Sigfrid loves violence and murder. Applejack likes to keep her head. One day they meet, chaos ensues. What follows is months of rigorous "reformation" of Sigfrid so he may be presented at the Grand Galloping Gala, what could possibly go wro
Sigfrid is a fierce viking warrior, so what happens when he's greeted by colorful, small, demon horses? Good thing he speaks the universal language: Axe-to-face.
Applejack is a hard working, honest farm pony doing her morning chores when she sees a strange creature almost as big as an Ursa, but without any fur. She tries to communicate, but quickly learns his customary greeting. Twilight, of course, is mortified.
Author's note: On Hiatus for lack of inspiration, I guess. I'll get back to this when I do, don't hold your breaths.
Sigfrid liked axes. Like, really liked. In fact, one could go so far as to say that if he was any more in love with axes, he'd have found a way to animate them in horrible axe-golems and he'd just rule a village of them, but of course he's never thought about that on long, uneventful days when there weren't any raids going on, and the metal-smith wouldn't let him in the forge that day or let him buy another whetstone. That would be absurd. No really, he doesn't. Probably. Anyway, if there was one thing he loved besides his family and mead and gallons and gallons of freshly spilled blood, it would be gallons and gallons of spilled blood! Or maybe not so much the blood, but making it was plenty enjoyable by him and he'd often work to such a level of excitement as to single-handedly row the ship across the channel to the next raiding location, or back from in some cases. They made terrible time, when this happened, and his fellow warriors often convinced him pretty quickly that he needed help, at least two other people rowing they'd say, and he'd finally cave and accept their assistance. Yes, Sigfrid sure loved violence and the instruments therein. But not as much as his family, he'll be sure to remind you.
In any case, one night during a feast celebrating and simultaneously wishing luck for the next settlement raid, the man found himself alone, out in the cool night air. He remarked to himself that it was going to start getting cold again soon, and noticed with strange peculiarity that the full moon seemed to be ringed by four bright stars, and it seemed to have a dark figure embedded in its surface. Sigfrid blinked quickly, and found nothing out of the ordinary, so he decided it must be his imagination, that it was surely just the copious amounts of mead he'd had already, and walked back into the Great Hall to rejoin the festivities with a great smile. In but a fortnight, they'd have supplies aplenty once again, and food nigh everlasting.
Just under a week later, Sigfrid and thirteen of his strongest warriors waited, scattered around a large settlement in a wooded area. All of them were waiting, anticipation running high as they looked on at the town in the glowing light of the moon. Waiting impatiently and excitedly. Waiting for the signal they had all come to recognize as the single most terrifying thing to hear in the dead of night in their warm beds, the signal which lead the charge in the field, and simultaneously alerted the warriors of an invading force in the night. Eventually, after what seemed to be an eternity after the last flickering candles light was extinguished in the last house, Sigfrid grinned. A great, wide, toothy grin that belied his battle-lust. He grinned, raised his enormous great axe and began spinning it in a circle above his head with one hand, while a low, slow roar began to rumble in his chest, gradually growing in pitch and volume as his axe simultaneously whistled and whined through the newly split air. Still roaring, ever louder, he charged forward out of the woods with a crash as one of the medium sized trees fell to the ground. The signal given, thirteen additional voices lent themselves to the cool, still night, seemingly ever louder, as the invaders charged inward towards the center of the village. Some men and women got right to work, storming through wooden houses and relieving the inhabitants of their lives, while others ignited their torches to burn some of the larger and less residential buildings. Sigfrid himself, finally returning his breath, got to work hacking at buildings and any of the bleary-eyed defenders who came stumbling out from the guard barracks alike, with the apparent ease which a hot sword might cleave through a ceremonial banner pulled taut.
After a few minutes, or perhaps an hour, it was always difficult to tell time during times like these for Sigfrid, he found himself in a very smoky great hall, squaring off against the village chief and his personal guard, well the half of them who were intact. The hall itself, in addition to the raging fire around them, had a number of splintered timber supports and shattered stone pillars, with blood and bodies everywhere. The three remaining guards stood at the far end of the hall, while a winded and battered Sigfrid stood in the center of the great building, blood flowing from a number of wounds in his arms and legs, and one particularly nasty looking gash in his abdomen. It wasn't the worst he'd had, but that didn't make it any less painful, which was evident enough to the opposing chief when the enormous bear of a man took a number of glancing hits before finishing off the guards.
Spattered in blood that was only mostly his, Sigfrid could only smile at the lone man he now towered over. "It's over for you, old man, taste my axe!" he cried, swinging mightily with both hands, cleaving clean through timber and stone, before he stepped forward and followed up with a backhanded swing upwards that sent the villages chief's head sailing into the air and left the humongous axe lodged firmly into the rafters of the great hall. After a couple of seconds of admiring the bloody fountainous stump on the slumping corpse before it collapsed under it's weight, he grunted and pulled at his axe, which the roof released with a series of cracks and groans, which Sigfrid noticed too late signaled the imminent collapse of the hall. Too many supports were damaged, whether by axe, hammer, or fire, to support the weight any longer. As the walls crumbled inward and the ceiling fell, Sigfrid could swear he heard a faint laughter coming from everywhere at once, as though taunting him, to which he responded by throwing his chest out and his head back and roaring at the top of his lungs.
In the town, most of the other raiders were finishing up the slaughter at the village when they began hearing loud cracking noises from the Great Hall, and they stopped to stare as the vaulted roof began to sag, and finally buckle downwards through the fire. A section of wall collapsed near the deep end of the hall, away from the entrance, and just before the roof finished caving in they saw a horrifying dark figure in the inferno, not unlike a man, if a man were near to eight feet tall and could howl like the foulest beast of Niflheim. They even saw that as the roof collapsed, a section seemed to stop for a second before falling to the ground, where the hellish figure was seen to be standing. It was a while before the terrible cry was no longer heard ringing through the settlement, and the proud warriors realized with a heavy heart that Sigfrid, who had singlehandedly defended his family from the great bear whose pelt he had worn when he was but ten winters old, with naught but a light throwing axe and a short sword, had perished. When the men and women had finally dug through the rubble, they found nothing but the charred corpses of the violated settlements chief and his guard, with no sign of their own chief save for carved gashes in the stone floor in places.
Sigfrid groaned. His whole body ached, and he was pretty sure that wet feeling wasn't just his sweat. After a few aeons of agony, he opened his eyes to be nearly blinded by a too-bright and colourful forest, no, orchard. The enormous man forced his eyes open again and struggled to his feet, using a nearby tree for support. After taking a few moments to catch his breath, he discovered that the sun was rising. He grimaced at the golden light shining over the horizon for a few moments before he picked up his axe, which had been laying next to him, and used it to aid in his shambling journey towards the sunrise, hoping that it would lead him towards somewhere familiar, perhaps a river or even the sea where he might get his bearings. After walking for a few minutes, he heard a few voices fade in, though he couldn't understand any of the words. He immediately became suspicious, he had no idea where he was or what he was near, who knew what these people were like, so he figured the best plan would be to assume they liked newcomers almost half as well as his village did, and attacked on sight. With a little effort, he found he could walk without the aid of his axe, so he could keep it at the ready for a counter-attack if needed. A few more minutes, and he could see a clearing, no, a path, and the voices seemed to be coming from the path, though he still couldn't understand their words, they must be speaking a different language than his own. He crept along more cautiously now, taking care to not step on fallen branches or anything of the sort, and keeping always in the shadows behind the trees, though this meant that he could not see his potential assailants just as they wouldn't see him.
