Prologue

Prologue

“I don't like this,” Wyntir exclaimed grimly as he examined the graveyard, and the shambling corpses within, that lay before him. His grip on his newly acquired sword, one once used by the Undead Legion, tightened.

“What is it? More undead?” Kara asked, her hand firmly attached to Wyntir’s shoulder for guidance.

Wyntir turned his head to look at his blind maiden, her eyes white as snow. He considered lying to her, but decided against it.

“A whole mess of them, too many for me to comfortable lead you through.”

Kara’s face showed her displeasure at his response, “Then we need to find a way through.”

Wyntir repressed a sigh, and looked over the scene before them. The paths were too narrow, with hollowed undead close together. There was no going back either, as the group of undead who hunted them were surely close at this point.

“Those hollowed undead ahead of us don't look too tough, maybe I can cut through them and make a path for us...” He trailed off, his right hand readjusting the swords blade on his black pauldron while his left hand gripped the hilt of the longsword sheathed on his hip.

“Can you do that?” Kara asked, eager to move forward on their journey.

Before Wyntir could reply, the sounds of plate armor and chainmail running up the path could be heard behind them.

“Ahead! I see them ahead!” the lead undead exclaimed, followed by the cheers of the many undead behind him.

“Change of plans, we're running past them,” Wyntir exclaimed as he turned and threw Kara over his left shoulder. He then sprinted away from the sane undead as they let out mock howls, imitating wolves on the hunt.

Wyntir expertly and agilely, despite his stone like armor, weaved his way through the mass of undead, dodging their slow swings when he had too. Behind them, the Undead hunters were not fairing as well. With the hollowed undead being railed up by Wyntir zooming past, they began to converge on the hunters trying to follow him.

Up ahead, Wyntir ziq zaged through the paths, hoping that his randomly chosen paths won't lead to a dead end. However, just as he jumped over two hollows, he found himself in a pit. A pit filled with hollows and too steep to climb out of.

Wyntir cursed aloud as he sat Kara down, allowing her to stand on her own. “Do not move.” He commanded, to which she nodded.

He turned to the hollows in the pit and held the fairly large sword firmly in both hands. The hollows, meanwhile, were starting to advance on them. Angry growls coming from deep down in their throats.

With a grunt, Wyntir swung the sword horizontally, cleaving through the first few. Just as the sword cut through the last one, he redirected its momentum and swung it back through the small crowd in front of him. After two more passes, the last of the hollows fell.

“Quickly,” he urged as he grabbed Kara’s hand and began to move towards the back of the pit. But as they reached the back wall of the pit, there was a sudden pop above them, like the sound of lighting.

Wyntir looked up, his sword held defensively in front of himself and Kara. But what he saw caught him off guard.

In the sky above the pit was a dark cloud, with evil green eyes staring straight down at them.

“What in the name of...” was all Wyntir could say.

“What is it?!” Kara demanded, her voice filled with freight.

Wyntir didn't know what he was looking at, before he could comprehend what he was seeing, the hunters suddenly poured into the pit.

From the way they acted, Wyntir could tell they hadn't taken noticed of the green eyed cloud above them. Thus, he chose to ignore it till it showed itself to be a threat. He then focused all of his attention on the group before him.

They didn't say a word, they just rushed Wyntir. But they all immediately backed up when he cut down the first three with only two swings of his large sword. They were at a loss for words, but that only lasted a moment.

“You need a big sword to fight, coward?” one of them snapped at him. “Too afraid to fight with honor like a real man and use a normal sized weapon?!”

Wyntir just stood there, his stance unwavering as he held the sword in a defensive manner. He knew what they were trying to do. They were trying to play at his ego, trying to get him to cast aside his large sword. It was a good tactic, and would work on anyone who is openly proud of their skills in combat. They needed an edge to tip the battle in their favor.

Well, Wyntir could care less about honor. But they wanted an edge, and he'd give them one.

In one motion, Wyntir dropped his sword and drew the longsword. Before his larger sword had time to hit the ground, he was already in a fool's guard stance, body leaning forward with his sword angled downward.

This caused a smile to form on all the faces of the few undead left. They again rushed him, believing that attacking all at once would yield the best results. However, as the first one to reach him lunged forward, ready to impale him, Wyntir leaned his body back and sliced his sword upward. This caught the Undead off guard, and before he could correct himself, Wyntir’s sword slammed right into his face.

As he fell, another undead took a swing at Wyntir. Unexpectedly, instead of dodging, Wyntir allowed the sword to hit him. It bounced off of his armor, the Undead not wielding enough strength to cause any kind of harm to Wyntir.

In retaliation, Wyntir struck the Undead in the face with his gauntlet ed hand, easily shattering all bone it made contact with. But just as he landed this blow, the last of the Undead came at him, their sword already coming down towards his helmet.

Acting on instinct, Wyntir quickly shifted sideways, causing the swing to miss. The undead stumbled, but quickly caught himself and turned to face Wyntir, holding his sword straight out in an attempt to keep the large man in black armor at bay.

Wyntir merely looked at the Undead with disgust. “Don't point that thing at me!” He then, in the blink of an eye, grabbed the sword by its blade and effortlessly pulled it from the undead's grasp.

All the Undead could do was watch in shock as Wyntir raised his own sword, still holding it by the blade, and slammed it straight down on his head, the guard of the sword easily puncturing his thin helmet and embedding itself deep in his skull.

Once the last of the Undead hunters fell, Wyntir returned his gaze to the floating black cloud. The green eyes looked mischievous, as if delighted with what they'd seen.

“We're done here,” Wyntir told Kara as he retrieved his large sword and sheathed his longsword.

“That sounded interesting,” Kara remarked as she searched for him with her hand grasping at the air, and returning to his shoulder once she found him.

Wyntir didn't reply and instead began to lead her away from the pit and the strange floating eyes. But before they reached the exit from the pit, the eyes suddenly shot down and blocked the exit.

Reacting quickly, Wyntir pushed Kara back and was already mid swing with his sword angled with the eyes. But just as it was mere inches away from them, they disappeared and the world went black.

In a panic, Wyntir turned to see Kara a few feet behind him, looking confused. He quickly grabbed her and pulled her to him, scanning every which way.

All around them was darkness, with nothing else but a cold breeze.

Kara began to shake, “I can feel it... The dark, it's here... All around me, biting at me... Wyntir...”

Suddenly, behind him came a low chuckled. Wyntir spun around, his sword in a ready position, but nothing was there, at first.

Out of the darkness, a form began to appear. As it started to fully appear, Wyntir slowly raised an eyebrow.

What stood before him was quite strange, a decently sized dark grey horse with a red horn atop its head. Plates of armor adore it's body, accented by a red cape on its back. To sum it up, it looked ridiculous to Wyntir.

They stood in silence for a long minute, both just sizing the other up. Then, it spoke.

“You must be confused, being brought here like this,” the horse said, a smirk on its face.

Wyntir, unfazed by the fact that the horse could speak, just pointed his sword at it. “And where is here?”

The horse laughed, “A medium between our two worlds, but soon we'll be in my palaces throne room. But for now, lower your weapon.”

Instead of complying, Wyntir changed to a ready position. “Why have you brought us here?”

“Because of her,” the horse said, a hint of malice in his voice. “She has a power deep within her, and I want it.” It lifted a hoof, pointing it at them

At this, Kara whimpered, her knees starting to wobble. “The dark, it's hurting me... Please, I need relief... Wyntir, please, it's almost too unbearable... Your promise...”

Wyntir dropped his guard and placed his hand on her shoulder, and she relaxed a little.

“Bad news for you, horse, she ain't going anywhere with you.” Wyntir said with confidence.

“That's sadly not up to....” the horse stopped dead, a look of anger suddenly splashed across his face. “... Celestial.”

“Sombra,” a feminine voice said from behind them, a hint of anger in its voice. “I see you're getting desperate, trying to find outside help to aid you.”

There was a tense silence between the two. Wyntir took this opportunity to look behind himself to see who this ‘Celestial’ was. And what he beheld caused his jaw to drop.

A nearly blinding light surrounded the most majestic pure white horse Wyntir had ever seen. This was no ordinary horse, however, it had a horn like the darker one, but in addition it also had a set of very large wings sprouting from its back. Wings of a Angel.

“The sun...” Kara said, dropping her hand from Wyntir’s shoulder and turned towards the white horse. “I feel the sun, washing away the darkness...”

“Kara.” Wyntir warned as he widened his stance so he could watch both of the horses at once.

“You're the one who is desperate,” mocked the dark horse. “You're just too proud to admit it.”

Unfazed, the white horse just spread her wings wider, filling the dark void with light. “Don't be so smug, Sombra. Your reign and this war will be over very soon, mark my words.”

Suddenly, the darker horse began to slowly disappear, the light gradually pushing away the darkness.

“You wench!” Sombra yelled as he tried to to keep from vanishing, his horn starting to glow. “I'm not leaving without my prize!”

Kara let out a choked scream, causing Wyntir to whirl around to face her, as her body was engulfed in a shroud of blackness. She began to be slowly dragged towards the dark horse, but Wyntir quickly grabbed her around the waist with his free arm and began to play a deadly game of tug of war with the dark horse.

“Release her!” the dark horse commanded, trying desperately to pull Kara to himself.

Wyntir remained grounded, holding tightly to Kara. His muscles bulged, threatening to break the straps and buckles that held his armor to his body. The darkness around Kara increased, and Wyntir was sure she'd be torn in two at this rate.

Just as the pull was starting to become too much, a glowing aura suddenly spread over his and Kara’s body. Almost like the sun itself was wrapping around them. The darkness around Kara instantly disappeared, and a great feeling of relief washed over the pair.

“No, how dare you!” screamed the dark horse as it completely disappeared and the light filled the area.

Kara let out a sigh of relief as she leaned against Wyntir, the sun like aura still around them.

Wyntir looked back at the white horse to find it glaring at him. Before he could ponder this, everything around them brightened further and a sense of nausea washed over him.

Moments later, objects began to fade into existence. At first it was just the ground beneath their feet, but slowly chairs and tables began to appear. After that, creatures began to fade in as well, all around them. It took a moment for Wyntir to recognize them to be horses as well, yet they were smaller than the other two he'd seen.

Once everything faded in, he found himself in a large tent, armored horses all around him. The white horse, taller than all the rest and obviously in charge, still glared at them.

Wyntir slowly let go of Kara and raised his sword to shield himself and her.

“What's going on? Wyntir?” Kara asked in a whisper, but she went unanswered.

“Restrain them!” snapped the taller horse.

Instantly, every other horse began to advance on the very confused pair. With nowhere to go, and no way out of there, Wyntir pushed Kara down to the floor and stepped over her protectively.

As the horses closed in, Wyntir braced himself and lashed out with his sword, easily cutting down three of the horses. Before they could react, he turned his body and cut down two more on the opposite side.

This clearly surprised the horses, as they backed off in fear. They were all armed, but this creature before them had just effortlessly killed five of their own in only two swings of its sword.

The taller white horse, anger clear on its face, stepped forward. “How dare you!”

In response, Wyntir pulled out a small talisman and eyed the large horse. “I don't know what's going on, or what you are, but you better play this smart and have those fools step aside.”

The angry expression left the horses face and she looked at Wyntir, no emotion showing on her face. “Creature from the depths of Tartarus, lay down your arms, and you will be unharmed.”

“Horseshit,” Wyntir replied, not buying it for a second. He focused his power and slammed his hands together, sending out a mostly harmless shock wave, which sent all the horses around him flying backwards, the taller one included.

In the moments he had, he reached down and pulled Kara to her feet, and in one motion threw her over his shoulder. He then sprinted towards one of the tents walls, jumping over and stepping on all the horses in his way. Upon reaching the wall, he swiftly sliced his sword through it, creating a door for himself.

The moment he stepped through the hole, however, a powerful wave of energy slam into his back. He was staggered and a sense of weakness ran through his body, but he resisted it and took another step. Suddenly, another wave of energy hit him, followed by another, and his body gave in and he fell to his knees, dropping both his sword and Kara.

As he sat there, his body getting weaker, he found himself being surrounded by even more of the armored horses.

One of them walked up to him, with gold accented armor, and came face to face with Wyntir.

Wyntir wanted to spit into the horse's face, but his helmet prevented that. So instead, he used the last of his strength to slam his head forward, bashing the horse in the face and sent it reeling backwards.

Wyntir smirked as a few more bolts of energy hit him, causing him to finally fall forward. He was unconscious before his body hit the ground.

Taken prisoner

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Chapter 1

"Wake up," a gentle voice coed, causing Wyntir to stir and sit up, still in a daze.

It took only a second for him to realize he no longer wore his armor, a realization that caused him to quickly jump to his feet. However, the moment he stood up, his head slammed into something hard, causing him to fall back on his rump.

"Sorry, we didn't have any cages your size," the voice said, losing some of the gentleness it had had before.

Wyntir shook the dizziness away the best he could and finally started to take in his surroundings. It was night, with only a few torches around the area he was in. He was also in a rather small cage, with what appeared to be iron bars all around him. The cage he was in was one of many, but the others seemed to hold horses in them and other kinds of creatures. The area they were being held in was surrounded by tents, meaning they were in the middle of a camp of some kind. Finally, standing right in front of his little cage was the tall white horse, a thoughtful look on its face.

He sat there, mostly naked save the cloth around his waist, looking up at this horse, thinking of something to say. After a few moments, he sat up fully and crossed his legs, but remained silent.

The horse looked him over and frowned, "You brought this on yourself."

No reaction was seen on Wyntir's face as he stared at the horse, still as a stone.

This seemed to unnerve the white horse, obviously expecting him to say something in his defense. They stayed like this for a few moments, both just staring at the other, before the white horse shook its head.

"Nothing to say for yourself?" it asked, and when he still didn't answer, it glared at him. "You killed five of my little ponies, with no remorse."

Finally, Wyntir broke his stillness, a smile breaking across his face. Yet, he still didn't speak.

"You think this is funny?" the horse bellowed, anger flaring across its face briefly, but it quickly composed itself. It looked away from him and let out a heavy breath. When it looked back at him, it held a stern expression on its face. "All I ask, is for you to tell me what you and Sombra talked about, and what he meant by prize. I doubt you are involved with him, but I still need you to tell me all he said."

With a small chuckle, Wyntir shook his head, still smiling, and shrugged. "Nothing important."

Obviously not pleased with this answer, the horse frowned. "I see you're going to be of no help." It then stepped aside and gestured with its leg towards a cage on the opposite side of his cage. "I guess we'll just have to ask your friend then."

Wyntir looked at the cage and its occupant, his smile instantly falling from his face. In the cage sat Kara, also stripped of her robes and only wearing her underclothes. She was sitting up, looking confused as she couldn't see what was going on. Her blank stare was resting on Wyntir, even though she couldn't see him.

Seeing his change in attitude caused the horse to smile to itself as it stepped over to stand in front of Kara.

"Tell me what was said, young one," the horse said sweetly.

Kara seemed to be in a daze, and didn't respond or react to the horse talking to her.

"Don't be afraid," the horse said, taking her lack of action as a show of fear. "I will not hurt you. Please, tell me what he said to you and why he wanted you."

She remained silent and still for a few moments, but suddenly, her head shot up to stare at the horse. "If I tell you, will you let us go?"

The horse looked back at Wyntir, a frown on its face, and turned back to face Kara. "I'm sorry, but your friend killed five of my soldiers. He will have to face the consequences of his actions, and by association, so will you. But if you tell me what I want to know, I'll spare you the same fate."

Kara, with a look of displeasure, returned her empty gaze back to Wyntir. "Then I have nothing to say to you."

This caused the horse to instantly become enraged, and it didn't try to hide it this time around. "You both better rethink your situations before tomorrow, otherwise..." It then walked away, not needing to finish its sentence.

Once it was gone, one of the horses in a cage close to Wyntir's spoke up. "Ya'll gonna die." It then laughed, followed by a few others who were still awake.

Wyntir ignored them and looked over at Kara, "Are you okay? They didn't hurt you did they?"

She shook her head, a sad look upon her face, "I'm okay. I still don't know what's going on, or where we are. Pardon me if I sound crazy, but are the creatures that are imprisoning us really horses?"

"Appears to be. Horses and ponies, with wings and horns to boot." He shook his head, glancing around. "Also, we're apparently in a war camp of sorts, and if I have to guess, going to be executed tomorrow."

"Wonderful," Kara said, brushing her hair out of her face. "Now, can you get us out of this?"

Wyntir frowned as he reached forward and grabbed the metal bars of his cage. He rubbed his hands up and down them, but shook his head. "Not in my current state, no. Not without a little help from a spell or a heavy weapon."

"Well drat," Kara said with a huff. "Suppose you might be able to do something tomorrow when they take us from our cages? If they do that is."

"Maybe," Wyntir replied, but he shook his head. He knew their chances of surviving this was slim, that didn't mean he wouldn't try to fight them. However, without his armor and with them having spells of their own, he didn't see them having much of a chance against this many enemies.

Kara, even though she couldn't see him, knew Wyntir was distressed, but chose not to speak. Instead, she laid down on the cold metal floor of her cage and laid there motionlessly.

"Gonna dieeeee!" the same creature from before howled loudly, laughing louder than before.

Wyntir let out a deep sigh before closing his eyes, still in a sitting position. It was going to be a long night.

ooo000<^>000ooo

The sounds of shouting caused Wyntir to awake from his restless slumber. More shouts could be heard, as the whole camp seemed to be going into a panic. Loud bangs could be heard every few seconds as well, like someone was tossing small explosives around one at a time.

Wyntir looked around at the tents that surrounded them, but couldn't figure out what was going on. Was the camp under attack?

All of the creatures around them were also awake in their cages, all of them just listening to the chaos around them. Most of them seemed excited, as if this was an attack then they're more than likely to be freed if it was successful.

However, just as suddenly as it all started, it ended. Silence took over once again, and every creature in the area held its breath as they waited to see who'd come into their little area first. After a few minutes, to all of their disappointment, the white horse returned, followed by a large number of ponies, as they were smaller than it, entered the area.

The horse looked very unhappy, and had a new scar on its side, as if something had cut it lightly. Nothing in the area dare say a word as the horse lead its armored ponies through the area, heading towards Wyntir and Kara's cages.

Upon reaching them, the horse gave Wyntir a very hateful glare, but didn't speak. Some of the armored ponies ran off and brought a empty cage forward and placed it a few feet away from Wyntir's.

Then, to the surprise of Wyntir, they brought forward another human, a man. He too was stripped of all of his clothing, save for his underwear. They threw him into the cage without care and slammed it shut. As they left the area, one of the ponies stopped and looked at Wyntir, hate clear in its eyes.

"You killed my brother, you son of a whore."

Wyntir didn't give it any kind of reaction, just stared back into its eyes blankly.

The pony gritted its teeth and hit his cage with one of its legs before walking away.

When the last of the ponies left the area, all of the other creatures began to settle back down. None of them made a comment, except for a few curse words here and there. Once it all settled back down, Wyntir looked over at the man.

This man didn't look as impressive as Wyntir would have hoped, as he wasn't as buff as a average warrior would be. While not buff, the man seemed to be just as tall, if not a hair shorter than Wyntir, judging from his unconscious form. The man was covered in fading bruises and scars, showing he was at least somewhat of a fighter, hopefully.

"What is it?" Kara asked from her cage, very confused on what had happened.

"It's a man," Wyntir replied, still looking him over.

Kara smiled brightly and leaned against the front of her cage. "Does he look like he can help us escape?"

"No," Wyntir deadpanned, causing Kara to lose her smile and sit back.

"Oh..." She hung her head and went back to laying down.

After some time passed, Wyntir began to look around the outside of his cage. Upon seeing a few small stones that lay around him, he reached out and began to collect them. Once he had grabbed all the stones in reach, he began to toss them one at a time at the unconscious man.

He did not stir at first, but after one of them hit him in the nose, he shot up and slammed his head into the ceiling. He fell back on his back side, holding his head with both hands.

"Fuck!" he hissed in pain, he then looked around for the source that had awoken him and saw Wyntir staring at him. "What do you want you..." he stopped mid-sentence as he realized where he was. "Well shit..."

The man composed himself as he looked himself over, clearly not happy with his gear being taken away. After he finished examining himself, he looked over to Wyntir. "What's going on here?"

Wyntir shrugged as he looked at the man, "No idea to be honest." When the man frowned, he added, "What happened to you?"

The man let out a sigh and shook his head. "Some crazy horses brought me here, and one of them was not very happy about me being here."

"Was it a white horse?" Wyntir asked, already knowing the answer.

"Yeah," the man said with a nod. "And when it tried to shoot me with some kind of beam, I dodged and took a swing at it with my saw. Then everything went to hell, but I took down a lot of them before one of them finally got me." This was followed by him letting out a low chuckle.

"Same here, mostly," Wyntir said as he motioned to Kara, who was sitting up but had remained silent. "But that other horse wanted my maiden here for whatever reason, and the white one is just a stuck up prude from what I can tell."

"Huh," the man said thoughtfully. "That other one wanted me to go with it for what ever reason, probably something there to think about."

Kara cleared her throat, causing them both to look at her. "So, my good sir..."

"Loric, my lady," the man said in a charming voice while running a hand through his shaggy hair.

"Sir Loric," Kara continued, "Can you help us escape this place?"

Loric smiled as he looked at her, "I can try." He then began to look over his cage, checking all of the corners. When he came to the front, he ran his hand over the lock, a large smile appearing on his face.

At his smile, Wyntir leaned closer, waiting to see what he was about to do. Loric reached up into his hair and began to feel around, he then produced a small piece of metal. With a proud smile, he began to fumble with the lock on his cage, working the metal in the lock. Moments later, his cages door creaked open.

"Amazing," Wyntir commented as Loric stepped out of his cage and stretched his arms out. "Now get us out."

Loric looked at him, seeming to be considering his options. Finally, he walked over to Kara's cage and began to work on its lock.

"Thank you, thank you so much!" Kara said in a whisper, a large smile plastered on her face.

Loric smiled back at her, but as he started to say something, he noticed her eyes. "You're blind?"

Kara only replied with a nod, to which he shrugged as he finished working on her lock and opened it for her. He helped her out and then turned to Wyntir.

"Hurry," Wyntir said, looking around hoping none of the ponies would come back.

"Hmm...." Loric hummed, tapping his chin. "On one condition."

