Sins of the Father

by Soren Mercer

First published 9th of June, 2019

Someone's come home to visit, and boy does he have a story to tell

Daddy dearest is back for the first time in a millennia, and he's got some catching up to do. But first, he's got three thousand years to go over and an audience who wants to hear about it.

Good ol' run of the mill "Father of the Princesses" shtick, though with a bit of "Wanderings of a Non-Brony" and some modded Medieval Engineers for good-luck...

Prologue

The Crystal Express rolled into the platform at exactly 16:15 on a crisp Autumn afternoon, a Friday to be specific. While five of the six passenger cars all filed out at an easy, average pace, the passengers in the sixth all hurried out as though the car had been filled to capacity with bees or something. The station guards hadn’t let this go unnoticed, and soon all cautiously armed themselves with their spears lest something dangerous were to appear next.

A single, unassuming pony wearing a black and blue jacket emerged calmly, his sides bare of saddlebags or any indication that anything was wrong in the first place. The pony himself was as white as Her Highness Celestia’s white flanks, and his light blue mane was pulled back out of his shining green eyes so that his relatively average horn was left open for the public to see.

The guards narrowed their eyes at the stallion, yet remained unmoving though loaded to spring into action at a moment’s notice. At closer inspection, the entire right half of the stallion’s body seemed to shimmer in odd patterns as the sun reflected off of… whatever it was that the sun’s light was reflecting off of. Looking past the shine through use of a quick spell, the guards’ eyes fell upon his flanks to get an idea of who they were.

An odd symbol sat on his flank, a triangular shape tipped with circles with lines shooting off at the faces to join to the circles near the end of the points. Through every surface that the lines created, strange glyphs adorned the empty spaces, though they were unintelligible for the moment. The guard eyed him warily as he stood, then shifted where they stood as he moved a step or two forward.

The strange pony stopped and took in his surroundings with a grin before turning back to the car and giving a sharp whistle. The Guards looked back to the door, then blinked in surprise as the strangest group of travelers crawled out of the train carriage.

A dragoness, green in scale and lime on her underbelly dressed in light plate armour. Whatever her plates weren’t covering was covered in a shining blue chain-mail, which clung tightly to her voluptuous curves. There had to have been some magic involved in getting that armour on, since there was absolutely no indication of a seam or latch nor strap. It was as though the chest piece had been wrapped around her and forged into place.

Bright red eyes glared out into the crowd as she seemed to analyze every possible threat, though she smirked when her eyes came to rest on the pair of Equestrian guards equally eyeing her. They were eyes that told stories, stories of wars and battles against impossible odds. Eyes that told the guards that she’d seen things, done things almost too terrible to discuss in polite company, if at all, and yet she smirked. There was power behind those eyes. They were the eyes of a predator in every sense.

The eyes matched the face they were set into, while a slight jingling drew the eyes towards her set of horns, capped in silver with sapphire baubles hooked to them from tiny chains. Two horns came out just behind her ears, while the second pair came out from the top of her head, acting as sentinels. The sharp spines along her head and back shimmered in the light, looking nothing short of menacing.

The next thing to come out of the train was a behemoth of a minotaur. The creature had to bend down almost to the point of getting on his knees so that he could squeeze himself out of the small aperture, his massive hand grasping the wall to help him pull himself out while the entire car squealed in protest under his every movement in protest.

After a moment, the minotaur did manage to pop himself free, and the Guards in the area had to hold back a quick wave of fear as the creature loomed over the party like a giant among hobbits. His arms alone had to have been as big around as the guards themselves and sported an immeasurable number of scars. The scars were so intensive that they almost looked artistic as they prevented natural fur from growing over the rough skin. The rest of the body looked to have been wearing the heaviest armour during whatever fights had occurred, though a great scar ran from his left shoulder all the way down to his right hip, the solitary reminder of a lesson long-forgotten. The body of the Taur was mostly brown in fur, with lighter patches showing where skin was visible and vulnerable.

All he wore for armour were a set of heavy black leather straps which held up the creature’s gargantuan shields. The shields themselves looked like they were heavy enough to crush even the largest of ponies flat, and the large gear-like grooves made the guards wonder what they were used for as they were on the longer, inner edge of the defenses.

A pair of the same bluish-silver metal leggings protected the legs, with similar metal chainmail covering the weak points in the knees and groin. These too, like the dragon’s armor, looked like they’d been forged directly around the taur as not a seam existed to be found and exploited. Following the trend, unlike the dragoness whose feet remained bare and heavily calloused, the Minotaurs hooves had been shod in massive war shoes that rose up the entire wall of the hoof to join to the chain that protected the ankles. The whole get-up looked like it was one singular piece, almost like a work of art, chiseled to his very form like a statue.

A gryphon appeared next, another female by the profile of the face and beak, wearing similar attire to the dragoness. Her chest had been encased in the same mysterious armour, without edges, and was formed to fit her own curves perfectly, highlighting her breasts and stomach muscles which were, admittedly, much smaller than the dragoness’. Still, this did not make her any less desirable to the opposite sex, were any not intimidated by her sheer presence.

“Mother of Oblivion, it’s hot out here.” the gryphoness muttered to herself as she rounded on her friends, showing the back of her slim armour and how it even formed perfectly for her wings to protrude out from under the protection of the chainmail. The meaty edges of her wings were capped with the same metal of the groups’ armour and were honed into fine, razor-sharp edges. Her back was protected by thin metal plates, while her legs were armoured in either plate or chain. How all that armour was light enough to fly in, the guards would never know, but were more than a little interested in finding out about.

A zebra of all things came next, which surprised the Guards if at least a little bit. He walked calmly and quietly, head held high but without the air of superiority that was typically found in the Nobility Guards of Canterlot. His entire body, up to his neck, was done up in the tightly fitting chainmail, making the black and white stripes under the metal seem to glisten and shimmer in the sunlight. His shoes, the only thing that wasn’t chainmail, instead were composed of thin wafers of metal protecting the bunch connected to the chain around his fetlocks.

“Everywhere is going to be hot compared to the Crystal Empire.” The zebra reminded his friend simply, his voice low, calm and collected. “You’ll acclimate soon enough.”

“Yeah, we’ll see.” the gryphoness grumbled back and stretched her arms across her body while the next passenger stepped off, looking anxiously around her surroundings. “Come on Blitz, no one’s gonna bother you here.” The gryphoness urged the one still in the train.

“Easy for you to say Karen, you don’t have the history with Canterlot like I do.” A unicorn mare hissed back, her coat bright red with a pink mane stepped out from the train car, dressed in half-plate metal armour which hid her cutie mark. As seemed to be the fashion, she was covered neck to hoof in the bluish-silver chainmail, although a leather hood sat around her neck in the event she’d need it. Her horn wasn’t anything special, in fact it barely poked out from her forward sweeping mane, a stub of a horn peaked from her mane, but was so miniscule that the guards mistook her for an Earth pony. On her hips she hauled at least six swords on each flank, each one with a different gently glowing gemstone in the pommel, from shining ruby to dark onyx.

“Don’t worry Blitz, you’re under my protection.” the white stallion smirked as he spoke. His voice was somewhat tenor and, while it hinted at his age, it didn’t show in his features. “Besides, with Maddock here with us, I don’t think anypony is going to dare try and stop you.”

The behemoth apparently named Maddock grinned and even went so far as to very gently tap the little pony on the head, as though attempting to pat her without squashing her like a bug.

“Right, yeah, of course.” Blitz mumbled as she seemed to retreat into herself. If she hadn’t been wielding no less than twelve swords total and matching armour, the guards may have mistaken her for a scared civilian taken captive by the group.

“So how long has it been since you’ve been here, Hybrid?” the dragoness approached her friend and rested a claw lightly on his back, making him look up at her with a grin. They apparently shared a telepathic conversation as the female gawked in what must’ve passed for surprise. “You’ve never been here before? Then how’d you know they’re here?”

“We’ll call it a hunch, considering who it is we’re looking for.” Hybrid, the stallion leading the group scoffed cheerfully and turned back to gazing at the city. “I must say, I love what the girls have done with the place. Very… high-end.” he added on as an afterthought before spying the pair of guards eyeing him over just as much. “Ooh, locals!” he announced and promptly trotted towards the pair, a small glint of amusement in his eye.

The entire troupe followed after their leader and, suddenly, the guards began to feel rather uneasy about the imposing squad getting approaching them. Even if they remained jovial and friendly-looking, they were still extremely intimidating; the team seemed to have forgotten entirely that every time Maddock took a step, a small trembling occurred due to always being near him.

“Excuse me sirs, might I borrow a moment of your time?” The stallion requested with a large smile, stopping just before the pair of guards.

“Very well, how can we help you?” The guard on the left responded dutifully, almost drone-like.

“Which way to the castle? I’m here to meet my daughters.” came the response. Perhaps he was related to some of the staff? Maybe a pair of guards? They wondered to themselves.

“I’m sorry sir, but if you’re looking to gain entry into Canterlot Castle, then you must relinquish all weapons you and your group are carrying.” The guard on the right explained, subtly tightening her grip around the shaft of her spear. If they didn’t want to cooperate, the pair of them really didn’t like their chances of winning a fight to disarm them. Not alone, anyways.

“Hmm, that’s going to pose some problems, then.” The face of the stallion dropped in concern for a moment as his eyes darted to the side to stare off into oblivion while he thought. The guards prepared themselves for a fight, and the unicorn on the right prepared to launch a flare into the sky to call for aid should the need arise. “Okay, then I’ll just call my daughters myself from here. If that’s not going to be a problem?”

“I don’t think it should be, no.” the unicorn replied cautiously but kept her tools at the ready regardless. The group moved away at the unicorn’s behest and took up a position in the middle of the station. The guards moved to ask the troupe to conduct their business elsewhere, however they stopped and the flare went up as the companions protectively surrounded the white unicorn who merely sat down on the ground to stare at the concrete.

“Okay, now who’s got my stick?” Hybrid called out. The guardians all seemed to pat themselves down with a hand, hoof or claw while maintaining their barrier before the zebra pulled a thin metal stick from a pocket in his outfit and tossed it back over his shoulder. The maneuver was quite impressive since the zebra and the stallion had their backs to each other, and without even a sound for communication, the stallion caught it with a hoof then settled himself down on the ground to begin carving something into the concrete.

“Sir, please do not vandalise the station or we’ll have to arrest you.” The guard warned as more of his friends galloped in from around town to surround the visitors. The stallion merely ignored the warning and kept drawing, carving something vaguely similar to his cutie mark into the ground before him with a look of pensive concentration. “Sir,” the guard tried again.

“Do not disturb him.” the dragoness warned in reply, crossing her arms over her impressive bust, but otherwise left her weapons on her hips.

“Miss, if he does not cooperate, we’ll have to take you all in by force if necessary.” The guard captain who’d arrived only a minute earlier explained with a glare, his wings flared out and ready for combat. The rest of the guards, of which there were at least two dozen in total, all readied their various weapons; be they swords, wing blades or spears.

“Do not disturb him.” The dragoness warned again, this time turning to the captain to her right. The group all remained still, showing no signs of potential aggression as they all looked rather bored. The soldiers facing off against Maddock all looked the most nervous despite the gentle aura the giant was exuding as he merely smiled and waved at the ponies before him.