Applejack, Twilight Sparkle, and Spike were walking along the trail, the orange and purple mares each with filled baskets of apples and talking jovially. After a short time, Spike belched a jet of flames that materialized into a scroll sealed with the Princess's mark, and as he read it out he revealed that contained within the scroll was two tickets to the Grand Galloping Gala, to which Applejack became very excited about, and began describing what she would do if she got to go. "An' we could finally fix that saggin' roof! And we could finally replace that saggin' plow for Big Mac! An' we could finally replace Granny Smith's saggin' hip!" And she went on, working herself up nearly to a frenzy over these tickets when suddenly a great brown and grey blur jumped out from behind a tree, screaming like a banshee, and in that fell swoop cleaved her orange head clean from her body, which fell with an audible thud to the ground, spraying a red jet across the dirt path. Twilight screamed and threw Spike to the ground as what appeared to be a great bear with a misshapen, bald face and no fur on it's arms or legs stood upright and readied a massive axe, turning it's attention to her. She screamed again and fired a bolt of force energy at the weapon, knocking it from the beast's great paws, and then encircling it in a purple bubble. Breathing a shaky breath of relief, adrenaline pumping and heart pounding, she hastily told Spike to send a letter to the Princess.
Dear Princess Celestia, Please help! A monstrous creature has just murdered Applejack, I have it contained for now, it looks gravely wounded, and it keeps shouting things that sound like words, but I can't understand it! Please, Princess, I need you here right now! Your distressed student, Twilight Sparkle
Sigfrid was just about to turn his great axe upon the orange monster's horned friend when the heavy steel instrument was forcibly wrenched from his firm grip. Before he could react, the whole, too colourful world was suddenly washed out in shades and tints of purple. Recovering soon after that, the enormous man began pounding on the sphere's boundary. Left fist, right fist, left fist, both fists, and it went on. He at one point attempted headbutting it, and achieving no apparent result, continued raging against the sturdy barrier with his fists.
Twilight struggled to keep the barrier up, this was one of the first times she had actually used it to contain something, and certainly the first time anything had tried to break out from within with such ferocity. She grunted in exertion, sparks flying from her horn as the bubble continued to take a beating, and she could almost feel it crack. Reflexively, the unicorn shrunk the ferocious and obviously confused creature's prison, creating less volume within for it to move, but more importantly giving her less surface to maintain, which she was immediately grateful for.
The bear of a man continued to struggle, despite now being collapsed, it felt like, into a space only barely enough to allow for his movement. After a few minutes, he was becoming sluggish in his struggles, both from his previous injuries and his renewed effort. Finally, he slumped in the odd, purple bubble, glaring at the horned creature below him, paying no heed to the little dragon who was crying hysterically. Suddenly, there was a flash of light that, even shrouded by purple, Sigfrid could tell was gold. When the light faded, there was a tall white figure, almost as tall as Sigfrid, but of similar build to the strange creature beneath him. The newcomer had a long, pointed horn and great wings which stretched at least as far out as his arms. Atop her head sat a tall, thin crown of gold with a large, purple gem set in the center of it. Around it's neck was a large gold necklace with similar gems set in it, and it's mane was like a strange, flowing multicolour spatter of light blues, pinks, and greens. All in all, it exuded influence and power, and despite the strange appearance Sigfrid couldn't help but shudder a bit in awe.
After taking in the scene, the tall one, who had a picture of the sun on it's flank, spoke to the smaller purple one in a muffled voice, though Sigfrid wouldn't have understood it anyway. It then turned to him more fully, and glared into his eyes with a stare that he swore would have defeated each of his villager's resolve in but seconds, and spoke once more, this time it amplified it's voice within the sphere so that he could hear what it had to say, despite still holding no understanding of it. It spoke a few more times, in what he assumed were different languages, and he realized that the tall one was a woman. Finally she sighed visibly and spoke something again to the small one, and he was unceremoniously dropped to the ground. The tall one again approached him, this time bending her head down and touching the long, spiral horn to the crown of his head.
A few minutes later, the rest of the Elements arrived, and Twilight had a hard time finding the words for what was happening. Finally, she spoke, "Girls, I... I have some bad n-news..." She began, tears beginning again to stream down her face. "Applejack is... She's... We won't be seeing much of her anymore..." At this, the other four gasped while Twilight plodded a few steps to where she had covered the body with a white tarp. "I'm s-sure you're wondering why the Princess is here, and what that thing is..." A deep breath while the air tingled in anticipation, "It... k-killed her... and the Princess wouldn't... I couldn't... I... I don't..." She took another deep breath as she wiped her eyes, "I think that the Princess is in it's mind. It seemed really confused when she asked him what it was doing, so she told me to drop it and that about brings us to now..." Twilight sniffled, "It just jumped out of nowhere and then she was dead! Just..." She broke down crying, while the rest of the Elements surrounded her and tried to console her.
"Girls," Princess Celestia said, "I need you to listen to me. What happened today was terrible, but I need you girls to look after this one. He's not from here, and while that does not excuse his actions, I feel that we can't just leave him to fend for himself, and we certainly can't have him murdering anypony else."
"B-but Princess..." Twilight started, "Why can't we just banish him? Or imprison him? Or banish him to a-"
"Twilight, I understand how you must feel. I have a feeling that this will all make sense soon, until then, please help him learn our ways. You may even learn to enjoy his company, even if you can't forgive him."
"Princess, surely you don't mean for one of us to house this brute? And so close to other ponies?"
"Be at ease, Rarity, I feel like the one most qualified to handle this 'brute' is Fluttershy, who is far from most of Ponyville. In addition, I shall send a scrying mirror so that if something bad happens, I can be there quickly, so you needn't worry for your safety or the safety of your animals. As a thank you for your help, I shall give each of you a ticket to the Grand Galloping Gala, where we will see if he truly deserves our trust." Celestia smiled at the ponies, most of whom still slackjawed from the ordeal. She then pulled from thin air a small circular mirror which shimmered slightly in the sun and gave it to Fluttershy, who nodded somewhat blankly and accepted the trinket.
With that, the Princess departed, taking off with a powerful leap and a flap of her wings, leaving the ponies, dragon, and human standing somewhat dumbfounded. After a pause, the massive man cleared his throat and turned towards the rest and knelt down, fist across his chest and his head down solemnly, and spoke.
"Mitt namn är Sigfrid björnen-arm, jag ber om ursäkt för mina handlingar. Jag hoppas en dag vi kan gå förbi detta."
The large man trudged through the streets, alien still to the ponies of Ponyville, despite nearly six weeks of residence. Doors still shut as he passed, windows slammed, and a general feeling of discontent seemed to follow him. With a great sigh, Sigfrid continued his way to Sweet Apple Acres to help with the chores, for reasons fairly obvious, namely Big Mac's strained shoulder.
After about fifteen minutes, he passed the main gates on the road to the farm, and immediately began working. The sun was up, but had only been since he departed from Fluttershy's cottage not quite an hour ago. Normally he would have been at Twilight's library for his lessons, but she had become satisfied in his linguistic capabilities at least for now, and gave him a day off before she started her next topic, so he figured he'd get some extra time helping the Apples to try to get on their good side. Today was the day, he told himself, that they would at least trust him with a hand ax for self defense in the forest, he was sure of it.
