But when the enemy comes knocking at the doorstep of Deft Hooves' home, will he have a choice? Raised as the scum of the city, the poorest of the poor and the weakest of them all, will such a creature be able to show the world that you don't have to be a hero to do heroic deeds?
This story is a fan-fiction of MLP:FiM. I don't own any of it. It belongs to Hasbro, etc, etc. Don't sue. Seriously. That would be so uncouth.
Stealing
“I ain’t a hero. So why does that matter to you?” I glared at the wizened dragon fiercely. I could see my glaring face in the pools of liquid emerald that were his eyes.
“Only a hero can play out this story and only a hero will have their name sung throughout the centuries by my people. It is foretold.” He said between deep breaths that filled the cavern with smoke.
I rolled my eyes and started digging into a pile of gold, jewels, and loot that was strewn across the floor of the dragon’s lair. “You gonna stop me?” I asked him as I pulled out a long, curved sword by its unmistakably orange hilt. The pommel hit one end of my mouth and I lashed it back into its holster on my front right leg. The black blade reflected the shimmering gold into a glare that would have blinded me if I were looking at the blade. But my eyes stayed on the great wyrm as I tied the gauntlet on my front left leg just a wee bit tighter. The gauntlet was made of the same brown mud that was found on the banks of the only river of my home, the river of my people. And they lived on within me, within the green and blue jewel that was in the center of the gauntlet and grew throughout it with thick veins. I shook out my legs and approached the dragon.
The wyrm looked at me with astonished eyes and then started to laugh…until I approached him and swiped my blade gently across the scales of his front leg. Even as the stroke was gentle, it elicited a thin trickle of blood that glowed with vibrant scarlet against his grey scales. His laugh turned into a hiss and then he looked at me with a frown as I raised my sword once more.
“That is enough.” The dragon said with dismay. “I did not mean to offend. But if you are no hero, then why do you seek the chamber of legends? Why do you carry the hero’s gauntlet? And why do you have the cursed blade? Tell me your tale, small pony, and perhaps you will live to see another day. You may even enter the chamber…” he said as he slunk back down into a pile of loot, looking comfortable despite the wound on his arm and the vicious snarl on his face.
“If it means I don’t have to fight you, then I will do so.” I said, putting the sword back into the sheath on my back. Its crescent-blade was a little hard to store, but once you got the hang of it, it was simple to carry and comfortable on a leg. I sat down on a pile of loot across from the slightly fuming wyrm.
“I was never a hero, and I never will be.”
I was never a hero. I don’t think I will ever be, nor do I think I can be. I’ve got my own demons, but unlike heroes who try to fight them, I embrace them. Hell, I love to steal. I love that moment, the look especially, when a pony realizes that they just lost something important to them. Be it bits, jewels, food, clothing, mares, or candy, I love the sensation of taking something away from those who think they are invincible and incredibly strong. So strong they can tread all over types like me and my family.
See, I was born in the gutters. The deepest, nastiest, scummiest gutters anywhere in the wide reaches of the New Equestrian Empire. My home was in one of these gutters in the city of Oattara, the ancient city of the Mesoponish civilization. Oattara is in the middle of the Desert of the Fallen Stars, thanks to all the meteorites once found in the sandy dunes. However, a miraculous river of water flows though this arid land and gives life to Oattara.
Years before I was born, the New Equestrian Empire swept through the Mesoponish lands and took each city, some by force and some by more peaceful means. I never found out how Oattara was taken, but either way, Oattara stayed one of the massive trading cities on the great northern trading route between the southernmost cities that grow much desired spices, produce, and dyes, and the north cities of Elder Equestria. With the N.E.E. controlling the cities of the Desert, Oattara became even bigger and more divided. The rich had always looked down on the poor, but with the addition of more traders and merchants, we poor sunk even deeper into the scum of the gutters.
And in this scum, I was born. In this scum, I learned to survive. From this scum, I would show the powerful who they truly were.
For fifteen years (I had learned to count from the old alley-witch that lived in Demon’s Strut), I had lived with my brothers and sisters, orphans and poor ponies and grew with my family of misfits and strangers. I came to make a name through my trade as I never had parents to give me one. “Deft Hooves” was what my scum-family called me and when my cutie mark appeared on my muddy-brown coat (a black seven pointed star) the alley-witch told me the gods approved of the name. As I stole and perfected what I knew so that I was almost never caught in the act, I was also able to steal stories and sights of the nobles, the “heroes”.
Ever since Oattara was young, much earlier before Equestria, or the N.E.E, there had been a prophecy of doom that would befall Oattara. The only pony to prevent this would be a pony of the noble class, a “hero” that would be chosen by the gods and would wield the Hero’s Gauntlet. This gauntlet was told to harness the magicks of the ancient sand ponies, a race of earth ponies that could control all of the Earth with their might. So, many of the heirs of the noble families were trained from young ages, no matter what race of pony they may be, to become the destined “hero” Oattara would eventually need. My family and I just laughed at them as they paraded themselves through the streets. A bunch of nobles knew nothing of fighting for their lives. However, some seemed tougher than others. And one would become my enemy, my best friend, my love, my downfall, and the reason I’d truly never be a hero.
It was on my sixteenth birthday that the robbery was botched and my life was changed forever.
The job was simple, just a little “grocery shopping” that I did daily to feed my large family. I hopped down to the grand bazar with two of my brothers, Mudd, who was two years my senior, and Dirtmouth, a young one just learning the trade. We walked up and down the covered alleys of the bazar until I decided we came to the right stall. A large fruit stall run by a northerner with six apples as his cutie mark was selling the same fruit on his flank. Apples were his main produce, but he had other vegetables and produce of Elder Equestria. I gave my brothers a look and they went to their jobs.
Coming from different sides of the alley, Mudd and Dirtmouth made it look like they ran into each other in front of the northerner’s stall.
“Watch where yer going, pipsqueak.” Mudd snarled at Dirtmouth.
“Buck you, ya giant shit-stain. I bet yer all ugly and no punch.” Dirtmouth replied, showing off the reason for his name.
Mudd screamed at the younger colt and tackled him into the produce stall. The northerner screamed at them with a “Cut that out, y’all! No git!” trying to break up the commotion my brother’s caused. When the pony got in the midst of the brawl, my brothers got him into the middle, making it look like he was actually doing good and separating the fight and keeping him distracted, while I filled two big sacks with the spilled produce. I slunk away into the shadows as Mudd and Dirtmouth were scolded and forced to put the stall back up. Meanwhile, I was picking out our next target.
We did one more stall job like this, the brawl and the distraction, but the last one was nothing but haggling on my part as my brothers quickly slid food into their pouches. The stall itself was closer to the rich district of the city, so causing a brawl here was a no-go. It would be all over if any guards came around and found us, so I made sure we were doing the job as the patrol changed. It was all going good, until Dirtmouth slipped and fell on his rump, swearing like a sailor as he hit the ground from surprise. Then the produce rolled out of his bag, but I knew we could get away before the silly merchant could stop us. We started to run, but then a patrol of Oattara soldiers came around the corner of the alley.
I skidded to a halt to avoid the soldiers and came nose to nose with the mare leading the patrol, almost kissing her by accident. Her long brown mane cascaded around her face and her silver coat seemed to blend in with her steel armor, telling me that she was no Bronze-clad guard, but a noble, a “hero” no less. Her green eyes went wide with shock and her wings came up instinctively as I stopped mere centimeters from her. She backpedaled into her patrol, causing enough chaos for me to yell at my brothers.
“Other way! Go! Go!” I screamed at them as I turned around as fast as physically possible, a patrol of angry guards and one flustered heroine on my tail. We sprinted around the bazar, ducking into alleys and sneaking out of hidden entrances in dead ends. However, the heroine must have put out an alarm, because more and more guards came swarming through the bazar. As soon as we could, we stopped for a quick breath. In a few seconds flat, I was ready to sprint away again (I’m not called “Deft” for nothing), but my brothers needed a moment more. A moment I was sure we didn’t have. My suspicions were proved true as I heard the shouts of the guards around the corners of our shallowly hidden alley.
“Listen, everypony for himself.” I told my brothers as I darted towards the back end and started to climb the low wall that separated this alley and another. I saw Mudd dart out the alley from the corner of my eye, but Dirtmouth just cussed under his breath and hid behind a worn blanket. I wanted to help him out, but at times like this, it was truly everypony for themselves.
I barely managed to get over the wall and dive onto a low-roof of a small shop before two guards rushed into the alley, short-swords drawn and copper armor gleaming in the desert sun. I held my breath as they searched and winced as I heard a gently cuss as one of the guards kicked the pile of blankets. If swears were arrows, Dirtmouth would have riddled the guards with holes faster than the whole army of archers of Oattara, but he barely did anything as the guards grabbed at him. I shook my head at his screams and cussed to myself.
“Hey!” I said loudly, standing up from my perch, making the guards look away from my brother and glare evilly at me. “I’m so sorry for stealing.” I faked.
“That fool there was just holding the goods for me. I was doing all the stealing. Please, let me come down so I can confess…I just don’t want any more trouble, ok?”
The guards glared at me, but their expressions turned to sneers as I slowly crept down off the roof, onto the wall, and back down into the alley. I came towards them with an innocent look, but darted my eyes sideways at the last second to tell Dirtmouth to get out of there. As I came closer, he made himself quiet for once and tensed up. Right as I reached the guards and the first one started to come around to cuff my limbs, I acted.
The first guard went down with a gasp as my hoof went straight into his stallion-bits and he went up into the air a little. When he landed on the ground, he started to cough and retch while his partner stood open-mouthed and let Dirtmouth escape.
Then came the anger. The other guard rushed at me with his sword drawn, but I was already scrambling up the wall and back onto the roof as he chased after me. He was forced to slow down so he wouldn’t cut himself and that was when I started to sprint along the rooftops. I was fast, but I had to give the guard some credit. Not only was he following me somewhere where most guards would have given up due to the treacherous instability of roofing tiles, but he was also fairly close behind.
But I had grown up doing this sort of thing, running and escaping, chasing and being chased. I was the master, the king, the god of the alleys and master of the scum left behind by the rich. I was unstoppable!...or so I thought until I slipped on a tile and went crashing through a covered stall and had the wind knocked out of me as I landed on piles of hard things.
I coughed and felt my body shudder with pain as I saw the guard descend from the roof via a ladder I didn’t see, probably because I was falling. I tried to get up, but the pain racked me and I wondered what I was laying in. One hoof behind my head grabbed a chunk of the pile and I realized I was laying in bricks. As the guard came closer, I moaned loudly, not entirely feigning my pain.
“I hope that teaches you, you common trash, not to run from the law.” He growled as he came closer to slip rope around my legs and neck, effectively chaining me to take me into custody.
“And I hope this teaches you not to chase ‘common trash’.” I said as I whipped a brick around and clocked him in the jaw. He was taken aback by the hit and staggered, but caught himself after the initial surprise of the blow.
“Shit.” I said, copying Dirtmouth’s favorite cuss as the guard drew his sword and started running at me. But then I remembered I was in the middle of a pile of bricks. I picked them up as fast as I could and whipped them all in his direction, not caring if I actually hit him, just slowing him down and stopping his momentum towards me. Finally, I heard an almost comical “uhhgh” as a brick must have hit him square in the face. He went down and I sighed and laughed, knowing that I would probably be put on the wanted boards, which meant no more stealing without a lot of hassle. As I went over to the guard’s unconscious body and took his bit-pouch from him, I wondered how much it would cost to get my mud-brown coat and my black and tan mane dyed. I gave a silver bit to the brick-layer who had been watching on in abject horror for his troubles and hurried away, whistling a merry tune despite the pain in my sides and back. Sure, I had gotten pretty bruised up and in a lot of trouble, but I got a bit-bag full of bits, which is nice.
Or it was until I heard an angry mare’s voice behind me.
“Put. Gasp. Down. Pant. The. Wheeze. Bit-bag” she enunciated as I turned around and saw the same pretty heroine sweating and panting in her armor. I whistled, admiring her tenacity. It wasn’t every day I had pretty mares running far and wide to chase me down and (hopefully) tie me down.
“Man alive, you really take your training too seriously.” I told her with a smile. “Come on, I’m just a petty thief. There’s no reason why a heroine should chase me down. Unless you didn’t do it because I was a thief. Do you like to tie down handsome stallions? Is that it?”
My smile broadened as her face turned red and she unsheathed her sword. I couldn’t help but feel my heart leap at the sight. She may be out to kill me, but I’d be damned if she wasn’t cute.
“Ok, ok. No need for that” I said, putting the bit-bag down and slowly approaching her. “I’ll come quiet…HEY!” I yelled as I danced back from a swing of her long, steel sword.
“WHAT WAS THAT FOR? I WAS BUCKING SURRENDERING!”
“Yeah, and I wasn’t born yesterday. I saw how you fight. You don’t have any honor.” She said acidly, trying to bring me to fight her “properly.”
Instead, I smiled again. “You’re right. No honor whatsoever. That shit gets you killed.”
“I’ll do the same to you if you move an inch.” She threatened. “I told all the patrols coming back about you and there were two other pegasi with me. They’ll be here any minute and you’ll be coming with us.”
I tapped my chin with a hoof and quickly kicked the bit-bag up and into my saddle bags while kicking a shattered brick in her direction. “NOPE!” I said as I turned, starting to run. However, the mare must have deflected the brick with her sword because after I took two steps, I felt something hit the back of my leg and I went tumbling down onto the alley floor. Then a weight fell onto me like a ton of bricks and the mare and I were rolling around, I trying to escape, she trying to hold me captive.
In any normal situation, I would have been able to get out of there like a greased eel-squid-pig-animal that is slippery, but there were three factors that were stopping me. First off, the mare was significantly taller than me, putting her at an advantage for tangling me up in her long, long limbs. The second was that she was wearing steel armor that must have added at least twenty pounds to her and also felt as uncomfortable as hell as I tried to squeeze and wedge myself out of her grasp. The third, and most important, was that I was liking this. At one point, we managed to become so intertwined that neither of us could move and our faces were barely an inch apart. Our labored breathing made the close space hot and steamy quickly and I noticed that her eyes were a lovely shade of green, like the leaves of a healthy date palm, and that she had an extremely cute smattering of freckles on her snout.
While we were stuck, she glared at me, but not at fiercely as she had while she threatened me. I could tell she was examining my rough, dirty face with my ruby-red eyes, my scars and grime, and my torn ear. It made me feel self-conscious, something I had rarely ever dwelled on before, and I realized something with a smile and a laugh.
“What?” she asked, surprised at my sudden outburst as I heard wings coming closer.
“I love you.” I answered, kissing her as the other pegasi guards landed behind her.
This story is a fan-fiction of MLP:FiM. I don't own any of it. It belongs to Hasbro, etc, etc. Don't sue. Seriously. That would be so uncouth.
Doing time
“Ow.” I said, my face redder than the sun setting behind me from love and the really hard slap the mare had given me. Her face was just as red and that made me grin like a fool and get slapped again.
“May I have another?” that got me one more slap.
“Kinky.” And another slap.
“I knew you were into me.” I said with a wide smile and was prepared to be slapped again, but one of the pegasi guards holding me cleared his throat and nodded over to the Central Citadel, the massive castle in the center of Oattara. The pegasi mare ruffled her feathers and prepared for flight while the other two did the same, only holding onto me by ropes. I didn’t notice us rising into the air though, as I was already flying on bliss.
As the mare’s backup had landed, they disentangled us and gave the mare strange looks as they pulled me away from her. They shared a silent raised eyebrow to each other, obviously asking the question of why she and I were kissing. Quite frankly, I didn’t have too good of a reason to as why I kissed her, I just knew at that moment I needed to. So I did it. And got slapped. And slapped. And slapped. And I enjoyed it because it was a sign of that she felt it too in our kiss, and because the slap was kinda hot.