“There, that’s got it.” Hybrid announced as he finished the shape and began to etch glyphs into the spaces between lines using a language that nobody had ever seen before, let alone could speak. “And… ‘Fire’... ‘Detonate’...” The stallion raised his head upwards to look at the artwork before him in mild confusion while the guards all prepared to act upon hearing the words fire and detonate.

“No, that goes over there.” he corrected himself by taking his hoof and poking at the words to make them glow. They seemed to rise up from the stone leaving no markings in the concrete below them. He moved the words over to another spot and placed them back down before lowering his head to get back to work again. “Okay, now I need… ‘Randomize’ and ‘Chroma’ modifiers…”

A bit of talking to himself while the guards all prepared to take the potential terrorists into custody, the stallion finally finished his project and stood to stare down at the symbols before him before grinning. “That’ll do it!” he pronounced proudly.

“Halt! Do not attempt to use that magic or we will be forced to terminate!” The captain shouted, but found himself completely ignored. He didn’t like that and declared on the top of his voice, “Take them down, do not let them activate that spell seal!”

The entire guard battalion charged, shouting at the tops of their lungs, while the five protecting the unicorn all drew their weapons. Maddock drew both of his shields and smashed them to the ground, rocking every pony off their hooves while the five in the middle remained standing. That gave Hybrid just enough time to press his hoof to the middle of the seal and activate it before backing up a few steps holding his ears down with his hooves.

“Fire in the hole!” he shouted as the guards all tried to break through to pile on him or break the seal itself. The six visitors all turned their heads skywards as the guards all dropped to their bellies as the spell fired, sending rockets of light upwards into the skies in a couple different colours; the rockets themselves screaming into the air with a high pitched whistle. A very, very familiar whistle.

The six all grinned as the rockets exploded into a light show, creating a replicate spell seal in the sky that looked like the seal on the white stallion’s flanks. The fireworks soon died off, the crackling the only thing left behind as the magic burned itself out into smoke.

Then, silence. But that silence didn’t last for long, however, as a mighty voice boomed out over Canterlot, “NO FREAKING WAY!”

“And there’s one of them.” Hybrid grinned in response, having earned the exact response he was looking for. The guards all backed off, looking confusedly at their captain who was looking just as befuddled. They knew that voice that just screamed out in such a manner unbefitting of their position and all began snickering at just how informal the owner had just been.

A blue streak shot out from a tower of the castle, the colour the only indication of who it may have been, even as the blur began to form into the body of a certain Princess of the Night with the most massive grin on her face. The Princess came in hard, sliding on her hooves and backside as the Royal Guard all parted ways for her slide in.

“Dad!” Princess Luna shouted as her slide turned into a great leap at the stallion in the middle who stood up on his hind legs to catch the pony who was much larger than himself. The Guards all gawked at the behavior, never mind the fact that their Princess had just called Hybrid “Dad”, as the Princess ended up laying on her back in her father’s hooves. “You’re back!”

“I am, yes.” Hybrid nodded back and nuzzled his daughter’s head with his snout. Before setting her down on her hooves. “And I brought friends this time.”

“I see that!” Luna grinned like a maniac, showing all the perfectly pearly whites in her mouth all at once. “How long are you staying this time, do you have to leave again?” she asked, though with the second question came a frown of mild displeasure.

“I think I can afford to spend some time here with my daughters.” Hybrid announced, making the princess squeal with delight and hop on her hooves quite like a little filly. “Come on, let’s go say hi to your sister.”

“Yes, follow me!” Luna beamed as she took off down the street with a spring in her step. The friends of Hybrid all smirked and put their weapons away as they turned from the bewildered guards and followed the stallion into the city.

~~~

“Tia, I have a surprise for you!” Luna announced with a sing-song voice as she pushed the doors to the throne room open, interrupting the court case already in progress. By the looks of it, a pair of farmers were bickering over something trivial.

Celestia shifted in her throne uncomfortably but looked up to her sister with a raise of the eyebrow. “Can it wait, sister, I’m clearly in the middle of Court.” she replied, even if she wanted nothing more than for something to tear her away from these two.

“It could, I suppose, but then you’d be making Father wait for you.” Luna teased and with those words Celestia’s eyes grew exponentially wide as she leapt out from her throne.

“He’s back?” she demanded with an encroaching grin on her face. Luna nodded back quickly before turning from the room to take off at a run. Celestia nearly took off as well, however held herself back just long enough to properly address the ponies before her. “I’m sorry, but I must postpone this until tomorrow as something of an urgent matter has arisen. We’ll take this back up again in the morning.” she hurriedly explained as she skittered across the red carpet as though she’d forgotten to turn a stove top off or something.

As soon as she was in the hall, she took off with a flash of energy, sprinting hard down the hallways after her sister while staff and guards all narrowly got out of their princesses ways in time.

Please be him, please be him, please be him! Celestia pleaded to herself as she ran. Sure, she’d heard the fireworks go off, but as it was behind her she couldn’t see the effect unlike her sister. Even Luna’s yelling hadn’t given it away, despite the fact that everypony could’ve heard the yell in Baltimare.

Nearing the private dining room that the sisters used, she could already begin to hear his voice as he chattered away with whoever else was in the room.

“No, I had no idea that this is how we’d be received. I was expecting to at least make it to the castle gates before Lulu or Tia found me.” the voice very nearly brought tears to the elder sister’s eyes as she piled on the brakes and slid into the room behind her sister who’d only just arrived and had tackled the new biped in the room.

“Father,” Celestia slid to a halt and righted herself to her hooves, looking upon the human with swelling tears in her eyes. “It really is you!” Forgoing proprietary requirement, the eldest Alicorn leapt at the father figure once her sister was out of the way, ignoring the others in the room with her; though the hulking Minotaur was certainly hard to miss. The man accepted her eagerly and pulled her into a hug that Celestia fought to equalize.

“It’s good to see you, my little Raspberry.” Hybrid grinned as the white Princess blushed at the nickname she had long forgotten (not without a lot of trying on her part anyhow) and let her drop back to the floor to regain her composure. He turned to Luna, still grinning. “And it’s great to see you as well, my little Blueberry.”

“Dad!” Luna whined at the name, rolling her head on her shoulders though she couldn’t help the grin still on her face. “I am a grown mare now, please stop calling me that!” She said even as her cheeks pinkened slightly.

“You may be getting into your third millennia, but you’ll both always be my little berries.” Hybrid stood up straight and placed his closed fists on his hips, looking heroic. “So, I hear you’ve both been busy in my absence.” he declared, the look of pride ever twinkling in his eyes as he looked upon the faces of his daughters.

“Oh? And what have you heard?” Celestia inquired as the doors to the private dining room finally swung shut and afforded everyone within peace from the outside. She and her sister slid into a couple of seats across the main table from their father who took a seat next to the dragoness. “And who’re your friends?”

“Hmm…” Hybrid hummed to himself. “Well, I heard that you all fought Sombra, Discord, Tirek and Scorpan…” Hybrid’s voice seemed to dispel the peace as Luna’s gaze shifted to the table in acceptance of the next event in the timeline.

Nobody spoke for a moment while the man merely looked upon the younger daughter of the two with regret.

Breaking the silence, “What happened?” he asked softly, directing the question to the obvious recipient.

“I…” Luna began in barely a mumble, but cleared her throat and started again. “I… grew jealous of my sister. I let that negativity overcome me and I fell to darkness.” she admitted. The Herald of the Night drew in a strong breath and looked straight at her father head on. “I have since paid for my crimes, as has my sister.” Celestia threw open her wing nearest to the younger and pulled her into her white coat in a forgiving hug.

“Where were you?” Celestia whispered, almost accusatively as she openly glared at the human in the room. “We needed your help a thousand years ago, Luna needed your help. I needed your help!”

The man sat quietly, slightly fidgeting with his hands which now sat in his lap and out of sight. The dragoness took the chance to gently place her hand on the man’s back supportively and offered a small supportive smile to her friend.

“That…” Hybrid began slowly, looking back up to the sisters. “Is a very long story to tell… One that will take many hours. If I may, my friends and I are quite exhausted from our travels. I would be more than happy to tell you both of what happened, tell you the whole story, but I would first like to get some rest.”

Celestia and Luna mulled over this request for a bit, still hugging each other, and shared glances between themselves.

“Very well.” Luna finally accepted with a nod. “And if you don’t mind, we have some friends who we believe would like to hear the story, also.”

“That’s fine. Just,” Hybrid held his hands up defensively. “Not a big audience, please?”

“That is acceptable.” Celestia nodded back compliantly and retrieved her wing from around her sister. “I shall have the staff set you all up in separate guest rooms, unless there are preferred sleeping arrangements?”

“The three of us, please.” The dragoness requested, indicating to Blitz and Hybrid. “A separate bed or mattress to be brought into our room, or maybe a conjoined pair of rooms, would be preferable.” This request, and the participants of the request involved, certainly had the eyebrows of the Princesses raised to the sky in surprise.

“And,” Celestia looked to her sister with uncertainty. “What are your relationships with each other, that you’d request the three of you in a shared room?”

“Another story for another time, Raspberry.” Hybrid yawned and stretched himself out a ways, leaning back from the table to do so while kicking his feet out underneath. Standing himself up, the act leading his compatriots to do the same thing (though Maddock still had to remain quite hunched over), Hybrid followed the Princesses out of the room and back into the halls he’d been lead down before.

Eventually reaching the rooms, the others in the group all gratuitously accepted their rooms and shut themselves in for the night, while Hybrid, the dragoness and the small mare all stood before the last guest room with Luna leading; Celestia had to return to her duties on the way.

“Thank you for your hospitality.” Hybrid ran his hand up through his daughter’s mane and soon gave a couple scratches behind her ears. The act drew a small, content humming from Luna until the hand receded and took hold of the door handles. “We really appreciate it.”

“T’is nothing, you are our father, after all. We wouldn’t be very good hosts, nor Princesses nor daughters to turn you and yours away.” Luna replied cheerfully and nuzzled into her father’s embrace, even as the royal dialect slipped in. “We are elated to have you back after so long.”

“It’s good to finally be back among the land of the living.” Hybrid teased as his roommates all smirked and entered into the room first. Before Luna could raise questions, he held a finger up to her muzzle. “Ah ah, no spoilers.”

As the man entered into the room, Luna merely smirked and turned away, looking back over her shoulder. “Good night, father.”

“Good night, my little Blueberry.” Hybrid grinned as Luna’s face went red again and ducked behind the door to avoid a scowl, shutting the door to the room in the process.

~~~

“Well, if breakfast is anything to go by, I can’t wait for lunch now.” Hybrid beamed as he strolled alongside his companions in his unicorn form, the reflective etchings on the side of his body reflecting light onto Karen and Blitz next to him. The group had most of the morning to themselves while Princess Celestia organized the visitors expected later that afternoon.

“No kidding, I didn’t think they’d actually have someone to prepare meat for us.” Karen chuckled and picked at her teeth with a pinkie claw as she walked. “Though I suppose your daughters would have to cater to Griffon dignitaries every so often.”

