Having lit the first flame for the final time, an undead by the name of Kurai from the world of Lordran has been transported to Equestria. Will he learn to live his new life anew?
Death and rebirth was a constant trend in Lordran, those who died too much crossed the line of no return and had simply gone hollow. But what if the first flame, had been lit for the final time, all events transpired simply not repeating. But taking place in a world where death was final.
NOTICE: Since I have completed it, I will be editing this in due time. Until then, enjoy the story.
This is a Dark Souls crossover with MLP: FiM, before the whole Tirek incident. So you will need to know about Dark Souls lore and up to date with MLP: FiM. So for those who don't know about Dark Souls Lore, watch this guy, he is awesome. VaatiVidya's Channel.
It was a dim morning in Canterlot this hour, having returned from her vacation in Saddlearabia with Spike, Twilight Sparkle walked through the statue gardens looking at the statues of once great heroes and philosophers. It has been what felt like years since she visited this place. Taking a breath in before exhaling she thought back to the day her and the other elements had saved Equestria from Discord, the once occupied pedestal was now just a flat space of marble. Cracked and covered with moss from the ravages of time.
"Nice to see you visiting again." The warm voice slightly panicked Twilight as she turned to see the tall and calming figure of the Princess of the Sun, Celestia.
"It has been a while since we have seen each other when the fate of Equestria was not at stake." Twilight replied with a smile. "Though I can't seem to get the hang of these things." Looking to her wings folded against her back she constantly had to tense her muscles to keep them down, it had led to a few embarrassing moments at a few cafes in Canterlot.
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Darkness, it was all he knew, it was all he tried to escape. Yet, he was engulfed by it and it embraced him as its protégé. The curse of dying over and over again only to receive no eternal reward, only the vision of a small pile of flaming wood with a peculiar sword embedded into it. It was all the undead knew, death to no end with the final stage being worse than hell itself, hollowing. Yet where was he? This is not Lordran, but a dark forest unfamiliar to him. Definitely not Darkroot Garden, or Darkroot Basin or Sanctuary Garden for that matter. Getting up slowly his armour pieces ground against each other in a manner most barbaric and foul as the dust flew off him in the gentle breeze. Having a huge set of armour had a few perks, his gauntlets and leggings from the legendary Bishop Havel and the chetspiece and helmet of the once mighty guardian of Anor Londo known simply as the Iron Golem. Whatever tried to eat him while he was slumbering could not bite through the thick shell of armour, though his sword was quite a distance away from him like whatever tried taking it gave up and ran when he woke up. Staggering to his feet he walked over to the Gravelord Greatsword that lay on the ground, grabbing the skeletal hilt he felt the pestilence and hatred of many slain souls resonating within it. With a satisfied stance he held it over his shoulder and walked onward for whatever paths came across him.
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Trotting home late at night was daring, but the once confident feelings turned to fear as the yellow sweetheart of Ponyville was almost home. "Oh, don't worry Angel, I'm almost home." She squeaked under her breath as she started galloping like her life depended on it, only for a low and fierce growl to be heard as a pair of green eyes zipped past her. Frozen in terror from what she just saw she turns around, her quivering lips parted to ask the darkness if any pony was here.
"U-uhm, h-hello?"
The reply was something she wished never came as she was pounced by a Timberwolf, thrashing she desperately tried to escape but its weight was too great for Fluttershy to handle. "Discord!!! Help!!" Fluttershy cried for help at the top of her lungs only to realise he was on royal duty at Canterlot. With a whimper as the Timberwolf raised its head to pull out her throat she whispered her final goodbyes to her friends, the animals and Angel. As she closed her eyes preparing for her fate the sounds of other Timberwolves emerged, hoping to get a taste of pony flesh.
With a swift motion the Timberwolf on top of her was brutally swiped off of her, cut cleanly in two. Confused at the sudden turn of events Fluttershy opened her eyes to a gruesome sight of Timberwolves attacking what appeared to be a bipedal creature clad in armour. It pointed to her cottage as it struggled as a signal for her to run, without a seconds delay she made haste to her home and locked the door. Sobbing out of pure fear she slumped against the door as the sounds of a fierce battle raged on mere feet away from the small bridge that led to her cottage. Curiosity took over the cowering mare that she ended up looking out the window to who her saviour was clearly in the moonlight.
One Timberwolf dashed at the large knight, teeth made of stakes and splinters bared for the kill. All it took was a swift motion of his sword and the wooden creature fell limp in two pieces, the miasma from his sword causing the wood to chip and die preventing regeneration. Pointing the sword at the group he welcomed them to suffer the same fate, just as he did three more struck from the darkness hoping to flank him. Dropping his sword from the impact of the one behind him he fell to his knees, in a moment of primal instinct a fist formed in the strange beings hands and landed it straight into the wolf that knocked him down straight in the small log for a snout. The force of the punch seemed to slow down everything as he rushed for his sword before plunging it into the unfortunate forest monster's chest, the area around it slowly rotting away as it twitched and convulsed in sheer agony before going limp and breaking apart.
The large blade still plunged into the dead body he stood straight to his full seven feet and turned to glare at the remaining residents of the Everfree as they stepped backwards, cowering. He motions them to leave again as he did before, only this time they obeyed and scampered off, the leafs and sticks for tails between their legs.
A mixture of tiredness and damage received had suddenly taken over the warrior, staring at his hands he felt something he had not felt in a long time, fatigue. Struggling to move he realised how heavy his armour was than when he was in Lordran, where sleep was non-existent for normal undead. Overcome with this old feeling he fell to his knees before his whole upper body fell flat with the clank of his armour following.
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Canterlot at night was no different from morning, stallions and mares alike stayed awake to enjoy the high life. Parties, meetings, gambling. It all goes down at night. Unlike the Canterlot elite, the princesses enjoy a nice quiet talk for supper. This is Twilights first time actually enjoying a supper without the stress of royal business, save for Discord's pranks which the royal sisters chuckled at when it happened to one another. Staring at the cup of tea in front of her she pondered to how her friends were doing without her for a while as Discord and Luna roared with laughter at the sight of Celestia's mane having been turned into multicoloured cotton candy.
"Ha ha" Celestia laughed sarcastically before turning her mane back to it's natural state.
"Come join the fun!" Luna called out to Twilight interrupting her thoughts. "The fun needs to be tripled!" Before Celestia can interject a scroll appearing in a flash of green appeared. Picking it up with her magic she rolled it open and read it through, her eyes widening at it the first time before reading through it a second time just to be sure she read it right.
"Is something wrong princess?" Twilight got off her seat and approached Celestia with caution.
"R-read it."
Dear princesses and Discord,
Please come to Ponyville Library as soon as you receive this, Flutterhsy found something that I can't even explain. I got a picture of it thanks to Photo Finish letting us use her camera, it looks like some weird form of diamond dog or dragon. But it looks far too small for that. PLEASE get here quick! Your faithful number one dragon, Spike.
After reading she took a look at the second piece of paper taped to the scroll, not believing her own eyes Twilight stood there stunned for a significant amount of time staring at the strange figure laying on a mattress. Regaining her senses she pointed to the nearest guard.
"Prepare us a ride to Ponyville, quickly!"
The sound of a throat being cleared echoed through the silence, Discord floated there arms folded. "Or I could simply teleport you there?" Rolling his eyes at not being noticed.
Twilight blushed in embarrassment as she dismissed the guard. "Sorry Discord, I sometimes forget you can do that."
"Considering you never use it when needed." Luna barged in.
Discord coiled around Luna and poked a talon on her nose, "And where were you during the Changeling invasion?" Standing there a moment Luna thought for a witty comeback, only to accept defeat at Discord's words.
Arriving at the library seemed a little different when it involved teleporting. Gathering herself Twilight faced the door with her mentor, Luna and Discord behind her, preparing herself for whatever awaited them behind the door. Breaking the silence from inside was the familiar sound of random rambling, without a doubt Pinkie Pie on another one of her monologues on a situation. Opening the door she was greeted by her loyal assistant and her friends, seeing them gave her a sense of relief knowing whatever they were obscuring did not harm them.
“Flutters! It’s so good to see you again!” Discord flew in giving his closest friend a cuddle, Fluttershy returned the hug with glee as if she has not seen him in years.
Celestia waited patiently for the chatter to die down and give them some time to catch up on events, such as Sweet Apple Acres getting another branch somewhere in Saddlearabia, however the being laying on two mattresses is of more importance at this point. “I’m sure we are all happy to see one another, but we have to know what that creature is.”
Luna interjected as well, curiously flying to the slumbering knight. “And why have you not removed it's armour?” Spike simply shows why by attempting to pull it off with Applejack's and Rarity's help only to fail. “Interesting, I assume it took at least Big Macintosh to lift him?” Luna asked.
“Nearly threw his darn back out, I was more worried about this there critter wakin’ up, ‘specially with this.”
Applejack pointed to a large sword resting on a nearby bookcase, made of bone and releasing what could be assumed as a cloud of toxic mist. The mere presence of this monstrosity was poisoning enough, thankfully only what touches the blade itself is poisoning so the hilt is perfectly approachable.
Celestia and Luna recoiled at the sight of it, before looking to each other and nodding. Both princesses released a blast of magic encasing the sword with it, the light faded to reveal the sword covered in a stone case before speaking. “I think it would be best if this were locked up for now, Luna, I think we should take a look into this things dream. Can you do that?”
Pridefully the princess of the moon stepped forth. “I can peer into any dream! I’ll have this deed done in no time dear sister!” With that her horn begins to glow and her eyes turning a blank white, a thread of magic connecting her horn with the beings head.
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“Lord Gwyn, come to your senses! Please!” Within a giant kiln three warriors are in combat, the once mighty Gwyn, reduced to a hollow. Though that never did impede his astounding power, Luna found a safe haven away from the scuffle somewhere on the open roof.
Ignoring the pleas from Solaire, Gwyn simply charged onward with his sword ablaze, desperate to taste blood. With a swing Kurai and Solaire barely avoid being butchered and burned to ashes. “Guaarrrggghh!!”
“He won’t listen, Kurai, distract him! I have only one but it will do away with him.” Luna looked toward the bipedal creature named Kurai who simply nodded and ran onwards to her amazement.
“Such staggering bravery…” Luna whispered to herself, not even her or Celestia's best guards would have ran into such a fight. The most they did was distract from a distance while they called Twilight and her friends. Her thoughts were interrupted by swords between the creatures clashing, Gwyn slowing down as if tiring from his great age.
“It’s ready!”
She turned to Solaire who was holding his arm in the air with a glowing object in his hand, many questions ran through her mind at what this object is until they were answered by a spear of magnificent lightning forming in his hand.
“Magic in this world? This Kurai might be more dangerous than anticipated if he has magic…” Before the the bolt is tossed Kurai parried Gwyns swing to stagger him enough so Solaire can have a clear shot, the bolt is tossed at blinding speed towards the fallen deity. As the bolt strikes a blinding light is sent out, bringing Luna back to reality.
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“Luna? Luna? Are you okay?” A concerned Celestia stood before her with a wing over her sister's back. “What did you see?” The Princess of the Moon tiredly stumbled to a nearby wall to hold herself up on, using that magic ability was no easy task, even to an alicorn that spell was draining. On the bright side it helped her fall to sleep even if it was exhaustion.
“Thi-this being, his name is Kurai…and I fear he may be deadlier than he seems. Fluttershy, did this thing save you? How? Timberwolves are physically indestructible unless they were prevented from regenerating.”
All attention was turned to Fluttershy who hid her face in her mane at the sudden turn of attention. A small nudge from Discord however reassured her that she was not being blamed for anything, returning his calming smile she retold her tale.
“I was heading home from Ponyville after my spa session with Rarity, we had to make a reservation at night because of the large demand in their treatments at the spa. O-Oh, and I forgot, thank you Rarity for the special.”
“No Problem, darling I would not dare let you miss out on our girls day out. Or in the case, night out.”
“A-Anyway, I was threatened by a group of Timberwolves. I thought this was the last night of my life, until he saved me with that scary sword of his..”
As the element of kindness wrapped up her story much to the amazement of her friends, especially Discord, a familiar sound of grinding was heard. Everyone in the room slowly turned to see that the creature sat up, slowly turning its iron covered head towards them. At that moment the princesses and the other unicorns pointed their horns at it in preparation as the pegasi and earth ponies save for Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie and Applejack all stepped back. Celestia was the first to speak, “Do not make any sudden movements my little ponies. We do not want to spook it.”
“Uh, princess, I don’t mean to argue but isn’t us ganging up on whatever the hay this is gonna spook it anyway? I’ve dealt with farm critters who act the same way when wakin’ up.” Celestia turned her head towards Applejack with a smile, making it aware that her honesty is always welcome in such situations.
Stepping toward the creature the Princess of the Sun saw no alarm in it's movements, the other ponies and Discord were less than overjoyed to see Celestia of all ponies risk her life to not spook it by speaking to it alone. Upon noticing her flank where her cutie mark lay the creature stood to its full height, above eye level from Celestia. It raised its arms as if about to yawn until holding the peculiar pose. “What does that gesture mean? Ooh! Ooh! I can do one too! Look look!” Pinkie Pie bounced all over the place as gestures of famous ponies, William Hayspeare, Hooflock Holmes the list goes on. All Twilight could say in the aftermath of that stunt was, “How do you know all these literary geniuses and famous literary characters?”
“Silly, I read all your books while we were in your library all these times!” The cotton candy haired earth pony smiled as if having built the winning sandcastle.
Twilight and the rest simply stood there gawking until Discord spoke, “Pinkie Pie being Pinkie Pie I guess?” Everypony simply nodded except for the standing bipedal beast who seemed to hold up a black sprite, like a small black flame flickering in its hand. Before long the undead crushed it, the remains floating into its chest. It took a deep breath and spoke.
Siting at a sturdy table on the floor due to his height, Kurai patiently waits in a secluded room to be told whats going on. He hears chatter going on outside but blocks it out to enjoy the comfort of peace and quiet for the first time. Before long Celestia disturbs that solitude and slowly trots over to the other end of the table as he tracks her movement under his helmet, she finds a place to sit on a pillow placed on the other end.
“I’m sure you have a lot of questions that need to be answered, Kurai.”
“Yes, I do.” He replied, his voice raspier than expected now he was clearly heard.
Celestia nodded with a small smile. “Then ask away.”
Kurai thought for a moment, every question begging to be asked but one stuck out most. “Where am I?”
Clearing her throat as if she was expecting this, the Princess of the Sun began explaining. “This is the world of Equestria, no doubt your world different from this. We pride ourselves on seeing each other as equal no matter what our appearances, but we do judge on actions. The land of Equestria you are in at this moment is Ponyville, a small modest town and home to my protege, Twilight Sparkle, the lavender unicorn. You were lucky to have come in this land, not all places are as welcoming as Ponyville or Appleoosa.”
After the monologue she noticed Kurai sitting there slightly confused from his shoulders slouching. “Am I confusing you or boring you?”
Fixing his stance he spoke quickly. “Sorry, I have not spoken to anyone without breaking their neck or stabbing them in a long time.” Celestia was taken aback at this response, to know this creature took to killing as if were nothing but sport. “Don’t worry, I won’t kill anyone here, unless they bother me.”
Putting on her bravest face the princess was terrified to the core. “I can assure you this place is peaceful and its inhabitants kind.”
A roaring of laughter was emanating from Kurai as if he had heard the funniest joke in the world. “If I had a soul for every time I heard that one!” He continued laughing hard.
Trembling she slid back a bit, though the princesses were naturally immortal they can still be killed by an assailant. And for the first time since the Changeling invasion, she feared for her life. Not at the hands of some demonic creature from Tartarus, but from an unknown creature that she did not know anything about. She collected her wits and calmly asked. “What do you mean by that?” Her words leaving her trembling lips like broken notes.
Steadily, he stopped laughing and rested his elbows on the table.
“Well you see, in my world there was a certain girl. Her beauty drew men all over the land just to win her heart, or simply to touch her tail which was so fluffy and soft it put the best of beds to shame.”
Celestia grew more interested at the mention of his world.
“I traversed through the painted world of Ariamis to meet her, I had to deal with so much creatures,” He slammed his fist onto the table, cracking it. “just to meet that…ignorant creature. Half goddess and half dragon, the daughter of Gwynevere and the great traitor Seath the Scaleles. Crossbreed Priscilla. Why I even bothered was anyone's guess, but her tail was so legendary and even a hair could be turned into a great weapon that could smoothly cut ones soul from their being before they even bled out. Sorry, I did not mean to scare you. I just hate being told rubbish.”
Hastily the princess got up and galloped to the door before speaking, “Uhm, it-it’s fine, I just need to talk to everypony outside for a moment.”
Closing the door behind her, Celestia exhaled with relief that she came out in one piece and fell to her flank on the ground before everypony who ran to her, Twilight being the first to speak. “Princess?! Are you alright? We heard laughing going on in there, and it sounded like he was threatening somepony…” She hugged her mentor to help the trembling princess come at ease.
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“HE WHAT?!” The collective shouts from everypony in the library was powerful enough to wake a hibernating deaf dragon, maybe a whole nest. Having heard what Celestia told them about Kurai was a shock enough, but to know he is sitting in a nearby room was even more alarming. Applejack spoke first out of the group with extreme alarm. “We gotta get rid of that monster!” Big Macintosh agreed with the usual ‘Eyeup’.
The others however had other points of view, and began arguing over wether to get rid of him, trust him or turn him to stone to which Discord angrily refused to happen to anypony.
“Enough!”
All the arguing ceased at the sound of Celestia using the Royal Canterlot Voice, something she only used for addressing a large crowd, or in this case, grabbing an arguing groups attention.
“No stone, no banishments. We have had enough of such punishments over the years, stone put Discord through boredom which lead to his insanity, banishment lead to my sister becoming mad with loneliness. If we do that to somepony from another universe without at least giving it a chance what would that say about our way? We judge on actions done in this world, his world from what Luna tells me was hostile to begin with so we can never judge him until he does something beyond horrible in Equestria. Am I clear?”
All in the room simply nodded before getting distracted by the sound of a book being read aloud. While Celestia was talking, Kurai somehow left the room without anypony noticing and is now sitting and reading a book on magic, clearly amazed by everything it had.
“Hmm, raise horn and imagine a spinning cyclone enveloping your being. Rather simple for a transformation spell, the dukes archives was tougher than this…”
The element of magic gawked at his response, a transformation spell was learned by only the highest level unicorns. To call it simple was simply insulting the effort many unicorns had put into just getting the basics of such a spell. Before Twilight can scold the creature reading her book without asking and insulting the unicorns efforts he raised a long stick, almost as tall as him. From the looks of it, a small pouch on his waist somehow spat out the stick.
He focused his energy into it, now glowing a field of odd energy surrounded him and began covering his body. A bright light suddenly expanded as he spoke the incantation out loud, usually unicorns spoke the words in their minds. As the light slowly dissipated, in his place stood a robust unicorn still wearing the armour but shaped to his fitting. His short mane can be seen in the back of his helmet, clear white. His cutie mark had the appearance of a sword crossed with a staff but was immediately obscured by his armour moments after the transformation was complete.
