Intermission 5 - Scales and Feathers
Hammers slammed into flanks of woods.
Walls were raised.
And crops were being replanted.
Sure, Ponyville was greatly damaged by the Parasprites and their insatiable hunger, but the spirit of the citizens could not be beaten so easily. Within a day or so, the town was fixed for the most part – It was almost as if the ponies were getting used to disasters and monster attacks.
“Quaint little town, isn’t it?”
“Hmmph, in the time that I was sealed, I was kind of hoping that things would get past this kind of culture.”
“Don’t be like that Bari, this isn’t Manehatten or Canterlot, this is Ponyville. You have to expect this level of culture in a town – Not a city.”
At the entrance of the town, two ponies slowly trotted into the recovered town – One a tall, black unicorn stallion with messy purple hair and dark eyes, dressed in a fancy dark violet vest with a wolf at his flank. The other was a petite, young unicorn mare who’s purple and white splotched fur coat was covered with a fancy black and bluish dress while her long black mane was topped with a sun hat. “Or are you one of the first ponies to adopt the Canterlot attitude?”
The black stallion huffed and turned away, “Do not compare me to the spoiled offspring of noble stallions and mares – And my name is not Bari.”
“When we’re in public, it is,” the mare replied as she trotted in front of Bari. “Besides, Bari, you’re supposed to be my new bodyguard while we’re here. Now come along, I’d like to get to the hotel room and off my hooves before we get started in here.”
Bari sighed loudly as he slowly followed the mare. ‘At least she has a little bit of honor to her…’
TTT – TTT
Intermission 5
Scales and Feathers
TTT – TTT
~One hour earlier…~
“COPY – PLEASE! COPY – PLEASE!”
At Sweet Apple Acres, three copies of a certain red dragon helped push up the wall of a barn. On the other side, Applejack and Big Macintosh pulled on rope to lift up the opposite wall. It didn’t take long for the walls to be raised, and when they were, the two copies of Haru faded away and the red dragon fell to the ground, with his jacket thrown off. ‘Yeesh, I never thought that farm work would be this tiring… Still, it’s a good test to see that my Mana’s returned.’
Haru lifted his head up and looked to the sun that slowly rose over the horizon. ‘I still wish I didn’t have to get up this early – But no rest for the weary…’
“Hey there, Mistah Souma!”
The red dragon turned to see Applejack trot up towards him, a smile on her face, “Thanks again fer comin’ this mornin’ to help out. After that mess with them parasprites…”
“No worries,” Haru sighed, taking a moment to whip his brow with his arm. “Needed to get the blood flowing in me again somehow, this was just perfect.”
“Well, whatever the reason, Ah’m glad ya decided to help,” Applejack stated as she offered a hoof to Haru. The dragon took the hoof in his claws and the young mare pulled him back to his hind claws. “Care to get yer fill on some breakfast ‘fore ya leave?”
“I would,” Haru replied as his tail lifted up his jacket. “But, I’ve got a few things to do today, and I need to get right into them.”
“Yer gonna burn yerself, ya know,” Applejack pointed out as she trotted behind the dragon and kicked him right in the tail. “Yer not leaving this farm without gettin’ something in that stomach of yers! ‘sides, Granny Smith is gonna wanna see ya!”
“F-Fine! Fine!” Haru yelped as he brought his claws to his bruised backside. ‘I suppose that searching for that griffon can wait an hour or so…
‘I get the feeling the guy’s probably still around here… Somewhere…’
As Haru was being pushed away from the barnyard by AJ, the two didn’t see that from the top of the newly built was a diamond studded Garuda who’s eyes zeroed in on Applejack before it flew off into the sky.
TTT – TTT
Kosuke Nitoh: Griffon, archeologist, overzealous flirt, and apparently the Wild Mage – Beast. There were so many questions that surrounded this bizarre griffon, not helped that he disappeared from any pony’s sight after he appeared and saved the day.
“Mmm! This is gonna be good!” Kosuke licked his beak at the sight of the pot of boiled vegetables he had on the portable hot plate he had in front of him.
After the mess with the parasprites, Kosuke had disappeared to his current campsite and had hidden himself for a while. Why? Because he had to pull off a bad flank disappearance to look good – Which apparently made sense in the griffon’s head.
Kosuke was an odd griffon that was for sure.
