I Don't Want To Be A Tree
Jean doesn't like forests. Hates them, in fact.
There was nothing physically about woods that he disliked, nor were there any creatures that he feared within them. Rather, his hatred comes from the lack of mobility when travelling through thick trees and underbrush. On his large warhorse he made an easy target for potential ambushes, especially on a road that is quickly becoming little more than a dirt path.
Normally Jean wouldn't go through such a wood, rather he would find a way around. Time wasn't really an issue for him normally, being a skeleton gave him plenty of extra to find a safer route. Of course, when time was of the essence he couldn't afford such a luxury. This was the case now.
Jean was hunting a Necromancer. This was a common activity for him to embark on, as he had been hunting the same one for 238 years. This particular Necromancer garnered his special interest for being the one who killed him, destroyed all that he loved, and cursed him with eternal unlife in the form of a Skeleton.
Needless to say when Jean gets news of his possible location he is off with all due haste. Within a tavern he had heard of a golden robed man resurrecting the dead in the next town over, which fits the description for the one he hunts.
Of course, none of this makes him feel better about riding into a forest where his maneuverability grows worse with every passing hour. His not-so irrational fear of an ambush is only worsened by his exceptionally extravagant armor. Covered in gold and the markings of Gerana and the Order that he once- no, still served.
The years had been long without his Knight-Brothers to aid him. The endless hunt for vengeance weighed upon his mind as he upheld the tenants of his Order, the Knights of the Divine Record. It was a lonely, thankless task. It was only thanks to Jean's firm belief in Gerana, and the happiness and relief he left in his wake that allowed him to persevere and continue his holy mission.
It was around this time that Jean noticed that the forest seemed different. He had traveled the Fellmoor Wood before, and his mind did not recall flora such as this. In fact, he was quite sure he had never seen this place before.
Where was he?
Jean came to a stop, his helmeted head looking up for the familiar breaks in the canopy that would let him get is bearings with the stars.
He ran into one immediate problem, there were no gaps in the canopy.
A normal man would have noticed this much, much sooner. However, a skeleton can gaze into the night as if it is day.
Jean considers turning around only briefly, this may be a trick of the Necromancer. Even if it is not, he supposes that the Fellwood could have grown a bit more since he last saw it. Besides, Jean was closer than he had been to his goal than he had been in a century, his honor would not allow him to turn back now.
So Jean presses on, the path under his horses hooves almost completely disappearing. He quickly came to the realization that he did not recognize this place at all, an almost unknown feeling to Jean by now. The flora was strange, trees with faces, and he was sure he saw a flash of moving wood in the corner of his visors field of view.
It was when the path disappeared completely that Jean finally relented, deciding that he could not make his way through these woods with whatever strange magics had corrupted it.
He had wheeled his horse around, preparing to begin making his way back when his horse whinnied. Barely any warning before he feels something impacting his right side, sending him reeling. It is only thanks to his centuries of experience that he is not thrown off his horse.
In the next few moments, he almost wished he was.
Unknown to him, another one of the wooden creatures had lunged with lightning speed at the throat of his horse. Its armor was largely decorative and left an opening large enough for the beast to sink its jaws in, sending the horse reeling.
By now Jean is well aware that his horse is under attack, and the barking of what he believed to be wolves is apparent. Luckily for him, his feet lost their grip on the stirrups and he was launched from his mount. In the next few seconds it toppled, unable to withstand the assault of the strange beasts.
It took a few seconds for Jean to get to his feet, his plate armor making the process a difficult one. When he finally stood and managed to look toward his horse, it is only his experience that stopped him from being stunned by the sight of wooden wolves.
Jean was quick to grab the warhammer that hung off the right side of his waist, ignoring the longsword on the left side. He began the slug out of the underbrush and toward the now dead horse being ravaged by the wooden wolves. He vaguely noted his lance had landed off to the side on his approach.
When he got back into the small clear area where the attack had been launched, the wolf-creatures noticed him immediately and turn their attention to the metal thing that would interrupt their victory meal. They begin moving to encircle him, but Jean gave them no such chance.
Forgoing a battle-cry, he rushed forward to the largest looking one of them and brought his warhammer down on its head. The results are rather spectacular, and surprising. It appeared that the apparent Alpha was shocked that their prey was even fighting back and proved unable to respond in time to dodge the relatively slow strike. Its wooden skull fractured and caved in, sending green mush over the area below it.