As noon broke, nearly the entire southeastern quadrant had been harvested, due mostly to the Viking's efforts, though Big Mac refused to stand by, helpless, and even Apple Bloom tried to help. As he wiped his brow clean from sweat, he approached the old mare who had carefully watched his every move on the farm for the last month and a half.
"Miss Smith," Sigfrid began, "I mean Granny, I have something I would like... to discuss." After a moment of carefully eyeing the lumbering man, Granny Smith finally let out a breath and nodded.
"Sure, why don'tcha join us fer lunch? Ah reckon y'got an appetite a'brewin, ain'tcha? Now, Ah won't take 'no' fer an answer, Ah'll hear ye out over some grub, an' we'll just see if ye kin get what yer after." Sigfrid spent just a moment as though he were going to object, but finally nodded in resignation, and followed the three by-now familiar ponies back to the house as they broke for lunch.
The meal was awkward, and the four sat in silence that seemed only to be broken by the occasional crunch of the crisp cucumbers or the occasional slurp of water, while the tension was nearly visible between the near-bear of a man and the old pony's eyes, an unspoken conversation evidently waging between them. Finally, Granny Smith blinked with a sigh. "Go ahead, take yer little axes with ye, ain't gonna do ye much more good than a couple a heavy sticks or rocks, we had 'em dulled fer safety, but ye shouldn't be agoin' out to that forest with nothin' but yer brawn and wits. Ye'll return 'em afore sunset, I trust ye'll see to that much at least."
Sigfrid clapped his hands together, then thumped his chest heavily with a fist as he gave a slight bow. "Thank you, Granny, I'll not let you regret this decision."
The timberwolf snarled as the dull hand ax crashed through another layer of natural armour, skidding to a stop after it landed from it's pounce. The other three timberwolves began moving in, all of a mind to simply overrun their prey, who simply roared back, sinking into a low stance, axes nearly dragging on the tall grass.
The next wolf pounced, and Sigfrid stepped to the side to crash his ax into it's side, only to have to fall back and roll another wolf off him, as it took his apparent distraction for an opportunity. The viking rolled back to his feet, beginning to get frustrated, how was he supposed to kill them when the only opportunities they presented were covered by their pack?
After a few more minutes of the deadly dance, Sigfrid finally met a charge with a fist, following up with a devastating downward slam with his other ax, at least buying a little time with one fewer creature while it sorted out where it was again. All of the combatants by this point were fairly battered, though the huge human had proven quite resilient and had managed to at least match every blow with ferocious swings and seeming to only grow stronger with every connecting swipe.
The next wolf steeled itself and pounced, only to be met with a swift kick connecting firmly into it's snout while another crushing blow rained down upon his next would-be assailant, only to be caught off guard by a third which made a ragged gash across his arm. The man roared again, and again he renewed his ferocity as he rained heavy blows left and right, when suddenly a brown and white blur shot by, taking a timberwolf with it. Rather than question it, Sigfrid simply took it as an advantage suddenly turned unfair, as he simply began tearing the remaining wolves apart, with no apparent regard to his increasing injury count.
Snapping limbs, crushing torsos, and just plain carnage filled the final few minutes of fighting, as absolutely no attempt at mercy or other such minor niceties were afforded to the wooden monsters, their wooden pieces simply being crushed to splinters at best. Finally, no quadruped remained, save for the creature who was now approaching him, who probably was the one who swooped into the fray in a blur of brown and white, and now that he took the time to look, he noticed that it was nothing he'd seen to this point, certainly never in person.
There, practically prancing to him, was a creature with the head, wings, feathers and forefeet of a great eagle, and the body and tail of a lion or other such big cat. Finally, it spoke, revealing to be a female. "Well aren't you an interesting creature, bet you're glad I came along when I did, huh? Doesn't look like you were doing too well before then!"
Sigfrid had no idea who this Griffin was, but immediately realized that she had the mind of a warrior, one he could relate to. "No, I was doing fine, I had them all under control, but I thank you anyway, it would have taken a while longer had you not distracted them. I'm Sigfrid, and it goes without saying I don't belong here."
The griffin chuckled, looking him up and down. "Hah! As if, you'd totally have been Timberwolf chow if I didn't 'distract them,' and you know it!" She laughed a while longer, trying to brush a small patch of blood out of her feathers before continuing. "Anyway, the name's Pr- erm, I mean Gilda. Say, you seem like you've still got some fight in ya, You wanna go a round or two with me? It's been too long since I could properly blow off some steam, and I feel like you'll be much better than anypony in Ponyville, so how about it?"
Sigfrid smirked. "You're on, Gilda, if I win I get to say I totally saved you're butt from these matchsticks!"
"Hah, as if! When you lose, I'm gonna tell everypony that there was only one, and you needed my help or else you'd have been worm food!"
They both narrowed their eyes at each other, good spirits never leaving their faces, and spoke simultaneously: "Deal."
Rainbow Dash was flying around, practicing some simple tricks idly as the Everfree Forest passed beneath her. She was looking for somepony, well, somebody. She knew she wouldn't miss her, it's hard to miss the only griffin in the area, even from afar, and she really should've been here by now, but maybe she got lost, yeah, that's it. It's gotta be it, she doesn't come out to Ponyville often, so she may have just taken a wrong turn, or maybe she wanted to check the scenery out on her way?
Suddenly, the rainbow-trailed pegasus heard some sounds... like metal clinking off stone... a single scream, was that...?
"Gilda, hang in there! I'm coming for you!" Rainbow Dash shouted, entering a steep dive towards the forest below.
An ax swung wild after being knocked aside into an unearthed boulder, not that the defender came out unscathed even after the deflection. The griffon cried out, blood slowly flowing from yet another wound, though the huge man before her was hardly any better off. She was actually pretty impressed that he was still standing, with all the blood he was loosing and all the gashes he sported.
Suddenly, a shout from above, a familiar voice to both combatants, though only barely heard.
"Oh by the beak of-" Gilda began, before Sigfrid took advantage of her temporary distraction, hooking a leg in the beard of his ax and pulling her front leg wide before he swept the other leg the same direction with a powerful kick. Gilda landed on her shoulder with a [i[thud as the viking's other ax hooked the first leg once more, pulling her onto her back. He held his arm high, cold steel, wet with his own blood, glinting in the sun, as he brought it down mightily into the ground next to the griffon's head.
"Gilda, are you o- SIGFRID! GET AWAY FROM HER YOU MONSTER!" Sigfrid barely had enough time to glance to his right before a blue blur ripped him from the ground and slammed him into a tree. "WHAT! THE BUCK! IS WRONG! WITH YOU!" Every pause was accentuated with a hoof to his chest or face, when the crazed mare was interrupted.
"Dash, it's fine," A bloodied Gilda stood, panting heavily, "it was just a friendly sparring match. Say, big boy," she turned her head slightly to look at the human to wink, "Was it good for you?"
Sigfrid coughed, turning his head to avoid spewing flecks of crimson on Rainbow Dash's blue fur, before snickering his response, "Hah, you know it, I just wish you could've held out a little longer so I could have had a bit more fun!" He laughed at that, Gilda trying to hid a small blush while she stammered something about being distracted. "Say, Dash," he continued, after another coughing fit racked his body, "You mind taking me back to Ponyville? I think I should probably get some of this looked at, especially the broken ribs you probably just gave me."