I sighed and then realized that I was miles above Oattara and my stomach did a backflip and I could feel my heart jump into my throat. I must have gotten pale because the mare looked at me with a sneer and laughed icily. “Are you alright? Scared of the heights?” she asked.
“I be less afraid if you kissed me again, love.” I replied, brining another blush to her face and a large, genuine smile to my face. Gods, she’s cute. However, I stopped talking pretty quickly as the two pegasi guards let me slip a little and I jumped, gulping down fear and words as we flew high above the alleys that I called my home.
The sensation of slipping and almost plummeting to my death (or as how my body registered it) would make me believe that the gods made earth ponies on the ground for a reason, but the view from up there was so spectacular that the feelings of untimely doom and death faded away.
Directly in front of me, the Central Citadel loomed, a sandstone spire aspiring to touch the heavens as the setting desert sun outlined it and the desert behind it. I could see the massive walls of Oattara, made from the same massive sandstone the Central Citadel was made of, surrounding my city and the way the sun reflected of the sand and stone in a magic like embrace. I looked up and saw the night sky, clearer and more open than I had ever seen it before, chasing away the last yellow, orange, and red vestiges of the daylight. It made me silently mouth “woah” as I comprehended it all.
Yet, all good things tend to come to an end too fast, or too fast for my liking, and we were landing in the Central Citadel’s roost doors and I was being shoved into one of the high cells. The high cells were basically cages that hung slightly over the precipice of the Central Citadel and would make most ponies piss themselves at the thought of such “torture”. I did piss, but through the bars of my prison and over the edge of the Central Citadel as the guards and the beautiful heroine got the arrest papers and accusations together.
As I was trying to see how far away and where my piss would actually land, the beautiful heroine and her compadres started to ask me questions.
“What’s your name?” one of the pegasi asked.
“Deft Hooves.” I answered, still trying to find out where the stream would have gone in the fading daylight.
“Why were you stealing?”
I gave the guard an incredulous look. “You bucking kidding me? Do I look like a noble? Do I look like a hero?”
“Hardly.” The mare answered harshly, making me smile once more.
“Don’t you ever forget that either, lovely. I ain’t a hero.”
“Ahem.” One of the guards said, clearly trying to get the questioning back on track.
“Who were the two with you?”
“My brothers, but don’t worry. They’re just urchins like me, so you won’t ever find them.”
“Where do you live?”
“In the gutters of course!” I answered with a smile.
One guard turned to the other. “We’re not going to get any information out of this one about the urchin dens. Buck this, let’s just go get some chow.” The other guard raised a questioning eye to the heroine who just nodded grimly.
“I’ll stay here and try to get a few more answers out of him.”
“Aye, Miss. Star.” They said as they left.
I waited until the door closed behind them and then it was just me, her, the open night sky, and a cage that barred me from what I really wanted to do.
“Your last name is Star? Like the Noble Clan?” I asked with true interest.
She frowned at my questions, but answered them nonetheless “Yes. I am Siren Star, daughter of Seris Dawnbirth and Silvarion Star. I am current heiress to the Star line and am also one who is vying to be the heroine of the city. I can only hope by the grace of the gods that I am worthy.”
I looked away from her an out to the city, now bathed in the darkness of night. I was silent for a moment as I looked over the different districts that grew from the Central Citadel. Closest to the Citadel and lining the main roads and gates into the city were the Rich and Middle class Districts, while my home and the homes of many others like me, were pushed to the sides of the walls, along the great snaking river, and in between the main roads and the districts of the wealthy. A thought suddenly occurred to me and I spoke, breaking the silence of the night.
“Strange, how different our backgrounds are. Hell, earlier today, I would have hated you just the same as any other scummy. But, I know we share the same gods, and the same love-which is more important-so I don’t really care anymore.”
“Stop! Just stop it!” Siren suddenly yelled at me. I was jolted as my cage shook and I snapped my head to the direction of her voice. She was up against my cage and her face was a mask of anger.
“Stop talking about…about kissing me and loving me! You don’t even know me!” she screamed, frustration and confusion streaking across her face.
“Psssht. Buck that shit. I said I love you, so I love you.” I answered back, only making her shake the cage even more. However, I didn’t flinch this time. I kept my eyes locked on hers and let her shake the cage until she was out of breath and I was still sitting there staring into her eyes.
“I’m serious.”
She looked away and sighed, sitting down next to the cage. All was quiet for a moment, but then I heard her speak in a small voice.
“Why did you kiss me? I’m supposed to kiss Lords and Princes. I’m supposed to marry Kings and Emperors if I don’t become the heroine. I mean, this should have never happened.” She said, turning to me with confusion and tears in her eyes.
“Why did you kiss me?”
The sound of her voice almost broke my heart and I knew the answer was the one I had been saying for as long as we talked.
“In that moment, right when I looked into your eyes, when we were both tired and you…well,” I stammered, “it’s hard to explain. I just knew then and there that I loved you.”
“I know what the punishment is for stealing, and the punishment for attacking the City Guard, and also the punishment for attacking you, a heroine, so I know that my chances don’t look to great. At least by…by kissing you, I know I’ll at least feel pretty happy when the executioner comes a knocking.”
Siren started to say something, mushy and all feely no doubt, but I cut her off.
“Plus, you’re really pretty. Pretty bucking gorgeous. And I really, really, really wanted to kiss you, so if you want to ask why, just know the answer is ‘why not?’”
Siren snorted and then was quiet for a moment.
“You’re overly cocky, you know that?” she said with smirk on her face, the first of which I had ever seen and the first of which almost melted my heart into a fiery puddle.
“I’m a dead pony. I’m allowed to be. Oh, and don’t do that again.”
“What?” she asked.
“The smirk. You almost became my executioner.”
Her laugh sped across the night sky like a shooting star and warmed me up faster that if I were burning up in the atmosphere. I sighed and laid on the bottom of my cell, so happy I could just die right there.
“I think I should get going.” She said after a while of sitting there in silence with me. “It’s getting dark and unless you want to give me some better answers, I have to get back to the heroine barracks.”
“Siren?” I said as I heard her steel armor gently scrape against itself as she got up and the door creak open just a few seconds later.
“Yes?”
“Goodnight. If I die tomorrow, I want you to know I really love you.”
Siren was quiet for a second as she digested my words.
“Goodnight Deft. I hope you’re not dead tomorrow. Tonight was fu…eventful.” She said, closing the door behind her and leaving me to my thoughts.
The feeling of warmth and content seeped away from me as the cold night winds and the realization of the punishment that would be enforced from my actions chilled my soul. If I had just gone quietly in the first place, after I had just stolen the produce, I would have to give it back and maybe loose a hoof. If I stopped after attacking the city guard, I’d probably get away with just a hoof chopped off, my cutie mark being branded over, and probably exile from Oattara. Not impossible to live a happy, long life afterwards.
But after attacking Siren…my destiny was set.
“Awww, man. Shit, shit, shit, shit!” I said to myself as I pounded a hoof against the metal bars that comprised my cell. It was all going to end tomorrow. What were these sixteen years’ worth? Anything? Something? And what a way to go. Getting caught at what I do best. What a failure. And maybe the family would miss me for a while, but the newborns and the new orphans would take the attention off of one of the many the family had lost over the years. So what the hell was this all for?
I thought about it long and hard, until the winds picked up and shook me and the cage around so fast I saw the stars above me spin in circles. But as hard as I thought, I couldn’t make out why this had happened. The only conclusion that I could come up with was that this whole venture had just been to find Siren, a pony I truly loved, and then escape and…then more events would follow. Hopefully. If not, if I died tomorrow, well, at least I could say I found Siren.
With that thought, I fell asleep. It wasn’t an uneasy sleep, but it sure as hell wasn’t comfortable either.
“Wake up Deft Hooves. It’s time.”
“Adjhfdiuaiuhfjbeiubaubdjjhatypingjibberjaber.” I said confused and bleary from sleep as the door of my cage opened and I was dragged roughly from it and into the entry room of the Central Citadel. I was dragged to my hooves by two strong legs under me and then was pushed through a door and sandwiched behind hulking pegasi 1 and in front of hulking pegasi 2, or the two guards from the night before.
Any rose is just as rosey by any other name, so the hulking pegasi twins led me down staircase after staircase after staircase until we came out into a room with a large winch and a heavy metal bucket.
“Oh no.” I said as they shoved me into the bucket and then started to operate the winch, knowing I wouldn’t try to jump from the bucket as it lowered me what seemed millions of feet. But then again, they probably didn’t care if I jumped out or not. Anyway, I landed after maybe an hour-judging from how much sun was in the sky when I started out from my cell and how much sun was up now-and I was “helped” out of the bucket by even more guards. Though this time, they were a hulking earth pony and a hulking unicorn.
I wondered if all they ate were steroids as they left me down even more stairs and then through a labyrinth of corridors and corners. Yet, I remembered every turn and twist and every step we took until we passed through an ornate glass door and we walked into the Chamber of the Lords.
Oattara is a strange city by many means, but in terms of the N.E.E, it was even stranger. This was because the Great Empress Twilight Sparkle the Second allowed for Oattara to keep its original form of government: an Oligarchy of the various merchant Kings and Ancient Clan Houses, simply call the Council of the Lords. In this room, the Chamber of the Lords, they met to hammer out the needs of the city, which meant the needs of the wealthy who could afford it and the slaying of poor criminals. Guess which one I was.
The Council of the Lords sat in different thrones in a semi-circle that was raised in front of a large sand-filled arena that could serve as a place for games, fighting, plays, entertainment, and executions. Behind them in similar levels rose seats for the wealthy who were not as prestigious as the Lords themselves, but garnered some pull or control of a family or resource or a trading deal. The Hero candidates and Heroines also had seating and I could see many were here awaiting some entertainment between training. All the faces looked on at me in boredom, except for one. Except for one mare with a silver coat and a dark brown mane. She wore a mask of worry. I loved to see her, but I didn’t want to see her like that. Not now.
I was led to the Chairpony of the Council, thrown down onto my knees, and I saw that the Chairpony had a familiar pair of emerald-green eyes, even though his coat was a shining gold and his mane was an angry argent. All in all, he looked like wealth if it were alive. He wore a pendant of an eight sided starburst and I knew whose father he was.
“Deft Hooves. You have been charged with various accounts of theft, assault on innocent civilians, helping and assisting in crimes, assaulting city guards, and assaulting a heroine candidate. What say you?”
“I can see where Siren gets her fierceness and those pretty green eyes. Is it ok if I marry her?” I asked, bluffing smoothness when my consciousness screamed “HOLY SHIT BALLS! YOU GONNA DIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
Murmuring broke out in the Heroes and Heroines seating and some chuckling from the Lords. I looked up and saw one mare had started blushing again and wore a small smile this time. I do love it when she blushes. Not to mention that smile almost saved the executioner a grisly job right there.
However, her father did not approve of what I said half as much as his daughter did. He looked at me shocked for a moment, cast his eyes over towards where Siren sat, and then back to me. This time, his eyes were truly emeralds, just as green and just as hard.
“You can talk to me about my daughter after this proceeding. If you survive. How do you plead to these charges, Deft Hooves?” he spat.
I thought long and hard, knowing there was only one answer. However, I tried to think my way out of this situation. I didn’t have a chance if I was held against the Council in a trial and I didn’t have money to pay my way out of this, so there was only one path left to escape.
“I think you already know that answer, Chairpony. But, before any trial is conducted, I wanna do this by combat.” I said, making a gasp and a buzz of whispers go through the circling rows of the elite. I saw Siren’s face go ashen and I gave her a smile that was ten times braver than I truly felt.
“Deft Hooves, there has not been a trial by combat since before the rule of the New Equestrian Empire. What you ask for is outdated and foolish.” The Chairpony stated, a little surprise in his voice.
“I’m not the Fallen Star, that much is true, but that doesn’t mean I’m not allowed to fight like him. Everypony knows his story and the story of his fight. Let me try to match it.”
The Chairpony looked to his other council members with a torn expression. They quickly conferred for me though.
“Let him fight. It is interesting to see such a…spirited young stallion in this day and age.” Said one skinny mare with sharp eyes. She looked at me with a strange hunger and when she smiled I could see her teeth were filed to points. I repressed the shudder she gave me.
“Yes, it is always good to have entertainment before breakfast. It whets the appetite.” A massively fat stallion said from his reclining throne/bed.
“If anything, it will be good training for the heroes and heroines. They can all learn from a good match.” The Chairpony’s right had Councilor said.
“Fine. All those in favor of a battle to the death…”
Almost every Council member’s hooves went up into the air.
“It is settled then.” He said before turning to the stands, the heroes and heroines seating in particular. “Glaive Morninglight. This battle is yours.”
A toughly built stallion stood from his friends in the stands. He was taller than me and looked three times as big and just as mean. “It would be my honor.” He said as he stomped down the steps to the arena. I gulped when he jumped from the stands to the arena sands, barely flinching as his heavy steel armor clattered around him. He looked at me with ice-blue eyes and his shock of black hair seemed to frame the anger he had in his face.
“Shit.” I said under my breath.
“Choose your weapon, scum.” He yelled to me from across the arena. He was trying to intimidate me as he drew his magnificent long sword.
“The best we had in the alleys were nothing but shoddily made daggers. I’ll fight with one of those.” I replied.
Morninglight snorted, but unsheathed his dagger and tossed at sand in front of me. I picked it up shakily in my mouth, something I tried not to do often in a knife fight, and readied myself as I saw my executioner ready himself.
But, the gods decided that I would not die here.
A messenger came bursting in through the doors of the Chamber of the Lords and screamed out a single message that made me smile, because I was saved, but my heart became ice as I wondered what it meant.
This story is a fan-fiction of MLP:FiM. I don't own any of it. It belongs to Hasbro, etc, etc. Don't sue. Seriously. That would be so uncouth.
Doombringers
“Doom! Doom is here!” the messenger repeated in a high shrill voice as two heavily armored stallions walked into the room behind him. One wore a smirk caused only by power and cockiness and the other was a mask of indifference.
“Hardly,” snorted the smirking stallion, a massive creature with a brilliant orange coat and two toned mane like my own, only it was red and grey. His violet eyes were what stunned me though, as they carried so much hatred within them. He wore a suit of rusted steel armor, stained with the blood of old foes and the rust of a million battles.
His companion wore black steel that matched his coat and night-black mane. I looked into his eyes and not only saw my own, as his were the same ruby red, but also saw thing that made me shudder and also hold my breath.
“I am not Doom, nor is my compatriot here.” The stallion said as he pointed to himself and his friend, who seemed to be made of shadows as they walked side by side between our fight and up to the Chairpony of the Council.
“However,” he continued with an intense anger in his eyes, “that doesn’t mean that you’re off scott-free. I am Destruction, one of the Generals of Doom’s army. The night-daemon beside me is Fear, another one of Doom’s Generals.” He said with a haughty smirk before flourishing to all those watching.
“We have come here because we know of your prophecy.” He said, his voice increasing in volume. “So where is your Hero? Where is the pony that will stop Doom? Because Doom will befall Oattara, make no mistake. The only thing you can do is surrender before we have to slaughter you all.”
“Or have our Hero stop you.” Glaive Moringlight said, glaring at the General with maliciousness. I had to give it to the pony, he had bits. But I wasn’t stupid. I slunk off to the side of the arena and clambered up into the stands as the two had an eloquent battle of words and wits, I’m sure. I basically just found Siren, gave her a kiss, and sat down next to her as everypony’s attention was on the arena.
“So this is your chosen Hero?” Destruction laughed at Morninglight and the Chairpony.
“Yes, and I will defeat you here. Then your friend. Then Doom himself.” The younger stallion barked.
Destruction boomed with laughter. “You won’t beat me, nor would you ever be able to beat Fear. Doom would have you spitted and feasted upon in instants. But if this is the best of Oattara, then ready him for his death.”
Fear and Destruction walked to one end of the arena. Destruction pulled his massive war hammer from his back and hefted it around as if it weighed nothing. Fear stood by first staring at Morninglight and then at me for some reason, before the Gauntlet was brought out.