"Just get me out," Wyntir commanded, "We don't have time for games."

Loric seemed to consider something before he sighed and began to work on the lock. "You owe me your names, at least."

"Wyntir of Carim," Wyntir answered.

"Kara of Carim, we are so grateful for you," Kara said from behind them, still smiling.

Once Wyntir's cage was open, he crawled out and stood up. The creatures around them had gone back to sleep, luckily.

"What now?" Kara asked, holding her hand out for Wyntir to take.

Loric began to reach out for her hand, but Wyntir snatched her hand first and eyed Loric. He stared back at Wyntir, but didn't comment on it. "We need our gear first."

Wyntir nodded and began to head back the way the white horse and the others had gone. But as they walked down the row of cages, one of the ponies in a cage suddenly shot up and reached out for them.

"Hey, hey," it said in a low voice, "Take me with you."

"No," Wyntir said coldly.

"Then I'll yell," it said, causing all three of them to stop and look at him. At this, it smiled, "That's right, I'll yell and bring all the guards down on you. You'll need me anyways, no way you'll get out of this camp without me."

"Fine," Wyntir growled as he leaned down to the pony and reached into its cage with both hands. "Shake on it then, if we let you out, you'll lead us out of here."

The pony smiled triumphantly and put his hoof in one of Wyntir's hands. "Deal."

Suddenly, Wyntir pulled the pony forward and wrapped both of his arms around its neck, and before it could make a sound, he snapped its neck. He pulled his arms back through the bars in the cage and let its body slump over.

"Well, that was a bit brutal," Loric commented.

Wyntir grabbed Kara's hand again and continued forward, "It had to be done."

Loric remained there for a second, looking at the poor creature before he continued after them. "Do you have any idea where they're keeping our stuff?"

"No," Wyntir said without looking back. "But I have an idea of how to find out."

After they reached the tents, he looked back and held a finger up to his mouth. They slowly moved through the rows of tents, thankful that there were no torches around. The only sources of light were the torches that were held by the ponies that were walking around.

They eventually came to an area holding a few tents that were larger than all the others.

"Bingo," Loric said from behind him upon seeing the tents. "One of those has to hold our stuff, but now onto the harder question. How do we find it and get to it without anyone seeing us?"

Wyntir looked around the area, weighing his options. There were a few ponies walking around, some leaving and others coming in. This seemed to be the main hub of activity for the camp.

"We need to ask one of them," Wyntir whispered as he made them back up deeper into the shadows. "You two stay here, I'm going to grab one of them."

"Let me, I'm pretty sure I'm quicker," Loric said as he stepped forward.

A frown appeared on Wyntir's face, but he reluctantly nodded, "Go, I'll watch over Kara."

Loric smiled and shot off, running down one of the rows of tents, silent as the night.

Some time passed, and Wyntir began to fear that Loric had run off. But before he could voice his suspicions, Loric suddenly appeared next to him, covered in sweat. His sudden appearance caused Wyntir to jump.

"Scare ya?" Loric asked, a smug look on his face.

Wyntir frowned at him. "Did you find anything out?"

Holding up a finger, Loric reached around himself and pulled out a piece of paper that had been tucked into his underwear. "Yep, I got a poor idiot to draw a map of this little area over here."

"And you believe him?" Wyntir asked as he grabbed the paper and moved closer to the light coming from the center of the camp.

"Considering he and his two friends drew the same map after I killed one of them, then yes," Loric said with a small chuckle.

Wyntir gave him a nod of approval as he looked over the map. He looked over the crude drawing, taking note of the five boxes, with one of them circled, and nodded. "Well, that's one problem out of the way. But now we have to get across all that open ground."

"Already got that covered," Loric said proudly. At Wyntir's questioning glance, he explained, "I already went out of my way to set up a distraction."

"A distraction?" Kara asked, looking in his direction. "What kind of distraction?"

"An exciting distraction," Loric said in a goofy voice. Before anyone could ask any more questions, Loric spun around and threw a rock he had had in his opposite hand, sending it flying back towards the area with the cages. Seconds later, the sound of metal being hit rang out. Wyntir frowned at this, but before he could voice his displeasure with this distraction, screams and shouting began to come from that area.

All of the ponies around them began to rush that way, shouting orders and directions. One ran their way, and as soon as he was close enough to see them in the darkness, Wyntir shot out and grabbed his head. Before it could scream, he twisted its head, killing it.

He then looked back at Loric, "What did you do?"

"Oh nothing, just unlocked most of the cages back there, that stone just woke them up. A perfect distraction, don't ya say?"

Wyntir grabbed Kara's hand and began to lead her out into the opening. "Yes, now let's not waste it."

The three of them quickly made their way towards one of the large tents, keeping an eye out for any ponies that might see them. Luck was on their side, as they made it to the tent with out a single soul seeing them.

Upon stepping into the tent, they were greeted with a huge area filled with armor and weapons laying around.

"An armory?" Wyntir asked as he walked further into the mess, looking for their gear.

"It would appear so," Loric said as he did the same, picking up random objects and tossing them to the side. "To bad all of this is too small for me, other wise I'd be having a field day with all of this stuff."

It didn't take long for Wyntir to find his and Kara's gear mixed in with all of the rest. He quickly picked up Kara's clothes and brought them over to her and sat them down in front of her.

"Here, your clothes are right at your feet, Kara," he told her, knowing she can dress herself.

"Thank you, Wyntir," she said with a wide smile as she leaned down and began to feel her clothing.

Wyntir immediately made his way back over to his armor and began to put it back on. As he pulled on the clothing and strapped down the armor, he glanced over at Loric, who had also found his gear. He had already put on a pair of pants and a button up shirt, and was currently pulling on a vest of some sorts. As he finished pulling on the vest, he began to fasten a few belts around his chest, followed by him pulling on a large dirty grey coat.

Wyntir raised an eyebrow at him, but didn't say anything, yet. After he finished putting on his armor, he went back over to Kara. She had already finished putting on her robes, and was waiting patiently for the others.

"Ah, it feels good to be clothed again," Loric said as he walked over to them, placing a tricorn hat on his head as he approached.

Now that he was fully dressed, Wyntir looked him over and shook his head. "Not a touch of armor on you."

Loric waved him off and smiled as he pulled a piece of cloth up over his face, leaving only his eyes visible. "I don't need it, it just slows me down." He then looked Wyntir over. "Going a bit over board on the armor plating, lad?"

"It's the armor of the Knights of Carim, do not mock it," Wyntir growled, putting his helmet on and strapping it down.

"Oh, such a lovely helmet," Loric commented, he then took note of Wyntir's weapons. "Hmm, big sword, little sword... how do you have the strength to use both? Let alone that rather large one."

Wyntir didn't answer him, instead, he looked at Loric's weapons and raised an eyebrow. "Says the man with the unconventional and ridiculous weapons."

"Don't knock it till you try it," Loric said as he raised his large saw cleaver by its handle, "This thing is many times better than any sword you have." He then held up his flintlock pistol, "And this thing is simply amazing, easier to reload than most other flintlocks out there."

"I see no use in either," Wyntir said, holding up his large sword. "This however, can cleave through many men without any effort."

"Gentlemen," Kara interrupted. "We should be escaping, not trying to prove who has the best stick to whack things with."

Loric and Wyntir looked at each other and nodded.

"To be continued," Loric said with a chuckle.

Wyntir gave a quick nod as he took Kara by the hand and began to head for the tents opening.

"The faster we get out of here, the better," Loric said from behind them.

The moment they stepped outside, they were greeted by an unexpected sight.

"Well shit," Loric commented.

"Crafty," the white horse said in an amused voice. "Using the other prisoners to distract us so you could escape. Almost worked. Almost."

The three of them was surrounded by what seemed to be the entire camp, armored ponies standing with weapons at the ready.

They all stood there, each side staring the other down.

"How many?" Kara whispered.

Wyntir frowned behind his helmet, not liking this one bit. "A whole mess of them."

Loric gave a slight nod, "A whole bloody mess of them."

A worthy fighter

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Chapter 2

"What will it be," the white horse began. "Will you surrender? Or cause more death? I'd advise against the latter."

Loric nor Wyntir spoke a word, instead they readied their weapons. Wyntir with his large sword and miracles, and Loric with his saw cleaver and flintlock. It was obvious to all that they were ready to go down fighting, no matter the odds.

"Wait!" Kara suddenly yelled, catching everyone off guard. She walked past the two warriors, and stood a few paces away from them. "There does not need to be any kind of bloodshed! But we will not go back into those cages, I insist we all talk about this reasonably!" She then performed a formal bow, "My name is Kara of Carim, I hope we can come to an agreement."

All was still as the white horse, with all eyes on it, seemed to be thinking of its next words carefully. "I am Princess Celestia, ruler of Equestria." She then performed her own bow, but she still had a stern look on her face. "I as well hope we can come to an agreement, I would rather there be no more death tonight."

Kara smiled and motioned back to Loric and Wyntir, "Then let me be the first to show a sign of trust. Lower your weapons Wyntir, please."

Wyntir hesitated for a second, but reluctantly lowered his sword. Loric, however, took longer to lower his weapons, his eyes staring daggers at Celestia.

After their weapons were lowered, Celestia gave a nod and all of her troops lowered their weapons as well. "I assume that you're also going to allow us to take you back to your cages so we can finish this conversation?"

With a frown, Kara shook her head, "We will not go back into your captivity, we have done nothing to warrant that kind of treatment."

At this, Celestia, as well as all of the other ponies, became visibly angry, "You have killed many good ponies tonight! And now you're trying to escape, which will involve killing even more of my ponies."

"You attacked us first, we were only defending ourselves," Kara said calmly. "Instead of trying to restrain us, you could have simply talked to us. I would have been more than willing to tell you everything you wanted to know."

"You can't possibly be blaming me for the deaths of my ponies," she warned, taking a step towards them. "You two were speaking with Sombra, our enemy, when I pulled myself into that void. That alone gave me reason to be wary of you, and you're actions since then have not helped at all. To me, you, Kara of Carim, are the reasonable one. But your two companions there, are barbaric and evil without a doubt. So there is no possible reason for me to trust you three."

Kara seemed to be searching for something to say, anything to help them get out of this situation. Suddenly, she felt a hand on her shoulder.

"That's enough, Kara. They're not going to listen," Wyntir said in a low voice as he watched everything around them with wary eyes.

She started to argue, but instead gave a nod and allowed him to lead her back behind them.

Once she was safe behind them, Wyntir faced Celestia and addressed her in a not so friendly voice, "Everyone we kill is on you, Ms Princess horse. Remember that!"

Celestia's horn flared brightly, turning the night into day, and smiled, "There will be no more death tonight, creature from Tartarus!"

Before Wyntir could process what was about to happen, Celestia's horn suddenly shot a beam directly towards them. The moment it reached them, there was a large explosion, sending bright beams in every direction. All of the ponies in the area began to flee, trying to avoid the beams that shot around them.

As the smoke cleared, Celestia was surprised at what she saw. A large wall of light stood between herself and the trio of creatures. She bared her teeth and tried again, but only succeeding in destroying more of her camp as the beam hit the barrier and split into smaller beams that shot off in random directions.

"What is this?!" She demanded, her remaining troops, who weren't chased off by the beams, seeming a little less eager at charging the trio.

"Just a simple miracle," Kara said as she lowered her hand, causing the barrier to disappear.

"I thought you were blind?" Loric asked aloud, very confused on how she knew the attack was coming.

In response, she just smiled, "I am."

Before he could continue his questioning, Wyntir suddenly threw her over his shoulder and took off sprinting away, heading towards a opening in the line of ponies that the beams had created. With a glance at the enraged Celestia, Loric quickly took off after them, easily catching up.

"After them!" One of the armored ponies yelled, but before any of them could give chase, Celestia held up a hoof.

"Stay where you are!" she bellowed in a extremely loud voice.

"But, Princess," the armored pony stammered in shock, "What about the prisoners?"

Celestia looked over to where the trio had disappeared into the tents and gritted her teeth, "I don't want to lose any more ponies tonight. None of you are a match for them." She then turned and began to briskly walk away. "We'll just have to send one of the commanders after them."

ooo000<^>000ooo

"Wonderful plan," Loric complimented as he kept pace with Wyntir, who may have been pretty fast for someone in armor and carrying another person, but was still slower than Loric. "You just have to tell me how you performed that amazing trick."

"It wasn't a trick," Kara replied, holding on as best she could to Wyntir. "It's one of the many miracles I know."

"Simply amazing!" Loric all but cheered as he jumped over a fallen log. "We have much to share then!"

They were currently in a forest of some kind, having left the camp behind some time ago. They kept running, fearing they were being chased.

Loric let out a loud laugh as he suddenly spun around mid step and fired his pistol into the air behind them, "It seems we are indeed being followed!"

Wyntir, still running, chanced a look back, but didn't see anyone behind them. "I don't see anyone."

"Not on the ground, but in the sky!" Loric replied back in a cheerful voice, he then sprinted ahead of them and fired into the air again.

"In the sky?" Kara asked, sounding a bit confused.

"Yes," Wyntir said after a moment of thinking to himself. "I did see a few of those ponies with wings, which is still strange. They can use magic and fly? What have we gotten ourselves into?"

Suddenly, Wyntir came to a stop and spun around, his sword already up in front of himself in a defensive manner. As soon as he turned around, a winged horse wearing some kind of blue armor and helmet slammed into his sword with all four of its hooves. He stared back into its helmeted face and growled, he flexed his muscles and pushed the winged horse way. But before he could take a swing at it, it flew straight up into the trees and out of sight.

"Fast, aren't they?" Loric laughed, clearly enjoying himself a little too much.

Wyntir turned back and kept running, but the horse shot back down at him again. He dodged to the side and sliced out at it as it passed by him, but it was way more agile than Wyntir liked. He came to a stop and sat Kara down, and the moment she was off of his shoulder, she sat down on her knees and began to pray.

"Stay safe," Wyntir said as a bright light covered Kara in a protective barrier.

Without Kara weighting him down, Wyntir moved over to where Loric was. Loric was busy scanning the area above them, but the tree's hide their enemies.

"How many?" Wyntir asked, keeping his sword at the ready.

"I believe four, at the most," Loric said confidently.

Wyntir examined the branches above, but couldn't see anything. Then, four figures burst through the leaves above and shot down towards them. As soon as they were within reach, Loric and Wyntir jumped away, causing them to split into pairs to follow them.

One of them flew straight at Wyntir, causing him to try to dodge to the side and catch it with his sword. But the moment his sword was raised, the pony suddenly spun around in mid air and slammed its back legs into his face, sending Wyntir to the ground.

The other horse quickly shot down towards Wyntir, ready to slam its own legs into his head. But just as it reached him, Wyntir rolled away and to his feet, slicing his sword out at the same time. His sword made contact, cleaving the horse right above its wings easily.

A scream of rage came from his left and he barely dodged the colorful blur that shot past him. But before he could spin around to prepare for its second pass, something slammed into his back, sending him flying. His body rag dolled across the ground for a few seconds before he caught himself and landed on his feet.

Just in time too, because the moment he landed on his feet, the horse was already upon him. He let out a surprised yelp as the horse slammed its legs into his chest, and as he staggered back a bit he sliced out with his sword. The horse gracefully moved around his blade as it flew past it, and it did the same on the second swing as well.

It spun around and slammed the side of its back leg into his helmet, causing Wyntir to stagger to the side again. He began to swing wildly at the horse, but it just danced around his swings, and instead countered everyone of his attacks with one of its own.

Acting on instinct, he jumped away from the flying horse and slammed his sword into the ground, and pulled out his longsword. The large sword was too slow for this fight.

The horse flew straight at Wyntir again, but even with the smaller blade he was still unable to keep up with the horse. He was still unable to hit the horse, but he was finally able to block most of its attacks. The horse floated in front of him as it evaded all of his attacks and beat his body and blade with its hooves.

Finally, the horse landed a heavy hit to Wyntir's helmet, knocking it off of his head. Dazed, Wyntir tried to slice his sword at the horse again, but it just bucked him in his unguarded face. This sent Wyntir to the ground, a searing pain in his head as he knew more than one thing had been broken.

The horse flew straight up into the air and out of sight. Wyntir laid there in a daze, unable to move. For a moment, he thought the horse had left him there to die, but that thought was banished the moment he saw it reappear, flying straight down at his head. He just stared up at the horse as it flew straight down at him, not showing any emotion in the face of death.

Just as it reached him, he was suddenly pulled across the ground. The horse slammed into the ground where he had been just moments before. What ever was dragging Wyntir let him go, causing him to fall to the ground. Up above him, he saw Loric, not a scratch on him.

"This one giving you some trouble?" He asked with a laugh as he walked around Wyntir and squared up with the horse. "Alright, horsey, it's just you and me. Your two friends couldn't lay a finger on me, are you any better?"

Finally, the horse spoke in a boyish yet feminine voice. "The best, actually." It then shot towards him, but Loric easily dodged the horse and slung his saw cleaver towards it, which it also easily evaded. The two of them began a dangerous dance, neither of them able to hit the other. Every time one flew to the side, the other was already there.

The speed at which the two were fighting was insane, Wyntir had never seen anything like it. They were a blur, each one trying to be the first one to land a blow. Suddenly, Loric yelped in pain as the horse somehow landed a blow to his stomach. He staggered back and the horse took this moment to slam into him again, sending the two to the ground.

The pair rolled around, neither of them giving ground. They each slammed their fist and hooves into each other. But Loric wasn't letting go of his weapons, so his hits were clumsily and not very effective. Eventually, he kicked the horse away from himself and jumped to his feet. Before the horse could recover, he raised his pistol and fired.

Somehow, it jumped up and over the bullet and flew straight into Loric, sending him back to the ground. He tried to jump back up, but the horse slammed both of its back legs into its face, causing a loud crack to be heard. Loric collapsed onto the ground, arms and legs sprawled out, barely conscious.

"Fuck..." Loric gurgled, coughing violently.

The horse hovered above them, looking at the pair. It then held up its front hoof and spook to it. "We have three casualties, but I've subdued the two creatures."

"Very good!" a familiar voice said, coming from the ponies hoof. "What about the female?"

"The female?" the winged horse said in confusion, then let out a laugh. "Oh yeah, I'll go get..."

Something unseen slammed into the pony as it hovered in place, sending it flying through the air and into a tree.

"Oh dear," came Kara's voice. "She really did you two in, didn't she?"

"How... did you..." Loric began, but was interrupted as Kara suddenly appeared above him. She held her talisman above him, and began to chant in a low voice. A warm light engulfed Loric, and he felt the joints and bones in his head and neck slowly pull themselves back together.

"How did I find you and hit her?" She said with a little smile. "My secret." At this, Loric groaned.

Once she finished with him, she stood up and walked clumsily over to Wyntir, somehow knowing where he was. She knelt down next to him and put a hand on his face. "My knight, always needing me to save him."

Wyntir smiled despite himself and held his tongue on making a comment. "Excellent aim, Kara. That horse is far above the average opponent, I never even landed a blow on it."

She nodded as she held her talisman above him, causing his body to be covered in a soothing light. Once she was finished, he quickly climbed to his feet and looked off in the direction the horse had been thrown. It was still there, slowly starting to gather itself and stand up.

"We have to go," Loric said as he walked over to them, Wyntir's larger sword held in both of his hands. "It called in that it had captured us, so more may be on the way."

Wyntir nodded as he grabbed his sword from Loric and put away his longsword. "Then I say we make haste then." He quickly picked up Kara and began to run in the direction they had been heading previously.

Loric, however, didn't follow immediately. Instead, he pulled out his flintlock and fired a shot directly at the horse as it struggled to get up. But, even in its injured state, it jumped to the side, the bullet hitting the ground where it had been. The horse looked directly at Loric, its helmet hiding its glare.

He only gave a wave in response and turned to follow the other two. As he caught up to them, he chuckled. "A flying horse that's faster than me? This is going to be good!"

Maresaw

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Chapter 3

Thirteen hours later

"Hmm, interesting," Loric murmured as he and Wyntir stood on a hill overlooking a rather large, ruined village.

The village, which was surrounded by scorched earth and trees, was in ruins. Most of the buildings were covered in large holes, and a few were completely collapsed. There were also a few ponies walking around, wearing mismatched armor and carrying spears.

"I don't like the look of those ponies," Wyntir said as he crossed his arms.

Loric gave a nod as he surveyed the village below. "Who knows, they might be friendly," he let out a laugh as he began to stroll forward, hands in his pockets. "I'm going to go say hello."

"You're a fool," Wyntir commented, but only got a wave from Loric in response. Wyntir shook his head and turned around to take Kara's hand, who had been leaning against a tree behind them.

As Wyntir began to lead her down the hill, she smiled. "I'm inclined to side with Loric, they might be friendly."

Wyntir couldn't help but smile despite himself. "Fools, the both of you."

The three of them casually made their way down the hill, with Loric leading the way. None of the ponies took notice of them at first, but the moment they did, they began to yell in panic. One of them began to yell out commands, trying to organize all of the ponies.

As they reached the outskirts of the village, they were met with fairly large crowd of ponies, weapons at the ready.

The tension in the air was intense, with all of the ponies fidgeting with their weapons nervously. They didn't look very impressive, most of them were too skinny to fill their combat outfits. Pathetic was the only word that described the force before them.

Loric glanced over at Wyntir and winked, he then walked forward a few steps and held his hands up. "We mean you no harm, small ponies."

The largest pony in the group smirked, apparently pleased with the show of weakness. "Ya mean us no harm, huh?" He then pointed his spear at Loric and yelled in a confident voice. "Give us all of yah shit an we won't have ta kill ya!"

"Kill me?" Loric said in a mocking voice. "Oh please, anything but that! There are oh so many of you!"

Wyntir only shook his head at Loric's actions, mumbling about his stupidity.

The pony didn't seem to catch on to the sarcasm in Loric's voice, and nodded to the ponies around him. "Take dar shit, kill em if they try an stop ya!" The ponies around him smiled, no longer nervous, and a few of them began to walk towards Loric. They seemed to think they were invincible since they had the numbers.

"Oh no, what ever will I do?" Loric slowly said as he reached to his weapons.

"Don't ya do it," a pony warned as it walked closer to him. "I'll make ya dead if ya do."

