(An Etrian Odyssey/Displaced Story) A Bushi and Arcanist break out of their stone prison to fight the new darkness in Equestria, make new friends, and find a way home.
Over a thousand years ago, two mysterious beings fell from the sky from another world and fought Discord alongside the Princesses. After the battle, they willingly turned to stone to fight Discord again if he got free. Then, Discord was released. Now free of duty, Allie and Gwen have decided to explore, make new friends, learn more about the multi-verse, and maybe find a way home. What they soon learn is that something followed them to Equestria...
Etrian Odyessy 4 Character belong to Atlus. (Cover art is temporary but shows that main characters.) (Will be editing later)
“99 bottles of beer on the wall, 99 bottles of beeeer~”
“Take it down, pass it around~”
“98 bottles of beer on the wall!”
Gwen thought this would be easy. Just sit in stone for over a thousand years in a garden, rise up, and beat Discord again.
Unfortunately, she and her partner had a mental bond with the crazy god thing, which meant she had to listen to her fluffy companion, Allie, and Discord sing the same song over and over and over!
The only times they stopped were when Luna was banished into the moon (which Allie cried at) and the occasional tour group.
“And here, we have the avatars of Restraint and Rage.” Gwen watched the Purple and pink earth pony walk in front of the two statues that imprisoned the odd couple. She was flanked by colts and fillies of all different colors.
“Why’d they have to name me Restraint?” Allie spoke up in the mental link. Gwen groaned at her partner’s mistaken vocabulary, Allie talking over the pony discussing their impressive history. “I mean, I don’t hold anything back!”
“They called you Rage, not Restraint.” Gwen had to point out, missing her ability to face palm for the millionth time. “It means you had no control what so ever.”
“But I do have control.” Allie whined, her voice matching the fluffy body she had. She looked like a dog, only with a few differences. She stood upright, her ears were basically part of her long hair, and she had claw tipped hands. She was wearing a white battle dress with a leather corset over it, with pieces of armor on her legs. He pose in the stone showed her pulling out one of her long katanas from its sheath.
Gwen groaned at how her partner contradicted herself yet again. Gwen herself seemed to be on the opposite spectrum. While she looked more human, she was still as far from human as Allie. She was a little shorter than Allie and for good reason. She looked overall too thin to be human. Gwen also had black tipped animal ears. Gwen’s hair was longer than Allie’s but was done up in twin pigtails with two flowers. She was wearing a simple dress with black boots that stretched to underneath it along with black, fingerless gloves that stretched to her shoulders. Her pose was just her in a defensive position with her staff.
“Miss Cherilee, what’s Restraint?” A yellow filly with red hair and a little bow asked, poking one of Gwen’s legs.
“Who cares?” Gwen went from mentally glaring at the tiny pony that had touched her to staring at the two little ponies that reminded her too much of those stuck up Royals back at home. “It’s just an ugly jelly bean.”
Some of the ponies frowned, none more so than the children’s apparent teacher. Allie was yelling at the little pink pony for calling Gwen ugly.
“For the record, nopony knows what Restraint was, only that she had the ability to keep Discord in place while the princess and Rage fought him.” The teacher, Cherilee apparently, responded, pointing with her hoof to Gwen. “Not even Princess Celestia herself knew what the two were.”
Gwen started turning out the rest of the talk to focus in on Discord.
“…Discord, you are being oddly quiet.”
That’s when both stoned beings felt it and they didn’t notice as the ponies left, three of the little ones arguing.
They were far more focused on the growing chaos energy coming from the stone prison nearby and the growing cracks.
They could feel the cracks forming on their own prison in response.
In the statues, all three beings tensed up for the fight that would happen.
“I’m telling you, Rage has gotta be some kind of mutant Diamond Dog.” Scootaloo spoke up to friends as they lagged behind.
“No, it can’t be!” Apple Bloom replied, twisting to look at the Pegasus. “Mutants don’t have any fur.”
“Maybe she’s like a super diamond dog from space!” Sweetie Belle suggested.
The three where so wrapped up in their talking they didn’t notice that they were being left behind or that the statues were cracking and shaking slightly. As the fillies argued, the cracks grew.