“This will do if I am to live in this world. I also reverse read the spell to change back but, this will take some getting used to as I used hands, not my head. Or…“ He turned to see Pinkie Pie tossing a lunchbox onto the table with her mouth before eating its contents, she did miss breakfast to come here after all. “…my mouth."
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Kurai followed a disgruntled Applejack to her home, apparently having a large barn meant she was the only candidate besides the royal sisters to keep him under a roof. He was offered to be taken there but having heard stories of how snobbish the Canterlot Elite are simply turned him away, so the barn was the next best thing. As the sun was slowly setting in the distance, no doubt Celestia finally getting to it, Applejack turned to face him with a stern glare and spoke.
“Now, lemme get some ground rules set. First, you show respect and you’ll get respect in return. Second, do not leave the farm without askin’ and saying where you’re goin’. And last but most important rule,” She pointed with a hoof to his pouch. “no weapons.” It was surprising how blunt she was to him, but Applejack was the element of honesty after all. Kurai simply nodded. With that she smiled and walked on, telling him about her family at the farm.
“You’re new here, so I’ll tell you who is who before we arrive. My older brother you just met at the library, he also lifted you all the way from Fluttershy’s cottage. Apple Bloom would be my little sister, she can be a tad reckless with all this Cutie Mark Crusaders nonsense she and her friends do all day. Now Granny Smith is as you can tell from the name, my grandmother, though her age doesn’t stop her from bein’ as energetic as can be.” Applejack laughed at her own description of Granny Smith before turning her head to the large stallion following her.
“Do you remember anypony from your family?” Without a seconds delay he stopped dead in his tracks, feeling as if she had offended him the orange coated earth pony turned to face him. “I’m sorry, did I hurt your feelings…?”
“No. I just don’t remember having a family, the closest to a ‘brother’ I had was Solaire. He was a jolly fellow, I wonder if he was sent here to…” He paused to remember the world's name. “…Equestria as well. Anyway, it’s getting dark. Should we hurry to your farm?”
Hearing his little story she forgot how quickly the moon rises as the sun sets, Applejack nodded and walked onwards with Kurai to Sweet Apple Acres. Having read about farms in books he expected something such as pens for all sorts of farm animals, instead what he saw astounded him. A simple home near a barn surrounded by acres upon acres of apple trees, all bearing fresh apples to be harvested next morning. It must have taken years, no, generations to make such a magnificent harvest. The trees spread all across the land and over the horizon, surprisingly enough they still went on.
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Meanwhile in Canterlot…
“Sister? What’s the matter? You have not spoken a word since having a talk with that creature.” Princess Luna had been staying nearby her older sister, clearly worried.
Celestia to this point had been deep in her thoughts, blocking out Luna. Using her magic she opened the doors to the throne room and calmly approached a stained glass window, as expected the stained glass had formed into Kurai standing over a small fire with his hand over it. “I need to get a letter sent to Twilight right now, tell the chefs to wrap up my food and have it sent to my room.”
Knowing her older sister, there was nothing stopping her once her mind is made up. Luna reluctantly flew to the dining hall, hoping Celestia would talk tomorrow.
Dear Twilight, I want you to keep an eye on Kurai, something about him seems very off. I feel as if we do not help him feel at peace here, he will slaughter everypony he sees. This feels odd to say but I beg of you and your friends to not let such a fate happen, make sure he does not get the chance. Other than that, make him feel welcome. Kindness given is kindness shown, we do not want to make a mistake like with Discord.
Sat in her library, the element of magic has been up all night reading her books to the spines, it's a wonder why she has not collapsed from exhaustion at this point. Meanwhile her assistant snored away in his little bed, Owlicious was the only one available because of his sleeping pattern, plus Spike worked hard all morning so he earned his rest. However, his rest was cut short with Twilight groaning in annoyance.
“Uaaaghh! Nothing about what this thing is in here, there are minotuars, yetis, the rare but nearly extinct swamp lurker but none match his description!” Not knowing something always did infuriate the unicorn, but not knowing something this important was worse than knowing something horrible.
“Ahem, you know, you could just get me an alarm clock and my own room someday.”
Twilight spun around almost as if she were a top to face her now awake assistant before rubbing the back of her neck with a hoof. “Sorry Spike, I just have so much to know. Like whatever the Tartarus that thing is, it’s just so-…so-….UAAAGH!!” With that she head-butted herself against the shelf, knocking a book from the top and landing it like a diver on Spikes head.
“Ow! Hey! We gotta get some sliders to close of those things, that one hurt. Wait, it hurt.” He looks down to see the book that hit him, sure enough it was enormous so for it to actually give him a blunt impact on his cranium was no surprise anymore.
“What's this? Another encyclopaedia?” Picking it up with her magic onto a desk the lavender pony inspected the book, wiping off what appeared to be dust and a few cobwebs. “The Human Condition, written by-. The Author has been rubbed out, oh well, maybe it might have something we are looking for.”
With a small rhythm of humming as Spike grumbled in the background picking up all the books to arrange them, she began reading through the book. Each page felt like an adventure to her, knowing new possibilities as well as new spells. Twilights grin grew wider with giddiness until she reached the animals and their relationship to ‘humans’.
“They rode us?” she stared at the image of a samurai riding a steed. “Only, those things are bigger than ponies. Oh and Spike! Take the day off, I’ll be here a while so go enjoy yourself.”
“Thank goodness…”
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The sun had been looming over Sweet Apple Acres for a while now, the sounds of apple bucking and the farm animals chattering away were more than enough to wake up Kurai, for the first time he actually felt cranky from tiredness. Walking out of the barn he mumbled angrily. “Someone should put food bag on these walking dishes.” His complaining was cut short by Applejack standing at the other door about to knock, having heard his little comment and chuckling.
“Well mornin’ sleepyhead. Sorry about the cows, they can be a bit fussy if they haven’t been milked yet. Extra weight and all. Now I don’t know if you knew, but we eat uhm… things that aren’t considered meat. So I suggest you get used to that while you live here.” With that she gestured him to a table outside the house surrounded by Big Mac, Apple Bloom and Granny Smith. “Now come on, you’re late for breakfast.”
Reluctantly, he took a seat next to Apple Bloom who eyed him curiously. Unlike the others she had no cutie mark on her flank, but that did not seem to faze her in the slightest. The red maned filly tilted her head as if to look under his covered face.
“How’re you goin’ to eat? You have special absorbin’ powers?” Giggling away she hopped back up into place on her seat. “But really you eat at all?”
Her high pitched voice slightly annoyed him, he turned his head to reply but got interrupted by the sounds of grumbling from his belly. Kurai forgot, he had not eaten anything since coming here and the plate of two eggs and a grass sandwich seemed more than appetising at this moment, probably his current form changing his diet and metabolism. Swallowing his pride he removed his helmet and lifted an egg with his new unicorn magic, bringing it closer he enveloped the egg with his mouth and swallowed it whole. Surprisingly, it tasted good. After finishing the second egg he was now at the grass sandwich, lifting it with his magic again Kurai brought it to his mouth and slowly took a bite. Bland, it tasted bland, nothing special. But it was filling.
While attempting to find the taste in grass Applejack groaned in frustration, apparently she has too much work to do and Apple Bloom has to be taken to school. Knowing what was coming he finishes his sandwich and placed his helmet back on his head and looks towards her. “If you need me to do the deed, I will. Theres nothing much for me to do anyway.”
She looked to Granny Smith who simply shrugged as if to say they might as well let him. “Alright, the school has a bell on it, you can’t miss it. Just take the right of the dirt trail out of the farm and then a left.”
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“So whats your name? Where are you from? Why the armour?” Those were but the tip of the iceberg of questions Apple Bloom has been spewing out at Kurai. Granted, he was the most interesting thing since last week when the Crusaders tried bungee jumping to get their cutie marks. Gritting his teeth Kurai prevented doing anything drastic like running away or grabbing her skull and scream at her to shut up, instead he took a calm breath and answered a few of the questions.
“Kurai, Lordran, it makes me feel protected, I have met more than one manticore in my lifetime and yes I am getting annoyed with your constant questions. You’re the first to get on my nerves you know.”
The filly looked down apologetically, noticing her upset Kurai sighed and brought out a small piece of what looked like glowing grass and held it out to her with a hoof. Inspecting it she gave it a sniff as well as shake it around once taking it, nudging her slightly he urged her to give it a bite. Without a second thought she bit down on it and swallowed, gagging at its taste.
“It tasted bitter! Ewww! What was that thing? Poison?!”
He laughed. “No, it’s a green blossom. It gives you much higher stamina, it wears off quickly on me because of my size. But your small body will be able to contain and constantly expel that energy in an hour.”
“Really?! Thanks mister Kurai, with physical education today this will come in handy!” She seemed to bounce with energy rivalling Pinkie Pie. “School’s close, I hope today I will get my cutie mark. Maybe one for being a sports pony!”
“What’s a cutie mark?” He assumed it was the tattoo things on the hind quarters of ponies, but what they symbolise was another story to him.
“Well, it reflects your talents. You get it if you find your talent, so Sweetie Bell, Scootaloo and I founded the Cutie Mark Crusaders to find our talents. But I wish I could get it now, it’s just not fair that everypony in my class gets one but not me or my friends!” A small chuckle from Kurai brought her back to reality from her explanation and lives story. “What’s so funny?”
Coughing to pass it off as he dust getting into his helmet he smiled. “Nothing, so, having one makes you special huh?” She nodded. “Well, be glad you don’t have one, sure they may be special. But you’re unique, their destinies have been decided with their cutie marks being revealed. You and your friends however, have the whole world to find your destiny, the possibilities can be endless. Remember that and take it to heart.”
Giggling she hopped onto his back, she then seemed to remember something and her ears flattened against her head and slid off his back.
“What’s wrong?”
“Just…there’s a girl in my school who keeps making my day a week, Diamond Tiara. Her dad runs a chain of stores that sell our apples which are very popular, because of her bein’ rich she bribes people, she even goes as far to blackmail! I hate her so much, so much! She keeps calling us blank flanks, and it hurts deep.” A tear seemed to streak down her cheek and fall like a raindrop, seeing this churned Kurais stomach. Was it pity? Or was it genuine despair for her struggle?
“…We’re here…” Before reaching the school gate which was nothing more than a wooden fence a ear twisting sound was heard, mocking familiar to Marvellous Chester but higher pitched.
Approaching them was a light pink filly wearing a tiara on her head and flank, her mouth was much bigger than her brain from how she spoke. No doubt the snobbish queen of snobs, Diamond Tiara herself. “Well well, if it isn’t Apple Bloom. I’m surprised you can show your face here after the way you flopped on the swing after challenging moi,” Placing a hoof to her chest. “To see who can jump the farthest.”
Glaring Apple Bloom spoke back, her voice much more serious than the way Kurai had heard her. “You cheated and you know it! You paid a unicorn to lift you with a levitation spell!”
Snorting at the accusation, which unsurprisingly was true, Diamond stood right into Apple Blooms face with a twisted grin. “Careful, you know how dangerous it is to speak to your superiors! One more and I’ll have you and your friends put on the front page for,” Now whispering. “Having that little research session with a certain book.” At the mention of said book the yellow filly stepped back with her head held low. The moment he saw that, Kurai had enough of this whelp doing such things and lunged forward, gripping her neck with magic subtly enough that nopony noticed but Apple Bloom.
“Now listen here you conceited little bitch, if you don’t stop doing that I will have to take this matter into my own ha-hooves.”
“I’ll have my dad sue you for everything you got.” A smug smirk on her face, it was surprising how brave or stupid this creature was. No doubt her inflated ego.
Under his helmet Kurai grinned wide at the threat trying not to laugh and brought her closer, he resisted as best he can to stomp her skull in. “My currency is souls, would you like to be added to that collection? I could have that arranged without a seconds delay, others may be scared of you. But heres a little tip, I’m not.” Diamond Tiaras blood ran cold as she turned sheet white at his threat, or more accurately, his promise. “Now if I see you harm her or anybod- anypony again. Your days will be numbered, am I clear?”
“C-Crystal cl-cl-clear.”
With a satisfied breath he released her from his grip, as soon as she was free her legs seemed to turn to wheels as the terrified filly ran into class. Turning his head to Apple Bloom she was standing there with her jaw nearly touching the ground. “Too much?” In a split second she hopped and cheered with glee, putting his fears of upsetting her to rest. “Well, class is about to start. Best you go in.”
Nodding she ran to the gate and stopped, Applebloom then ran to Kurai and gave him a quick hug and sped off to class. Confused but pleasantly surprised he smiled and walked back to Sweet Apple Acred to let Applejack know her little sister is now at school on time.
Walking down the dirt road Kurai took a detour through Ponyville to take in the sights. Though, the looks he received ranged from curious to frightened. Obviously word had spread of his knack for inducing fear. Sighing, he expected nothing less from such simple folk who were simply living their day to day lives, then suddenly he shows up and verbally scares Celestia. Stopping at the familiar sight of the large library, he figured he might as well get answers from Twilight. Entering a small bell rung above the frame of the door, immediately after the sounds of a welcoming gesture were heard. “Welcome to Golden Oaks Library, do you-“ She paused and her plastered smile drooped. “-Oh, it’s you.”
“Yes, it’s me. To put it bluntly I need something to do here, so I thought coming here to read would pass the time before picking up Apple Bloom from school for Applejack.” Stepping forward he was stopped by a barrier flashing in front of him, upon noticing his pouch gone she released the barrier.
“Sorry, we don’t really get used to having ponies with weapons here. Will take some getting used to. Also I have been reading up on your kind, fascinating creatures you humans are. If not a bit frightening from your constant disputes, but our worlds do have one thing in common. And that would be we share some mythical creatures, you won’t believe how hard I had to keep this a secret from Fluttershy.”
As if ignoring everything she had said Kurai sat down at a table. “You have trouble trusting me don’t you? Wait, research? How have you been researching my kind without actually being there?” Twilight pointed to a large book next to him, rolling his eyes he inspected the title after removing his helmet to get a clear look. Upon reading the title and the odd inscriptions on the spine Kurai threw open the pages, hoping that he would be wrong.
“What is it? Is it something bad?”
Raising his head to look her dead in the eye he pointed with a hoof to the book. “This right here is a encyclopaedia from The Dukes Archives, no doubt written by Seath.” Glaring banefully at the book he turned to see Twilight now staring at him with wide sparkling eyes and an excited grin. “…You really like books don’t you?” She nodded like a bobble head in response, sighing he prepared himself for the worst. “Well, the Dukes Archives is a giant library upon a cliff-“ With that she squealed like a schoolgirl being asked out by her crush.
“A giant library?! You’re so lucky to have had that to yourself! All the information, all the spells! Im so jealous of you, I would do anyth-“ Having heard enough from her he cupped her muzzle with a hoof for a while until she calmed down. “S-sorry.” She blushed. “I really am jealous though, what kind of spells did you find there though?”
Thinking for a moment, he did want to earn her trust as well as develop a few connections here. If he is to live in Equestria, then the rules of the social norm have to be followed. An idea occurred to him, he still held the scrolls in a separate satchel. “How about I teach you the spells I found? Lets start with something simple and harmless like chameleon ok?”
-----------------------------
Hours have passed, it was amazing how quickly she kept up with the most complicated of spells. Of course he hid the dark magic as that was a much more fatal form of magic he feels she can not control, mostly due to her purity and it would drive the user mad with power. The school bell in the distance echoed out into the afternoon, that was his cue to go. “Thank you for letting me stay the while miss Sparkle, I have to hurry on now, I don’t want to keep Apple Bloom waiting.”
Nodding her head humbly she then shook her head. “No, thank you for sharing this amazing magic with me, you don’t mind if I copy some and send them to Celestia do you?” All it took was a simple nod that she can and she was off to write the letter, not before giving him a thankful smile of course.
Passing through the gate that lead to Ponyville just in sight was the school, an assortment of fillies and colts pouring out the building. It seems impossible to how much children could fit in that one building. Standing patiently he waited for the sight of Apple Bloom, sure enough that red mane would stand out in any crowd. Along with her she carried a small badge of first place displayed proudly on her chest. “Do you like it? It was thanks to you I won!” Giggling she hopped in circles around him.
He couldn’t help but laugh at how happy she was, it did feel good to earn something non-material but something better than the souls earned from kicking a hollow off a cliff. Pride. “Alright calm down, I had a talk with your sister, you’re in luck. Let’s go exploring.”
“Well…” She had no other choice as her friends were down with the flu for the day, and going back to doing nothing on the farm was not something an adrenaline fuelled filly would enjoy doing. “…Ok! But remember, I gotta be home before sundown.”
“I promise.” He places a hoof to his chest as a sign of betting his honour on it. The thought of exploring always excited him, and for him to be this happy was more than a rare occasion. “Now lets go.” Kurai went in the direction of the vast fields with Apple Bloom right next to him recounting every detail of her day.
Nopony in sight, he released his pony disguise and fell flat on his back with a relaxed sigh. To feel alive again, it was amazing. “So what are you goin’ to do now?”
“Hm? Oh, well we can take a look if there are any fish in that small lake over there. Or do you want to do anything?” He had her at fish.
Chuckling he sat up and stood, walking towards the lake with her nearby. Something felt off about the lake though, it was dark and murky, not like the other smaller lakes in the distance which were sparkling and clear. Slowly a head peeked out, it was about Apple Bloom's size, looks a bit like a crocodile. “Aww, it’s so cute!” She approached it to give it a pet with her hoof.
“No!!!”
As swiftly as possible he pulls her back just as a long and thin arm shot out and grabbed at the grass where she would have been, within moments it whipped back into the water and dove down. A slow rumbling accompanying it a few seconds later. “Apple Bloom…run.”
“What?”
“RUN!”
He grabs her and holds her over his shoulder, running faster than he thought he could in his armour. With the way she was positioned she could see it clearly, her pupils dilated at the sight of a humongous creature crawling out the lake, three pairs of legs in a centipede shaped body. Angered by it's prey being taken away it raised its whole upper torso to reveal not a chest, but a maw surrounded by fangs moving in and out as if imagining feeding on her flesh until there was nothing but blood stained bone. With that it roared, causing the grass around the prairie to rustle outward like a shockwave.
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Patrolling the skies was no easy task, especially with having to keep up with a strict schedule of keeping the weather pattern in check. A cyan blue pegasus streaking across the skies, kicking and busting through every cloud in sight all with a stylish rainbow streak following close behind. Yawning she had cleared another unruly bunch of clouds in ten seconds flat, marking it off a list she held with a hoof. Yawning once more she decided to tuck in for a nap, only to be knocked off her flight pattern by a sudden gust, knocking her into food cart. “Anyone catch the number of that tailwind!?”