The Chairpony must have said something about bringing it out, because as the gauntlet was brought to Morninglight, a silence rushed over all those in the chamber. From where I saw it, it didn’t look like much, other than a simple gauntlet made of dry, river clay. Yet, the light of the mixed jewel on it shone like the desert sun.
The gauntlet seemed ill-fitting, but Morninglight put it on his left hoof anyway, donned a steel helmet that looked like the sun, and approached the angry General with his long sword in between his teeth.
“Ready, Hero?” the General asked.
“Let us begin.” Morninglight replied.
Destruction shouted so loudly that I thought the Central Citadel would fall to pieces, but that didn’t dissuade Morninglight. He dove to the side as the war hammer came crashing down where he was standing mere seconds before. Morninglight stabbed at his opponent’s side, but the heavy, rusty steel did its job and Morninglight’s blade bounced away. Morninglight was thrown backwards as a heavy kick from Destruction hit him in the center of his chest, denting his steel armor. Barely parrying the war hammer with his blade, Morninglight sliced at Destruction’s joints with a Hero’s fury. A cheer went up from the crowd of the elite as we could see a line of blood come away from Destruction on Morninglight’s sword.
“Ha!” Destruction laughed as he looked at the shallow cut that lined the inside of his leg’s joint. “So you are able to fight, eh? This will be FUN!” Destruction screamed, his eyes getting wider and seemingly more electric. He laughed as he charged and Morninglight’s blade peppered his head, neck, and exposed flesh with shallow cuts. With each cut, Destruction seemed to become more and livelier, until finally his war hammer was a blaze of death.
Finally, a sickening crunch and a shriek from the crowd told me the worst had come true. Morninglight flew away from Destruction and hit the wall beneath the Chairpony’s seat with another crunch. The whole left side of his armor was dented inward, so much so that the armor had torn and it could be seen digging into his flesh as blood seeped around the wound. Morninglight sat up with difficulty and coughed up a lot of blood as Destruction swaggered over to his prey, the predatory grin on his face all that was needed to say what would happen next.
“Any last words, Hero?” the General asked as he stood over Morninglight.
Morninglight rose his left hoof, the one that wore the Hero’s Gauntlet and he stared solidly into Destruction’s eyes. “Doom will die.” He said, scrunching up his face and yelling, the gem in the gauntlet shining brightly as he did so.
Everypony gasped, a mix of surprise and hope as the Hero’s Gauntlet gave Morninglight the power of the ancients and killed Destruction.
Not really.
The gasps of hope turned to silence as nothing happened and Morninglight looked at the gauntlet with fear and despair. “Why?” he asked as we all saw the fear on his face multiply while he looked at the gauntlet.
“Come on!” he shrieked, shrill and cowardly, shaking the gauntlet and his left hoof, trying to make something happen. Instead, the gauntlet’s lighted jewel went out and Morninglight started to freak out.
Until he saw Destruction standing above him with his war hammer and an evil smile.
“Buck.” Morninglight said as he wet himself.
The hammer came down and smashed into Morninglight’s skull, making a spray of bloody and meaty pulp that coated the face of the Chairpony above the dead Hero and the victorious villain.
“Is that all Oattara’s magnificent Hero had?” Destruction said as he turned to the crowd, his face a daemon’s mask of vicious victory and gore.
“No.” Siren said quietly. She started to stand and my soul chilled with horror as I knew what she was going to do. I had to act, and act quickly.
“HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!” I laughed loudly, making Siren look at me and stay where she was sitting, along with the rest of the room. “DID YOU SEE HIS FACE? AND THEN HOW HE DIED? IT WAS ALL LIKE ‘PBTHHHHH’! HAHAHAHAHAHA!” I laughed.
Soon another’s laughter joined my own. It was none other than Destruction.
“It was quite amusing.” Destruction agreed. “But why do you laugh? Were you not comrades?”
“Me? Oh no. I am no hero.” I told him truthfully. “But, I’m not stupid like them.”
“What do you mean?” Destruction asked, his smile fading.
“Well first off, I wouldn’t die. Nor would you be alive.” I replied. “Even more so, you’d be the one pissing yourself as you died.”
“Do you wish to put any truth to your words, scum?” Destruction asked me with an angry snarl.
“Everypony seems to know my name, don’t they?” I asked the ponies around me. “Oh well, I guess this scum will have to do the Hero’s job yet again.”
I started to clamber down the steps before Siren could grab me and I jumped into the arena. My heart was hammering at a million miles an hour, but I calmly walked over to the fallen body of Morninglight. I tore a few strips of leather binding from his blood-soaked armor and tied the dagger he had thrown at me to my right leg. I flexed the limb and cut the blade through the air in an eight as I did before any of the knife fights in the alleys. Destruction just looked on with a bemused smile.
“What foolishness is this?” he asked me. “You will kill ME with naught but a dagger? BAH! Your death will be even more shameful than his.” He said with a point of his war hammer to the body of Morninglight.
I tapped my chin. “I guess you’re right. I think I should have something more.” I said, looking over his body as my mind raced. There was no way Morninglight’s armor would fit me. Even if it did, it was broken and it would weigh me down and make me move like a fool. But a little protection would have been better than nothing.
No.
I shook my head as I thought I heard something and decided against using any armor whatsoever. I was an alley-cat and like an alley-cat would fight. However, the Hero’s Gauntlet did look quite nice on the corpse’s leg and my inner thief kicked in. I deftly swiped it from the dead body of Morninglight and put it on my own left hoof. It felt strange, like I put a clay pot on my hoof, but I could feel a magical warmth coming from it, like the lamps the Magi sold in the Street of Spells. If I was going to go out, I might as well embrace my nature as I did.
I returned the vicious smile that Destruction gave me and tensed up.
“Are you ready to die?” he asked me.
“Hell no. Are you?” I asked back and he charged at me with a fearsome shout.
I freaked out and ran away from him quickly, barely missing a sweep of the war hammer as it sailed over my head in a killing blow. He came at me again, aiming the war hammer in a destructive downward strike, the same that killed Morninglight, and again, I almost died. I dove to the right, hit a wall, and rebounded as the wall exploded around me from a massive blow from the war hammer. I panted and chomped down on my fear as Destruction struggled to pull the hammer from the wall. I saw this as my chance and ran at his unprotected back, my dagger raised.
A quick and heavy buck sent me sailing through the air and into the wall on the opposite end of the arena. “Buck” I said as I rose and the room spun. “Double Buck” I said as I saw three Destructions coming at me with a massive war hammer and an angry look. I dodged to the left, rolled back, dodged right, and jumped away from his swings, making him angrier and angrier with each miss. Luckily, I had no heavy armor to hinder me, so as his breathing started to become labored, I was fine. Well, despite the hit I had taken earlier, but the room stopped spinning so I was fine.
Until he caught me again with a hoof strike. He managed to get his war hammer stuck in the wall yet again, so I tried the same trick, only from below him. I rolled under his legs and gave him a slice on his snout, rolling away again as he came down in a double-hoofed strike. His rage was palpable as he charged at me, leaving his war hammer behind him and coming at me unarmed. For a moment, I thought I had the upperhoof, being armed and all. But then he was on me and I was slashing as furiously as I could. Out of the chaos, my right leg was caught in a grip that almost tore it free and I was hefted into the air.
Destruction snarled as he broke my right leg and led me by it. Laughing and growling as he pummeled my body over and over. At first the pain made me shriek, but soon I didn’t feel it and I knew that I was going to die. I didn’t try to fight it, nor did I really want to. I was too scared to and I knew that if I died here, I would have to deal with this fear any more.
But two things made me fight back. My hearing came back from the numbness I felt and suddenly pain exploded across my body as Destruction hit me once more and then stopped. I heard Siren’s voice, but not what she said.
Destruction laughed and snarled his response to her. “After I kill this hero here, you’ll be next.”
That sent me over the edge and I felt a pain that I never knew before. Rage, anger, and pain mixed inside of me and I screamed at Destruction, making him step back from shock.
“I AM NOT A HERO!” I yelled, my pain filled body rising from the sand, the anger filling me, the pain filling my left leg as the rest of it slowly faded away. I looked down at my left leg and saw that the Gauntlet’s gem had once again lit, but this time the light was shimmering. Even stranger, the clay now was thriving with veins that pulsed with power and magic. Around the gauntlet and my body, sand was creeping into every wound I had and a dark light poured from my cutie mark, the seven pointed star.
I looked away from myself and saw Destruction running away from me in fear, grabbing his war hammer and charging at me with all his fear, anger, and strength. His hammer came sailing down towards me, ready to crush, ready to kill, thirsty to destroy Siren after me. I would not let that happen.
The hammer came down and I rose my leg.
The hammer seemed to melt around the Gauntlet and the bending of it ripped it from Destruction’s mouth. His weapon was gone.
“I yield! I yield!” he said, his eyes wide with shock and fear.
“I don’t.” I said as I moved faster than a dust devil and climbed up his back. My dagger gave his frowning face a happy smile of red right below his chin. A smile that would lead him into eternity.
The bloody sand at my hooves made me pant and realize how strange I felt right now. I was tired, so tired, but I also felt this power coursing through me from the Gauntlet. It was like I could fight a million more Destructions, but there was no way I would want to.
I turned to look at Fear. His ruby red eyes were locked onto mine and we shared some silent word. I would kill him if he came at me. He knew this, but his eyes told me he was not afraid of death. Yet, he closed his eyes, turned, and walked out of the Chamber in silence. I stayed in the sand and sat down panting.
“Hey Chairpony.”
“Yes?” he answered, clearly scared by me and the power I held.
“I was thinking a June wedding. Nice and fun though. Not too much fancy shit.” I said tiredly as I laid down on my back.
Siren’s voice rose a cheer and soon the whole Chamber was celebrating while I closed my eyes and slept. The sand was warm, relaxing, and strangely comforting.
This story is a fan-fiction of MLP:FiM. I don't own any of it. It belongs to Hasbro, etc, etc. Don't sue. Seriously. That would be so uncouth.
A Celebration of Fear
I awoke in a lavish bed in a room that overlooked the entire city. The sun was beginning to set, telling me I had slept for quite a long time, but that could be expected after fighting a powerful and insane General of an army that was out to invade my home. I stared up at the ceiling of the room and put my hooves behind my head only to pull my left leg out again and thrust it up into the air as I felt something strange on it.
I was surprised to find the Hero’s Gauntlet was still on my leg. I tried to pull it off of me, but it stayed on tight. I tried harder, pulling it even more, until I felt a pain coming from my leg. I stopped and took a closer look at the Gauntlet. I remembered that the jewel had started flashing as I used it in our fight and how the Gauntlet had suddenly sprouted grotesque veins across its normally pristine surface. I observed it even closer and saw it had the same veins all over it and that they were slowly pulsating.
To my pulse.
I shuddered as I realized that the Hero’s Gauntlet was now…a part of me. I was never supposed to be a hero, I would never be a hero, but the Gauntlet didn’t care. I sighed as I knew what this would mean. I’d have to fight more monsters like Destruction.
The door of the room opened and I rose my head from the plush pillows and warm covers to see a pretty pegasi mare come into my dimly lit room. She wasn’t wearing her armor and her silver coat was lustrous in the escaping daylight from the windows of the room. A match blazed to life and Siren rose to the ceiling, lighting a large candelabra that hung from the ceiling. The room was soon filled with a warm light that made Siren look even more resplendent.
Until now, Siren’s flank had been covered by her armor I always saw her in, but now I got a lovely view of her. Not only did I enjoy looking at her flank like the pervert I was, but I also saw her cutie mark, a hilt of a sword with wings sprouting from it. She also wore an identical pendant to her father, a dark eight sided starburst made of the rarest of all metals found in the desert and the lifeblood of the Star family; meteorite.
The Star clan was well known throughout Oattara. Ever since the Sand Ponies left Oattara in the Ancient times, the Star clan became the rulers and most respected of all the Clans and Lords of the city. For anyone who lived in the gutters like I did, having the last name Star was a dream that fueled the imaginations of fillies and foals. I the realization that I was in a room with Siren Star and that I had kissed her and made advances (repeatedly) to a member of the Star clan seemed to zap my wits back from day dreaming about her flank.
“Good evening, Deft.” She said to me with a small smile.
“Good evening yourself.” I replied. “Can I assume I’m not on death row anymore?”
“Yes, you stupid stupid idiot.” Siren laughed. “Do you know what’s going on below?”
“Of course I do! It’s not like I’ve been in bed all day.” I replied sarcastically.
“There’s going to be a large feast in your honor.” Siren said as she sat on the edge of the bed. “All the elite of the city will be there and I can tell you that you will be making a few enemies tonight, simply because you exist.” She said solemnly.
“I’ll deal with it.” I told her as stretched.
She wrinkled her nose. “When was the last time you bathed?”
I felt my face turn a dark shade of red. “Two weeks ago.” I mumbled. Of course a high-class mare like her would be used to perfumy, clean stallions.
She pointed towards another door in the side of the bedroom across from the bed. It was recessed into the wall, so I didn’t see it when the room was filled with shadows. “Go in there and grab a towel and brush. Then follow me.” she told me.
I did as she said, grabbing a thick towel and short bristle brush, and I followed her out of the bedroom and down a hall. My hooves clip-clopped on the warm sandstone underneath and after a few minutes of walking and mostly right turns, we stood outside two large doors in what felt like the center of the Central Citadel.
“There should be everything you need inside to clean yourself. I’ll see if I can’t get somepony to come wait on you while I go and finish some preparations for you at the celebratory feast. After you are clean, just have your attendant come get me.” Siren told me before she started to walk away.
“Thank you Siren.”
“I’ll return that thanks when you don’t smell as if you’ve been rolling around blood.”
“Can’t handle the stink of the sewers? You are a noble, born and bred.” I replied, smarmily.
“And you’re an alley-cat, born and stinking.” She returned it with a smirk.
I shook my head and walked in through the double doors. Inside was another room, only this one was made of tiles and had small clay bottles on shelves before another pair of heavy doors. I opened up a small vial and smelled what was in it and found out it was the oils that the wealthy put in their mane. I put it back on the shelf and went through the doors. Steam poured out of the room filling my vision and making the room completely white for a moment. I walked in and found the floor to be the same tiles, but in the middle of the room was a large recessed bath, much like the public ones down in the poor districts, but this one was filled with warm water. I threw my towel and brush down at the side of the bath and jumped in, letting the warm water cover me and cascade over my shoulders as I rose from the water and sat down near the side of the bath. I sighed and relaxed, wondering how rich you had to be to have one of these.
I felt relaxed and warm, but after a while I started to feel like I would fall asleep again. How could the rich spend so much time in places like this? I decided to get to work and scrub down so I would look-and smell-presentable for the rich folks. I felt better after a good couple of minutes of scrubbing grime and dirt away but I felt a little sick as some of the dirt came away red with blood. After checking myself for wounds, I realized it wasn’t my blood. This was Destruction’s last strike at me. I pulled myself out of the water and threw up on the tiles near the bath.
“Are you alright, Hero?” asked a worried voice as I heard quick hoof-steps hurry towards me. I wiped the bile from my mouth and saw the voice belonged to a unicorn stallion that looked a little younger than me, but was also a little taller and heavier. His tan coat smelled of a very fragrant spice and his shocking teal mane and tail were combed neatly and his magenta eye were full of concern. His cutie mark was what looked like a barber’s blade and he stooped down to help me to my hooves, away from the vomit and the water.
“I’m not a hero.” I told him sternly and he shrunk back.
“Are you alright then?” he asked.
“Yeah, just, ah, too much time in the water.” I said. “I just need to get out for a moment.”
“Understood sir. I will clean up this mess and then I will be along to wash your mane and brush your coat.” He said with a nod and a smile.
“What the buck are you talking about?” I asked him with a raised eyebrow.