“Okay, we’ve come to agreement!” Apple Bloom exclaimed, the statue that looked like a Diamond Dog was shaking even more violently. “We shall be…CUTIE MARK CRUSAD-!”
They were cut off with a loud explosion and a cloud of dust hitting them from behind, knocking them off their hooves.
“I can mooooooooooooooooove!” A loud female voice yelled out right when Sweetie Belle was about to speak. “I can fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight! I can driiiiiiiiiiink!”
“I am aware, Allie.” A more cynical sounding female voice replied, with the sound of clothes getting brushed off. “I just wish you would have done it with less explosive tendencies.”
“But explosions are awesome! I mean, remember when we took down that evil prince guy?”
The three fillies looked over to where the voices were coming from to see the two statues, now in color, moving around and talking.
There was a ‘shink’ noise as the very real katana was put back in its sheathe.
The crusader’s watched as the two beings stepped off their pedestals with a grace and ease that seemed otherworldly.
“Girls!”
The three fillies snapped out of their reverie and looked back to Cherilee running up, the rest of the class following. “Are you all-“
She stopped speaking when the former dog statue rushed by the earth pony in a flash of flames, stopping in front of Diamond Tiara.
“You!” Allie barked in rage, some flames licking off her.
Everyone was frozen in fear except Diamond Tiara, who fell on her flank in fear, staring up at those emerald green eyes in fear.
“Gwen is not an ugly or an jelly bean! I do not know what a jelly bean is but I am certain that Gwen is not one of them! She is a vessel and pretty to all humans and very healerific!”
“Healerific is not a real word.” Every pony there jumped in surprise when they noticed the thin one had appeared right in the middle of the group, behind Allie.
Allie looked back. “Yes it is, I just made it up. It means you are super gifted at being a healer person~”
“Um-“ Cherilee was cut off by the thin one holding up a finger.
“Besides, we need to see Tia.”
Allie’s tail perked up, the flames disappearing. “Okay…but I wanna punish that pony that called you ugly later.”
The thin one, Gwen, just sighed and rubbed Allie’s head before starting to walk off.
Allie pranced behind her, looking completely at odds with her furious look a minute ago.
It was after the odd duo left was when somepony finally spoke.
“What just happened?”
Then, Diamond Tiara fainted.
(1490 years ago, Tharsis)
“Come on, Gwen!” A red haired woman spoke up, walking with a dark-skinned woman and blond haired woman down the main road in the large city.
Gwen ran after her other guild mates. ‘W-wh-why do w-we have to s-see these new M-merchants?” The vessel asked, looking to the fluffy bushi walking up beside her.
“Well, because they might bring us new stuff from other parts of the world~” Allie hummed, stopping Gwen from tripping on a brick. “I mean, don’t you wanna give the Medium some souvenirs from Etria? I bet she’d love some of the plants~”
“P-please don’t a-a-assume f-for the Medium.” Gwen stuttered, gripping her staff tighter. She couldn’t go anywhere without it. “I-I mean, w-what if we get s-something she doesn’t l-like?”
“The Medium will like whatever we get her~” Allie cheerfully remarked, slapping Gwen on the back.
Gwen flinched in pain, looking at the street. “I hope so…”
The vessel stopped when she noticed an old looking man sitting on the side of the street on a carpet, a large amount of odds and ends sitting around him. She grabbed Allie’s sleeve and pulled her over to the merchant.
Gwen tried to ignore Allie’s ‘ooooh’ing as she examined everything but her eye kept getting pulled back to this one necklace.
It was very simple. An En coin covered in gold on a chain.
Gwen picked it up as Allie examined a bracelet.
“How much is this?” The two spoke up at that same time. They looked at each other and looked away, Allie giggling.
“For the lovely couple, it will only be 200 En.” The old merchant chuckled.
“W-we’re not a couple.” Gwen stuttered as Allie went into her coin bag, to take out the money.
Gwen put on the necklace as she walked off into the road.
“Gwen! Look out!” Gwen’s eyes shot up as she saw a horse charging at her with a fully laden cart.