The goofy griffon leaned back on the wood wall and looked up into the cloudy sky, his green eyes curled slightly, ‘A warm day, vegetable stew almost done, a primo camping spot, managed to get myself introduced to a bunch of cute mares and look cool while doing it. This town is a goldmine! And I can already smell Phantoms running around!
‘I just can’t wait to start my hunt! Hmm, that reminds me…’
Kosuke dug his talon into his jacket’s pocket and lifted up a single ring. With the ring now slipped over his right middle talon, Kosuke brought it to the middle of his belt. “GRYPHON – GO!”
A green runic octagon appeared in front of the griffon with several pieces of gold and emerald that swirled into the air until a small, miniature gryphon made up of the parts flew in front of Kosuke. The goofy griffon popped the ring into the smaller gryphon’s back, “Now then, you know what to look for right? My cute, little Gryphon?”
Gryphon saluted before he flew off into the sky. Kosuke sighed under his breath, ‘I should probably consider the ramifications me owing a Gryphon familiar… But I can’t help but be jealous of that little bugger…’
Kosuke would’ve continued his line of thought, but his nostrils caught whiff of the stew before him and his beak curled up slightly. “Sweet!”
With a bowl in his talons, Kosuke poured himself a big portion of the stew. As he licked his beak, Kosuke lifted up a familiar bottle, popped the top and carefully spread the white condiment over the broth and vegetable, “Itadakiyes!”
And with that, he slurped up a good portion of the mayonnaise drenched stew into his mouth. ‘MMMM! DELICIOUS!’
A sigh escaped from Kosuke as he brought his free talon to his belt buckle, rubbing the claws against the gate like structure. ‘Kinda wish something like this would fill him up, but then again, he’s a wild beast – He wants to hunt, not get fed…’
“Excuse me!”
Kosuke turned around to see Mayor Mare behind him, the mare carefully trotted towards the griffon, “Oh! Hello!”
“What exactly are you doing up here?” Mayor Mare questioned with her eyes narrowed down at the goofy griffon.
An innocent smile graced Kosuke’s face along with his answer, “Me? Oh, just having breakfast!”
“I can see that!” Mayor Mare snapped back as she looked about – Her eyes drawn to the large blue tent, the sting of laundry tied to the side of the wooden balcony, and then the griffon who had returned to sipping on his stew. “But what about all this?! Why is it all on of town hall?!”
“It’s my home.”
“Y-Your home!?” Mayor Mare gasped before she narrowed her eyes. “This is the roof of town hall! You can’t set up a tent and cook up here! It’s dangerous and…”
“Wait!” Kosuke interrupted as he stood up and lifted his talon up towards Mayor Mare “Say no more! I know exactly what you want – You also want to live here and eat my food! Isn’t that right?”
Mayor Mare was speechless, that didn’t stop Kosuke though…
“Well, normally I don’t like sharing,” Kosuke chuckled as he turned his back to the Mayor and crossed his arms. “But with a mare, I don’t really mind – So, pull up a seat and help yourself to a bowl!”
Three seconds later, Kosuke was promptly kicked off the roof. “AAAAAAAAAAAAH!”
WHAM!
“OW!”
Mayor Mare winced as she watched the griffon crash into the ground, “Ooh, I was kind of hoping he would fly off… But he didn’t even try.”
“PAIN!” Kosuke groaned loudly from the ground.
TTT – TTT
“One lump or two?”
“One sugercube will be fine, thank you Fluttershy.”
Fluttershy smiled as she used her wings to place a pair of teacups on her table, “I’m so sorry that I forgot about you coming today Twilight… It’s just that we didn’t really plan anything today and you kind of just showed up and I’m sorry if I forgot and…”
“Fluttershy, there’s no need to worry,” Twilight assured her friend with a wave of her hoof as she used her magic to lift the tea cup up. “We didn’t really plan anything today, I just came by to ask a few questions. You really didn’t need to go to the trouble of tea…”
“Oh, w-well, isn’t it proper to offer something?” Fluttershy asked as she brought her teacup closer to her. “I-I mean…”
“I appreciate this, Fluttershy,” Twilight chuckled nervously before she sipped her tea. With a quick breath, Twilight lowered her teacup to the table. “But, I was wondering if you wouldn’t mind telling me about Kosuke.”