This time it was Dash's turn to blush, before Gilda spoke up. "No, it's fine, you may have won but you're still worse off than I am, I'll take you there. I was on my way there anyway, just climb on my back."
Sigfrid nodded, and after Rainbow Dash finally let go of him, he strode somewhat uneasily to Gilda, and half fell onto her back as he finally let himself rest. It had been a good day, after all, even if Granny Smith was probably going to kill him when he woke up... wherever he woke up. Eyes heavy, the last thing Sigfrid heard was Gilda, softly "shh"ing him as she took off with her large wings.
Faded memories, scattered fragments of consciousness, and twisting dreams were all that Sigfrid knew for what seemed to be an aching eternity. Technicolor warriors hacking down another village's defenders, horned horses with glowing axes and spears floating around them patrolling the outskirts of his home, and quadrupedal eagles clawing and pecking at packs of wolves through the trees, these visions and more warped in his mind until all was replaced by a long, low cackle that seemed to be coming from everywhere around him, resonating in his burly chest as his head pounded in agony, and finally...
Sigfrid opened his eyes, to see a much-too-purple wooden ceiling and what appeared to be a giant eagle's head in the outskirts of his vision. He heard muffled voices, which grew more clear suddenly when the tint of the world faded. None of the voices made sense, like a completely alien language, until his brain reconnected his mental dots and he began to recognize not only the voices, and to whom they belonged, but also the words that were being spoken.
"...lax, he's already re...iousness, at least a da...ule." Twilight, Sigfrid remembered, evidently aware of his condition. "So," she continued, "Sigfrid, how do you feel?"
A wheezing sound found it's way out of his throat, and like a dozen moose charging him at once, the pain hit him. Sigfrid spent a moment, turning his head with what he swore had to be an audible creak to survey the room, surprised to see almost all of the rest of the element bearers, as well as Gilda the Griffon. "Hurts everywhere, hurts like... it hurts like fire to a rotted wound," the viking rasped, devolving quickly into a coughing fit at the end which only racked him further with pain, "But I'm alive, so I'm obviously not too poorly off, eh?" He make a quick wink to Twilight and Gilda.
Twilight nodded, jotting some quick notes on a parchment fastened to a wooden board before Rarity spoke up: "Yes, if you've nothing else going for you, you're certainly quite resilient." She seemed to be just a little annoyed, by the way she trailed off, but either nopony noticed it or nopony thought anything of it.
After another brief pause, Twilight spoke up again. "Yes, and you've recovered much quicker than I expected, I didn't think you'd be awake for at least another day!"
"A day? How long have I been out? I can't think that it's been longer than a day, right?" he glanced around the room, realizing that only Gilda would meet his eyes, and her eyes told him his fallacy.
"A week, Sigfrid, you've been unconscious for a week. We had to drag Gilda out of the room the first couple days to make sure that she ate, and even Rainbow Dash wouldn't be bothered to move from the room for hours at a time. We were worried about you, you big whatever you are! You'd lost a lot of blood, and I'm pretty sure you didn't make it here with all of your bone fragments." The purple unicorn looked solemnly at the man. He opened his mouth to retort, make some smart comment, but her expression deadpanned and he suddenly couldn't find his words, resulting is a soft noise like a whimper.
"Yeah, ya big dweeb! You kept me an' Dash here instead of catching up! Instead," Gilda's voice warbled with emotion, "Instead I got a rockin' sparring match with ya, and then ya go an' nearly die before I could drop you off at Twinkle Star-"
"Twilight Sparkle."
"Twinkle Star," Gilda emphasized with a playful elbow, "and have her patch you up. You're lucky that I'm the best flyer this side of Griffenstone!"
"Now wait just a second, you mean the SECOND best flyer, you're just better at carrying things on your back than I am!" Dash interjected, barely holding back a great grin.
Twilight cleared her throat, "Alright, girls, I think that's enough fun for one day. I think the best thing we can do is let Sigfrid rest, don't worry, he'll still be alive tomorrow." The man was pretty sure he was supposed to miss the slightly worried glance that the unicorn gave him as she finished, but it didn't seem like it had anything to do with his odds of survival.
The rest of the visitors nodded and muttered a vague affirmative, and slowly began shuffling out the door.
"Do be more careful, darling, try not to get yourself killed, hmm?"
"You, um, had us all worried..."
"Gosh, ya big lug! I'm gonna have to throw a 'Survived a Timberwolf Attack' party! Or maybe a "Smashed a Bunch of Timberwolves to Bits!" party! OOH, or I can through them both AT THE SAME TIME! See ya there!"
Meanwhile, Twilight whispered something to Spike and levitated the parchment from her board, which he took dutifully, scribbled a quick remark, and padded into another room, following the librarian.
"Hey there, Sig, just wanna let ya know... I wanna thank you for what ya did for me. I was stressin' big time, just some stuff going on back home that I brought with, y'know? I don't get much opportunity to just spar, but it helps with the nerves. Anyway, thanks, and when you're feelin' better, we'll go for round two." Gilda winked as she said this, a faint hint of red touching her face as she, the only one left, sauntered out the door, pouncing into the sky as soon as she was outside.
Sigfrid gazed out the still-open door, a contented, if pained, smile on his face. With a little effort, he shut his eyes and let sleep overtake him.
This time, his dreams almost seemed to make sense.
A few days later, the great viking was up and about, and just a day after that a huge crowd amassed in the fields outside Ponyville, where a small ring of stones had been placed with a simple sigil carved into the earth in the center of the circle, filled with more stones. Here it was again that the great bear of a man that some had taken to calling "Timberfeller" was to have his second round with Gilda the Griffon. This time, there would be no weapons, just sheer martial skill put to the test, first to yield, lose consciousness, or step outside the ring would be deemed the loser.
"Hope you're ready for a good beating!" Sigfrid called, letting his bear-skin cloak slide off his shoulders, exposing his many, many scars and rippling chords of muscle that it had concealed.
"Pff, shyea right! You're goin' down harder than sack of hard potatoes! I just hope you don't go back to Twilight for another week!" Gilda chided, smiling wide and assuming a low, predatory stance.
"Hahah, tough talk! Can you back it up though? Remember, I was half dead last time anyway, and I still whooped your tail!" Sigfrid responded, similarly stooping with his right side facing his opponent.
"You got lucky! Dashie came by and distracted me!" The griffon scoffed as her tail twitched in anticipation, ready for Rainbow Dash to send her signal to start. Sigfrid cracked his neck, sizing up his foe.
Quick as a flash, a rainbow contrail flashed between the opponents, and before it had faded Gilda had already lept at the tensed man, who met her assault head on and tossed her aside, tendons visibly protruding from his skin in places. Before the griffon had time to right herself, the man was already on top of her, powerful legs locked around her midsection while his arms locked around her neck.
Gilda choked out a laugh as she clawed his legs loose with her hind leg and used her wings to toss him over her head, using his shifting position and a flick of her neck, she had broken his grip and sent him sprawling onto the ground. She gave two powerful swipes, gaining purchase on his chest with her second strike and leaving two long, angry red lines which immediately began to well up with blood. The crowd roared with excitement as the viking shouted something incomprehensible and caught a third strike from the side, pushing it wide and opening the griffon's chest to a relentless barrage of punches that sent her reeling a few steps back.
