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Gaze upon my form2,128 words
And fear its prescence1,941 words
I am the beginning1,428 words
I am the end1,619 words

I am the end

Finally down the stairs, the two walked through the widened corridors of the irst floor and bathed in the now-present sunlight. Everypony still seemed to babble about this stallion's sudden appearance and his accompanying of Cadence. The changeling's lack of emotion somewhat impeded whatever conversation others were trying to have with him, as he nimbly curved around each who tried to block him, leaving the would-be questioner flabbergasted. Most of these were the ponies who worked at the castle, but the occasional griffin came in on the fun as well. Cadence was struggling to keep up with the creature's pace. No changeling could walk this fast without tiring themselves out incredibly, even with their morphing. It was always relevant to the creature they turned into, yet this...thing seemed so emotionless that it had no concept of fatigue or basic needs. Such an interesting concept.

Reaching the large entrance, the staircase presented a direct path to the kitchen. However, one problem had arised. A large body of atleast twenty stallions marched along through the hall, intent on reaching the waiting quarters. For what purpose? These gray stallions wearing fur hats and furred jackets were from Stalliongrad, a place that formed fearless and frightening soldiers. They were only escorts, however, and the one being protected was hidden within the center of this mass. Their frowning faces and gruff exterior seemed to intimidate everypony around. Even Cadence was shaking a bit, yet Unknown did not care. His body stood firm and his face remained emotionless.
The changeling's "teacher" preferred to wait for them to pass, but said creature had another plan.

"I shall not wait for my teachings. These ponies are hindering progress to the desired destination. We must advance." he said ever so calmly.

"Wait...what are you doing? No. Unnknown, wait!" Cadence whisperedas she tried to discreetly grab the white stallion's hindlegs.

The event wasn't what the visitors were expecting. After all, it was wellknown throughout most of the discovered world that soldiers from Stalliongrad were not to be trifled with. Even the toughest of guards would not dare to pick a fight with them, yet the idea that a common pony would dare to oppose them was impossible, Laughable even. This is exactly what happened, but this 'common pony" wasn't something they were aware of. Unnknown walked through the group, pushing them away and carving a stright path through the crowd, making these troops grab the intruder and look at him with disgust and confusion.

"Who arre you to pass thrrough Stallionfrrads grrrreatest soldierrs? Huh? Who do you tink you arre?" one of the soldiers shouted.

Said soldier was so close to the changeling's face that it could smell his alcohol-imbued breath. While the others seemed rather tame in their drinking habits, this particular one was a full drunkard.

"Release me, pony. I have matters to attend to."

The stallions laughed while te drunkard turned around to look at them with a smile on his face.

"Rreally? Then hy did you push thrrough us?"

"You are impeding my progress. I have no time to spare waiting for colts wearing fluffy coats to block my progress."

"You even insult us. Aha! I like dis guy." the drunkard closened the distance between their faces."Listen herre. We don't like ponies like you. We'll teach you a lesson that you will not forget."

The stallions around began to chuckled and crack their coronets. If nothing was done, the poor stallion would be massacred.

"Hold up!" Cadence interjected. "It's not his fault. When he gets into...uhhh...When he wants to do something, he has to finish it, no matter the consequences."

"Huh?" a soldier wondered.

While Cadance and the stallions began to talk, the changeling slowly turned its head to observe the situation. What emotion was she showing? Compassion? Pity? What was it? It did not affect him, but he had to know. Unfortunately, these soldiers were not going to listen to some alicorn who was not one of the royal sisters.

"Sorry, mare, but we must uphold our honor." one sneered.

"I advize you to treat her with more respect, and to release me immediately. I prefer continuing to my intended objective."

"Too bad."

Before the spectators hiding behind their cover could even react, Unknown had broken from his clutches and, with a centralized strike into the attacker's chest, hit him far away against the wall. The yelp of pain was enough to enrage the fallen one's comrades. They immediately took out their knives and began to bash the changeling using combinations to confuse him as to where the next attack would come from, yet, with every strike, the stallion did not react, and his face remained the same, destabilizing his attackers. Performing yet another bizarre body twist that tossed him into the air, the unicorn let his horn shine a trasparent hue, enamoring the stallions before a huge portion of them were struck by an invisible force and melded into the floor.

Seeing the horror that just occurred, one of the soldiers equipped his spear and charged towards the pony, intent on impaling him. Perhaps it was his powers. Perhaps it was his experience dealing with another wielding that name, but Unknown slid slightly to the right and smashed the spear in two before jumping up and round-house kicking the stallion into the stairs. The remaining simply looked at the carnage and began to shake as the victor stared at them with no care.

"ENOUGH!" yelled a deep voice.

The one this group had been guarding came forwards with rage in his blue eyes. He was just as gray as the rest, but had a thick, black mustache and a sickle cutie mark. He walked straight into the unicorn's face and growled at him, then burst into laughter, catching the changeling off-guard.

"Hm?" Unnkown hummed.

"I like you. You defeated some of my best bodyguards. Aha!" the stallion slammed the changeling on the back quite a bit."They stemmed off a manticore invasion and a killed off a Pourpros. Those giant creatures aren't easy to get rid of. Ha. Now, if you could unmeld my soldiers from the floor, we'll be on our way." the pony smiled.

Unknown looked back at Cadence who simply looked back with irritation. Another movement, and the troops were free, allowing them to skit along the floor, up the stairs, and past the doors. Before this mustachioed stallion could leave, however, Unknown spoke:

"I believe that power is essential to survival."

To this, the stallion nodded with a smile.

"They must learn...humility...to be proper combattants."

"Yes. That is a fine piece of advice. A strict training regime is the best way to teach them that they are not invincible. I thank you for this, sirrrrr...?"

"Unknown."

Cadence cringed. They had forgotten to get him a real name.

"Unknown?...I like it. Very mysterious. Have a good day."

The alicorn sighed in relief, and quickly grabbed the changeling to hurry towards the kitchen. The door to this was, like the rest, made of a fine wood, although this one had carvings of all sorts of fruits and vegetables on it. The details were so perfect that it seemed like the food would jump out at any moment from their sculpted prison. Cadance, although still disturbed by what happened earlier, smiled to Unknown as she opened the door slowly. Every single odor and spice immediately rushed through the air and hit the unicorn directly in the muzzle, causing him to caugh and shake his head as he held said muzzle in pain.

"What is that?!" he screamed.

"It's a smell. How does it make you feel?"

"Nauseous."

"Huh. That wasn't the answer I was expecting. It might be because you aren't used to these sort of things. I'll let you meet the chef. He can most certainly help you develop a taste for food."

As the door opened a bit more, a griffin could be seen directly throwing olives and peppers into the air and slicing them with his claws, allowing the fresh slices to fall into the large, bronze pot with little splashes. The entire kitchen itself was enormous and apparently had an enormous staff, judging by the amount of ponies and minotaurs, as well as all the apparatus and ruckus going on. Said griffin, however, had managed to twist his head feathers into dreadlocks and seemed to have lit his stereo up all the way to hear his music blasting through the whole room and through the now open door.

"Green Pepper? I have somepony that I would like you to meet. He needs to learn about flavors, and I'm pretty sure you could teach him."

"Really now? Well dats a great ting now! I'll teach ya how ta appreciate all da flavahs of da world!" the griffin shouted as he turned around.

Unknown felt something within him that caused his whole body to feel cold. He felt some form of chill in his spine, his muscles began to contract, and he even started to sweat. He didn't like this emotion. He didn't like it at all. A new emotion came into play for his reaction: Hatred.

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