“Neato?” Fluttershy questioned with her head tilted. “What about him?”
“Well, how about how he’s able to use magic,” Twilight sighed, her head lowered slightly. “That’d be a good start…”
“Oh, w-well, I wouldn’t know that,” Fluttershy replied, her entire form shrunken a little bit. “He was never able to use the same kind of magic that Mister Haru is able to use. The last I heard of him was just a little before I got my Cutie Mark.”
Now that caused Twilight to rub her chin with her hoof, “Why?”
Fluttershy’s ears dropped a little bit, “I really don’t know the reason, but his family was moving out of Cloudsdale afterwards – He must have left with them…”
Twilight turned her gaze to the side, sensing the distress that was in Fluttershy’s voice, ‘Time to change the subject…’
“So, Kosuke lived in Cloudsdale with you and Dash, right? What did you three used to do for fun?”
Fluttershy’s mouth slowly curled up into a smile, “Oh, we used to slide down on clouds, and on one of the nearby mountains, we used to go exploring with him, Gilda and our other friend Sho. Neato was so nice, I’m not the strongest flyer, so Neato used to give me rides on his back – It wasn’t a comfy ride, but it was the thought that counted.”
‘Well, it certainly sounds like Kosuke was different than he was back then,’ Twilight thought to herself as she took a sip of coffee. ‘Still, there’s a few things that I’m confused about – How did he become a mage, or even more confusing, how he became an archeologist? The best way to find the answers are to find him…
‘But, I was hoping that he would be with Fluttershy. Dash didn’t know where he was, so I thought he’d be here…’
WOOF!
Both Twilight and Fluttershy turned towards the window, and the pegasus trotted towards the sill. “Oh, excuse me for a second Twilight…”
Twilight watched as her friend gently pushed the window open, a few seconds later, a small, canine creature made out of obsidian and silver leapt onto the sill. Twilight reeled slightly when she saw that the canine had three heads, ‘That’s Cerberus! And it looks like one of Haru’s familiars! I can even see the ring right under its heads!’
“I thought it was you again,” Fluttershy cooed as she gently patted the small Cerberus’s central head a few times. “How are you today?”
The small obsidian canine barked loudly as its three heads all barked at each other, trying to get some attention from Fluttershy. The young mare giggled at the cute familiar’s behavior. “Now, now, don’t be like that. Why don’t you come on in?”
The familiar’s heads nodded before it leapt into the cottage and sauntered about the room.
“Fluttershy, have you seen that familiar before?” Twilight asked as she watched the familiar stop and leer at Angel who was in the corner.
“Familiar?” Fluttershy questioned with her head tilted. Then her eyes lit up and she smiled, “Oh, you mean little Cerberus here? I’m a little familiar with him, he’s been showing up for the last couple days – He gets along with most of my animals…”
BONK!
That was evident when Angel slapped one of Cerberus’ heads, which elicited the other two to growl at the rabbit.
“Uh, sure,” Twilight muttered. “But, that’s not what I mean – Have you ever seen Garuda? He’s the little red bird that usually follows Haru, one of his familiars.”
“Oh!” Fluttershy’s face blushed slightly as she brought up her hooves. “Well, now that you mention, little Cerberus here does look a little like Mister Haru’s pet – Does that mean Cerberus is also Mister Haru’s?”
“I don’t think so,” Twilight answered as she trotted up to Cerberus, who took a swipe at Angel, only to receive a swift kick to the left head. “I’ve never seen Haru use a familiar like this before though.”
‘Then again, there’s also the fact that Haru’s not the only mage around who can use a spell like this – The White Wizard also has the ability to make familiars. I wonder… Does Kosuke have that ability to summon familiars too? W-Wait a second, I need to focus here.’
“How long have you seen this Cerberus around here?”
Fluttershy blinked a few times as she rubbed her chin with her hoof, “Um, well, it was a little before Neato came back. Just before all the Parasprites – Once again, s-sorry about that...”
“Don’t beat yourself over that, Fluttershy,” Twilight sighed as she lowered her head to get a closer look at Cerberus – Who had turned around to investigate the unicorn that was looking at him. “It wasn’t your fault. But back to Cerberus here…”
The three headed familiar barked loudly before it leapt into the air, which surprised Twilight and made her slip over her hooves. “WAH!”