In the split second she took to regain her balance, he was already upon her again, kicking high to her face. Gilda had enough time to drop down, missing the kick, and swept Sigfrid's supporting leg from under him, leading to an unnatural sounding screech from the downed fighter. Before Gilda could strike again, the man rolled away and to his feet, sinking again to a combat stance which, much like his style thus far, was alien to Gilda and the lookers on.
Taking only a moment, the griffon decided to thrust a clawed talon towards her opponent, who stepped to the side and swept at her other talon, which was planted on the ground and supporting the bulk of her weight. With a yelp, Gilda planted her face firmly into the ground, while Sigfrid sent a mighty kick into her hind leg. With a lion's roar, she yanked her face from the ground and spun to face the fighter, trembling from the beatings she'd sustained. Not only was her opponent very resilient, but he hit hard. This time, Gilda took a defensive stance, wings quivering slightly as her forelegs trembled.
Sigfrid eyed the stance carefully, apparently recognizing it for what it was, and resolved to charge in, whooping at the top of his lungs, and darting off to the side at the last moment, which the Griffon evidently did not account for. Her intended strike, a vicious rending talon, was clumsily adjusted and only caught Sigfrid's thigh, scoring a slight wound but doing little else than stagger him briefly before he launched another volley of crushing blows, which Gilda was forced to take as she swung her talon back around, reversing it's direction, and catching the brawling man in the side, rending deep into the muscle and causing a fresh gout of blood to flow freely down his leg.
After a quick hop to the rear, Sigfrid again launched himself at his opponent, charging full tilt with a rage-filled roar in his chest, barely caring when he failed to completely dodge another vicious talon strike, and after delivering yet another brutal pummeling, he rolled around to her side and locked his arms around her midsection as best as he could, and began straining. The onlooking crowd became silent as he grunted and shouted in an alien language, blood pouring from his wounds, and finally he lifted Gilda from the ground, from which point he quickly tossed his body backwards and tossing the griffon fully out of the ring, with just a few extra scratches from her flailing limbs to show for it.
The silence dragged on for another second before everypony in the crowd cheered and stamped their hooves, while Rainbow Dash shouted something about the match being unfair by being decided by ring out. Sigfrid beamed, blood seeping from his face in a few minor cuts, as he approached his battered and disoriented opponent, extending a hand to help her up.
"You got some moves there, Sig, I'll give you that much!" Gilda said, slapping her talon into his hand and allowing him to help her up. "And crazier than a Minotaur in heat to boot!" She beamed and gave a curt little bow of her head. "You win this time, Sig. Thanks for the rematch, though, and if you need to blow off any steam before I head back home, be sure to let me know." She winked at him, "and it doesn't have to be in the arena."
Sigfrid tilted his head slightly, a flash of confusion on his face, before he shook it off. "It was a good fight indeed! I've fought bears that would have thought twice before trying to take you on, and they wouldn't have done too well either. It's good to see I haven't gotten too soft since I've come here!" He turned to the crowd and waved, "Let's get to that feast of Pinkie's, shall we?"
While the crowd cheered, Gilda leaned in close to Sigfrid, "Seriously, though, I'm probably gonna be leaving tomorrow or the next day. Be sure to write to me the next time you need to blow of some steam, just give it to Dash, she'll know where to send it. Oh, and don't be surprised if I show up out of the blue just to let off some steam, eh?" She chuckled again, and limped behind the battered and bleeding man back towards Ponyville.
The party was already in full swing when the combatants stepped into the library's atrium, with streamers and decorations galore. There was a huge cage that looked like a pile of wood, reminiscent of the broken and defeated Timber Wolves. After a triumphant introduction from Pinkie Pie, Twilight and Rarity approached the pair, pushing through the forming crowd and audibly gasping when they saw the blood, mostly cleaned up but still dripping from some of Sigfrid's more grievous wounds.
"Sorry, but what have you been doing all day?" Twilight asked, examining Sigfrid's wounds rather closely. "Because it really seems like you've been fighting. Didn't I tell you not to go out fighting yet?" Her purple eyes settled after a short while on the man's own, a rather cross look in them. Sigfrid sputtered an incomprehensible dismissal, flushing a little and suddenly finding the wooden floor much more interesting than it was just a few seconds ago.
"I'm sorry, what was that? I couldn't hear you," Twilight goaded, and Sigfrid couldn't help but feel like he was a kid again. "I... we... tried to keep it a secret from you, it was just a bit of fun, and besides, I was fine!"
"Oh, darling, you really must find a past time that does not end every time with so much blood, though I guess at least you don't get your clothes ruined since you hardly wear any, but you still worry us dear!" Rarity, as usual, had some light make-up on, but Sigfrid noticed that today it looked a little shakier than usual, and near the eyes it seemed like it had been smeared slightly, which after a moment to reflect made Sigfrid feel a little worse.
Twilight spent a little more time evaluating the man's various gashes and injuries before she sighed and began to use her magic to speed the healing of some of the larger and more serious wounds. "At least you don't have any broken bones this time," she concluded, satisfied that he wasn't going to keel over from blood loss anytime soon, "And this time, if I catch you out fighting before I say you're healed again..." She left the sentence hang, the clear threat needing no words.
"Now, let's get back to the party!" Twilight said, suddenly smiling, taking all around by surprise.
Sigfrid spent some time introducing Gilda to some of the ponies at the party, since a lot of them were still a little uneasy about her appearance. A couple ponies gawked at the griffon's talons or beak, but most of them seemed to enjoy themselves with Gilda. Sigfrid had a couple ponies compliment his acting and asked about what sort of tricks he used for the blood, a few tried to enlist him in various endeavors, mostly including less-than-friendly creatures and promises of reward, which he begrudgingly declined out of fear for Twilight's vengeance.
It surprised Sigfrid just how many ponies there were present, even the Apples were there, though he suspected that they came partially to remind him that he'd been slacking with his adopted chores with all his "lazing about," loss of blood and broken bones notwithstanding. He did come to see a brighter side of Grannie Smith, and he could've sworn that Big Mac was talking to other ponies, and sometimes using more than four words to a sentence.
Just about the only thing that didn't surprise the huge man was the Cutie Mark Crusaders' antics, even trying to get his help to set up a dual, which Twilight and Rarity almost immediately shut down long before the idea got airborne.
Finally, the party wound down, and ponies began to go home, and Pinkie Pie almost by some means of magic cleaned up party decorations and banners almost as soon as they were no longer necessary. A table would lose the last of it's occupants, and before they were all out the door, it was already disassembled and ready to be taken to... wherever Pinkie stores her party gear.
Gilda sauntered up to Sigfrid, looking around and whistling. "Sure was a good party, eh Sig? Make sure Pinks gets an invite out to Griffonia the next time she throws another one, would ya?"
"Yeah, it was pretty good. I just wish I didn't have Twilight keeping track of me all evening. I swear, if I'd have so much as said the word fight I might have had some problems, I certainly would've been pressed to leave completely intact." Sigfrid chuckled, looking back at the Element bearers, who were all wrapped up in their own conversation. "So, Gilda, you're just gonna leave here? You can't stick around? I could use a partner in the ring from time to time, and some backup in the forest would be pretty nice."