Time seemed to slow down as the horse was about to slam into her. Gwen felt sheer terror and some irony at that scene.
She had faced down giant fire breathing lizards, golems, dragons that could destroy airships with a without thinking about it, and a giant tree monster that could turn people into plants and now she was about to get killed by a horse because she wasn’t paying attention.
Gwen felt something slam into her side as her new necklace started glowing. The light engulfed her vision. Before she passed out, the old merchant’s voice suddenly echoed in her head.
In the Solar Court in her throne room, Princess Celestia sighed as she listened to this one noble unicorn named Blue Moon who kept trying to pass a law that would keep all dogs out of public places. As he blathered on, talking about it, Celestia only had one thought, along with most of the guards in there.
"Can't something interesting happen?"
"And that concludes my reasoning for the 'No Dogs' law." Blue Moon finished his argument, putting away one of dozens of charts he had made for the court.
She noticed most of the other nobles in the room were asleep. She smirked internally before announcing her decision. "I am sorry but your law is denied for being unequal towards those who need dogs and Diamond Dogs." Celestia subtly motioned for a few guards, for she knew that he would have a hissy fit.
The noble started shaking in rage, standing up. "This is an outrage to all allergy sufferers everywhere! I will see to it that all my supporters will write letters until you are-"
The entrance was suddenly blown open with a cloud of smoke obscuring it. The guards quickly got into position in front of the open doors, the nobles scrambling away in fear. Celestia's eyes widened when she saw two very familiar beings. "Allie? Gwen?"
"MISS TIA!" Allie screamed in joy before charging past the confused Guards, jumping over the ponies that were in her way or just jumping off them like she did to Blue Moon, and landing right front of Celestia. Then she ran to her side hugged the big pony princess.
Celestia, in both shock and nostalgia, hugged Allie back with her wing with Gwen just watching from the entrance with guards surrounding her.
"I missed you, Miss Tia! We were in the stone for so long with no one to really talk to except Discord!" Allie whined, looking up at Celestia's face with tears in her eyes. "And he wasn't even that good at singing!
"It is kind of an emergency." Gwen spoke up, spooking all the nobles who just noticed that she had snuck into the middle of the group. They swiftly moved away from her, leaving a large circle of space around her. The guards noticed that Gwen and move and followed her. "Discord was freed shortly before we were."
With that name, plus that fact that most everypony there had seen the three statues, the muttering and whispers began. Most of them were positive, seeing how the heroes of the past were back. Some were negative, seeing as they said that Discord was back. The guards were even putting their spears in a more complacent location. One pony was asking about muffins. No one really knew what Derpy was doing there.
None of that went through the dog hating noble's mind, who wasn't making the connections between the statues and the living breathing duplicates there like everyone else. He was far more angry about getting interrupted and the fact that this 'uncouth brat of a diamond dog' had done it. Plus, it had touched him.
Blue Moon got up with a growl, yelling what was on his mind without really thinking. "This is why we need those laws! To keep the impudent Diamond dogs like this one out! They are noting but thieves and liars!"
Everything went quiet as Celestia and a few other ponies glared at the dumb unicorn.
"Solar Court is adjourned until further notice." Celestia stood up, Allie moving away slightly. "Furthermore, Blue Moon is no longer allowed in the court for his racist views on Diamond Dogs." Celestia looked away from the fuming unicorn. "Guards, please alert the others that Discord may have been released and to check on his statue."
Blue Moon growled under his breath, glaring at Allie, before getting escorted out by a pair of guards.
Celestia looked to Gwen as she walked up to the vessel. "It is glorious, yet troublesome to see you two in the flesh again." She looked between the two and could see the differences in just how they stood.
Allie seemed to stand on her toes more, seeming as excitable as Pinkie Pie. Before she was excitable but she also had her reflective and quiet moments, which helped her to decide to get imprisoned in the stone.
Gwen was standing firm but emotionless, when before she slouched more, trying to hide her presence from the world. Now, she seemed at attention but depressed with a slight slouch.
"I am aware of how long it has been. We need the elements again." Gwen stated firmly, her face showing little to no emotions. "He is aware of them and is most likely going to steal them."