Clearing her head she flew upwards to face the source, as captain of the weather team it was her duty, forward she flew to the still emanating source of the wind. Fighting against the current it suddenly stopped, giving her a quick boost of momentum. Though she was a pegasus, her magenta coloured eyes were sharper than any gryphon. And at her height above the ground she needed it. And thank Celestia she had it, two figures running from a giant behemoth. Without a seconds delay Rainbow Dash flew downwards to get on the same level. Slightly panicking at who were being chased. “Apple Bloom?! How did you even end up in this situation!?!” She turns a glare to Kurai. “Of course, it has to be you to be around when this happens, I oughta-“
“Shut up and take her to safety! While you’re at the farm get my pouch! I need it to fight the dragon! We have little time!” Though insulted she had to agree that his priorities were straight and grabbed Apple Bloom despite her struggles to cling to Kurai.
“Y-You’ll come back with his stuff right? Please don’t let him get eaten!”
Smiling confidently the element of loyalty never would let anypony down. “I won’t, kiddo! But we need to gather up the other five first.” Shooting off like a bullet through the skies to the farm, where Applejack seemed to have been sitting with worry painted all over her face.
“Oh sugarcube you’re okay!” Applejack cried embracing Apple Bloom. “You know how late it is little filly?” Before she could continue scolding, Apple Bloom broke out in tears, explaining what just happened. “WHAT?!?! Rainbow, you get him his stuff, I’ll gather up the rest. Just come meet us at the library when you do so to lead us there!” With a salute she was off leaving a fading rainbow trail.
Fighting this thing wasn’t as easy as the one in Lordran, for once it actually calculated its actions, not to mention the lack of weaponry or protection. With a swipe of its long arm it slung him into a rock a couple of yards away, breaking it in two. “Thank you Havel for your leggings and gauntlets, argh..!”
Struggling to get up he had no idea what to do, at least Apple Bloom was safe. Was this his destiny, to become some cursed dragons meal after saving another life? A small object landed at his feet, looking up all he saw was a small rainbow streak disappearing. Smiling he tied it to his hip and brought out his Greatshield of Artorias and an obsidian greatsword. “Thank you, now. Come at me foul creature!” Obliging to that the dragon charged forward, all it took was for a simple roll to the right and prepare to swipe at it. In his excitement he forgot that the movements were much more calculated, his mistake leading to the large tail swinging to the right and into his back as he had no time to turn at all. “Argh! Dammit! Since when did you actually grow some brains?!” Struggling to get up as the beast approached, enjoying every moment of its meal squirming for dear life.
Lifting it's upper torso to deliver the crushing blow a spell was shot right into the feeding hole of the grotesque monster, looking up to see his saviour in his moment of need. Or, saviours. The mane six are back in business. “Seems that magic you taught me came in use after all.” Twilight smirked confidently while Fluttershy cowered behind her, though she loved animals, adult dragons were not her favourite to deal with. “Pinkie, Applejack, the monster has 6 legs, tie a few up to make it lose its balance.”
Whipping out a piece of long rope al Applejack could say was. “YEEEEHAWWW!” Closely followed by Pinkie Pie zipping around the dragon, getting it to stomp each time she was within range. Unfortunately it's tail was free and could put a damper on the whole strategy, quickly turning to Kurai while getting the rope ready to toss he nodded knowing what had to be done.
As Pinkie Pie kept it's legs occupied it couldn’t notice Kurai running after the wildly flailing tail, focussing all his might into his swing he slammed the sword down. The tail severed from the main body struggled around a bit before going limp and surrounded in a pool of thick blood, he gave he thumbs up to Twilight and Rarity ready with their levitation spell. Both lifted the heavy tail at the tip and swung it clockwise once before giving the dragons back a good smack, causing it to lunge forward and impale its teeth into the ground. In a blur of orange and blonde Applejack ran circles around it and tied its legs up, fully incapacitating it. The beast was stuck good now.
“Now we need to finish it!” Kurai yelled out, tossing up an uchigatana to Rainbow Dash who promptly caught it with her mouth. She had no idea how, but this felt right, quick and awesome like her. One running and one flying at the neck and head of the incapacitated dragon. Being closer he cut the neck clean off the body, the head seeming to float midair as Rainbow Dash flew right past it, cutting the head in half before it even touched the ground. Taking a moment to gather what just happened the group looked to one another.
“Did we just, kill it…?” Twilight asked, clearly baffled at what just happened.
Kurai interjected. “We had no choice, you knew that from what the book said about ‘Gaping Dragons’.” The body dissolved into a white mist before being absorbed into his being, no doubt collecting the souls of those fallen to it as well as the soul of the beast itself. Twilight nodded, sighing happily that such a monster has been taken care of. “Also, nice strategy using your ‘stare’ from a distance to keep it still once it was down Fluttershy.”
The pink maned pegasus blushed from the attention. “How did you know I could do that…?”
“Well firstly the monster has good eyesight so to catch it in your stare was no problem, and Apple Bloom told me. Heh. Thank you for helping me, all of you. Now, I think we should get to our homes in case any more are lurking nearby.” All mumbled and nodded in agreement, it was already nightfall.
“Kurai.” Applejack sternly spoke, her face cold as steel. “We need to talk once we get back to the farm.”
The moon was shining over Equestria, and from the looks of it a full moon. For farmers it’s considered a blessing from Luna herself, because of the extra reflected sunlight to grow the crops. But for Sweet Apple Acres and Kurai it only meant everything can be seen. He stood outside near a tree waiting patiently for Applejack, as usual protocol he had to hand his pouch over to Granny Smith as she was the only pony responsible enough to handle it. Seeing her leave the home with a trembling Apple Bloom hiding behind the window with Big Mac and Granny Smith hoping to see how this will end up.
“Kurai, I hope you realise how much trouble we could have all been in. Do you realise how traumatised my little sister could be?” Raising her voice each time she began speaking again. “Do you even realise how close she was to being killed!? DO YOU?! We’ve already lost two Apples and by golly I’m not letting another leave this world before their time!”
“I heard of them, I am sorry to hear about Honey Blossom and Merton Charm. I'm sure they were great par-“ Before he could finish Applejack screamed and bucked at his stomach, losing all the wind he had he fell to his knees.
Tears streamed down her face as she faced him. “YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO SPEAK THEIR NAMES YOU MONSTER!” Having made up her mind she pointed with a hoof to the exit. “Leave. Get outta here and never come back.”
Coughing he slowly got up, trying to speak. Though she was small she was strong, especially for her age as well. Immediately, the feeling came back, the feeling of hollowing or something more. Kurai's mind tried to make sense of the emotions he felt, rage, sadness and the feeling of loss. “Fine. I’ll leave.” He turned to leave the gate, walking out. It was painful hearing the cries of a distant Apple Bloom but he felt she would be much safer without a ‘monster’ like him around.
Opening the door Applejack placed her hat on a rack nearby, none would look her in the eye until her little sister spoke. “WHY?! Why, why why why?!” Slamming her front hooves into Applejack's chest. “He saved me! Why did you make him leave!” Each impact got weaker until she gave up, curled up into the floor, though she knew him for a day, she grew to like him. Even developing a schoolgirl styled crush on him from his calm demeanour.
Applejack strokes her sister's red mane, calmly explaining. “Sugercube, I know it’s hard but. You have to understand, I have to protect you. You know I have to take after ma and pa’s job parenting you, it ain’t easy…”
Snapping back Apple Bloom glared at her sister with streaks running down her face. “HE WAS MORE OF A PARENT THAN YOU!” All in the room was silent while Applejack held a hoof to he mouth at hearing that while Big Mac and Granny Smith’s jaws hung wide open. “Unlike you he actually protected me from Diamond Tiara! He faced a problem head on and solved it, not like how you just stood there and watched! Heck, even Babs became more of mother after dealing with Tiara that one time!”
The truth was out, and there was no turning back. While the room was silent Apple Bloom stomped up to her room, refusing to look anypony in the eye.
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That was it, he had been abandoned and turned away. Even after helping slay an abomination of a flying reptile was he even given praise? No, instead he was blamed for the incident as usual. No different from Lordran now that he thought about it, considering how Applejack decided to handle the situation when she talked to him. He was trapped in this crazy world and not one lick of sense could be made for why he has been chosen to be there. While deep in his demented thoughts he heard the flapping sound of wings, from the amount of wind being pushed with each beat he could determine it was Rainbow Dash. “So are you here to yell at me and finish the job Applejack started?” Turning to glare at her he realised she was returning a confused tilted stare.
“Uuh, no. Just I came to say how awesome you were back there, not as awesome as me but still pretty awesome.” Realising what he said she flew around Kurai to stop him before landing in front of him. “What happened?” Her face was etched with a cocktail of emotions, worry, curiosity and annoyance as if something like this has happened before.
It was pleasantly surprising to be complimented, but from how her tone changed so quickly at the mention of her friends name could lead to trouble if Kurai let out how he currently felt. But despite that, she needed to know. As he started his tale she hung onto every word that left his lips, nodding understandably every time he finished a sentence. Those Daring Do books she had been reading had increased her tendency to listen things through nowadays rather than jump to conclusions. And from how he puts it, Applejack is still as stubborn as ever. But after what has been happening recently, she had a right to be.
“Wow, so let me get this straight. You hang out with Apple Bloom, a giant monster appears, we take it down, Applejack kicks you out and yells at you even though Apple Bloom would most likely be angry at her for doing that?”
“Well, that might be it in a nutshell.”
Rainbow Dash stood still, contemplating about what could be done. After a few seconds of thinking she simply shrugged. “I dunno, she can be very stubborn. Pride and all.” Kurai raised an eyebrow. “Yeah I’m not one to talk. Oh!” With a quick burst she was in the air and back within a few seconds, this time holding a familiar blade in her mouth and dropping it onto an open hand. “Here, thanks for letting me use it.”
“Hmm, keep it. You seem to be putting it to better use than I am, just remember this. Cut in the direction of your movements, never try to outsmart with fancy swordplay. Outsmart with speed, and from the looks of it you have a lot of speed to pull it off.”
Unable to contain it she flew upwards just above eye level cheering happily for the gift. “Aww yeah!!! Best present ever! I’ll go put this somewhere safe for later, see ya!” She stopped mid flight to her home. “Oh, if you’re heading to the library, I wouldn’t. Filthy Rich put a call out to what you did to that Diamond Tiara kid. She totally had it coming, police are all over the place looking for you. Don’t worry, I won’t tell. Anypony who goes this far to fight that thing alone to protect somepony else is alright in my book. And one last thing.” Flying up to him she gave him a playful but rough nudge on his arm. “Thats for the way you spoke to me back there.” Sticking her tongue out before flying back to her home.
Chuckling under his helmet after that he was glad to have made another connection, with the element of loyalty, Rainbow Dash. “Thanks.” The library was guarded by officers either surrounding Ponyville or wandering inside, as tempting as it was he can’t simply run in and slaughter them. He had no weapons and that would result in being actively hunted down by the royal guard. Mumbling he continued to think of ways to stay hidden, the farm was a no go. Ponyville was heavily guarded and anywhere else was too far. Now that he remembers it, he did see a treehouse just on the outskirts of the farm. It may not seem like much but at this point it was better than nothing. Nodding to himself he began to formulate a plan on how to get in by drawing a few diagrams in the dirt with a stick, the Apple family had certain sleeping patterns. Early to rise and early to rest from the looks of it. In about seven minutes they will be tucking in and he will have a three hour window if the farm animals don’t get spooked by his appearance.
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Sitting at a table in town hall was daunting, but what was even worse is that it was boring. Yawning at whatever’s taking so long for Filthy Rich and Mayor Mare to finish their conversation in the next room, though Twilight Sparkle was trying to be patient the dull colours of the room did not help. Sighing she might as well while she waits, opening up her saddlebags a few scrolls levitated onto the table in front of her. “Great soul arrow? No. Homing soul mass? I’ll save that for later. Hidden weapon? Haven’t seen that one yet.” With a small smile she read the effect and incantation, the things she could do with that spell. It was not restricted to weapons, anything she held would be invisible for a set time, could be a good prank for Spike if he overslept by turning his bed invisible as he slept. Whispering the incantation the spell took effect, too late she realised she had a hoof on the table.
Panicking she piled the scrolls into her saddlebags before anypony saw, Twilight heard two voices approaching from the other room. Eyes widening Twilight attempted to undo the spell, no effect. Of course, when something like this happens two of the most financially powerful ponies are about to come in. Acting natural she puts on her best calm expression as Filthy Rich walks in closely followed by Mayor Mare. “Now do I have your word that this Kurai pony will be captured?”
“Without a-“ Finally noticing something was off Mayor Mare looked around Filthy Rich to Twilight who simply waved to distract her. “Wasn’t there a table there?”
“N-No! No table here, none at all!” Twilight replied, laughing nervously.
Rich cleared his throat to recapture the mayor's attention. “I paid good money I could be using instead on my sweet little Tiara to have you deploy these jokes.” He began walking towards the window which was on the other side of an invisible table, this was the moment Twilight slipped away before anything happens. “If you can’t have the job done by monday I’ll see to it your election won’t go so- OOF!” With a sickening thud his chin lay flat on the invisible table.
In a half closed door Twilight saw what just happened, stifling a laugh she left the building with her sanity intact. “Finally some colour, for a mayor she really needs to lighten up her wallpaper.”
Approaching the treehouse door which was surprisingly large for just fillies, Kurai inspected the door to make sure it was not locked. No lock, after that painful climb up to the door it should be. Slowly opening the door he crept in and inspected his surroundings in the moonlight shining across the wood panel floor in the window. It was oddly empty save for a podium at the end, clearly they took their crusading seriously. What was a little off was a large saddlebag against the wall, curiosity getting the better of him, Kurai opened the bag and recoiled at what he saw. Holding up what seemed to be a…maids outfit, he inspected what was under it.
“Oh sweet Gwyn what the hell is this.” Behind the bag itself was a book, no doubt this might be the book that Diamond Tiara brat threatened Apple Bloom about. Praying it wasn’t what he thinks it might be Kurai opened his eyes to look at the cover, ‘Rosemary Delight’s guide to cooking”. Sighing with relief he sat back on the floor, just at that moment the book slid past the cover, it was an extra covered book. Those always irritated Kurai as he constantly had to put it together again, but seeing as it belongs to somepony else he had no choice. Reaching to pick up the book he noticed the title was different this time. ‘Rosemary Delight’s guide to fetishes’. At this point it did not surprise him, this filly would do just about anything for a cutie mark.
“Somebody needs to get her a boyfriend. Or, coltfriend. Next time I see her I need to have a word with her about morals of this stuff. I’m starting to think those two friends of hers did not catch the flu…” Putting the book away he felt a little drowsy after such an eventful morning, maybe it is a good idea to tuck in after all. With such armour he had no need for covers to keep warm, all it took was to nestle up to a corner and he was down like a brick.
-----------------------------
Opening his eyes slowly, the previous warmth of the treehouse now gone. A familiar coldness crept up his body like a snake, Kurai sat up and explored his current locations with his eyes. The area surrounding him was simply nothing, a black space. The only thing visible being the light grey of a ground that exhumed a dark purple mist.
“So this is your nightmare?” The sudden voice nearly made him jump out his armour as he leapt forward and twisted around to see who spoke. Standing before him was a dark blue alicorn with a moon on her flank, smaller than Celestia but still large by pony standards. “I was honestly expecting more from a battle hardened warrior.”
Before she spoke further a rumble was audible in the darkness, in the distance a red being rose up from the ground. It was clad in armour while carrying an inhumanly heavy sword, this was soon followed by another rumble with another red being rising from the ground.
“Invaders, I hate invaders.” Kurai mumbled gritting his teeth with pure fury. Before long a wall of red beings had formed in front of him and his intruder. In Lordran this was what he had to deal with every moment he was awake, and in his world he was awake all the time. Luna stood there with her mouth agape, her horn began to glow attempting to take them somewhere with less danger in his dreams but to no avail. “Don’t bother anyway, nowhere in my mind is safe.”
Luna ignored his word of caution and continued to try and find a place, a quick flash of her horn was all she needed as confirmation. Within seconds of being butchered they were teleported to someplace that looks like Equestria, Sweet Apple Acres to be precise, without a doubt Apple Bloom’s dream. A few moments later upon arriving, the princess gave Kurai a knowing arched eyebrow with a smirk. “Don’t you even dare.”
Oh the amount of blackmail this little secret could conceive, of all times for him to a grow a heart in this world. This resulted in her developing a crush on him. The princess of the moon broke into a fit of laughter, wiping off a tear and raising a trembling hoof to speak only to burst out laughing. “She honestly has a-“ Before she could even finish he had his hand gripping her muzzle shut, with a swift motion she phased right through his hand. “Alright alright I’m sorry, but we are amused by this. And slightly disturbed, you do know how old you are compared to everypony else? Your cycle must have been repeating for centuries, you might be older than our sister!”
Though she was wrong, she was right in some way. All those repeats and he retained every memory in deep detail. His body may not have aged, but his mind was older than the most ancient of holy priests. “Also, we have heard about the incident at the school. We saw her dreams anyway, so you had the right mind to do so. Who dreams of Scootaloo, Apple Bloom and Sweetiebell wearing collars and being household furniture?”
“A soon to be dead freak maybe?” Kura replied. Noticing her awkward stare he shrugged. “I’m not going to kill her, that would be me setting a bad example for Apple Bloom on how to deal with things.”
“Morning approaches, be safe and wary. You might be getting a visitor tomorrow night from the castle, good luck with the day.” She pokes his chest with a hoof. “And don’t let these monsters you discovered take over.”
He stood there and looked to where his pouch should be. “I have no weapons to do so.” If he remembers correctly he had to leave it with Applejack or Granny Smith.
“Of course! How silly of us, when you wake up you’ll have your weapons and things back. Good luck.”
Before he could even argue to how that is possible a rift appears and sucks him out into reality.
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Laying still in the treehouse, silent as a mouse surrounded by cats. He had no weapons, he had no idea what he would do. And what might be worse for him, is Apple Bloom had a crush on him. If that became apparent he would most certainly be seen as some sort of freak, not as an interspecies thing, but an age thing. Slowly turning to the saddlebag and book at the end of the room, he could only imagine what sort of things she would do if older. Shaking his head to rid his mind he heard steps approaching the treehouse, expecting it to be Applejack he set back and awaited his fate at the hooves of the crazy mare.
“Hello? Mr Kurai? I know you’re in there.” That voice was Apple Bloom without a shred of doubt. How she knew he was in there was anybody’s guess, opening the door slowly she peeked in to make sure her assumption was right. With a smile she closed the door behind her and hopped in, holding his pouch in her mouth. “Luna told me you’d be here!” She chirped.
“Yeah, and she seemed to show me a little more than I bargained to see.” Kurai replied with a flat tone. “Dream and reality.” He added while looking at the saddlebag. Turning his head to look at her she was looking at the floor whimpering, both her secrets out. “Sorry. But I will admit, it is flattering to be like-liked for once. I have a question for you though, why go this far for your cutie mark?”