The griffon tried, poorly, to bite back a laugh, "Oh, I'd like to, but I gotta get back to my folks. I kinda ran away from them, since I needed to unwind and all, but I do need to get back. I've got some, eh, responsibilities back home that I can't just drop for too long. I'll be back though, don't worry." She sent him a quick wink to accentuate her statement. "And if you head out to Griffonia, be sure to let me know and we'll totally hang, cool?"
"Yeah, that would be good, and if you come back out this way, you better make sure to let me know!" He let out a hearty laugh, completely missing the griffon responding, more to herself, "Oh I will." She coughed before continuing, "Anyway, it's about time I take off, you take care now Sig!" And, finished with her good bye, she walked over to Rainbow Dash and the other bearers, had a couple of quick words that ended in nearly all of the ponies blushing, and Rarity almost seemed livid for a few moments before Gilda finally signed one final farewell and just about ran out the door.
Sigfrid walked over to the circle, staring out the door as he walked, "So what was that all about?"
Twilight, still flushed from whatever had been said, turned her head away and quickly gave a noncommittal "Nothing." The man stared out the door for a while longer, until Fluttershy approached him. "I'm, uh, going home now, just so you know. Twilight said that if you want, you don't have to stay under her watch, so I guess you can sleep back in your room at the house, that is, if you want," the pegasus said, almost managing some eye contact here and there.
A few seconds passed by, with Twilight nodding to Sigfrid, affirming Fluttershy's claim, before the man nodded. "Sure, some sleep would do these cuts good." Some steak and ale would do them better, he thought, but he kept this to himself as he followed Fluttershy back to her cottage.
"No you're not!" the orange filly exclaimed, "You're chopping down trees, in the Everfree Forest!"
A grunt. "Need wood to build. Plenty of trees, no ponies getting caught beneath 'em. Yet."
The little filly shrunk slightly beneath a harsh gaze, and suddenly found something to look at in the damp dirt.
Thunk
Thunk
Thunk
"Why don't you keep staying at Miss Fluttershy's cottage? Or you could live in the Apple Families barn! The loft's real cozy, and you work there every day anyway!"
A drawn out sigh, "Why did y' follow me out here anyway? What about yer folks?"
There was a soft sound, lost to the wind. "Don't worry about them, I've... eh... got a lot of freedom with what I get to do, yeah. So! How's about I help you chop this wood and help you out?" the filly quickly changed the subject.
There was a loud noise, it could have been a bark, "Rarely've I seen one so young actually handle an ax, fewer still without hands."
"Hey! I'm stronger than I look, y'know! Eek!" The filly jumped back from a hatchet which embedded itself just a foot away from where she had been standing. "What they hay was that for? You could've hurt somepony!"
There was a dismissive sort of noise, "I didn't, though. Yer thinkin' to help? There's yer ax. We're going to chop these trees into sections and load 'em in that cart."
Thunk
Thunk
Thunk
"Nnngh!" The filly took the handle in her muzzle, doing what she could to hide her strain while she lifted it. There was a soft flapping noise as her wings absently beat with the strain.
Thunk
Thunk
Thunk
"Ehm, Mr. Sigfrid?" The filly piped up, almost startling herself by her own voice. "Th... thank you..."
Sigfrid stopped and turned, a gentle expression coloring his face. "What was that, little one?"
"EEP! Erm, I was just saying I-I'll race you to the Golden Oaks!" She blurted, wings buzzing with a childish fury as she sped ahead of the large creature.
"Ye takin' off when I'm still haulin' the last load, are ye? I'll make it a fair chase yet!"
With surprising fluidity, the mountain of flesh shrugged off the harness and took merry chase to a little orange and violet blur, whizzing ahead on her little scooter, weaving between the townponies and some carts, whooping madly as she slowly opened distance to Sigfrid. She spared a look back and stuck her tongue out, blowing a raspberry just before she took the final turn before the home stretch. Her victory nearly in hoof, she put everything she could into flapping her little wings--
CrrcRRAASSSHHHH!
Hearing the commotion up ahead, Sigfrid slid around the corner, avoiding becoming a destructive participant in an upturned hay cart with several colored limbs poking through the hay, now under the cart. With a shrug, he flipped the cart away and began digging through the hay, grabbing a hoof in each huge paw of his, lifting the orange and violet filly out of the...
"EEEH! It's got me!"
"It's got me, too! Git it off!"
"Mph MnmnMMmph!"
The massive man stared at the two shrieking filly-shaped banshees in his hands, both upside down, one a coat of soft white and a two colored mane, the other a yellow coated pony with a large bow hanging out of her hair. He set the two down, hoping to assuage their fears before pulling Scootaloo out of the hay.
"Mphooey! What the hay just happened?" The young pegasus asked, confused but appearing unhurt. The other two fillies began snickering to themselves, outwardly trying not to guffaw. "Hey! What's so funny you two?" The pegasus demanded, trying to be taken serious despite a growing smile playing on her lips and odd bits of hay poking from her cropped mane.
The two fillies glanced at each other before a noise which was trying to be a cough expunged itself from the yellow fillies muzzle. "Eh, heh, I guess It's not, really? It's funny that you're takin' it so seriously, though! Ah'm Apple Bloom, and this here's, uh, Sweetie Bot-"
"It's Sweetie Belle! Jeez, I told you! Anyway, we both found out that we got invited to Diamond Tiara's cuteceñera, and since we're both... You are too! Ohmigosh! We should all go together!"
"Wait, Diamond Tiara? Why are we going to her cuteceñera party? She's so mean! And now that she's got her cutie mark, she's gonna be even worse!"
"Well, maybe now that she's got her Cutie Mark, she'll be less mean! I mean, maybe she was just upset that she didn't have it yet? She invited us to her party, she could have changed y'know."
"Psh, yeah right! She's probably just inviting fillies like us to flaunt her dumb cutie mark, especially over us Blank Flanks!"
Before the conversation could go much further, Sigfrid chimed in, "Pardon th' interruption, What's a 'cutie mark'?"
Three muzzles dropped, practically clanging off the sidewalk while three little fillies stammered trying to figure out if the man was serious. "Really?" Apple Bloom started, " It is the de-fining feature of a grown-up pony! It shows every pony what yer good at! And everypony in our class 'sides us has one..."
Sigfrid looked up at the late afternoon sky in contemplation. After a moment or two he did a quick turn around, making a show of looking at himself. "Huh, well I guess I ain't a 'grown-up pony' either, am I?" After a dry laugh he continued, "Look, lasses, ye'll find yerselves sooner'n ye think. Now, run about now, Scootie thanks fer th' help." And without another word, turned and left to strap back in and haul his lumber to the other side of town.
As he walked past, the orange filly called out, "It's Scootaloo! And you're welcome!" before giving one last glance at the wagon and resigning herself to the party.
The stream was practically buzzing with activity as Sigfrid settled on a tree stump near a pile of logs and other wooden fixtures that were beginning to resemble a cottage. He took a pull from his water skin while he looked out at the horizon, fiery oranges and playful pinks dancing across the sky as the sun set. After what seemed an eternity, the sun had set. Sigfrid remembered what he had been told about the sun, about how their princess pushed the sun through the sky, raising it from horizon to horizon. It seemed about as reasonable as the wolves who chased the sun and moon of his world, he figured. A few more minutes passed before he finally heaved a sigh and got to his feet, a veritable mountain in motion to the small critters gathered around his soon-to-be abode.