Loric turned his head to the pony and smirked. In a flash, he shot forward, his weapons seeming to appear out of nowhere as he began to dance through the group that had advanced on him. As he cut his way through them, the other ponies began to back away, obviously fearful.

As the last one fell, the pony in charge growled. "So ya can play dirty tricks, hm? Well dat won't work again! Kill em!"

"Hold it!" Wyntir bellowed as he dashed between Loric and the ponies. This caused everyone in the area to hesitate. Wyntir lifted his large sword and pointed it at the pony in charge, "Don't throw away their lives out of anger. We will not hesitate to cut down every single one of you, but we can avoid that."

"That's unlike you," Loric commented, not expecting Wyntir to try to stop the fighting.

The ponies around them seemed to be filled with fear, but still appeared to be ready to fight. The larger one stepped forward, "What are ya playin' at?"

"I'm not playing at anything," Wyntir replied as calmly as he could.

The pony just spit in their direction and smirked, "Ya idjit. Get em!"

Wyntir let out a sigh as the crowd of ponies surged towards them, "Wasteful."

The ponies let out a battle cry as they reached Wyntir, but it suddenly changed to a scream as he began to cut them down in droves. Loric soon joined in, dashing through the panicking ponies, his pistol booming ever so often. They tried to fight back, but the speed and power of the two looming warriors were too much for them.

It didn't take long for them to dispatch the ponies, with Loric covered in blood and Wyntir mostly clean.

"Those poor towns people," Kara said in a low voice. "Driven to violence because of war."

Loric only shrugged as he wiped the blood from his eyes, "Meh."

As the three of them began to walk towards the village, more ponies began to run out of the buildings, running straight towards them.

"Ooo, bonus enemies," Loric chuckled as he held up his weapons. Wyntir raised his sword as well, bracing himself.

But, instead of attacking them, the ponies came to a stop in front of them and bowed, heads to the ground.

"You saved us!"

"Thank you, strange creatures!"

The ponies were all yelling their thanks, joy on their faces as they kept bowing to the trio. They were all skinnier than the other ponies, and none of them wore any kind of clothing.

Loric and Wyntir stood there in surprise, not expecting this. Kara, however, was the first to speak.

"What do you mean saved you?"

One of the ponies stood up, a huge smile on his face, "Those bandits have been forcing us to serve them for the last month. They promised us that if we fed them, they'd protect us. But instead, they took over our town and made us slaves. We had hoped Celestia's army would come back this way, but we haven't seen them since the battle two months ago."

Kara took in everything that the pony said and gave a nod, "So you are the townsfolk? And the ones my knight and friend killed were bandits?"

"Yep," the pony said cheerfully. "And thanks a million for that." He then moved towards Kara and knelt, "My name is Bliss, I use to be the mayor around here before the bandits showed up."

Kara smiled widely, "I'm Kara Causl, it's a pleasure to meet you, Bliss!"

Bliss then turned to Loric and Wyntir, still beaming.

Wyntir was the first to reply. "Wyntir Caslin, knight of Carim."

Loric pointed a thumb at himself and grinned, "Loric Penwise, Hunter."

As they spoke, Bliss and all of the other ponies nodded in response, clearly overjoyed.

Before anyone could change the subject, Wyntir removed his helmet and cleared his throat. "We need a place to stay for the night, if you have one."

This seemed to make Bliss even happier, if that was possible. "Sure! Anything for the saviors of our little town!" The other ponies began to chatter amongst themselves, seeming just as happy.

"What's the catch?" Loric asked, not liking how joyful everyone seemed.

"No catch, you saved us, so we owe you," Bliss replied, jumping to his hooves and starting to walk towards the gathered crowd, gesturing for them to go back to the town. "Come on, I'll show you a house you can stay in."

Wyntir glanced over at Loric, who just shrugged, before taking Kara's hand and following after them.

Bliss led the trio into the town, the other ponies stopping to personally thank them as they passed.

"What's the name of this town?" Kara asked thoughtfully, keeping pace with Wyntir as she held his hand.

"This here is Maresaw, we use to be a trading town, but since the start of this forsaken war, we've been more of a refuge for ponies who have lost their homes. Those bandits you killed weren't the first ones we've had to deal with, but they were the only ones who actually took over," he looked back at them and frowned. "Two months ago, Celestia's and Sombra's armies went head to head right here in our town. A lot of innocent ponies were killed in the crossfire, and Celestia didn't seem to care. They just picked up and left as soon as the battle was over, didn't even try to help us."

"That's awful," Kara said sorrowfully.

"Mhm," Bliss shook his head and continued to lead them through the town. "Anyways, we'll survive, like always." He laughed a bit, "I'll admit, when I first saw you three, I didn't know what to think. But you killed the bandits and not us, so you can't be that bad."

"Don't judge a book by its cover," Loric warned, but Bliss didn't seem to catch his meaning.

They continued to walk for a short while, before finally coming to a decently sized house, one of the less damaged ones. Bliss stepped inside, followed by a weary Loric and Wyntir.

The house was mostly empty, with only a few pieces of furniture laying around the room they were in. There seemed to be a kitchen and dinning room attached to the living room, with a short hallway off to the left side of the room, with what appeared to be three rooms lining it. The ceiling was barely high enough, with Wyntir having to bend his back slightly.

Once he deemed it safe, Wyntir reached out and lead Kara into the living room.

Bliss walked into the kitchen and opened the pantry, "Ah, seems the bandits ate everything here as well." He shrugged and walked back into the living room. "It's not much, but I hope you three like it."

"It's wonderful, thank you," Kara said as she gave a bow.

"How can you tell?" Loric asked, causing her to frown at him. Wyntir glared at him, and began to drum his fingers against the hilt on his sword. Loric saw this, and held up his hands, "Eh, I agree with Kara. It's simply wonderful."

Bliss looked between them, seeming confused by their actions, but his smile quickly returned. "Well, if you three need anything, we're more than willing to help you. Just ask." He walked to the door, but stopped in the doorway, "Again, thank you. What you did means a lot to me, and everyone else. We owe you our lives."

"Don't mention it," Loric said, a smile on his face. Wyntir on the other hand, just nodded.

Once he was gone, Wyntir let out a sigh. Loric looked at him as he made his way to the middle of the room, "What? Tired or something?"

Wyntir placed his sword against the wall and turned his head to face Loric. "No."

With a raised eyebrow, Loric began to rub his chin. "I ask, because you sigh a lot. Is that just something you do, or can you not help it?"

"Loric," Wyntir began, turning to the man and looking him up and down. "Are you going to wash your clothes off or are you going to just remain bloody?"

"Ignoring me, huh?" he muttered as he grabbed the bottom of his coat and waved it around a bit. "No need, my body and clothes will just absorb it eventually."

"What?" Wyntir asked in a monotone voice.

"It'll absorb the blood," Loric repeated.

"How do you mean," Kara asked, still standing in the same spot next to the door.

Loric looked between the two, obviously not use to having to explain something like this, "Uh, well, it's just how my body works, I guess. I get covered in blood during a fight, and eventually it'll just go away."

"I see," Wyntir said as he looked down at his blood splattered armor. "As strange as that is, I'll just let that slide. I don't understand it, but I'll just accept it as is."

Kara began to slowly walk further into the house, holding her hands out in front of her. As she neared a wall, Wyntir reached out and turned her, causing her to start walking for the lone couch in the room. As she reached it, she carefully climbed onto it and laid back. "Wyntir, could you prepare dinner?"

"Of course," he quickly replied, walking for the door.

"So you're her personal guard and her personal chief?" Loric teased, a smug look on his face.

"It is my duty, as she is my maiden and I am her knight," Wyntir replied calmly as he put his helmet down next to his large sword and left them behind.

"All that honor crap makes me sick," Loric said as he popped his back, his smug look never leaving his face. "But don't let me get in your way of playing the honor bound hero."

"Fuck honor," Wyntir suddenly said, catching Loric off guard. He then walked out the door, leaving them alone as he went off to fetch dinner.

Loric pulled off his hat and scratched the back of his head, "That's one strange man."

Kara only smiled at this as she relaxed back on the couch.

ooo000<^>000ooo

The rabbit slowly moved across the ground, being watchful of the forest around it. The sudden crack of a twig caused it to stop and hug the ground, its ears twitching every which way, straining to hear anything else. Just as it started to feel safe, a knife suddenly slammed into it, impaling it.

Wyntir quickly walked up to the rabbit and lifted it up, pulling the knife from its body, and examined it. The rabbit was skinny, just like the others that were attached to his belt. But it was better than nothing, and he quickly attached the rabbit to his belt.

Just as he began to walk further into the forest, the sound of leaves crunching caused him to spin around, hand gripping the hilt of his longsword on his belt. A white pony was walking in his direction, with spiky hair and what appeared to be purple glasses on its face. A strange device rested on its head, and as it drew closer, Wyntir could faintly hear a strange sound coming from the device.

"Can I help you?" Wyntir asked, obviously confused.

But, the white pony just kept walking, nodding its head. It stopped briefly when it was close to him, it looked him over. When its eyes rested on the dead rabbits on his belt, it stuck out its tongue in disgust, but it didn't say anything. It just began to continue on its way, still bobbing its head to the strange sounds coming from the device.

Wyntir watched the pony disappear into the forest and scratched at his bare chest. "These ponies are strange creatures." He shook his head and made sure the rabbits were secured firmly to his belt before he walked over to his upper armor, which he had removed before he started hunting. He lifted it all up by the belts and began to head back to town.

As he walked, he noticed he wasn't alone. He could just faintly hear someone behind him, trying to catch up to him. He didn't feel like he was in danger, so he didn't turn around.

After a few moments, the sounds of leaves crunching was right behind him, and he could hear the sounds of someone breathing heavily, as if they'd just ran a mile.

"What'cha doing?" a small voice asked.

At this, Wyntir glanced behind himself to see a very small dark blue pony trailing him. The pony appeared to be nothing more than a child, but he couldn't remember the world for a young female horse.

"Getting dinner," was Wyntir's reply as he continued walking along the makeshift path.

"Dinner?" the small pony asked as it started to walk beside him. It then noticed the rabbits. "You're going to eat those bunnies?!"

"Yep," Wyntir replied. "Seven to be exact."

"But why would you eat bunnies?! They wouldn't eat you!" the little pony said, a pout on its face.

Wyntir looked down at the pony, but merely shrugged, "Because, they're meat." He then smiled, "Besides, if they were larger and hungry, I'm sure they'd eat you in a heart beat."

"Nu-huh! They'd never eat me!" the pony argued, but then seemed to consider it. "I hope not."

Wyntir ran a hand through his dirty, unruly hair and chuckled. "What's your name, kid?"

She ran ahead of Wyntir and struck a pose, "My name is Honey Pie, slayer of evil!"

"That's nice, kid," Wyntir chuckled as he walked around the kid.

"Hey!" she called out as she caught back up and followed after him. "I'm not a kid, I'm a young mare!"

"You're half the size of all the others, so that makes you a child in my book," Wyntir replied, a small smile on his face.

"Boo," Honey Pie boo'd as she rolled her eyes, "So what are you?"

"A knight of Carim."

"That's your species?" she asked, cocking her head.

"No, I'm a human."

"How many ponies have you killed?" she asked, curiosity in her voice.

This caused Wyntir to raise an eyebrow at the small pony, "That's kind of a strange question to ask, don't you think?"

"Nope," she replied, smiling. "I bet its thousands, am I right?"

Wyntir just shook his head. "Oh yes, thousands upon thousands have fallen to my blade."

"That's awesome!" she basically screamed, not catching his sarcasm. "You have to let me be your squire!"

"Squire?" Wyntir asked, not expecting her to ask that.

"You know," she began, "I follow you around and you teach me your ways, show me how to fight and we go on epic adventures together. Like slaying dragons and saving damsels."

This caused Wyntir to reflect back on his past, back to when he was a small child. He remembers always begging his father to teach him in his spare time, and getting the crap beat out of him during training. His idea of Carim Knights back then was romanticized, he loved the idea of fighting for a single maiden, protecting her against anything and everything. If only he had known of the hardships that he'd have to face in his path to become a knight, he might have turned tail and ran.

But that was long ago, and he does not regret a single thing he has done.

"You need to drop the fairy tales, kid," Wyntir said harshly. "The real world is a violent place, especially if you go down the kind of path I did."

Honey Pie seemed taken back by his sudden harshness, but it didn't seem to faze her. "I don't mind that kind of stuff. I think blood is awesome!"

Wyntir just shook his head and remained silent, reflecting on his past.

"Are you a virgin?" she suddenly asked.

"By the gods, kid!" Wyntir gasped, caught off guard by the sudden change in topic.

"It's just a question," she said with a smile. "Are you?"

"Where's your parents?" Wyntir asked, wanting to be rid of this child.

"Dead," she said in a casual tone, and before he could say anything else, she added. "So are my grandparents and aunts."

"Well shit, kid, tough luck," Wyntir said with a sigh. "Then who's watching over you?"

"Myself," she said cheerfully.

He eyed her at this, "I see. Run along then?"

She laughed at this and shook her head, "You're trying to run me off, aren't you?"

"That's the goal," he mumbled as he saw the town coming into view through the trees.

Honey Pie only smiled. "I'll leave if you say I can be your squire."

"No," Wyntir deadpanned.

"Please?" she begged, giving him a pouty face with big eyes.

"No," Wyntir repeated, picking up his pace.

"Pretty please with cheese and carrots?" she persisted.

"Is there a way to turn you off?" Wyntir snapped, clearly annoyed.

"Mhm!"

This caused Wyntir to look back down at her, "And that is?"

"To make me your squire."

Wyntir let out a loud groan and began to jog away from Honey Pie.

"Hey wait up!" she called after him as she tried to keep up, but was unable to due to the size difference.

After a short jog, the house came into view and Wyntir went back to walking. As he reached the front door, he heard something behind him that caused him to cringe.

"Mr. Knight!" Honey Pie called out, having somehow caught back up to him. "I almost lost you back there."

Wyntir quickly opened the door and stepped inside, but as he turned around he saw that she was only a few paces behind him. She came to a stop just outside the door and smiled up at him.

"So, how about making me a squire?" she asked sweetly.

"No, go play knight somewhere else, kid. What I do isn't a game," he growled as he began to close the door.

She looked a bit hurt as she said, "But, I have to learn how to fight. Because..."

Wyntir cut her off as he closed the door and leaned his head against it, sighing very loudly.

"There you go with the sighing again," Loric said from behind him. "Who was that? A fan?"

"You could say that," Wyntir said as he turned around, but paused as he saw Loric, butt naked next to the fireplace. They locked eyes with each other. "There's a reason for this, I hope?"

Loric chuckled as he reached over to the fireplace, which had a large pot in it with a fire under it. "Just doing my laundry is all."

Wyntir looked over to Kara, who was laid out on the couch. "I see, I see. What will you be wearing till you finish with that?"

"Nothing," came Loric's cheery reply.

"Lovely," Wyntir said as he rubbed his face and sat his armor down by his sword and helmet.

"I see you've brought dinner," Loric observed, eying the rabbits with a hungry look in his eye.

"Ooo, what did you bring us?" Kara said as she sat up, excitement clear on her face.

"Rabbits," Wyntir replied as he walked over to the kitchen and placed them all on the counter.

"Are you going to make your rabbit stew? Or rabbit strips?" Kara asked as she leaned towards him over the couch.

"Both," was Wyntir's response, which caused both Kara and Loric to make pleasured sounds.

"Looks like laundry is cut short today," Loric said as he finished stirring his clothes in the pot.

Wyntir didn't reply, instead he pulled out his knife and began to skin the rabbits. As he worked, he glanced up towards the window in front of him. Outside, he saw Honey Pie holding up a small sign, which read; "Squire please!"

In response to this, Wyntir held up the freshly skinned rabbit and moved it towards the window. This caused her to visibly gag and run off.

"Damn kid," Wyntir murmured as he went back to work. But despite himself, a small smile broke across his face.

Morning routine

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Chapter 4

The next morning

Wyntir found himself standing on a path, flanked by dense snow covered forest. The path seemed to go on forever in both directions.

"Stay the path," a cold voice whispered, as if spoken by the wind that howled around him.

He took a step forward and recoiled in shock as a familiar young girl suddenly appeared in front of him. With a look of shock and horror on his face, he turned away to head in the opposite direction, but behind him stood another young girl, this one pointing at him. A look of sadness on her face. The two women were mouthing something, but he couldn't tell what they were trying to say.

His heart pounded in his chest, threatening to explode out of his chest.

Suddenly, a third woman appeared, standing only a few feet away in the forest. She seemed to be beckoning for him to follow her, a smile on her face.

"Stay the path!" the voice suddenly screamed, right in his ear.

Wyntir grabbed his head and began to shake it, "Why do you haunt me!"

The two women seemed to hiss as their faces twisted in anger. "How could you?" they both in unison.

"Stop!" Wyntir screamed, falling to the ground, trying to cover his ears and eyes at the same time.

"We trusted you," they said in eerie unison.

"I know you did!" he screeched back as he began to crawl towards the third woman who seemed to promise salvation. A small metallic sound could be heard coming from the woman.

"Stay the path!" the voice boomed, sending Wyntir flying back to the path.

ooo000<^>000ooo

Wyntir's eyes shot open and he leaned forward, covered in sweat and breathing heavily. He looked around the room from his position on the floor, taking in the dim room only being lit by the small window on the other side of the room.

He let out a relieved sigh as he leaned back against the wall, and glanced over to the bed. Kara was still asleep, showing no signs of being stirred by his actions. He slowly began to relax, but then he realized that he could just barely make out the sounds of metal scratching against metal.

This set him on edge immediately, as it sounded like someone messing with a lock. He stood up and picked up his longsword and walked out of the room and into the hallway. The sound seemed to be coming from the front door.

Without making a single sound, Wyntir dashed over to the door and gripped the handle. He pulled the door open and held his sword up in one hand, ready to impale who ever was trying to pick the lock.

A surprised eep was heard from below him, and upon looking down, his eye twitched.

"You scared me!" Honey Pie snapped as she held her chest.

He took in the two slim pieces of metal sticking out of the lock of the door, and her nervous smile. "Choose you're words carefully, kid."

She looked into his eyes, trying to seem intimidating, but upon seeing the cold, dead look in his eyes, she recoiled in shock. "I... uh... Wanted to say hi?"

"Is that a question?" Wyntir asked, holding his stern expression.

"No...?" she replied in an unsure voice. She began to say something, but Wyntir stopped her.

"Why are you trying to break into this house?"

She smiled, losing her nervousness almost instantly. "I wanted to ask you a question."

"The answer is no," Wyntir replied, already knowing what she was going to ask. But as he began to close the door, she stuck her hoof in the door.

"But you haven't heard it yet!" she whined, causing Wyntir to frown and open the door to look at her. At this, she cleared her throat. "I know you said no to me being your squire, but what about trusty side kick!"

"That's the almost the same thing," he said as he shook his head. When she began to pout, he continued, "If I say I'll think about it, will you go away?"

A smile slammed into her face as she began to jump up and down, "Yes!"

"Then beat it," Wyntir said as he jerked his head to the side.

Honey Pie seemed to disappear as she shot off down the street, leaving behind an outline of her body in her place.

"Kids," Wyntir groaned as he closed the door and walked over to the fireplace, which only had the embers of a fire remaining within. He slowly stroked the fire and added more wood to it, and after a quick spell, the fireplace was ablaze with flames.

The fire seemed to blow away the cold air that hung around him as he stared into the flames. He sat there for a few minutes, just basking in the glow of the fire, before he finally stood up and began to stretch. After he finished stretching out his joints, he began to perform one of his light morning workouts.

An hour later, Loric walked out of the room he had claimed as his and stepped into the living room. The sight that met him caused him to raise an eyebrow. "What are you doing?"

Wyntir glanced his way as he kept performing his sit ups, without stopping he replied, "Morning routine."

"Uh-huh," Loric said as he nodded. "And you do those in the nude? Why?"

"I sleep in the nude," Wyntir replied as he finished and stood up.

Loric held up a hand to hide Wyntir's lower half from his view. "That's just lovely, I look forward to our future morning run ins."

With a roll of his eyes, Wyntir reached over to the couch and picked up a small towel, and began to wipe the sweat off of his face. He didn't seem to have any shame.

The sound of a door opening caused Loric to look behind him to see Kara slowly feeling her way out of the room. "Morning," he said with a smile.

"Mhm," Kara replied, not seeming to be paying attention to him. She slowly made her way past him, feeling along the wall with a hand, and walked across the living room. She climbed onto the couch and spread her self out on it.

"Rough night?" he asked, winking at Wyntir.

Ignoring him, Wyntir walked into the kitchen and began to prepare a meal with the leftovers from the night before.

Meanwhile, Loric moved over to the fireplace and began to warm his hands. "So, rough night?" he repeating, fishing for the answer.

Kara merely let out a grunt as she rubbed her face with a hand.

"Is it a blind person thing?" Loric asked, feeling the glare coming from Wyntir without having to turn around.

"Shut up," Kara groaned, but not in an angry way.

Loric turned to face her and sat down in the floor. "Did I get it right?" He then chuckled a bit, "Look, I'm not an insensitive bastard. So what's really going on?"

"That's her business, not yours," Wyntir warned as he returned to the room, three bowls in his hands. He handed Kara one and she thanked him, a smile finally touching her lips.

Loric smirked up at Wyntir as he handed him a bowl. "You make a great butler, Wyntir."

"Careful," Wyntir said in a low voice as he stepped back and crouched down on the floor, not making a move to drink his soup.

The three sat there in silence, just trying to enjoy their meager breakfast. Loric was the first to finish, licking his bowl clean and frowning.

Once Kara finished her soup, she sat the bowl down on the floor and smiled. "That was more than I expected, did you go hunting again?"

"Wait a minute," Loric said as he looked between his bowl and hers, noticing that she had had at least twice as much as him. "You son of a whore," he said looking at Wyntir. "You piled up your plates and gave me almost nothing?"

Wyntir held a finger up to his lips and tilted his bowl to him, revealing an unused, clean bowl. "We all got equal, don't complain."

Loric glared at him, but then realized what he had done. He still wasn't happy about it, but he didn't complain anymore. "Fair enough."

Wyntir gathered up the bowls and began to head for the kitchen, but the sounds of hooves on wood caused him to stop.

Without warning, the front door opened and Bliss walked in, a wide grin on his face. "Well, good morning!"