Cerberus landed atop of Twilight's head and growled a few times, two of its heads nipped the mare’s ears. “Ow!”
Then with its powerful legs, Cerberus leapt to the window sill and turned all three of its heads back to the two mares in the room. The obsidian familiar snapped his heads a few times to the outside world. “Oh my, Twilight, are you okay?”
Fluttershy helped her scholarly friend up to her hooves. “Y-Yes, thanks. But what was he…”
Cerberus barked once more and snapped his heads a few times out of the window.
“I think he wants us to follow him,” Fluttershy suggested. “A lot of animals often make that motion when there’s something they want to show somepony.”
‘If this Familiar is the White Wizard’s, then maybe it’d be best if we follow it,’ Twilight thought to herself as Cerberus leapt from the window. “Thanks for the tea, Fluttershy, but we need to follow that familiar!”
“O… Okay,” Fluttershy replied.
TTT – TTT
“Ya know, ya didn’t have to help me set up shop today,” Applejack stated as she stood behind her apple stand.
“Meh, I was headed back to Ponyville anyway,” Haru chuckled as he placed a sack of apples down on the ground next to the stand. “Not like it was a problem. Besides, consider it on the house.”
“Yer starting to get a little cocky there, Mistah Souma,” AJ pointed out with a flat look on her face. “We may need to have ya work on the farm a little more. A few early mornings oughta fix that pride on ya.”
“Uh, w-well, maybe we can talk about this later,” Haru whistled as he nonchalantly waved his claws at AJ. “But for now, I need to get going!”
And with that, the red dragon dashed off with AJ shaking her head at the dragon’s actions. ‘Ah swear, that dragon’s as sneaky as a snake sometimes – Ah gotta fix that sometime…’
When Haru was a good distance from the apple stand, he lowered his head and wiped some sweat from his brow. ‘Whew – That was a bit of work, but still, a few bits here and there go a long way. But I still need to be able to find that griffon… There are so many questions I need to ask him…’
Haru slowly stood up and began to walk his way through the town, the dragon took care to make sure he didn’t bump into any ponies in his wandering. ‘How is he able to use magic – I’m no expert on Griffons and if they can use magic, but since he’s able to use magic using a similar catalyst like mine…’
The dragon lifted his left claw up to see his Flame Style ring over his black claws, ‘Using Magic Rings, it might not be the same – but he still uses a magic similar to mine. Was he at that ritual too? But that wouldn’t make sense, Fluttershy and Dash remember him as a griffon when they were kids, so there has to be something else at work here…’
Next to a nearby café, Haru brought his claws up to his head and gripped his red skin and black scales, ‘GAH! There are so many possibilities and questions about this situation! I can’t even tell if this Kosuke is a good mage or if there’s something more to him.
‘Grrgh, if only I could find the feathered headache – then I’d get some…’
“Hey Mr. Dragon,” Kosuke gleefully greeted with a wave of his talons from his seat in the café.
“Not now,” Haru growled as he lifted his claw up. “I’m trying to find that one griffon.”
“Oh, okay,” Kosuke chuckled as he lifted up a glass of water up to his beak.
Haru slowly walked away as he kept his claws to his chin, ‘Now where was I? Oh yeah, if I find that griffon, then I’d be able to get some answers to… Wait a second…’
The red dragon leapt back to the café as Kosuke munched on some mayonnaise covered bread, “You!”
After taking an audible gulp of his bread, the slightly bandaged Kosuke waved his talons to Haru, “Me! Care to join me, Mr. Thieving Dragon? I just ordered more breadsticks.”
Haru’s shoulders slumped at the weird griffon’s offer.
TTT – TTT
Twilight and Fluttershy followed after the obsidian Cerberus as he ran as fast as his little legs could carry the three headed familiar past the Everfree Forest. Every so often, the familiar would look back at the two mares before he leapt forward to gain some distance between the two, even going so far as to lead the two towards the lake that was near the edge of Ponyville.
‘Where are you leading us?’ Twilight thought to herself as she kept her attention on Cerberus. ‘And… Why?’
Fluttershy was quiet while the two mares traversed after the familiar, her eyes darted every so often towards the nearby forest. “T-Twilight, d-do you think this is a good idea?”
“Huh?” Twilight mused back, her concentration slightly broken. “What do you mean? Are you worried about what the familiar is doing?”