"Give me a minute to contact the current wielders and I shall go retrieve them from the vault." Celestia levitated a scroll over with ink and a quill. As she wrote her letter to Twilight, she lamented the emotional state of Gwen.
"After all this is over, I should formally introduce them to Twilight. Maybe she can get Gwen out of this new shell." Celestia put the finishing touches on the letter before sending it off. "Let's go."
Gwen jogged behind the Princess with her staff at the ready as Allie stayed in front, looking around every corner for trouble. In other words, Discord.
"....Tia....I think he's planning something." Gwen spoke up, looking out some of the windows as they moved, taking notice of some of the pink clouds. "He hasn't come to confront us in any way, not even to taunt us."
"And he likes taunting us!" Allie barked from the front, peeking down some halls. Her tail wagged slightly when she saw Luna's room.
Celestia looked around more warily. "He could be making something to fight you, like that Omnihunter."
"Ahhhhhh, good times~/I hope not!" Allie sighed/Gwen snapped, remembering the battle with giant deadly bug over a thousand years ago. To Allie, it was glorious. For Gwen, it was terrifying due to lack of team members.
"He's probably not strong enough to create something that powerful since he just got-" Gwen stopped for a moment before spinning around and shooting off a single magical bolt down the hall they had come from.
There was a loud bleat of pain that echoed through the castle.
"....God, I hope it's not poisonous one." Gwen spoke up, with Allie recognizing the sound as well since they had both fought them about a thousand times before Equestria.
"Tia, get the elements and meet the current users halfway! We'll try to keep collateral damage to a minimum!" Gwen ordered, her staff starting to glow with power gathered from the air itself.
Celestia looked to her friends with worry before nodding and teleporting to the vault.
Allie ran up in front of Gwen, taking out both her katanas. One was glowing while the other was as black as night. She was growling with excitement.
As soon as the F.O.E appeared, Allie stopped growling. "Really? Just a Dream Eater? I was hoping for a Nightmare Ram. They're a lot more dangerous to fight!" She asked out loud as she looked upon the giant ram F.O.E.
It looked like a giant ram, only it had red eyes, human like hands, and sharp teeth. It towered over the two seasoned adventurers with it's head grazing the ceiling.
"Honestly, I think Discord is underestimating us...again...It's rather insulting." Gwen muttered, picturing the first circle in her head and beginning the construction.
The dream Eater had heard all of that and roared in rage swinging it's hand paw thing at Allie, trying to smash her.
Allie crossed her swords in front of her, wincing as the attack hit her defense and slammed her into a wall. She moved slightly, feeling a bit weary but not to a troubling amount.
Gwen looked unconcerned with her partner as she created her first circle, manipulating the magic in the air to create an intricate circle under the F.O.E. It started producing vines that started covering the Dream Eater's face. "Hood Circle!"
Allie moved away from the wall as she focused on her inner rage. "Haaaaaaaaaaa!" Energy was collecting on Allie's weapons as the F.O.E. struggled with the vines on it's head, swinging wildly every which way and knocking a few holes in the walls and ceiling.
Gwen started preparing one of her numerous healing spells in order to fix the wounds that Allie would get from the powerful but double edged attack. She knew that the excess energy from the circle would help in a minute but it was better safe than sorry.
Once the energy got burning hot on the katanas, burning Allie's hands and arms, she swung them both savagely at the Dream Eater. It released a large magical shock wave that knocked it though the damaged wall and out of the castle and into the guarden. "Shockwave!"
Allie started chasing it out as extra energy popped out of the circle that stayed with the giant monster and surrounded her, slowly healing the burn wounds.
Gwen started following, preparing to launch a healing spell at Allie when she came to the edge of the hole and noticed the apparent school group from before. They seemed terrified but otherwise okay with a few guards escorting them away.
~~~
"Ah' knew it." Apple Bloom deadpanned as she followed everyone to a shelter. "Ah' knew the world would be destroyed by giant evil sheep."
The guards and the other Cutie Mark Crusaders briefly looked it Apple Bloom with an indescribable look.