“Probably, yes.” Hybrid nodded back and continued towards the guard’s training wing for a bit of a morning warm up, and to also work off the hearty steak and eggs from earlier. “And how’re you feeling today, Blitz?” the unicorn glanced down to the mare beside him, bringing the quiet mare into the fold.

“Fine… I ate enough last night.” she muttered under her breath, still actively avoiding looking at the guards. She gave a weak little shutter and sighed, piquing Hybrid’s eyebrow a bit at the noticed motion.

“That’s not ‘fine’. You need more.” Hybrid announced and diverted his small party down an uninhabited hallway to look for a storeroom or something. “Karen, you wanna do the honours?”

“Fiiiine…” Karen sighed and picked Blitz up around her barrel to haul her into the empty broom closet. “Doesn’t mean I like her feeding off me.”

“Look at it this way,” Hybrid let the door close and leaned himself against the wall next to the door with forelegs crossed over his chest. “It means you get a chance to take your armour off.”

“Yeah, I know...” the gryphon groaned in reply as a blue light flashed from under the door, followed by a flash of red. “Okay, eat up. Just, don’t take too much, I still need some for myself.”

“Thanks, Karen.” Blitz’s voice, sounding slightly different, replied before the two began giving soft moans for a couple minutes. Hybrid merely stood guard over the door, waving off curious passersby who’d wander down the hall before getting an earful of the two females in the room behind the stallion. They soon scurried off with faces red and tails tucked away. Those who tried to linger were shooed off by Hybrid who gave each one a glare.

A short time passed and the two bursts of light flashed under the door, signalling that the deed was done and Hybrid could step aside. The door opened and both females exited looking a bit sweaty though their faces said they both felt great after what happened.

“Feel better?” Hybrid grinned to both females, Karen working at adjusting her breastplate while Blitz gave a hearty burp.

“Much.” Both females replied at once, giving the stallion in the room reason to chuckle.

“Good, then you can work all that off with Sen, Maddock, Vic and I.” the unicorn trotted off back towards the main hallway, leaving the women to play catch up behind him.

“It’s not like we’ll be fighting anything interesting anyways, might as well burn off the calories.” Karen agreed and took the pony’s left while Blitz happily pranced along on his right.

The trio continued down the hall towards the guard’s training wing and attached barracks. Nearing their destination, the sounds of fighting and metal on metal began to fill the hallways giving the party leader a better sense of where he was going with his friends.

A couple more corners and the hallway broke out into a large courtyard with hundreds of guards either off on the sides sparring against each other, or forming a massive ring in the middle of the open space.

Had they not been taller than most of the other creatures in the area, one could wonder what was going on, however the massive form of Maddock with his twin greatshields and Sen with her double-bladed sword stood heads and shoulders above the ponies they were fighting against.

Pushing into the ring with Karen and Blitz following behind him, Hybrid took up a spectator’s spot on the edge and sat himself down to watch the carnage. While Sen, Maddock and upon closer inspection, Vic, all fought near the middle of the ring back to back, many injured guards were pulled away from the edges of the ring to be taken to the infirmary.

From the looks of the combatants and the guards cheering from the edge, it didn’t seem like there was any other nature to the fights beyond just basic -though apparently injury-inducing- training. There was no evidence of malice from… most… of the guards watching or preparing to jump into the fray and the faces on the dragoness, minotaur and zebra all gave away their great pleasure at finally finding something to fight against for the first time in months.

“Go Sen! Teach those guards a lesson!” Karen cheered for the dragoness, pumping her fist into the air gleefully and getting right into the swing of things along with the guards all cheering for their buddies.

“Maddock, you’re getting slow!” Hybrid teased, earning a pair of earthquakes when Maddock slammed in shields into the ground to stumble his opponents. Maddock afforded the unicorn a moment with a returning nod of recognition before bringing the geared edges of his shields together to form the impenetrable wall he favoured to narrowly avoid an attack from an impressively large battle axe.

“Have you been hit yet, Vic?” Blitz called out to the zebra who seemed to ignore her as he flipped and danced around his own squad of guards, if it weren’t for the verbal reply he gave her.

“Only once, no more!” Vic shouted back as he delivered a swift punch to the side of the head of one guard, before twisting his body and flipping himself into the air to land on the back of another guard and bring his left rear hoof down on his back to bring them both down.

“I seem to remember a blow to your side.” Sen taunted during her parry and thrust of one blade’s edge which sparked against a Lieutenant’s chest armour. “Count your failures properly, Victor.”

“Glancing blows,” Vic took a moment to roll sideways from a crossbow bolt before pouncing on the shooter. “Don’t count.”

“They count.” Vic’s friends all called out together, serving to give the zebra reason to let out a groan but resigned to his fate.

“Fine! I’ve been hit twice!” The hoof-to-hoof fighter announced before delivering a flurry of blows to the crossbow wielder and put him to the ground unconscious.

“Then you know what that means!” Hybrid shouted with a grin and Karen gave a smirk and a nudge to Blitz who blushed heavily in return. “You get to feed Blitz for the next two days!”

Vic, having temporarily run out of opponents, turned to face his leader with an uneasy frown. “I know, I know…” He turned to look at the blushing mare next to Hybrid. “I’m in the suite two rooms down from Sen and Hybrid.

“Okay…” Blitz mumbled back, but gave a firm nod to show she’d understood. Of course, she wasn’t not looking forward to spending time with him, but having been made the punishment for Vic’s failures during combat certainly didn’t agree with her.

A thought shared with her from Hybrid turned her red fur to an even darker colouration as her mind was filled with all kinds of images concerning her and Vic. She let out a cry of embarrassment and dove to the ground, covering her head with her hooves while Hybrid merely grinned with a tongue stuck out between his teeth before turning back to the fights before him.

“Atten-tion!” a remarkably powerful voice cut through the clash of steel and blue metal, snapping the spectating guards to attention while the fighters all had to break away from their opponents to do the same with their weapons at the ready.

While the crowd of guardsponies split to allow someone through, Hybrid took the chance to step onto the field of battle with Karen and a nervous Blitz motioning for his group to fall in.

“Records?” Hybrid calmly inquired of his friends while the new pony discussed matters with the others present.

“Twelve down, four injured, not critical.” Sen reported dutifully with her arms crossed over her chest and her weapon collapsed and stored on her lower back over her tail.

Rather than reply verbally, Maddock had to sit himself down to count on his fingers before holding up the sign language taught to him for twenty-two down, eight injured and nothing critical.

With a sigh, and noticeably avoiding eye contact with Blitz, Vic gave his report, “Eleven down, two injured, nothing critical and two hits.”

“So forty-five down, fourteen injured and nothing critical.” Hybrid bobbed his head lightly in recognition and approval. “Good job, all of you.” he awarded them their praise, Vic included, before turning to greet the sounds of a pony approaching their group.

“I swear, if you hadn’t just spent the last few months in the Empire retraining my guards, I’d have thrown all of you in the dungeons for disturbing the peace.” Shining Armour announced with a light chuckle and bumped hooves with Hybrid before moving to shake hands, claws or hooves of the rest before stepping back a way to address them all.

“Prince Shining Armour, a pleasure to see you again. When did you get in?” Hybrid inquired lightly and sat back in Sen’s lap once she’d sat down behind the pony and let her wrap her arms around his barrel in a hug, resting her head on the stallion’s shoulder.

“This morning, actually. You all got in last night?” Shining replied and sat himself down as well, prompting the rest of the blue-armour clad to sit as well while the Royal Guardsponies all got back to training themselves.

“Yeah, last evening, thereabouts anyways. Briefly reconnected with the Princesses which was nice.” Hybrid shrugged as casually as he could with a dragon’s head resting on him.

“Cool, cool. So what’re you all doing today?”

“Storytelling, apparently. His daughters are inviting some of their friends here to listen in so we’re just waiting and killing time while they show up.” Karen explained from the left of the stallion being cuddled.

“Oh?” Shining’s eyebrow rose at this. “Would you mind if I sat in on some of these stories for a while?”

“Not at all,” Blitz replied for Hybrid who nodded agreement. “We’re not looking for a large audience, however.”

“Of course, of course. I just wanna meet with somepony, if the Princesses are bringing who I think they’re bringing.” The Prince replied and stood when Hybrid did. The rest of the group all rose and dusted themselves off before the pair of stallions lead the group through the training guards and back into the castle itself.

“How’re Cadance and Flurry?” Blitz inquired from near the back of the group, having to resort to projecting her voice forward to be heard.

“They’re both good, Cadance is still tired as always.” Shining gave a sigh as his own child fatigue swept over him.

“Such is the life of parenthood.” Agreed Hybrid, who nodded appropriately and turned down a hallway towards the private dining room where he was due to meet his daughters and their friends. Having been so long since last seeing his daughters, he’d become eager to see who they’d become friends with.

“Heh,” Shining gave a half chuckle as he glanced to the stallion walking abreast to him. “I suppose you’d know all about raising alicorn children, wouldn’t you? You’ve certainly been alive long enough.”

“Actually, no. I do know what it’s like raising two unicorn fillies who knows every way to get underfoot, however.” Hybrid smirked back in response as he turned to enter the room that the Princesses had set up for the group. “It’s how they got their nicknames.”

“Oh, yeah, those.” the group sat down to Shining Armour’s words and got themselves comfortable while a pair of servants entered to take food or drink orders if anyone wanted anything while they waited. “Did you know that those nicknames got leaked to the media and had to be outlawed upon penalty of life-imprisonment?”