He looked appalled at my language. “My name is Blade number Five, sir. I am a personal attendant to the Chairpony. It is an honor to have my Mistress command me to serve you. If you would be so kind, I would gladly take care of washing your mane and grooming your coat.”
“You’re a slave.” I said with a sudden realization. “So your Mistress is Siren?” I asked, not knowing she owned slaves. All my life, I had seen slaves doing errands for their various Lordly masters and the rule of hoof was to never mess with them. They might be enslaved, but they were educated and property of the rich. Unless you wanted to start a fight with the master, you didn’t bother the slave whatsoever.
“Yes sir. If it pleases you, take a short walk around the bath. This often happens to those who stay in the waters for too long; not enough movement causes it. I will be at your beck in just a moment Her…sir.” He said with another smile and he was off fetching another towel to clean up my mess.
I did as he suggested and gave the silence a moment to think about this predicament.
Well, for starters, I was with yet another person of a social class that I was never supposed to have interacted with before. But I guess if I hadn’t already broken through that hurdle then I wouldn’t be here.
Secondly, I didn’t really like the whole concept of slavery. In the alleys, we had always gotten at least an escaped slave once or twice a year. They always came to us with stories of torment, torture, and pain. I also knew some other alley-cats that went and sold themselves in the flesh markets in the rich districts and became slaves. Those ones I didn’t understand the most. True, being a slave would keep you fed, warm on cold nights, and let you sup with the rich. But it also meant giving up one of the only things we poor could truly call our own: our freedom. We weren’t hampered down by any commitment other than those we put upon ourselves. We could go and do anything we wanted, as long as we weren’t caught. Slavery…slavery was strange to me.
By the time I circled around the large bath, the puddle of bile was gone from the tiles and Blade Five was sitting at the edge of the bath with bottles of the oil and fragrances, my brush and towel, a pair of scissors, and a small bucket. He rose and greeted me with a smile.
“If it pleases you, sir, would you sit in the tub once more so I can make sure your mane is washed?”
“You can drop the ‘sir’ thing. I’m scum, remember? Did you see what happened to Destruction?”
His face went white. “Yes, si…yes. It was quite brutal.”
“He called me ‘Hero’, another name I don’t want and don’t need. Deft Hooves is all the names I need.”
“Understood, Deft Hooves.” He said as I slipped back into the tub. The bucket levitated in a grasp of magenta magic and then dunked itself under water, rising back above my head.
“If you would close your eyes, Deft Hooves.” Blade said. I rolled my eyes at his formalities, but did as he asked. Warm water cascaded over my head and I felt my mane get brushed out and scrubbed. Then Blade added the oils and soaps to my mane and brushed it out, rinsing it out again and again until I could smell the smoky, incense like fragrance that Blade added to my mane.
“If you would not mind, Deft Hooves, I will cut your mane now.”
I started to turn in surprise, but the way he did his job made me calm and if he was cutting the manes of Lords and Kings, then maybe I was fine in his hooves. “Not frilly or anything. Just…trim it or something.” I told him. He agreed and soon the air was filled with the sound of blade on blade.
Eventually he asked me to dunk my head under water to rid myself of extra hair and I did so, making sure to rinse some of the fragrance out as well. Then I rose from the bath and he started to dry me off, surprising me.
“I can do that much, at least.” I said, taking the towel out of his magical grasp and I started to rub myself down. I yipped as I felt the brush on my withers and spun around to give Blade a scowl.
“I said, I can do that much.” I said between clenched teeth.
He just gave me a smile. “I believe you can, but don’t you think it would look better if I did it?”
I grit my teeth and glared at him. “Why you little…”
“Deft Hooves, I have been trained in such things since birth. I can assure you that I will do a better job than you.” He cut me off.
I snarled and got up in his face. “Don’t you tell me what to do. What the hell happened to that ‘if it pleases you’ stuff?”
He smiled back at me with a mischievous look in his eyes. “Mistress had told me that you would be belligerent, so it would be best to make fun of you as a distraction…”
“While I came around and held you in place while you get your coat brushed!” said a cherry mare’s voice as I went spinning and eventually was held upside down in a magical embrace.
“Hey! What are you doing! Let me go! Let me down!” I shrieked as Siren tied up my hooves with towels and then I was gingerly let back down onto the tiles. I tried to squirm away, but Siren simply stepped on the towels binding my hooves together and I couldn’t escape.
She smirked at me from above. “I thought you liked this sort of thing?” she said.
I returned the smile, if not a little hesitantly. “I normally would, love, but OH GODS GET AWAY FROM ME WITH THAT BRUSH!” I screamed at Blade as he came closer.
“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”
“I thought I told you nothing frilly.” I mumbled murderously at Blade number Five as we left the baths.
“I did only as my mistress asked.” Blade said with a hint of a grin on his face. I hissed at him and was about to punch him, but then Siren called my name.
“Yes?” I asked a little suspiciously, not entirely trusting her after the brushing incident. I suspected I had gotten some sort of trauma from that.
“Come with me.” she said with a nod to the right of the doors. “Blade, we will see you at the banquet.” She called to him.
He bowed to her. “It would be an honor, mistress.” He said before walking away in the opposite direction.
Siren led the way and started to talk, but I cut her off. “Never again.” I told her.
She laughed and said “You’ll need to get used to that if you’re going to be the Hero of Oattara.”
“I’m no hero.” I replied.
“You say that now,” she said, walking ahead of me and swishing her sail under my chin, “but did you know that Heroes can take any mare they want as a wife?”
I stopped short and started to laugh, only to canter over to Siren and stay next to her as we walked on down the hall and talked about the various members of the council I would have to meet and remember, her father being the most important, or at least in my mind.
We came to the grand hall too soon and my pulse jumped as I was thrown into a world I knew totally nothing about. The grand hall was, well, grand. Its vaulted ceiling filled with sculptures and glass to make it look like it was made of crystal, the dozens of columns carved like wildly enormous trees, and the cavernous space of it all truly was a sight for my lower-class eyes to behold.
“Come on.” Siren said, leading me by a hoof over to where the most elite of the elite sat, at a raised table with an open square in front of it so performers could entertain there. I started to balk and try to slow Siren down as we walked between the tables for the commoners, but Siren had thoughts of her own. She led me straight up to the dais, but stayed with me as I was introduced to all the nobles and they measured me with their words and wit.
I was feeling that I did pretty well for a poor street urchin, until Siren’s father came to me and introduced himself. He walked up to me with a commanding gait and gaze and looked me over with his harsh emerald eyes, the eyes that Siren first looked at me with when she thought I was nothing more than the poor trash I still truly am. He cleared his throat and started to speak in a refined, if not a deep, voice.
“I believe we have already met, Hero Deft Hooves.” He put up a hoof before I could get a word in. “Yes, I know you are not a Hero. That much could be seen today. That fight was far from elegant and our Heroes are taught a little thing called ‘mercy’ towards those who yield. No matter, the Gauntlet has chosen you whether I like it or not and I have no say in such things.”
“However, I do have say in who my daughter is marrying.”
“Huh?” I said stupidly.
He looked at me with eyes that were balls of green fury. “You told me today that you would marry my daughter. You are the Hero of Oattara so you may choose any bride you want, but, I don’t like you. So don’t you make me dislike you even more by saying all your boasting was for naught. Don’t you break my daughter’s heart.” He said viciously, his words scalding me with their fury.
“N…no sir. I love Siren.” I said truthfully, if not a little meekly.
He gazed down at me and snorted. “Quite. I can see that much in how you two look at each other. How old are you?”
“Sixteen.”
“Let’s hope you grow some by next June. It’s embarrassing if the Bride has to bend down to kiss the Groom. Now, let us sit and feast to your victory.” He said as he turned on a dime and strode towards the table.
I just stayed there burnt out by what he had told me until I felt a soft presence on my side. I jolted and saw it was Siren, flushed and smiling.
“Did he just…?” I asked in amazement.
“You asked for it to be in June.” She said before kissing me. I almost fainted right there and then, but I was pulled along in a haze to the table and I ate and watched the entertainment in a delirious veil of joy. The veil was only thickened when the wine was spread out and soon I was kissing Siren after each sip, her giggling at me, the jesters, and how her father loosened up and started to get along with me as the hours burned away.
Near the middle of the night, as the banquet started to turn into less of a feast and more of a drinking contest, the dancers in the middle of the floor, the cleared out square for entertainment shrieked. My drunken brain barely comprehended what was going on as a horn sprouted from one dancer’s middle and she was lifted into the air, struggling and screaming on what looked like the ghost of Destruction, only with a horn.
Her screams frightened many lords and servants who ran from the room, but the Council rose with me while four stallions came into sight. One I knew right away; the General called Fear. He stood off to the side of the other three silent and ever-watching. Another one was bulky and blue with a terrible predatory feel about him. His navy blue coat had a large dusky-yellow splotch around his fanged mouth, the same color as his blind eyes and the highlights in his pitch-black, greasy mane and tail. The other two, the unicorn who had gored the poor dancer and a pegasi looked exactly the same as Destruction did, only the pegasi had a large scar over his right eye, his eye that was ruby and gold. That one’s eyes sparkled with more than the fury and savagery that Destruction’s and the unicorn’s did. His eyes told of conquest and a never-ending bloodthirst. I knew he was Doom.
He stepped up to the dais and begun to talk. “’And they ran across the sands, away from their homes, to the barren desert that would show them no mercy, much like those invaders who had them ejected from their homes.’ Does that ring any bells?” he quoted to all of us, before nodding to Fear, who disappeared in a puff of black smoke, making somepony scream.
“I am Doom.” He told everyone with a twitch of his eye. “And I hate it when ponies try to run, and when they scream for no reason.” He said, glaring in the direction of the pony who had screamed.
“She will be the first to die. See to that Pain.” He commanded the blind blue stallion who smiled and showed off his fangs.
“Why? That is all I ask.” Said Silvarion Star to Doom, making him turn around and face him.
Doom just smiled wickedly and whistled. The unicorn who looked like a carbon copy of Destruction tossed his head down and the corpse of the dancer hurtled towards us, but Doom caught it in a hoof.
“Thank you Demise.” He said as he held the corpse’s head between his hooves. “This is why. The years of slaughter, the banishment, it will be repaid.” He said as he crushed the skull of the dancer between his hooves, covering both he and Silvarion in a mist of blood and brains.
Silvarion, to his awesome strength, raised a hoof and wiped the blood from his mouth. “And here I thought I had gotten sprayed with enough brains for one day. I guess I was mistaken.”
Doom chuckled and grasped the pendant around Silvaron’s neck lightly. “So, you are of the Star clan, which means you’re the Chairpony of the Council of Lords, yes?”
“Yes.” He answered.
“Where is the Hero of Oattara? The one who killed Destruction. The one who killed my brother.” He said as he yanked the pendant off of Silvarion’s neck.
“The Hero left after the battle. We knew you would be looking for him, so we exiled him.” Silvarion lied.
Doom stared dead into his eyes and then looked down the table evilly, but smiled sinisterly as he saw Siren. I gulped and pushed down the want to strike him as he came up to her and examined her pendant. She was holding as still as she could, but I could see her hoof drifting towards a knife on the table. I grabbed her other hoof in my hand under the table to stop her. It would do neither of us any good to die here.
“Another of the Star clan, Chairpony? She smells like you.” He said as he sniffed her mane. “Is she your child?”
“Why do you care?” I asked Doom. “The Hero is gone. Lord Star saw to that today after what he did.” I said with all the bravery I could.
Doom looked surprised to being talked to. So he slapped me. I was pushed from my chair and fell to the ground with the taste of blood in my mouth while Siren called my name and then I heard her choking. I wanted to get up and fight, but a look from Silvarion told me to stay on the ground, hiding the Gauntlet from these monsters. If they knew who I was, they would surely kill us all.
“Who is this whelp?” Doom demanded as held Siren aloft by her neck.
“He is Deft Silvertongue. My squire.” Silvarion said.
Doom grunted and threw Siren down beside me roughly and I heard a few bones in her delicate wing crack. She gasped, but I held her close as Doom started to laugh.
“Teach them some respect you foolish Chairpony.” He said with loathing in his voice before turning to me.
“To answer your insolent question though,squire, I care because you and your Chairpony are lying to me.” he said before pausing and then yelling “WHERE IS THE HERO?” into Silvarion’s face.
When Silvarion didn’t answer, Doom sighed and turned to his other brother, Demise.
“Send the signal.” He commanded with a wave of one hoof while the other went to his brow. “I just wanted this to go nice and easy, but noooo.”
Suddenly, the grand hall became even more crowded as Fear reappeared, but this time with a whole cohort of angry, villainous stallions who just reeked of bloodshed and fury. Screams went up in the air and Doom winced at each and every one of them.
“If you do not tell me where the Hero is right now,” Doom said between clenched teeth, “then the slaughter will start with those who screamed.”
“Fine, fine. Please, calm down.” Silvarion pleaded. “I’ll tell you where the Hero is.”
Doom smiled broadly, almost likeably. “There, was that so hard?” he asked. “Now where is he?”
Silvarion mumbled.
Doom wore a look of confusion and came closer to Silvarion. “Could you repeat that?”
“RIGHT HERE!” Silvarion screamed as he pulled a thin rapier out from a hidden chamber in his seat and the rest of the Council did the same with their own weapons and rushed at the soldiers, Generals, or in Silvarion’s case, punched Doom right in the face.
As Doom staggered back, Silvarion turned to me and yelled “GET HER OUT OF HERE! BLADE! PLAN THREE!”
Suddenly Blade was at our sides and helping us up. “Hurry,” he said as chaos erupted around us. “We can use this to escape. We need to get to your bedroom Mistress.”
“What?” Siren said, but Blade pushed her out a hidden door behind a large tapestry on the wall behind us and pulled me through, closing the door behind us. However, the heavy door didn’t block Doom’s shout of anger and then the command he issued after.
“FEAR! FIND THEM.”
The three of us looked at each other and then we ran. Blade led, but Siren and her long legs were right behind him. Luckily I was used to running from the law and other thugs in my home so I was able to follow right behind them.
We ran and ran and ran until we were out of breath and then sprinted up stairs and down corridors even after that. At some point we slowed to a walk and our haggard breathing and hoofsteps were all that we could hear. However, it seemed that we were close to Siren’s room so it was alright. Finally, we came to a hall filled with doors of hammered silver on each side.
“These are the Heroine’s quarters.” Siren explained as she opened up her room and slipped inside, Blade and I following her in. The room was Spartan. Besides a small wardrobe, armor rack, desk, chair, bed, and bookcase (with more books than I’d ever seen) there was nothing, or not as much as I thought a mare of her status would have.
“Now why did my father send us here?” she asked Blade as she went over to her armor rack and started putting each piece on, gasping as some of them touched her broken wing. I went over to her and helped her so she wouldn’t be in pain and she gave me a brave smile while Blade fooled around near her bed.
“Ah!” he said as he reached under the bed and hit something. Suddenly, the bed started to slide back into the wall as a secret staircase opened beneath the bed. Siren and I gasped as a small breeze flooded into the room. Our escape would be quick and then…well we’d figure that out afterwards. But right now, we needed to get out of here.
“This was one of the plans your father had in place if something ever happened.” Blade said cheerily. “It was strange, because sometimes he sounded as if he knew something like this would happen.”
“Let’s just go.” I said. “The longer…”
I was cut off by a black mist filling the room and then coming into existence in front of us as a large black pony with ruby red eyes. As with everything he did, he was silent. However, we were not. The three of us screamed as we charged at him, no weapons, no plans, just fight or die. Fear just rolled his eyes and suddenly darkness was all that we saw.
“AHHHHHH!!!!!” We screamed our war cries.
“Please be quiet.” A silken voice said and we quickly shut up as the darkness receded from our eyes and I saw where we were. I’m certain all of us were shocked at where we were, but I was the most amazed and scared. All of us were certain that we would be taken straight to Doom, but we were outside in the city, as we could see the Central Citadel off in the distance. What was even more shocking was that I knew exactly where we were. We were three alleys down from where the family met up three times a week to distribute stolen good and to just get together. No outsider would have known of this place.