~~~
Gwen shook her head, confirming they were far enough away to continue fighting before jumping out after Allie. She shot her healing spell at the bushi, who was starting to shake.
"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! BLOOD SURGE!" Allie roared at the top of her lungs as she caught on fire. She was breathing rapidly as she held her weapons up and charged at the Dream Eater, the flames encompassing them.
"FLASH SLICE!" Allie disappeared briefly as she reappeared on the other side of it, a savage gash appearing on the Dream Eater. Allie spasmed slightly as she felt several muscles tear under her skin.
It roared in pan before collapsing, black smoke surrounding it as Allie looked back.
Panting, Allie looked to Gwen in the distance. "Well that was rather eas-"
The F.O.E.'s claw suddenly shot out and slammed into the unaware bushi, knocking her into a statue. "Allie!' Gwen called out in worry as the heavily injured Dream Eater stood up on three legs.
It roared in rage, finally tearing the vines off and glaring at Allie with a Dozing Gaze, quickly putting her to sleep.
"Mrrrrrrr." Allie fell over, snoring loudly as the fire from the Blood Surge kept hurting her.
Gwen stared at the beast as it started limping over and got ready to smash the prone bushi, completely ignoring Gwen. Gwen was shaking slightly as she disconnected a part of the Magic Circle that kept it stable.
"Dismiss Blast." Gwen intoned with anger as the magic that fueled the Hood Circle started inflating explosively.
Celestia was following the train tracks with the elements floating beside her, flying as fast as she could without loosing concentration. it was kind of hard when she kept worrying about Allie and Gwen and the other ponies that could be caught in the battle.
She faltered slightly in the air as she heard a large explosion from Canterlot.
The alicorn looked back and saw a quickly vanishing magical cloud along with a dark smoke that was quickly vanishing. She shook her head, knowing what the darkness meant, before looking back to the tracks, seeing the train approaching.
Gwen ran over to Allie as the giant F.O.E. started fading away into darkness, having been utterly decimated by the blast. She checked Allie's heart beat after canceling the Blood Surge with a well place nerve poke. Gwen smiled when she found everything to be normal. "Allie, you idiot." She brung up the healing spell from before and started fixing the internal wounds that Allie had suffered, both from the Blood Surge and the F.O.E.'s final attack.
Gwen wiped her head, looking inwardly to see how much TP she had used in the fight and healing Allie. The Arcanist winced slightly as she notice how she only had half the normal TP so she was pretty low. She face palmed in irritation. "That prison messed us up pretty badly as well, Allie." Gwen started pulling her partner to a bench but stopped as she noticed who was already sitting there.
"Bravo, Bravo~!" Discord cheered, feeding some bird eggs to a Furyhorn. He was also holding a slushy cup that he gave off that annoying sound when he sipped on the straw. "That was a positively beautiful battle, full of such chaotic power~"
She said nothing, holding her staff up with determination in her eyes.
"Oh, Gwen~ I don't want to fight, especially when I can make a deal with you two about this world you are from." Discord chuckled, taking a horn off the strangely passive F.O.E. and biting into it, releasing a few Venomflys. "And really, you can't deny me with how Allie almost died."
Gwen casually smacked the weak monsters down, destroying them. She looked back at Allie, noting that she was still asleep before looking to Discord. "I am listening."
Celestia ran onto the the war torn battlefield/garden, incredibly worried about Allie and Gwen. Twilight and her friends were right behind her with the elements on.
The seven ponies stopped when they saw Discord in the middle of a large, juggling the beaten forms of Gwen and Allie. He seemed pretty roughed up but not as bad as the two adventurers.
Celestia started tapping into her inner magic, furious as the defeat of her old friends. "Remember, Twilight, Discord is completely unpredictable so be ready for anything!" The princess growled, her mane and tail glowing white hot as she glared at the entity of Chaos.
What Discord said caught everyone guard, enough to cool Celestia's rage.
"I'll go back to the stone with no fight." Discord tossed Allie and Gwen aside, putting his arms behind his back. "Unless you want to hug the deer~" Discord pointed with a third arm to the grazing Furyhorn nearby.