“Really?” Hybrid raised an eyebrow enthusiastically at this bit of information and lit up his horn as he sat himself down on the bench. Casting his spell, Hybrid made the transition from pony to human again and finally situated himself comfortably.

~~~

“Father, I hope we haven’t kept you waiting.” Celestia announced the presence of her, her sister and the newcomers who all piled into the room with wide eyes at the term used by their Princess. The human turned in his seat, lifting a leg to lay it across the bench to lean over to look past Karen and Vic to welcome the newcomers.

“Not really, no.” Hybrid gave a single wave to the sisters before standing to address the other ponies entering into the room. “Who’re these ladies?”

While Luna swept past Hybrid to give him a quick hug with a wing before taking her seat, Celestia looked down at the six little ponies next to her with a fond smile.

“These are our friends from Ponyville, a little town nearby.” she began her introductions with the white one. “This is Rarity, the Element of Generosity.”

“A pleasure to make the acquaintance of the father of the Princesses.” Rarity swept herself into a low bow before rising back up to move to the bench Luna sat on.

“Pinkie Pie, the Element of Laughter.” The pink one was Celestia’s next choice for introductions and the human found himself suddenly carrying a massive pink blob of fur and excitement.

“I can’t believe I get to meet you! It’s so great to meet you and I hope we’ll get to know each other and become fast friends!” Pinkie announced before giving the man a bearhug around his neck. She was quickly released and joined her friends at the table.

“Friendly, isn’t she?” Hybrid grinned and turned to the orange one with the blonde mane and stetson.

“She can be a hoof full sometimes, yeah.” The mare with a southern accent replied before stepping up to offer a hoof bump. “Ah’m Applejack of Sweet Apple Acres and the Element of Honesty.”

“A pleasure to meet you, miss Applejack.” Hybrid first bumped his fist against her hoof before taking it in a shake. Parting ways, Applejack took a seat next to Rarity at the table.

“Officer Cadet, Rainbow Dash of the Wonderbolts and Element of Loyalty.” Celestia introduced the next mare who stood proudly with chest puffed out. Blue fur, heterochromatic mane and tail and a huge grin on her face.

“Good to meet you, Officer Cadet.” Hybrid stood himself up straight and gave his own salute to the pegasus who saluted back with a wing before offering a handshake. Rainbow took to her wings and stuck her hoof into his grip and shook herself, giving a firm squeeze in the process.

“You don’t look like the princesses dad, what are-” Her complaining was cut off almost instantly as Hybrid squeezed back, almost causing pain to the pony but held just short of doing so. “Dang! You’ve got a grip on you!”

“Three thousand years of wielding every weapon known to your kind and some known only to mine will do that.” Hybrid beamed and let the mare go before drawing a small circle in the air with his left hand. Completing the arcane quickly, he applied it to the mare’s foreleg and Dash gasped at how quickly the pain resided.

“What was that?” Demanded a little purple alicorn who quite literally launched herself at the man, taking his hand in her hooves to examine it. “Do it again!”

“Arcane Writing?” Hybrid raised an eyebrow at the mare before turning to Celestia. “Isn’t that still basic magic?”

Shaking her head with a slight frown, “Arcane writing and glyphs have become a dead artform in the last thousand years. This is Princess Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Friendship and Element of Magic. She was also my most prized student.”

“And you didn’t teach her to write Arcane?” the human’s comment went mostly unheard, save for those with superior hearing like the Princesses and Hybrid’s troupe.

“She was a unicorn, afterall.” Celestia half-shrugged as she attempted to make an excuse for not teaching her the more powerful magics of Arcane Writing.

“So? Vic’s a zebra, Karen’s a Griffon, Senlei’s a Dragon and Maddock… Well… Maddock is Maddock…” A hand was held out to the group watching from the table and all eyes went to them to watch each one draw an arcane glyph in the air. While Vic’s and Karen’s glyphs were blue of differing hues, Sen’s was green while Blitz wrote a red glyph in the air with her hooves, foregoing her horn.

Maddock merely beamed a smile and waved from the end of the table where he sat comfortably on the floor. Pinkie took that as an invitation and suddenly appeared on her back in Maddock’s lap. Maddock seemed pleased by this and took to lightly petting the pony, stroking her mane and tickling her belly to make her laugh and snort in entertainment.

“Finally, we have the Element of Kindness, Fluttershy.” Celestia pulled Twilight down from the man and nudged the butter yellow mare forward. The girl gave a small shriek of fear and sunk back behind her mane, avoiding eye contact but kept in place regardless.

“Miss Fluttershy, a pleasure to make your acquaintance.” Hybrid knelt down to decrease his profile as much as possible and held out a hand in offering of a handshake. Granted, he could’ve been mistaken for offering for Fluttershy to sniff his hand like a dog would, but no one thought that… Especially not Blitz.

“Uhm, hello… It’s nice to meet you…” the little mare’s voice had to fight tooth and nail to be heard through her mane as she lightly placed a hoof in the offered hand and let him gently take it to give a shake in greeting. As soon as it was released, the pegasus zipped away and to the table, sitting next to Rainbow Dash and Twilight who visited with the Prince, across the table from Vic.

“Right, unless there’re more coming?” Hybrid clapped once, gaining everyone’s attention as Celestia took a seat between Luna and Twilight across from where Hybrid would sit. Everyone counted themselves over and shook their heads. Standing behind where he’d soon sit, he placed his hands on Sen’s shoulders. “Then let me introduce my friends.”

Taking the cue, “I am Senlei Arame, I joined Hybrid’s group one thousand, four hundred, thirty seven years ago. I specialize in dragon magic, Arcane Writing and two handed weapons.”

“You’re immortal too?” Twilight inquired with eyebrows raised. Sen nodded, as did the others save for Blitz who merely shifted in her seat. “How?”

“No spoilers, please.” Hybrid grinned and moved left to place his hands on Vic’s shoulders.

“Victor Nevara, I joined the group three hundred, ninety-two years ago. I specialize in Zebrican alchemy, Arcane Writing, and I’m a close-quarters, hoof-to-hoof fighter.”

Moving further left, Hybrid stood next to Maddock and Pinkie, placing a hand on the behemoth’s arm.

“This is Maddock. He’s incapable of speech so I taught him Sign Language two thousand eight-hundred years ago. He specializes in extra-heavy weapons like his shields on his back.” Hybrid explained, earning a boop on the nose from Pinkie when she rose up to do so.

Moving back towards Sen, Hybrid placed his hands firmly on Karen’s shoulders, making her sigh at her turn having come.

“Karen Felicity.” Karen began, resting her head on a fisted claw which posted off the table. “Specialized in Griffon Aerial Tactics and Combat Maneuvers, Arcane Writing and I spent thirty four years in the Griffon Secret Service for the belated Emperor I helped assassinate. I joined the group over seven hundred years ago.”

“You were Griffon Secret Service?” Rainbow Dash gawked at the gryphoness with wide eyes and an open mouth. Karen nodded without making eye contact, more interested in her claws.

“You were a part of the Emperor’s Assassination?” Luna raised an eyebrow as Celestia didn’t look all that impressed with this information. Karen nodded again in reply. “The one that started that civil war?”

“That’s the one, yes.” Hybrid nodded back and stepped up behind Blitz who squeaked under Hybrid’s touch. “And finally, we have Blitz.”

“Hi…” the mare mumbled, Fluttershy being among the few who actually heard her due to their own training dealing with their own shy pony. “I’m… Blitz and I specialize in…” Blitz stopped to look upwards and upside down at the human at her back, silently inquiring. A telepathic conversation, and she continued, “I specialize in illusion magic and disguises. I’m also trained in Arcane Writing but I haven’t mastered it yet. I’ve been with Hybrid for thirty-seven years.”

“It is a pleasure to meet all of you. I am glad to meet the ones that my father has come to trust.” Celestia shifted in her seat a bit, looking directly to each of the visitors before returning to her father’s face. “So, what story will you be telling us?”

Considering his options, Hybrid took his seat between Karen and Sen, “What do you want to hear?”

“Oh! Tell us about those armours!” Rainbow requested, shooting up to her hooves almost immediately.

“Tell us about how you’re all immortals!” Twilight requested, getting to her hooves as well. Hybrid raised his hands, calming the ponies as they made their requests all at once.

“Tell them about how you met my sister and I.” Celestia calmly requested, settling the requests indefinitely. “Tell them our origin story.”

“Ooohh,” Hybrid grinned eagerly, “You want me to tell them all the story of The Day of Black Sun.” That name alone shut the other ponies up. The man stretched his legs out under the table, using them to keep himself anchored in place while he leaned back with arms behind his head. “Yeah sure, why not.”

A burst of magic and a large stack of paper appeared before Twilight, complete with quill and inkwell. “Ready!” she announced, already with the dipped quill set to the page.

“Alright, well I suppose the story begins just over three thousand years ago.”

Arc One: Day of Black Sun, Chapter One: Part One

Author's Notes:

I'm trying to get back into writing, and I've had this project on the back burner for a very long time. Don't know why, but something wanted me to try and pick up at least one of my projects, so I'm hoping that this'll kick things off and I can restart some of my dead ones here...

That said, I really, really really need something to go on. Feedback drives me, shows me I'm not doing this for the lulz and someone actually likes what I write...

The sun was high, my adolescent body drenched in sweat from the work I was doing and the harness holding me secure certainly wasn’t helping to cool me down. I drove another nail into the timber I was sitting next to with the air-nailer I had brought with me.

~~~

“What’s an air-nailer?” Twilight interrupted as she looked up from the first paragraph on her page.

“It’s like an automatic hammer that fires the nails into the wood with either pressurized carbon dioxide gas, or some other kind of pressurized gas.” Hybrid explained briefly before turning back to the memories he was watching in his mind.

~~~

I had been working on this particular bit of framing for the last couple days with the help of the other framers on the crew. As such, we were currently four floors up and without much in the ways of floor joists under us, it was quite a fall when I lost my balance while moving along the framework.

The harness, while it was supposed to have saved me from death, had apparently been equipped with a faulty lanyard because it snapped when I hit the point when I should’ve stopped in the air. As such, the lanyard broke and I plummeted to the earth.

Now, I don’t know if I had actually died when I hit the ground, then came to Equestria or if I was suddenly teleported to safety before I hit the ground, but either way, I blacked out.

I woke with the strangest sight, the furry muzzles of five ponies all staring at me while I laid on my back. You must keep in mind that this is not normal for my world, not even in the slightest, so you’ll have to understand when I say that I woke up screaming like a little girl.

Yes, yes, laugh it up. You try falling to your death one minute, and then waking up in a dank, dark cavern with five alien faces hovering over you watching you breathe.

Right, so anyways, my moment of hysterics passes and I’m able to finally address the aliens above me. They all part enough that I can at least sit up and try to rub some feeling back into my face.

Doing so warned me that I was still wearing my harness and work belt, and that only… Half of the stuff that were in the pockets were still there. While I still had my twenty-two ounce hammer and a couple pockets full of loose nails and a pocket of strip nails for the Air Nailer that was nowhere to be found, I was however, missing the air-nailer like I said, a couple pencils and my chalk line. I did, somehow, end up with a hand saw, which was nice. Bonus, I even had my little military surplus pocket multi-tool.

“Sec, tea muu’la tig nev’ohra?” one of the ponies spoke, dropping my jaw at the ability for tiny horses to actually speak. Granted, I couldn’t understand a word they had just said.

“Git, tig neo vey sig nev’ohra.” another pony replied, looking up from me to the first one who’d spoken. The voice was definitely male in nature, while the first one was mostly female. He looked down to me and seemed to address me full on. “Tome’negara, nev’ohra?”

“What?” I asked in confusion and lifted a hand to scratch at the back of my head. “I don’t understand you.” My words seemed to have had the same effect on the horses that their speech had had on me as they all gasped and stepped back a few more steps. I took the opportunity to examine my surroundings, and found them lacking.

I truly was in a cave, a dank, dark cave that smelled like mildew and… well, nothing pleasant, let’s just say. There was, to their credit, a pool off a ways illuminated by torchlight in which I spied a couple ponies bathing.

“Where am I?” I asked in vain, already aware that I’d never understand anything the ponies said.

“Suetetia Cale, en fid.” the first pony, the female, replied amazingly enough.

“You can understand me?” I asked for clarification, apparently taunting the gods as she tilted her head at me like I was speaking a foreign- oh, wait. “Right, of course you can’t.”

One of the horn-heads who hadn’t yet spoken illuminated their horn (I totally wasn’t about to piss myself for the sudden light show) and shut their eyes for a few seconds. They aimed their horn at me and the light began to condense on the tip of the horn before firing their load off in my face.

Stop snickering.

The light struck me, stop laughing, and began to seep into my eyes,

~~~

Hybrid stopped to wait while the ponies all tried to collect themselves from where they’d fallen over in their seats, with Celestia and Luna trying to hold back snickering of their own behind their hooves. Maddock looked clueless, Blitz’s face was bright red, Karen was chuckling and patting the human on the back while Vic and Sen merely sat and waited patiently.