“Who are you?” I asked him with wonder.
“And why did you do this?” Siren asked, her eyes slits.
Before he answered, one of his hooves shot out and grabbed Siren’s broken wing. She cried out and I was about to attack him, same as Blade, but Siren’s cry turned into a peal of laughter.
“Hahaha! That tickles!” she said as he removed his hoof and she flexed her wing.
“Amazing.” She whispered, fully comprehending what just happened. “You fixed it.”
Fear just nodded and then turned to me. Our ruby eyes met and I could see things in his eyes and I started to look away. Fear’s hoof shot up once more and he kept my gaze glued to his eyes. I saw glimpses of… of what seemed to be the future and it was no lie. I saw Fear kill Silvarion Star. I saw him lead his army not only into the city of Oattara, but to combat against the New Equestria Empire’s soldiers who came to claim Oattara back. I saw Oattara four years from now, even more derelict and depraved. And then I saw a whole horde of outlaws and marauders, bloodthirsty thieves, daemons and dragons invading the city. I saw Fear standing over our wounded and broken bodies along with Doom at the final battle. But I saw no more as I pulled away and threw up on the ground.
“This is part of what I can do.” Fear said calmly as he turned away from us. “You three have seen my other abilities. And now, I must leave. Go to the alley-witch, Deft Hooves. She will tell you what you need to know. Ask her eyes.”
“How do you know all this?” I said, wiping the bile from my mouth. “You may be able to see the future, Fear, but how do you know of me, the alley-witch, my home?”
Fear gave me a sad smile before glancing back to the Central Citadel. “Doom told me to find you, not to capture you. Plus, he should know where to find you: ‘No matter where you go, scum always flows back into the gutters.’” He said, quoting a common saying we gutter-dwellers had. Then he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “There is one last ability I have hidden from you. But now you will see it. I am sorry.”
He disappeared in a fall of shadows, leaving the three of us there, alone and wondering.
“He grew up here.” I said calmly, knowing only someone like me would know what to do in this place, where to go.
“Does that mean he’s our ally?” Blade asked hopefully.
“I…I don’t think so, but I can’t be sure.” I replied, the visions of the future jumbling my mind.
“But then what did he mean about his ability? Was he apologizing for leaving us here?” Siren asked.
“I…”
I was cut off by Fear’s last ability. The Central Citadel shook violently as an arc of black light shot through the upper half of the tower and sliced in a diagonal and jagged cut. I faded away after a moment, but then the top half of the Citadel exploded, sending chunks of dangerous rock plummeting to the ground.
From where we were, the Citadel seemed to fall in slow motion, the shrapnel and debris that was once Oattara’s mighty tower just a terrible nightmare.
But the reverberations of the debris hitting the ground, plus the shrieks, screams, and fires that followed were no nightmare.
It was a living horror.
I could only hold Siren as she cried and Blade as we lost all feeling.
This story is a fan-fiction of MLP:FiM. I don't own any of it. It belongs to Hasbro, etc, etc. Don't sue. Seriously. That would be so uncouth.
The Hero’s Destiny
“Come on. We can’t stay here.” I consoled her as I tried to pick her up from the ground. Her armor however made me hiss under my breath. Blade helped me get Siren to her hooves, but she almost toppled over. I barely caught her before she started to cry again, leaning on me as we walked through the dirt-ridden halls of my scum-filled palace called the gutters. We were walking towards the east, the way of the rising sun, and I started to get worried at its sight. By now, Doom or his Generals must have sent out soldiers to find us. While Fear helped us earlier, I knew he would do no such thing twice in one night.
We had sat there in a numb heap as hours, scared citizens, and emotions passed us by. During that time, Siren must have cried enough tears to fill our life-giving river over with salt and despair. But during this time she also told us of herself.
Even at a young age, Siren Star had known of the strength and power of her Clan and knew that she must become the heroine of the city. She had worked day and night since she was a mere filly of six, learning the art of swordplay, the proper way to carry herself as a heroine and Lady of a powerful family, and how to strategize with the best of the advisors from the New Equestrian Empire.
However, through these years she saw her beloved grandfather, Chairpony of the Council of Lords before her father, wither away and die, only to see her mother-the only pony who ever understood her-die from the same sickness not two years after. She told me of her mother, her beautiful silver coat like her own and her dark black mane and bright blue eyes. Siren herself had inherited her mother’s coat and her wings, her mane being a combination of both her mother’s and father’s, but she was sad sometimes around her mother. She always seemed to be hesitant when action was needed and too gently. But Siren said she inherited this thinking, along with her beautiful eyes from her father.
She told me of the joy she discovered at eight when she got her cutie mark while she fought one of her swords masters in the skies above her family’s gardens, her mother sitting on the ground below in a wheelchair, wrapped in blankets and frailer than the dry kindling. Less than a week later, she was dead.
She told me of how she had fought for and earned her spot as one of the top heroine candidates while her father fought alongside her on the political battlefield, eventually both of them coming out on top and bonding even closer through their years of shared struggles and earning what they dreamed for.
She also told me of how she hated me when she first met me, I was just another dirty thief, something that she had learned to stop from age six.
She told me I made her heart race when I kissed her and talked to her about how much I loved her. Other foals and stallions had tried before, but none were as genuine as I was. When I fought Destruction, she almost leapt into the ring to save me, but almost fainted from relief when I killed him.
She said she resented me for being the one the Gauntlet had chosen. I didn’t work as hard as she had for as long as she had for it. Nor did I know what it meant to her, to her family, to Oattara and that I never would.
She cried on my shoulder and said she missed her father and hoped he had died quickly so Doom couldn’t torture him. She was too smart to keep a folly hope of him escaping and surviving. I didn’t tell her what I saw in Fear’s eyes.
She told me she loved me and that we should still get married.
And I told her we would be alright.
The walk the three of us made to Daemon’s strut was the longest and hardest I had ever known. Grief was palpable in the air and weighed heavily against my body, but I said we would be alright, so I kept walking. Siren was almost attached to me and Blade followed us no matter what, so we made it together, if not completely intact.
The alley-witch’s hut was large and somewhat menacing, but it was what gave Daemon’s Strut its strut. The other alley-cats knew that nopony was to bother her or harass each other around this magical place, so it was mostly peaceful, despite the evil-sounding name. It was only called that because legend had it that Daemon’s the Sand Ponies controlled lived here long ago. The alley-witch could be considered a daemon, because of her jet black coat, her aged grey-white mane, and the dirty rags that covered her blind eyes. But the real reason she could be called a daemon was because of that she seemed to know each and every problem you had, along with always knowing if somepony was sneaking up on her or trying to steal from her. But even more importantly, her predictions were always right.
We entered the alley-encompassing hut and I strode past piles and patch-work furniture that served as a place to entertain guests and went straight past the stereotypical beads that separated that “room” from her kitchen. Inside of the kitchen, shelves that were bolted into the walls of the alley were filled with strange herbs and ingredients while a massive cauldron sat over an open flame. The alley-witch stirred it and smiled as she dipped a chipped mug into the broth. She came over to her beat-up table, pointed to the chairs that had been pulled out and the three mugs set in front of them. We sat. As did she. The parley began.
“If you may, what is this?” Blade balked, the pungent odor of the brew steaming up from our mugs obviously making him queasy.
The alley-witch cackled and answered his question in an evil-croaky voice. “The brew, the brew, a pony stew! Skull of babe and eye of newt, blood of dragon, a human’s boot! A witch’s food and magical brew! You will drink, if you know what’s good for you!”
Blade paled, but I just sighed and felt a little happiness creeping back into me. It was a good feeling.
“She’s just bucking with you. It’s just really bad smelling sage tea.” I told Blade with a smile.
The alley-witch smiled broadly. “Ruining my fun, I see.” She replied with her normal, dusky voice. “Well actually I don’t see. I’m blind!” she said laughing into her tea before sipping some. I picked up my own cup, but looked over to my right to see how Siren was doing. She sat there with a few tears running down her face, just holding her cup.
“Drink up dearie. Little Silver will need a mother who is strong and healthy.” The alley-witch said to her.
Siren looked up in confusion. “Who is Silver?”
“Your child of course!” the alley-witch cackled before realizing the hut was silent.
“Well shit.” She said to the readers. “Sorry for the spoilers.”
“She sometimes sees a little too far ahead and mistakes on one meeting for another.” I commented, hopefully clearing up any confusion in Siren’s, Blade’s, and your mind.
“Wait!” Siren said quickly, a blush creeping to her cheeks. “I’m going to be a mother?”
“Ehhhhhhhhh, sure.” The alley-witch said, slurping some tea nice and loudly to keep Siren from talking.
“DEFT!” she shouted. “What do you want?”
“You should know already.” I replied leaning my hooves onto the table.
The alley-witch smacked me upside the head. “What did I tell you about putting hooves on my furniture? But I already gave enough spoilers out for one day, so just tell me for once without me trying to bucking look through all of time and space for you.”
“I need to see your eyes.” I said.
The witch drank some tea and looked at me solemnly. “So it’s time for that. Do you have the Hero’s Gauntlet yet?”
“Yes.”
“How about the Ebonedge?”
“No…” I said looking to my friends in confusion.
“You will by the time we’re done here.” She answered. “But first…” she trailed off as her hooves rose to her eyes and started to untie her mask. As it fell to the table, the three of us gasped. Even though her eyes were visibly blind, they were also a dark, ruby red. The same as Doom’s one eye. The same as Fear’s eyes. The same as mine.
“What does this mean?” I asked her.
“It means you’re a wizard Ha…buck, wrong story. Wait a minute.” She said as she massaged her temples, closed her eyes and drank some tea.
“Ok,” she said after a long sip, “it means you are like me. It means you have the blood of the ancient Sand Ponies just as I do, and it also tells quite a lot about why you were chosen to be the Hero of Oattara. And yes, you ‘are no hero’, but it’s just a title, so bear with me.”
“Also, it means you will have to leave this place, you home to find those who would teach you.” She continued. Right after the three of us all started shouting, clamoring over how we couldn’t leave, we had people to save, blah, blah, blah. So she rolled her dead eyes and jumped up on the table.
“HIYAH! QUIET!” she shouted as she up-ended her now lukewarm tea all over our heads. Then she got down, refilled her cup, and came back to sit across from us.
“You will travel North and East to the small town of Saddle Hill, a resting place for Northern traders and villains of all sorts. There you will look for the Shaman who goes by the name of…” she paused for a sip of tea and dramatic effect, “Reginald, or Reggie to his friends. In that town you will learn what it means to be evil, a hero, and one of you will stay there for three years.”
“Why do we need to look for this Reggie?” I asked, wondering what kind of name that was.
“It’s a skater’s name.” the witch said, answering my thoughts. “But more importantly, he is the last pony to know where the Sand Ponies currently are. He may look just a bit older than you three, but he is older than even I am. It is said he knows the white shadow…but this is not for me to discuss. You will find out all you need to know from the Sand Ponies. The rest you will find out from me in just a few sentences, a paragraph or two. Maybe.”
I shrugged off her “sentences” comment and proceeded to ask her “Sand ponies? They’re still alive?!?”
“Yes, but don’t go sharing that all over. It’s very hush-hush don’tcha know?” she replied before standing up and stretching.
“This is going to be a drag.” She said, a little irritated. “It’s been such a long time since I fought truly. And this time, I don’t even have my eyes. If you dearies just sit tight, watch, and DON’T TRY TO FIGHT ALONG SIDE ME I promise you’ll all be fine. So just enjoy the tea and a show.” She said as three menacing stallions burst into the hut’s kitchen with their swords raised and their faces wearing bloody grins.
“I knew General Fear would find ‘em!” one of the stallions said as they pointed their swords at us.
“Oh good, it’s all for an explanation.” The witch sighed. “I hate fixed points in time.” She said as she disappeared in a puff of black smoke and a snap.
The three stallions jumped at the witchcraft and glared at us.
“Where did she go?” they asked us. We just shrugged our shoulders.
An audible “snap!” behind the stallions made them turn around and one of them got cut in two by the witch, who was now holding a wickedly curved sword in her mouth. It’s blade was curved like the crescent moon, but was darker than a moon-less night in the desert and from how easy it cut through the poor stallion, it was sharper than the strongest steel we knew.
Another snap and she was gone, only to reappear above us this time, flying through the air at the attackers and kicking one square in the chest. He toppled over, but swung his blade wildly and managed to knick the witch in one of her legs before she beheaded him. She dropped the sword, seemingly forgetting the last stallion, but shouted “DEFT, RIGHT LEG” as she surprised him with a double back buck that sent him stumbling towards me. I put out my right leg and he tripped over it, sending him backward into the cauldron full of tea.
The witch rose onto her two back legs and her face formed a mask of anger as she put her hooves together and the air became ripe with electricity. All of our manes stood on end while lighting shot from her hooves and into the cauldron, making the last stallion’s body jerk, dance, and then finally just smoke as the lightning crackled and faded away.
The witch walked over to her seat, picking up the sword on her way, and laid it on the table as she sat back down, panted for a bit, and then drank the rest of her tea. When she was done, she threw her cup at a wall and it shattered.
“Shit. There was enough tea in that cauldron to last for a week. And shit, throwing that cup was really uncalled for. Buck. This. Cut.” She said angrily.
“Harpy, Medusa, Siren-whatever the hell you name is-be a dear and get the brown pouch on the third shelf up and bring it to me. Blade, you go find me some clean rags. They should be somewhere near the cauldron.” She directed them, before putting a hoof up to me as a sign to wait.
My friends brought her the pouch and rags and she quickly applied a herbal ointment to the wound and then wrapped it with one rag, while covering her eyes once more with the others. Then she started her explanation.
“The reason why I can do such things, along with your friend ‘Fear’ is because we are the last of the Shadowbloods. In ancient times, we were the guardians of the Sand Kings. When they left, we were vastly diminished because sand ponies are able to become Shadowbloods much quicker and easier than any other ponies that I know of, other than the Winter Ponies of the North, but I digress. Shadowbloods like I all have certain abilities. We can move silently if we want to, can see perfectly in the dark, and can teleport from place to place as living shadows. If we choose to, we can also become shadows. Also, Master Shadowbloods are often skilled in arts more than just stealth. We can also use magic, but only one aspect of our choosing. I, as you saw, can control lighting. Fear is skilled in shadow-magic, a difficult field of magic for even the most skilled Master Shadowbloods. The most powerful of all abilities that Master Shadowbloods can possess is that of foresight. While its gift can grant you vision into the future, it often takes away our vision of the present.” She said pointing at her own linen covered eyes.
“When the Oattaran Council discovered us after the Sand Ponies left, we were hired as more than body guards, we were used as assassins. Our set of tools, mainly poisons and weapons, became broader and we could be used for any assignments. Eventually, as the members of the Council of Lords had petty feuds, the Shadowbloods were soon pitted against each other. We fought and fought and fought for them until there was almost none of us left.”
“The thing that truly ended our fight thought, was the creation of this,” she said, hovering her hoof over the curved sword. “Its name is Ebonedge and it is also known as the cursed blade. Do you see how curved the blade is?”
“Yes.”
“That is because after it was forged of meteorite metals it was quenched in the blood of fallen Shadowbloods. It is a terribly wicked thing. But it is a reminder and a piece of history that can and will help you along your path. But be careful, it is infinitely sharp.”
“I took the blade from the last one to wear it over fifty years ago. After that, what remained of the Shadowbloods left to find the hidden Sand Ponies and I stayed here to raise my only son.” She said sadly as my friends and I knew who she was talking about.
“So Daemon’s Strut is called Daemon’s Strut because…” Blade asked.
“The Shadowbloods used to live around here.” Siren answered, thinking the same as I did.