“N-No, I… I just feel like we’re being…” Fluttershy gulped as she looked to the woods once more. “Being watched.”
Twilight opened her mouth to speak when three loud barks all chimed in and drew the mares’ attentions to see Cerberus now in front of a large cave that erupted from the forest. The obsidian familiar barked once more before it leapt into the cave. Twilight turned back to her friend, “Fluttershy, thank you for coming all this way – But I won’t force you to go any further if you don’t want to.”
“I… I c-can’t just leave you and Cerberus,” Fluttershy stuttered back as she watched Cerberus disappear into the cave. “T-That wouldn’t be the r-r-right…”
Twilight smiled at her friend before she and Fluttershy trotted towards the cave.
TTT – TTT
“Mmm! Ya know, if you don’t eat, you’re gonna miss out on the breadsticks!”
Haru eyed the basket of freshly baked bread, but stuck his tongue out at the fact that the breadsticks were drowned in mayonnaise. “Uh, yeah, but I just ate so…”
“Oh well, more for me then!” Kosuke chuckled to himself as he gulped down some of the bread.
The red dragon sighed under his breath before he narrowed down his eyes at the fellow mage, and the action didn’t go unnoticed by the griffon. “Look, I know this mug is handsome and all, but I’m not really into dudes, especially ones with scales.”
“You’ve certainly got a high opinion of yourself,” Haru growled under his breath. “Just who are you?”
“Are you deaf?” Kosuke replied as he wagged a breadstick at Haru. “You were there when I made my big introduction – Kosuke Nitoh, the Wild Mage Beast.”
“That’s just it, are you really a mage?” Haru questioned.
“You were there,” Kosuke answered bluntly before he tossed the breadstick into his opened beak and continued speaking with his mouth full. “Bu vere sere (You were there). Bu maw vi trassfrun (You saw me transform).”
The griffon gulped the bread, breathed a sigh of relief and pointed a talon at Haru, “And you saw me eat the Phantom – Of course I’m a mage. Mages need to eat Phantoms to get their mana, I’m sure you do.”
“Actually, I don’t.”
Kosuke’s green eyes widened when he heard that, then blinked a few times in confusion, “Wait, what?”
“My body produces mana,” Haru answered as he tapped his claws against his belt buckle before he snapped the belt off his torso and placed his belt onto the table. “And this allows me to channel it. Doesn’t yours do the same?”
Kosuke didn’t say anything, but removed his own belt, and placed it next to Haru’s. “A conductor of magic? Not exactly, mine’s more of a cage.”
“A cage?” Haru questioned. “What are you talking about?”
“That’s my line,” Kosuke growled as he leaned over the table and brought one of his talons up to Haru’s nose. “You’re a mage, but you can live without eating the Phantoms’ magical energy?”
“Right,” Haru muttered as he gently pushed Kosuke’s talon from his face. ‘If I didn’t need information from this griffon, I doubt I’d really care – But I have to make sure that this Mayonnaise isn’t a threat to anypony.’
“Well that’s not fair!” Kosuke huffed as he fell back into his seat with his arms crossed over his chest.
“In any case, Mayonnaise,” Haru started.
“Hey!” Kosuke snarled as he lifted up his half empty bottle of mayonnaise. “Remember my name! I’m Nitoh Kosuke, and this is mayonnaise – We’re two different things!”
“Whatever,” Haru sighed under his breath as he pulled his belt back. “How exactly did you become a mage?”
A large grin grew on the griffon’s face as he sat up straight. “Oh, so you have an interest in your rival, eh?”
“You’re not my rival,” Haru pointed out bluntly.
However, Kosuke just continued onwards, “Fine, say no more. I’m sure you can’t help but wonder, after all, this cool, suave and dare I say, handsome griffon mage comes out of nowhere to sweep all the cute mares off their hooves.”
“Those bandages of yours a testament to that?” Haru questioned.
Kosuke coughed a few times with his feathers on his face slowly turning red, “T-These are wounds of love. But in any case, if you wanna know my background, ya gotta give me something that’s as good as my information…”
“You want to know how I got my powers?” Haru sighed as his gaze shifted to the side. “Well, I…”
“NOPE!” Kosuke laughed as he wagged a talon at Haru. “Names and tastes my friend, I wanna know them all of each of the mares that was with Flutters and Dashie, Pinks is very cute, and Rarity’s classy. But the fanmare and country gal caught my attention too and… Ooh, doesn’t it hurt to slam your head into the table.