“Did,” Rainbow began to pull herself up from where she lay on the ground, tears in her eyes. “Did any get into your mane?”

“Very funny.” Hybrid remarked and rested an arm on the table and his head in his hand.

“Did- did’ja spit or swallow?” Applejack asked, raising an eyebrow of Hybrid as she pulled herself up from the floor.

“It was kind of rammed down my throat, thank you.” And with that line came an entirely new fit of raucous laughter from those gathered at the table, though for their credit, Celestia and Luna both held it in. “When you’re all finished, we can continue.”

A few minutes and a couple glasses of water later, those who had been laughing were situated again but noticeably avoided looking at Hybrid lest they break into giggling again.

~~~

Anyways, the light sunk deep into my head and must’ve done something, because all of a sudden, I could… Kind of understand them.

“Can… understand… now?” The female began again, speaking slowly as if that would ever actually help. I simply stared at the mare, mouth shut but eyes wide as my mind tried to fill in the gaps.

“Maybe, but can you understand me?” I asked in reply and earned a quintuple of nodding horsey heads. “Cool, then let me ask again, where am I?”

“Mountain, cave.” Was all I could really understand through the gibberish I still heard. That was the weirdest thing, I could hear them talking their weird language, but I heard what sounded like English in my head…

“Okay, I gathered that, but where on Earth, am I?” I tried the question again, hoping to get the question through their thick skulls this time.

They replied with a single word and tilted head, suggesting to me they had asked me about the planet name.

“Yes, Earth. You know, the planet we all live on?” then a thought struck me. “Or… The world I’m supposed to live on…” I went silent with that thought, considering the implications that came with it and let the ponies discuss something in their language.

The female approached me again, either looking imposing or like she wasn’t fond of looking at me. I couldn’t blame her, I thought I was sitting in shit.

“You dangerous?” She asked while the other ponies around her took off to do their own thing. Having not given an answer, she tried again, “you dangerous to us?”

“I’ll be frank with you, after that little light show of yours, I think you’re more dangerous to me than I am to you.” I admitted with a sigh and adjusted my toolbelt a bit so that it hung off my harness a little better and so that my hammer and saw didn’t fall out of their loop or holder.

The female stepped up to me and nosed at the hammer, then around to my right to nose (carefully avoiding the teeth in the process) the saw before looking up at me expectantly. “What are?”

Pulling the hammer from it’s holster, I showed it off a little to the pony. “A hammer. It lets me build things.” Switching the hammer for the saw, I paused as I noticed the pony wince at the sharp cutting teeth of the tool before holding it so it wouldn’t be a problem. “This is a saw, it lets me cut hard things.”

“You build things?” the pony tilted her head at me yet again in question but seemed to be somehow impressed. I nodded, which prompted the next question, “You build… dangerous things?”

“No, I just… build things…” I shrugged back and put my tools away where they were supposed to go.

A little rumbling coming from my body told of needs yet unsated and I groaned in protest as I felt the feeling of my stomach tighten under the need for sustenance. A sigh from me and I looked down upon the miniature horse thing only slightly pleadingly.

“I don’t suppose you could supply me any food, could you?” I felt my question be enhanced by yet another churning rumble, only adding to my weak and defenseless appearance.

“See Caretaker. He cares for lone ones.” The mare replied, pointing with her hoof off to some other part of the cave. I followed the gesture and found a stallion with wings standing amongst a group of mostly really small ponies, presumably the children, with only a few adults in the mix.

Taking my leave with a nod of my imaginary hat, the pony I had been talking to took off to do her own thing while I approached the Caretaker; my tools swinging around and creating a little racket as I did.

I noticed upon quickly looking over the other ponies in the cave that there were only two or three of the ones with wings, and maybe nine or ten with the horn while the rest of the… hundred or so with neither.

I did notice that there was a small part of the cave that had strange lights glowing blue hovering on top of posts surrounding what looked like small growing plots. I wouldn’t call them farms or even gardens, it was like the farmer had merely dug a hole in the ground and dropped something random into the hole to see what would happen. It was here and at similar spots in the cave that most of the default ponies gathered.

Putting those thoughts aside for the time being, I approached the Caretaker and noticed him look up at me as I approached. Many of the littlest ponies all stopped chattering away over their vegetable meals to stare up at me with wide eyes as I loomed over them like some kind of monster.

“You need food?” the winged one in the middle asked, already reaching into his side pouches to look for something.

“If you can spare it, yes.” I cautiously stepped through the masses of little chromatic bodies until I stood before the Caretaker so I could kneel before him, make myself a little less threatening.

“Preference?” He asked, glancing up at me from his bags as he paused his rummaging.

“No coconut or…” My eyes caught the sight of a pair of fillies, one white with a pink mane and the other blue almost entirely, munching away on a hoofful of what looked like wheatgrass. “Or grasses of any kind. I’m not built for that.”

The pony spoke some word in his language as he drew out a raw potato which still had it’s roots firmly attached to it’s white skin. Offering it to me, I took my multi-tool and opened the little knife so I could cut a piece of the vegetable off and inspect it. Aside from the fact that the meat of the potato was red -not something uncommon on my world, we had these kinds of potatoes as well, though the skins were usually a different colour- the potato seemed perfectly fine so I bit off a nibble and tried it.

A moment passed and I wasn’t dead, writhing in pain or vomiting so I supposed that meant the potato was safe for me to eat. With a ‘thank you’ nod, I took my meal and exited from the group to find a rock or something I could sit on.

By the time I had broken off the roots from the vegetable and had finished the little bit that I’d cut off, I had decided that I would probably want to cook the vegetable over a fire or something, make it a little more palatable to my stomach.

Foregoing finding a rock to sit on, I instead navigated towards a fire that a couple ponies were laid out on their sides around, chatting away in their language. As I couldn’t understand them from how far away I was, I figured that whatever was done to me made it so that I had to be within a certain range for the translation to arrive in my head.

My approach did not go unnoticed, I must say, for as soon as the ponies facing towards me noticed my approach a warning was issued and the ponies nearest to me opened a spot, almost herding behind the ones across the flames from me.

Taking a seat by the fire, I took out my multi-tool’s knife and jammed the knife blade into the potato lengthwise before holding the potato over the flames. I’d have preferred a long stick or something, but this would have to do.

The ponies muttered to themselves, thereby establishing the theory that instead, the ponies had to be addressing me for me to understand them rather than the proximity idea from before.

~~~

“How has that changed throughout the millennia? Have you learned our language that you don’t need that spell anymore?” Twilight held her hoof up to break in and ask her question once she’d finished writing her last paragraph.

“Nim, orenba thek norestes tiv thim.” Hybrid replied with a huge grin, making Celestia and Luna both raise their eyebrows at the response given. When Twilight merely stared at Hybrid like he’d grown a second head, he translated himself, “Not exactly. See, here’s a fun fact that I bet you never knew: you’re all speaking English.”

“Your native language? How?” Rarity intoned her thoughts next, looking as confused as Twilight was. “I thought this was always our native language.”

“Nim.” Hybrid shook his head firmly. “You’re actually all speaking my language and your native language from when I arrived have fallen into the rankings of dead words. Matter of fact, Albionic is the basis for which Arcane Writing is formed.”

“Why did we change to your language?” Twilight pulled out a separate sheet of paper to begin her new notes on the new topic. “If you were the visitor, the alien, why did we give up our traditions to accommodate you?”

“I don’t know.” Hybrid shrugged back nonsensically. “I think it had something to do with my language being much more… open? Creative? Lengthy? English allows us to explain ideas a lot more than Albionic can, but Albionic has the little extra bonus of turning words to magic. English can’t do that.”

“Do you remember, Twilight, the motto for the School of Gifted Unicorns?” Celestia turned to look down at her ex student with a small smile.

“Sure, Nev’ohra sem let thek, Nim vor’nattel, nim urruba, nim yeresta.” Twilight recited perfectly, before her eyes went wide when she made the connection. “That’s Albionic?”

“It is, yes. Roughly it means, ‘We are friends of the truth, not its enemies, nor the darkness, nor do we fear the unknown.’ A very fitting motto, if you ask me.” Hybrid replied with a nod and his arms crossed over his chest, resting on the table. “Anyways, shall I get back to my story?”

