> Once Again > by Twisted Colors > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Chapter 01 - Bag Of Bones > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Perspective: Fluttershy After a nice day at the spa with rarity, I was almost finished walking home when I noticed it, a Timberwolf lying by a tree on the edge of the Everfree near my house. "Oh... um, hello?" I asked. Its' head lifted in response to hearing me, looking at me with those glowing blue eyes, with something different from the others I'd met, all I saw in the other’s eyes was hunger and aggression but this one, this one had a look I couldn't quite pick out. As I slowly started to move towards it, it began glancing between me and the tree it was next to. 'No, that's not right, it's not looking at the tree, it's looking at something behind it.' I thought to myself, and with one last glance it darted into the forest. 'Oh I wonder what that was about, I’ve never seen a Timberwolf act like that before. Maybe I should have a look at what it was looking at... but what if it's dangerous, what if it attacks me or worse one of my friends... no, Fluttershy, you can do this, just one quick look and then straight home.' As I neared the tree I started to hear it, breathing, it was really quiet but it was there, and then I saw it, a creature like nothing I'd ever seen before, pale skin, no fur besides a mane and some on its face and wearing what looked like clothes on its' lower half but what was exposed was horrifying, the poor thing looked like it was starved and dehydrated near the point of death. After thinking about it quickly I decided to run home and get my friend Harry the bear, we then returned and he carefully carried the creature to my cottage where I had him put in my bed for the time being, I then proceeded to make what i presumed to be a him some broth that I could feed him while he was unconscious. Once fed I decided to examine him in case there was anything else wrong with him. One blush later I found out that he was indeed male, I opened one of his eyes to check them and they seemed fine and also they were a lovely shade of blue, I noticed while feeding him that some of his teeth were sharp which meant that he may be an omnivore along with a strange mark on the back of his right hand. With all that done it was getting late so I fed myself and my animal friends and got ready for bed even though I was going to sleep on the couch, I decided that the next day I'd ask for Rarity and twilights' help; Rarity to make some clothes for him, to replace his worn and torn ones whilst recovering and Twilight to see if she had ever seen anything like him in any of her books. Perspective: Unknown Later that night. "Damn that old bastard, how did I miss this, one book, one stupid little book and she has it, of course she'd have it. How is he able to mess with my games after long since turning to dust, I don't get it, how did he manage to plan this far ahead?" I asked myself before sighing deeply. I turned to face the changeling in the room "Alright, I want you to go to Ponyville, anything out of the ordinary by Ponyville standards I want you to report and if you can, find out which book she has acquired and how she got it, you may leave now." The Changeling nodded its approval before donning its' disguise and leaving. As I leant back in my chair I couldn't help but think to myself, 'I wonder what he put in that book, if I didn't find it then it must have something important in it, more important than his greatest spell books he made for Celestias’ private collection, hmm... I guess I should re-read his old journals, never know what I might of missed, though it still annoys me that I'm missing the last few he made.' Perspective: Fluttershy "*Yawn* morning guys, I’ll go get everypony's' breakfast ready," I said while slowly removing myself from the comfort and warmth of the couch. After feeding myself and my furry friends I re-heated the last of yesterday’s broth and took it upstairs. I gently knocked on my bedroom door and waited the polite amount of time before opening it and peering inside, seeing the creature still unconscious I made my way to him, putting the bowl of broth on the bedside cabinet and carefully lifted him into a sitting position. I slowly began feeding him small sips of the broth using one wing to lift the spoon and the other to massage his throat to help him swallow safely. "Alright angel, can you look after him please," *thump thump* "thank you, I’ll be back as soon as I can and I’ll pick up some carrots for you," *thump thump thump* "OK well I’ll be off now." One cute bunny salute later I left home and started my walk to town. 'Okay, I need to get Twilight and Rarity but which should I get first? I'll go for Twilight, she might be able to stop Rarity from going overboard about getting to see and make clothes for a different species. I think I can manage Twilights' outburst if I handle it just right but when it comes to Rarity and fashion I don't stand a chance, though they are my friends so I probably shouldn't doubt them.' "Hey Fluttershy," *eep* "oops, my bad," Rainbow Dash said from her new spot by my side, sporting the most apologetic smile she could muster after having made me fall on my back. "Oh Dash, please don't do that... that is, if you don't mind," I said, getting up and resuming my walk to town with one Rainbow Dash now at my side. "Heh, sorry about that 'Shy, guess I didn't notice you were in the zone, so, what's got you thinkin' so hard?" She asked as we started walking into Ponyville proper. "Oh, well I... um... I don't really want to tell the same story more than twice today so can you wait till we get to the library... if that's okay with you?" "Oh sure, I can wait, patience is my middle name." "I thought it was-" "Oh hey look the library race you there 1 2 3 GO" *Zoooooom* and like that, she was gone. 