‘Twilight… AJ, I pray to Ishimori that you never find out what I’m about to do…’ Haru thought to himself with his head now on the table. “Mayonnaise, you got some paper and pen?”
“My name isn’t mayonnaise!”
TTT – TTT
Within the cave at the beach, Twilight and Fluttershy trotted quietly through the caverns. Unexpectedly, the caves were actually well lit with the floors carved smooth. With Cerberus quite a bit ahead of the two, Twilight took notice of these facts, ‘There’s no way this cave is natural – Could this be some pony’s home? But who would live in a cave?’
Cerberus barked once more, the bark echoed through the cave and drew the two mares attention ahead. Fluttershy tilted her head slightly, “Um, T-Twilight, is that normal in c-caves?”
A few yards in front of the two mares, a large white curtain waved slightly in the light breeze that flowed through the cave. Behind the curtain, there seemed to be a large bed with pure white sheets that brushed against the floor. Twilight trotted forward slightly, “No… We must be in somepony’s house. We should probably…”
WOOF! WOOF!
Cerberus was now underneath the curtain before it leapt onto the bed, disappearing from sight.
“Oh my, Cerberus, that’s someone’s bed!” Fluttershy gasped before she quickly trotted after Cerberus.
Twilight immediately followed after Fluttershy, and the two mares stepped passed the curtain. Cerberus had disappeared, but on the bed in front of the two was a large, jagged blue stone that sat in front of them. Twilight used her magic to levitate the stone off the bed, ‘This is a Magic Stone! Is this what Cerberus wanted us to find? But… Why? And how, it’s not like it could’ve known I’d be at Fluttershy’s and…’
“T-Twilight,” Fluttershy whispered as she leaned towards her friend. “D-Do you hear that?”
The unicorn’s ears flicked slightly as she heard footsteps along with a joyful whistle that echoed through the cave. And it was getting closer, very quick. Twilight gulped before she nodded towards Fluttershy and gestured towards the bed.
The whistling stopped as a tall figure stepped in front of the large curtain, its spike adorned head rolled around its shoulders before the figure pulled back the curtain. “Now then, where are you?”
The armored being stepped around the edge of the bed, his armored feet clanked against the rocky floor. Twilight and Fluttershy had ducked under the large bed just before the figure had appeared, and watched with their breaths held. “Where did I put that thing?”
Twilight’s eyes turned to the Magic Stone she had pulled down with her. ‘Is he looking for this?’
“Ah-ha! Now I got it!”
The bed creaked as weight was slowly placed on it, and Fluttershy brought her hooves to her mouth, trying to make sure that she didn’t make a sound. The armored feet turned around, “Ah, the KingFisher Nine Thousand – I can never fish properly without you.”
Then owner of the armored feet sauntered off with a cheerful whistle.
When the whistle and the footsteps stopped their echoes through the cave, Twilight pulled herself from under the bed and stood up straight. With her hoof extended to Fluttershy, the young unicorn pulled her friend out from underneath. ‘Was that a Phantom? It sounded like it was – But, is this cave its home? And it didn’t seem to notice that the Magic Stone was missing…
‘Was it not guarding the stone? Could it be that it didn’t know about the stone? And if that’s true, then did something put the magic stone there when it wasn’t around? And how did Cerberus know that it would be here? I… There are so many questions!’
“Um, Twilight? C-Can we leave now?” Fluttershy muttered, her body shook in fear.
“Of… Of course,” Twilight replied as she used her magic to lift up the magic stone. ‘I need to tell Haru about this –The Phantom, the Magic Stone, and I need to ask him about Cerberus… Wait… Where did Cerberus go anyway?’
Outside the cave, Cerberus barked a few times as a familiar white garbed figure knelt down to lift up the obsidian familiar. “You did good Cerberus… Now, remember to keep an eye on Compassion. Do not reveal yourself unless directed to.”
Cerberus barked as all three of its head nodded. The white garbed figure allowed the obsidian familiar to leap from his grip and dash off. ‘Truth has proven to have potential, but I must see if the other four possess that same potential…’
TTT – TTT
Now this is the story all about how my life got flipped, turned upside down. And I’d like to take a minute just sit right there, I’ll tell you how I became a mage that makes many scares.