The thing fell down, its only movement a small twitch in its back left leg.
Jean took no time to gloat, hearing one launch itself off the ground to his right, he quickly rotated and uses the momentum from his turn to swing backwards towards where he hoped the wolf was located.
The sharp spike on the back of the warhammer easily smashed into the side of the creature, where the ribs would normally be, and sunk in a good deal before the wolf-creature was launched away from the force of the blow.
Jean turned again, and noted the creatures seemed unsure. They gave each other a few looks, an odd thing from a simple animal, before they turned and fled into the woods.
He took a few moments to watch them leave before turning to the one he crippled with the side-hit, wheezing on the ground as its green life-blood slowly leaked from its pulverized innards.
Jean walked forward, placing a plated boot on its head and stomping downwards. Once, twice, three times. It stops moving.
In the aftermath of the battle, he did not require any time to rest. Undead to not feel exhaustion. He instead moved over to his dead horse.
He was not unused to his mounts dying, constantly going through one every few years to keep up the facade of a living man, but it was a touch rarer for him to lose one in combat. Especially so far from a place to purchase another.
Jean went about the process of removing his belongings from the beast. All of it, thankfully, undamaged. His kite shield and lance were unharmed, the shield having been on the top-facing side of the horse when it was brought down. The lance was launched away when he was.
He also kept a few supplies a regular man would have, a sleeping bag and blanket along with some other basic supplies. Also present were plentiful ingredients for broth and a custom-made funnel, made specifically to fit through his visor.
Jean briefly glanced at the horse feed, immediately dismissing the thought of taking it with him. He can purchase more with ease.
Jean quickly finds himself faced with his greatest problem. Getting the armor off the horse's corpse. With it being irreplaceable in the current era, he found himself unwilling to leave it behind. So Jean began the long process of carefully shifting the corpse and taking the armor off piece by piece. It took nearly three hours by his reckoning.
Eventually the armor was removed and strapped to the recovered pack with the rest of his belonging that wouldn't fit inside its minimal space.
With his shield in his left hand he held the lance in the middle at his side, ready to throw it aside should he need to fight.
Jean briefly considered turning back, only to come to the realization that the dirt path he had come to this location on simply wasn't there anymore. He was surrounded by what he suspected is no longer the Fellwood.
He soon decided that his best bet is to go the opposite direction that the wolf-beasts fled, as they likely fled back to their den, which would be deep within the woods.
With his path decided, Jean begins trudging through the trees.
He ignored the odd feeling that something is watching him.
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Contrary to what Silver Spoon would say is popular belief, Applebloom is not stupid. Nor is she terribly reckless, at least in her own mind. All of her adventures are perfectly safe, after all she always has her friends with her. With friends you can never truly be un-safe or reckless.
Of course, this only applies when her friends are with her. Currently she is running from the rather horrific sight that she had the misfortune to witness.
Her mind races with thoughts of a giant metal creature, enslaving a large earth pony and sacrificing its life to save his own, then proceeding to ruthlessly kill several timberwolves with ease.
Hardly a shining first impression.
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Jean persevered.
Through the countless times his belongings caught on underbrush, tripping over a hidden root, and that annoying birdsong he persevered. Normally he quite enjoyed nature, he really did. It reminded him of better times in his past, when he was alive and could experience the beauty of the natural world.
However, even his great love for the world around him comes to a sharp stop when he was forced to move through thick woods in plate armor.
He slogged through the woods for nearly an hour before he saw the edge a decent distance in front of his location. With renewed vigor Jean moved forward, he could swear he even saw a few buildings in the distance.
Strangely bright, but any town is better than none in this strange place.
Breaking free of the woods, Jean felt relieved to be over and done with the foul place. He also noted that the town seems strangely deserted before his vision slid to a mountain in the distance.
He was stunned for a moment before coming to the realization that he probably wasn't imagining it, and he doubted a skeleton can hallucinate.
The castle on the side of the mountain was probably real.
As ridiculous as it sounded to himself, he had to give it the credit that it looked impressive. Although he doubted it was very structurally sound, combined with the fact that it clearly wasn't meant to be a real fortress. A waste if he ever saw one, with its gold filigree and apparent opulence he had no doubt it was the home of some rather powerful nobles. Likely too stuck up in their castle to take the time to properly rule this place. Wherever it was.