Blushing she put the book in its respective place in the bag before answering. “It, wasn’t for getting my cutie mark. Living alone in the farm when my sister, brother and granny are out doing jobs gets frustrating. Specially since I've reached what my sister calls the age where ‘the birds and the bees’ need to be aware.”
“Can I interrupt you for a second? How old are you?”
“Fifteen!” She boasted proudly.
Kurai pondered for a brief second. “Well, I guess that might be the right age for your sister to explain it to you. But you are far too young to be playing with objects like that, where did you find them?”
Sitting on her flank she tapped her chin with a hoof. From how she was thinking those things must have been in the treehouse for what seemed like months, which made Kurai realise how long Diamond Tiara had been blackmailing her and her friends. “I found them in Applejacks closet..” She admitted shamefully.
Sighing he chuckled slightly at her answer. “Don’t worry, I won’t judge you.” Getting up he tied the pouch to his hip, he walked towards the door.
“You’re leaving…?”
Turning around to look her in the eyes he knelt down and gave her a close embrace, whispering. “I have to, with me being hunted down I can’t risk your safety, or anypony’s safety for that matter.” Pulling back from the embrace he stood, his shield and sword neatly sheathed on his back. “I might come back sometime, just not now. I have a promise to keep to Luna by defending the area from monsters.” Stepping out into the sunlight he began his quest after a quick bite of a green blossom, turning to look over his shoulder to give Apple Bloom a reassuring smile. His face was nearly pale but smooth as marble, his hair looking no better being split at the fringe and snowy white. His eyes were the last things to be embedded into her mind, pure pale blue. Eyes accustomed to war finally showing a kind expression and she was the first to see it.
Deep within the swamp of the Everfree a creature stirs. The bubbles slowly rise before giving off an unpleasant pop with each risen bubble. Long forgotten has this beast been since its last defeat at the hands of the chosen undead. Rage fuels its eternal desire for revenge at the loss of its body, now a skull sitting at the bottom of a murky bog. He was not taking any of it anymore, a roar muffled by mud and water emerged from its bare toothed grin as the surrounding mud cleared way to a graveyard of pony bones. Moments passed by turned into minutes and then hours, at the moons full view, a skeletal arm burst from the depths.
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Gasping Celestia sat up at the vision plaguing her dream with Luna quick to react by calling out from the other towers balcony. “Did you see it too?!” Flying over to her older sisters tower. Being immortal beings of such power serious threats were delivered in the forms of visions, minor threats were sent as small hints though they do wish all threats would come as a vision to make things easier. “Should we call upon the elements of harmony dear sister?”
Nodding, Celestia levitated a paper and quill to start writing down her urgent message for Twilight to gather her friends with the elements and meet at the throne room. Hoping to herself they would respond in time, she sent off the message without the royal seal in her hurry. With a desperate act she sent the royal seal as a separate item, hopefully spike won’t mind coughing two things up at once. “Where is Kurai? I heard he is currently being hunted down for threatening a filly, don’t tell me the grand council accepted a request without my permission.” She fumed, as unacceptable as his actions were she knew he couldn’t help it. At this point to do a mass call for the police Filthy Rich hired would lead to paperwork and a lot of pay checks for the wasted time of the police ponies, and she knew Filthy Rich wouldn’t pay a penny. The royal treasury was already nearly empty after the changeling invasion caused mass property damage.
“I sent him on quest, should I call him back because of this threat? If so that will not be possible until he either falls asleep or somepony finds him. Will take a while until nightfall, and I’m not sure my magic can reach him as easily. Why is it every time something goes wrong the best help we need is never on time or never there!” She fell backwards onto her older sisters back who wrapped a wing around her.
“As long as we have help and nopony is hurt in the aftermath, but just in case if you could not find Kurai, I’ll send a letter to the Wonderbolts to do a mass search of Equestria.” Luna raised an eyebrow at this. Other than flying and being elite flight teams they were unreliable in certain situations, such as that time with Spike’s growth spurt. “Yes they aren’t the best for disasters but what choice do we have?”
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Each step was painful to take, the ground so far was nothing but grass with the occasional lake. The water was clear and sparkling but it had a very bitter taste as he went on. Was he close to a volcano? Impossible, the water’s too clear for that. Maybe it was the humidity, he was traveling north. Stopping at the sixteenth lake he has seen thus far Kurai sat down to take a rest, maybe this lake tasted sweeter than the last few. Taking off his helmet and gauntlets Kurai dunked his hands in the water, bringing up a handful of water slowly dripping out from his cupped hands. Taking a reluctant but swift sip he noticed the water was much sweeter, a bit too sweet actually. But at this point he had no reason to complain as the water was actually drinkable, desperate from thirst he threw his head into the water and began drinking while his head was submerged. Opening his eyes underwater it was apparently so clear it was like looking through glass, taking in the wonder he noticed something off. A large pipe on the other end of the lakes wall, squinting to see clearer Kurai realised he was out of breath. Pulling his head up form the water with a loud and strained gasp he fell back, coughing up a bit of excess water.
Staring into the sky was mesmerising, the clouds not controlled by pegasus magic taking many shapes and sizes. Back in Lordran the sky always stayed date same, it was refreshing to see new things. Closing his eyes Kurai began to drift off, suddenly awoken by a rumble and loud explosion. “What the?!” A plume of smoke arose in the distance, probably an actual fire breathing dragon this time. Dragging his sword out he eagerly ran onward to face whatever is ahead, no fear or hesitation in the striding movements. Approaching his destination was a breeze, but what stood before him was something not dangerous. Or at least he hoped not. A giant oak tree much like Twilights but made of what appeared to be iron or steel, the visible ‘roots’ being pipes along with a few chimneys on the top dispersing a large amount of steam.
“Gott Im Himmel! Another experiment failed!” A large voice boomed from inside, definatly female, quickly becoming content after a few seconds. “Oh well, it can’t be helped. Assistant! You can take a break until I figure out the major malfunction.”
Approaching the door, bolted together by the looks of it, Kurai raised an arm to knock on the door to be interrupted by the sound of a buzzer going off. The door then immediately opened at that buzzer revealing all inside. Strewn across the floor were bolts and pieces of metal along with a few blotches of liquid that was thick and black like tar.
On the other end of the room stood a humanoid monster made entirely out of metal, the head replaced with a dogs head with the arms and legs resembling that of an anthropomorphic hound build for digging. From the looks of the hands shaped like giant shovels it seemed that way. Approaching it he was alarmed by the same voice he heard. “A beauty isn’t it- Oh! You! You’re not a pony aren’t you?!” Dashing right up to Kurai to inspect him closely, her eyes darting to very angle of his body before hopping back. “Es tut mir leid!” Bowing her head. “But you just look so interesting. My name is Ratchet, and I am an inventor! What is your name?”
Stunned by her straightforwardness, it reminded him of a certain green eyed mare which slightly annoyed him. But then again he was the most unique thing that entered this room. “Uhm, my name is Kurai.” He stuttered. Her appearance was just as odd as the mechanical monster that lay in a heap. Her mane was blown backwards and straightened, wearing goggles over her eyes that seemed to have multiple magnifying glasses on one with a small appliance that produced light by some unknown means. Ratchets fur was a bright light blue which was covered in soot at the front with her mane being a contrasting grey, the cutie mark was of a wrench tightening a bolt.
Sighing slightly at her broken invention she placed a hoof on its shin. “This was supposed to be my magnum opus for the advancements in technology, a mech suit capable of one hundred thousand horsepower that would make building a breeze! But every time!” She slams her hooves onto a nearby table. “Every time I get so close the thing malfunctions and breaks down!” Ratchets voice was full of passion in every word, shining through her thick German accent. “Well, with every problem there is a solution. My challenge is to find that problem and fix it and I will not rest until my iron diamond dog nark three is complete!”
“Mark three? What happened to marks one and two?” Kurai asked out of curiosity, the design of mark three was perfect so this seems to be her most proudest performance. Full of sorrow she turned her head to two smaller mech suits, small enough to fit like a glove. However, they lacked a power source powerful enough to keep them active. From how they were built it seems like they were built for war and not construction. “Weapons?”
She simply nodded. “Ja, weaponry. Those two were designed for underground warfare back during the recent changeling war before a peace treaty was signed. Strictly powered by unicorns but before they could even lift a leg they collapsed from the train. So now Im building physically powered machine for construction.” Grabbing a wrench in her mouth Ratchet jumped into the open cavity in the giant machines chest, tossing out random gears and wires that were not bolted in with speed and accuracy.
dodging everything that rained out of the cavity, Kurai stood near a doorway to shelter himself from everything. A familiar voice was suddenly heard from inside the other end of the door calling out to Ratchet. “I made you some cucumber and cheese sandwiches!”
Popping her head form the cavity with a smile Ratchet replied back. “Aww! You didn’t have to do that for me, my favourite too! Come on in! We have a guest!” Jumping out into a cubicle made of glass she was suddenly doused in water once the glass somehow became opaque. The water stopped after a few seconds, replaced with a sound of wind. At that moment the door opened, a tall figure walking into the room holding a tray of the mentioned sandwiches, almost as tall of as Kurai. He was too clad in armour with a red feather sticking out the top of his cylindrical helmet, what was most noticeable is the symbol of a sun with a face on cloth section of his armour. Once him and Kurai locked eyes he dropped the tray in surprise, the plate shattering and taking refuge along with scraps of shrapnel.
“Now are you sure that you’ll be alright alone, sugar cube? I have to go to Canterlot with Twilight and the girls.” Applejack asked her little sister for the umpteenth time, though she was used to Applejacks constant questions, with how she treated Kurai before her patience was wavering thin.
Turning to her older sister with a near cold glare feigning her usual joyful nature. “Yes, Applejack. I’ll be fine, you know I’ve been through worse.” Slamming the door, sighing with relief at now having her down private time. Closing the curtains for good measure Applebloom inspected the contents of her bag, untying a long stick that was connected to the bag due to its size. “I hope he won’t mind I borrowed this.” She spoke to herself, bringing out a book she borrowed from Twilights library at that.
Flicking through the pages patiently for the right section, apparently there were many incantations for one transformation spell. Ever since she met him, she had grown close to how he treated her. Not like she was some helpless child but as somepony mature enough for the world outside Ponyville. But looking as she is now, there is no way he would even consider her to be his marefriend or even wife. She was desperate as she could be to at least see him again, taking out a few pieces of clothing obviously taken from Kurais pouch as he never seemed to use it at all (Shadow Set) in case she succeeds. Slapping her forehead with a hoof she realised her biggest mistake, her age. She was too young for him, in fact it would be the equivalent of Pinkie Pie dating Discord. Gritting her teeth she thought of a way, Twilight! She was the only one who knows an ageing spell but the problem was her keeping quiet, it looks like Applebloom will have to put her faith into the catalyst that lay before her. If it was as powerful as it looked from the constant light it gave off, it was better than nothing.
Grabbing it with her mouth she raised the catalyst, mumbling the incantation. Nothing happened. Of course, the thing had some sentience it couldn’t hear a word she was saying while she was holding it like Winona holds a stick. Rolling her eyes she held it in her left hoof and repeated the incantation, hoping for the best to happen. Light suddenly surrounded her figure, it was cold yet comforting. Appleblooms body began to change, her legs straightened and began to bend forwards at the knees. Her hooves shrunk and grew 5 appendages on each, while her torso straightened into a slimmer figure while her hind hooves shaped into flat longer versions of her transformed front hooves with 5 appendages though shorter. Her head slowly transformed into a head similar to a humans, with a satisfied grin she walked to the door and froze once looking down at herself. Blushing she ran to the clothing that lay on the floor and frantically put it on, she was too short. “Darn it! Wait, if I can change how I look with this thing…of course!” Picking up the book again she flicked through the pages for a specific spell that would help, thankfully this book was as thick as the tree she had this clubhouse built upon. “The hay is that?” She looked closer at the description and read it aloud. “Keyword age spell, speak a word in the place of the symbol for the incantation that will be your keyword, say it once to activate the spell and say it three times in a row to cancel the spell.” Her grin was wider now she was a few steps closer to living her dream which unbeknownst to her, Kurai and Luna witnessed.
Lifting the book and the catalyst, she held the catalyst above her head with the book in one hand. “Here and now, by the power invested in my word and the ancients secrets of the universe give me the age I so desire. My words of power shall be…zap apple jam. Repeat it thrice my spell shall retire!” In that instant the catalyst began to glow once more, covering her body in a green light. This one was slightly more painful than the last, her body was on fire as she grew into the armour. Resisting the temptation to scream she grit her teeth, whimpering at the thought of the spell going wrong as this is only the second time she used magic. The pain suddenly stopped as the light dissipated into small sparks, she felt taller and stronger. Appleblooms mane grew to a significant length with her tail too, she felt like she was as old as her sister. Though the clothing was a bit tighter, she ignored it as it served its function. “Look out Equestria! Applebloom's finally going up in life!” She declared, leaping out the door and running into the distance at top speed.
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“So let me get this straight, you two know each other? meine Güte, dass ist seltsam…” Ratchet mumbled.
“Indeed we do! I have no regrets on meeting him!” The sun bearing warrior declared proudly, his cheerfulness still shining through the muffled voice. “Anyway, its been years since we fought Gwyn, where were you?” Solaire asked Kurai, his voice solemn now.
“Years? I just woke up in this crazy world not one week ago.” Kurai replied, clearly confused and annoyed. “And somehow in that one week I managed to get hunted down for threatening a wench, taught a book obsessed unicorn and pegasus crossbreed how to use our magic, fought a dragon with those creatures called ponies and now I think a farmland teenager is hellbent on trying to make me her husband!” Solaire and Ratchet sat there staring at him as if he were crazy. “So how am I here after you have been here for years!? It makes no sense!”
Solaire calmly stood and laid a hand on Kurais shoulder, ushering him to sit. Reluctantly he complied and sat, taking a large bite out of the sandwich on his plate. “The process of how you got here is a mystery in its own.” Ratchet explained. “But if I were to have a theory on how, it would be that the time loop you were in collapsed and to protect the timeline with those present it had to send you two into the void. Solaire was the first to escape it, landing just outside my house. I treated him and repaired his things, he was here quite a while until I introduced him to the nearby town. Naturally, everypony was scared but they warmed up to his cheerful personality.”
“Wait wait!” Kurai interrupted. “If it was only those present, how come a gaping dragon got into this world?”
“I’m getting to that!” She retorted, clearing her throat. “Now, if i do remember correctly your source of currency and power is souls. The souls you obtained through your adventure has gotten trapped in the loop as well, dispersing around Equestria. Lately there have been emergencies on new species being introduced to the food chain, which worries me that I will have to move if it gets out of hand. But with Solaire and now you, we don’t have to worry.”
Solaire cautiously hovered an arm to the dessert on the coffee table before having it slapped by Ratchet, this promptly got a laugh out of Kurai. “Ow! Aww come on, I finished my sandwich…”
“Nein, not until you actually eat the cucumbers that were inside it.” She tilted her head to under Solaires plate which was soaking under from the cucumber waters with a knowing smile. “Now eat up.” He lifted the plate and started chewing on the cucumber slices with a grumpy grimace, eyes still on the dessert which were jam and chocolate covered biscuits with white powder on the top. “Now, you said something about a farmland teenager trying to date you? Or, planning to? Oh! Was she an Apple?” Kurai nodded in response. “Well, I see no problem with that.” She replied, taking a drink of water from a cup. “Interspecies relationships are allowed on the grounds they are between changelings, ponies, gryphons, magical beasts, dragons and the list goes on for any creature that comes from a species that can speak. I know a stallion who married a changeling and a mare who is currently dating a dragon, it’s not that odd. But humans, they will take getting used to. I know I have gotten used to it!” She smiled as the sandwich in Kurais hand dropped to the plate as he stared at Solaire with wide eyes.
The sun warrior scratched the back of his neck with an awkward grin. “What can I say? Years in this world can do things to you.” He let out a hearty laugh at that while his friend sat there still with that frozen expression of shock. “You ok sunbro?”
Snapping out of it he took a deep breath and sat back, calming himself and choosing wisely of what to ask. “Firstly, congratulations… i guess… and secondly, how long?”
Using his fingers to count it up Solaire thought for an answer but he seems to have lost track, Ratchet rolls her eyes and nudges him. “About 7 months now, my father attended the ceremony. He’s a genius inventor like myself! The great Sprocket! He was a bit… uncomfortable at first but he lightened up after a drink or so from the punch bowl and a talk with Solaire.”
“I think I have heard enough of that.” Kurai interrupted. “Sorry but it just seems odd, everything is.” He then remembers her mentioning a town close to her house. “Did you say there was a town nearby? Please don’t tell me it’s Ponyville.”
“Ja I did didn’t I? The town is called Alloy, it was named as such for the rare metals mined in it. To which how my father and I earned our cutie marks by making things out of it, good fun until the grand council of Canterlot decided it was too valuable for ‘peasantry’. The nerve! It’s hard to believe the princesses would let this slip under their noses!” Her rage was slowly building as she explained in clear detail how their town was ‘liberated’ of their valuable material to what made the town as it is. “Peasantry, hah! If it was not for us the royal guard would be defenceless and they would have been slaughtered by the final changeling attack before the peace treaty!” As soon as Ratchet was about to scream in frustration Solaire held her hoof.
“Calm down dear, I think we have something better than iron and steel now that Kurai is here.” Looking to Kurai who then realised what he was talking about. “Titanite.”
“Titanite?” She replied with confusion and curiosity. “Is it any good? Because there have been many weapons and such with much more durable material than iron and steel.” This was followed up by Kurai taking out a greatsword made with iron and tempered with titanite.
Knowing what was coming, the sun warrior stood and picked up a piece of shrapnel the length of his arm. It was the strongest material Ratchet currently had thus far. Holding it like a staff on its side Solaire gave the nod for Kurai to swing at it. With a single swipe the greatsword cut through the shrapnel like it was butter, no sign of tearaway from force, just a clean and straight cut. Needless to say, Ratchet was more than impressed with her jaw nearly slamming the floor. But her silent joy didn’t last long with a knock on the door, nodding to Solaire who lead Kurai to the other room. Forcing herself to put on a smile she opened the door, to which stood three stallions clad in royal guard armour with an insignia on the chest plate. Patrol soldiers for the town ever since the grand council sold the town to a duke. “Can I help you, sirs?”
The first one stepped forward, his name was Spotlight, a pegasus. His two peers behind him, a unicorn and an earth pony stood idly by in the back for his order. “We’re on patrol, I heard someponys been making toys.” The two behind snickered at the snide insult. “You know the drill, either pay the tax or we will have to take other forms of payment.” He smirked, aware completely she has no money left after the last tax.
“You of all ponies should know you taxed the town dry! There is nothing left, so go back to your duke and tell him he’s rich enough!” Ratcher shouted. “First you armoured cowards humiliate my father by sabotaging his invention then you do this!” She added. That promptly resulted in her getting slapped in the face by Spotlights hoof, landing on the floor with a thump. Listening to all this Kurai noticed Solaire tightening his fists, naturally he was mild mannered about such things but this was his wife out there risking her life for their safety.