The witch nodded. “And don’t think we wouldn’t live here without an escape route.” She rose from the table and went to the end of the alley, one of her walls coated in spices and herbs. She started taking them down and we helped her. Afterwards, she removed the shelves in an odd order and pushed on the wall itself. It swung open to reveal a dark tunnel. I could tell from the smell of it that it led to the river.
The witch put Ebonedge in its sheath and hoofed it over to me. I strapped it on and she gave us some last instructions.
“There is a bridge that leads over the river to another secret gate in the wall. When you go through it, take a left and head around the inside of the wall until you reach the final gate, which should be above the river. There will be a boat there, so ready it and then ride the river to as close to Saddle Hill as you can. Also, when all this chaos is done, when all three of you have completed your tasks, come to me once more. We will talk again.”
We started to head down the path, but I stopped right before the witch shut the hidden door.
“Alley-witch!” I shouted.
“What is it?”
“All these years, you’ve been like a mother to me and the rest of my family members, you’ve always been there for us. Yet, I’ve never asked your name.”
“That’s simple.” She said with a smile as the door closed. “Just call me Mom.”
This story is a fan-fiction of MLP:FiM. I don't own any of it. It belongs to Hasbro, etc, etc. Don't sue. Seriously. That would be so uncouth.
Leaving Home
We followed my pseudo-mother’s instructions and kept to the dark path. When we got to the bridge, Blade peeked his head around the corner and looked around. Morning light streamed into the exit of the pathway and I wondered how well we could keep hidden, being that it was daytime now and Doom’s soldiers were certainly looking for us.
Blade cantered back to me and Siren and started to whisper animated. “It doesn’t look like anypony is around to hear us, since we are pretty close to the river itself. But more importantly, I could hear screams and explosions off in the distance. I think Doom’s soldiers are fighting the city guard. That should buy us enough time to escape.”
Siren nodded. “Then we should hurry. We need to get to that boat before we lose our chance. Come on.” She led us out of the tunnel and over a small beaten bridge of wood to the gate, just as the alley-witch. At first it looked locked, but Siren opened it easily when we got close and we rushed it, closing the door behind us quickly and once again descending into the darkness of the wall-tunnels.
We stuck to the left of the tunnel and curved around with it in what seemed like an endless arc, until we started to see light. We sped up toward the light, coming from a grate in the floor of the wall. However, we slowed down when we heard fighting from outside the hole.
“Get them to the boats!” we heard somepony shout with authority.
“We can’t hold them back for long!” I heard as steel clanged against other metal.
“Hurry!” another voice shouted as we heard hooves running and what sounded like ponies evacuating.
We looked into each other’s eyes and knew we needed to hurry, or we would be caught. So, I kicked open the grate and a thin wooden boat lowered itself from the shadowy rafters that must have been above us. It was poised for launch, being held aloft by only a few ropes that were attached to a quick-release. A pull of a pin and we would sail through the air and then into the waters of the river below us. We all clambered into the boat and we held onto the sides tightly as I pulled the pin with a hoof. My stomach went sailing into my throat as we fell into the river. A mighty splash and jarring impact happened two seconds later, and then we were off.
But not before hearing a scream.
We looked behind us and saw that there were more boats on their way, large barge-type things, fishing, and any boats available that were packed side to side with evacuating ponies. Poor, rich, it didn’t matter. All were scared and all were fleeing for their lives. And I saw why they were so terrified. Near the grate we came out of, a catwalk hung under the arch that allowed the river into the city. On the catwalk, Oattaran guards and Doom’s soldiers fought, and Doom’s soldiers were winning. The guards were fighting tooth and hoof, but they were being crushed by sheer numbers. Soon the soldiers would win and then they would be able to control the winch that lowered the portcullis that allowed water into the city, but kept trading boats inside. The evacuees would be trapped. Siren jumped from the boat and soared to the catwalk with her sword drawn. I screamed her name, but was unable to do anything. Blade found a long pole in the boat and pulled it out and stuck it into the water. He lowered it until it reached the silty bottom and dug it in, holding it in place with his weight as he did, and the boat stopped. I wanted to go help Siren, but the catwalk was pretty far away, and more importantly, I couldn’t swim. I had to watch.
I watched as she dove from the skies like an avenging angel and attacked Doom’s soldiers, bolstering the guard’s defense for a few moments. But then more soldiers arrived and started to push her back. I heard her shout in fury and anger and I saw how hard they fought. But more and more soldiers came just as the last of the evacuation boats made it out from under the arch. As they escaped, the guard’s line broke and soon soldiers were overrunning them.
“NO!” I screamed as my heart turned to ice and I raised my left hoof to the catwalk. “NO!”
At first, the water seemed to ripple, and then the flow reversed, flipping the boat as the water receded to the south instead of its natural, northern flow. The Gauntlet’s gem shined and I could see the veins throb as the river’s flow returned to normal and a massive wave cascaded over the catwalk. Ponies screamed as they were thrown into the now-seething river and flailing hooves churned the water as gasps and chokes were heard from all. My heart raced as I didn’t see Siren. In fact, the only ponies that were drowning were in the muddled gear of the invading soldiers.
Then I saw her and the rest of the Oattaran guards. A cheer went up from them and the evacuating ponies as they rode atop of a magical wave of water that moved along with my left leg. I brought them over to one of the large barges and then I plunked to the bottom of the boat, tired from the exertion of the mysterious magic. I didn’t know how I did it, but I didn’t care. I raised the Hero’s Gauntlet to my lips and gave it a kiss.
Cheering boats filled with ponies passed us as Blade kept us there, waiting for the barge to catch up with us. When it did, I sat up as a familiar, steel-clad heart-wrencher climbed aboard.
“How did you do that?” she asked me as she hugged me.
“No clue.” I answered by hugging her tightly and burying my head in her mane.
“Excuse me. Hero?” asked a light voice from behind us. I let go of the embrace to see an older mare with a butter yellow coat, white mane, and sharp, pink eyes. She wore a soaking guard’s suit of armor and straddled the barge and our boat, keeping them together with nothing but the strength of her legs.
“Thank you for back there. I know we would not have made it otherwise.” She said.
“You’re welcome, Miss…”
“Captain Butterscotch.” She answered. “Could I ask where you’re heading?”
“We’re going to Saddle Hill for a while, but after that, I don’t know. All I know for certain is that us three will not be back to Oattara for four years.” I told her, remembering the witch’s prophecy.
She gave me a suspicious look and spoke up. “Well, I and the rest of the guards here will be escorting the civilians to Reedbeds, the port city further north. Are you sure you don’t want to come with us?”
“I’d like too, but I don’t think we can.” I answered her.
“Alright. I hope you know what you’re doing.” She said as she stepped back onto the barge and our boats started to drift away from each other.
“I do too.” I said back to her. When the boats had drifted away from each other and our small boat started to drift to the front of the pack, as I was the lightest, I turned and called to everypony.
“Four years. Four years and we will return.” I called to them all as our boat sped on further away from them. I never knew if they heard, but I hoped they did. I had a feeling we’d need all the help we could to fight off Doom’s armies and the monsters and thieves that I had saw in Fear’s eyes.
The river was fast and we were quickly leagues away from the other ponies of Oattara. As miles of lush riverside, with arid desert on either side, passed us by, I sat back and played around with the Gauntlet. Blade was at the helm of the boat, Siren looking out ahead of us for any sign of the road to Saddle Hill, so I was left to my own devices. I first reestablished the fact that the Hero’s Gauntlet had indeed melded with my arm. I poked and prodded the veins and was grossed out by fact I could feel my leg going numb if I put pressure on them. The Gauntlet was indeed a part of me.
Next, I tried to do something, anything, to the water once more. I wanted to see if I could make it move, not a massive tidal wave or the reversal of the current, just a small wave without my touch-just the Gauntlet’s power. I tried to no avail.
Finally, I tried to see how durable the Gauntlet was. Even though it was made of clay, as I tapped it and prodded it with enough force to break normal clay, nothing happened. I remembered back to my fight with Destruction and how I had deflected a head-on attack from his massive war-hammer with the Gauntlet. It was obviously much stronger than it looked.
After that, I pulled out the Ebonedge, making Siren look back to me with interest. I looked at the sword carefully and in wonder. It was truly amazing. Its midnight-black blade reflected light back at me in a crescent-moon arc. I touched it gingerly and it felt extremely warm, despite the blade looking like it should be ice-cold. I picked it up by the hilt and immediately freaked out Siren and Blade, as I almost cut them accidentally.
“Watch it!” Siren said.
“Careful!” Blade said similarly.
I sheathed the Ebonedge and smiled gingerly at my friends. “Sorry. I’m not used to carrying sharp things in my mouth.”
“How so?” Siren said.
“I was just about to ask that Mistress.” Blade echoed. “You are no unicorn, Deft Hooves, so how can you not hold things like swords in your mouth?”
“Remember how I lashed the dagger to my hoof when I fought with Destruction?”
“It was the most stupid and worrying thing I had ever seen a pony do.” Siren said quickly with a face full of worry at the memory. I snorted and gave her a charming grin.
“In the alleys,” I started, “when another street urchin wronged you or challenged you for whatever reason-most of the time for food or other things-there would be a knife fight.”
I stood up on the boat, almost falling as it shook under my motion and I made it wobble even more as stood higher on my back legs. “In a knife fight, you was the most reach and speed you can get. Reach allows you to strike. Speed allows you to get out of there unscathed. You can’t cut very quickly with a twist of the head, unless you’ve been trained to do so since a young age.” I said with a glance to Siren.
“Also, when you strike with your head, it leaves you neck wide open. Any quick fighter will be able to get you like that.” I said punctuating my explanation with a hoof across my neck and sticking my tongue out. “So that leaves only one option: learn to fight with different limbs.”
I jabbed a hoof and brought the other around in a quick, slashing arc. “Most ponies I know, including me, fight with the blade or blades attached to the end of their hooves. I saw one pony once fight with a heavy blade tied to her tail, but I never knew who she was. This gives you the reach you need and the speed you need.”
“So you’re saying you’ve never held a weapon, a knife of any sorts, in your mouth like a normal pony?” Siren asked.
I sat back down. “Only at the feast. That was the first time I ever ate with utensils. Luckily, there wasn’t too much to eat with utensils and I took it really slow. Watching other ponies use them first also helped a lot.”
Blade muttered “Clever.” I just sat back and relaxed as the current carried us forward.
I must have fallen asleep, because the next thing I saw was Siren’s head as something jarred me from underneath. I sat up and shook my head and looked around. Siren was saying something, but I wasn’t listening. Instead, I saw that we were beached on the riverbed and desert surrounded the green carpet and mud we had settled upon. A little further away, I could make out a wooden sign along what looked like a road, but it was too far away for me to make out what it said.
“…here.” Siren said.
“Excuse me?” I asked.
“I said, we’re here.” She repeated as she and Blade got out of the boat. We pulled it out of the water, flipped it over, and let it lie there by the side of the river as we took our first steps out into the desert. It may have been nothing, but I felt as if those steps were the biggest in my life. For the first time in our journey together, it felt as if we were truly stepping away from all we knew. For all of us, it meant leaving home for four years, according to the witch, but it also meant something different to each of us. I’m sure Siren was thinking of her father and I was thinking, strangely, of the witch and Fear.
“Blade, what are you thinking of right now?” I asked him suddenly as we walked into the oven like heat of the desert and towards the road we saw from the river.
“That I am a slave. I should never forget that.”
I stumbled, but caught myself.
“Do you take pride in that?” I asked him, confused and bewildered.
He gave me an icy look. “I know what most ponies think of slaves and even what our masters think of us. Some think of us as traitors, pieces of meat, machines, downtrodden ponies, and other pitiful creatures that are either meant to be used, abused, or saved. But we slaves have our pride. We may never have freedom and we may never want freedom, but I was given a task by my master and slaves like I will get the job done at all costs. That is my pride.”
He strutted past me and walked in front of Siren and me while I gave her a confused look.
Siren just gave me a straight face. “You asked him.” She said, walking faster to catch up to him. I followed suit and we walked quietly until we reached the sand, cobbled road that swung to the northeast. The afternoon sun really beat us as we walked along the cobbled stones and I felt the desert as I never had before. I may have lived in the desert, but a city where water and shade could be found was much different than the waste that surrounded us. It amazed me that ponies would trek through such conditions just for silly things like spices and dyes.
The wooden sign popped up after what seemed like a decade of walking and I was able to read what it said, despite the glare of the passionate desert sun.
“50 miles?” I said, falling onto my rump. “How are we going to do that in this heat?”
Siren and Blade stopped. Siren was sweating under her armor and she reached up to her breast plate, pulling at the edges to get some fresh air. Blade looked at me. “It might seem like a lot, but we can do it.”
“Not in this heat.” I told him. “You look like you’re going to pass out already.”
Siren had been looking at the wind-scarred wooden sign, but she chose this to chime in.
“I agree with Deft.” She said solemnly. “If we tried to walk in the middle of the day, we’d possibly get to Saddle Hill…or faint on the way there and that would mean the end of our journey.”
She pointed an armored hoof at the large dune of sand that had accumulated around the legs of the sign. It gave just enough cover from the sun to create some shade. “If we sleep there now, we will be able to continue on in the night and tomorrow morning, if we need to. It will be way easier.
“Anything to get out of this heat.” I said as I trudged over there with Siren leading us and Blade in tow.
I crumpled into the cool sand beneath the dune. I knew scorpions and snakes slept shallowly under the sand of dunes like this, but I didn’t care if I awoke a few grumpy desert-dwellers. I was too tired. Blade and Siren moved just a little bit further away from me and I opened my eyes when I heard metal clanking.
Siren stood there undoing the straps on the armor around her front legs while Blade helped her with her back hooves, sword-strap, wither-guard, and breast plate. In a short while she was free of her cumbersome armor and her elegant coat and mane glimmered in the sun while she spread her wings.
“I’ll be back in just a little while.” She said as she lifted off into the air with such excited power, I sat up in enjoyment at the sight of her flying higher and higher into the air, her form doing loops and dives. Even from the ground I could feel her enjoyment of the freedoms she found in the open air. Plus, I could guess all that moving wind was great for cooling of an overly hot mare.
Blade sat down and picked up some sand in a telekinetic grasp. He form it into the shape of a fan and began to fan himself with magic. He smiled as the wind brushed through his mane and coat.
I grew a little jealous at them, but I was too tired and hot to care. I dug myself into the sand a little and was instantly filled with pure bliss as the sand felt ice cold. I spread out my legs under the sand and moved the sand under my head into a warm pillow and let myself drift off. At first I thought it was a little too warm for me, but then I got a familiar feeling of coziness and comfort from the sand.
Night woke me. The quick chill of the air on my skin brought me out of my sleep to find Siren and Blade curled up on either side of me. Siren’s armor was sitting off to the side and she had covered herself with her wings in an attempt to keep warm. Blade had done one better and copied me by magically sculpting a bed from the sand he slept on. As I rose, Siren shifted a little and shivered, but stayed asleep. It was so cute, so I decided that another couple of minutes of sleep for her and Blade couldn’t hurt. I walked off as quietly as I could and went around to the windward side of the dune we had slept under.
I emptied my bladder on the other side, but found myself looking up at the night sky after. Just like when I had flown to the Central Citadel, the night was alive with the glow of billions of billions of stars. With only the darkness of the desert around us, I could see all of space and it awed me to no end. The moon had just risen in the east and it was half-full, but I could still see the darkened side from the light she and the stars gave off. I smiled at the simple beauty of it all as I tore my gaze away from the sky and headed back to my friends with a new energy.
“It’s time to get up.” I said as I gently touched Siren. One of her eyes opened and she shivered. She sat up a little and gave a yawn that made her whole body quake and I had to kiss her or my heart would explode. She smiled at me and I turned to wake Blade, but she pulled me to the sand with a deft wing that covered my body as she planted another kiss on my lips.
“Getting a little frisky, aren’t we?” I asked her in a whisper.