"What do you want?" Wyntir asked, putting the bowls down and crossing his arms.

Bliss looked at him and looked him over, but didn't make a comment about his appearance. "Oh nothing much, just a favor."

"No favors," Wyntir replied, shaking his head. "We plan to leave soon, so we don't have time to do anything for you."

This didn't seem to sit well with Bliss, as he looked distressed. "But you can't leave us here like this, what if more bandits show up?"

"Then deal with them," Loric interjected, which seemed to cause even more distress for Bliss.

"But..." he started, but was cut off by Wyntir.

"Look, yesterday was just a lucky day for your town. We just happened to be in the area, and those bandits choose to attack us."

Bliss fell back on his haunches, rubbing his face. "But you three could be our salvation, the exact thing we need here in our town."

"We can't stay here," Kara said calmly. "I'm sorry."

"Please," Bliss begged, losing his composure. "I already told everyone that you'd stay here and help us!"

"Well you shouldn't have done that, obviously," Loric said as he shook his head.

"We can give you..." Bliss began to offer, but Wyntir walked over and put a hand over his muzzle.

"No more begging, we're not going to help you anymore," he said harshly, but then he added in a nicer tone, "We are grateful for the house, but we are being hunted. We can't afford to stay in the same place for too long, understand?"

Bliss opened his mouth, but seemed to reconsider his words. Finally he asked, "Who's hunting you?"

This caused Wyntir to look back to his companions before answering, "The Princess's army, I believe. Maybe the other one as well."

Bliss's eyes widened in shock, "You mean you've made enemies with both armies?! Why didn't you tell me this yesterday?!" All three of them just shrugged in response, causing Bliss to almost scream in panic. "Yes yes, you need to leave now. Before they come back here and finish destroying this town!"

"I knew you'd see reason," Wyntir said as he grinned, finding Bliss's reaction to be quite enjoyable to witness.

With panic mumbles, Bliss spun around and staggered out of the house. The moment he was outside, he began to frantically yell, "Celestia and Sombra are coming! Run, hide!"

As he disappeared from the doorway, Loric laughed. "I think you scared him a little to much. Honestly, I don't think both of them are chasing us."

Wyntir only shrugged as he began to walk towards the room that held his gear.

Loric rubbed the back of his head as he looked over to Kara, who seemed to be enjoying herself again. "You two are strange."

ooo000<^>000ooo

"Got everything?" Kara asked as she stood next to the door, fully dressed in her robes.

"We don't have much, so I'd think so," Wyntir said back as he shifted his armor around on his body, making sure it was secure.

"Yep, everything I own and a few odds and ins," Loric said with a smile as he patted the new satchel he had 'found'.

Kara nodded as she took Wyntir by the hand, "Good, so do we have any idea where we should go?"

"Random direction," Loric offered as he stepped outside.

"I hate to admit it, but that's our only option," Wyntir said with a sigh as he walked out of the house and followed after Loric, who was walking down the deserted street.

"We need to find a way to get back to our worlds," Kara mumbled just loud enough for them to hear her. "So we have to either go to this Sombra and make him send us back, or we find someone else too."

"Sounds like a plan," Loric said over his shoulder cheerfully. He then began to whistle a strange tone.

Wyntir looked around them, taking note of the abandoned streets. "Hm, they really cleared out quickly."

Loric turned a corner up ahead, and his whistling suddenly halted. "Well hello there..."

With a look of confusing, Wyntir followed him around the corner and was met with an unexpected sight.

There, before them in the street was five armor ponies. With the lead one looking very familiar with its dented helmet.

"I guess they were still chasing us," Loric mumbled, gripping his weapons.

The lead pony stepped forward and pulled off its helmet, revealing a rainbow colored mane and a very confident smile. "Ready for round two, boys?"

Round two

View Online

Chapter 5

"Persistent, isn't she?" Loric said over his shoulder, his surprised expression changing to an excited one.

Wyntir just pushed Kara back behind the building they'd just rounded and stepped up next to Loric, his large sword at the ready. "Kill them as quickly as possible, lets just hope those other four aren't as good as her."

Loric gave a nod as he dropped into a fighting stance as well. The rainbow maned pony let out an almost mocking laugh as she looked them over.

"I'll be honest with you two, you both put up more of a fight than anyone else I've ever faced," she slowly lowered herself into a crouching position. "But, you both also suck in comparison to me." She then launched herself forward, followed by the other two winged ponies of the group, and zoomed straight at the pair of biped warriors.

Wyntir began to move to attack them as they charged, but he suddenly found himself rooted to the spot. Upon looking down, he saw what appeared to be glowing, transparent tendrils wrapped around his feet, holding him in place. Where had those come from?

He didn't have time to think about this, as the rainbow maned pony was already upon him. He brought up his sword and deflected her first pass, her metal clad hooves bouncing off of his blade.

"Loric, I'm stuck!" Wyntir shouted out as he twisted his body to follow the mare as she began to come around for a second attack.

"Yeah, same here!" Loric yelled in response. He too was being held in place by glowing tendrils, and he was busy fending off the other two ponies.

As he watched the mare come towards him, something slammed into his back and sent him awkwardly to the ground. With his feet being held in place, he was unable to get into a better position to defend himself. So the pony who had rammed him landed on top of him and began to rear up and slam its hooves into his chest. He grunted loudly with each hit, and let go of his sword in favor of trying to fight the pony off with his bare hands.

"That's it, Thunderlane!" the mare cheered as she landed next to the two struggling forms.

Seeing the mare about to join the struggle, Wyntir stopped trying to stop the pony on top of him from slamming its hooves into his chest, and instead forced himself to painfully roll his upper body out of the way. As the pony slammed its hooves into the ground, Wyntir quickly shifted his body and latched onto the ponies legs as it tried to regain its composure.

Just as he began to get the upper hand, the mare suddenly bucked him in the head, denting his helmet, somehow. The amazing force of the kick caused Wyntir's vision to darken for a moment, but he forced himself to not lose control of his senses. He pulled the pony in his grasp downward, causing it to fall onto the ground next to him.

Yet another buck from the mare sent him reeling, his helmet's left side even more dented, with the left side caved in just enough to effectively blind his left eye. This didn't stop him as he rolled over onto the downed pony in a very awkward position, and wrapped his arms around its neck.

The pony began to panic and started to try and pull away from Wyntir, but he held tight. Which caused a lot of strain and pressure on his feet, which were still held in the same spot they'd been since the beginning of the fight. The mare jumped onto his back and wrapped her legs around his neck also, as if mimicking his actions. Luckily, the position of his helmet was keeping her from getting a solid hold on him, and preventing her from getting access to his neck.

"Let him go, bastard!" the mare screamed, obviously very angry.

As if to answer her, a loud disgusting crackling sound rang out as Wyntir jerked his arms to the sides. She seemed to lessen her hold on him as he let go of the twitching body in his grasp, letting it slump down beside him. But her grip suddenly tightened again as a scream of pure rage came from the mare as she seemed to try and rip his head off of his shoulders.

Wyntir's eyes bulged as his helmet suddenly gave way under her mighty legs and she began to apply a great amount of pressure directly to his throat. In a panic, he began to try and claw at her face over his shoulder, but she didn't let up. His vision began to blur as he slowly suffocated. Hot tears seemed to be dripping onto his back as the mare began to yell at him.

"Just die already!" she screamed.

Just as he began to slip, he heard a distant explosion and the sudden yelp of pain from the mare. She quickly let go of him and took to the sky, a small trail of blood leaking out of her armor just above her back right hip.

Wyntir began to cough and gag as he began to try and rip his now ruined helmet off of his head. He had to forcibly pry the bottom of the helmet away from his throat before he could fully take in air. With a grunt, he pulled off his helmet and threw it to the side, having no use for it in its current state.

"Thank me later," Loric called out as he wrestle with the pony that was on top of him, his pistol laying on the ground next to him.

In one quick motion, Wyntir drew one of his knives and launched it straight at the pony atop Loric. Too busy dealing with Loric, the pony didn't notice the knife flying towards it. The blade seemed to seek out the open gap between the ponies helmet and chest guard as it sank into its neck. The pony stopped fighting against Loric instantly and began to grab at its throat, trying to get at the knife. But Loric didn't give him a chance, as he reached up and gripped the knife in his hand and began to jerk it around, sending blood cascading down on him as the pony let out a scream that slowly degraded into gurgles.

With the pony now dead, Loric threw it off of him and clumsily climbed to his feet, followed by Wyntir.

The rainbow maned pony landed between them, looking both upset and angered.

"Hey, rainbow girl," Loric said, a smirk slowly coming to his face. As she turned her head to him, his smile grew even more. "Are you going to cry? Or are you going to fight us fairly?"

She just glared at him and held up her hoof to her face and spoke into it. "Commander Rainbow Dash reporting in, we are going to need a lot more ponies before we can subdue these two. Any chance of getting some help in the next few minutes?"

"I thought I gave you an order to find them and report their movements, not engage them," a angry feminine voice growled from her hoof.

"Yeah, and I should have listened, we lost Thunderlane and Blitz, those two..." she suddenly jumped backwards as Loric suddenly fired his pistol at her. She nimbly twisted in midair and shot towards him, kicking his pistol out of his hand and knocking him down in one motion. She then flew back to her original spot and let out a huff of annoyance. "Sorry about that, but those two are far to dangerous to be kept alive."

There was silence for a few moments, and when a response came, the mare smiled. "Then I give you permission to use lethal force on the two males, try and keep the female alive."

"You got it," the mare said, obviously pleased.

As the mare had been talking to who ever was in her hoof, Wyntir had been taking in their surroundings, looking for the source of the tendrils. It didn't take him long, however, as the two other ponies appeared to be Unicorns, their horns were both glowing the same color as the tendrils. But he had no way to reach them, and they were to far away to hit with a knife. As far as spells goes, he might be able to get one off. He'd just have to get it off without the mare taking notice and interrupting him.

He holds out his right hand and watches as it slowly starts to glow red, followed by a small flame engulfing his hand. But just as he began to prepare the spell, a thud could be heard. When he looked up, he was confused to see one of the Unicorns laying on its side, a pot next to its head. His confusion was intensified as a second pot came out of nowhere and hit the other Unicorn in its horn, causing it to fall to the ground, holding its horn in pain.

"I got them for you, Mr. Knight!" came an excited squeal as Honey Pie, wearing little saddlebags, stepped out from an alley way next to the two Unicorns. She waved at Wyntir and stuck her tongue out at the just as confused rainbow maned mare.

"What the..." the mare began to say, but she was cut off as Wyntir suddenly dashed over to her and slammed his foot into her face.

She reared back in surprise, but before she could react to the kick, a second hit to her opposite side sent her to the ground. Loric suddenly appeared over her, holding his pistol, which he had retrieved, and pointing it straight down at her face.

"Stay, horsey," he said with a smug look on his face.

As she glared up at him, she suddenly smiled. He started to ask what she was smiling about, but he suddenly realized he was being lifted off of the ground by an unseen force.

Both he and Wyntir looked back to the Unicorns to see that the second one had regained his composure and was not back in the fight. It suddenly sent Loric flying away from the mare and into a building, causing him to break through the wall with a painful looking impact.

Wyntir began to move towards the Unicorn, but he quickly found himself being lifted up off the ground as well.

"I got him!" Honey Pie yelled out, suddenly appearing on the Unicorns back. She jumped onto its head and grabbed its horn as the Unicorn began to thrash about, trying to get the crazy filly off of itself. This distraction caused Wyntir to fall back to the ground, no longer in the Unicorns magical grasp.

He didn't have time to think of what to do next, as the mare sprang up and latched onto him. The two began to struggle, with Wyntir still standing and the mare holding onto him for dear life. She was biting and hitting everything she could, but luckily she was only finding metal to assault. But it wouldn't be long before her jaws or hooves found his face.

Wyntir fought to pry her from his body, but she held firm. One of her hooves flailed up and slammed into his forehead, he stumbled back but kept his footing. As he was stumbling backwards, she was able to maneuver herself up closer to his face.

She went to take a bit out of his throat, but Wyntir lowered his head into her mouths path, unable to get his hands up in time. She bit into his chin, causing a gash to appear and got a little blood on her face. She pulled her head back and went in again, this time she wedged her face under his chin and latched onto his throat.

Yet again his eyes bulged as his neck was assaulted, but this time her powerful jaws began to crush his throat. He ran his hands over her body, trying to find something to damage to get her off of him. But everything on her was covered by armor, or almost everything. His right hand found her wing and he gripped it by its base. As he began to pull on it, she let out a squeak of pain, but she didn't stop trying to break his windpipe with her teeth.

With one mighty and desperate pull, he felt her wing rip free from her body, and she finally let go of his neck to let out a howl of both pain and sorrow. Her grip on him lightened and he finally was able to get a hold of her and throw her off of himself. She skidded across the ground and slammed into a bit of rubble that lay next to damaged building.

Now free of her, Wyntir fell to the ground, holding his throat as blood poured between his fingers. He shakily pulled out his talisman and held it up as he cast the only healing spell he knew. It wasn't a very powerful one, but it might be enough to keep him from dying.

"You can't go through a single fight without almost dying, can you?" Loric weakly asked as he limped past Wyntir, dragging his saw cleaver in his right hand, and holding his bloody side with his left, a slim piece of wood sticking through his left side.

He slowly advanced on the mare, who was currently curled up in the fetal position, looking to be in shock.

"Can't handle a little pain, toots?" Loric asked, his usual smug tone replaced with a strained shaky voice.

"I'll kill you..." she whimpered, her eyes widened. "I'll kill you both..."

"What was that?" Loric asked, now standing over her. "Can't actually hear you through the stick in my side, its screaming at me right now to remove it."

She blinked a few times before looking up at him, a dead look on her face. "You took away my wing... my wing.... You bastards..."

"Geez..." Loric said, his tough guy impression instantly vanishing as he began to rub the back of his head nervously, "I take it it meant a lot to ya, huh?"

"I'm going to kill you, both of you... I promise..." she said, lowering her head back to the cobblestone road. "Why..." she whimpered to herself.

"Well, you were a fun opponent, but you're pretty much useless at this point," Loric said with a sigh as he raised his saw cleaver and brought it down towards the mare. But before it reached her, she suddenly had a surge of energy and she shot up, past his saw, and head butted him in the face. Even without one of her wings, she was still pretty agile.

Loric reeled back and sliced his saw cleaver at her a few times, but she just dodged it a few times before disengaging and running back towards the two Unicorns. The Unicorn who was still standing was currently teleporting around trying to out maneuver the determined filly who was pursuing them.

"Forget the kid, Glaze, we need to retreat and regroup," the mare commanded, getting a nod from the Unicorn who teleported over to his fallen comrade and picked them up, and galloped after the mare.

"Should we chase them?" Loric asked, but as he turned around and saw Wyntir was still gagging and coughing on the ground, he winched. "Yeah, you're right, neither of us is in the shape to do that..." he then fell forward, groaning as he held his side with the wood in it.

Things weren't looking good for Wyntir, his spell wasn't working and he couldn't call out for Kara to come heal him. He hoped she'd realize he was in danger and come to his rescue, but that hope was slowly dying as his ability to breath was starting to fade away as his healing spell dissolved.

"Mr. Knight!" Honey Pie yelled as she ran up to him and stared up at him as he sat on his knees in front of her, leaning forward on one hand and holding his throat with the other. "Are you alright?!"

"Sh..." Wyntir started to say, but choked on the words.

"What?" she asked, leaning forward to hear better.

"Sh..." Wyntir tried again. Then he choked down the best he could and forced it out, "Shut up, kid..." he then collapsed in front of her, clawing at his throat desperately.

"Wyntir!" Kara yelled from the distance, but she was to far away to get to him in time, if she could even find him in time that is.

"Oh no! Mr. Knight!" Honey Pie screamed as she reached back into her little saddlebags and pulled out some kind of purple vile. "Drink this, please!"

She bit off the cork and forced it into his mouth, and with nothing else to do, he drank the liquid. It tasted like week old fish, which caused him to almost spit it out. But the moment it passed down his damaged throat, he could feel it slowly opening, allowing precious air to finally pass through with out any problems.

He sat up and gasped loudly, taking deep heavy breaths as he looked down at the little filly with wide eyes. "You saved me, kid..."

Honey Pie looked surprised, she then smiled brightly as she looked up at his bewildered face, "Yep! Now you owe me!"

This caused a genuine smile to appear on Wyntir's face. "I guess I do."

"Dying over here," Loric said weakly, his blood slowly seeping out around the piece of wood.

Wyntir looked around and saw Kara was almost to their spot, so he just jumped up and ran towards her. He scooped her up and quickly ran back over to Loric and sat her down next to him.

"How bad is it?" Kara asked as she reached out and put her hands on Loric's wounded side, causing him to hiss in pain.

"A slim piece of what appears to be a jagged piece of wood pushed through his side, with at least five inches protruding on either side," Wyntir answered as he grabbed the wood by the end sticking out of his back. "I'll pull and you heal, okay?"

Kara nodded and her hands began to glow as she prepared her spell. "Go."

Without any hesitation, he pulled the wood out of Loric's body, sending an ungodly amount of blood everywhere as he did so. Loric for his part only yelled in pain once, then went still.

The glow from her hands instantly covered his entire body as she fought to repair the damage done to his body. He did not move for a few moments, but eventually he started to moan and shift around under her hands.

"This may take a while..." Kara mumbled. "I don't even know how he has this much blood in his body, he should have died at least two times over already..."

"Here, try this," Honey Pie said as she appeared next to Loric's head. She held up a vile like the one she'd given Wyntir and stuck it in Loric's mouth. He downed the liquid and to Wyntir's surprise, he didn't gag at the taste.

"Whoa..." Kara said as she stopped healing him, "He's healing without my help.. and faster... Did you just give him something?"

"Mhm!" Honey Pie said as she held up the vile for Kara to see, not knowing she couldn't see, "It's something my auntie use to make! She was a zebra!"

"That's interesting," Loric grumbled as he shakily stood up. "Whatever that shit was, it had a nice taste to it."

"You're joking, correct?" Wyntir asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Nope," Loric said with a smile as he slowly stood up. "Taste better than most of the drinks I have to drink back home."

Wyntir rolled his eyes and looked around, noticing that a few ponies had shown themselves, and were looking at the three of them in amazement. "Looks like we've gathered a small crowd of onlookers."

"Should we leave?" Kara asked as she was helped up by Wyntir.

"I'd love to," Loric replied, getting a confirming grunt from Wyntir. "Then lets grab our shit and get out of here, I want to find a nice tree to relax under after all that."

"Wait!" a voice called out.

Wyntir glanced to his right and groaned in annoyance as he saw Bliss running towards them. "Go away!"

Bliss came to a stop in front of them, a look of amazement on his face, "Do you have any idea what you just did?!"

"Kicked some horse ass," Loric responded, not sounding very happy with the sudden appearance of Bliss.

"You just beat and maimed one of Celestia's commanders! One of her best actually!" Bliss all but screamed, his eyes wide in either fear or amazement.

"Yeah yeah, your point?" Loric said as he and Wyntir began to gather up their scattered items.

"My point? You just beat one of Equestria's Elite Four! That's just incredible!" Bliss gushed, a twinkle in his eye.

"I take it you should be mad about this, they are your people after all," Wyntir observed, thinking this pony was acting a bit weird about the current situation.

Bliss chuckled and rubbed the back of his head, "Yeah, I guess I should be upset you're attacking Celestia's soldier's, but honestly, she's changed a lot since this whole war started. She's just seems colder, in my opinion."

"It happens," Wyntir said with a shrug.

"Well," Bliss said, looking a bit nervous. "Is there anyway I can convince you to stay?"

Wyntir started to object, but he stopped himself. "We're not staying in this town," he started, getting a disappointed look from Bliss. "However, I think we'll set up camp somewhere close to your town."

At this, Bliss smiled happily while both Kara and Loric stared at him in both disbelief and slight anger.

"But we have to be somewhere," Kara interjected.

To this, Wyntir nodded, "I know, but I also know we will probably have to get the help of this Sombra character. And based on his treatment of you when we first met, I don't want to bring you with me when I do go and see if he can help us."

"That's a foolish idea, Wyntir," Kara said as she crossed her arms.

"Foolish but damned good," Loric said with a smug smile.

"You'll agree to anything he says," Kara snapped, but she calmed down almost immediate. "We'll talk about this later."

"Agreed," Wyntir said with a nod as he looked back to Bliss. "Well, Mr. Mayor, do you happen to know of a place outside of town we could use as a camp?"

Bliss nodded, already knowing of the perfect place. "Well I wouldn't be the Mayor if I didn't know! Come along, friends!"

"Not your friends," Loric replied, but Bliss either didn't hear him or pretended he didn't as he turned around and began to cheerfully walk away, humming to himself.

"I swear I'll kill this guy at some point..." Loric mumbled as he followed after him, carrying his dropped gear.

Wyntir took Kara by the hand and began to lead her after them, but he stopped and look behind himself to see Honey Pie standing behind them. "Well?" he called to her, causing her ears to perk up. "Are you coming?"

A huge smile spread across her face as she quickly ran after them to catch up.

'Kids... gotta love 'em...'

Getting settled

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Chapter 6

Bliss lead the group through the town, with looks of both awe and fear being directed at the two opposing warriors from the residents as they stood outside of their homes. To their credit, the two men didn't seem offended by the unpleasant looks they were getting from a few of the ponies, while the little filly following them seemed to be nervous. Luckily, no one said anything as the group passed them.

They finally reached the end of the town and entered the forest, following what looked to be a old worn dirt path that weaved through the overgrown forest. No one spoke for most of the trip, with both Loric and Wyntir deep in thought. Kara seemed to be thinking as well, but she kept switching between smiling and frowning. Honey Pie, now that they were away from the other ponies and their stares, was skipping around behind them. She seemed almost carefree, but also seemed to be deep in thought as well.

All in all, it was a rather solemn group.

As the trees began to thin, almost an entire hour into the trip, Wyntir finally broke the silence. "Where exactly are you taking us, Bliss?"

Bliss, who had been humming softly to himself, looked over his shoulder as he trotted, "To the old Sky Wagon Depot, it use to be a storage facility for the wagons, but it closed down once one was built in the town. It's pretty big, and open on the inside. And secure, since I know that's something you'd want."