“What are you doing?” Haru asked with a dulled look on his face.
“Don’t interrupt me!” Kosuke scolded.
… Damn it! Now I lost my train of thought… So, I guess I’ll have to do this normally.
In case you didn’t know, I’m kind of a big name in this world with archaeology. I’m one of those action-packed archaeologists, kind of like Daring Do, only male with lion bits here and there. And I was always looking for the next thing to find – And sell. I admit that upright that maybe I shouldn’t be doing that, but I need to eat.
Anyway, one day when I was investigating some ruins that were in the badlands down south. I was scaling the side of the ruins when I came across an odd rune carved into the side of it. The moment my talons brushed against it, the wall I was on collapsed and I fell into the ruins.
What I found was amazing – A broken shrine with humanoid statues armed with spears and an odd lithograph that was still in tack on the floor. Albeit, the lithograph was covered with moss and stuff, but once I uncovered it, I found a certain gold ring that had green eyes on it.
When I pulled the ring from the lithograph, it reacted! And from the lithograph, the belt that you see before you emerged from it – Whatever magic was at work seemed to only work once as the lithograph broke immediately afterwards.
Now, in case you hadn’t noticed, I don’t wear pants.
“Anyone can see that,” Haru sighed with a roll of his eyes. ‘I don’t wear them either, but that’s beside the point.’
Quite so, but I didn’t think it was a belt buckle. It was by pure luck that I slipped on my hind legs and the belt fell to my waist. The darn thing wrapped around me and it certainly surprised me!
But when it wrapped around me, the ruins shook violently and the statues came to life. But just as I was about to be attacked by them, I heard a voice call out to me…
“USE THE RING.”
… I didn’t have a choice – It was either listen to the ramblings of my possible insane mind, or be slain by these odd creatures. So, I donned the ring, and when I used it on the belt, time seemed to freeze all around me…
And then he appeared.
Even today, I don’t know exactly what he was – In my travels, I came across many different creatures, and he was… He is nothing I ever saw before. A jumble of creatures: the body and head of a lion with a hawk head on his right front shoulder blade, a dolphin on the left, a bull’s head on his chest and a chameleon that used its tongue for his tail. He had a pair of wings and he was at least four times bigger than I with his body almost completely made out of steel.
“I am Khimaira…
“Nitoh Kosuke – You have opened the doors to my cage and have become one with I. You have released me from my prison, and I am not without gratitude.
“I am not without gratitude…”
At first I thought that I was meeting with some guardian of Tartarus – Chimera, that’s a fabled creature that was supposedly made up of many different creatures: And they weren’t known to be the friendliest of creatures around.
“I can see everything, and I shall grant you magic – I shall fill that void.”
… I don’t know how, but when he said those words… They… They just…
Clicked…
But nothing’s free… Not like how ponies see it.
“In exchange, however, you must hunt for me – Hunt mana! If you do not, your life shall fade away…”
… I didn’t know what to say to that… What could I say to that?
“Living a life as you have, is it any different from death? Hunt down the Phantoms so that I may devour their magical energy…
“And I shall give your life a purpose once more.
“WILD MAGE – BEAST!”
L-I-O-N! LION!
As you would imagine, when I transformed for the first time – I was surprised. But those statues, those golems, I was able to defeat them and satiate Khimaira’s hunger.
“And that’s my story,” Kosuke chuckled as he looked at the list of information. “That happened three months ago, and ever since, I’ve been going around and I’ve been pretty lucky finding these Phantoms. Khimaira has the ability to sense large sources of mana and it led us here – A ton of Phantoms are around here.”
Haru’s eyes widened. “Wait, you need to defeat Phantoms in order to live? How can you be so carefree?”
“I don’t know if I’ll be alive tomorrow,” Kosuke replied as he took back his belt and fitted the list into his pocket. Then he looked at the red dragon across from him. “It doesn’t matter if I’m carefree or not, everyone goes eventually… But you really don't need to eat mana, right? So, why are you after the Phantoms?”
Haru sighed and looked up towards the sun, “To protect the Gates.”
“Gates?” Kosuke questioned as he tilted his head. “What the heck? Are the Phantoms trying to get into something around here?”
“No, the Gates are innocent ponies, griffons, any creature being targeted by the Phantoms,” Haru explained with a flat look in his eyes.