“Ugh, I got peasant on my hoof.” The pegasus spoke wiping it off on the door before turning to the two behind him, pointing inside. “Ransack the place, anything valuable you find bring it to me.” Grinning malevolently they entered the room, destroying anything they can find.
Stumbling to her hooves Ratchet balanced herself on a table, her cheek bruised and the corner of her mouth bleeding. “Stop! Please!” She screamed as her lifes work is being decimated by the unicorns magic before her eyes, both laughing with glee. “No!!!” Running to stop the unicorn from destroying mark three, before she even got within his line of sight she was bucked in the other cheek by the earth pony which sent her flying into the other wall.
Gritting his teeth Solaire had enough of hearing this. “Kurai… I want you to take a breather, I will handle this scum.” This was the first time hearing him so close to rage, yet he spoke in such a monotone voice him screaming would be the equivalent of a child laughing compared to this. Bursting into the room he caught the threes attention, upon seeing Ratchet lying in a heap of twisted steel had the sun warriors blood boiling. Raising his sword he called out. “Pure scum you be! I have no choice! A warrior of the sun will not just sit and take it!” Running with full force at the earth pony closest to him, giving a good punch into the side, denting the armour easily.
“Who the hell is this?! You! Blast him with everything you got for assaulting an officer!” Spotlight yelled out to the unicorn, who was already charging an explosive beam spell. “Fire!” Turning away holding his ears and closing his eyes before the explosion would erupt, but nothing. Turning around Spotlight was met with the sight of Solaire holding his soldier around the neck in a headlock before tearing off the still glowing horn. Turning his attention to Spotlight he dropped the unconscious unicorn, slowly stepping closer to the cowering pegasus.
“You break into homes, you steal, you pillage and plunder. I heard stories of knaves roaming their towns and hiding behind authority like slugs being protected from each other by salt. You tax and take what you can, even at one point kidnapping a filly from her family to be sold off as a slave to your duke!” Backhanding Spotlight. “And that’s just the tip of it all, well listen here. Go and tell your pathetic duke that Solaire of Astora will not sit idly by, this town was shown me kindness before you came. I will repay that favour by delivering justice upon you!” Kicking spotlight and aiming his sword at him. “Go tell your leader I’m coming for him, and take your filthy knaves with you!” Tossing the unconscious bodies at him, how he wished he could simply slaughter them but he did promise to not kill at some point to Ratchet. Limping out the door spotlight carried his comrades upon his back, moving as fast as he could before Solaire changed his mind. Turning to Ratchet lying on the ground, his temper lowered as Kurai stood in the doorway trying to comprehend solaires brutality. Running over to her he knelt, inspecting her injuries.
Getting an idea he looked into his pouch and brought out a scroll. “Solaire, this will be useful.” Handing it over, as Solaire opened it he gave a sigh of relief. Great heal, a high level healing spell. Considering the warriors of sunlight use miracles as their weapon they always carry talismans and swift swords, it was no surprise Solaire always carried his. “I hope it works, since coming here my estus flasks are empty. Now that I think about it, injuries heal although slowly in this world without magic. I’m just glad I can be here to help, old friend.”
Nodding in acknowledgement to his words, Solaire lifted the talisman letting off a warm light which created a small circle surrounding him and Ratchet. Releasing the power of the talisman the brilliant light of the healing miracle repaired her wounds almost instantly, sadly the spell did not erase pain so she should expect a headache when waking up. “I’ll take her to the bedroom to rest. You make sure none of them come back, alright?” Kurai lifts his greatshield in response, under his helmet Solaire smiled. “Thank you.”
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Sitting at a table in the main hall of a fancy building surrounded by drunk stallions and mares cheering sat the duke of Alloy, a porky fellow. His fur was a crimson hue with his mane and tail a bright blonde covered by a dukes hat, his eyes are a dark green. Clearly amused by the sight before him of mares and stallions engaging in obscene acts before his wandering eyes, he waves a hoof to the servant for another mug of apple cider. She approaches cautiously with the mug on a platter, she looks no younger than ten years of age. “Well? Give it here!” He shouts, causing her to jump a bit resulting in the mug tipping with the contents spilling all over him. Narrowing his eyes at the filly he prepares to call the guard for her imprisonment before the doors opened. “Hm? The taxes have arrived?” His mood calming before dismissing the frightened filly from the room. What greeted him instead caused the room to go silent, so silent you can hear the slow dripping of blood coming from the unicorns head laying on Spotlights back.
“Duke Cash Bags! We have a new problem, Ratchet has two bodyguards assisting her. One of them did this to my best men!” He explained, dropping his still unconscious comrades on the table before the duke. He stared at their limp bodies in terror, especially at the unicorn with his torn off horn. “Cash?” Cash Bags slammed his hooves on the table, a new record for how quickly his temper had been lost this week. “Sir! It wasn’t our fault he-“
Holding a hoof up Cash Bags silenced the stammering pegasus. “What did I tell you about failure? Failure leads to wasted time, time is money and money is power. And you just made my power look pathetic in front of these lords and ladies you halfwit!” He noticed Spotlight trying to say something in the middle of his rant. “What is it now?!” He bellowed.
Taking a deep breath Spotlight has one chance to calm down the duke or his neck will be up for the gallows. “W-we have a name of the assailant…” To his relief Cash Bags had sat back with a calmer expression.
“I’m listneing.”
“Well, while he was attacking he said his name was, uhm. Solaire of Astora I think…” He managed to blurt out, hoping that the guards behind him won’t escort him to the jail cells at the dukes subtle signal.
Stroking his chin with a hoof Cash Bags grinned at an idea, if Solaire was protecting Ratchet. Then she was the key to having Solaire and maybe the other on their knees, but with her under their protection it will be a challenge to capture her. However, there was one way to lure her out. Chuckling sinisterly at his idea he waved Spotlight off with an order. “Bring me Sprocket.”
Resting back on the makeshift bed in the middle of the main room Kurai stared at the ceiling while Solaire was comforting Ratchet in the other room. It was simply too much to take, he was a fugitive and now he has a bounty on his head. All because of the corrupt government, he already contemplated on telling Luna as soon as he fell asleep but telling her where he was would be a huge risk. Too huge a risk actually. If he and Solaire took on the duke the town would be destroyed or a distress signal would be sent out to other corrupt politicians. If they did not, the town would suffer in the process. But if he told Luna of his whereabouts, no doubt the mane six would follow. And if they do follow, he would have to deal with that stubborn cowgirl who without a doubt might be wondering where her sister is. After seeing his tin catalyst missing he put two and two together, Applebloom must be hunting him down like an obsessed schoolgirl. His thoughts were interrupted by Solaire walking in without a word and sitting down on a chair next to Kurai. “How is she?”
“She will be fine, a little shaken but fine.” Adjusting himself on the chair. “Can you believe this? Higher ups seeing themselves as more important and superior to people they were meant to protect. This is no better than Lordran, at least back home we had no guilt in slaying creatures.” Unsheathing his sword the sun warrior inspected it, it has been a long time ever since he actually had to kill anything with it. A layer of ageing rust settled on the edges of the blade, though titanite increased the weapons strength it did not protect its durability.
Getting up off of the bed Kurai opened his pouch, bringing out another pouch full of some kind of dust. “Here, repair powder. Been saving this up after every time loop, figured it might come in handy.” Solaire nodded in appreciation before tossing the golden powder in the air above him, the powder slowly settled onto his armour and sword repairing it the second it made contact. Solaire stood still for a moment. “You ok?” In reply Solaire reeled back and let out an almighty sneeze, getting a laugh out of Kurai to which his friend followed in the laughter. The sound of metal dropping nearby broke them out of their laughing fit. “What was that?!”
Solaire and Kurai both raised their blades at the direction of the sound, the sun warrior stepping forward and speaking first. “Come out and there shall be none harmed this night!” Another clink of metal.
“Step back friend, I’ll handle this. You did enough for today.” Kurai interjected, walking towards the sound. “Come out now!” He bellowed at the darkness, which in reply got something he did not expect. A giggle. Having enough of waiting the stone and iron clad knight stepped forward ready to strike, a black figure jumped forward giving him a surprise to which he fell back with the figure on top of him. “Agh! Enemy attack!” He panicked.
“No, silly.” A voice replied under a mask, southern and feminine. The figure sat up to let Kurai himself sit up before removing his helmet.
“Applebloom?”
Solaire dropped his sword at seeing what he thought was a fifteen year old pony. “Well well… this is awkward. I’ll leave you two alone.” He chuckled, picking up his sword and walking into the next room as Applebloom hugged the still shocked knight. “Don’t be too loud ok?”
Sitting back in front of him on the floor Applebloom removed the mask to show her face, still the same as he last saw her only a little more mature looking. Seeing that added with her slightly human body snapped him out of it. “Let me guess, transformation spell backfire?” She nodded. “And now you’re stuck having a ponies head on a hybrid body?” She nodded again, Kurai face palmed. “This is what happens when someone inexperienced uses a catalyst or spells in general, what were you thinking?! You could have been killed by the spell or by the journey it took you to get here! Your family must be worried sick about you!” Applebloom looked down in guilt, her amber eyes staring at the shrapnel coated floor.
“I just missed you.” Needless to say that shut Kurai up, to which she hugged him good measure. Mumbling through the hug he pushed her away, breathing heavily.
“Why do you like me this much? We barely even got to know each other and you’re legally still underage!” He yelled, all Applebloom in reply did was give him another hug which again resulted in him pulling away.
“Because you showed me the way to live life. You may not have told me directly, but you were hintin’ on it.” She smiled, handing him his tin catalyst. “And no matter how you try, you’ll never shake me off. I’m old enough technically anyway, and if I do cancel the ageing spell I’ll just revert back to how old I would be if I didn’t use the spell. So, how have you been?”
Rubbing the temple of his head Kurai mumbled incoherently thinking of a reply, as much as he wanted to kick her out, he did appreciate her going this far just for him. So the least he can do for now is at least show her respect for that. “Well, I’m fine. But my friend and I are dealing with some unsavoury customers, corrupt higher ups and such. Tomorrow him and I plan to head into the town and liberate it before your sister and her friends show up, but you know you can’t come with us. The risk is too high and I can’t bear to be responsible for another innocent death.” Applebloom frowned at being told how high the risk for her is.
“I got all the way here didn’t I? Im comin’ with you and I aint takin’ no for an answer!” Granted, she did sneak in without being detected, traversed a whole section of the continent on her own and used a catalyst without proper training.
Sighing he placed his head in his hands, groaning in frustration. “Fine! Now please just, find someplace to sleep.”
Applebloom shrugged. “I aint tired, slept half the day before comin’ here.” This did give Kurai an idea, if she wanted to go alongside him into the town she needs to at least master a weapon. She could not sleep and he did not want to sleep.
Getting up he opened his pouch and looked through it, inspecting the many items it held. He ruled out all the ultra greatswords, greataxes and greathammers as too heavy for her and organised them into a separate slot. “So, which kind of weapon do you think suits you? And don’t think I’ll go easy on you with the training. We have to get you knowing the basics by tomorrow morning!”
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The moons light softly caresses the pristine white castle walls and shone through the stained glass windows, the beams dispersing at the connections between the stained glass colours. Celestia and Luna sat on their respective thrones with Discord sitting on his made out of cotton candy floating nearby, occasionally taking a bite out of it. Twilight and her friends patiently waited for Celestia to start speaking once their luggage has been taken to their rooms. “I apologise for bringing you all here on such short notice.” Celestia began. “But it has come to our attention that another major threat has appeared in Equestria, bigger than, uh, Discord. No offence.”
“None taken!” The god of chaos replied before drinking a cup of chocolate milk before spitting it out. “Wait! something that is even more dangerous than me?!”
Fluttershy flew up to Discord and patted his lions paw. “Don’t be like that. You’re not a monster anymore right?” As always her words patched up his wounded pride.
Celestia cleared her throat and looked to her sister. “Now, what my younger sister will show you may be a little much. But,” Looking back to the mane six. “I believe you all can handle the vision.” She finished, giving Luna a nod to what she has to do. The princess of the moon focused her power causing the moonlight to bend and refract into a large portal displaying the Everfree swamp. “What you see here is happening at this moment.” She added.
The swamp bog bubbles and exhumes fog, a large bubble reaches the top followed by an object bobbing on the surface. The thin blanket of mud clears off to show a skull with glowing white eyes, the lower jaw cracking open to let out a roar. In reaction to the roar multiple more skulls this time of ponies rose to the top, cracking into shape along with the skeletal bodies rising. As soon as they settled on the top the skeletons and skulls converged to the first skull that rose, slowly piecing together a body. Just then the vision cut off, the moon beams returning to their natural state.
“What is that thing?!” Twilight exclaimed after the vision ended. This beast was unlike anything she has seen before, the chattering sound of teeth was audible from Fluttershy as she hid behind Rarity who was closest to her. “Wait, the skull shape, a human skull.” Celestia nodded.
“Another fragment of Kurais world, Twilight do you have any idea of what this one would be?” She asked her student who nodded, taking a look in her saddlebag and levitating a large book.
Opening the book she flipped through the pages for anything resembling the skull with the others looking over her shoulder to get a look. “What the hay is takin’ so long Twi?” Applejack impatiently asked. “This thing could be on the move now and probably-“ She paused, the sudden realisation hitting her.” HEADIN’ FOR PONYVILLE! Applebloom’s still at the farm! Of all times for me to let her handle herself on her own!” The rest of what she was saying was incomprehensible through panicked rambles to which Discord placed a talon on her muzzle.
“I can teleport there and make sure she is ok.” He reassured her with a calm tone.
Taking a few deep breaths the element of honesty calmed down while still a little shaky, looking up to Discord with a nod. “Thanks, I really appreciate it…”
The next few minutes after Discord had disappeared into a door he somehow opened in the air were grating, the silence only being broken by Twilight still flicking through the pages. Rarity was chatting to a guard next to the main door with Fluttershy sitting next to a trembling Applejack. All Pinkie seemed to do for the past few minutes was play tic-tac-toe with Rainbow Dash with her winning a consecutive 9 games. “Gotcha!” Rainbow exclaimed about to finally beat the bouncing pink pony at the game, which got interrupted by Discord appearing with a flash wearing a concerned expression. The flash caused the pegasus to miss her mark and fill the wrong square, to which Pinkie took as an advantage and filled in the final square to make a row. “H-hey! No fair!”
“No backsies.” Pinkie replied sticking out her tongue.
“Well…” Discord began. “Do you want the good news or the bad news first?” All attention in the room was turned to him as he cleared his throat. “Alright, good news first I guess. Ponyville and the farm are safe. The bad news is… Applebloom is gone.” Applejack screamed in frustration.
While the drama was going on behind her, Twilight had found the right page she was looking for. “I bet she’s gone lookin’ for that damn Kurai!” The orange earth pony screamed out! “When I find him I’m gonna-!”
“Going to what?” Celestia interrupted. “I understand you have concerns but going so far as to actually blame it all on him is a bit extreme.” She spoke sternly as Luna stifled a chuckle. “Sister, what is so funny you can’t hold back your laughter in this situation?”
“It’s that Applebloom actually has followed our otherworldly friend, but for a reason you may not expect.”
“What is the darn reason then?!” Applejack screamed at the chuckling Luna, who looked over to Discord who shared the secret, giving her a nod to tell them.
“Well you see,” She began. “she is in love with him.” Some stood there with mouths agape or just put two and two together with a look of understanding and slight disturbance, the room silent for a good six seconds before a thump was heard. Applejack had fainted.
“Found it!” A voice echoed through the throne room, after a while Twilight had finally found the page describing the strange monster seen in the vision. Hopefully by then Applejack had woken up, however when she turned over to see if that was the case there was no sign of her friend having woken up. Clearing her throat she began to read aloud to all in the room. “Gravelord Nito, the first of the dead and second to gain his power behind Gwyn, Lord of Sunlight and followed by the Witch of Izalith and the Four Kings. With the powers bestowed upon him the Gravelord slew the dragons alongside his companions using a powerful miasma that infected and destroyed the dragons from the inside out. Ridding them of their immortality and status with the help of a single white being by the name of Seath the Scaleless, known as a great traitor among his kind since. After the first flame was kindled he took refuge in the catacombs letting his followers take the role of death and slay another human or undead, taking back a special item to be offered and increase their ranks. The most notable feature of followers is their ability to wield a toxic weapon known as the Gravelord Greatsword.” Upon reading that single line she froze, as well as those who were present at the sealing of Kurais signature sword.
“You possibly don’t mean that he is, one of those beastly creatures!” Rarity asked, Discord appearing with a pop and slithering around rarity to look her in the eye as she recoiled with disgust at his sudden appearance.
“If he saved Fluttershy that doesn’t mean he is bad right? What? Is it my breath?” He took a second to breath on his hand and sniff it. “Nope, still chocolate.”
Slipping through the coils Rarity brushed her elegant mane with a hoof to make sure it had not been ruined before speaking. “I’m sorry Discord, I will just never get used to seeing you appear so suddenly in my face.”
Shrugging, Discord appeared back onto his cotton candy seat, proceeding to munch on the armrest. It has come to Celestias attention that he has been quite peckish lately. “Is something bothering you, Discord?” She asked with concern in her voice, a being like him would have no need for sustenance and to see him eat away like a rabid changeling was worrying.
Looking up to the two sisters with his cheeks puffed out from biting his chair which now had been reduced to a stool he swallowed with a satisfied burp to which he covered with his talon nonchalantly. “Sorry,” He coughed. “I eat when I get nervous.”
“Couldn’t you just teleport the monster away? Or use your powers to bring Kurai here?” Twilight asked as everypony else in the room glared at him for not doing so sooner.
“Hello?” Discord shouted, knocking her skull like a door with his tail shaped like a fist. “I think you’re forgetting something about me and the otherworldly creatures!” The throne roomed was silent with all present save for Applejack thinking of the reason. Groaning Discord rolled his eyes and appeared next to a blank wall wearing a mismatched suit of clashing colours and holding a rod shaped like a giraffe, tapping the wall caused it to transform into a school blackboard. “Listen closely ok? Being of another dimension with their own magic they have their own aura surrounding them, from what I can assume this Nito fellow must be a god in his domain. Kurai on the other hand has a different aura surrounding him.” Tapping a picture of a poorly drawn skeleton and a poorly drawn stick figure, obviously art was not his strongest feature. “Now if I were to try teleporting them someplace or try killing them, the effect would backfire because of their aura. In fact, to do so I would need to practice with the same aura until I have mastered it. Wait!” He exclaimed with a hint of excitement and palming his face with his paw. “I can just try and teleport Applebloom here!”
Upon hearing the fillys name, an unconscious Applejack sprung up. Resting on her hind legs, her hat covering her face. “Do it.”
