an indoor voice for a change. She gave her odd friend a sad smile, stood up on her hind legs and hugged him.
“It'll be alright,” she said, trying to sound reassuring. “I'll just help with the clean-up and we'll fix everything. You will see, you'll have lots of friends once everypony gets to know you better.”
With that, she trotted away, off to help set straight something that Crull had unwittingly broken in his attempts at making friends.
The Chaos Lord felt terrible. The realization that he was responsible for Pinkie's sadness made his throat feel tight, his head heavy. He wanted to set right what he'd done wrong, just to make the pink mare smile again.
But he'd probably end up making matters worse, just like before. And the thought of causing Pinkie even more sorrow kept him in his place, unwilling to do anything besides waiting for things to develop.
Suddenly, he heard a scream. A scream that was not caused by him. He looked up to see three mares cantering up to a purple unicorn.
“Twilight, it's a disaster!” one of them exclaimed, waving her hooves frantically. She had a cream coat and burgundy mane with a hint of pink.
Crull froze. Twilight? Wasn't that one of Pinkie's friends?
The purple mare looked at the newcomers with some reserve before she voiced her question.
“What's the matter this time, Rose?”
One of the mares who arrived with the cream pony was the one to give the answer. This one had a pink coat, her curly mane light green.
“The train station attendant just got a message that the Canterlot Express train headed here has damaged its brakes!” The information met with a collective gasp of the gathered crowd.
The third mare continued where her friend left off. Her coat was a darker shade of pink and she sported a lily in her yellow mane.
“And to make things worse, an overloaded cargo train snapped the rails just before it reached the station! They already sent it on its way, but the rails are still broken and the attendant didn't have time to inform Canterlot about the issue!”
All the ponies let out another terrified gasp, which was followed by impulsive yelling and running around as they tried to decide what to do. Twilight looked terrified as well, but an expression of thought was visible on her face nevertheless.
Rose finished the story. “The attendant already sent some stallions to fetch a set of replacement rails, but they won't attach them in time. They need some strong unicorn magic to quickly adjust them if the train is to pass safely!” She started poking her hoof at the ground nervously. “That's why we came to get you.”
Twilight nodded, having apparently made sense of the chaotic presentation the trio put up. “We've got no time to waste then.” She turned to an orange mare wearing some kind of a hat. “Applejack, try to calm everyone down, then meet me at the station, I might need some help.”
The name poked at Crull's attention. Another one of Pinkie's friends.
Applejack adjusted her hat. “Ah'll do mah best, Twilight.”
The purple pony nodded again and cantered into the town. Crull stood up. He realized that this was his chance at redeeming himself. In the general chaos, nopony seemed to notice the huge, armored man as he followed Twilight Sparkle into the night.
***
The Chaos Lord arrived as Twilight was inspecting the rails. The station workers cut out the broken part, making a long gap in the track. It was at least ten meters long.
The purple mare started as Crull appeared beside her. She gave him a surprised look.
“Oh, you must be Pinkie's new... friend.” She exclaimed. “I must say, you caused some interesting things to happen at the party.” The unicorn giggled nervously. It seemed she was trying to cope with the stress of having to save a train full of ponies.
“Save it for later, little pony!” Crull yelled, finding some relief in returning to his usual voice. “Where are the new rails?!”
The unicorn's expression changed to that of determination as she remembered to focus on her current goal. “Mr. Stockton and his helpers should be here any minute with a new set. I must say I'm glad you came to help, though that was quite... unexpected.”
She opened her mouth to add something, but was interrupted by a brown stallion who led four earth ponies. Every one of them was dragging a set of rails.
“Twilight, I'm so glad you came! We can't waste any more time, the train will be here in less than five minutes!”
A set of lights gleamed in the distance, as if to prove the pony's words. The lights seemed to be getting closer with each second.
The station attendant jumped in place. “We will set the rails in their place and I'll tell you how to adjust them. Quick, boys! The train is coming!”
As they worked, the lights drew closer and closer. Twilight tried to fix the rails as fast as she could, but it was clear she wouldn't make it in time. Tears started welling up in the mare's eyes, frustration mixing with terror inside her.
“I need more time!” she yelled.
Crull looked at her, then at the impending train. He made his decision on the spot. The Chaos Lord hopped onto the rails and ran along them, facing the speeding Canterlot Express.
At the same time, the crowd from the party arrived at the site. Pinkie was there too. He could hear her scream “Crullie, no!” as he ran. But it was too late to turn back.
As the train was close enough to blind him with its lights, he stopped and threw his hands in front of him. He braced himself for the impact.
Then the train hit.
Crull managed to stay on his legs thanks to his armor's weight and endurance, but he couldn't keep his arms outstretched. Instead, the space marine let the machine press against his chest. Crull's legs were breaking the wooden planks that made up the track, but the World Eater was doing his best to offer as much resistance to the speeding vehicle as he could. It seemed to be working. As his feet started to get buried in the ground, the train slowed down slightly.
It was apparently enough. He soon heard Twilight scream.
“Crullie, enough!”
A bit off-put by the unicorn using the name he'd only heard Pinkie exclaim before, he responded during the second he spent speeding in front of the crowd.
“I CAN'T LET GO NOW!”
He then noticed a purple hue surrounding the train. Soon the glow gained more colors and the machine started slowing down. It stopped at the outskirts of Ponyville, with Crull buried to his waist in the ground.
The Chaos Lord helped himself out of the hole and leaned against the train. He noticed the Crull-shaped indent he left at the front of the vehicle.