“Shut up.” She replied planting another long kiss on my lips.
“Mistress, would you do that out of immediate sight please?” Blade said flatly from his sand-constructed bed. Siren yipped and turned beet-red, jumping up out of my embrace and walking over to her armor quickly. She started to put it on while I shook my head at Blade and then approached her to help her put on her armor. I picked up her flank-guard and put it on her flank before she jumped in surprise and accidentally bucked me.
“Oh gods!” she said as she came over to me, even more embarrassed than before and looking goofy in her half-dressed armor.
Blade chuckled as he came over and helped me to my hooves. “I’ll help my mistress with her armor. Why don’t you…”
“I’ll make sure the road is clear.” I said in defeat as I walked over to the cobblestones and sand while Blade helped Siren finish dressing. I just sighed and rubbed at my throbbing face in the dark.
Siren and Blade were along shortly, with Siren still a deep red. I ignored it and we continued on our journey, passing by the sign with a renewed vigor and a fresh strength to our steps through the cold and darkness.
After the sign post was out of sight, it became harder to tell how far we had gone. The darkness ate up our miles and the only way to tell we had moved was by the different dunes and the rising moon. It became easier, though, as we went further north and started to enter the dryer, dustier part of the desert.
“This is good.” Siren said, blasting the silence away, even though her voice was just a whisper. “You two see those ridges and mesas off in the distance?”
We nodded.
“This means we are coming closer to the southern-most tip of the Elder Equestrian desert. Appaloosa is further north, past hills we can’t see right now, but should be able to when we reach Saddle Hill. By then, we will have left the Desert of Fallen Stars. Just a train ride up to Appaloosa from Saddle Hill and another after that and we could be in Canterlot.” She said.
“We’ll have to visit some time.” I said as I walked a little bit faster and my friends fell in step with me. Soon, the ridges Siren had pointed out were appearing closer and closer as the moon climbed even higher into the sky and then started to descend. The road became bordered by tall stone ridges that rose and fell like slow, sloping waves while the moon fell even further towards the western sky.
That was when we started to hear the howls.
The first set of them shocked us to stop and look around, but as they started to come closer, we bolted down the road. We sprinted as fast as we could for a while and then slowed down once more, but kept a quick pace while we kept our breath. We thought we were alright, but then a large creature appeared on one of the ridges and looked at us with daemonic eyes that shone in the moonlight. Its mouth was ringed with canine fangs and its furry ears and sharp face pointed into a predatory triangle. Its large body sat and I could see its tongue come out of its mouth in a half comical, half terror inducing façade of a smile.
“Coyotes.” Siren said, her voice small and yet filled with admiration.
The coyote threw its head up into the night sky and gave one long howl. Coyotes appeared from all sides on the ridges on either side of the road. They joined in on the howl and we ran faster than I thought was ever possible. We started to slow, Blade falling back the most, but that was when I noticed that the pack of coyotes was running alongside us, only on the ridges.
“RUN FASTER!” I screamed in fright as I saw the looks in some of their eyes. I sped forward, the lightest and quickest of all of us, but Siren wasn’t far behind me. I ran further and further, faster and faster.
“DEFT!” screamed Siren. I threw my head over my shoulder and I saw that she was a few meters behind me. But Blade wasn’t. It looked like he was a good fifty meters behind us and the coyotes noticed that too. They were no long running with me and Siren, but were amassed around Blade as he tiredly ran, powered by fright alone.
I sprinted headfirst backwards as Siren dropped backwards, flipped into the air, unsheathed her sword and flew straight towards Blade. “Shit.” I said under my breath as I stopped on a dime and then sprinted headfirst towards Blade. I caught up with Siren as we arrived around Blade, both of us panting, Siren armed with her sword and I standing up on my hooves, the Gauntlet out in front of me. The coyotes dropped down from the ridges and formed a tight circle around us. Some snarled and some did that panting-grin of evil, but one walked among them and slowly padded up to me. I heard Siren tense up and Blade gasp, but I saw something in the coyote’s eyes. It didn’t want to eat me, nor did it want to harm me…it just looked at me.
It approached me, gave me a non-caring look and the rest of the pack went silent. It came even closer and I tensed up. It raised its hackles and growled at me and I loosened. Its hackles went down and it stopped growling. I tensed. Hackles up, growl. I loosened. Hackles down, no growl. I tensed. Hackles up. I loosened. Hackles down. I tensed and the coyote barked at me in annoyance. The creature was pretty intelligent.
“Sorry.” I said with a small smile as I loosened up again. Its eyes narrowed as it approached me and sniffed at the Gauntlet. It smelled the Gauntlet from all around and then gave the very end of it a lick. Surprisingly, it tickled my hoof so I moved my leg. The coyote snorted and then turned around with a swish of its bushy tale. It gave one bark to its pack and then they all jumped onto the ridges once more. They ran away howling, leaving us sweaty, tired, scared, and most of all, confused.
“What just happened?” Blade asked, giving the question we all had in our minds life.
“I have no idea.” I answered.
By the time we reached Saddle Hill, the sun was steadily climbing over the hills to the east and morning was quickly coming upon us. We staggered into the town and then were lost for as what we were supposed to do.
“What now?” asked Siren, who looked like she was going to collapse soon.
“I…”
“Shouldn’t we find this ‘Reggie’ character?” Blade said. “Maybe we could get some sleep then.”
“That…”
Three ponies came out from an alley off to our side wearing northerner hats and strange metallic devices were pointing from harnesses on their legs. A small line of metal ran from the device up to the ponies’ mouths.
“Put ‘em up!” they demanded of us.
“What…”
“Are you three trying to rob us?” Siren said with a snort.
One of the ponies narrowed his eyes, moved his leg so the device pointed to a metal trashcan and then bit down on the line of metal. An thunderclap like explosion went off, making all of us jump as the trash can blew its lid, jumped into the air, and fell down with a smoking hole in it.
“Ye’ll put yer hooves in tha air ifaya don’ want that tah happen tah ya.” Another of the ponies told us.
“Why…”
“We don’t have any money on us!” Blade yelled. “Leave us alone.”
“Then give us yer weapons and that there armor.” The last pony said, nodding over to Siren.
“Can’t we just…”
“Do it. Now.” One of the stallions commanded.
“Wait…”
“No!” Siren said, unsheathing her sword.
“STOP BUCKING INTERRUPTING ME!” I screamed in frustration, the earth quaking under my hooves as I exploded in frustration. The robber-ponies went tumbling away, along with my friends while I snarled.
“I AM BUCKING TIRED. THERE WILL BE NO MORE OF YOUR DEMANDS RIGHT NOW, UNDERSTOOD?” I shouted as I stood over them. One of them started to raise their weapon at me, but a quick hoof to the skull made him reconsider.
“Now,” I asked them, “do you know who Reggie is?”
As it turns out, they had no clue who this pony was, but they assured me that somepony in the saloon would. After that, they slunk back into the shadows and left us alone. Siren wanted to arrest them so they couldn’t get any other travelers, but I disagreed. That show of power was a total accident on my part and I didn’t feel like getting into a fight right now.
We went the way the robbers had pointed to us and we were on the saloon shortly. It was the classic northern make, big and wooden with swinging doors at the front. It was quiet at it was still early morning, but I assumed that it would become full later on in the day. Either way, we trudged inside, weary and tired.
It was dark and cool inside and as I had predicted, not many ponies where inside that early in the morning. A few sat in the back at a table, drinking and playing cards while a few other scant ponies hung around other tables. One was at the bar talking quietly with the barkeep who looked over to us as we approached.
We sat down on stools next to the pony and the barkeep came over to us.
“What can I get ya?” he asked.
“We don’t have any money, so noting.” Blade answered for me as I slid down until my head was resting on the bar. That use of magic, while helpful, was really tiring.
“We are just looking for a pony and would like some directions.” Siren commented.
The barkeep raised his eyebrow. “Who would that be little missy?”
“Reggie the shaman.”
The stallion next to us coughed on his drink and then started to laugh and choke at the same time. I glanced over to him and saw he wore a wide Stetson, dust-covered overcoat and dark sand-goggles. However, his condescending smile added a suspicious sheen to the goggles, giving them life.
“More bounty hunters, huh?” he asked as I heard a bunch of clicking noises around me. I jolted up right as I looked around and realized each of the ponies who was in the saloon was now standing around us with the same weapons pointed in our direction. The barkeep had one too, but it was a little different. Two long barrels stared down into my eyes as he stood up on two hooves and looked down at me. It cocked and I gulped.
“We’ll have this settled yet, fellas.” The stallion next to me said as he downed his mug and then brought it crashing against my skull. I hit the bar, heard a shriek, and then the world was lost to darkness.
This story is a fan-fiction of MLP:FiM. I don't own any of it. It belongs to Hasbro, etc, etc. Don't sue. Seriously. That would be so uncouth.
Welcome to Saddle Hill
The throbbing pain in my head and the sharp, stabbing pain in my left leg woke me. The world spun around me as my vision came back to me. At first, I thought I must have gotten a concussion or some sort of head lesion. The world was strange and flipped, the wooden bar and stools on a ceiling that hung above my head by just a few feet and the ground below me was far below. Or so I thought, until the stallion in the sand goggles came into my view. This time, he wasn’t wearing his hat or cloak and his salt and pepper mane sprung out from his head wildly while he hung above me, walking on the ceiling. I realized I was hanging from some ropes and that all I saw was upside down while the stallion worked over my left leg, tugging and pulling on the Gauntlet. The same robbers we saw earlier were with him and the barkeep.
“Ow!” I exclaimed when he gave another sharp tug on the Gauntlet. The robbers looked up at me in surprise while he just put a hoof to his chin and pried at the Gauntlet again.
“Stop that!” I told him as he stopped. He rose and looked at me. His dirty-gold coat rippled as he stood and I came face to face, if not upside down, with him.
“Where are my friends?” I asked him angrily.
He removed his goggles to show a pair of golden eyes and he glared at me. “They’re somewhere safe. We haven’t laid a hoof on ‘em, if that’s what yer askin.”
“And that also explains why I’m hanging upside down?”
He grabbed my left hoof hard. “This does. These ponies told me what you can do with this thing. It’s a weapon and I was trying to get it off.”
“You’re gonna have to cut off my hoof if you want to do that.”
He dropped my hoof, walked over to his coat-which was draped over a chair-and pulled out a long dagger from within the folds. “That can be arranged.”
“Hold on.” I stammered, struggling against my restraints while he walked closer towards me. He stopped short of me however and hissed under his breath.
“Scram!” he called and all the ponies vacated from the saloon, running out different ways as a large, bright blue unicorn kicked open the doors and came in leading a group of other ponies. Each wore a pitch-black vest and had a silver star pinned to them. They came in with their weapons ready, but lowered them when they saw I was the only one in the saloon. The big sky-blue one had a gold star and came over to me, his horn glowing, and he freed me from the ropes. I was lowered down to the ground via magic as he asked “Who are you?”
“My name is Deft Hooves. Thanks for helping me.”
He nodded. “I’m the sheriff o’ this town. That’s my job.” He replied as he helped me up. “I’m Sheriff Ice.”
“Thanks again. Please, you’ve got to help me.” I said as I told him about how we came into Saddle Hill, were jumped once, and then were jumped again. I didn’t tell him about the powers of the Gauntlet or where we came from, but I almost left no details about the three of us out of the story. When I told him about the stallion with the golden eyes and coat, he grimaced.
“Ah know that one well.” He said. “His name is Six Shooter and he’s the leader of the bandits and vagrants that have come to plague Saddle Hill since last year.”
“Ah’m sorry for all the trouble he’s caused ya. While we look fer him and yer friends, why don’t you go down to the station with my deputy while we continue lookin fer him. You can stay there while we investigate where they went.”
“I’d rather stay and help look for them.” I said adamantly.
“All right…but yer going with some of my ponies and you need to do exactly as they say. It prevents accidents that way.” He said hesitantly, his eyes narrowing as he said so.
“Got it.” I replied, going along with the squad he assigned me to. We went our separate ways then and went through the town that had thoroughly woken up by now. Still, that didn’t mean too much as Saddle Hill was not near as close to as large as Oattara was. But that didn’t mean the search went too easily. We asked passing ponies, entered stores and the only hotel, and genuinely looked around the town, asking if anypony had seen my two friends or Six Shooter. Many of the ponies we asked complied meekly, but some outright hated us. I understood, since the law really was never our friend in the gutters, but the way some of these ponies regarded us made me feel like I had committed some chain of atrocities.
I asked the deputy, a chilly pegasi mare, about this and she answered in a serious tone. “They won’t ever like us, but at least they’ve learned to shut up.” Was all she said, leaving more questions on my mind than she had answered. I tried to ask her more questions, but her look buried them under a sheet of ice.
Midway through the day, we went to the Saddle Hill market and asked around the same questions. We received the same receptions we had gotten all day and started to leave empty-hooved. The squad headed back in the direction of the station, leading me, when I bumped into a stallion heading to market. He went spinning to the ground, his wide-brimmed hat flopping off of his head as he spilled the bushels of peppers he had been carrying in two large wicker baskets over his shoulders.
“Gods, I’m sorry.” I said ashamed at my lack of perception. I helped him up and then started to help him clean up his peppers.
“It is alright, dude.” He answered, making me laugh. He was a tall, portly, old stallion with a long, jet black mane and a deep brown coat. His silver eyes glimmered as he put the hat back atop his head, shielding his windburnt and wrinkly face from the harsh sun.
“But still…” I said, still embarrassed I wasn’t looking.
He started dead into my eyes. “Just let it be, man. You can’t catch the wave after its hit the shore. But more importantly, you can keep yourself ready. A waxed board will help you go far.”
“What?”
He rolled his eyes. “Don’t trust them, or the laws here.” He said with a nod over to the police ponies who were waiting for me to finish up with the old stallion. He then picked up his peppers and walked away whispering “Stay sharp.”
I was confused, but got back up and followed the squad to the station. It was built like the other buildings in the town, large and wooden, but the inside had cells of steel bars and metal lockers to put convicts’ and polices’ weapons and personal stuff. There were three offices, one for the Sheriff, one for the Deputy, and one more that was filled with paperwork.
“You can take one of the cells while we’re looking for your friends.” Said the Deputy as she walked into her office without looking back. Stretching, and knowing I had nothing better to do, I opened the door to the cell closest to the Sheriff’s office and went to sleep.
“…here. As soon as we find his friends and capture Six Shooter and co, we’ll make sure he knows. Yes, understood. No, I did not, not yet. Give me three days. By then it will be easy. Got it.” Sheriff Ice’s voice went as he spoke to somepony in his office, waking me a little earlier than dawn. I couldn’t hear the other pony and as he came out of the office into the dark station, I could see that his horn was glowing slightly, as if he had just been using some powerful magic. I feigned sleep because of the look on his face. The old stallion’s warning floated through my mind as suspicion climbed into my soul, but I made sure it didn’t show as the station’s lights went on. He stood over me with his horn aglow, a violent electric blue light that pierced everything I saw…and then everything went black.
“Good morning, Deft.” Sheriff Ice said as he opened the door to the cell and tossed me an apple. I yawned and caught it between my hooves. “If you’re still dead-set on helping us look for your friends, than ya best get outta bed. We got a lot tah do taday, Ah’m afraid. Six Shooter an’ his gang were busy last night.”
“What do you mean?” I asked as I got up out of the cot and took a large bite from the apple while rubbing my eyes. I could have sworn he had woken me up already, that he was standing over me, but that was impossible. He had opened the door of the cell to wake me. It must have been some sort of dream.
“Accdordin’ to eyewitness accounts, Six Shooter and a good part a’ his gang went an’ rustled up some trouble last night. He went door to door, looking fer a pony that was described as looking jest like you. Now why would he do that?” Ice asked as he gave me a narrow-eyed glance.