Sigfrid gave the beams a firm pat and, satisfied they weren't going anywhere, and made his way back to Fluttershy's cabin. He had to admit, as much an inconvenience as he knew he must have been, the pink-maned mare made every effort to hide the inconvenience of housing such an alien creature to this world.
The sun was just peaking over the horizon as Sigfrid opened the door to Fluttershy's cabin and nearly tripped over the bundled up form of Scootaloo. Cursing softly to himself, Sigfrid took a look at the pegasus, watching as her lithe form stirred slightly under her cover, opening a bleary eye to the pink and grey world around her. "M-momm-" The squeaky voice cut off as the violet eyes cleared up. "Erm, h-Hey there, Sigfrid! Funny se-seeing you here! I was just, uhh, y'know..."
The filly was silenced by a raised eyebrow. "Ye must've jes got here, then. It's real early fer one of yer age ta be about, it's no wonder ye fell asleep. What can I do for ye?"
A moment later, the filly caught up and laughed nervously. "Er, yeah, I guess I should've waited a bit before coming over, h-heh." She put her light blanket into her bag, "Well, I was wondering, if I could help out with your house some more today?" The filly blurted the sentence out like she expected something to explode.
Another raised eyebrow. "Later, I think, right now I'm off ta Sweet Apple Acres ta do mah part fer the day. Don't ye got school anyhow?" Scootaloo looked a little sheepish at that. "Y-yeah I do, but-" "No buts! What would yer parents say about their filly skippin' school jes to help out some strange creature in the middle o'nowhere?" Sigfrid's expression softened, somewhat. "Tell ye what, I'll be done at tha farm, or thereabouts anyhow, by the time yer out of class, so jes drop by then an' we can get started, how's that?" Another moment passed before Scootaloo put a smile on that very nearly reached her eyes and agreed, scampering off in what Sigfrid could only assume was the direction of the schoolhouse.
The huge man gave a look to the sun, still barely peeking over the treeline in the distance, and set off towards the farm. He had a feeling this was going to be a very long day.
The sun was still high in the sky, only recently beginning its journey towards the West horizon, when Sigfrid finished his daily work on the farm. As he was getting ready to set off from the farm, he watched as Scootaloo trotted up and hailed him. "Mister Sigfrid! I know I asked to help out with your house but there's a new unicorn in town and she says she's the most powerful unicorn in Equestria! I, er, well I wondered if maybe you wanted to go see? With me?" Sigfrid smiled, and after a moment shrugged his broad shoulders. "Alright, Scootie, should be interestin' at least." He left his not meager hope that this unicorn might be able to help him get home unsaid as the pair set off.
"So, lass, how did yer friends little party go?"
"It... well it wasn't as bad as it could've been. Diamond Tiara, as expected, just used it as an excuse to make fun of us blank flanks. We had to stand up together and eventually Twilight stood up for us. It was pretty embarrassing."
"Ah. Well, ye can't be so quick to find yerself, ye wouldn't want to stop too early thinkin' ye had yerself right from the gate! Yer whole life is a journey to define ye, an the day ye start-" "MOUSTACHE!"
Sigfrid reeled as a little purple and green blur streaked past. "Well ye get ma point, now let's watch yer powerful unicorn." The filly nodded as the two pushed a bit through the crowd as a blue pony wearing a tall purple hat and a matching cape strode confidently on the stage.
"Well, well, well, it seems we have some neighsayers in the audience! Who is so ignorant to challenge the magical ability, of the Great and Powerful Trixie? Do they not know, they are in the presence of the most powerful unicorn, in Equestria?!" The blue pony was practically shouting at the crowd. A few seconds passed, and this Trixie saw fit to set some more fancy magic around her stage, a grand display to be sure, and Rainbow Dash zipped up to the stage.
"So, 'Great and Powerful' Trixie, what makes you think you're so Awesome anyway?" The pegasus asked, hovering a short distance from Trixie. Trixie laughed to herself before responding, matter-of-factly, "Why, Only the Great and Powerful Trixie has magic strong enough to vanquish the dreaded Ursa Major!" This statement was met with a shocked gasp from the audience, and a blast of fanfare from the stage.
Sigfrid leaned down a ways as the spectacle continued, "What's an Ursa Major?"
Scootaloo looked up, mouth open just a little, "What do you mean, 'What's an Ursa Major'? It's only one of the biggest and strongest Star Beasts in all Equestria! They're as big as a mountain, louder than thunder and their swaths of destruction are like earthquakes! Or, at least that's what Miss Cheerilee says."
"Ah, they're just big, bad beasties then?"
"Er, I suppose so, but they're made up of magic! I think. You'd have to ask Twilight or Cheerilee about it, I kinda woke up part way through that lesson..."
"Well, if it's such a feat to vanquish one, might be she's strong as she says supposin' she's tellin' the truth."
"Mm, d'you think she'd lie about that, though?"
"Aye, I've seen her type, lots of flashes, lots of noise, but in the end they usually wind up more bark than bite."
"Trrixie is undoubtedly the best in Ponyville!" There was silence in the crowd for a second. "What, don't believe the Great and Powerful Trixie? Mhmhm, well, I challenge you, Ponyvillians: Anything you can do, I can do better! Any takers? Any one? Or is Trixie destined to be the Greatest Equine who has ever lived!" There was more fanfare and theatrics as the crowd began murmuring softly, ponies wondering who would step up to face the magician.
After a couple of Twilight's friends gave an attempt, Rainbow Dash being hurtled off in a spinning, sprawling mess and Rarity running off after her hair had gone green and somewhat beehivish, Sigfrid stood up and walked onto the stage.
"Oh, looks like the Frreak has come to challenge the Great and Powerful Trrixie! Is this what you've come to? Well then, creature, name your challenge!" The blue magician smirked on.
"Ah, that'd jes be a little game I grew up on, I can't remember the name of it but ye'll pick up the rules right quick I reckon." With that said, the massive man lifted his hand and thrust his massive fist into the Great and Powerful snout, knocking her clean off her own stage, shortly before he was encapsulated in a rather familiar shade of purple bubble as the whole crowd made excited noises, evidently split on whether they were happy for the spectacle or terrified of the senseless violence.
An hour and a long talking to about how violence never solves anything later, The mountain of a man was released from his bubble prison. "Please, Sigfrid," Twilight pleaded, "We're trying to help you. If you go around punching everypony who's a little obnoxious and arrogant you'll never make it through the Grand Galloping Gala, which I remind you is NOT that far ahead of us!"
"Alright, Twilight. In ma defense, she said any challenge-"
"She meant magical challenge!"
"Well maybe she should've made that more clear, is what I'm sayin'. Yer sure she's still breathin'?"
At this, Twilight's expression softened and looked behind Sigfrid to the makeshift tent they'd set up to treat Trixie, doubling as an easy way to keep other ponies from snooping and getting in the way. "Yes, no permanent damage and we'll have her fixed up in no time. Remember, we're not built the same as you are, ponies, especially unicorns, aren't meant to take a hit from a minotaur, let alone whatever you are."