Taking a moment to shake his head he started forward toward the town. As he crossed the grassy field on his way there it became more and more apparent that its streets were abandoned and devoid of life.
With the closed windows and shut curtains he drew the conclusion that they were simply hiding, he knew not from what though.
Jean doubted that it is himself, he is only one man to them.
On this train of thought he noticed the strange shortness of the doors, even the building stories themselves. They were just short enough to be uncomfortable to someone of his height, and indeed to anyone of average stature.
As Jean continues to walk deeper into the town he decided that there is no way this is a dwarf settlement, they are not so wasteful and extravagant in their rare over ground colonies. Nor was it halflings, he had not seen a single inn anywhere.
Eventually he reached the market, and his suspicions were confirmed. Produce left sitting, clearly abandoned in a rush. But what were they hiding from?
It had became clear that it is likely himself, but why?
Jean's thoughts were interrupted when a small group rounded the corner at a brisk speed, leaving him a bit surprised.
Two unicorns, two ponies, and two pegasi. All of various and wide coloration. Clearly whoever bred these creatures was obsessed with copious amounts of dye. He absently noted that the expense must be immense.
They seemed to be heading in his direction, he noted, but eventually decided that they are no threat to him and instead decided to move toward a large building down the street. Something that he guessed was probably the town hall.
He has just turned to walk away when a voice calls out from behind him,
"Stop right there!"
Jean quickly turned to face the source of the voice, the only living things visible are the six pastel ponies.
If Jean still had skin on his face he would have scowled,
"Cease thee hiding cowards! Art thee so afraid to speaketh to me directly?"
Normally a skeletons voice would have been hollow and sounded quite diabolical. Luckily for Jean, Gerana had given him several tools to help him on his journey to hunt the Necromancer. His voice being one of them.
In life Jean could have been a singer, with a voice smooth as silk and hard as stone.
This is what echoed around the marketplace, the ponies about 10 yards in front of him glancing at each other in . . . confusion. Except one.
Jean would have barely had time to blink, if he still had eyelids, before blue overtakes his vision and a voice filled his head,
"Who are you calling a coward, hu-"
Jean reacted as one would expect, he let the lance fall from his right hand and curled his gauntlet-clad hand into a fist before he launched it at whatever was in his face.
The results are as one would expect, the slap of metal on fur and skin followed immediately by a loud crack of bone breaking.
Whatever was in front of Jean is sent reeling back and onto the ground with a crash, rolling multiple times before coming to a stop. To his surprise it was the rainbow colored pegasus that was with the group . . . What?
In his surprisingly shocked state he almost doesn't see the others getting ready to attack him. The orange one rushes forward, the two unicorns horns light up. The yellow pegasus, strangely, cowered and the pink pony reached behind her and pulled out a . . . a cannon?
Jean didn't give it more thought than that, with little time to react he drew the simple conclusion that whatever spells the two were preparing would be detrimental to his continued existence, and whatever was in that cannon probably wasn't good.
He moved forward, moving at an angle to put the immediate position of the orange one between him and the cannon. This prevented the pink pony from firing, she seemed vaguely annoyed. The orange pony then proceeded to turn her flank to him.
He can see the tensing, she is preparing to kick him.
Jean dis not like the thought of this, stopping his move forward he angled his upper body and held his kite shield against his chest. A split second later it felt as if a boulder hit his angled shield, but a majority of the force is redirected away. This left the orange pony dangerously open, her legs still extended in the air with nothing to come to a stop against.
Still not having time to take his hammer out, he reached out and grabbed a hold of the pony's hair that leaked out of its hat and yanked her closer to him. The orange pony clearly wasn't expecting this and cried out, easily pulled due to her unbalanced state. This is just in time to take a brick meant for him, launched by what he suspected to be the white unicorn.
The orange pony grunted in pain as it hit her ribs, a similar crack to earlier sounding out.
With the pony propped against his shield he took in the situation.
The pink one was ready to fire the second he was revealed, the white one was recoiling from hitting its ally with a brick. The yellow one still cowered. The rainbow one is still on the ground, gripping its ribs. The purple unicorn had disappeared, Jean barely had time to realize this and note the sound from his back right before a force impacted him from behind.
He was sent to the ground a few feet away, his pack and other belongings dislodged. Coincidentally, the orange pony is also sent flying from the spell and impacted a apple filled stall.