“A-alright, but there might a few complications because of her locati-“
“Just do it!” Applejack interrupted, rage painted on her face. Hesitantly the lord of all things chaotic raised his talons to snap them, as soon as the snap was audible a flash erupted from the teleportation, what awaited them instead was Discord gone from the room. Reappearing a moment later with a crocodile latched onto his tail he snapped his talons again he disappeared, reappearing again with multiple crows pecking at him. With a disappointed snap the crows were gone. “Well? Did you find my little sister?!”
As much as he wanted to lie that he found her, Discord shook his head. “No location, no teleportation.”
“Maybe we might find a way,” Luna spoke up. “By asking the residents of Ponyville if they saw any sign of what direction he left in.” Pondering the solution for a minute Celestia nodded with a smile at her sisters idea, simple yet effective.
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Snoring at the base of a large oak Kurai murmured at the sounds of birds above him in the tree trunks, curiously flying down and perching on the helmet decor. What woke him up was the knock of a hammer on his helmet which gave him a fright and a slight concussion. “Aren’t you overdoing it?” Solaire asked while holding a tray, keeping a fair distance away from Ratchet who was trying to wake up Kurai from the past five minutes by first yelling his name.
“Nein! I have been calling his name out long enough to get his breakfast, I think he needs his ears checked. Seriously all it took to wake her up,” She gestured to Applebloom enjoying a grass sandwich nearby. “was the ring of my dinner bell!” Ratchet finished before knocking Kurai on the head again until he rolled to the side and got up mumbling obscenities. “What was that?” She glared.
“Nothing…” Kurai replied with a stutter, walking past Solaire and taking a sandwich off the plate. “Of all creatures I have faced, your wife is so far the most terrifying.” He whispered as Solaire chuckled, bursting out laughing the second the inventor overheard his little quip and tossed a hammer, striking the back of his head. After recovering he approached the table to eat the sandwich before departing, as he approached the table he noticed Applebloom give him a small wave for him to sit near her. Kurai did not say a word and sat on the chair opposite to her, lifting his helmet occasionally to eat the sandwich, each bite tasting bitter with a burning sensation in his throat. “About last night.” He began, the uncomfortable tension becoming more apparent.
“I know,” Applebloom replied. “You want to keep the relationship professional.”
Grunting at that response he shook his head slowly. “I made a promise, and so have you. But for now, lets avoid such things until everything is over with.” Dropping his great sword onto the table for inspection, occasionally dropping a pinch of repair powder on a section with impurities all the while waiting for Solaire to get ready as the newest companion enthusiastically started practicing. “I see you’re getting better.” Kurai complimented, she simply smiled pridefully before giving a quick three slash combo at the air to show off. “Save that skill for the battlefield. You’ll need it. Solaire! you ready yet?” He suddenly called out to his friend. “We don’t have enough time and we have to destroy those whelps ruling the town by sunset.”
“Why the time limit?” Solaire asked, bemused.
“Because I like being punctual, and I really want to cover something in blood by the end of this week.” That reply was something Solaire always expected, but no matter how many times he heard Kurai talk about killing it always left him uncomfortable. Applebloom also felt disturbed by his sudden bloodlust, his feelings had no consistency lately. “Now lets go.”
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“I will not repeat myself, old coot, finish the prototype!” An angry voice echoed through the jail cells of Alloys main building dungeon.
“N-never!” The voice replied, out of breath. Cash Bags having had enough of Sprocket refusing the finish the final prototype of he design blueprints which were stolen along with his capture gave a heavy knock the to old mans chin. Sprocket was a modest pegasus with the same grey coat as his daughter, black goggles covering his eyes, his body malnourished and on the verge of starvation. His withered and tired bones aching as he managed to stand up before being kicked again by Cash Bags. “After what you did to my daughter, this town and her work! I wouldn’t build you a damn toaster!” He managed to cough out in a thick german accent with a few blotches of blood splattering on the floor from his mouth.
Smirking at that response it was all he needed to set his plan in motion. “Well, I hate it when things like this go south for me. So I will make a deal. I have been informed your daughter is coming into town with your son in law and another unidentified figure by my injured tax collectors, one of which had his horn broken off!” Cash Bags roared at the shivering pegasus laying on the ground before him. “You either build me that prototype and I will save you the pain of having to watch her get captured, maimed, tortured and executed!” He finished, walking towards the cells exit where the wardens waited. “The second I leave this cell without your agreement to build it, she will die and you will watch every grizzly detail.”
Tears welled up in Sprockets eyes at the thought of seeing his only daughter being in the hooves of the tyrant looming above, he was finally broken. He has no freedom, no hope left at that. Dragging himself up against the wall to stand. “Wait!”
Expecting the old man to give in Cash Bags smirked victoriously and turned. “So you will build it?” Sprocket nodded wearily, having no strength left to move. “Good. Warden, fetch this miserable bastard some food to regain his strength then escort him to the building site. If he does not complete his work within the next three hours, hang him.” The porky stallion seemed to waddle out the cell and out the dungeon rather quickly for his size as the warden locked the cell and rung a bell for the cooks to prepare something.
About twenty minutes had passed since the ringing of the bell and a bowl of water with a plate of grass was tossed in the cell, some of the water spilling onto the tray. Without wasting a second Sprocket lunged at the food and began cramming the grass in his mouth, swallowing after having had the whole plates worth of it in his mouth. With Sprockets mouth still full he was about to consume the water in the bowl only to be met with his reflection, his face ruined not only from the strike Cash Bags had delivered upon him but from how he looked after giving into barbaric demands of a tyrant. Glaring at himself in shame tears dropped into the bowl, mixing with the contents. “Forgive me.” He sobbed.
Trekking across the dirt road surrounded by the vast plains, the clouds in the air blanketing the sky above like it was to rain. Though by how dark the clouds were it seemed that way, especially since it took them literally two hours to walk this long. Through most of the trip Kurai had been grinding his teeth as Solaire and Applebloom acting like children on a field trip, with Ratchet following close by sharing his sentiments as Solaire tried balancing his sword over his helmet while Applebloom pretended his shield was a turtle shell. What pierced the stone and iron clad knights ears was how they constantly laughed at each others jokes, causing him to look over to Sprocket and silently beg her to shut them up. The final straw was Ratchet soon laughing loudly at Solaire doing an impression of a certain unicorn who if he heard correctly was named Trixie. Upon seeing the welcome sign to Alloy it was more than enough to make Kurai sigh with relief that the three would shut up, unfortunately lady luck instead was beating his head with a soup ladle. Closing his eyes to block out the howling laughter it suddenly stopped to be replaced with dead silence almost immediately, the calm wind replacing noise that could have disturbed the dead. Opening his eyes he was met with the most unsavoury sight of destroyed buildings, the few that stood boarded up with frightened eyes peering out the cracks. Upon being noticed disappearing into the darkness. Walking through an empty street that lead to the main plaza where a steel fountain depicting the towns founder was faintly visible in the distance a door creaked open. Solaire turned his head to the noise to be greeted with a filly and her mother, both looking like they had nothing to eat in days staring at the group.
“Mommy,” The filly spoke up with a weak voice, probably from thirst. “Is that Mr Sunny Man?” She asked her mother, having a positive reputation in town Solaire had been lovingly dubbed the Sunny Man by the children.
Breaking off from the group the sun warrior approached the two and knelt before them, holding one shoulder each with his hands. “Whoever has done this to your town, I will make them pay. I promise.” Solaire spoke softly to the parent and her child, clearly heartbroken to know that others are sharing their fate and probably dead. In response to his promise the filly hugged his shin as if it were a teddy bear. It was times like this Solaire was glad to have his helmet on, tears of sorrow and rage streaming down his cheeks and dripping out the bottom like raindrops from a cloud. “Where are the others?” He asked with a concerned tone to the mother, who weakly pointed someplace behind her home. Getting up he ran as fast as he could behind the home, the group running after him with concern.
“Honey! We don’t have time-…for…” Ratchet called out to her husband, trailing off near the end of her sentence with what she saw. Solaire was on his knees, wailing in despair at what lay ahead. Graves. A whole hill of graves made from two sticks each, it seemed to span on for a considerable length. Following close by was Applebloom and Kurai, the red maned hybrid placing both hands on her muzzle once seeing the graves.
“I’ll kill him…” Solaire murmured. “I’ll kill that bastard!!!!!” He shouted at the top of his lungs while punching the ground until his knuckles were scraped by the dirt and pebbles.
Though it took a while, Solaire had calmed enough to continue walking down road to the plaza. This time leading the group with his sword and shield at the ready, walking past the fountain a trumpet was heard getting the group on edge. “Don’t move and we won’t shoot!” A soldier roared from the rooftop, multiple others with drawn out crossbows aimed directly at them. Kurai and Solaire reacted appropriately with their shields raised to protect Ratchet and Applebloom.
The main door opened to Cash Bags walking out with an arrogant grin on his face, followed by a shackled Sprocket on a chain leash. “Well well well, if it isn’t the first and last rebels I have.” He seemed to say through his teeth as the broken pegasus hung his head in shame with his coat covered in oil splatters.
Solaire pointed his sword at Cash Bags defiantly in the face of the many archers poised and ready to shoot at any given moment. “Come out form behind your wall of weaklings and face me, coward!”
Raising a hoof Cash Bags walked forward, taking his time as he walked down the steps onto a metal platform. “Put your bows away, I will handle this.” The porky stallion called out to his soldiers, though he seemed like a lazy coward he was not afraid to get his hooves dirty. “And take the old coot inside.”
It took her a while but noticing the cutie mark on Sprocket caused Ratchet to pull away from the defensive manoeuvre. “Dad! Dad!” She called out, but to no avail as he was lead inside with shame still on his face by Spotlight.
“Stand back, the three of you.” Solaire spoke out before turning to Cash Bags, still smirking arrogantly. “This is my fight. Where is your weapon, knave?”
“Oh I have something much more better than a weapon to fight you with, I am aware of your strength.” He snickered, stepping precisely onto the hoof imprints on the metal platform. “So I had my new weapon smith finish a little something he started while under imprisonment, I couldn’t kill him so I had to bluff killing him until I threatened to kill his only daughter. What a weak hearted buffoon!” Cash Bags cackled. “So now I will enjoy crushing you with this!” He finished, stomping on the final imprint with a left hoof.
The platform raised slowly, opening up to a series of gears whirring and clanking. A casing closed around Cash Bags, made of a clear synthetic and enchanted plastic with a few holes in it. Before long the platform opened into a trapdoor and dropped him downward into the pit, the ground cracking and bursting open into a larger trap door to which Solaire jumped onto one side to avoid falling into it. A larger platform raised to expose something closely resembling a giant diamond dog with the casing held snugly in the agape mouth, the primary controls in the form of pedals fitting into the holes of the casing. Spinning the pedals with his hind hooves and using two hoof grips on his front hooves Cash Bags caused the giant to rumble to life. Raising a giant metal arm ending with a spike rimmed shovel on the end of its seemingly endless limb it and brought it down, aiming towards Solaire who rolled to one side as the shovel shaped paw tore into the ground, gears audibly clanking vigorously, leaving a shallow but large hole once it was raised again. Shaking, the frame of the metal monster raised to its full height, the lower half made from three tractor wheels beginning to spin. With considerable speed it lunged forth like a locomotive towards Solaire. Just before reaching him it raised another shovel shaped paw to slam down, stopping just before it did for extra momentum. Like before Solaire rolled out the way, only to notice his shield has been crushed, the remains poking out from the rim. Growling banefully he gripped the sword with two hands and aimed directly for the joint between the arm and shovel, slashing at the joint with all his might he cut a copper wire tendon. “Hah! Weak!” Solaire proclaimed at the wire being broken with ease. “I think I wasted my strength on that one.” He mocked.
Gritting his teeth Cash Bags brought up the limb to inspect it and attempted to function the wrist, all it did was swing uselessly. “Damn you,” Was all he could shout out after his breath had run out from spinning the pedals to charge. “I might not be able to move the wrist but I can still smash you with it!” Keeping true to that the limb swung to the side and knocked his opponent into a broken down building nearby. Charging at the home where the sun warrior lay in the heap of rubble the limb of the metal monster raised again to crush him, instead the wrist flew off from the force of how quickly the limb was raised.
Time slowed down for the sun warrior as he saw the shovel fly through the air, slowly spinning and falling steadily. “No…” He whispered, hoping it did not land where he thought it was headed. A plume of smoke flew into the air, his worst fear confirmed. Visions of the dead family inside plagued his mind slowly, each one reflecting what was actually there. The mother feebly attempting to protect her daughter as they both lay under rubble, suffocating.
“Whatever, probably more useless peasants.”
A regrettable phrase, if there was one thing every person or pony knew. It was to not enrage Solaire. “You…”
“Hm?”
“I’ll tear out your very soul and crush it before your pathetic corpse!” Solaire roared at Cash Bags while roughly dusting off debris and glass, who was now visibly shaken at that threat. Placing away his sword he brought out a piece of decorated cloth, raising it over his head. Gripping it the warrior of the sun caused what looked like a spear of light to appear in his hand, growing larger and more intimidating in appearance. “Fear the power of the sun!”
“No no no no no!!!” Cash Bags screamed as he attempted to reverse the mechanical diamond dog but to no avail. In his foolish attempts he finally realised why, Sprocket had sabotaged it by removing a reverse function. “I don’t want to die!” He pathetically cried out, attempting to break out the casing in order to escape. It was too late as Solaire had tossed the sunlight spear directly at him, the spear breaking through the casing as if it were nothing. Upon impact with Cash Bags it electrocuted and impaled him at the same time, falling to the ground as the mechanical diamond dog shuddered from the electric current. Unfortunately he was durable enough to survive the initial strike and fall. “I-I will not die! I don’t wanna die!” He wheezed while bringing out a hoof controlled flintlock. “You will-“ His little speech was cut short by the mech suit shuddering and breaking apart, falling and crushing him.
“Weak.” Was all Solaire could say before walking over to the main building, the soldiers fearfully allowing him to pass as Kurai, Applebloom and Ratchet looked on in awe. Moments later he was followed out by an unchained Sprocket and a filly, Sprockets head still hung in shame. The filly had an orange filthy mane with silver toned coat, her eyes a contrasting blue.
Hugging her dad tightly Sprocket received a hug in return from her surprised father. “Wh-why? After I built that monster…”
“I forgive you, dad.” She calmly replied.
“I bear no ill will to you either. Your will was not your own in this situation” Solaire added.
Idly staring at the building Kurai noticed the filly hiding behind his friends legs. “Hey,” He asked. “Who’s the filly?”
Turning his waist to get a better look he turned his body fully to face the filly and knelt down. “What is your name?” He softly asked.
“Sw-sweet Talk, my special talent is my voice.” She managed to stutter out, her cutie mark being of a microphone.
“Where are your parents?” Kurai asked, his harsh voice breaking a line of calm talking which alarmed Sweet Talk slightly but calmed down knowing that he was with Solaire.
She thought for a second, but after a minute of thinking she crept down and hid her face in her hoofs. “I don’t know…” Sweet Talk sobbed as Applebloom gave her a comforting hug, slightly glaring at Kurai for asking such a question.
“What? The truth was going to come sooner or later.” He spoke in his own defence, though it was harsh he was right.
Crouching down to Sweet Talks level Ratchet patted her orange mane, hoping that she would stop sobbing so that she could hear Ratchet. “If you want, I can be your mother.” Though it should be the filly who must be most surprised, out of all who hung their jaws open at her sudden determination to be a mother to an orphan Solaire stood like a statue. Possibly frozen on the spot out of shock.
“You sure we are ready for such a responsibility?!” Solaire finally enquired.
“Of course, I had enough practice for a child when I first started dating you.” A small snicker was heard from the filly before all but Kurai started laughing loudly.
While all laughed at the joke, Kurai simply stared at the sky, an unfamiliar beast seemingly hovering above and flying off in Ponyvilles direction at being noticed. Sighing he knew of what was to come later on in the future, beginning to walk ahead of the group back to the metal tree home.
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“Princesses!” A palace guard ran into the dinner hall after slamming the doors open against two door guards, flattening them against the wall. This sudden entrance and the urgency in his voice caused the room to fall silent, the chattering now a brief memory. “We received a message from our gryphon watch squad, they have found the one you were looking for along with two others in the town of Alloy.”
“Anything else?” The element of magic asked the guard, who was franticly looking through the notes of the report.
Opening another folded scroll the guard read it out loud, “Alloy has been destroyed! Possibly been destroyed for a long time, the last known leader goes by the name of Cash Bags. His current status is deceased, cause of death was being crushed by a giant suit of armour after being struck by a lightning bolt.” He read out, the reason for his urgency out to the whole room. The sound of a teacup breaking on the pristine floors was heard in the dead silence of the news, eyes turning toward Celestia who for the first time since Kurai frightened her was now sitting there frozen, eyes wide and pupils dilated in distress.
“Were there any messages from Alloy?!” Demanded Luna after noticing her older sister was not responding. “Surely there must have been multiple messages from there!”
“There hasn’t been a message from Alloy since Cash Bags took over after Titanium Smith mysteriously passed away in his sleep from lead poisoning,” The guard answered solemnly, Luna slouched back in her seat helplessly while Twilight and her friends sat there, in awe of knowing a town called Alloy existed. “Though there have been reports of the message handlers leaving with extra large tips.” He added with a suspicious tone.
Floating above the table Discord took a gulp of his tea. “I think I might be able to help with that,” His disembodied face bouncing on the table towards Luna. “If Lu-Lu would be kind enough to give me permission.” His face melding with the table drape. “Yours truly could simply spy on the message handlers for any information, and report back with the delicious findings. After fall, I could use the practise on my selective omnipresence.” Nodding in agreement to his idea Discords face flew up with his eyes turning into two balls of thread as his eyebrows knitted his body back together. “Splendid!” He cheered as he was gone with an imploding pop.
Celetias room was modest when compared to other members of the Canterlot elite, she preferred function over form anyway. A large bed in the centre of the room to support her large frame and a mahogany drawer and closet for her precious items and clothing, an oak wood table for where she could scribe though she barely used it and a set of large pillows for her and guests in the middle of her room. The whole room was blanketed below by a decorated carpet that extended until the balcony door that was parallel to her sisters tower. Laying on a group of pillows she was close to biting her hooves in worry, hoping that she was not too late to save some citizens of the small town. Every second passing felt like an hour waiting for Discord to return with the information and letters, Celestia knew that it was not Kurai that caused the towns downfall but for safety she sent over her best soldiers to head over to his whereabouts to retrieve him. Armed only with a letter summoning him to her. But one question seemed to plague her mind, who were the other two? She had received no letters about them from Alloy and that was before Titanium Smith died when the second and third human were living in Alloy, from what she hears from the gryphon squad they were harmless and had no ill intentions so she had that to be relieved about.
Appearing into the room was a tired Discord carrying a large rucksack , apparently his selective omnipresence was a very tiring technique even for somepony of his power. “Well, most of them had accepted bribes. Those I compiled into a list for punishment,” He snapped his talons for a list to appear in front of Celestia. “Those that have not were threatened with their lives or those they love being taken away.” Dropping the rucksack of letters in front of her to read as he left, floating to the door and getting himself sucked out through the keyhole, meeting Twilight Sparkle accompanied by Ranbow Dash and Applejack.