"And," Loric began, waving his hand out in front of himself. "What is a Sky Wagon?"

"Ah, you don't have them in your world?" he chuckled a bit to himself. "I have no idea how you move things long distances without one. They're basically just normal wagons, but are capable of flight thanks to the Pegasus pulling it. They vary in size, but usually are rather large since they are mostly used to carry cargo or groups of ponies."

"Contraptions that can fly?" Wyntir mused, rubbing his stubbly chin. "I don't know how I feel about that honestly."

"Sounds arousing to me," Loric said with a wink, causing Wyntir to raise an eyebrow at him.

"Would this Celestia's army know to find us here?" Kara asked. "From what I can tell, those ponies my knight and friend here defeated ran to get help. What will you be doing about this when they return to engage us?"

This caused Bliss to stumble a bit over himself, as he obviously hadn't thought of that, but he recovered quickly as he replied, "I honestly don't know. I suppose I'll tell them we didn't know you were running from them. Which is true! I'll tell them you ran off into the forest, away from where we're going, and tell them that's all we know. They'll believe me, as we've always been loyal to them... Geez I hope they believe me."

"Just don't screw us over," Loric warned.

"Or I'll personally thank you for sending them our way," Wyntir said, his voice sounding rather threatening.

Bliss looked back, a confused look on his face, "Why would you thank me for..." his eyes widened as the meaning of Wyntir's words dawned on him. His head snapped back to facing in front of himself, "Gotcha! No armies sent your way, yep, no armies! Honest to Celes.... I mean, I promise!"

The three humans just stared at him, with looks of amusement. Honey Pie just laughed at his nervousness.

"Wow, you're a coward, Mr. Mayor," Honey Pie taunted playfully, causing the older pony to whimper lightly.

"No I'm not!" he snapped, trying to sound sincere, despite his shaking voice. "I just know how to stay alive, there's a difference!"

"Uh-huh, sure is," Honey Pie said back in a still taunting voice. "I'm sure glad I'm not you."

Bliss decided not to respond, and there was no more talking for the remainder of the trip.

Within only a few short minutes, Wyntir could just make out what looked to be a large stone structure surrounded closely by trees not to far away. As they neared it, he arched an eyebrow.

The Sky Wagon Depot was indeed a rather large building, and appeared to be a perfect rectangle all the way around from what he could tell. Single floor with only three windows on the side of the building that he could see. All around it were trees and overgrown bushes, that were pressed up against the building, even climbing up and over the wall in some places. To put it simple, the building looked completely run down and out of the way.

"I know it looks bad, but trust me, it's sturdy and won't be falling down anytime soon," Bliss praised, but then added under his breath, "Oh Celestia I hope it doesn't fall down..."

"I like it," Loric said after a moment of thought. "From what I can tell, the trees around it should help hide it from the sky, and even if its seen, I'd think they'd likely just pass it by. Not that I'm worried about our little hot head finding us, I can handle her."

"Sure you can," Kara teased, getting a glare from Loric. "It's not like she's already beat you, twice."

"I count those as wins," Loric stated. "Anyways, depending on what the inside looks like, I think it'll do."

"Take us to the door," Wyntir ordered, getting a quick nod from Bliss.

"Certainly!" He quickly began to trot around the right side of the building and brought them to a wide doorway. "This is the only large door, and it's only this big because of the size of the wagons that were brought in. The other door is on the other side, and its just a normal sized one."

Wyntir just nodded as he began to take in the building. "Hm, this door way looks to be about sixteen feet wide, and close to nine feet tall. Easily defensible with the right placements, which is a very good thing." He then looked down the length of the building and began to do calculations in his head. "Hard to say... but it appears to be at least two hundred feet in length, and if I had my guess, a hundred feet wide."

Everyone, not including Kara, looked at Wyntir with slight shocked expressions.

"Well," Bliss chuckled, "You're close, surprisingly. If I remember correctly, it's closer a hundred and fifty in length, and seventy five in width."

"Wow," Loric praised with a clap of his hands, a large smile on his face. "A knight and a scholar? And a butler to boot? Damn, you're the full package!"

Wyntir gave Loric a hard stare, but it slowly softened and a slight smile appeared on his face. "Well, you can't be both a competent knight and an idiot. I'm a knight of Carim after all, not a knight of Berenike." He chuckled at his own joke, but got a slap upside the head from Kara.

"Don't be racist, Wyntir," she scolded, causing Wyntir to sigh.

"I don't get it..." Loric began, but instead shrugged. "Whelp, that aside, what of the inside?"

Bliss, looking extremely confused, slowly turned and walked into the building. "As you can see, it's nothing but an open space. No one really worked here, it was just a storage facility after all."

Loric stepped in and looked around, leaving Kara and Wyntir to discuss their little topic. He let out a whistle, which echoed slightly through out the large empty space. The floor was covered in dead leaves and branches, hinting at the building not being used in a very long time. Another factor that hinted at the age of the building was the moss that was growing around the windows. Despite this, Loric liked what he saw.

"Oh yes, if I had to chose a run down building to live in, it would be this place," he said, giving a approving nod. "I mean, yeah, I'd love some walls and variety. But beggars can't be choosers."

Sensing this was probably a good time to try and get on his good side, Bliss cleared his throat. "And it's all yours!" At Loric's blank stare, he added. "I mean, as the Mayor of Maresaw, I hereby present this building and all of its property to you and your companions, as thanks for saving our town." He then bowed deeply.

Loric only laughed at this, "Really?"

Bliss slowly rose, staring at the man with a questioning gaze.

"You're still hung up over that?" Loric asked, a smug look on his face. "Come on, why are you REALLY giving this place to us? I don't buy the whole 'as thanks for saving our town' bullcrap. You already 'thanked' us for that with the first house, and then all but ran us out after finding out about those armies being after us." Then he narrowed his eyes at the now cowering pony and crossed his arms. "Come to think of it, those soldiers sure did show up at the most convenient of times, didn't they? You wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you?"

Bliss looked absolutely terrified under the mans imposing stare, but he forced himself to respond, his voice shaky, "No! We didn't have anything to do with them arriving when they did!" He looked Loric in the eyes to try and prove he wasn't lying, but upon seeing the look in his eyes, he instantly lowered his gaze. "Okay, I admit it! I messed up!"

"And how did you?" Wyntir asked, now joining them in the building, Kara behind him.

With a horrified look on his face, Bliss looked between them. "I... I..."

"Spit it out!" Honey Pie screamed, catching everyone off guard.

Bliss shrieked like a little filly. "They saw me running around and screaming about Celestia coming! They came out of nowhere and began asking questions. I swear! No one told them anything! And they were about to leave when you three suddenly walked into them! I swear on my life that is true!"

Wyntir stepped in front of the cowardly pony and crouched down to his level, staring him the eyes. Bliss held contact as best as he could, but Wyntir's intense stare caused him to look else where.

"He's telling the truth," Wyntir stated as he stood back up, getting a surprised and relieved look from Bliss.

"You're sure?" Loric asked, uncrossing his arms.

"Yes, I don't believe it was his fault they found us," he said looking at Loric, but then he looked back down at Bliss. "And it will never happen again."

Bliss nodded furiously, "Never again! I'll be as cool as a cucumber when they're around!"

Kara snickered at his statement, but didn't comment on it.

"Good," Wyntir said as he patted Bliss on the head. "Anything else we need to know in regards to this area?"

Still recovering from his little ordeal, Bliss slowly stood up and thought for a moment. "Eh... other than there being a stream to the south, I don't think so..."

"I have a request then," Kara suddenly said, getting the stallions attention. "If we're to stay here, and I take it you want us to be close to your town, then we're going to require a bit of aid from you."

Bliss rubbed his chin as he thought about what she said before asking, "What sort of aid?"

"Supplies, mostly," she said, a coy smile on her face. "That wouldn't be a problem, would it?"

"Um..." Bliss looked between them, not one of them showing any kind of aggression or pressure. Except for Honey Pie, who drug her hoof across her neck when he looked at her. He raised an eyebrow at the filly, but smiled. "Yeah, I think I can work something out. What would you need exactly? Please stay within reason."

"Food," Kara replied, nodding her head. "But I think my knight here could give you a better list."

"Indeed," Wyntir nodded as he adjusted his dented armor. "I'll have to think on it and make a list, but in the mean time, you should head back to town and sort out some food to bring here."

"And bedding," Loric added, rubbing his back. "I like me some comfort when I sleep."

Bliss nodded, taking mental notes of what they said. "Alright, but I have a counter offer. We'll supply you with what you need, and in return, you help us if anything threatens our town again. Deal?"

The two warriors looked at each other, one of them smiled coolly and the other just nodded.

"Yeah, you got yourself a deal."

Bliss looked overjoyed at this, "Excellent! I promise you, you won't regret this!"

"We better not," Wyntir warned.

With a bow, Bliss began to head for the large doorway. "I will be back at nightfall, my new friends!" he said over his shoulder.

"Not your friends," Loric yelled back, but Bliss was already out the door and out of sight. "That guy..."

"He really worked for deal," Kara giggled. "He's been begging for us to defend his town since we met him, and by the Gods, he finally got it."

"Yeah..." Wyntir sighed. He took a look around the large empty building and finally realized there were no support pillars. "How is this place even still standing?"

Loric looked around and shrugged, "Magic?"

"Yep!" Honey Pie said happily as she walked to stand in front of Wyntir. "So, when are we going to start my knight training, huh?"

Wyntir stared down at the little pony and smiled, "Later, I promise."

This caused the filly to smile happily as she turned and began to trot further into the building, singing a little tone to herself.

"Hm," Loric rubbed his chin, getting a glance from Wyntir. "You've really changed your attitude to that kid, any reason?"

A ghost of a smile graced Wyntir's face as he turned away from him. "I have my reasons."

"Oh another mystery to add to your backstory?" Loric teased, but he receive a reply.

"We should clean this place up a bit," Wyntir said, changing the subject.

"Oh boo to that," Loric said, rolling his eyes. "You can do that, I'm going to explore this area a bit more." With that, he took off out the door, heading off into the forest.

As he watched him go, Wyntir let out a groan as he rubbed his face. "I don't know if that guy is just lazy or what, but..."

"But he's a crucial part of our team," Kara interjected, cutting Wyntir off before he could say anything rude.

"Team?" Wyntir asked with a frown. "I hate the sound of that."

Kara only stuck her tongue out as she sat down on the floor to rest after their long walk. "No more complaining, it's bad for you."

Wyntir only rolled his eyes as his response and began to use his magic to force the dead leaves to one side of the building.

ooo000<^>000ooo

Loric sat by a tree near the path they'd come down earlier, cleaning his trusty pistol. It'd been almost two hours since he'd left Wyntir alone to clean the building, but he didn't feel like talking at the moment. His mind was elsewhere.

He frowned at himself as he finished cleaning his pistol, and sat about cleaning it again, anything to keep his hands and mind busy. He wasn't very happy with himself to say the least, having been bested twice by the same person... pony.

As he finished cleaning his pistol, he let out a heavy sigh and finally returned it to its holster. He slowly let himself slide down the tree and onto the ground, looking up into the branches above. With another frown, he lifted his hands up in front of his face and examined them. They were heavily calloused after years of both farm work and fighting.

In his entire twenty nine years of living he'd never been bested in battle, not once. To be bested in battle usually meant death, at least in his world that is. But here he was, two for zero against a pony of all things. True, he survived each encounter and she retreated, but he was near death both times. He wanted to call it a victory, but he just couldn't bring himself to call it that. He lost, and he knew it.

He was excited after the first time they fought, true, but that was because he thought he had found an equal. But after that last fight, albeit a short one, he came to realize there was more to that pony than he had expected. And to think he showed weakness when he saw her hurting on the ground! He should have just finished her instead of showing her sympathy.

Loric let out a sigh as he spoke aloud to no one, "No, if I'm going to kill her, I need to do it one on one, not while she's down because of someone else." He closed his eyes and put his hands behind his head. "I was just angry that time... I guess its a good thing she got away, but it's not going to be as fun next time, with one of her damn wings gone now."

Before he could continue his conversation with himself, he heard a distant sound. He sat up quickly and listened, but heard nothing at first. Then suddenly, not to far down the path, coming from the town, he heard a feminine yelp of surprise.

He was up in an instant, sprinting silently through the forest, darting around trees and fallen logs as he did so. It didn't take him long to get close to the source of the sound, and when he saw it, he shook his head.

Not far from where he stood was a pony, who was currently sitting on the ground next to the path rubbing their back hoof. So far, they hadn't noticed him.

With his flintlock in hand, Loric took a step forward and cleared his throat, causing the pony to spin around on the ground and look at him in surprise, eyes wide.

Neither spoke at first, both just looking the other up and down.

Loric took notice of its saddlebags, which seemed to be bulging with contents. He wondered what it could possible be carrying. The pony was looking him over with a large pair of wide green eyes. Its coat was a light brown color, while its mane and tail were the color of straw. Its mane currently looked a bit unkempt and hung down one side of its face. The horn atop its head made Loric very uncomfortable, as he'd already seen, and felt, what a Unicorn could do with those wicked things. The last thing he noticed was the symbol on its hindquarters, which appeared to be a quill and a scroll.

The pony slowly raised one of its front hooves and gave a small wave. "Um... hello..."

Loric didn't waste any time as he raised his pistol and pointed it at the pony, causing it to recoil back in shock. "Who are you and what are you doing here?"

The pony held up its hooves in a surrendering manner and spoke as calmly as it could. "I... I am Ink Slinger. I wanted to come talk to you and your friends, that's all. I was planning to before you left Maresaw, but all of that unpleasantness took place and I never had a chance."

After hearing this, Loric lowered the pistol but didn't put it away. This seemed to relax the pony as, as it was obvious it was a female, lowered her hooves and slowly stood up, her back right leg was being held up, like a dog with a hurt paw.

"I take it your a resident of Maresaw?" he asked, but she shook her head.

"No, I'm actually from Hoofington," she explained, winching as she tried to put her back leg down, but was unable to for some reason. "I came to Maresaw a few months ago to be close to the conflict, but after the large scale battle that took place in Maresaw, I think I've seen enough of it to last me a life time."

Loric put away his pistol and crossed his arms, taking up a mostly relaxed stance. "Why were you wanting to be close to the conflict?"

Ink smiled proudly as she pointed at herself. "I am a Historian and a Scribe, on her way to becoming the head researcher at the University of Hoofington. As for why I wanted to be close to the conflict, it's simple, I wanted to record a first hand account of it. And what a better way to do that than to experience it." But as she finished her sentence, a sheepish smile took over her face. "Eh, but after that battle, I don't think I can handle being in the middle of it. I've been kinda hiding out here in the mean time."

"Well," Loric began with a raised eyebrow, "That's all interesting and all, and good for you, but I think you should turn tail and head back to your town." At her shocked expression, he added, "If you couldn't handle that little battle, I doubt you can handle being around us."

"Please?" she pressed, leaning forward a bit. "I can handle anything you and your friends can dish out."

"Oh you think so?" Loric said, a smug tone in his voice. "What do you have to offer us then? We don't do charity."

She furrowed her brow before smiling, "I can offer you knowledge!"

"Fuck knowledge, what else ya got?" Loric replied, a smirk spreading across his face.

Ink Slinger looked taken aback, but she pondered on what else she had to offer. "I have a few bits..."

"Nope, don't know what that is and I don't care, nope. What else?" he then eyed her with the largest smirk he could muster. "You have to have something I'd want."

She studied him, then her eyes widened as she thought she caught his meaning. "I will not copulate with you!"

Loric raised an eyebrow, clearly confused. "I don't know what copulate is, but no. Come on lady, ya gotta have something in those bags I want."

This put Ink Slinger in a awkward position, because she had nothing she could think of that he may want, and she defiantly wasn't leaving. "I... have some books and scrolls, you could...."

"Ew," Loric said, making a gagging motion. "Look, if you got nothing, just turn your pretty little ass around and take a hike."

"Pretty little ass?" she mouthed to her self before shaking her head and using her magic to go through her bags. After a brief search she brought out a little bit of candy that she kept for any young colts or fillies that she came across. "The only other thing I have is this candy, I don't have..."

"Candy?" Loric asked, perking up. "I don't care what kind, hand that over and you can do what ever you want."

She snapped her head back to look at him, a look of bewilderment on her face. "Seriously?"

"Don't make me take it from you," Loric warned, but he quickly corrected himself. "Yes, seriously..."

"Anything I want?" she asked, a large smirk appearing on her face.

Loric blinked a few times, then let out a large sigh. "Oh my God, really?!" Upon seeing her still smirking, but also slightly confused face, he threw his hands up, " Fine!" He pulled off his coat and began to work on removing the straps that held his clothes onto his body.

She watched him with a cocked head, but as he began to remove more clothing, her eyes widened. "What the buck are you doing?!"

"What do you think?!" he yelled, fighting with one of his belts. "That look you just gave me with what you said makes it obvious! Sex for candy! You devious devil! Gah!"

"No! That's most defiantly not what I was hinting at!" she yelled as she took a step back.

"It's not?" Loric asked as he held his pants, which had finally been freed of its belt and was just barely staying up above his hips.

"No!" she screamed as she began to recompose herself. "No, what I was hinting at was nowhere close to that. All I want in return is for you to take me to where ever you three are staying and answer all of my questions. No exceptions."

"That's all?" Loric asked in disbelief. "Then you got a freaking deal, horsey! Now hand that candy over."

She smiled as she levitated the candy over to him, and he snatched it out of the hair instantly and began to look it over.

"Ooo, looks sweet," he said with a smile as he unwrapped one and put it into his mouth, making a moaning sound as he did so.

"So!" she said, a pleased smile on her face. "Fix your clothes and lead me to your group!"

Loric saluted her, but as he did so, his pants finally lost their grip and fell down.

Ink Slinger just frowned and turned her head. "Great... they're idiots..."

Loric just laughed as he pulled his pants back up and began to re-buckle everything. "You're lucky you had the candy, otherwise you'd be gone right now. Ms name caller."

"You know I keep that candy for foals, right?" she shot back, a smirk on her face as she turned her head back to him.

"Meh," was the only thing he gave her as a reply as he continued putting his clothes back on.

She waited patiently, looking him up and down, taking notes on a scroll she had floated out. 'Rude, clumsy, vulgar, immature, and lacking common sense. So far not impressed.'

"And what are you writing, pony girl?" Loric asked as he pulled on his overcoat.

"Notes," was her reply as put the scroll away. "And my name is Ink Slinger, not pony girl."

"That's a ridiculous name," he commented, already turning to head down the path back to their new building. "Well lets get this over with."

"Ridiculous? What about your name, hm?" she asked, staring daggers into the back of his head.

"Loric Penwise."

She frowned at this, she had hoped he'd have a stupid name, but she hated to admit it, he had a rather pleasant name. "That's a stupid name..." she said, sounding defeated when she was trying to sound confident.

"Thanks," Loric said over his shoulder. "Just don't let that hurt leg slow you down."

With a frown, she looked down at her leg, which she had at least sprang when she had tripped earlier. "Or, you could help a mare out and help me?"

"Nope, I don't help name callers," Loric teased, a smirk on his lips as he walked away from her.

"You little..." she shook her head and began to limp after him, her heavy bags not helping at all. "I have a feeling I've gotten myself in over my head... again."

History lesson

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Chapter 7

Wyntir sat against the wall next to the large doorway deep in thought, a parchment of paper held in one hand and a quill in the other. He was having a tough time thinking of what kinds of supplies they were going to be needing. He had all the basics and common items listed, but as far as specific items, he was at a lose. With a sigh, he decided to read over what he already had written down.

The list consisted of mostly random items and tools that he had thought off, a few common and a few unique. He hoped they'd have at least half of what he had written down, but all he really wanted was the food and tools. Everything else he could do without. However, the most important items that he had listed, at least to him, was the smithing tools and materials.

He cast a glance at his armor that lay next to him. It'd have to fixed, as that damned pony had somehow severely damaged the chest guard and helmet. Their metal hoof guards must be enchanted or something, as that armor is made to withstand almost anything. Hell! He fought a giant crab once and even it was unable to damage his armor at all. So these ponies magic must play a part in their smithing...

This caused him to raise his head and stare off into space, he hadn't thought of that yet. If they were using some kind of specialized magic to increase the destructive power of their weapons, then no matter what kind of armor he made they'd just smash right through it. Granted, it took a fair amount of hits for her to damage his armor to its current state, but the thought didn't set well with him.

With this in mind, he marked out all of the blacksmithing tools and materials and instead wrote; 'Need an expert blacksmith'. He'd have to explain that one to Bliss when he came back, as he was not taking no for an answer. The idea of his gear being outclassed made his stomach turn. As far as the weapons go, however, they seem to be holding up fairly well. Especially the greatsword, thanks to the specialized smithing of the Farron.

Now that he had that thought put away, he went back to looking over the list. He made sure to include, near the bottom, a simple command; No visitors.

As if to spite him, Loric chose that moment to walk into the building, announcing his entrance as he did so. Behind him followed the last thing he had wanted to see. A random pony, not carrying any food that Bliss had promised. It wore saddlebags, but they seemed to be overflowing with papers and supplies more catered to a scribe. This caused him to growl in both anger and annoyance.

His growl caught Ink Slinger off guard as she stepped confidently into the building, her head snapped to the side and her eyes widened as she took in the large man sitting against the wall. To her, all she saw was a very imposing creature with rough features and a angry look on its face. Wearing nothing but what appeared to be black cloth covering its legs and a scrap of cloth over its upper half. She also took note of the small filly that had been curled up next to him, asleep from what she could see.

"What do you think you're doing?" Wyntir asked angrily as he stood up and stared at Loric, who was looking a bit sheepish at the moment.

"Just thought she could be useful, that's all," he said, trying to cover the fact that he had been bribed to bring her there.

"Ink Slinger, it is a pleasure to meet you," Ink said as calmly and confidently as she could muster, holding a hoof out to the tall biped.

Wyntir looked down at her hoof and narrowed his eyes, and for a moment she thought he was about pounce on her. But instead, he roughly took her by the hoof, and with a very tight grip, shook it. "Wyntir Caslin."

As she retracted her hoof, she cringed as she felt the pain swelling up in her hoof and dreaded the bruise that she just knew would appear there. "It is a pleasure to meet you."

"I take it we have another visitor?" Kara asked cheerfully from across the room.