He began to get up, but the sound of a cannon going off made him decide to fall to the ground once more. He heard something fly over him and impact the building behind him, sending the wall caving in. A cry came from inside, one of fear.
Jean surged to his feet as fast as he could, which was relatively slow. He saw the purple one with a scowl, charging another spell. The white one seemed to have recovered with an outraged look is on its face as it prepared to sling more bricks at him. The orange and teal ones were out of commission. Where was the yellow one?
Quite suddenly, about 3 feet in front, of him it appeared, having rushed from out of his field of vision.
Red faced, its yellow coat almost untarnished, it yelled out while gazing where his eyes would be,
"How could you come here and do this! These are innocent ponies and you should feel ashame-"
His shield arced out as he took a long step forward, impacting the feminine sounding pony's face. It began to fall to the ground.
Before the pony could complete the journey, Jean grabbed it around the neck and, while the white and purple ones are seemed shocked at his action, threw it at the obviously more dangerous purple one.
The light pony flew through the air, the purple one recovered too late to catch her with any kind of magic. They both went to the ground.
He noted the pink one is no longer here, perhaps it ran. The cannon remained.
The white unicorn recoverd, yelling out and proceeding to fling more rocks and bricks at him.
Jean easily deflected them with his shield as he ran closer, the pony backed up more and more fearfully as he closed in.
Eventually he was a few feet away and the pony tripped, falling to the ground. He didn't stop his approach, swiftly bringing a plate clad foot into its face. It stopped moving. He heard a noise behind him, he turned and saw the purple one was up and about once more.
Its face was one of rage, its horn charged up a large spell.
Jean waited until the last moment, when it lowered its head, he threw himself to the side. A lightning bolt arced past him with a tremendous roar, hitting the closest building behind him.
Bricks and ruined pieces of building exploded outward, covering the area in dust. Screams and yells of fear, and a few of pain, echoed out from the impact zone.
Jean used the look of shock and horror on the ponies' face, and his concealment from regular eyes in the large cloud of dust, to run forward and get within striking distance. The pony didn't even have time to fight back before his gauntlet-clad fist sent it to the ground.
The noise of more incoming became apparent, many more. The sound of clanking metal on metal.
Jean almost fled. Almost. But the yells of the wounded, the burning nearby house, and the cries of fear tug at him. He could not leave them.
The sound of metal on metal grew closer.
Casting aside his shield Jean ran toward the house hit by the lightning bolt. A two story abode, made of wood and straw. It had gone up like a torch.
He vaguely heard a male voice yelling from outside,
"Ditzy! Dinky!"
Then his hearing was smothered by the sound of crackling wood and burning straw.
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Doctor Whooves is a simple pony who lives in a simple town. He runs a simple store where he sells odds and ends, various things he collects from his small adventures.
He has simple tastes, not being too eccentric or too normal. The only odd thing about him is an old pocket watch of unknown make in the back of his store.
However, normal ponies fall in love one day. Doctor Whooves was definitely in love with one Ditzy Doo, and her lovable daughter Dinky.
His store, its second floor doubling as his home, was also a simple affair. It was on the market square, right across the way from Dinky's house. It was how they met in fact, she had seen him having trouble with one of his odder experiments through his window and had come to help. It was the start of a beautiful relationship.
Naturally he had gone into his home and hunkered down when the local band of heroes/misfits had went around and said a monster was coming.
He had subsequently seen the armored monster fight the element bearers, winning decisively. Wincing in sympathy as Pinkie launched herself through someones wall.
It was in the final stages of the fight that his worry had turned to horror.
Twilight Sparkle had shot a lightning bolt at the metal monster. It had dodged.
Now Derpy's house was aflame, half of its side facing the market was gone and he was running out of his home and trying to cross the market in time. He exited his store front just in time to see the creature throwing aside its shield and charging into the burning building.
Doctor Whooves yelled out as the guards entered the square, sprinting forward,
"Ditzy! Dinky!"
As fast as he ran his store was across the entire market from Ditzy's house. A few guards intercept him before he can get close, holding him back despite his protests.
Doctor Whooves didn't know what to do.
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Major Fleet Foot of Her Majesties Royal Garrison Corps is very, very angry.
That foalish mare, Twilight Sparkle, had done exactly what he had warned against when she proposed her plan to attack the creature in town.