Applejack held Pinkie back from hugging the F.O.E. "Don't think about it."
"What are you playing at, Discord?" Celestia asked with steel in her voice. She couldn't believe that Discord would give up that easily.
"Oh, i made a deal with Gwen." Discord chuckled as Celestia's eyes widened. "It's nothing too devious." He snapped his claws, a bulky bag falling onto Gwen. "It's just something to keep me entertained."
Celestia glared at Discord as Twilight started using the Elements.
"Don't worry." Discord could feel the stone creeping up his skin. "If they are half as good as they were in the past, they will survive~"
Gwen stared at the white ceiling of the guest room she and Allie were staying in temporarily while they healed, watching the light from a candle dance up there. She could hear Allie snoring in the other bed.
She thought about the deal she had made with Discord and shuddered, thinking about what could possibly happen in the future. "Can we really do this without the others? Discord seems like a Tree Rat compared to what we have to do."
Gwen rolled over to looked at the bulky bag next to the night stand. She reached over and pulled out the item, a small bundle of simple looking thread. She knew better as she had seen it a thousand times before.
It was Ariadne Thread. It was used to warp out of Dungeons and Labyrinths.
Gwen knew what it meant.
It meant trouble.
She grabbed her staff and poked Allie in the head. "Allie. I need to talk to you."
The fluffy sentinel sat up, her head suffering from serious bed head. "Whaaaaaaaaaat? I was havin' a good dream."
"Allie, what do you want to do now?"
Allie went into a thinking pose, her hand to her doggy chin. "I dunno. I never really thought we'd be free and I really thought it would take longer to stone Discord again."
"...Would you like it if we went back to Ponyville with these new Element weilders?" Gwen asked, looking at Allie with a serious look with the thread hidden.
"Sure~" Allie answered without hesitation. "We can never have too many friends! Plus they might have pie! I love pie!"
Gwen nodded. "There is something you need to know."
"Hm?"
Gwen revealed the Ariadne Thread, seeing Allie's eyes widen. "We will not be resting long."
Immediately, Allie bounded over and took Gwen's hands. "That's brilliant!" Allie's tail was wagging furiously. "It means we won't get bored or rusty!"
Gwen stared at her with a deadpan look. "No. It means any new friends we make will be in danger."
Allie looked back with a whine. "That's where you're wrong. They'll definitely be in danger if we don't go!"
Gwen processed Allies logic before sighing internally. "You are right. I'm sorry." She flinched as Allie hugged her.
"I forgive you for being a downer~" Allie hummed, hugging Gwen tightly.
Then they looked to the bag, noticing the light coming from it. "Huh?"
Gwen reached over and took out the glowing Ariadne Thread, wincing as information went into her head. "Allie. Take hold of the thread." Gwen said in between the info pulsing in her head and the growing headache.
Allie grabbed the other part of it and winced as well before meeting eyes with Gwen.
As they put a portion of their power in the Ariadne Thread, they spoke their phrase.
"We are Allie and Gwen, heroes of Tharsis and Equestria! If you are of noble heart and need assistance in battle, hold the Ariadne Thread close and call our names with pride in your heart! Together, we shall vanquish the evil in any form!"
After the spoke, they tossed the thread aside and watched it go though a small portal, multiplying rapidly and going into a lot of other portals.
After the portals disappeared, Allie spoke up. "Well that was weird."
"But it does mean there are others like us." Gwen laid down. "That thread is now our hope for the future."
Allie nodded before going back to her bed, laying down as well.
They needed the sleep, for tomorrow would be very busy.
In the Everfree forest, patch of earth collapsed, showing crudely made stairs going down into the darkness...
Allie was just humming a merry tune as she swung her legs back and forth on the edge of the bed. She really wasn't worried about Gwen waking up since she had left to take a shower and to change her bandages.
She never realized how much she missed just being able to move until that battle with the Dream Eater.
Allie fell back on the bed and started moving all her limbs in an octopus fashion, including her tail. "Olololololololololol~!" She kept doing that for a few minutes before just letting her arms fall down. "I'm sooooo bored."