Ink Slinger looked towards the woman and raised an eyebrow. The woman appeared to be playing with some kind of light that she was holding in front of herself. This confused her, but as she looked closer, she was surprised to see that the woman actually was channeling some kind of spell.

She hadn't known that they could use magic, and she hadn't seen the entire fight that took place back in Maresaw. So this revelation confused her, as it went against all of the myths and notes she had on humans.

"Yeah," Wyntir said in a low voice, addressing Kara. "But they're leaving, Kara, right now."

"Oh no," Ink Slinger declared as she stepped up to Wyntir and stood up as straight as she could, squaring him up. "Your friend Loric and I made an agreement, and you were not apart of said agreement. So as it stands, you cannot make me leave until it is fulfilled."

Wyntir stared down at the much smaller mare, who's head barely reached his chest, and frowned. He looked over to Loric to see him pulling up his bandana to hide his facial expressions. "What kind of agreement."

"Well, that is a funny story," Loric began, putting his hand in his pocket to conceal the candy. "She gave me a SINGLE piece of candy in exchange for having a meet and greet with all of us. Pretty simple stuff."

Obviously not liking this answer, Wyntir looked back down at the mare, who was trying her best to seem intimidating. "And what do you hope to gain from something like this?"

A sly smile appeared on Ink's face at this, "Knowledge, plain and simple. As it stands, the idea of humans is both fact and myth." At the confused look she received, she continued. "I just want to ask some questions and compare them to my current notes, that is all. In return, I will answer any and all questions that you have."

Wyntir didn't exactly like the idea of having to answer this mares questions, but he had to admit, he wanted to know more about the world they were currently in. "Fine, but the moment you start asking personal questions is the moment you're leaving. Got it?"

"Yes," she said with a confirming nod.

He held eye contact with her for a few moments before walking away from her and addressing her and Loric, "Follow me then."

The three of them walked over to where Kara was currently sitting on the ground, no longer using her magic, and sat down in a circle with Ink facing Kara and Wyntir and Loric facing each other.

Loric looked around the little circle and chuckled, "What are we? Children?"

"Shush," Ink replied as she sat her bags down and began to pull out all of her supplies and sat it around herself. As she finished placing everything, she laid down and crossed her front legs over each other and levitated up a notebook and a quill, looking eager to get started.

"So, should I just start or would you like too?" she asked, looking at the three humans.

"We'll start with asking the questions," Wyntir declared, getting a pout from Ink Slinger. But her attempt at being cute to get her way did not faze him. "I think it is only fair, don't you think?"

She narrowed her eyes at him. She was able to easily manipulate and persuade the stupid one, but this one was going to be a challenge. "Fine, you can start."

With a nod, Wyntir asked the question that he had had on his mind since she brought it up. "You said that humans are both a fact and a myth, what do you mean by that exactly?"

"Ah, well the only accepted truth about humans is that they exist, just not in our world. They exist in only a world that the Princess has access too, or so we thought." She picked up a book and flipped through it to check a few notes before speaking again. "It all started soon after Sombra's return, Princess Celestia thought she could take care of him without going into an open conflict. Her first tactic was to confront him herself, but from what I've gathered that didn't go so well for her, and when she returned she immediately began raising her own army. This is where it gets interesting," a smile spread across her face as the three humans leaned slightly towards her. "Before her army was ready, a strange creature that stood on two legs attacked her while she was in her private study. Her attacker was way out of her league and she easily subdued them, and threw them into her dungeon." She picked up another set of notes and read over them. "Apparently when they were questioned on why they attacked her, they just simply stated that they had been hired by another pony to come kill her, and made mentioned several times that it was just part of the job. When asked for a name, they refused to give one. Sadly, that's as much as I know, other than the fact that they were killed in an escape attempt.

"After that, Princess Celestia began her campaign against Sombra, and it has been nothing but open conflict since this all started two years ago," Ink Slinger finished, putting down her notes and looking at the three humans.

"I take it that this Sombra guy was planning to use us to fight against Celestia?" Kara asked, a thoughtful look on her face.

"That's my best guess," Wyntir replied. He then looked back to Ink Slinger, "You didn't fully answer my question though." At her cocked head, he added, "You rambled off course and gave me an explanation on Celestia not being the only one to be able to access the human world. I want to know about past interactions with humans."

Ink Slinger raised an eyebrow at him, taking note on how he spoke. "Well yes, I suppose I did change the subject a bit." She shifted back through her notes and pulled out a few and looked them over. "A long time ago, before the Princesses came to power, the ponies were split into three different tribes; the Pegasi, Unicorns, and the Earth ponies. I could go into the conflict between each side and what each side had to offer, but that's not what you asked. So I'm just going to focus on the Unicorns, as all of our information regarding humans, as little as it is, came from them." She cleared her throat before continuing, "Magic use to be unregulated back then, which lead to many strange and wondrous events. One of those strange events was the creation of a portal, and it was through this portal that the humans were discovered. From all accounts that were recorded, the world of which the humans inhabited was a direct parallel of theirs. For every pony there was a human who both acted and looked very similar to them, and even had the same name. This discovery was kept a secret by the Unicorns, as they felt having exclusive access to this world gave them special privileges, as they were able to both trade and exchange knowledge with the humans. When Princess Celestia and Princess Luna came to power, this was after the three tribes had already come together, they restricted access to the portal and disallowed the use of such magic. After a few generations, the magic was forgotten by the ponies of Equestria, leaving the only ones with access to it being the Princesses. And that's how its remained since.

"So with that said, I want to share my theory on you three." She smiled proudly as she sat down her notes and looked at each human in turn. "I believe you three are from this world and Sombra has somehow gained access to the portal, which is how he brought you here."

"And why do you think we're from this world you speak of?" Wyntir asked, an eyebrow raised.

"Simple," she stated as she looked into his eyes. "We're at war, and you're dressed as warriors, which indicates that you're also at war in your world. Since our two worlds are parallel then that means you each represent a pony from our world."

"Not even close," Wyntir stated, causing her go silent and stare at him with a questioning gaze. "First off, the world Kara and I are from is nothing like this world. In our world, being a warrior is all but required. We don't have a single ruler, and there's no 'bad guy' who we're having to fight."

Ink Slinger looked a bit confused, but wrote down everything he said nonetheless.

"Yeah," Loric chimed in. "And from what I've gathered, my world isn't like either of yours. Wyntir here says he fights dragons and giants. I fight monsters from hell itself."

The two men looked at each, as if acknowledging that they both had stories to share with the other.

"Can I PLEASE ask you some questions now?" Ink asked, her curiosity starting to tear her apart at this new revelation.

"No," Wyntir simply replied as he looked back to her. "I have more questions, as do they I believe."

"Who's this Princess Luna?" Loric asked, rubbing his chin. "I know this Celestia bitch, but I haven't heard anything about this one."

"Ah, that's a touchy subject," Ink said sheepishly, but she still pulled out a few of her notes. "Well, to put it simply, she is the sister of Princess Celestia. She was the ruler of the night while Celestia was the ruler of the day."

"What do you mean by that?" Kara asked. "How can you have two rulers at once? It doesn't matter if one rules while the other is asleep, I don't see how they'd be able to rule and not kill each other at some point."

"It was complicated," Ink Slinger admitted. "And you're not far off actually, as Princess Luna actually did try and take the throne for herself at one point."

"Now this is getting interesting," Loric smirked as he leaned forward.

"A force known as the Nightmare influenced her behind the scenes and eventually took over fully. There was a fight between Celestia and her sister, then known as Nightmare Moon. This time in history is referred to as the Dark Ages, due to the it being mostly dark through out the entire conflict thanks to Nightmare Moon keeping the sun down and the moon high in the sky."

"Wait," Wyntir interrupted, that last phrase catching his attention. "They can move the moon and the sun?"

Ink gave a sharp nod and set out to explain it, "Yes, but not only move them, but also control. I will assume it is not the same in your world, but here Princess Celestia is the one who raises and lowers the moon and sun, and before that it was bother her and her sister who performed the task."

"Oh great, we're enemies with a being that can move the damned sun..." Loric grumbled, leaning back and rubbing his face.

"Anyway, you were saying before I interrupted?" Wyntir said, waving his hand for her to continue.

"Yes," she thought for a moment before she remembered where she had left off. "Eventually, Princess Celestia defeated her sister and banished her to the moon as punishment." This caused the three humans to look at each other in shock, but they didn't interrupt her so she continued. "According to history, the banishment was only meant to last one thousand years. And as the time drew near for her to return, Princess Celestia began to make plans for her return."

"Whoa whoa," Loric halted her, causing her to look at him in annoyance for stopping her in the middle of her favorite part. "A thousand years? How old is this Celestia?"

"We don't exactly know," she admitted, shaking her head. "Everything I've told you took place well over a thousand years ago."

Wyntir began to rub his rough chin, a somewhat worried look on his face. "Is she immortal?"

"Ah, the ever pressing question!" Ink Slinger exclaimed with a wide grin. "She claims to be, but I, and quite a few other, have a theory on that. I do not believe she immortal, per se. Does she age? No, not at all, as far as physically goes that is. But a true immortal, in my opinion, wouldn't need an army to conquer. Especially one as powerful as Princess Celestia. With her powers, she should be able to just take care of Sombra without the need for all of this needless violence." She let out a sigh and shook her head, "I believe she is only immortal to an extent. Time can not kill her, but I believe something else can. From all recorded assassination attempts, physical damage caused by blades or blunt weapons do not effect her, same goes for any kind of poison. Magic, however, can easily effect her. Maybe not kill her, but it has been used before to incapacitated her. Now, to date, no form of magic has ever been able to kill her."

"Sounds like an immortal to me," Wyntir observed, getting nods from the other two.

"But!" Ink exclaimed, holding up a hoof. "There is one account that she had purged long ago and has been lost until recently. This account has always been regarded as a myth, but I believe it to be true. At some point, well after she banished her sister, Princess Celestia was attacked by a being that is thought to have been summoned by Sombra. This being was described as appearing to be a timberwolf made of flesh and stood upright on two legs. It had what appeared to be tattered clothing and a top hat atop its head. When it attacked her, it somehow cut her along her side. This is unheard of, because as I said, nothing has ever been recorded to be able to inflict physical harm upon the Princess. After receiving the wound that the Princess tore the creature to bits and ordered that what happened that day never be spoken of again outside of the Palace." She chuckled a bit at this, "Obviously someone didn't listen, since we know of the story today."

"I have a good idea of what that creature was," Loric said with a smug look. "The top hat all but gives it away. What you described is a creature I am very familiar with. VERY familiar with."

"What are you hinting at?" Wyntir asked with a slight glare.

"Was I hinting at something?" Loric asked, fainting innocence. "I'm just saying it sounds like something from my world is all. Nothing more, nothing less."

"Uh-huh." Wyntir shook his head and looked back to Ink Slinger. "So she's immortal to an extant, got it."

She gave a nod as she thought about if she left anything out, then she remembered what she had been saying before. "As I was saying earlier, Princess Celestia knew when her sister was suppose to return from the moon, and she had set about preparing for her return. Just a note, this all happened very recently." She put down her notes and no longer needed them since she had experienced this part herself. "On the day of her arrival, Princess Celestia had made sure that everyone knew to stay out of the confrontation. She had planned to forcibly remove the nightmare from her younger sister and had hoped that would be enough to return Luna to her. But as fate would have it, when Nightmare Moon returned, she immediately disregarded Celestia attempts at talking and attacked her straight up. Things were looking bad for Princess Celestia, as she couldn't get past Nightmare Moon's impressive shields. But, just as things looked the darkest, a Pegasus came out of nowhere and tackled Nightmare Moon, which broke her concentration and allowed Princess Celestia to perform her spell. She used a set of magic items known as the Elements of Harmony to purify her, but while she was able to remove the corruption known as the Nightmare, she was unable to do so without harm to her younger sister."

Ink Slinger looked a bit saddened at this point, but she pressed onward, "At this current moment Princess Luna is in a magically induced Coma due to the Nightmare taking part of herself with it as it disappeared. And as if that was not enough, the Elements also disappeared after they were used, taking away Equestria's greatest defense."

"All I can say is that Pegasus had some major balls," Loric chuckled. "Sounds like something I would do."

"Oh that Pegasus?" Ink Slinger started, chuckling a bit. "They went on to become one of Equestria's Elite Four. I believe you already had a run in with her, Rainbow Dash is her name.

Loric's mood instantly went sour at this, "Oh that bitch. I retract what I said earlier."

"You're raising more questions than answering them at this point," Wyntir pointed out. "I don't quite understand what these Elements of Harmony are, or most of what you just said for that matter."

"Well, I can explain the Elements, but that'll take some time. So can I do so after I ask a few questions?" she asked hopefully.

Wyntir seemed to consider this before reluctantly nodding. "Fine, you can start asking questions now."

Ink let out a squeal of delight and brought out a blank notebook and scooted closer to them, quill hovering at the ready. "First question! Tell me about where you are from, not your world but where YOU are from." She was looking directly at Wyntir.

Wyntir sighed before he answered, "I am from Carim, one of the better regions in our world." At Kara's groan, he added, "But from an outsiders look we are one of the more sinister lands. Happy?"

"Yes," Kara praised, not liking it when Wyntir put down all of the other regions and religions in their world.

"Ooo, I really want to hear more about Carim, but first," Ink then spun to face Loric. "What about you? Where are you from?"

"I don't exactly have a place of origin," Loric started, shrugging. "For as long as I can remember, I've just been traveling. Well, until recently that is. Before I was brought here, I was in the city of Yharnam working my ass off killing beast and monsters. I could go on and on about this shit, if you'd like."

"Oh yes please!" Ink all but cheered as she looked between them. "Kara and Wyntir, why don't you two start?"

"I'd love to," Kara said with a smile as readjusted her sitting position. "I have much to say about the bright side of Carim!"

Ink Slinger smiled as she prepared to write down everything the woman said, excitement clear on her face.

ooo000<^>000ooo

The sun was just starting to set when Ink Slinger sat back, tired both mentally and physically after their long discussion about each others worlds. She'd learned a great deal about each other their worlds, and in turn they'd learned a lot about hers. All in all, she was extremely pleased with herself. She'd filled out two of her notebooks and most of a third one as well.

At one point, the filly named Honey Pie had woken up and joined them. She asked more questions than any of them, but they were at least reasonable and produced some interesting answers. The little filly seemed to be attached to Wyntir, and to Ink Slinger's surprise, he seemed to like her. From what little she knew of him she would have thought he'd resent her. Kara had warned at one point that Wyntir was a cold and hard person, and did not open up very easily to anyone, even her. With that in mind, the strange way he acted towards the young filly was a bit of a surprise, but it didn't warrant any kind of worrying out of Ink.

Loric let out an exhausted sigh as he stood up and stretched his back, "Now that took a while." He let out a groan as he finished stretching and looked out the large doorway. "I sure do hope that worthless mayor brings us that food he promised."

"He will," Kara reassured him.

"Yeah, he may be a coward, but from what I've gathered, he always follows through on his promises," Ink Slinger added as she began to put away her notes and supplies.

"Hey," Loric started as he stepped up to her. "Let me see some of those notes on me."

"What? Why?" Ink asked, blinking up at him in confusion.

"I want to see what you said about me," he said with a smirk, holding out his hand.

She frowned at this, but reluctantly pulled out one of her notes involving his recount of his world and levitated it up to him.

"Thank you, my dear lady," he said pleasantly before looking at the paper. The moment he tried to read it, a frown appeared on his face. "What is this shit?"

"What's wrong?" she asked, not knowing what he could have read that could have caused that kind of reaction.

"I can't read this! It's just a bunch of nonsense!" he yelled, obviously overreacting to the situation.

"Did you forget to learn to read and write when you were younger?" Kara teased, causing him to look at her angrily.

But before he could retort, Wyntir snatched the parchment out of his hands and looked it over. "Well..." he started, an eyebrow slowly arching upward. "I can't read it either."

To the two men, the writing on the paper appeared to be nothing more than a bunch of squiggly lines.

"Let me see!" Honey Pie yelled, wanting to see what they were seeing. Wyntir held it down for her to read and she cocked her head in confusion. "I don't know about you two, but I can read it. Are you sure you two know how to read?"

"Hm..." Wyntir tapped his chin and brought out his list. "Ink Slinger, can you read this?"

She took the parchment from him and looked it over, raising an eyebrow at it. "What is it? I can't make out anything on this paper.... strange..."

"I see," Wyntir said with a nod as he began to think the situation over. "So, we can easily understand each other, but as far as writing goes, we're at a lose. Honestly, I don't understand it."

"Well, it could have something to do with our cultures. Same spoken language, but different written languages. Its fascinating, something I think I'll want to devote a fair amount of time in studying." Ink smiled up at the two bipeds. "Now that we're on the subject, why not let me stay?"

"Nah we're good," Loric replied, shaking his head.

"No," Wyntir said with a shake of his head.

Ink Slinger deflated a bit, but she held her ground. "If you let me stay, I can be your translator when it comes to writing! Come on, you can't pass up an offer like that!"

"Look we said no, toots. We don't want ya around here, got it?" Loric stated harshly, causing her ears to flatten against her head and a genuinely hurt expression to appear on her face.

"Hold on there," Wyntir interjected, getting their attention. "That's actually a offer I may be interested in."

"Are you serious?" Loric deadpanned, clearly dumbfounded. "You? Seriously?"

Wyntir gave a single nod. "Yes. We'll be at a disadvantage without the ability to read their language." He looked at Ink Slinger and performed a slight bow, "I apologist about him."

This confused both Loric and Ink Slinger, as neither would have expected this from the man.

"Oh wow," Loric laughed. "That's not something I would have expected from the man who I watched kill a caged pony with no remorse. If I were a woman I'd be bedding you right now."

"I believe the fact that you would be the woman speaks volumes about you," Wyntir remarked, a slight smirk on his face.

Loric crossed his arms, an unamused look on his face. "And now you have a sense of humor? What the hell is going on here?"

"Anyways!" Ink Slinger yelled out, eager to speak. "So I take it you want me to stay, right?"

"Indeed," Wyntir said, giving a nod. "But the moment you start causing problems, you're out. Am I clear?"

She frowned at this, but gave a sharp nod, "Yes."

"Good," he sat down next to her and held up his list. "But first, you're going to help me by translating this list so Bliss can read it."

"Of course," she said as she began to pull out her supplies again.

"Hurry up though!" Honey Pie urged, pressing her front hooves against Wyntir's thigh. "You promised to train me tonight!"

"I will, Honey," he replied, ruffling up her mane and causing her to glare daggers at him.

Ink Slinger smiled at this as she levitated up her quill, "Ready when you are."

Brewing Storm

View Online

Chapter 8

The three figures stood at the edge of the forest, observing the town before them. The ponies were busy running around and piling up supplies in the middle of the town to notice the trio of bipeds.

"What's this all about?" one asked, their voice deep and raspy.

"No idea," responded another in a hoarse voice.

"I know what they're doing," replied the third one, their voice sounding as if it's coming from a radio. They looked over the town, taking in everything before setting his eyes upon something that caught his attention. "Well, that's interesting."

As the other two looked to where he was looking, they raised their eyebrows.

"What do you suppose they want?"

"Probably hunting them, if I had to guess."

"Well, that complicates things..."

ooo000<^>000ooo

"Hmm..." Bliss rubbed his chin as he stood atop a crate in the middle of town, watching the ponies add more and more food to the large cart that he'd borrowed from the mail service. He'd asked everyone to only bring what they could spare, but from the looks of the pile of hay, fruits, and vegetables, they were being a bit too gracious.

"No no," he called out, causing everyone to stop and look at him. "That's too much! There's only four of them, there's no need for that much!" He looked the pile over and shook his head. "And we need to organize the food, not just pile it up! Come on, ponies! We're smarter than this!"

Everyone around him smiled sheepishly as they started removing some of the food from the pile and putting it into appropriately labeled crates.

"Hey, Mayor Bliss!" came a feminine voice behind the frustrated mayor.

With a sigh, he forced a smile and turned around to look down at whoever was trying to get his attention. But upon seeing who it was, his smile turned sour. "What do you want, Nails?"

The mare named Nails smiled up at him as six other ponies stood behind her, "We want to come with you when you go back to these humans."

His frown deepened as he stared down at the seven ponies who had become a thorn in his side since the Battle of Maresaw. "You already know the answer to that question."

"Then we'll start getting ready to leave," Nails replied with a cocky smile as she raised her head boldly, causing some of her dirty purple mane to fall onto her face.

"You know what I meant," he said as he looked back at the ponies working around the cart. "I don't want you or your friends to screw up this deal I've made with them. We need it."

Nails set her jaw as she stared up at Bliss, thinking of what to say next. "What's the worst that could happen? Hm?"

"To be honest," Bliss replied as he turned back to look at her. "I'd rather not know."

"Come on, Bliss, you're always--"

"Royal guard's entering the town!" Came a cry, cutting off Nails before she could continue.

Bliss's eyes bulged as he turned towards the yelling and saw a group of Unicorns in blue and purple armor marching into town, heading straight for him. "Oh horseapples..."

"Mayor Bliss!" a commanding voice shouted out as the lead Unicorn stepped into the center of town, his eyes already on Bliss.

Bliss yelped and jumped off of his crate and quickly trotted towards the Unicorns, his ears pressed against his head. As he neared them, he forced himself to be cheerful and pleasant. "Commander Shinning Armor! What a pleasure to have you in our town! Tell me, what brings one of Equestria's Elite Four to our humble little town?"

The Commander looked past him at the cart filled with food and all of the ponies cowering around it. His stern look hardened as he looked back to Bliss. "As I'm sure you're aware, Commander Rainbow Dash had a confrontation with three dangerous creatures in your town earlier today. From the reports we gathered, they appeared to have been staying here. Is this correct?"

Bliss tried his hardest not to appear nervous or scared, but he knew his shaky voice betrayed him. "Ah... yes, they were staying here." He held up his hooves and waved them defensibly. "But that was before we knew who they were! The moment they told us that Princess Celestia was after them, we told them they had to leave and we were already planning to send word to you about it!"

Shinning Armor listened to every word Bliss said, watching his facial movements as he spoke. "I see. Care to explain why you yourself lied to Commander Rainbow Dash about their whereabouts when she first arrived in town? Because according to her report, you told her that you had no idea where the creatures were, and moments later said creatures attacked the Commander."