“Can we come in?” Twilight asked concerned, attempting to walk past Discord to which he teleported her back to the same spot she was as he shook his head.
Rainbow Dash flew up to his face with a glare. “Hey what’s the big idea?! We wanna talk to her!”
“She is busy reading letters, only I and soon her will know of the atrocities that occurred,” He calmly replied with sincerity, something he rarely did. “I do not wish to be around when she reads them. All I can say is I hope Cash Bags rots in Tartarus.” He growled as he floated down the corridor to his room as the three confused ponies standing outside the royal bedroom looked at each other.
“Let’s stay out here and come in when she needs us.” Applejack finally spoke up.
“Good idea, well girls, let’s set up camp out here for the night.” The lavender pony replied to her friends idea with a smile. With the halls being so large it would be a great idea to wait out here if Celestia needed any comfort.
Staring at the rucksack the princess of the sun took a deep breath, her magical aura surrounding the rope binding the sack shut and removing it. The first letter was levitated out, sealed shut by a wax seal with the towns crest moulded in it. Opening the letter she read it thoroughly.
Dear Princess Celestia,
My wife and I are not so sure about our new mayor, he claims you sent him over. Before we knew it our town was turned into a giant sweatshop, please help us.
Putting the letter aside she levitated another to read.
Dear Princess,
My big brother broke his hooves, two stallions came by to take him away. I miss him.
Tossing it aside and biting her lip Celestia read the next, this one however was burnt around the edges with coffee stains.
Dear Princess Celestia,
Please send somepony over! Our daughter was taken out of our home and nopony is doing anything to help us, where is Solaire?
Glancing over to the name “Solaire” curiously she put it aside in a separate pile for any letters who mentioned him.
Dear Princess Celestia,
Mr Sunny Man is gone, where is he? We miss him and need him.
Again tossed over into the “Solaire” pile, this continued on for another seven or possibly forty-five. She practically lost count of how many there were until the last letter, all those letters she had read thus far were tear-jerking to how this had all happened in her name right under her nose. Lifting the last letter she opened it, it contained a series of scribbles, obviously written by a toddler.
Dear Princess Luna and Celestia,
It hurts miss Celestia, my belly hurts. My mommy won’t wake up so daddy says she is in a special sleep, please tell miss Luna to go in her dream to tell mommy I love her and miss her.
The rest was burnt off, if there were still flames on the paper the drops of tears would have drowned them as they dropped onto the letter. All those ponies, who begged for her help were left unanswered and in turn suffered. If a princess was not able to protect one town from one power hungry stallion she was not worthy of the title, burying her face in her hooves she tried stifling her sobbing. Before long Celestia was bawling her eyes out, screaming at herself for not living up to the title of princess. Upon hearing Celestia screaming inside, Twilight inside a fairly large tent shook Rainbow Dash and Applejack to wake them up. Of course they were deep sleepers, a napper and a hard worker. The only reply to them being shaken was them waving their hooves as if swatting a fly and snuggling the closest thing for comfort like foals, rolling her eyes Twilight gave up and approached the door herself. The sobs from her mentor can be heard clearly, if the doors were not as thick the cries would have been echoing through the castle by now. Bringing a hoof to knock she paused, she was her mentors most closest friend, she would not mind if she simply walked in. Hopefully.
Opening the door slowly Twilight slipped in, unnoticed until she closed the door behind her. Celestia looked up in panic from the now soggy letter, the scribbled letters worn away by her tears. “Oh,” She softened her stern gaze when she realised who it was. “Twilight.” She spoke with a slight smile, her eyes reddened from crying.
“What’s wrong?” She approached, avoiding the columns of paper left behind. All Celestia replied with was levitating a letter from one of the columns to Twilight, scanning the letter and freezing in place with a wide-eyed expression. “O-oh, all this is-?” She said while gesturing to the rest of the columns, keeping the range of her one hoofed gesture short as to not knock them over.
“Yes… all this happened and I wasn’t there to help… I’m a terrible Princess!” Celestia wailed like a foal, bursting our crying again as her wings momentarily spread out, knocking over two nearby columns of letters which fell slowly like snowflakes.
Before Celestia did something she regretted, the element of magic quickly wrapped her hooves around her mentor in a comforting hug. “You’re not. You were like a second mother to me, you sent me to Ponyville where I meant the greatest friends any pony could ever have. You of all ponies despite the others and even my objections signed the peace treaty between us and the changelings, putting your life at risk for peace all alone. Don’t you dare call yourself a horrible Princess after all that!” There was an awkward silence between the two for a moment. “Sorry… I got carried away there.” She blushed.
Before they could continue their conversation a knock on the door interrupted them. “Come in.” Celestia called out, to which it creaked open for a gryphon in special royal guard armour. The appearance was uncanny to a certain jerk.
“Gilda?!”
“Oh, sup Twi.” She replied casually, holding her talons up for any accusations. “And relax, after the whole Ponyville thing my parents sent me here to improve my attitude. I was expecting way worse, but this place has it goin’ on.” Turning to Celestia to Gilda changed her speech dramatically as she bowed holding out a scroll. “Your highness, we received new information from my section of the squad, the third ‘human’ has been identified as the missing Applebloom. I know this sounds odd but the photo taken inside the scroll should prove it, may I be dismissed?” With a nod from Celestia, Gilda stood to her full height and walked towards the door. Stopping halfway she turned her head to Twilight. “When RD wakes up, tell her to meet me at the barracks please. Can you do that?”
Having been awestruck and silent this whole time she shook herself back to her senses. “Uhm, sure.” Nodding satisfied the gryphon left the room, closing it slowly. “Why didn’t you tell me she was now a captain of her own squad…!?” She almost screamed through a whisper.
“I had much more important things to tell you,” Raising the letter. “Like this, I think you should wake up Applejack for this.”
“She won’t wake up.” She flatly replied, a arched eyebrow raised from Celestia however was enough to make her sigh and walk out to wake up the cowpony.
After much shaking and poking all it took was the mimic of a crow call to wake her up while Rainbow Dash who was previously clinging to Applejack was now snuggling up to her pillow, ignoring the fake crowing with an ear twitch. After explaining what had happened in the royal bedroom it had her awake in a snap, quietly but swiftly she ran into the bedroom to see Celestia staring at the image as if it was Luna shaking her rear end right in her face. Upon showing Twilight and Applejack, of course Applejack had to take a second look, then a third, then a fourth and so on before getting it. “But, how? She’s only fifteen!” She argued, though she did not deny this was her little sister as that red mane was quite unique with the golden coat. Her main problem was how she became an adult human, or close to human as she looks.
Thinking for a second Twilight realised why, shrinking back towards the door to make a run for it she was instead frozen in place. “I-… I think I know why,” Getting the attention of her mentor and friend who was glaring at Kurai who Applebloom was smiling at in the picture. “She came into my library and borrowed a book. She seemed to drop it or left it at the clubhouse to which Discord gave back to me after he was sent over to search, it involved spells like transfiguration. Something that few unicorns knew so how could she, an earth pon-…” Pausing she remembered something. “The staff she held in the saddlebag.”
Having heard enough Applejack lunged out attempting to throttle Twilight for not telling her about any of this, to which Celestia responded by creating a barrier between them. “Enough!” She commanded, her tone softening after Applejack dropped trying to beat the barrier down. “I feel your pain, but acting brashly does not solve anything. Yes, my student gave your younger sister the book but she had no idea of the intentions. And yes, it could be possible she is now in a relationship with your target of anger, which also worries me concerning he might be more deadlier than he seems. Twilight, the book please.” Nodding to Celestias request she brought out the large book. “After my student and my sister researched the book it responded to names given and flipped to a random page which was previously blank before the name was mentioned. Observe.” Clearing her throat she spoke out Kurais name clearly, the large book pun in the air and opened, pages flipping from one end to the other with dust flying everywhere. After the book had its little episode it fell flat onto a blank page which an artists interpretation and a biography started drawing and writing itself. “Read it.”
Clearing her throat Applejack sat to read the biography, she was not good with reading unlike her sister who had a formal education but with Twilights help she got the hang of reading fancier words as well as professional speech. Something she needed if she was going to be taking over the Apple business when Granny Smith passes on in this modern society.
Kurai Mokusei, formally known as Kurai the Forsaken. A mighty warrior hailing from the far eastern lands, since his death and hollowing he has been sent to the undead asylum in Lodran. After the downfall of Lordran since the uprise of the abyss, halted by an unsung hero of lore he had been freed. He has been a mass murderer since escaping, killing many of his fellow undead who shared the curse, mighty guardians and even the deities that once ruled Lordran from the city of Anor Londo. His last known area of hunting for other undead was Anor Londo itself, cloaked in darkness after he shot Gwynevere and murdered Gwyndolin, both children of the strongest deity Gwyn who was his final victim before Kurai mysteriously disappeared along with his friend Solaire. He was a member of many covenants, but betrayed every one of them. One of which Solaire was the leader, though he did not mind much and still helped Kurai on his ambition to topple hierarchy ladder of any corrupt leader and kill whomever got in his way.
“This is… confusin’,” Was all she could say about it. “So he can kill his worlds equivalent of gods and my little sister might be intendin’ to marry him?! Not on my watch!”
“But we need him to save Ponyville, you know Equestrias magic can’t too anything.” Twilight interjected.
Knowing she was right Applejack thought about how she would greet Kurai without beating the stuffing out of him, she finally came to the conclusion that as long as Applebloom was alive and happy to which she was in the picture, he might as well be an ally after it dawned on her. “You’re right, I’m awful sorry,” She finally spoke with shame laced in her words. “It’s just when your family is involved in this you can get very protective and attack whatever caused the harm… heh, I promise I’ll be nicer to Kurai. If he treated you to his knowledge of magic and gave Rainbow that sword she won’t stop showin’ off as a gift I guess he might not be too bad. But I will keep my eye on him you hear me?”
Nodding awkwardly at that short ramble Twilight smiled at Applejack finally listening to reason for once out of all this. “Fair enough.”
“I think you two should get some sleep,” Celestia spoke up, the clock currently reading 2:12 in the morning. “We have a long day tomorrow for when he will be in the castle hopefully, now off you go my little ponies.” She spoke like a pushy mother as the tired Celestia levitated the two out her room before shutting and locking the door and tucked herself in, noticing the book still on the ground she whispered. “Solaire.” The book did its usual thing and fell on her lap, reading through the biography of Solaire she chuckled. “Somepony who praises the very thing I personify and control like a religion, I like him already.”
As usual, the chirping of birds was heard, on top of that laughter from the filly playing tag with a helmet-less Solaire and Sprocket with Applebloom and Ratchet chatting away. Yawning he lost track of how long he had sat motionless, staring at the bustle when he should be catching up on well deserved rest. Either way he felt relaxed so Kurai had little to complain about, until he noticed something in the corner of his eye. A small group of soldiers, having noticed the group too Solaire drew his sword as Kurai slowly rose to his feet and unsheathing his blade. Upon noticing the two humans approaching the group stopped dead in there tracks and faced each other, after a small argument they played a game of straws and sent out the unlucky pony who drew the shortest. Walking forward the pony looked back to his group, swallowing a lump in his throat before turning around and bumping into Kurai, tapping the large sword over his shoulder. Quivering the soldier held out the scroll, too terrified for words while under the gaze of what would be his last interaction in this mortal coil. Taking the scroll from the shaking hoof Kurai opened it, with the sun warrior gazing at the writing over his shoulder. As this occurred the soldier sped back to his squad like a chicken that discovered wheels. “Huh. Looks like I’m about to see what a real castle looks like, hehe. Solaire, call over Applebloom and your wife. I’m sure you and her have a lot of words for Celestia.”
Nodding Solaire went to fetch the two, hoping that Sprocket would take care of Sweet Talk while they were away for a while. Turning to the cowering group Kurai gave the nod that he would come, to which they eased up but kept their distance. Noticing they have no form of transport to get to Canterlot to which if he remembered right, was on a mountain. He began to approach the group, his sword sheathed. “Guys…he’s coming over. We’re so dead, oh my Celestia we are so dead…!” One whispered to his comrades. “He’s probably going to eat us! Or use out skin as a coat!” The rest was incomprehensible as the rest breathlessly pointed behind him, trying to warn him that Kurai was standing right behind him arms folded.
“You done?” He asked patiently as the soldier finished up his ramble.
“Y-yes…” Was all he could stammer out.
“Good,” Kurai began. “It has come to my attention you have no form of transport, do you not have a carriage or something of the sort? And no, I don’t plan on killing you,” He knelt forward threateningly. “Unless you all want to try and kill ME.” Grinning under this helmet at the unison of shaking heads in response.
“The scroll…h-has a transportation spell embedded, j-just read out the names of who you want to go with you then read out the phrase.” One brave unicorn of the group spoke up, her voice feigning confidence.
Taking a second look at the scroll he gazed over the spell in fine print, he had to admit this was much more useful than the lordvessel which was fixed to certain locations when this little piece of paper would send any name read out to an area that could be any area set by the user. Hoping for the best he read out his name, Solaires, Appleblooms and Ratchets then the phrase. Almost immediately he and the names mentioned were gone with a flash of light.
-----------------------------
“So are you sure they will be here?” Rarity asked while Pinkie prepared her usual party gear to welcome Kurai and possibly more than two ponies or people. “They appear to be rather late.”
“They will be here soon,” Celestia reassured the fashionista. Rainbow Dash was nowhere to be found, unbeknownst to all in the room she was catching up with Gilda. “You don’t need to prepare such a banquet Pinkie.” She chuckled. “I’ll be back, I forgot to brush.” The vanilla coated alicorn left the room, not before being halted by Pinkie for a moment.
“But if they don’t feel welcome then I wouldn’t feel good about myself, and if I don’t feel good about myself I won’t be funny. And if Im not funny then ponies everywhere would suffer in an eternal sadness and boredom without my parties!” The bouncy pink pony blabbered out in her usual Pinkie Pie manner, taste testing a cake she made by devouring the top section of the three section cake whole. “Mmm! Not bad!”
A flash of light emanated midair right in front of the two thrones, emerging was a falling Kurai who slam me dingo the ground with a grunt and cracking the ground like it was tin foil. Groaning in pain he attempted to drag himself up only to have Solaire land flatly on his back, followed by Applebloom and finally Ratchet. Mumbling angrily Kurai was promptly being crushed by the collected weight. “Sorry!” Solaire apologised as he hauled himself from the stone and iron clad knights back, taking in the surroundings while Applebloom helped Kurai up. “So this is Canterlot? Cleaner than I imagined.”
“Applejack!” Called out the golden coated hybrid to her older sister who was staring idly at her body.
“Applebloom!” She called out as well, both embracing each other. “Don’t you ever run away again!” Tears in her eyes. “ I would have never forgiven myself if somethin’ were to happen to you, has he been treaitn’ you right? Are you ok?”
“Yes, yes. He has been nice, but. I have something to say…” She whispered something in Applejacks ear to which caused her eye to twitch with he previous smile awkwardly frozen on her face. “Please don’t kill him… I take the blame.”
Holding up a hoof to shut apple bloom up, the orange cowpony approached Kurai with her face obscured by her hat. Once in front of him she took a deep breath, raising her head to look him in the eye. “Thank you for keepin’ her safe, right now I should be beating you to high tartarus. But I made my brash decisions as a teenager too, so I would just be. Uh… Whaddya call it…”
“Hypocritical.” Twilight helped.
“Yeah! That, it would be hypocritical to shut you out. Just promise you would keep her safe when I ain’t around.”
Stunned he stood there speechless. Before she was up at his neck with pure hatred now she seems more easygoing, something he was not used to seeing in others save for Solaire who was enjoying the various pastries much to Pinkie Pies enjoyment. A nudge from Applebloom snapped him out of it. “Oh! Ye-Yes I promise.” He stammered.
“Good.”
The door opened to reveal Celestia having finished brushing her teeth in a rather huge hurry after hearing just recently they had arrived. Upon seeing her Solaire dropped a cupcake to which Pinkie attended to by laying on her back and catching it with her greedy gullet, growling angrily he placed his helmet back on his head and approached. “YOU…” Celestia stared in surprise at his sudden change of tone. “How DARE you show your face to me after sending a murderer to the town I was sworn to protect!” Two guards instinctively stepped forth with their spears raised, Celestia stepped forward, holding her wings out to keep them from protecting her.
“I’m sure you have a lot of rage inside, Solaire. But I can assure you I have not sent him over.”
“Lier!” He roared and lunged forth, the alicorn stepped aside briskly dodging his blade. “Like Gwyn you will fall, tyrant!!!” Swinging again at her neck, again she dodged by ducking. Refusing to use any magic, not that it would work, she pinned him down at his forearms.
“I understand you have hatred, but please let me explain. Nopony here wants to see a life taken within these castle walls, wether it be mine or yours.”
Grumbling in defeat he conceded by dropping his sword aside, Celestia smiled in relief and stepped off to let him get up. “Then begin explaining. Or would you rather discuss this in private with my wife?”
Confused the vanilla coated alicorn tilted her head until she put two and two together with him and Ratchet, an interspecies marriage. Very rare were those, and if it did happen it was mostly between ponies and mules. “I think a private talk would do best, Luna, you explain the trouble at hand to our friend here.” Gesturing to Kurai, her sister nodded and flew to her throne where the room gathered.
As soon as Celestia and Solaire left the room to talk, Lunas eyes glowed brightly as she displayed the vision to all as she was weary of explaining over and over, that and there was no time to explain. The light bent into a window, showing an army of skeletal ponies marching in unison towards Ponyville and approaching rather fast. Behind the wall of terror stood what looked like a centaur comprised of bones, one human skull resting upon a human body made of pony skeletons. Wielding a giant curved sword also made of bone and emitting a purple gas, a cloak made of pure darkness or humanity wrapped around the beings neck as it fluttered in the madly swirling winds. The clouds must have gathered for the occasion, the swords miasma causing a storm to gather without the pegasi intervening as rain fell like hail. Noticing the horde in the distance was Mayor Mare, ringing the panic alarm like there was no tomorrow. Just then the vision cut off.
“So, the old bone lord wants my head huh?” Kurai joked in a monotone voice, turning to Twilight. “Your library is large enough to hold the towns population right?”
Nodding she knew what he was thinking, but had a better idea, pointing to Discord. “Can you teleport the town to here and send me with evrypony else to town? Oh and send over Solaire and Ratchet when they get back ok?”
Clapping his paw and talon Kurai and the mane six with Applebloom were warped to a rainy Ponyville, with the residents appearing in the throne room. Dazed at the sudden change of location.