Sigfrid nodded. He started to say something, then decided against it. and stretched his limbs a bit. "Well, I guess I should get goin', I should make some way on ma cabin, I figure. Good luck with tha healin'." Twilight gave him one final nod before he walked his way back to his little cabin site, making a bit of progress here and there. He didn't need a whole lot more done, some planks for the floor, glass for the windows, the roof and some furniture were all he needed. He nodded to himself and started back to Fluttershy's cottage about the time that the reds of sunset started staining the western skies. All in all, not a bad day at all.
There were screams. Howls of a beast echoed through the still sleepy town. Panic was beginning to overtake the town as the great creature took chunks out of almost every building it passed. Two unicorns were pestering another battered, recovering unicorn, something about a means of redemption, a way to prove herself. Trixie looked out of her mobile stage at the translucent beast thundering down one of the village streets. Trixie took off running, screaming the whole while, not bothering with her cape or hat, with the two others in tow.
Eventually the trio came to a dead end. "Great and Powerful Trixie, you've got to vanquish the Ursa!" The more rotund of Trixies little entourage cried, "Yeah! Vanquish so we can watch!" called the taller one. "It took a lot of trouble to get that thing here!" the short one continued.
"Wait. You brought this here? Are you out of your little pony MINDS?" Trixie exclaimed, trying to focus on something besides her imminent demise. The short one was about to call something else out when the Ursa silenced him with a roar. "C'mon, you're the Great and Powerful Trixie, remember? You vanquished an Ursa Major!" called the tall one, Snails, she thought. She took a gulp and stared and the enormous blue beast, almost all her focus simply on not shaking or running. "A-all right. Here goes!" Her horn lit up, and a rope trick and some lightning later the creature was rather less than amused, and worse, unfazed. "Uh oh..." Trixie whimpered as the beast raised a massive paw, ready to smush the three ponies flat. It roared once more. This is it, Trixie, Trixie thought, This is how it ends. She felt the ground shake and she opened her eyes to see the Ursa was no longer looking at her, and she could seen the moonlight glinting off something just behind it's shoulder, though it was hard to tell through the oozing mist surrounding it. She glanced over across the plaza to where the Ursa was looking and saw the same vicious brute that assaulted her earlier charging the creature, what looked like an axe whirling in its strange digited forelimb.
"Run! Git out o'here!" Sigfrid called to the three cowering ponies, "I'll keep 'er busy!" He didn't spare another look at the trio as the massive bear, easily twice his height or more, glared almost more with annoyance at the axe buried deeply just behind its foreleg. This would not be as easy as the wooden wolves, Sigfrid figured, raising his axe and pushing the enormous paw off course so it wouldn't crush him.
The man took a swipe at the paw he had just redirected, scoring a hit the Ursa barely seemed to register. A thick, starry haze oozed out of the wound, and Sigfrid very quickly found something else to worry about as the beast continued forward, swinging another massive paw at him, forcing him back to avoid it. "All right, ye beastie, I'll show ye yet why they called me Bjoernskinn!" He gave his own roar as he lept over the other forelimb and ducked beneath the great bear's torso, grabbing his other axe and rolling away. He popped up and turned quickly, axes at the ready.
The Ursa took even less kindly to the axe being removed than it took to taking the axe, evident by its own roar and the greater flow of foggy ichor seeping from the wound. The massive bear took another swipe with its uninjured paw, and with a short dash and a generous nudge with one of his axes Sigfrid avoided the blow and took the opportunity to give two quick swipes of his own, opening two shallow gashes just above the joint. For his troubles he was knocked back as the same paw swung backwards and lifted the man from his feet, sending him back-first into one of the buildings. "Oh ye like it rough, then?" Sigfrid shouted, mostly to himself as he got back to his feet, "Well I ken a thing 'r two about playin' rough!" He charged again, rolling underneath the Ursa's paw and popping up to sink both of his axes into the back of it's leg. He wrenched them free in time to avoid being flung away again by ducking back underneath the massive torso.
He came out the other side of the torso and gave another quick swipe, adding another shallow gash to that leg before he jumped backward a ways, having a harder time seeing the slightly luminescent creature through the thickening starry haze that had slowly been filling the plaza. He caught a glint of one of the claws just in time to get an axe up, pushing the paw to crash to his side and he gave a hearty upward swipe, digging deep into the backside of the shoulder of this leg and only adding to the spray of hazy ichor in the air, but he was met for his trouble with a loud cry of pain. He smiled, yanking the axe back out just in time to get swatted again. He crashed into another building across the way, landing in a heap. He got back to his feet, reasonably sure he had broken a rib or two again, and gave another yell as he charged the beast again. Sigfrid swatted an incoming paw away and buried an axe into the chest of the beast, and, unable to pull it out in time, left it in as he rolled underneath the leg which was still planted on the ground before the Ursa got another swipe at him.
The Ursa bellowed again, evidently feeling the last strike, and lashed out in a frenzy that tossed Sigfrid across the plaza yet again. As it moved to press it's attack, the wind picked up. There was something interesting about the wind, hard to place, a strange oscillation, when a melody started to be carried by the wind. The man managed to get himself upright again and his axe in position to push another swipe wide, though it seemed the beast was maybe not as forceful with the attack as it should have been. Curious, Sigfrid declined to make another attack, allowing the Ursa to make one more flagging attack before it succumbed to the tune, visibly calming and actually beginning to doze. Amazed, Sigfrid looked around and saw Twilight, horn glowing brighter than he'd ever seen a unicorn's horn glow, evidently struggling with whatever she was doing.
A few seconds later, the man saw what she was doing as a large shape enveloped in her magic approached, the Ursa also glowed, rising into the sky and meeting with what appeared to be a makeshift bottle, which it clutched greedily and sucked on the top of, before being carried off into the distance towards the Everfree Forest. Twilight's horn flared the whole while, and the pony was evidently under a lot of stress under the load. Finally, after almost a minute, she let her horn's glow die down, and she almost collapsed but for the battered Sigfrid catching her. "That was amazing, Twilight!" Came the cry of the small dragon, "and an excellent use of number 16! So it really is possible to vanquish an Ursa Major!"
The purple unicorn smiled a little sheepishly, "Well, that's actually what I was reading up on just before you got me! the only reason I was able to take care of it was because it was still just an Ursa Minor!" There was a gasp from all the ponies who had come out to the commotion. "Wait yer little hindquarters, tha' was still jes' a little cub?" The unicorn nodded. "Ach, now I feel a little bad about it."
Twilight smiled somberly, "You helped other ponies to escape, and kept the Ursa's attention for long enough that I could cast my spell! It may take a while to scrub this weird mist out of everything, and you may have to stay in bed for a couple days, but you saved ponies. I may not agree with the means, but in the end it's clear you only meant to help, so thank you." Sigfrid smiled in spite of himself.
A few minutes later, nopony could fine either hide or hair of Trixie, and it was evident she got as many of her things as she could and left. They had, however managed to corner the two unicorns responsible for bringing the Ursa into town, Snips and Snails, who prostrated in front of Twilight, announcing that they were ready for any punishment deemed necessary. Once they were set to their task of cleaning up the aftermath, everypony began to walk home. "Sigfrid?" The purple unicorn called out. "You should rest up at my house. Fluttershy is great at treating minor injuries, but I think you probably need a bit more than a minor healing, and it'll be best if somepony with healing magic watched over you." The man nodded, adrenaline wearing off and his whole everything beginning to ache in varying degrees. Sigfrid followed Twilight to the library, let her cast some spell and found himself rapidly losing consciousness.