“So, total strangers?” Kosuke questioned as he rolled his eyes. “You owe them or something? You offer your services for a price?”
“Nope,” Haru replied with a smile on his face. “I just can’t let the Phantoms drive anypony into despair…”
‘I don’t want anypony to go through what I did – Nopony deserves that…’
“OOOOH! How cool!” Kosuke moaned as he brought his talons up to his face. “Must be pretty sweet when your life isn’t at risk.”
Haru sighed under his breath, “You’re more than welcomed to think what you want – But listen. Gates driven to despair by a Phantom will…”
But Haru stopped when a talon was brought in front of his face, “Stop! Say no more!”
Kosuke pushed himself from the table with a smile, “I can tell that you’re doing your best – I’ve heard rumors about some mage fighting Phantoms. However, you should remember this.
“My life’s at stake. If you don’t need to eat magical energy, then don’t get in my way. We’re done here.”
The griffon pulled up his large backpack over his shoulders and walked off. “Feel free to keep playing your little magic games, dragon. But I won’t hesitate to knock you out of my way the next time you get in the way of my hunt.
“After all, griffons are carnivores too.”
And with that, Kosuke walked away from the café, his lion tail swished with each step. Haru locked his claws as he closed his eyes, ‘Khimaira, it might be possible that this is a Phantom, but if that’s true, then it must’ve been a Phantom from a long time ago. Are there more ancient Phantoms?
‘But this Kosuke’s more important at the moment – In a sense, he’s a victim of the Phantoms too. However, I need to think about how to do this, cause if I play my cards right, I might just be able to have another mage help me with…’
“Excuse me, sir.”
Haru shook his head and turned to see the unicorn waiter near the table, and float down a single piece of paper. “Your bill, sir.”
“Wait, what?” Haru questioned as he reeled back. ‘HE STIFFED ME WITH THE BILL!!!’
TBC
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Okay, so it looks like Medusa has arrived. And she has a bodyguard named Bari, a pony who has a wolf cutie mark. In other words. Wolzord.
And just like in canon Wizard, the Cerberus PlaMonster has guided someone - in this case, Twilight and Fluttershy - to the Water Dragon Stone. But this time around, it looks like the cave actually had someone in it. I haven't seen the episode, but I'm not sure if it happened that way in canon.
Calling it. Fluttershy is friends with not one, but two Riders. Because Sho could only be the left half of the two-in-one Rider, Double. Should make the Sonic Rainboom arc extremely interesting.
And as usual, Nitoh refuses to listen to anyone. That's going to cause some trouble, if I don't miss my guess.
Here, have some badges as your reward for a good intermission chapter!
fc04.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2011/345/9/d/applejack_approved_by_ambris-d4ivlan.png
fc00.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2011/345/0/9/fluttershy_approved_by_ambris-d4ivleb.png
fc08.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2011/282/e/5/twilight_sparkle_approved_by_ambris-d4c255h.png
And once again, I would like to submit my request for a clash between Wolzord and a certain other wolf knight. Specifically, a golden knight. Later!
Oh come on, Haru, how expensive are breadsticks?
I always thought that Nitou's speech there had a point. As long as the Gates are safe who cares who gets the kill?
3502264 The issue was never who got the kill. Nitoh at first cared very little about gates, and the fact that they could turn into phantom's put his loyalties in question in the show. Plus he was tricked by Medusa.
3502264 I don't think it's the cost of the breadsticks that made Haru mad. It's simply the fact that when you meet someone for the first time, running off and leaving them to pay the bill like that is extremely rude, and it gives the impression that Nitoh is a cheapskate.
3502264 Just as Cardinel said, Nitoh didn't care all that much for the Gates' well-being in the beginning, mainly because he doesn't know the details on how a Phantom is born. Medusa uses that lack of knowledge to her advantage for the sake of hindering Haruto. At least, that's how things went in the show, I have no idea how that'll pan out here.
3692092 Thanks, you'll love it even more later - OOO appears in this.
Interesting intermission! definitely added a lot of information to the story!
The other was a petite, young unicorn mare who’s purple and white splotched fur coat
was a diamond studded Garuda who’s eyes zeroed in on Applejack before it flew
the sting of laundry tied to the side of the wooden balcony
1. Whose.
2. Whose.
3. String.