At this, Bliss began to sweat nervously. "I'm going to be honest with you... they threatened us. They have one of our fillies brainwashed into thinking they're the good guys. They threatened to hurt the filly if we told anyone about them before they could leave the town. We planned to send word to Princess Celestia as soon as we could, and opted to lie to Commander Rainbow Dash, for fear of the filly being harmed."

The Commander had watched Bliss very carefully, and so far his words and reactions seemed genuine. "Very well, but one more question." This caused Bliss to gulp. "What about all of that food behind you? Where is that going?"

Without missing a beat, Bliss responded, "That is for you. We felt bad that Commander Rainbow Dash was harmed in our town, so we wanted to send your forces a fair bit of supplies as compensation."

"I see," Shinning Armor mused as he thought the situation over. "You and your town are very loyal to Princess Celestia and her cause, and I will see that you are rewarded for that. We accept your offer of compensation, and I'm sure Commander Rainbow Dash will be very pleased to hear about this."

Bliss let out a sigh of relief, "Of course, Commander. Maresaw has always been loyal to the Princess, and nothing will ever break that loyalty."

"That's good to hear," Shinning Armor said with a nod. "Now, tell me, which way did these creatures head?"

"They went East, but that's all I know. I didn't dare send anyone to watch them after seeing what they did to the Commander and her group."

"That was a wise decision," the Commander complemented as he turned to face the armored Unicorns. "We're heading East! You four, I want you to gather up all of the food that they're offering and take it back to camp. The rest of you, follow me!"

As Commander Shinning Armor began to lead his group away from town, he stopped and eyed the seven ponies who had been talking to Bliss. He eyed them before holding up a hoof to halt his troops and walked towards them.

"You look familiar," he said with a glare as he looked at Nails. "Earth Pony with a rust colored coat and purple mane, goes by Sergeant Nails. Ring any bells?"

Nails cocked her head in clear confusion, her ears back in a show of submission. "Uh no? Should it?"

"What's your name, ma'am?" he asked, sizing her up. She looked to similar to who he was thinking about, so he wasn't leaving till he had his answers.

"Rusty Earth, Secretary to Mayor Bliss and Treasurer of Maresaw," she rattled off at once, not breaking her look of confusion.

Shinning Armor frowned as he looked back at Bliss. "Is that true?"

Bliss tried to hide his surprise, but upon seeing Nails smirk he knew what he had to say. "Eh yep! She's been my Secretary for the last two years! But she just became the towns treasure this year."

This didn't seem to please Shinning Armor, but he accepted it. "If you see a mare that looks like her, I want you to report her immediately. She's currently M.I.A. and wanted by the Princess for the crime of desertion."

"Of course!" Bliss responded, snapping a salute.

Shinning Armor didn't say anything else as he returned to his waiting troops and returned to his position in front of them. "Forward march!"

As they began to march out of town, heading East, Bliss turned back to watch the four Unicorns finish loading up all of the food onto the cart and were currently attaching themselves into the harness.

Once they were strapped in they began to pull the filled cart out of town, heading back the way they had come.

Finally, after every one of the soldiers were gone, Bliss rounded on Nails, who was currently sporting a huge grin. "You have some nerve!"

"What can I say?" she said as she gestured back to the ponies behind her, who were all sporting smug looks of their own. "I can lie on the spot, just like someone else we know."

Bliss frowned at her, "I do what I have to do to keep this town alive." He let out a sigh as he looked around at the ponies that had started to gather around them. "And now we don't have enough food for our new friends and ourselves..."

"I think we can cover that," Nails said with a smirk as she strolled up to stand face to face with Bliss, causing him to take a step back. "All you have to do is agree to our terms."

"I want to know what you plan to do before I agree to anything," Bliss said while glaring daggers at the mare.

"Simple," she said as she looked back to her friends. "Quartz, how much food do we have stored at home?"

Quartz, a Unicorn mare with a light gray coat and mane, smiled as she levitated up a notebook. "Well, we have enough for ourselves to last two weeks if we rationed it. But I fear that wouldn't be enough for us and those humans, if that's what you're planning, Sarge."

Nails gave a sharp nod as she turned back to Bliss, "With our food combined with what ever you can scrap together, I think that'll be enough. Don't you think?"

"And where did that food come from, hm?" Bliss asked, leaning towards her. "I doubt you just happened to have it laying around."

"Don't worry about it," she laughed as she patted him on the shoulder. "Now, if you want all that food, all you have to do is let us go with you to meet the humans."

Bliss bit his bottom lip, "You just don't give up, do you..." he let out a irritated sigh as he shook his head. "Fine! Go get this mysterious store of food you have and I'll gather the rest. We leave as soon as the sun sets."

"You heard him," Nails called out as she turned to her squad of ponies. "All of you head back to the house and start gathering all of our gear." She turned to the only Pegasus in the group, "Howling Wind, I want you to look over all of our armor and weapons and make sure it is ready."

Howling Wind gave a salute as he shot off, leaving just Nails and Bliss.

"Why did I run for Mayor..." Bliss groaned as he turned and walked back to the ponies who had been gathering the food.

Nails only smiled as she brushed her mane out of her face. Things were about to get interesting again.

ooo000<^>000ooo

Loric watched Wyntir sweep Honey Pie off of her hooves yet again, causing the little filly to fall to the ground and drop her stick that she'd been using as a sword. And just like the previous times, Ink Slinger made her protest known about how he shouldn't be so rough on her since she's still just a filly. Honey Pie, however, just stood back up and picked her 'sword' back in her mouth and stared defiantly up at Wyntir.

"Don't rely solely on your eyes, Pie," Wyntir instructed as he raised his stick sword up and stared down at her. "You have to keep your eyes on my eyes and watch my movements at the same time. But never look directly at my sword, because the moment you do, I can predict your movements and cause you to react to a feint. Got that?"

"Yeah!" she called out around the stick in her mouth.

"Good, now come at me again, and pay attention to where you place your hooves," Wyntir commanded, lowering himself a bit.

They'd been at this for the last four hours, and somehow Loric had been able to sit and watch the entire thing without getting bored. It was actually rather entertaining to watch a 6'4 muscular man try and teach a roughly three foot tall pony how to fight.

During the whole session, Ink Slinger kept trying to ask Loric personal questions, but he kept giving her made up answers. She actually believed him for a time, until she asked him about his early life and he told her he use to be a hamster. Well, she actually did believe him for a time, but she eventually put two and two together and shredded all of her notes she had taken on him and threw them into the little fire they had in front of themselves.

Kara, however, had been keeping herself busy with practicing some kind of magic. But Loric had no idea what exactly she was doing, because every time he or Ink tried to talk to her, she hushed them.

"Eep!" Honey Pie yelped as she ducked under a unexpected swing of Wyntir's 'sword'. She stood up and spit her stick out of her mouth and stared up at the large man. "You said you were only going to defend yourself, not go on the offensive!"

"Don't trust anything your opponent says," Wyntir replied, picking up her stick and holding it out to her. "But do you know what you just did?"

She stared up at him blankly for a few moments before her eyes widened and a smile spread across her face. "I dodged you!"

"You dodged an unexpected attack," he corrected, a smile on his face as well. "Day one of training and you're already showing more promise than I did on my first month of training. Are you sure you haven't had any previous training?"

"Nope!" she said proudly, a large grin on her face. "I'm self taught!"

"Well, that's both impressive and bad," he said, causing her smile to falter. "By that, I mean people who are self taught usually get in the habit of doing things a certain way, and that may not be the correct way. That's why it's always better to be taught by someone with experience."

"So I may not be able to actually become a great swordsmare?" she asked, her lower lip trembling.

Wyntir rubbed his chin as he looked down at her, "Depends. If you're willing to listen to everything I say and accept everything I say as truth, then I might be able to help you get rid of any habits you might have accidentally taught yourself."

Honey Pie stood up straight and placed her hoof over her chest in a salute, just as Wyntir had taught her, and gave a firm nod. "I will!"

"Then there's hope for you yet to become a great swordsmare," Wyntir said as he held her stick out to her again and she took it.

"Aww, she's adorable!" Ink Slinger said as she wrote something into her notebook.

"I guess," Loric replied, finally turning away from the two and looked over to Kara.

"You can't not think that precious little thing is not adorable," she pressed, staring at Loric's back.

"That precious little thing is being trained how to kill others, ya know?" he countered, sounding a bit annoyed.

"She'll never do it, she's just training for the novelty of it," Ink Slinger said confidently. But she second guessed herself and looked back at the pair as they were already back to training. "Um... right?"

"Look, Miss Horny Pony," Loric snapped, staring back at the Unicorn. "Leave me alone for five minutes, okay? I know we're the only two not doing anything, but that doesn't mean I want to talk!"

She regarded him, an eyebrow raised. "Oh well excuse me, Mr. Grumpy Pants."

Loric chose not to acknowledge her and instead turned back to watch Kara.

Kara, however, was no longer messing around with her ball of light and was facing his general direction. A look of displeasure on her face.

"What?" Loric asked, spreading his hands out.

"What's wrong, Loric?" she asked calmly, getting a glare from Loric that she couldn't see.

He began to deny anything was wrong, but instead exhaled loudly and shook his head. "If you must know, I'm hungry. It's that damn simple!"

"And you get like this when hungry?" she asked, a coy smile on her face. "Oh you poor thing."

"Hey now," Loric said, a stern look on his face. "I'm not up to dealing with you right now."

Kara giggled and began to say something, but Loric suddenly hushed them. "Whoa, one second... I hear something."

"You do?" Ink Slinger asked, her ears twisting and turning, trying to pick up what ever he is hearing.

"Yeah, it sounds like something moving through the forest at a slow pace.... Hm..." he stood up and strolled towards the door.

As he reached the door and looked out, he thought he saw a flash of color down the path. But the darkness of the forest was hiding whatever was approaching from sight.

Wyntir and the others came up behind him and watched the path as what ever it was neared them.

Just as they were starting to get worried, a pony stepped out of the darkness and into the moonlight. The pony appeared to be a light blue Earth Pony stallion, and he had what appeared to be a few bags slung over his back. Upon seeing them, the pony waved and walked forward, followed by a few more ponies and a large cart.

"Stop right there," Wyntir commanded as he walked around Loric and out into the moonlight, standing a few yards away from the stallion.

"Oh, Mr. Caslin! It's me, Bliss! I've brought the food!" Bliss called out from the front of the cart as he helped pull it.

Bliss and the two other ponies brought the cart to a stop in front of Wyntir and began to unhitch themselves.

"That's good," he replied, looking at the other ponies, who seemed to be carrying bags of their own. "And what about these ponies? Why are they all here?"

"We're here because I'd like to have a word with you," a rust colored mare said as she boldly walked up to Wyntir and looked up at him. She was slightly taller than the other ponies, but only slightly.

Wyntir regarded her and her muscular build, but he just frowned at her. "This better not involve you staying here. We already have enough ponies here as it is."

The mare smiled confidently up at him, "I think you'll be willing to make an exception for us, big guy."

"No," Wyntir stated, looking up at Bliss, who was looking rather uncomfortable. "Take these ponies back with you when you leave."

He started to turn away from the mare, but she suddenly grabbed his wrist and jerked him back around to look at her. "What? You think just because we're smaller than you that we're useless?"

"Not at all," Wyntir replied as he pulled his hand out of her grip, slightly confused on how her hooves had even been able to grip him in the first place. "We just don't need anymore liabilities around here."

"I see," she said as she looked back at her companions and smiled. She looked back at Wyntir and held out a hoof, pointing up at him. "Then I challenge you to a friendly duel. No weapons. First one to fall down loses."

Wyntir stared back at her with an unamused look on his face. But, after a moment, he sighed. "Fine. I can't turn down a challenge while in front of my maiden." He looked back to Kara. "Kara, can you cast a light spell for me?"

She gave a single nod as she held out her tailsmen and chanted a few words. A moment later a small ball of light formed in front of her and slowly began to raise up above their heads, illuminating the area around them.

"Thank you," he said as he looked back to the mare before him. "Start when ever you are ready."

Nails smirked as she dashed towards the large man, acting as if she was going to tackle him, but just as she feinted a jump, she dashed to his side and tried to ram him. To her amazement, he did not fall for her feint and back stepped away from her, causing her to stumble. This annoyed her but she didn't let it faze her as she twisted her body and delivered a kick with her back legs. Wyntir just barely caught her back legs as they shot towards him, this surprised the mare as he let out a loud grunt as he raised her into the air and with all of his power threw her over his head by her hindlegs.

He twisted around to watch the mare fly towards the ground and just barely save herself as she landed on all fours, her mane now covering her entire face. Without a second of hesitation, she sprang forward, acting as if she was going to feint again. But just when he thought she was going to change directions, she continued forward. This caught him off guard as she slammed into him with enough force to knock the air out of him. He felt himself starting to fall backwards, but he wasn't about to be felled that easily.

With reflexes that spoke of years of training, his hands shot out and grabbed the mare around her midsection while she was still pressing against him with her head, and threw her sideways, righting himself as he did so. This caught the mare off guard as she went flying through the air and rag dolled across the ground and disappeared into the bushes.

Wyntir stood up straight and waited for her to returned, expecting her to come out angry and ready for round two. But instead, the mare walked out of the forest and casually walked up to him and held out her hoof.

"Now that was impressive," she said with a large smile, blood pouring down her face from a few cuts she'd received from sliding cross the ground and the bushes.

He looked at her hoof and her beaming smile, a neutral look on his face. He reached out and shook her hoof. "That last maneuver you performed was very impressive. You managed to fool me into thinking you were going to feint and come at me from another angle."

"What can I say?" she smirked. "I just know my stuff." She looked back at the ponies who had followed her and jerked her head to the cart. "Unload all of the food and prepare to head back."

"I thought you wanted a word with us," Wyntir said coolly, getting a raised eyebrow from the mare.

"I did, but I lost," a smile played across her face. "Or are you saying you still want to hear what we have to say regardless of how our fight ended?"

"Perhaps," Wyntir replied as he turned to head back into the building. "You can just bring all of that inside, I'll show you where to place it."

As Wyntir walked by, Loric frowned and looked at Kara and Ink Slinger. "I'm starting to think his tough guy attitude is just for show."

"How do you mean?" Ink Slinger asked, her head cocked to the side.

"He let you stay for starters," Loric said coldly, causing her ears to lower a bit. "And now he's letting those ponies in, and I'm pretty sure we all know they're wanting to stay."

"He has his reasons," Kara said with a small smile, but didn't elaborate on what she meant.

Loric shook his head at her as he walked towards the cart, "I'm starting to get annoyed with all of your mysterious crap."

"Um... is he going to be a danger to us?" Ink Slinger asked in a worried voice.

"We'll just have to wait and see," Kara said a bit to cheerfully as she slowly made her way back inside.

Ink Slinger stood there, scratching her head as one of the ponies began to walk past her with a crate of food on its back. "You have no idea what you're getting yourself into," she warned as the Earth Pony Mare walked past. A look of confusion spread across her face, but Ink just chuckled. "You'll see what I mean."

ooo000<^>000ooo

With all of the food placed off in the corner, and with Loric going through it like a mad dog, Wyntir, Honey Pie, and the seven ponies sat down in a circle around the little fire to talk. Kara and Ink Slinger sat off to the side, letting Wyntir handle everything. Bliss had taken Wyntir's list and was already on his way back to Maresaw, promising to do his best to get most, if not all, of the items listed.

"Alright," Wyntir began, getting the attention of the seven ponies around him. "What exactly do you want to talk about?"

"Not so much talk about," Nails began, having already introduced everyone. "More of a request."

Wyntir crossed his arms, "I'll stop you right there. I'm not willing to hear any request at the moment, especially if it's what I think it is."

"Now you just wait one moment and let me speak," Nails snapped, annoyance clear on her face.

He looked her over and nodded, "Alright, speak."

"That's better," she said as she brushed her mane out of her face. "First off, before I even make any kind of request, I think its fair that you know who we are, or were." At the nod of each of her companions she continued. "We use to be apart of Princess Celestia's army."

This caused Wyntir to tense up, but he didn't react in any other way, so she continued.

"Myself and my squad here," she gestured to the ponies around herself, "Were apart of the Vanguard for the Grand Army. The First Vanguard, as our company was called. I don't want to brag, but we were the best of the Vanguard Corps."

"Were?" Wyntir questioned, probing for an explanation.

She nodded, looking a bit sad. "We've always suffered heavy loses, but that's expected. But at the Battle of Maresaw we were all but wiped out. Both the First Vanguard and the Second Vanguard. That was half of the entire Vanguard Corps lost in a single battle." She waved her hoof around the circle, "Those ponies you see before you are the only surviving Vanguard from the Battle of Maresaw."

"So you deserted your post, am I correct?" Wyntir asked, an eyebrow arched as he listened.

"That's the gist of it," she said followed by a lighthearted chuckle. "I know, it looks bad. We basically ran away from battle. But you have to understand something," she leaned forward and held Wyntir's intense gaze. "We realized something during that battle, something that caused us to desert."

"And what was that?" Wyntir asked. Honey Pie leaned forward as well, her eyes wide as she listened.

Nails furrowed her eyebrows as she said, "Celestia doesn't care about anything else other than winning this war. She LET Maresaw be almost completely destroyed, along with its citizens, and she didn't even try and provide them with any kind of aid. As soon as the battle was over, she ordered all troops to pursue the enemy. Not once did she stop and consider the wounded and dead. I was among the wounded, so was everyone you see here with me. If it wasn't for Bliss and the ponies of Maresaw, we would have died."

"I take it your beloved Princess Celestia is no longer worthy of your respect," Loric said as he walked up, a sack filled with fruits held in one hand and a apple in the other. "Sounds like she's become quite the tyrant, wouldn't you say?"

Nails bit her lip at this, but she wasn't the one to answer.

"Normally, I would buck you into a wall for saying something like that," Star Trail, the other Earth Pony mare, said as she regarded Loric. "But, I have to agree with you. It's crossed my mind many times since that day, I just don't want to accept it."

"I know how you feel," Quartz said with a solemn look on her face. "I know none of us have wanted to talk about it, but I know we've all had the same thoughts. This war, along with the events regarding her sister, have not fared well with our Princess. I fear that its probably changed her for the worst."

"My thoughts exactly," Royal Riff, one of the Earth Pony stallions, added with a nod. "I've been thinking about it more and more lately, and after recent events, I've come to my own conclusion. And I think we're all on the same page here, so I'll just say it. Princess Celestia is nothing but a shadow of her former self, barely any better than King Sombra at this point. No, she's not going to enslave anypony, but she's treating us all like toys that she can just throw away without any remorse. Have any of you ever seen her cry over the death of another pony lately?"

"Well, I've heard her get mad about her 'little ponies' being killed, but to be honest, it's always come off as a spoiled brat who had one of their toys taken away. She treated us like objects that she owned, and not like the loyal subjects we were." Howling Wind lowered his head and looked at the fire, a small sigh escaping his lips.

Valiant Heart shook his head and used his magic to move his mane out of his face. "I think we should make it official. We've all thought about it and mentioned it, but I think we need to say it aloud and mean it." He looked around at his comrades and smiled. "And I'll be honest, I already feel better. Fuck Celestia." He held his hoof out, just above the fire.

"Fuck Celestia," Royal Riff and Star Trail said at the same time, putting their hooves over Valiant's.

"Yeah! Fuck Celestia!" Howling Wind cheered as he added his hoof to the mix, followed by Break, who could only smile and nod.

"This has been a long time coming. Fuck Celestia!" Quartz said happily as she placed her hoof over her friends.

Nails looked at her friends as they looked at her, all smiling confidently and proudly. "Finally!" She slammed her hoof onto theirs and declared, "Fuck Celestia!"

They threw their hooves into the hair and laughed. Their moment of joy was ended as both Loric and Wyntir began to slow clap.

"Bravo," Loric said in a dull voice. "You've finally woken up and said screw you to a tyrant. No really, bravo."

Wyntir didn't look to impressed either. "What is your request?"

The group of friends looked slightly taken aback, but Nails forced a smile back onto her face. "Well, we were hoping you'd let us... join you?"

"Say that again," Wyntir said, raising an eyebrow. "And sound like you mean it."

She blinked a few times before her confidence came back and she stood up and looked him right into his eyes. "We want to join you!"

"Are you sure?" Wyntir asked, looking at Loric.

"There's a pretty good chance everyone who follows us will die," Loric added, crossing his arms.

"Just a chance?" Howling Wind asked, rolling his eyes.

"Tell me something we don't know," Nails replied, also rolling her eyes.

"Well if you're sure," Wyntir held out his hand. "Then it's your funeral."

"As if!" Nails laughed as she took his hand in her hoof and gave it a firm shake.

Honey Pie ran up and held her hoof out to be shaken by Nails as well. "Welcome aboard! I'm Wyntir's squire, so that means I rank above all of you!"

Nails just chuckled as she shook the little fillies hoof, "I look forward to working under you, ma'am."

Honey Pie smiled up happily at the mare as she moved to shake everyone's hooves.

"Is this a good idea?" Loric quietly asked, watching the seven ex-soldier ponies talking to the young filly.

"We'll see," Wyntir replied as he let out a sigh. "I'm going to organize the food, you can do what ever."

"Most of it is okay, but they put hay and weeds in there for some reason," Loric warned as he followed after the slightly taller man.

Wyntir merely shrugged as he reached the crates. He'd just have to sort it all out himself.

ooo000<^>000ooo

"Nine ponies and three humans..."

"Is that a problem?"

"That depends."

The three figures slowly backed into the forest, leaving the lone building and its inhabitants behind.

Complicated Relationships

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Chapter 9
Nine days later

"Wake up, Wyntir!" Honey Pie yelled as she jumped up onto Wyntir's bed and began to bounce all around him. "Loric and Nails needs you!"

Wyntir groaned as he sat up and threw the covers off of himself, "Is something wrong?" He climbed out of his makeshift bed and began to pull on his pants and shirt.

"I dunno, but they woke me up and told me to come and get ya!" she replied, still bouncing up and down on his bed.

With a sigh, Wyntir put on his belt with his longsword attached to it and walked for the doorway to his room. Upon moving the fabric that acted as a door aside, he stepped out and looked around.