“I was going to ask the same thing.” His deputy asked, her voice dripping with suspicion as she came into the room holding a rolled-up letter. “One of the squads on patrol sent this back to me. It was pinned under a large sign on the wall of the saloon.”
“Any luck finding the proprietor?” Ice asked as he unrolled the scroll.
The deputy fixed an icy gaze on me as Ice spoke to her. “Negative. He escaped with Six Shooter. Looks like the bastard had been helping him all along.”
Ice glared at the letter. “FREE YOUR MIND. DON’T TRUST THEM.” It read. “What is this supposed to mean?” he asked in confusion.
“We’re working on it sir.” His deputy replied. “Maybe…Mr. Hooves would know?”
“I’ve got nothing.” I said while shrugging. “The only thing I could guess it would mean is that he wants to instill distrust through Saddle Hill.”
“Ah get it.” Ice said with a grimace. “Deputy, send word to all patrolling squads to assemble near the Saloon. We’re gonna have a lot a’ work on our hooves taday.”
We got down to the front of the saloon about ten minutes after Sheriff Ice had told Deputy to send word to the squads. By then, they had all been organized around outside the saloon. Many looked like they had been awake for quite a while, but what was stranger was that they all had electric blue eyes. Sheriff Ice’s horn illuminated as he started to speak in a magically amplified voice and I looked over to him as he spoke to the crowd, not listening. Then I looked back to the ponies listening to him and their eyes weren’t blue anymore. I guessed it was just their eye reflecting his magic.
“Listen y’all. We all know ‘bout Six Shooter an’ his gang. We also know that varmit’s been stirrin’ up more trouble. We’re all gonna split inta squads a’ four an’ search Ole’ Dry district since that was where he left that message. Be on yer guards. Understood?”
“UNDERSTOOD.” Shouted everypony in unison as they were separated at Sheriff Ice’s commands. He commanded that I, his deputy, and two other officers, another earth pony and one unicorn, stay behind and go through the saloon once more. We were also to guard it as a meeting place for the squads after their searches. The Sheriff gave a wave while leaving with his group and Deputy led us into the saloon. Soon, we were searching it top and bottom for anything the other officers might have missed. I let myself behind the counter and into the room behind that.
Inside were stacks of bottles, boxes filled with different bottles of liqueur and all sorts of beers and ales. The room was also quite cold, but ever since the search, the door to the cold pantry had been left wide open, letting the delicious cold seep into the hot desert. I lifted flaps and moved boxes around, but didn’t really expect to find anything. The other ponies had already searched this place inside and out, so why would I find anything. Or so I thought, until a seemingly unmovable stack of boxes swung out of the wall on hinges. I jumped back and was about to shout, but a silver flash darted out of the opening and stuffed a mouth over mine.
We broke off after a few minutes, only because our lungs were screaming for air. “What?” I said puzzled as my love grabbed me tightly in crushing hug. I was going to say more, but then Six Shooter stepped out of the hidden doorway too and nodded to Siren. She spun me around quickly, locking my hooves and front legs behind my back while placing another hoof in my mouth.
“Sorry.” Was all she said as my mind raced. Why was she helping him? And to what end? Something nefarious, no doubt, but what? I noticed that Blade wasn’t here, so maybe he was held hostage? Or maybe it was Reggie who was hostage? There were too many factors, too many reasons for why she was doing this that I didn’t care. Even if I loved her, I needed to stop this, so I struggled with all my strength.
“Hold him still.” Hissed Six Shooter as he came up to me and pulled his sand goggles back. He peeled the lids back gently from one of my eyes with his hoof and looked at my eye with concern. I started to rage at him, knowing he was the reason why I was separated from my friends, that they were being made to do vile acts because of their noble concern for the lives of their friends and innocents. I started to think about how he was the main reason why my life sucked right now. Incoherently, my mind flashed with pictures of oppressed ponies back in my home of Oattara. He was the reason for them. He was the reason why the Central Citadel blew up. He was the one who clamped this gods-be-damned Gauntlet onto my leg. But he would learn. The power of the Gauntlet would teach him.
“Let him go, quickly!” shouted Six Shooter as the Gauntlet’s gem started to glow. “Ice has him! We need to leave, now!”
Siren held me for a minute, but then threw me to the ground, letting me hit the hardwood floor with a heavy thud. I bared my teeth and felt the magic of the Gauntlet flow through me. Six Shooter was the reason for that as well. He needed to die. However, before I could get them, they vaulted through the hidden door and closed it. I yelled out in rage and the others came running. Suddenly, I could feel the path they were taking, a tunnel lined with the same wooden flooring of the saloon. When I smiled sinisterly and ran out to the front of the saloon, the wood and earth reacted to my magic.
The ground in front of the saloon exploded outward, revealing a large cavernous underground room, filled with Six Shooter, my friends, the stallion I had seen in the market, and the other ponies of Six Shooter’s gang. My smile bordered on insane as I call more magic to raise the room to my level, so the ponies would be caught in the open with nowhere to run. As the ground shook to answer my commands, Sheriff Ice and the rest of the officers came sprinting from down the road and stopped around me, forming a circle around the caught ponies.
“Good job, Deft.” Ice said with a smirk. His horn glowed with lightning-blue magic and I felt amazing. The magic of the Gauntlet coursed through me and I knew that this would end it here. My friends would be rescued and Six Shooter would pay for everything.
“Officers,” Ice called to everypony, “Leave nopony alive. Make them an example.”
I smiled at this thought, that I would be able to use my magic to slaughter them all…but something was wrong. I…my friends were there…I couldn’t…
“STOP!” Six Shooter shouted, causing me to shake my head and wonder what was going on. “He looked around the crowd and pointed to the Deputy. “Deputy Haymaker! You know who I am. I would never do the things that this scumbag said I would. I was Saddle Hill’s Sheriff! Don’t fall into the bounty hunter’s trap!” he pointed to another and another and another. “Silverado! Picante! Rusty! You’re all my friends! Break his spell! Focus on who you are, not his tricks!”
“That’ll be enough outta ya.” Sheriff Ice said. “It don’ matter what ya say. You an all the rest a ya are gonna die here. Then Doom’s gonna give me this here town an nopony will be richer than me.” he said with a snarl.
Siren and Blade looked at me with fear in their eyes. To my disgust, or a small part of me, that amused the overreaching rage and power that was consuming me. I bared my teeth at them.
“See.” Ice said in amusement, pointing to me. “This ‘Hero’ is gonna be the pony to start the bloodbath! Go sic ‘em, Hero!” Ice told me and I lept at the chance. I bound closer to my friends with rage and bloodlust building.
“DEFT!!!!!” screamed Siren, calling me back from the depths of the false-Sheriff’s magic and to my disoriented senses. I tripped and fell, rolling with the momentum of my leaping and bounding, and stopping at Siren’s hooves.
“Uhhh.” I moaned as my head throbbed and everything seemed to flash in shades of lighting-blue and a dark-throbbing red. I closed my eyes and rolled into a fetal curl as Ice laughed.
“So that’s all the Hero can do? An’ Ah’m not even Doom! What a worthless creature. Kill him, minions.” He said and I screamed as his command called through our minds, as blue as lightning.
In that split second, before the bullets were fired by Ice’s mind-slaves, before I and my friends were killed, I heard a small voice that grew into a grand one. Time slowed as it called to me and I opened my eyes, seeing the world in a blood-red tint.
Embrace me. It said. Embrace me and kill all your enemies. Revel in the power you had before, only ten-fold this time.
I had no choice. I looked around quickly at my friends, their faces wearing resilient masks, even at the end. At Ice’s minions, innocent ponies trapped in evil magic. At Ice himself, his horn and eyes blazing blue against the red tint, his mouth marred in an evil, victorious grin. I felt true fear and grasped for the power that called me.
Suddenly, time was back as it was and I let out a scream that was not only feral, but laced with something more, something uncontrollable. My scream blasted waves of magic around me, sending Ice’s minions and my friends flying away from me, while Ice managed to hold his ground, just as I wanted him to. He grimaced as I launched myself at him, waves of magic surrounding me while I sped forward like a missile from a scorpion. I sped closer and closer to Ice, but he grit his teeth and his horn glowed even brighter. Electricity crackled around the magical shield he was forming and soon my propulsion came to an end and I landed on the ground. He laughed. “Ya think Ah haven’t fought with magic before?” I could taste blood in my mouth, but I kept walking towards him, erstwhile waves of his magic, both physical and mental, wreaked havoc on me. The physical pushed me back and scathed my body with cutting debris and slashing attacks, while I could feel his mental attacks playing with my innards, making my organs bleed and me cough up blood while I marched towards him. However, I kept marching.
“Yer gonna die here.” He said. “Yer magic won’t harm a powerful unicorn like Ah.”
Then a pillar of rock shot out of the ground as I smiled. “The magic of the Sand Ponies was never meant to be like Unicorn magic!” I screamed with a rage-filled certainty. Ice catapulted through the air, crashing into the “SALOON” sign above the saloon and bringing it crashing down to earth. I sprinted up to the wreck before he could return magical fire and I tackled him back into the pile of splinters that he was rising from. I got on top of him and started hitting, my mind going blank and the pleasure of the power washing over my mind. However, as his face became more and more bruised, I started to stop.
“That was for Saddle Hill! My friends! The ponies you manipulated!” I screamed at him. “Now stop your magic! MAKE ME STOP SEEING RED!”
He looked aghast and then smiled a bloody, pulpy smile. “Ah stopped my magic when I hit the sign.” He said to me in a raspy voice. “The red…that’s all you. That’s yer power. And that means that you ain’t no hero. Yer gonna die like a dog when you fight Doom, because that power…that’s his…” he finished with, an evil, deathly chuckle coming from his broken form. It was more than I could bear. My sight became a darker shade of red as I started to pummel him, missing more often than not, but when I missed, the magic of the Gauntlet poured through my hooves and into the splinter, picking them up and giving them lives of their own. They grew into wicked spikes as I continued to pummel Ice’s form into an unsightly smear.
“That’s enough, little dude.” Said a calm voice behind me. I turned, my vision scarlet now, and I saw the same stallion from the market. Only this time, he wore a grim face and Siren and Blade stood on either side of him. Blade looked at the smear, horrified, while Siren glanced at it with a look of disgust, and then to me with a look of disappointment and fear, like I was a monster. The rage and the power ebbed from me then and I felt drained and…and…I started to cry. I couldn’t continue like this, I couldn’t live knowing my friends thought I was a mindless killer. Wouldn’t that make me and Destruction, Demise, and Doom all the same? I was supposed to be the hero…
Suddenly, Siren was there, her hooves and wings encapsulating me as I sobbed. She spoke gentle words and held me as I had held her when the Citadel was destroyed. I felt another pair of hooves around us and I knew it was Blade as well, being there because I needed all the friends I could get.
“Let it out, dude.” Reggie said calmly while tears streamed from my eyes and sobs echoed throughout Saddle Hill.
We sat back in the station, around a large table Six Shooter had pulled out of one of the offices. I sat with a blanket around my shoulders, a cup of hot coffee in front of me, and Siren holding onto me. Yet, I still shivered. Our conversation made it so. It turns out that “Sheriff” Ice was no Sheriff, but in fact a bounty hunter sent by Doom to take over Saddle Hill and collect the heads of any higher-ups in town, all so his armies could move through the town faster to A.) Invade Oattara and B.) Invade Elder Equestria when Doom thought it right. Saddle Hill didn’t look like much, but according to Six Shooter, it was the easiest way to go through the town and then take either a train or follow the tracks. Either that, or climbing through rocky, shattered hills until reaching the gentler Macintosh Hills to the North.
Whatever his reasons, Ice had started off by overthrowing Six Shooter by controlling the town’s mayor with magic…only to kill the poor pony a week after he was appointed to be the new sheriff. After that, he went on a spree of slaughter and had ponies who were once friendly chase after Six Shooter and try to kill him. Of the ponies that weren’t effected by Ice’s magic (some had a stronger resistance to it, especially the bartender of the saloon-he said “being a bartender teaches you to have a steel mind”-whatever that means) almost all of them had formed alongside Six Shooter while he and his loyalists were vilified and hunted like rats. That was one of the reasons they turned to banditry. The other was because it kept ponies out of Saddle Hill, a smart move to keep innocents away from the vile trap.
So, when I, Siren, and Blade had come into town anyway, the group of ponies thought we were more bounty hunters. It was only after Six Shooter had interrogated me and scattered to their hiding place with my friends did he find out about us. Siren had told him everything and Six Shooter had tried his hardest to get her to me, to make sure I wasn’t under the spell, but it was too late for that.
After I killed Ice, his spell wore off and the minds of the enslaved ponies were returned to them. In fact, many ponies didn’t know what was happening or where they were. The past few weeks had been a blur to most, but not to some. Deputy Haymaker had been sobbing just as hard as I was. She told us about how she knew the things she was doing were wrong, that helping him in general was just evil, but she had been trapped by her own emotions. She was no longer the frigid mare I had met, but a strong deputy full of life and emotion. Ice’s magic had been nothing but pure evil.
Because Ice was one of Doom’s ponies, we all suspected that word had gotten out that Blade, Siren, and I were here. We were worried, but Six Shooter and Reggie didn’t seem to care. “We’ll know when they’re coming.” Reggie said with a flick of his nose. “The coyotes you encountered on the road, they’re my ohana, man. They’ll warn me about anything, even if Doom’s ponies decide to teleport into town.”
“If they do,” Six Shooter said, cocking what I found out were called ‘guns’, in a threatening manner “we’ll be ready for them.”
“We should still leave as soon as we can.” I said, suppressing a shudder and trying my best to not think about the power I held in my left hoof. After the fight with Ice, I never wanted to use the power of the Gauntlet again. True, it was helpful at times, but that amount of power, that flow of emotion, it was too risky.
“Chill, my little surfer. Just be calm. You can leave without knowing where to go, but you’re already in that position, aren’t you?” Reggie said with a wistful and warm smile. “Instead, I’ll give you directions this time. You just have to be patient and relax a little.”
“But Doom’s ponies…”
“Ainokea, brah.” Reggie said with a hoof in the air.
“What?” I asked.
“Just chill out. You’ve just been through some harrowing stuff, little pony. We all have. Right now, it’s best if we recuperate and regain our positivity.” He said taking a deep breath in and signaling for the rest of us to follow. We did and he held up a hoof for a while, then let them fall gently and exhaled. We all did the same.
“Better?” he asked with a smile.
“Somewhat.” I answered truthfully.
He rolled his eyes, went over to the one unbarred window in the open room of the station, and opened it. Then he gave a long and strangely melodic whistle. He waited for a short while and then a roadrunner came up to the window, with a strangely small guitar on its back. Reggie and the roadrunner communicated in whistles and clicks until Reggie finally said “Thanks Desmond.” And the roadrunner turned away. Reggie came back to his chair and plucked a few strings on his mini-guitar.
“It’s an instrument from my home, a ukulele.” He said knowingly as he started to play a song. When he finished, I knew he wasn’t from here, neigh, he wasn’t even remotely close to home. So who was he?
“Who are you Reggie? Truly?” I asked, noticing I felt better.
Reggie kicked back in the chair, tipping it a bit, but not seeming to care too much. “My people would call me an ‘Aumakua, but that’s just a title. Out here, I’m called a Skinwalker. I don’t care for either. I like ‘medicine pony’ or ‘shaman’ or ‘radical dude’, but call me what you will. Reggie works pretty well too, so I like that.”
“I’ve been around the block for quite a while, so ponies come to me with questions, and I like to try my best to give them answers. To answer your first question, I’ll need a map. I’m sorry, but I can’t answer your second question though. But enough with the twenty questions, man. Let’s just listen to some tunes and chill.” He said as he broke out into a song that quickly brought a smile to Siren’s and Blade’s faces. I fell in with their smiles and singing around the second verse and soon we were all laughing, singing, and smiling.
After that, we each grabbed a mattress from the cots in the cells and pulled them together on the ground. We went to sleep happy and together.