He started hearing voices. It wasn't his voice, which he usually heard in his head. Those seemed to come from outside. He looked up to see the ponies in the train cheering and waving at him. One pegasus mare flew out and gave Crull a kiss on the forehead and hugged him. The engineer in charge of the machine gave the Chaos Lord a salute.
Crull smiled. This felt surprisingly good. All the tears he caused in his life up to this point were tears of unspeakable sorrow, caused by the slaughter in the name of Khorne. Not tears of joy.
Soon, the crowd from Ponyville appeared, cheering as well. Pinkie was running on the front, Twilight beside her. The pink mare jumped at Crull. The impact somehow managed to do what the train could not – it threw the Chaos Lord to the ground.
Pinkie stood on him, looking him in the eyes.
“Oh, Crullie, I'm so glad you're safe!” she said, tears welling up in her eyes despite the smile of wild joy and relief plastered on her face. “Don't you ever go doing something like that again!”
Crull laughed. “Foolish pony! It had to be done!”
Pinkie smiled again and got off of him. As he stood up, he could see Twilight Sparkle smiling gratefully.
“Thank you... Crull.” It seemed Pinkie told her his real name on their way there. “If it wasn't for you, we wouldn't have made it in time.” She eyed the gathered crowd.
Pinkie started to explain the situation as well.
“The other ponies helped with setting the rails, too! And then all the unicorns agreed to stop the train when it passed safely! They couldn't do it earlier, because it was too far away and it was going too fast, but you slowed it down and it all ended well thanks to you!”
She stopped to catch her breath. Twilight took that opportunity to speak. She addressed the gathered herd this time, though.
“I think we all made the mistake of judging the book by its cover, everypony. I know that... Crull has caused some trouble tonight, but Pinkie told me that he was just trying to make friends. He helped save a train full of ponies, so he can't have bad intentions. I think we should all give him another chance.”
Everypony cheered in agreement. Crull stepped forward.
“Ponies of Ponyville!” he yelled. “My most important desire right now is to make FRIENDS with you! I am a fierce warrior by nature, sworn to fight for the glory of KHORNE, but I do not wish for you to fear me! This feeling I cannot EXPLAIN in full, but I do not aim to hurt you! I want to learn about friendship from you all!”
The cheering boomed even louder as even the ponies who hesitated earlier joined in. They surrounded him, giving him hugs and shaking hands... hooves with him.
It was the happiest moment of Crull's life. He didn't feel that happy even when he and his troops savaged a whole squad of Crimson Fists, bathing in their blood. Or when he sucked the Eldar's eyes from their screaming skulls on Lorn V. Nothing compared to the sensation he felt among the cheering ponies.
Among all the cheering and loud, happy celebration, he noticed Rarity walking up to him. She inspected him from head to toe and let out a sigh.
“Come to the boutique tomorrow, darling. You got your tabard all dirty and torn. I'll have to take care of it.”
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Great, great stuff. Throughout the chapter, I was really excited to continue reading. I just can't stress how funny this is, enough.
My most important desire right now is to make FRIEDS with you!
*FRIENDS
Really though, I'm so glad I tracked this right now. Probably the best chapter you've written for this fic so far.
i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/225/400/sweetie%20belle%20that%20is%20beautiful.jpg
Please keep up the good work my good sir.
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Fixed, thanks for the feedback
This story is so stupidly hilarious, and that's what I love about it.
Awesome story
How is a story about a chaos lord hilarious?! And why is it so good?!
Whatever the reason, more of it deserves to be made.
media.photobucket.com/image/recent/Freelancer_010/EversorOhYeah.jpg
By the gods...
moar... please...
Hah great read, keep it up mate.
“You can come with me to Ponyville! I'm sure Gummy will love you becauseyouhavesuchbeautifulteethandI'llintroduceyoutomyfriendsandmakepartiesforyouand-”
This line had really weird formatting. I get that Pinkie is talking fast in the second line, but the first has large spaces, and I'm not sure they're intentional. If they are, then I'm not sure how I'm supposed to interpret them.
The yelling in his thoughts is pretty hilarious, as others have noted. I'm almost tempted to suggest putting it in caps, or at least maybe a few words for emphasis. Normally, I'm a firm believer that caps should be used to show volume only in very very few special cases. Being a follower of Khorne is one of them. Therefore, I won't penalize you from using them in Crull's dialogue, as long as it's in reason.
“This Ponyville... I want to KNOW what it is like!”
And there you kinda lost me. No matter how I play that in my head, it never makes any sense to emphasize the word "know." The yelling caps are a scalpel, to be used with sparingly and with a light touch, lest they grow dull too quickly. Pretty much only for yelling, too. If he raises his voice in the middle of a sentence, great, but otherwise italics are just fine for emphasis.
"Crull suspected it might had been been his looks, but he decided not to think about it too much."
"Been is there twice.
"Despite what he thought a perfect encouragement,"
You accidentally something here, but I'm not sure what. "thought of as perfect"
It took me until the third chapter to realize how you paired the character from each universe most likely to be punctuated entire in exclamation points. Well done.
All in all (I'm not sure if it's over or not), top drawer. Clever, immensely entertaining, and dare I say, a little heartwarming. My hat's off to you.
377276
Single capitalized words are there to show that Crull randomly emphasizes words as he speaks... yells. It's his speech pattern.
Also, 'think (noun) a (adjective) (noun)' is a proper form, unless I'm using some outdated language.
Currently correcting the double 'been' issue, thanks a lot for the feedback.
P.S.: I know I'm taking my time on the update, but I simply need to get my writing shit on
So....no more?
But it's so funny :(
I think it is safe to say that you have given up
By Khorne, this is a good story
SINDRI!!!
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METAL BOXES!