-----------------------------
Rain was battering the streets and buildings, wind shaking the large trees and nearly forcing them out the ground. Upon arriving in the library Kurais first idea was to attempt grabbing his sealed sword, nudging Twilight he pointed to the seal. “Just twist the handle,” She replied. “You seem strong enough to do so.” Grunting in agreement he gripped the stone candle twisting it after testing which direction it would turn, after a full twist the seal clicked and burst open. Fumes from his sword flew out, punching his lungs like a stab from a halberd. Coughing heavily at the toxic gas he waved it off like someone simply blew smoke into his face. “Are you ok?!” She cried out.
“Hehehe, you would be surprised what souls could do for your body.” He replied, lifting the sword as if it were his child. “Welcome back into my grasp, old friend. Rainbow, use that katana and your speed to hold off any that get near the library. Applebloom, you come with me. Time to put your skills to the ultimate test, Applejack tried to object but after seeing the stance Applebloom prepared herself with finesse and confidence, she stood forth.
“I’m comin’ too. Gimme a weapon.”
Sighing at how insistent she was he searched through his arsenal, holding out a giant club. She shook her head, again Kurai searched through and this time brought out a dragon tooth club to which she nodded. “Careful, this thing is-“ Applejack held it in her mouth as if it were a feather. “…heavy… huh. Farm work?”
“Yup!”
“Alright, the rest of you. Protect the library, and before we go out. Remember, Nito is mine to kill.”
The ground was slippery, rough but slippery. Terrain was a warriors guide to victory, if the weather and ground was right then victory for the most skilful was guaranteed. This however was the first time that Kurai faced an army, not any army, but the army of one of the great lords. The army of the dead fabled in many fantasies. Standing in the rain, the horde in sight. With Rainbow on his left and Applebloom and Applejack at his right he was ready to fight, if he could beat Nito before alone then this would be easy. The horde split, letting through the mighty first of the dead. If he had a face, he most certainly be smirking at the futileness of their situation. “I̸ ͢ha̕ve d̶r͢e͏am͡ed̀ o͜f́ t͞h́e ̵day I ̡woul͠d̵ ̢kill̸ ͞y̛o̧u̕,̷ t͜r͜a̸i͏tor.” The gravelord seemed to breath through his chattering teeth, stroking his sword in preparation for the battle. A͠fte͞ŕ n̸éarly͟ ͜a ̢c͟entu̕ŗy ̕t҉r͠apped in múc̕k̢ ̧an̢d͡ ̨slud̷gȩ, c̴o̡ll͡e̕ct͢i҉ng̡ ̀my ͟n̢éw ̶bod͘y͡ ͜a̷n̵d͝ a̵r͞my a͏l͞l̶ ҉fǫr t̴h̨e ͘sake̴ ̕o͝f ̡k͞il̴lin͘g ̧y͞o͝u.͘ That͘ ͏d̛r̕e̷a̧m͜ ͞shall be͝c̕ome͘ ̴my ̢rea̶lity͜ an̷d ͠th̡i͡s ̵wo͏r͏l͞d͟ş ̨ņight͜ma̵r͢e!
Glaring into the empty eyes of the gravelord, Kurai readied his stance. Rainbow Dash held the katana hilt tightly in her mouth as she floated above while Applebloom and Applejack got into their ready stances. An uneasy silence between the two opposing groups, like time stopped to stare at what is to come. The silence was broken by a large bolt of lightning as Nito roared loudly to his horde which responded by roaring together, shaking the ground in their wake. Pointing his large curved blade the skeletal horde charged forth, their weapons crafted from crude rusted blades or wooden clubs. Raising his greatshield of Artorias the knight charged toward the tsunami of skeletons, swinging at the closest nearby which shattered upon impact. Watching him disappearing into the horde towards Nito with the army still pressing forward, Applejack lifted the dragons tooth club and slammed it down, flattening and crushing a few skeletons before dodging a swing from one. Back to back with her little sister they were both surrounded, instinctively thinking the orange coated cowpony gripped her sisters wrist with a hoof. “Swing me!” To that Applebloom grinned at the idea and gripped her older sister with both hands, pulling her into a whirlwind spin which cleared a massive chunk of the army surrounding them.
“Nice one, kid!” Rainbow Dash called out from above. “Check this out!” In a flash she sped off into the sky and then started her Wonderbolt routine with the high speed walk through a small gang of skeletons lumbering towards her location, stopping in front of her friend who stared over her shoulder.
“You missed…” She replied to her prismatic friends careless stunt with a frown. Raising a hoof Rainbow Dash sheathed the katana, once the hilt connected with the scabbard the small group shuddered and broke apart. “Well I’ll be.” She did not know where she got the skill but her speed leaving a split second late reaction from whatever she passed by it was no big surprise.
Breaking through the wall he finally reached the commander of this weak yet persistent army, a large mosh pit created by a circle of undead warriors to give the two space to fight. Making the first move Kurai lunged at one of Nitos four horse legs on his new centaur body, the sword barely chipped it. Grunting, a large skeletal hand enveloped the stone and iron clad knight, raising him to eye level with a rotting skull. “Y̸ou̴'re t̕o̧o̧ ̛r̛eck̵l̀es̨s ͟f͠or̶ ́y̷our͘ ow͟n҉ go̸oḑ.҉” It said with a low growl. Seeing his chance Kurai swung with his free hand, punching Nito square in the chattering jaw. Roaring in pain he dropped his target, clutching his cracked jaw. Seeing another opportunity Kurai swung at a knee joint in the foreleg, breaking it off temporarily as the mass of bone fell forth. Seeing no use for his sword he instead continuously punched the head with consistent strikes, each one hard as the last. The torso curled up tighter, as he was punching Kurai did not notice the cloak shortening in length as if compressing. “P͠e͘r̷is͟h.̧” Was all Nito said under his breath before the cloak expanded into a mass enveloping the entire body, exploding outwards with the many screams of the skulls used for the body.
Seeing the large black explosion in the distance Applebloom was distracted, hoping that Kurai was not hurt too badly before getting blindsided by a giant skeleton of an ancient barbarian pony. “Applebloom!!” Called out the cowpony, her brow furrowing into a contortion of pure rage as she leapt at the barbarian and beat it until the skull was nothing more than fragmented dust. “You ok?!” She asked through her panting breath, the army slowing down was a sign that it was almost over and for her younger sister to die during this moment would be unbearable. Before another barbarian could split Applejacks skull behind her back Applebloom shot up and cut the corpse cleanly in two.
“I’m fine.” She spluttered through the bone dust which cleared to a scar on her left cheek from the sucker swing. Seeing the worried look on the cowponys face she rolled her eyes. “Really I am, just a scratch.” She smiled brightly. “RD! How long till we get rid of em!?” Noticing the decrease in soldiers she needed a specific amount before she can go and assist Kurai with Nito.
Flying above to get a birds eye view she stared down at the still advancing army. “We should be done in ten minutes flat! Seven if we keep up the pace!”
“Roger that!” Applejack replied, flattening another group of skeletons while the yellow coated hybrid rode one skeleton with her sword firmly between its jaw and skull, pulling back as the skull strained and flew off. Jumping off the corpse wandered aimlessly before dropping.
Laying on the ground after the impact from that explosion Kurai coughed, his armour grinding against itself as he hauled himself up before Nito, fully regenerated, stepped on his chest with a large hoof. “D͡on͜'t b͝o̶t͏he̴r.” He mocked before pushing down, creating a shockwave as Kurai screamed out in pain from the pressure. “Y͢es̛. ҉Sc͢r̛e̢am̵ ͜f͟or me,͏ sh́o͜ùt͝ ́ou̢t̨ ͏yoúŕ l͟ast͜ ́įnsi̧g̷n̨i̵f͏įcan̴t ͡bre̡a͞th̷.” Nito continued to mock, overshadowing the pained screams of his downed opponent. For the first time, Kurai felt powerless. Ever since Ornstein and Smough, the Bed of Chaos and Gwyn, he felt as if he had nothing left to do but wait for his demise and prayers that his friends were alright.
Light, blinding light struck. A familiar burst of lightning striking the back of Nito, this was not the work of the clouds or the prismatic pegasus swiftly taking out groups by the dozen. The clouds cleared to a bipedal figure falling from the sky, shooting off another bolt that stunned Nito into stepping back in a daze before the figure landed squarely onto the horse section of the skeletal body with a hard stab. “Did I miss much?” He called out as his friend sat up, coughing blood from his organs being ruptured by the shockwave of the stomp.
“I’m…fine…” He lied, at this rate he knew he would not survive another assault. And estus was not bountiful on this world, Nito was right, he was reckless and he exploited that, fatally wounding him without even using his sword. Like he was nothing worth fighting. All he could hear now was silence, silence as he saw Solaire get wrestled off and thrown away into the horde where he continued fighting bravely. Silence as he saw Applebloom, Applejack and Rainbow Dash fighting for their lives, and silence as he stood to his feet, coughing up more blood which leaked from the holes in his helmet. If he was to die, it was with a fight. “Nito! Fight me with your blade you cur!”
Obliging to his death wish the gravelord readied his sword as Kurai did with his. Making the first swing with his giant sword, his opponent rolled under the blade, avoiding a cut to his throat. Swinging as well with his own curved blade Kurai aimed for the knee joint again, all Nito did was knock it away with his own. Continuously both exchanged blows, sparks and miasma flying in all directions with the occasional dodge or back step on both sides. Each strike was precise and on target, never missing but always being blocked or dodged. A heavy strike from both caused a small pocket of air around them to explode outwards like a shockwave before the miasma of toxic gas followed outwards, creating a mist. Blinded momentarily he had to rely on the swift bursts of wind the giant sword caused to roll out the way, one cut barely grazing his face and leaving a mark on his helmet. Predicting the next move was easy as Nito aimed for his ankles, jumping over the blade before a skeletal fist knocked him out of the mist. Stumbling backwards nearly falling over he noticed a shadow in the mist galloping towards him, it cleared to reveal Nito with his sword ready to slam down, lifting his shield the attack was blocked with slight difficulty. Pushing forward his enemy staggered backwards, the giant sword out of the way.
When the kneecap was exposed, he finally saw a chance and struck it and it broke from the foreleg again. Kneeling forward the finishing blow was about to be dealt, one clean strike at the neck and it will be all over. Time slowed down for Nito however as he simply parried the swing with the sword, staggering Kurai in the process. A second later, unbelievable pain struck his stomach. He had been riposted and the tip of the sword was now embedded in him, Kurai hung onto the blade as it raised along with Nitos full body. Holding it above his head in victory as his dying opponent slowly slid down the blade, stopping at the widest point. Panting heavily he noticed the graveyards exposed skull as he laughed victoriously at the traitor being slain. Kurais vision blurred as he looked over to see that the horde had been taken care of, his friends standing with their weapons dropped at his hanging body.
“Kurai!!!” Appleblooms voice rung out in his head, Solaire having run out of stamina for using his sunlight spears stood in silence. Hearing her voice Nito stared over, surprised his army had been dispatched. “You monster! I’ll kill you! I’ll fucking kill you!” She cried out, charging recklessly at him. Laughing he backhanded her into a shopping cart which shattered. Tossing the limp body hanging off the sword aside like a ragdoll, not knowing his opponent was still alive.
Approaching the downed hybrid, stroking the bloodied blade as if dusting it as well. “Y̨o͟u amu͏s͢e ̶m͏ȩ.̀ B́ut͝ I͏'̕m̷ af҉ra͟i͟d ҉tha͏t́ ́th͜įs̀ lit̷tle ̡to͟w̸n͘ sh͞a͜l͜l͏ ͘b̶e͏ ͝my̧ ̶new͏ ͠re͜s͏tin͠g ͠gr̨ou͟nds.̷ Pe̷acef̛u͟l,͜ I̵ like͢ i̧t.͠ So pea͠ce̸f҉ul I͠ ͜w̕ill͝ n͏o longe̢r̢ ́be̶ di̧s̡turb͠e̶d.” Raising the sword above his head he prepared to strike it into the ground as a piercing scream from a woman was heard. “Now̶ d̀i͜e͟ al͠ong̛ ̡wi͘t̢h̢ ͠yóu͡r ͜'̷fri̴e̸ǹd͝s͠’̷.”
Recognising that scream Solaires blood ran cold. “Rainbow! Grab Applejack and get to higher ground! I’ll grab Applebloom and get to the top floor of a nearby building!” Quickly he ran over to grab Applebloom who was rejecting his help by be beating his back when he lifted her over his back for the sake of getting to Kurai while Rainbow Dash lifted the cowpony with some strain.
Numbness took over his body, the pain was no more. Straining he looked up to see the warrior of the sun running to a building as Nito was bringing his sword down, he knew that they will not make it in time. Grunting to get up, he used the last of his strength to run towards Solaire, knocking him out of the way. Time returned to its natural pace as a giant red sword struck up from where Solaire and his reluctant rescue would be, stabbing Kurai instead like a spike. Breathing heavily to stay alive long enough Kurai reached out an arm in vain, Applebloom wrestled out of Solaires protective clutch and grabbed his hand. “Don’t die! Please!” She screamed, holding his hand.
“Don’t cry…” Kurai spoke weakly.
“You promised you wouldn’t leave my side!” Applebloom shouted, beads of tears forming in her eyes which turned to long streaks when she blinked.
“I know… I’m sorry, but. It would be better if I left this life, than you…” Choking the words out while his blood collected into the ground. “Please… be safe…”
The hand Applebloom clutched went limp, as his last breath was drawn. Sobbing into it after failed attempts to wake him up, a glow took over her hips, being replaced with a cutie mark. It was of a sword breaking against a metal heart shaped apple, ignoring the fact she received one of her life achievements she gripped the limp hand tighter as her sobbing stopped. Grabbing the gravelord greatsword, it felt weightless as she felt a huge boost in power. The reason came from the body of Kurai which was transferring all its souls into her body, she felt stronger. Much stronger than she would ever be. “You.” She gestured to Nito who was watching the whole thing with a mocking skeletal grin. “I’ll fuckin’ kill you.” Running at him she raised the sword and struck hard against Nito who blocked with his own. Something did not feel right for the gravelord, instead of pulling back to strike again she pushed forward, despite the size difference she was pushing him backward with increasing speed while her older sister stood gawking along with Rainbow Dash. Before long she was pushing him through the town, large cracks in the ground from his skeletal hooves attempting to push back. Stomping down they broke off, the rest of his body slowly decaying away from the friction. “Die! Die! Die!” Was all Applebloom could scream to Nitos futile attempts to fight back, the torso was dragged across the ground until finally his head flew off onto the ground. Turning around she noticed that she ran a marathon from one end of Ponyville to the other all for the sake of finishing him off. Glaring down at the skull which attempted to rebuild the broken body, she stepped forward, resting a foot on top of it. “This ones for Kurai.” Cracks appeared on the skull as it screamed and shattered, the black cloak of humanity spraying outwards to signify his defeat.
Catching up first was Rainbow Dash who stared at the remains. “Kid. You. Are. AWESOME!” She punched the air with a hoof, Applebloom smiled slightly at being complimented as well as avenging Kurai.
Finally reaching the other end of town was Applejack, panting for having run such a distance with Solaire not too far behind. Approaching her little sister she gestured her to bring her head forward before smacking it. “Don’t you dare do something reckless like that again.” Then hugging her. “But, you did great, I’m so proud of you.” She spoke through tears of pride.
Minutes after conversing about what they would do now they reached the decision to give Kurai a proper burial before anything else. Only, his body was missing once they arrived. “Wh-where is he?! Is he still alive?!” The crimson maned hybrid questioned to Solaire, hoping he knew.
Shaking his head solemnly he placed a hand on her shoulder. “When the undead or humans in our world die, they disappear into ashes and fly with the wind. The least we should do is simply erect a tombstone in a place of your choosing now. I’m sorry.”
Sighing she stared over to where he was. “I guess we could do that in the farm, you guys go tell everypony it’s over… I need some time alone.”
-----------------------------
Seven years later.
Sitting against a tree, staring at the farmland a now adult Applebloom took a bite out of an apple. Seeing the sun in the middle of the sky she rose to her hooves, ever since turning into a human and pony hybrid she was a little upset to have to abandon the form but whatever made her family happy for the moment. “Keep up the pace Tiara!” She commanded to a sweating and tired Diamond Tiara hauling a wagon full of apples to the containment crates inside the barn. “Until Big Mac gets better from that last tantrum of yours to get out of workin’ after your little fraud court case against the farm you will keep haulin’ them apples until the moon comes up and repeat next morning for the next five weeks!”
Shamed and defeated Diamond Tiara slumped to the ground, covered in dirt which stuck to her bright pink coat. Unfortunately for her this was something her fathers money was not going to save her from this time, first day she was told to run the family business and already she messed up by trying to bankrupt the farm which was her only source of income because of the apple market. Thankfully Silver Spoon took over on Tiaras behalf and seems to be doing a really good job much to everyponies surprise, even becoming good friends with the Apple family at that once she had enough of her bratty ex-friend. “Yes ma’am…” Was all she could say before continuing her long task.
Finishing the apple with a bite Applebloom spat the seeds into a small hole she dug and closed it up, hoping the monsoon season would water it well. Getting up she headed over to a small hill where the trees were absent for a small radius, resting upon the hill was a small tombstone. “I hope you could still hear me, even if you’re not buried here…” She sighed. “I’m glad for the time we had, even if it was short. Anyway I got you another drink!” She piped up to the tombstone, bringing out a corked bottle of apple cider and placing it firmly in the ground next to it and bringing out her own. “Cheers.” She clinked her bottle with the other before chugging away like a champ, burping loudly. “Pardon.” She blushed despite the absence of anypony here to hear. Her ear twitched as she heard the crash of a wagon, sighing she stood up. “Sorry, Tiara must have forgotten to tighten the wheel. Again. See you soon alright?” Applebloom patted the top of the tombstone before running off to help clean up the mess.
The leaves blew in rhythm to the serene breeze of the Everfree, the timberwolves were lounging in their caves, rockodiles basking in the mud. The hydra was even taking a well deserved nap after a large meal from a weekly hunt. Hearing a noise outside a lone timberwolf on a hunt stalked the sound, hoping it was something worth chasing. Upon pouncing into view of whatever it had decided to make a good meal was nothing, a small portal shifting and expanding. Curiously the wooden creature approached the portal, sniffing at it. A large mangled hand shot out the portal and gripped the timberwolf which struggled in vain, before being dragged in.
A few good minutes go by before a large explosion of tree sap splattered out the portal and all over the grass and surrounding trees followed by a loud scared whimper which was cut off. A dark and loud rumble of a growl was heard from inside, the same large hand shooting out again with an arm made up of swirling black clouds and clung to a firmly rooted tree and pulled.
The arm belonged to a giant monster, its back completely broken open into a collection of bony horns that arc in a row. Dragging the full body out the creature stumbled forward, using a giant staff to keep the large frame standing. On the front horns a collection of red beady eyes flashed open, signifying its full awakening.
Rearing its back the monster screamed, its voice full of hatred while the portal it just came out of started surrounding the area in a dark purple sludge that spread like a plague the second it made contact with anything. The primeval monster of legends, has once more, been awakened.