“Yes, please.” Luna nodded agreeably and resettled herself comfortably.

~~~

It wasn’t long until one of the ponies who’d moved out of the way to let me sit nervously approached me, gaining my attention with a nicker.

“What doing to vegetable?” she asked, glancing from me to the potato on the knife slowly heating up.

“Cooking it. Potatoes raw are slightly too hard for my tastes, so I cook them to make them more edible.” I explained and flipped the root crop over to start on the other side.

“Can… do with other things?” she asked next, pulling a carrot out from somewhere I wasn’t too sure I wanted to be made privy to.

“Sure, find a stick and you’re good to go.” I shrugged back and pulled the potato away from the flames to poke at it with a finger and judged that nothing had actually happened to it yet.

A surprisingly straight wooden stick suddenly appeared at my feet, with another stick resting on the ground next to the carrot to my right.

“That works.” I judged agreeably and pulled the potato off the knife and jammed it onto the stick. I did the same for the carrot, spearing it in its side before setting both vegetables directly into the flames with the stick braced against some rocks and under my feet to hold them in place. Some of the other ponies in the group seemed to get the idea and did the same with their own foods, though the pony trying to toast her sheaves of grains found out the hard way that not everything cooks.

A half hour later and the smells of a few potatoes, carrots, some broccoli of all things, and some apples hovering over the fire began to fill the cavern. We’d accumulated a small crowd of curious, before they all worked things out for themselves and began experimenting on their own.

By the time that I pulled my potato and the mare’s carrot off the fires, the entire camp had started cooking their food once they’d all gotten a crash course on what burned and what grilled from their superiors around our little fire pit.

The mare with her stick between her hooves stared at the steaming carrot, wondering if the blackened skin was still safe to eat and glanced up at me for instruction. I merely held the stick in one hand and carved out a piece of potato with my knife so I could eat it that way.

Soft and surprisingly sweet. Much more agreeable than before. Having found that I wasn’t dead -again?- the ponies all looked to relax a little and continue their own cooking while I ate in silence. The mare with the carrot took a tentative bite off the tip of her vegetable and nearly spat it out again due to the heat, if the fact that she was trying to keep the piece of hot vegetable moving around in her mouth was any indication.

Not long after, the rest of the herd had completed their cooking and their meals and soon most ponies were grouped up into their families to nap off the nourishment. It was at this point that I gained a true understanding of the Caretaker, and what the first mare had meant when she said ‘The Lone Ones’. A small group of children had all huddled together to nap, no signs of parental figures around. Even the Caretaker had gone off to group up with the other to winged ones nearby.

A small pang to my heart at the sight of the lonely children, but the logical side of my mind told me that it wasn't my business, and so I took off as quietly as I could in an echoing cave to explore and maybe see if I could find an exit.

My walk seemed to take me only deeper into the cavern, and my journey halted abruptly when I nearly walked off the edge of a sheer drop into a black void below. It was through sheer willpower that I didn’t shit myself right then and there; the memory of falling to my death with something that was supposed to have saved me but didn’t, was still fresh in my mind. Scooting back away from the ledge on my hands and knees having fallen to my backside, I took a few minutes to calm myself with the sound of calcite dripping from ceiling to floor.

Okay, I began to think to myself, How the hell did I know that pit was there when it’s dark as shit in here and I forgot a torch? I light-heartedly chuckled as I searched my pouches with my hands for the little flashlight I hoped was still there. It wasn’t there.

Dammit… I sighed to myself and relied on my natural night vision -which didn’t work since there was no little light to use- to make my way back towards the sleeping ponies.

I somehow managed to get to them, with only a few slips and falls whenever I’d run into something or trip on a rock, but the sight of a hundred sleeping ponies was a welcoming sight to behold. Approaching a lit torch that rested between a couple rocks nearby, I took the source of light and returned to spelunking in the passage ways I’d already somehow navigated.

The main corridor of the cave went on for quite a ways before ending in the pit of death, however it did have a few splits or indentations that held nothing of any value but did oftentimes hold shimmering stalagmites and stalactites that reflected the light of my torch off it’s wet surfaces.

As I delved deeper, I became more and more aware of how close I was holding my torch to my body as I soon couldn’t hold out any longer and my bare arms began to quiver and shake at the nearly negative temperatures I had subjected myself to.

That suffering seemed to have been worth the pain because as I travelled down one stoney hallway, I began to see a faint glowing blue light ahead of me. Curious, I continued on, doing my best to ignore the cold as it drew colder and colder the further I went in.

By the time I rounded past what was apparently the last corner, my breath was rolling out in a dense fog and I had hugged the torch to my body without actually burning myself as I folded my arms across my chest to keep somewhat warm.

Ahead of me lay a fairly small room of sorts, more of a dead end than anything, and in the center of that room sat what looked to be some kind of plinth surrounded in glistening snow and ice. On that plinth, the source of the bright blue light originated and shone brightly, nearly blinding me in addition to probably putting me into early stages of first degree frostbite.

Approaching the plinth and stepping up to the source of light, shivering the entire way, I gazed down at the little trinket that rested on a sort of frozen stone altar and carefully reached out to touch it. My arms protested the entire time, the feeling of my joints having likely frozen and were now probably cracking under the action of movement sent raging spikes of pain coursing through my body up until I actually touched the little thing.

Then suddenly, warmth. My body thawed, the room thawed and proceeded to flood the floor, and the light died down to nothing. I took the opportunity to almost devour the torch in my possession, trying to claim every last scrap of heat it provided so that I could speed up the thawing process in my body.

Taking a seat on the warming stone dais with the torch in one hand, I took a better look at the new little thing I had found and held it up to the light. A small golden pendant with a perfectly round cut sapphire, about as big around as my palm, hung off a bluish silver metal square link chain.

Setting the pendant down on my knee, I ran my hand over the stone and wondered how, or where the cold had come from. I was semi familiar with enchanted items having played a good couple video games, so the thought that there may have actually been magic involved in this thing was certainly one of the first few hypotheses I had.

Okay, well there’s certainly nothing happening with it right now… I thought to myself as I stood and draped the chain over my head with a single hand. Continuing the thought as I dropped the pendant down the front of my shirt, Might as well hang onto it, maybe those horse things might know what it is.

Backtracking the way I’d come, I re-entered into the main passageway that lead both to the pony camp and also the Sparta Hole in the opposite direction. For lack of options, I took the track that lead back to the little settlement and this time passed through the encampment to the other side for hopes of actually finding an exit.

To my pleasure, the only other passage leading out from the settlement did, in fact, lead to an exit. As it so happened, I found myself having emerged from the side of a very high mountain. It was also about mid afternoon, if the sun above was any indication. On the very horizon, only just peeking above the edge of what I could see, looked to be a rather large moon on the rise.

“Huh,” I grunted to myself and stared out into the expanse below me. Trees. Massive trees for what had to have been at least a couple kilometers, then open plains beyond that. “Well that’s certainly…” I wasn’t entirely sure I wanted to call the sudden landscape to be a surprise, after all, what would I have been expecting? “That’s new.”

To my left, cave wall. To my right, a narrow passage apparently carved right out of the stone of the mountain itself. With a facial shrug of the mouth and eyebrows, I decided the best course of action would be to try the path and see where it would take me.

Setting the lit torch down on the ground near the mouth of the cave, it’s light still going so I knew where I had come from and where to return, I took off down the stonework pathway as carefully as I could.

By the time I had reached about the base of the mountain, the sun hadn’t moved but I knew from my internal clock that it had taken at least a couple hours to hike down from the mouth of the cave.

About halfway down, the treeline had began climbing up the face of the mountain, so I at least had some shade from the scorching rays of the sun above. In addition, there were also the occasional bush or varied plant life that had sprung up and apparently flourished in the forest.

There also looked to be a good number of tracks leading towards the path up to the mountain, and only a couple pairs that lead away from it. With nothing else to do, I opted to follow the tracks leading away to see where, if anywhere, they lead.

The gentle wind carried with it the aromas of pine needles, fresh grasses and the sounds of birds and bugs that buzzed or made other, strange sounds. The sun, having been hidden away behind the trees, was much more bearable and I found myself cooling a little -while the sun that did manage to get through kept me from becoming too cold.

The subtle crunching of plant life under my steel toed boots was a welcome change of pace to the sounds of the cave, or even before that, the sounds of heavy construction. I was by no means a nature-lover, I had spent most of my natural life in a city or town of some degree, so I always had the buildings and noise pollution to keep me company. Out here, there wasn’t really anything that I found familiar, and through that I found some semblance of peace.

As I delved deeper into the forest, I was lead towards a relatively small clearing in the middle of the trees, with many bushes lining the edge and a pair of vaguely familiar fillies zipping around between the foliage. I could hear the squeaks of their cute little voices, but couldn’t understand what they were talking about even a little.

Getting a little closer, I stuck to the treeline and merely observed, simply to try and get an idea of what it was they were doing. The white furred one poked her head out of a bush nearby, her mouth flapping and stained red as she looked out over the meadow for her sister. A noise from her mouth and the blue one popped out of a bush a dozen feet away, her muzzle somehow stained even darker blue and even had splotches of it in her lighter blue hair.

~~~

All eyes were suddenly on the oldest princesses, who both blushed to themselves but nodded to the silent question.

~~~

What are they eating? I wondered to myself, trying to get a little closer without being detected however a snapped branch stopped me short and my eyes became pinpricks. The ponies apparently heard the same thing and their heads shot towards the sound coming from the forest line with fear in their eyes.

They weren’t looking in my direction. They weren’t even looking in the direction of the mountain cave.

The two of them carefully climbed out of their bushes with berries clinging to their fur, or staining them, and approached the middle of the meadow with eyes trained in the same direction I was facing, directly away from me. From the treeline came a massive black bear lumbering towards the two ponies in the middle of the meadow.

I don’t know anything about bear attacks! I thought to myself in the few moments of clarity before panic would begin to set in. Just, don’t run! Don’t run! I urged myself and began to back away slowly while making mental notes about the largest of trees I could… No, they were all pretty barren and I wouldn’t be able to climb them. Then the reminder that I wasn’t alone out here stopped me in my retreat.

Those two were probably going to die.

That bear was likely hunting them, they were going to die and I was going to run away.

They’re not my problem. They should have been watched by their par- Those two were part of the Caretaker’s group, weren’t they? They don’t have parents.

“Fuck!” I hissed to myself and while the girls both slowly backed away in fear, I stupidly stepped forward out of the trees to try and establish myself as more more fearsome predator to the bear.

I was going to die trying to save a pair of little horse things I hadn’t ever even met. At least I had weapon options…

Arming myself with my hammer, spinning it so the claw was forward for good penetration, I opened my mouth and spoke, “Hey there, buddy. You looking for a light snack?” I mustered up the best fake grin I could as the fillies spun around with eyes even wider as they found themselves pinned down from both sides, only one was a bear and the other was something they’d never seen before armed with something else they’d never seen before.

The bear finally noticed me and seemed to narrow its eyes at me, as though warning me off from his potential snack but he persisted and drew nearer.

I stopped and the girls chose me as the relatively safer option, bolting behind my legs to use me as a wall. Or decoy while they escaped if I proved ineffective in combat…

“Why don’t you go pick on something your own size?” I suggested a little louder and with hand clenched around the grip of my hammer to keep the sweat from making it slip out of my grasp. The bear seemed to take this idea into consideration as he reared up on his hind legs, now towering over me by a good couple feet.

“Right…” I mumbled to myself as I stared up at the aggressive bruin. “I suppose I am something more your size, aren’t I?” I gave a sigh as the beast dropped back down onto all four and charged at me and my apparent charges, roaring at me in the process.

I spun on my feet and swept the kids up off the ground, only to launch myself into a shoulder roll just as a black paw came down where I almost was and hit the ground.

“Don’t run.” I warned as I set the two shaking fillies down on the ground, not entirely sure if they could understand me anyways, but at least I felt better having given them both my warning. I addressed the bear once again and evaluated my chances of living, even with my weapon.

The bear, having slid past without a meal on its claws, had to take a second to collect itself and attack again, giving me enough time to lower myself into a vague wrestling stance.

I was going to wrestle a bear… Yeah, I was going to die.

Anyways, against all odds and better judgement, I managed to take hold of the charging bear and stretched my legs out behind me, thereby putting my entire weight down on the creature’s head. The subsequent grounding gave me just enough time to bring the head of my hammer down on the back of the head of the creature under me with all the strength of seven years of framing afforded me.

The strangest thing happened when I hit the bear, by the way. See, when I hit it the first time with the hammer, nothing extra happened. I just whacked it with the hammer and raised the weapon up to do it again. The second time, I brought it back down again to do as much damage as I could while on the bear’s head and imagine my surprise when a flower of ice erupted from the strike, sort of enlarging the head of the hammer for me for a third strike.

A strike which never came as the bear managed to lift itself back up and threw me from it’s back over its shoulder with an accompanying roar. I hit the ground and bounced a few times before landing on my back in quite a bit of pain although thankfully the saw had been thrown free of my belt and as such, I didn’t find myself with a longer ass crack.

I was given only a second of internally bawling before the sight and sound of a charging bear had me roll to my left a couple times to avoid death. Ending up on my chest, I stood and was about to avoid when the mammal swung out at me and knocked me away with its claws, cutting deep gashes into my chest and cutting a couple straps of my harness all at once.

“Mister monkey!” I heard the two fillies scream as I ragdolled across the ground a little before coming to a stop on my back with a groan while my nerves all screamed at me to just lie there and die. “Nim yeresta!” No idea what they said, but they said it with such conviction that it was absolutely empowering.

I rolled over and pushed myself up to find the two horn heads firing little beams of yellow and blue light at the bear, striking it in the side though it only seemed to irritate the behemoth.

“R-” I coughed up a mouthful of blood and had to clear it out before I could continue. Great, internal bleeding now… “Run!” I shouted as best I could despite my weak voice. I hauled myself to my feet with the hammer almost slipping free from my grasp, but the adorable faces of the fillies with their conviction to save me kept the weapon from slipping. “I’ll hold it off!”

“Nim! Nim!” the slightly larger white one shouted back and fired her horn again, striking the bear in the paw which only served to cause a little sizzle as I willed my legs to move faster and faster.

With a roar of my own, I lifted the hammer up over my head in both hands and put all my strength into the temporarily distracted bear and brought the hammer head down on the neck of the bear.

I was weak, I was dying, and the hammer flew from my grasp when it hit the meaty flesh of the bear when it turned to end me all at once. It head butted me, charging through me and into a tree where I was forced to let out a very manly squeak upon contact with the trunk.

“Nim!” both girls screamed out in fear and anger as I slumped to the ground, too battered to fight any longer. The two of them both took aggressive stances and charged their horns with as much magic as they could muster before pouring it all into the bear as a pair.

The bear seemed to have lost all interest in me as it suddenly whirled around on it’s new aggressors who’d just barreled in from the forest line, only a half dozen coming in from above on wings of fucking angels. Or pegasi, they work too.

“Worry not, we help. We save.” a voice shouted into my ear, though it sounded more like a whisper in the ear that they had spoken into. I wasn’t sure, it could’ve been hallucinations but I swear I saw most of the herd from the cave rush into the meadow with the hornheads glowing with power.

“Save-”

~~~

“‘Well, obviously you didn’t die, because you're right there.” Rainbow complained as Hybrid took a moment to pull a mouthful of water from the glass that had been put before him. “So, is that it? That’s how you met the Princesses? I thought you were their father?”