'Well, I like it.' A few minutes later I arrived at the library, just in time to see Twilight finish scolding Dash for crashing through the door and knocking most of her books off their shelves... again. Twilight shook her head at Dash and turned to look at me, "what can I help you with today Fluttershy?" "Well..." > Chapter 03 - Kain Lives! > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Perspective: Fluttershy "YOU WHAT!?" "Please calm down, Rainbow," I said, trying to be as reassuring as possible without flinching. "Calm? You found some strange creature on the edge of the Everfree, a place known for its huge amount of monsters, but instead of coming and telling anypony else, you decided to take it home and wait till the next day before letting any of your friends know that you spent the night in the same house as a monster!" Rainbow blurted out. Twilight, seemingly unfazed by Rainbow's words, said pretty much what Fluttershy had been expecting. "Can we go back to yours to examine it? Once you finish telling us what happened after you brought it home of course, providing Dash is willing to let you finish, that is?" "How can you be so relaxed about this Twilight?" Rainbow asked, clearly agitated. "Simple, Fluttershy is standing right here and looks fine, so it doesn't seem like anything bad happened and she hasn't even finished explaining everything so I'm trying not to jump to conclusions, well, not too many at least." Twilight said turning her attention back to Fluttershy with a sheepish smile, while Rainbow seemed to calm down slightly. "Thank you Twilight, but there isn't really much else to say I'm afraid, it'll be easier to just show you him. First though I’d like to get rarity, since he wears clothes I think it would be nice to replace his current ones. I know rarity would love to try making clothes for another species, plus his are in really bad condition." "Well, I don't know about you but I’d like to get started as soon as possible. I'll just quickly get my stuff and we can go get Rarity," Twilight said before trotting upstairs. Two minutes later, the three ponies set off for the Carousel Boutique. Twilight, of course, spent the short walk talking nonstop about the kinds of tests and spells she wanted to run on the creature. “Rainbow Dash, why did you say that?” Twilight asked with a raised eyebrow, standing over an unconscious Rarity. “What? I figured she’s going to faint anyway, so let’s get it out of the way first.” Rainbow replied with a rather nonchalant shrug. Twilight opened and closed her mouth a few times, but then just lowered her head and sighed. I moved up to Rainbows’ side and used a wing to give her a light slap on the back of her head making her flinch. “Hey, what was that for?” “That was for making her faint on purpose, even if it was going to happen anyway, it’s still not a nice thing to do to somepony, especially a friend.” I said making her ears pin to the back of her head. "Alright, I guess I'll wake her up," Twilight said to us, making Rainbow perk up for a moment before lowering her ears again when all Twilight did was shake Rarity. After raising an eyebrow questioningly at Rainbow, I got an answer that I should have predicted. "I was kinda hoping she'd dump some cold water on her like last time." Twilight stopped shaking Rarity long enough to respond to Rainbow, "I'd rather not have her mad at me and poking my flank with things again, thank you very much." After a snort was heard we looked at Rainbow to see her looking straight ahead, trying to keep a straight face and I could swear I heard her whisper in a strained voice, "that's what she said." "Huh, ugh, wha?" Looking over I could see that Twilight had finally roused Rarity. "Oh dear, I had the strangest dreeee... It wasn't a dream was it?" With a shake of our heads she proceeded to Squee before rushing over to one of her tables. “Oh dear goodness, this is exactly what I needed to get my inspiration going again,” Rarity said as she began putting items into her saddlebags. “I’ve been having a terrible dry spell lately,” she said before she paused to look up at Rainbow who was looking away. Me and twilight looked over as well before Rarity said “and you can get your mind out of the gutter, Rainbow Dash, I can feel you smirking from over here.” Rainbow looked back at us trying to appear as innocent as possible while saying “what, widdle old me? I don’t know what you’re talking about.” smiling a little bit too much. “Of course not dear.” Rarity sighed before getting back to putting the last few items in her saddlebags. Once done she looked up at us and asked “Shall we be off then?” Perspective: Corri As I lay on the sofa in my lounge, I closed my eyes and dove into my little corner of the hivemind, as usual, empty and silent, just like every other time I'd done this in the past year, but then I felt it, that phantom sensation of another presence in there. I sighed, waiting for what usually follows that feeling, but it didn’t come like I was expecting, instead I heard a whisper, too quiet to make out, so I pressed my mind closer until I could make out the voice. “Kain!?” I screamed out loud as I flailed my limbs in shock causing me to hit the floor with a thud, I immediately clamped my hooves over my mouth, realising just how loud I’d been before quickly climbing back onto the sofa and finding his voice in the hivemind again. I found him but he had stopped speaking, instead his presence just stayed there, weak but there, as if he was asleep. I got off the sofa and began prancing around the room chanting ‘yes’ again and again until I started to get tired and had to sit down. I took a moment to look down and close my eyes while I thought. “Okay, so he’s finally out and I can find him, what was I supposed to do next?” I muttered whilst thinking back to the last time I had talked with Kain. Opening my eyes, I nodded to myself and headed to the basement, down there I rooted through some boxes until I found a small sealed bag covered in runes, picking up the bag I went back up to the lounge where I put it in my saddlebags. Once done with that, I threw on my saddlebags and headed to the door, stopping to take a quick glance back into the house. Smiling faintly I opened the door and left the house, quickly getting out onto the streets of Ponyville. Taking a moment to focus on Kain’s signal I started walking in the general direction and smiled more openly than I have in a long time while thinking to myself, ‘finally.’