She started rolling around on the bed, eventually grabbing one end of the covers and rolling up in them, falling off the bed with a whine. Allie kept rolling while on the ground, finally coming to a stop when hit something that vaguely felt like a desk.
She wriggled out of the covers, sticking her tongue out. "Stupid mahogany desk thingy!" Allie huffed.
Her ears perked up when she heard the clopping of hooves and it didn't sound like the guards hooves or Celestia's.
Allie zoomed over to the door and peeked out, seeing a pink alicorn with a pretty purple, other purple, and yellow mane and tail. She also had a pretty cutie mark of heart made of ice or crystal. Allie didn't know. All she was concerned about was that the pony was pretty.
Allie just stared at her as she passed before she made her move, rushing out the room after the pretty alicorn. "PRETTY PONY PRINCESS HUG ATTACK!"
Said pony princess only had a second to react as she was tackle-hugged by 129 pounds of fluff and muscle.
Gwen stepped out of the large bathroom, combing her slick long hair with her fingers, getting out a particularly nasty tangle. She looked up at the architecture as she walked, taking it all in.
The towering pillars, the huge stained glass windows and normal windows, the perfectly kept plants, the marble floors (at least she thought they were marble), and rich red carpet that her tiny feet easily sank into.
Needless to say, she was avoiding the carpet of doom like it was the red/purple poison grass from her home land. Honestly, the grass was purple to her but other people, mostly humans, saw it as red.
As she walked down the hall, Gwen glanced out the normal windows, seeing the beautiful landscape, though nothing could ever top the Windy Plains in her mind. Equestria came to a close second though.
It hit her as she walked.
Over a thousand years of changes....Over a thousand years of death....She held herself as she though of her friends back in her homeland, her comrades and family in Tharsis. A thousand years....They were most likely- NO! Gwen smacked her head and rubbed at her watering eyes. She pushed down at the logical part of her mind that kept trying to state the obvious.
"They aren't dead." She whispered to herself. "They're just waiting for us. Yeah." Gwen looked up. "They're probably going to hold one of those stupid parties when we get back too." The vessel chuckled, remembering the first party her guild had thrown when they had stopped Heavenbringer and saved the Imperials' Prince. It was so huge, it had encompassed the entire city and it lasted for days. By the end, the only ones who could even stand were the Sentinels and even then, that was due to their iron livers.
Gwen giggled slightly at the thought of a party even bigger than that, as she turned the corner toward their room.
"Ahhhhhh, right there~" Gwen's ears perked up slightly as she saw probably the strangest sight she would see today. A happy pink alicorn rubbing Allie's back, while the fluffy dog girl just lay there on the carpet of doom, her tail wagging and right leg twitching in pleasure.
The alicorn stopped when she notice Gwen but kept that infectious smile. "Oh, you must be the two heroes that Auntie Celestia told me about."
"We are." Gwen replied without emotion, holding up her left hand. "I am Gwen and the one you were just petting is Allie."
"I am Princess Cadance. it's a pleasure to meet you both~" Cadance put her hoof in Gwen's hand as they shook.
"Whatcha doing here, Princess Candy?" Allie asked from the floor, still on her belly.
Cadance looked to Gwen, who just gave the gesture to just go with it. "Well, i was taking a break from my studies to go see my boyfriend."
"ooooh~" Allie quickly sat up, crossing her legs. "Tell us about him, please please pleaaaase~"
Cadance giggled before sitting on her haunches. "Okay, I can tell you a little."
Gwen groaned, leaning on the nearby wall as she started listening.
"His name is Shining Armor and he's the captain of the royal guard..."
~~~
After the small discussion of a unicorn named Shining Armor, Princess Cadance had to leave to continue her studies. As Allie waved to Cadance, she leaned over to Gwen. "She smalled like Strawberries and Lilac~"
Gwen gave a small sigh and rubbed the Sentinel's head, taking her word for it. "She sure did."
"Can we see Luna-Loo soon?" Allie asked with bated breath, her tail wagging hard.
Gwen nodded before turning toward the guest room. "During this meeting, you can."
Allie gave a whine of excitement before following Gwen into the room.