Swallowing, “I am, but that’s only a little part of how I met my daughters. As you may recall, I never gave names, nor did I ever call them my daughters.” Hybrid remarked simply and placed one hand on his lap while the other gently played with his glass. “Anyways, no, I didn’t die from that little event. Besides, I haven’t even brought up The Day of Black Sun.”

~~~

The feeling of weightlessness was the first thing to greet me this time. Opening my eyes, I found I was lying on my back staring up at the ceiling of the cave and I could only lie and wonder how I got back here. Moving my hand to clear something from my face told me I was floating in a pool of water as the sound of moving liquids and tiny droplets struck me on the nose, giving me something else to wipe from my skin.

Turning my head to get a sense of where I truly was, I found that while I was still in a cave (not the same cave as before, nor in a section of cave I’d explored in my wanderings), I was mostly alone if it wasn’t for the two little forms of the two fillies I’d helped save floating nearby on their own backs with eyes closed and forelegs crossed over their chests.

The pool that the three of us were floating in was certainly large, had to be at least thirty feet in diameter though looking down past my shoulder had me wonder if the pool seemed to only be a foot deep, or if it was a trick of the eyes brought on by light reflections originating from… somewhere that made me think that the bottom of the pool was only a foot down. That being said, the two fillies were floating on their backs like otters near to each other, but far enough out of reach of me that I’d have to tap into my imaginary olympic swimming skills to reach.

“Hello?” I called out, swishing the water around with my hair as my voice echoed around the room, bouncing off every stone, ceiling and floor. “Is anyone there?”

“You not wake yet.” The whisper was that of one of the fillies near to me, but I couldn’t quite tell which one. “Injured bad, sleep more.”

“Oh okay.” I breathed out in a single breath and closed my eyes once more, clasping my hands together and laying them across where I remember the bear’s claws raking across me. The action provoked a thought to me: what had happened to that injury, exactly?

Opening my eyes again, I glanced down at my bare chest I found three things: One, I was completely naked and that the water felt great on my bare ass, and three, there was only a trio of diagonal scars running from my left shoulder to my right side. Only the thing was, the scars themselves looked like they were the only remains of maybe a small knife barely cutting the skin; they didn’t look like a massive bear claw had nearly gutted me.

“How am I completely healed so quickly? Presuming that it has been a quick healing?” I asked next, remaining perfectly calm in this serene environment.

“Waters of Life, heal everything.” Came the response from the second filly floating near the first. Sisters, perhaps?

“Waters of Life, huh? Sounds like some kind of legend if you ask me.” I sighed and went back to merely floating in the water. “How long have we been in here?”

“Long time.” The first female replied in short form; though, of course, the words she spoke were almost three times longer. “Someone comes find us soon.”

“Got’cha.” I mumbled back and settled in to float in silence some more, not a care in the world.

What felt like at least two hours later, water ripples lapping against me roused me from my nap and nudged me away from the origin a little bit with each crest. The ponies near to me seemed to be talking about something, and if my “Alien Translation and Communications” skills were anything to be proud of (hah!), I could sort of (not-really) make out the confusion and vague worry in their voices.

“Is something the matter?” I kept my eyes closed and remained unmoving while I spoke, though a few more gentle waves broke over my left arm and side as the two females supposedly moved in some way.

“Late. Should not gone long.” The white one explained, though I only pinpointed the voice’s owner when I turned my head and opened the eye that wasn’t suddenly immersed in water. The blue one was barely breaking the surface, the bottom half of her muzzle under water and the top half dry as she paddled around the pond contently.

“So… where are the adults?” I wondered out loud next, no longer able to rest as my mind was filled with wonderings about who left us here, why no one was coming back, and where my clothes were. At least the water was cold enough that I wouldn’t have to teach a pair of children about biology.

“Don’t know.” The white one replied as she and her friend began swimming towards the shore. I flipped over onto my chest and hissed to myself as my scars began to sting a little bit in the water, but swam the pace regardless and identified my possessions sitting on some rocks nearby to the shore.

With a huff of effort mixed with relief, I aimed myself towards the new destination while the blue one hit land and pulled herself out. Shaking herself off like a puppy, the blue one was left with fluffed out fur and water sprayed everywhere, hopefully not having landed on my clothing.

While the white one joined the blue one, I hastily pulled myself up and over the lip of the pool and skittered across the floor in long strides to grab my underwear and pants, pulling those on first before doing anything else. Of course, doing so meant that both became soaked as I hadn’t been able to dry off. Without much in the way of options, I used my shirt to dry the rest of my body and took a moment to check out my new chest scars.

Slinging my toolbelt around my torso and doing up the buckles, I draped my shirt over my shoulder like some silly runway model and addressed the two with me and found them mostly dry, ready to go and waiting on me.

“Any idea how long we’ve been here?” I asked, looking around for the medallion that I’d had been wearing. I found it in one of the tan leather pockets of my tool belt and draped it over my neck as well, centering the medallion over my scars. Had to say, it looked pretty cool for such a simple and effeminate thing.

“Long time. Come, we go.” the blue one requested this time, waving towards an open section of the cavern with a hoof while her friend lead the way. With nothing else to go off of, I nodded and followed after while doing everything in my power to try and mentally record every little detail in my mind about where I was.

The cave soon ended with a window to the outside, and given by the shadows on the ground, I figured we’d had to have been in there for a whole day, or not long at all for the shadows to have apparently only moved a little bit since I’d first left a cavern.

“So, what. We were in there for a full day?” I wondered aloud and braced myself on the edge of the cave opening with a hand to the wall to peer out into the surrounding landscape. It took me a minute or so of trying, but I was able to orient myself to where I approximately was.

If I had it correct, I must’ve been about a kilometer away from the cave opening where the other horse things had set up camp which would’ve been on our left at the moment.

“Guess half day, close to sleep time ad best.” The pink hair glanced around for a path down and soon found the closest thing to a path being a straight shot down a rough hill that looked ready to slide at a moment’s notice. She approached her companion and spoke to her in their language for a bit before the two lined up at the edge with clear intentions to jump and slide down.

“Okay hold on,” I cried out and swept down to scoop the two up off their hooves, carrying them by their barrels like a pair of footballs. “I still have so many questions, and there’s got to be a safer way down that just sliding down…” I glanced down at the treacherous slide. “Down that...”

“No choice, must fall.” white one replied, hanging completely limply in my arms while her friend looked to be preoccupied with examining my hand and arm; she kicked her hooves out a bit and caught them on my pouches, ensnaring herself almost completely.

Noticing her fighting, I lifted her up and out of the pouch before returning her to a more secure carry under my arm.

“Fine, then i’m sliding. My pants will keep us from getting injured all over again.” I announced and worked myself to a seated position with my legs hanging over the near-sheer drop-away. Adjusting the girls so they were both over my chest, just in case I’d have to curl up and roll down, I inched forward with hesitant trepidation and drew in a deep breath.

The girls both stared down the trip with eager grins and shifted around in anticipation, though the fear was still gripping me from earlier.

“God, fucking dammit.” I whispered to myself and took the plunge, bucking my hips forwards until I didn’t have anything to buck forwards onto.

The girls whooped and hollered while I held in most of my screams of terror. I did have the sense of mind to keep leaning backwards with my legs bent to act as a buffer for anything large that I could either push off of to avoid, or almost jump over given the angle at which we were sliding.

Honestly, it felt like I was in some kind of video game, avoiding large boulders or the stray bush which defied the laws of nature and grew through a crack in the rocky surface. I did seem to hit the interim level when I came to a halt on a tree trunk, landing with my feet and coming to an abrupt halt, breathing heavily.

“Why stop?” the girls both giggled in my arms, but it was the blue one who spoke up to me with those adorably blue pleading eyes

“I’m getting sore from taking all those rock hard boulders in the ass.”

~~~

The girls were all, once again, on the floor laughing their asses off with Celestia and Luna both giggling away like schoolgirls at the very early memory. Hybrid had to sigh to himself as he caught what he’d said to make even Sen smirk at him.

“Okay, ya had to have done that’n on purpose!” Applejack gasped from where she’d fallen over, her hat having been thrown aside in the landing near to Rainbow who was too busy busting a gut to even breathe.

“No, that one was accidental.” Hybrid mumbled to himself, rubbing at the back of his head with a hand while he swirled the trickle of water left in his glass. He muttered something to himself under his breath before taking a lungful of air to calm himself down.