When he had been alerted to the incoming creature by Applejack he had initially wanted to muster a force and confront the beast outside the towns borders, hopefully avoiding any collateral damage. Sadly Applejack had brought her friend with her to tell him, and she had quickly seized control.
Contrary to popular belief, Twilight Sparkle did hold two titles. She was heiress of the Sparkle Clan, a hefty title in of itself, and de-facto heiress of Princess Celestia, a far heftier one. When she gives orders, you listen. No matter how foalish they are.
She had wanted to confront the creature, perhaps talk it down, and surround it within the town itself. He had gone along with it.
Things went badly almost immediately. He had ordered his men in the second the fight started going poorly, but at his insistence the garrison troops had been positioned a good deal back from the planned engagement area.
By the time they arrived the fight was over, a buildings wall was collapsed, and a house was ablaze.
He had warned her against using heavy magic within the town, she had clearly not listened.
Fleet Foot did manage to catch sight of a large bipedal figure entering the flames.
A stallion is stopped by a few of his men, crying out two names he didn't recognize.
He sends out a soldier to alert the weather pegasi. He hoped there were no ponies inside, but a sharp scream from inside disabused him of that.
Then the upper windows of the house explode outwards.
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Jean could hear them. Yelling from the second floor.
In his head he cursed the low ceiling, forcing him to hunch over a bit as he rushed forward.
It was lucky that he had no flesh to feel the flames he ran through or he may have been unable to complete this task.
The stairs were, luckily, easy to find. As he climbed them he could feel and hear them groaning under him, the fire had done its work on the supports. This house was coming down, soon.
Stepping off the stairs he was met with a loft, filled with smoke. The yells had turned to rough coughing and sobbing could be heard.
This close he could make out two voices. Jean starts making his way closer.
The house groaned, on its last legs.
On the ground in a corner, far from the windows that provides view into the market, were two ponies. Both gray to his vision, one regular foal and a pegasi.
The larger one looked at him as he came closer and attempted to cover the foal, but was clearly too weak from the smoke inhalation to do much else.
The house's supports creak, large cracking noises coming from below and around them.
Jean does not waste any time. He continues his half-run forward and grabs the two up, struggling slightly. The large one tries to struggle, the foal is unconscious. He absently notes the pegasus is much lighter than the orange one he fought.
His head shoots around, looking for an escape. The stairs were a no go, they were already collapsing.
The groaning reaches a crescendo. Jean begins to run toward the windows.
He knew he wouldn't be able to cross the entire distance in time, nor could he fit out the window. It was simply too small. The ponies could, however.
When he gets as close as he can, perhaps a few yards away, and the house begins to fall he throws the two as hard as he can out the broken windows.
Before the floor collapses under him he gets a good view of them sailing out of the window, and a feeling of satisfaction comes to him.
Then he hits the ground floor, his vision fading to black as the building collapses on top of him.
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To say Jean's vision faded to black was perhaps an inaccurate statement. It, in fact, was immediately blocked by debris as he fell through the floor. Skeletons don't go unconscious, a blessing and a curse as it meant that they cannot sleep either. This was perhaps one of the greatest wears on Jean's mind, as human conscious isn't meant to be fully aware all day and night for hundreds of years.
This leads to Jean taking any time he can to sit and pretend to dream, detaching himself from reality as best that he can.
Sitting under rubble counts as one of these times.
Jean was completely unaware that he was being dug out until light assaulted his vision, and he surged to his feet.
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Fleet Foot watched the two ponies sail from the top floor of the burning house, crashing through the air as if they were thrown.
He was momentarily stunned into inaction, but luckily one of his subordinates isn't.
A green glow envelopes the two pegasi, saving them from certain injury. If the two had impacted the ground at their speed, the lighter and less dense bones that are normally a boon for pegasi would, instead, hurt them. Frail bones break easily.
As the two are lowered to the ground, and a split second before the Major can praise the Unicorn Auxilia for his quick thinking, the house collapses.
No doubt the monster, or perhaps would-be rescuer, was inside.
The Major is not a heartless, nor stupid, stallion. He realized that the creature probably ran into the burning building and just saved the lives of two pegasi.
This means that either the information reported about the creature was wrong, or he was purposefully fed misinformation.
He dearly hoped it was the first, he would not survive a court case against any of the Elements. Even if he won, his career would be over. Ponies don't take well to heroes being questioned.