Rooms of various sizes were scattered around the inside of the building, a few small ones and a few larger ones. Each one served a specific purpose. Most of the small ones were just bedrooms for everyone who lived in the building, just nine ponies and three humans. The larger rooms had been built mainly for storage, but the largest room, which took up the entire north end of the building, was the common area where everyone usually spent all of their free time.

Wyntir had to admit, he was impressed what they could do with some wood and a few thousand nails. His original plan had just been to find a place for Kara to hide so he could go deal with this Sombra guy, but after the other ponies began to show up he's had to rethink his actions. In the span of nine days they had turned the large building into a mini community. Sure, it was just the twelve of them, but there was always something going on that needed his attention.

He looked around, but noticed it was still rather dark with just the faintest of light coming in through the windows. He couldn't see anyone else moving around though.

"They went outside," Honey Pie said from behind him, now laying down on the bed.

"Thanks," he turned and began to walk for the front door.

On his way there, he stopped to check on Kara, who was in the room closest to his. But upon peeking into her room, he couldn't see her. Her bed appeared to be made up, so he wasn't too worried.

Things had fallen into sort of a routine for him, with his mornings being filled with his normal work out and training, which now included both Honey Pie and every one of the ex-soldiers. While his afternoons were spent either building new additions to their 'home' or fixing anything that required it. Followed by more training and preparing everyone's dinners. Luckily, he had help when it came to preparing food in the form of Ink Slinger, who apparently had no problem helping prepare meat. Granted, she gagged every time, but she still powered through it.

As he neared the front door, which now had a large wooden gate built into it, he saw that it was halfway open. He frowned, as he had told everyone multiple times to keep it shut at all times. He gripped the gate and opened it further so he could step outside and came face to face with Loric.

"We have a problem," he immediately said as he turned away from Wyntir and walked further outside, heading for Nails, who was standing a few yards away and staring into the forest.

Wyntir narrowed his eyes and followed after him, looking around cautiously. "What do you mean 'problem'?" It was hard to see anything, as the sun was just barely up and the forest beyond was still covered in darkness in most places.

"The pony on night duty last night kept hearing someone talking further out in the forest, and just recently Nails here says she saw another human walking around the side of the building," Loric informed him, still looking out into the darkness.

"Another human?" Wyntir asked, his surprise clear in his voice. He then glanced down at Nails, "Are you sure?"

"That I am," she confirmed as she tore her eyes away from the forest and looked up at him. "I relieved Royal Riff two hours ago and began to hear the same thing he had been hearing. During my last patrol around the building I know I saw a human figure step around the opposite corner of the building, but they were gone before I could catch up and round the building. I thought it was either you or Loric at first, but after heading inside and talking to Loric, I was able to confirm that it was neither him nor you. So that just leaves the question..."

"Who was it..." Loric finished, turning to face Wyntir as well. "What should we do?"

Wyntir began to rub the stubble on his chin, thinking. "Well, I don't like the idea of anyone sneaking around here that's not one of us. I'd say we perform a search of the area, but I'm pretty sure who ever it was is probably long gone by now. If they were here and didn't contact us, then they were here for a reason..." His eyes widened as a thought entered his mind. "Where's Kara?"

"Relax," Loric said with a roll of his eyes. "She's in the common room with Ink Slinger, doing what? I have no idea."

"Good," Wyntir said, his fear instantly dissolving. "So they were here for another reason then..."

Loric nodded as he began to adjust the straps on his chest and arms. "Yep, and I think I'll just head out and check the area real fast. Alone."

"I can wake up the others to help," Nails offered, starting to head for the front door.

"Nah," Loric said with a wide grin as he pulled up his bandana. "I got this. If I'm not back by time the sun is at its highest, then assume the worst." Before they could say another word, he took off for the forest, disappearing into the darkness.

"He's going to get himself killed one day." Wyntir sighed and turned to head back inside.

Nails watched after him till she couldn't see him anymore and shook her head. Without a word she followed Wyntir inside as well.

ooo000<^>000ooo

"Is that so?" Kara asked with a smile as she leaned towards where Ink Slinger sat, which was right across from her.

"Mm-hmm, but that was the last time they allowed me to study Diamond Dogs," Ink giggled as she finished up a story about her days as a student. "But, that's enough about me, lets hear about you."

"There's not much to tell," Kara replied as she sat back in her chair. "What do you want to know?"

Ink Slinger tapped her quill against her chin as she thought of a question to ask. "Hm, well you can tell me about your childhood. That's always a great place to start."

"My childhood?" Kara asked, a frown suddenly appearing on her face. "If you mean childhood in the normal sense, then I never had a childhood. I've been forced to be a woman for as long as I can remember."

"What?" Ink Slinger asked, clearly not understanding what she means. "I have no idea what you mean, Kara."

"To start, I'm only twenty two." Kara folded her hands in front of herself and sighed, "From the moment I was born the church has dictated every aspect of my life. In our culture, being born blind and female is a sign of great importance, because it means we were 'chosen'."

"Chosen for what?" Ink Slinger asked, writing down what was said into her notebook.

"Before I say that, I have to make sure you understand our religion and Carim as a whole. To put it bluntly, our society breeds saints. The Church raises up maidens while the nobles raise the knights to serve the maidens in the hopes of that maiden ascending to godliness."

"So what you're saying is your culture is based around making gods?" Ink asked, scratching her head with her quill as she tried to contemplate the idea of gods being created.

"That's the basic idea, yes," Kara said as she stared off into nothingness. "It's rather hard to explain, but it works off of belief and faith. Every maiden can become a saint, but only a rare few out of every generation can become a god."

"So you can become a god?" Ink asked as she stared at Kara in disbelief.

A sad smile graced Kara's face as she shook her head, "Me? Oh no, I'm a failure. The church lost all faith in me after I failed to uphold their standards; The knight who had served me since the age of two even lost faith in me. He even tried to kill me so he didn't have to face the shame of serving a failure."

"That's awful!" Ink Slinger exclaimed, holding a hoof to her face.

"It's just how things are back home," Kara said with a shake of her head.

Ink Slinger composed herself and put a hoof on Kara's leg, "Well, you're not a failure, I mean look at you! I've heard you say on many occasions that you and Wyntir were on a mission to help you become a Firekeeper before you were brought here. I may not know what that is, but it sounds very important to me!"

"It's not, actually," Kara deadpanned, a frown on her face. "A Firekeeper is actually one of the lowest forms a maiden can become. Granted, they are very important, but no maiden would choose to become one on her own free will. To be a Firekeeper, one must give up everything, even their lives. It's usually the last stop for a failing maiden, and some can't even do that..." A single tear rolled down her face, but she didn't acknowledge it. "I don't want to do it... but I have to."

"Why?" Ink asked, tears in her eyes as well after seeing how sad Kara had become.

"Because it is my duty as a maiden of Carim, and to Wyntir, to do something important with my life! It may be a foolish reason, but I will not let him down!" she all but screamed, her emotions finally coming out after years of being bottled up. "I may not be able to become a saint or a god, but the least I can do is be somewhat useful for someone else!"

Ink crawled forward and embraced the crying woman in a hug. She didn't say anything at first, just letting Kara cry into her shoulder. As soon as she began to calm down, she pulled back and looked into her milky eyes. "You don't have to do something like that to be useful." Kara began to protest, but she stopped her with a hoof to the mouth. "You may have been raised to think this way, but you know what I said is true. You do not have to sacrifice yourself to be useful."

Kara wiped her face with her sleeve and smiled a bit. "Thank you, Ink Slinger. That's something I've needed to hear aloud for a long time."

The door to the common room slowly opened and Wyntir peeked his head in and looked at them. "Ah, sorry ladies, I was just making sure you were alright. Do you need anything?"

Kara smiled in the direction of the door and shook her head, "No, we're fine. But thank you, Wyntir."

"Of course," he said with a slight bow as he pulled back through the door and closed it.

"So," Ink Slinger began as Kara looked back to her. "Is it alright if I ask about how you and Wyntir met? I know you said he's your loyal Knight and all, but how did that come to be? If you don't mind telling me that is..."

A troubled look fell upon her face as she began to chew her lip. "I don't know... I don't like talking behind Wyntir's back, it's disloyal and rude."

"It's okay, you don't have to tell me," Ink said as she sat back and began to write in her notebook again.

After a moment Kara reached forward and put her hand on Ink's notebook. "I'll tell you a little bit, but you have to promise not to write any of it down."

Ink Slinger smiled and slowly closed her book and put it aside. "Of course, I promise I will not write down anything you say about him."

Kara still looked troubled as she sat back in her chair. "I won't tell you anything personal about him, because its not my place, but I will tell you about how we met." She turned her face away from Ink and stared off into space again. "I already told you about the first knight who served me trying to kill me, but I left out a few things."

Ink Slinger scooted closer to her as she listened intently.

"I had just turned thirteen when the Church told me I was a helpless cause, and my Knight, Sir Cole Alberdan, became very angry with me. He was a very violent man, but he had never once said or done a foul thing to me in his eleven years serving me. I trusted him completely, as he had kept me safe and happy the entire time. However, the moment he received the news of the Church deeming me hopeless, he began to scream at me. He screamed and cried for what could have been hours before he stormed off and left me alone in our home. From what I have been told, he went straight to the slums where all of the disgraced and lost Knights lived and began to cause trouble. He ranted about how his maiden had failed him and that he had wasted his life on her; even going as far to say that he wished she were dead. He then stormed off and returned to our shared home, where he immediately began to let out his anger on me."

Ink put a hoof on Kara's leg as she spoke, tears in both of their eyes.

"Luckily, one of the Knights had followed him home and intervened before he could do any real damage. The two of them fought, unarmed, and destroyed the house in the process. But the knight who had come to my rescue was victorious and my former Knight was left in a bloody, lifeless heap on the floor. It's as horrifying as it sounds, yes."

"It was Wyntir, the one who came to your aid, wasn't it?" Ink asked, already knowing the obvious answer.

"Yeah, it was," she replied, a faint smile on her face as she remembered that specific part of that day. "He'd only been twenty three, and he was able to overpower a Elite Knight who had had a much better up bringing than him. He's been by my side ever since that day, even after all of the hardships we've had to face; It didn't even faze him when I was told I had to become a Firekeeper. He's ferociously loyal, and has never said a single harsh word to me. He's like a father, both protective and caring."

"So, there's no romance between the two of you?" Ink Slinger asked, it was an answer she just had to have after seeing how he acted towards her.

"Romance?" A giggle escaped her lips at this. "Wyntir doesn't see me in a romantic light, I can assure you of that. Romance and Wyntir just do not match, and if you knew him you'd understand what I mean. Too me, Wyntir is my friend and my Knight. And to him, I am his maiden, the one who he both loves and cares for."

"Sounds like a bit of a romance to me," Ink Slinger commented, but at Kara's raised eyebrow, she added. "But if you say there is no romance there, then I believe you. But knowing that, then the way you two act together is very strange... if this was a book then you two would be like the two main romance interest, being brought up not knowing you each love each other, only to have it revealed near the end that you two are a perfect match."

"It sounds more like you have read to many books," Kara teased, a smile on her face. She then became serious as she leaned forward, closer to Ink's face. "If I tell you something, you have to promise you will never tell anyone else."

"I've already made that promise," Ink said, but at seeing a frown start to form on Kara's face, she sighed. "But I promise, again, to not tell anyone anything you are about to tell me."

"Thank you," Kara said with a pleasant smile as she put a hand on one of Ink's hooves. "Wyntir has been by my side for the last nine years, and he is a wonderful and kind person once you get to know him. But," she paused for a moment. "He has done things, most of which are too horrible for me to repeat. I am not his first maiden, nor am I his second, and the stories revolving around those two are horrific and scaring. I will not recount them, that is up to him to decide to tell or not, but I bring them up for a good reason. No matter what you see him do, or hear about what he has done, you have to remember that he is a good person. He only does what he has to do, and while it might seem bad, it usually has to be done. If you are going to try and talk to him, like I know you will, you have to know this. Wyntir is a frightening being to behold, and is a outcast among the other Knights of Carim."

Ink gulped as she listened. "Ah.. um, I don't know how to feel about that..."

"You can take it anyway you want, but do not judge him till you know him, that is all I ask," Kara said as seriously as she could. "Please."

Ink looked around the large room, gathering her thoughts. "I can try, that's all I can promise, Kara."

"That's all I ask of you, thank you." Kara sat back in her chair and put her hands over her face. "Wow, I have never said any of this aloud to anyone before..."

"I'm sorry for making you speak about your past," Ink apologized, her ears flat against her head.

"Don't be, I feel a lot better inside now that I've told someone else. Thank you, Ink Slinger." She reached out with one of her hands and began to scratch Ink behind the ear.

Ink Slinger just smiled as she turned her head to the closest window and stared out at the forest, barely lit by the raising sun. It was going to take her some time to process all of the information she'd been told, especially regarding Wyntir, as Kara's final statement had left many things to speculation. Which is not always a good thing.

ooo000<^>000ooo

Nails let out a sigh as she stood out side of the building, watching the path that Loric had run down seven hours prior. Above her the sun hung at its highest, signaling that it was midday.

"Damn fool indeed..." she murmured as she began to head inside to inform the others that he hadn't returned yet. The sound of a twig breaking caught her attention and she turned back to the forest, but no one was there.

"Loric?" She called out as she took a few cautious steps towards the forest. Just as she was halfway between the building and the bushes, a figure leaned out of the bushes.

"Oh shit!" she yelled as she started to react, but it was too late. A unseen force lifted her off of the ground and flung her backwards, sending her through the open door and into the building, causing her to crash into one of the wooden walls.

"What's going on?!" Wyntir bellowed as he came sprinting towards her as she slowly drug herself to her hooves.

Panting, she looked up as he and her friends came to her aid. "Unicorns, in the forest."

"Crap," Wyntir exclaimed as he changed course and darted into his room.

"Are they soldiers?" Valiant Heart asked as they reached her and began to help her stand up fully.

"I'd wager they are," Nails said as she hissed in pain as she put pressure on her left foreleg.

"What's happening?" Ink Slinger called out as she ran their way.

Nails looked at her and pointed her hoof at her. "You! Go back to where ever you came from and watch over Kara. We may be under attack."

"Under attack?!" Ink screamed, but she listened to the older mare and turned around and ran back the way she had come.

Wyntir emerged from his room wearing most of his still damage armor, save for the helmet and leg guards, and sprinted for the door. The ex-soldiers quickly followed him, with Nails trying to ignore the pain in her hoof.

"Who's out here?!" Wyntir called out as soon as he was outside, looking ever which way.

He didn't have to wait long for his answer as a single Unicorn stepped out of the bushes, clad in purple and blue armor, a sword levitating next to itself.

"You are all under arrest for murder and treason against Princess Celestia and all of Equestria!" the Unicorn yelled. It then looked at the seven ponies and glared, "And for desertion and the betrayal of all of Equestria!"

"Oh jeez," Wyntir said as he facepalmed. "More of you toy soldiers?"

"That's not just a 'toy soldier', Wyntir," Star Trailer warned as she and the others dropped into fighting poses, only armed with short swords and knives. "That's Commander Shining Armor, one of Equestria's Elite Four."

"So?" Wyntir asked, raising his large sword into a ready stance. "I can handle him."

Shining Armor held a hoof to his mouth and let out a ear piercing whistle. Almost immediately armed Unicorns began to step out of the bushes all around them, completely surrounding them and trapping them against the building.

"Well, that's just lovely," Wyntir said with a frown as he widened his stance a bit.

"I ask that you put down your weapons and surrender peacefully," Shining Armor yelled. He then gestured to all of the Unicorns around him, "We have been searching these woods for the last week, and we are not keen on taking you by force. So I ask again, please come peacefully."

To answer him, Wyntir suddenly threw his hand forward, his tailsmen held firmly in said hand, and sent a lighting spear flying straight at Shining.

Shining Armor reacted faster than one would have expected as he jumped to the side, letting the bolt fly past him and hit the pony behind him. The pony let out a dreadful scream as he fell forward, smoke curling up off of its twitching and charred body.

"You..." Shining began as he looked back to Wyntir with hate filled eyes. "Take them!"

All of the Unicorns let out a battle cry as they raised their spears and swords and charged forward, using their magic to shield their fronts as they did so.

"Retreat into the house, now!" Wyntir commanded as he held his ground. The ponies around him didn't need any more prompting as they quickly dashed back to the building.

As the horde of Unicorns closed in on him, he slammed his sword into the ground next to himself and held his tailsmen in both hands. Just as they were within reach of him, a huge shock wave burst outward, sending all who were caught in it flying backwards with broken bones and horns.

Too followed up, he slammed his tailsmen into the ground, sending lighting along the ground and into any within reach. This caused any who were still standing to back up, as the devastating attack had really done a number on their forces.

Wyntir quickly stood up and began to back up towards the door way as the Unicorns around him very carefully moved towards him. A faint aura surrounded him and froze him in place, but he was able to easily struggle out of its grasp and keep moving backwards. But just as he reached the door a rose colored aura surrounded him and began to drag him back towards the Unicorns.

This aura was much stronger than the other one, and Wyntir was unable to fight against it in his current state.

"Hey, magic is unfair!" Honey Pie yelled from the door way as she held Loric's pistol, which he apparently left behind, and fumbled with the trigger as she pointed it in Shining Armor's general direction.

"Little filly!" he called out, not knowing the danger of the little device she held clumsily in her hooves. "Step away from them! They are dangerous and will hurt you if you-"

A loud bang rang out as she finally managed to fire the pistol, sending a bullet flying straight for Shining Armor. The bullet blew right through his tail, cutting away a large chunk of it right near the base. His focused wavered and Wyntir was able to break free of the aura, and he immediately struck out with his large sword, cleaving the heads off of two Unicorns who had began to try and restrain him.

He hopped backwards and picked up Honey Pie as she squirmed and laughed at the pony she had shot at. He ducked around the corner of the door and slammed the gate closed, he then collapsed in exhaustion, the Miracles he had performed had taken to much out of him.

"Are you okay?" Nails asked as she placed a hoof on his shoulder.

"Yeah, someone give me some meat and water, fast," he let out a heavy breath. "I pushed myself to much in a short amount of time, I almost burnt myself out..."

"Here you go!" Honey Pie said as she held up some fried rabbit meat and a waterskin filled with lukewarm water.

He looked at her, wondering how she got them so fast, but he waved the thought off as he grabbed the items and devoured them.

"That was the Miracles you've told us about, wasn't it?" Valiant asked, fully intrigued after the display of magic. "That's far more effective than any combat spells I or any other Unicorn knows."

"Yeah, they're pretty useful..." Wyntir replied, more interested in the food than in talking. "Those are just the pure Miracles, the dark ones are far more devastating."

"You'll have to show us a few of these dark Miracles then," Valiant said with a smile.

"Never," Wyntir skimpily stated, giving him a hard glare. "I will not show you any form of dark magic, so do not ask again."

With bulging and surprised eyes, Valiant nodded his agreement.

"What are we going to do about them?" Nails asked as the sounds of crying and yelling could be heard just outside the door.

"We'll figure that out as soon as I finish here," Wyntir said as he stuffed the last of the meat into his mouth and finished off the water.

"That was quick thinking out there kid," Howling Wind praised as he ruffled up Honey Pie's mane. Break smiled and pounded his chest in agreement.

"Thank you!" Honey Pie said with a huge grin as she hugged Howling Wind. "And thank you, Break," she gave the buff mute a hug, causing him to roll his eyes and his face to turn red.

Wyntir finally stood up, letting out a grunt as he did so. He stood there for a moment, deep in thought before he turned to Valiant and Quartz. "Is there a way to cancel out your magic?"

They looked at each other and shook their heads, but Valiant was the one to answer, "Not a convenient one, we'd have to get our hooves on a Magic Inhibitor spell, and those aren't easy to come by."

"Hm," Wyntir looked at his tailsmen and smirked. He held it up and spoke a few words, causing a light golden glow to encase his body. "Here, try to lift me if you can."

Valiant gave a nod as he reached out with his magic and tried to grab Wyntir, but the moment his magic came into contact with the golden aura around Wyntir a sharp pop rang out and he grabbed his horn. "Oh wow! That hurt... that really truly hurt..."

"Are you alright?" Wyntir asked, looking a bit worried as he had not expected it to hurt Valiant.

"Yep, I'm fine.... just felt like I channeled lighting down my horn is all... I'm just going to lay down for a moment and recover..." he slumped forward, already unconscious.

Everyone was silent for a moment until Nails let out a snort of laughter, "Damn, now that's a bit to useful!"

Wyntir chuckled as he picked up his larger sword and grabbed the door, the golden aura still around him. "I think I'll go show our guest my little trick then."

The moment Wyntir stepped outside, he was met with a sight he had never expected to see. Four men were currently engaged with the Unicorns, each one sporting a different type of weapon and armor.

"Hey, bud!" one of them called out to Wyntir in a hoarse as he dodged the attacks of three Unicorns, two revolvers in his hands. "We'll be with you in just one moment!"

Wyntir watched as the man ducked a poke of one of the spears and fired off both of his pistols in quick succession, dropping all three of his attackers at once.

"Feel free to join in, there's plenty to go around," another one yelled in a deep, raspy voice as they deflected the sword of a Unicorn and suddenly disappeared form sight only to reappear right behind the Unicorn. The man plunged his sword into the neck of the pony and threw it to the side, giving a slight bow as he disappeared again and reappeared next to another pony.

The sounds of a strange pistol being shot drew his attention next as he watched a man, clad in the strangest armor he'd ever seen before, fire a pistol that shot out what appeared to be beams of light at the Unicorns as he agily weaved around the little battlefield, a short sword in his left hand. "Well? You going to help or gawk at us?" His voice sounded like it was being amplified by some kind of device built into his helmet.

"It's alright, Wyntir!" Loric called out as he ran past him, already engaged in the fighting. "They're cool, they work for this King Sombra guy." He weaved around a few ponies and cut them down with ease. "And so far, I'm liking him a lot more than Celestia!"

The entire situation confused Wyntir to no end, but he just shook his head and raised his sword. There would be time for talking as soon as they dealt with the Unicorns.

With a roar of his own, Wyntir entered the fray.

Fallen Equestria

by Kickass222urmom

Prologue

Taken prisoner

A worthy fighter

Maresaw

Morning routine

Round two

Getting settled

History lesson

Brewing Storm

Complicated Relationships