His soldiers, trained for emergency situations like this, were doing their duty. Several had moved to the buildings closes to those burning, evacuating them. Others moved to help the ones fleeing their burning homes, closer to the one that was blasted to pieces.
A select few began moving to assist the element bearers in their various states of injury, the worst being Pinkie Pie. He was sure he saw her front legs bent at an unnatural angle as she was carried, unconscious, toward Ponyville General Hospital.
Going through a wall does that to a mare.
The Major glaces back toward the two that had been thrown from the, now destroyed, house. He sees the stallion from before holding them both as the Unicorn Medic examined them.
Fleet Foot began making his way toward the small group, taking note of the weather pegasi as they moved in with heavy rain clouds.
Sparing a few seconds to look at the collapsed and burning building makes him doubt the creature survived, a shame. Its actions proved it honorable.
He reached the small family when rain began to pour down onto the burning houses.
Stopping before them, he shared a look with the Unicorn Medic, who gave a small nod to indicate that they should be fine for a chat.
The Major spoke, he tried to keep any edge out of his voice,
"I'm sorry to bother you at such stressful time, but could you tell me what happened?"
The brown earth pony was the first to respond, and it was swift and angry,
"That Celestia damned Sparkle launched a lightning bolt in the middle of town! Its only thanks to that creature that Ditzy and Dinky made it out."
The Major sighed internally, gearing himself up to calm down the, quite frankly justified, angry pony in front of him. Well, he would have if he wasn't interrupted by the last voice he wanted to hear coming from behind him.
Twilight Sparkle seemed to have recovered, and trotted up to him and ignored the unicorn medic that was tried to tend to the gash on her face,
"Major . . . was anypony hurt?"
Her voice cracked a bit, showing the fear she must have felt over the results of her spell. She was normally the most together mare he knew.
Fleet Foot made sure he was composed, there was no need to bring any undue anger from the protege of a Princess upon him, and spoke.
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Twilight Sparkle felt like someone slammed a piece of metal with grooves into her face. To be fair to her, that is what happened. However, not even her slightly dazed state dulled her attention to Major Fleet Foot as he spoke,
"There were no serious injuries, it seems that after it . . . subdued you it went in and saved this family from the house that took the direct hit from your spell."
Twilight had deduced something like that, she had not been knocked unconscious like her friends and had seen it enter Derpy's home.
She took a moment to give what happened at the start of this fight a bit more thought, going over the events in her head. It is unlikely that the creature entered with hostile intentions, it had not made any hostile moves in town.
Twilight supposed that her rather grievous mismanagement of the situation spawned from what was told to her by Applejack. But that was second-hoof information, told to her friend by Apple Bloom.
She had taken the information presented at face value, too used to dealing with a disaster every week spawning from the Everfree.
Applejack seemed positive that Apple Bloom spoke the truth, and Twilight had never doubted her friend's intuition on matters relating to lying. Then again, Apple Bloom could simply believe what she relayed to be the truth. She makes a side note to look into that later.
Twilight shoves these thoughts into to the side, they had been bothering her since they moved to confront the creature in the market.
Looking at the situation, she can see what went wrong. Her analytical mind picking out the major mistakes.
First, Rainbow Dash. Rushing forward to an obviously armed and dangerous creature, it could have cost her friend her life.
Second, not launching non-lethal spells at the creature before Applejack reached it. It was clear that the creature did not have ranged weaponry on its person, and she could have taken care of any magical retaliation. Once her friend was in melee with it, it became dangerous to try and aim spells into the combat.
Third, not acting as a unit. If only the girls had listened to her carefully planned slideshow detailing the need for combat training . . .
Fourth and final, her use of such a volatile spell in a populated area. A foalish mistake.
Gathering her presence, as instructed over long hours with Princess Celestia and her own mother, she commanded,
"Major, I want two decanus on those ruins. Retrieve the creatures belongings and have a messenger take them, and a message, to the library. Tell my assistant, Spike, to send a message requesting a force of guards and include a brief report of the situation."
Her bearing was impeccable, as was expected from a future Matriarch of the Sparkle Clan.
The Major responds appropriately, anything resembling dissent pushed under the surface of obedience, slamming a hoof on his chest he moved to hand out the appropriate orders.
He really hoped he wasn't retired over this.
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It turned out that digging through the ruins of a house was more difficult than it appeared, especially if you are searching for something.
It had taken nearly half an hour for the twenty soldiers to get through enough rubble to get a glimpse of the creature's remains. They were able to direct their attentions onto that location soon afterward.
After a bit of work they were surprised to find that the monster's armor was not blackened from the fires, this was discovered the more of him that they uncovered.
What shocked them even more was the thing nearly leaping to its feet, an achievement of its own in such armor, looking around frantically.
Its a good thing that Princess Luna had responded to Twilight Sparkle's letter almost immediately and was observing the situation.
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Jean didn't quite know what to make of his current situation.
Before him were a little more than twenty armored ponies. This alone would be enough to make him hesitate to enter combat with them, even if he had his weapons they would likely overwhelm him with numbers alone.
No, what worried him was the pony almost as tall as he was charging its horn.
With it appearing like the dark blue pegasi-unicorn cross is about to unleash its spell, Jean made a split second decision that, unknown to him, probably saved him a few years in isolation deep beneath Canterlot.
Raising his gauntlet-clad hands, he called out.
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Princess Luna Solaris was rather tired. Being interrupted in the middle of your normal sleeping schedule leaves one lacking a bit of energy.
Of course, Luna was used to working on less sleep than even an alicorn normally received. Running Equestria was difficult, perhaps more-so a thousand years ago. Trains and administrative staff do wonders for her workload.
Of course, her own staff was considerably smaller than her sisters. This wasn't due to any issues or problems hiring ponies, it was instead due to her own insistence that she manage most of her duties on her own.
This is not to say that she particularly enjoyed the ponies that she hired. They all feared her in one way or another, and all of them treated her with immense disrespect by her standards.
Before her banishment she did have a sect of devotees, even if they were the vast minority. Ponies eager and happy to serve the Night.
This was no longer the case.
This is also why she had no Lunar Guard to bring with her to respond to the Heiress Sparkle, and instead relied upon the sup-par garrison cohort already here.
Of course, Luna was very displeased to find that, according to the average pony, she held no real power within the Diarchy.
The opposite, of course, was true when considering her personal power. They viewed her as a immensely powerful witch of some sort, eating foals and selling souls.
Complete nonsense, of course. The practice of eating dead foals to gain their strength died out millenia before Equestria was founded.
Now she found herself gazing at an obvious armored, and intelligent, creature who had just lept to its feet. She charged her horn, preparing to cast a spell of paralysis upon it before it made any rash decisions.
Then it raised its hands and spoke,
"Cease, I has't no ill will against thee!"
Luna blinked, a tad stunned that not only did it speak equestrian, but also in the Shakesponian Dialect of a thousand years past.
She quickly recomposed herself though, and replied,
"If 't be true thee hadst no intent to attack, wherefore didst thee not attempt diplomacy?"
Luna was pleased to find that the old tongue came to her as easily as it once did, flowing much more naturally than modern equestrian.
The creature showed no outward reaction to her type of speech, although his tone as he spoke next had a shred of relief,
"At which hour I entered town, I wast confused ov'r the sentience of thy race. I wast setteth upon by a teal pony. I meanteth no hostile intent by coming hither. I hadst becometh lost in the nearby woods."
Luna could believe that, Ms. Dash had a reputation for being brazen and careless. The creature's words also matched the report she had received.
She absently noted the soldiers around her seem ill-at-ease and confused by the conversation, Twilight Sparkle could be seen as she watched from a good distance away. She looked ready to intervene if he became hostile.
Luna decided that introductions were overdue in this conversation,
"Very well, thy story matches what I has't hath heard. I am Princess Luna Solaris, and thee art?"
The creature gives a stiff bow, his plate armor restricting his movements somewhat, and responds,
"I am known as Sir Ritter, Knight of the Divine Record and Devout of Gerana."
Luna catches the 'known as' part of that sentence, but sets it aside for now. She returns the bow, although much less low, she is a princess after all.
"Cometh, I wilt ensure thee art housed properly. Thee must forgive mine ponies reaction, they art hath used to hostile creatures coming from the Everfree."
As Luna turns to begin leading Sir Ritter away from the rubble, she gets the distinct feeling this could have gone much worse.
-----------------------
In a large castle in the middle of the Everfree, a golden robed man cackles as the first of his experiments in this world comes to fruition. Soon he will dominate this new land with his legions of undead, without that damned servant of Gerana getting in his way.
He does wonder why there were so many foal corpses laying about in the dungeon, though.