“Anyways,” he continued,

~~~

I suppose it was through grace alone that the two girls didn’t seem to understand the innuendo I’d let slip and decided to keep it that way by never speaking of it again. Anyways, after a few minutes of rest and massaging my ass to restore some feeling and ensure that my pants hadn’t ripped in the process, I took another deep breath and leapt from the trunk of the tree with the girls once they were ready again.

The rest of the slide was just as the same, a game of avoiding the larger, dangerous objects and occasionally stopping to restore feeling in my ass before continuing. Soon enough, we finally came to a rest and as an added bonus, I hadn’t lost any of my tools in the process.

Setting the ecstatic girls back down, the both of them hopped around chanting “Again, again, again, again!” over and over again before I sighed and held my hands palm out to settle the two.

“Maybe later, okay? We should find the rest of your kind. And, you both still owe me some answers.” I announced, pushing my hands into my jeans’ pockets all too casually.

“Food?” The little ball of blinding white asked eagerly, suddenly hopping up to prop herself against my right leg while the blue ball of adorable propped herself up on my left shin.

“I’ve got nothing, best I can do is maybe help you forage for food.” I replied with a show of empty hands. The two fillies took these words to heart and shared a glance, an unintelligible word, then took off into the forest. Throwing a hand up after them in exhaustion, “Really?”

With a shake of the head, I planted my hands down protectively over my tools and took off after a light jog behind them, intent on trying to keep some kind of pace with them as best I could. The two youngsters eventually disappeared into the treeline out of sight, however the squealing and general horse-sounds kept me going in the vaguely correct direction.

To my surprise, I found myself breaking out of the treeline where we’d been attacked by the bear, if the dead bear carcass was anything to go by anyways, and it took me a moment to identify the movements in the nearby bushes as bodies wriggling around in them rather than the wind rustling them.

“Okay,” no names, right. “You two, wherever you are,” I worked at projecting my voice out a ways without raising it, just in case anything else wanted to come and make for a repeat of… however long ago the bear attack was. “Let’s not forget this is hostile territory.” I added as I approached the prone body of the bear and gently kicked it with a foot to see if it’d move.

Nothing, thank god. Passing around the corpse, I approached the bushes and nearly lost myself right then and there as I finally made out what the girls had been staining themselves with earlier.

The wonderful sights of blueberries and raspberries. Granted, the Raspberry bushes, for as full as they were, was currently being assaulted by a tiny white miniature horse and the blueberries were being equally ransacked by the blue one.

I had nearly lost myself in the wonders of the berries as I began working at picking the ripest of the raspberries from near the top of the bushes, which were all as tall as I was standing at five foot nine, and stuffing the ones that didn’t make it into my mouth into my pouches before moving onto the blueberries to raid their stores just as equally.

“Food?” the girls both poked their heads out of their respective bushes again, their muzzles stained red or blueish purple according to their snacks. Sure, mine was probably nearing the same level of colouration, but I still had a way to go before I was as red as the Raspberries or Blueberries themselves.

“Oh yeah, definitely food.” I grinned back and stuffed another handful into my pouches. The girls seemed to pick up on what I was doing, and soon began depositing hooffuls of their own pickings from the lower branches into my pouches.

As a thought, I tried an idea. Picking up a raspberry, I held it up to the red-muzzled one and got her attention with a snap of the fingers. “Raspberry.” I enunciated slowly and clearly.

“Mastanema.” she replied with a tilted head, wondering what I was getting on about.

“No no, Raspberry.” I tried again, hoping she’d get it.

“Ra-. Rasp… Rasp-nema?” she tried, her words coming out strangely and blended with her own language.

“Rasp,” I began, separating the words this time. She repeated it slowly, looking at me with wide, uncertain eyes as though a child who was simply mimicking sounds rather than pronouncing words. “Berry.”

“Bawwy.” the little tike repeated as best she could, a firm nod of the head showing confusion or confidence.

“Berry.” I tried again, parroting myself now.

“Bewwy.” yet again she repeated, yet again failing ever so slightly, though she was slowly getting it.

“Ber- -ry.” I drew the word out this time, separating it into syllables in hopes that that would work.

“Ber…” she began, lifting my hopes. “...wy?” I dropped my head and lightly flicked the sweet little treat at the filly, making it bounce off her nose and to the ground.

“Raspberry.” the little blue one surprised me completely as she echoed the entire word perfectly, almost verbatim. I dropped my jaw and looked down at the blue one who held a fat, ripe blueberry up to me in her little hoof. “Raspberry.”

“No no, that’s a Blueberry.” I grinned and switched students, now squatting before the younger of the two. Raspberry seemed to lose interest in the english lessons and went back to foraging, using my pockets as her storage units.

“Buu…” she began, and I held a finger up to pause her effort.

“Blue, bloo, bluu.” I started over, at this point just making funny sounds to try and find something that caught on with her.

“Bluu..” she droned out, testing the sounds with her mouth and a little adorable frown before looking back up at me. “Blueberry?” she asked with a raised eyebrow of confusion. I cheered and pumped my arms into the air in victory.

“Yes! That’s a Blueberry!” I replied, sweeping the little thing off the ground and into the air, swinging her around like a toddler. She squealed at first, then got into the swing of things and began giggling much like a toddler would’ve done with her little legs splayed outwards.

“Blueberry! Blueberry! Blueberry! Raspberry!” she chanted almost like a mantra, before I set her down at the insistent prodding by the other one.

“Bloooooberry?” she almost got it, so close! But most heart wrenching of all was the look on her face, the kind of look like she was searching for approval, for recognition from someone older than her, someone who cared. Good god I nearly died of a heart attack right then and there.

“So close,” I began with a grin, setting the one in my arms down to go back to my attempts with the older one. “Not so long, okay?” I requested. Her sister came down and joined her friend, sitting down next to me like my little assistant.

“Blue,” she recited, getting a similar response from the white, pink and red one. “Berry.” Perfect recitation.

“Blue, berry.” the older tried again, before putting the two together. “Blueberry.” I let out a celebratory clap and a massive grin became fixed on my features at the successes we were making. She pointed at the blue girl, and tried again. “Blueberry.”

Close enough, I say. Pointing to herself, she thought a moment, furrowing her brows in contemplation before looking up at me. “Raspberry?”

“Sure, you can be a Raspberry.” I grinned and ruffled the mane of both girls before looking down at the blue one. “And you can be a Blueberry.”

“Raspberry,” Blueberry pointed to her friend, while Raspberry pointed to the other.

“Blueberry.” she announced, earning a giggle from each child as I gave a celebratory Yes in exclamation.

For the next half hour of collecting berries, the two of them repeated the word every time they either picked a berry, deposited a berry into my pouches, or deposited a berry into their mouths.

As the day grew long, and the sun didn’t move, my pouches filled to capacity and we stood full and grinning like idiots. Sitting on nearby stones to digest, the girls seemed to get the idea of using my own trick against me and both circled around to face me.

“You teach us names, we teach you names, yes?” Raspberry requested eagerly, looking to Blue for an agreement which she got.

“Sure, go for it.” I gave an agreeing nod, just in case and got comfortable where I sat.

Pointing to herself, “Alia.” Why didn’t this translate with whatever was in my head? Oh well, that made this easier. Pointing to Blueberry, “Aylin.”

“Alia,” I was genuinely surprised to find that these words were so easy to say, though I made sure to gesture towards the correct child per name. Alia nodded affirmatively, and I swung to gesture towards Aylin. “Aylin.” she nodded as well.

“Alia et Raspberry,” Aylin explained in a mixture of languages. “Aylin et Blueberry.” we all nodded agreement and sat back at our simple victories.

“What does Alia and Aylin mean?” I wondered aloud, mentally wondering if they could explain. Both girls merely remained silent, however they each shoot a hoof straight upwards, then looked up to aim a little better. Alia aimed towards the sun, and Aylin had to work a little harder at finding, but eventually aimed at, the moon.

“Oh, Alia is sun, Aylin is moon?” The puzzle only pieced itself together after a minute of silence while I thought to myself to try and figure out what they were actually pointing to. Could’ve been the sky, could’ve been the trees, could’ve been some random insect that Aylin was pointing at and I wouldn’t have gotten it.

As it happens, my guesses were spot on and both girls beamed at how quickly things were progressing. Clapping their little hooves together at our victories, we soon began spending the next couple vague hours (seriously, what the hell is with the sun not moving?) pointing at things and teaching each other our languages.

By the time we had decided to return to the pony camp (that’s another thing I was taught, they’re called ponies. Alia and Aylin are both unicorns, which I should’ve picked up on immediately, thinking about it now), we had learned enough things that we could point out most forest items and name them in both languages. The climb up the side of the mountain was just as eye opening as we began identifying things like rocks, boulders, mountain, cave, passage, goat, mountain lion (that was a long way away and I had to describe with charades) and other things.

Soon enough, we came across the mouth of the cave and delved inside, already feeling the cool air of the underground cavern through our bodies given that we were no longer under the influence of the Alia.

“Alia and Aylin,” Aylin began, in english, as she stared at the ground in thought. “Est sis… ters…” she explained, motioning between herself and her apparent sibling. I listened with rapt attention as she and Alia spoke about their situations being Lone Ones. “Famia,” I corrected her on this, “familia,” close enough, “attacked, protect Alia, protect Aylin.”

“I’m so sorry, it must have been terrible.” I replied with fullest condolences, placing my apologies on the backs of both heads with my hands as we walked deeper into the cave.

“Don’t remember, too young.” Alia sighed as she plodded alongside me, opposite her sister. “Barely speak.”

“Oh, I see, so you’ve never had any kind of parents that you remember?”

“Nim, ven shet torestaneb Gol’steq lin vec.” Alia explained, telling me that for as long as they could remember, the Caretaker had been their stand-in parental unit. Speak of the devil, the first group we could see as we entered into the main settlement was the group of children playing in the area around the Caretaker who was busy helping aid a filly who looked to have scraped her knee on something.

As before, the same croppings of random plantations sat where they had been however long ago when I left, a dozen fires strewn about the gargantuan room with circles of ponies visiting around them.

“You two!” I could actually understand the Default pony mare as she trotted up towards the three of us, though I suspected she was talking to Alia and Aylin. “Where have you been?”

“Cave of Health.” Aylin reported in English, dropping the mouth of the mare who’d come to get them. She looked up at me, and I shrugged in reply. She scowled, setting me back a step at the sudden hostility as she pulled Alia and Aylin away from my with her hooves. “You left us there, remember?” the translations were coming in much fuller now as I’d been taught the translations by the sisters.

“You speak in it’s tongue! This is unacceptable!” the mare insisted, scolding the two for picking up a few lessons and spending time in education. There’s a twist, huh? “It is dangerous! It fights brown demons! It can hurt you!”

“He saved us from the bear.” Aylin returned sharply, yanking her hoof away from the mare as did Raspberry.

“Nim, We saved you from the demon, he was nearly killed! He is not suitable for staying!” Oh, I did not like where this was going. I narrowed my eyes and made to follow, try to protest, intervene or protect myself, however a small gathering of about seven or eight ponies, three who were unicorns, one who was a pegasus and the others were defaults, appeared and halted my approach.

“I have to help those two!” I insisted, holding a hand over their heads to indicate to the girls who were being led away, almost forcefully as they too began to protest and pull away though their strength did not match their elder and were dragged towards the Caretaker.

“No, you must go, stranger. You bring your strange ways, you force your dirty language upon those two, you carry an instrument of destruction with you.” The apparent herd leader explained with darkened eyes and a lowered head, as tough preparing to charge me. The group collectively lowered their heads or spread their wings, all with just as grim looks on their faces.

Let's see if this would turn their minds, “Nim, seo thek nim nev’ohra!” I shouted, earning a surprised gasp from those nearby and even from those who were further away who could hear me from their positions. “Seo thek vor’nattel!”

“Do not dirty our tongue with your foul mouth, creature!” the leader roared, rearing back to her rear hooves and flailing her forelegs about to force me further backwards. “You are no friend of ours! Begone!” and with that, the entire group forced me backwards the way I’d come, towards the mouth of the cave.

A look over their angry shoulders showed a pair of teary-eyed fillies named Alia and Aylin being hauled away by the mare.

What could I have done? Should I stay and fight? Should I have tried to reason with them? What could I have done, but willingly leave the cavern, leave the girls behind who’d taught me so much in only however many hours? I didn’t want to, but what were my options?

So, I left. I kept my head held high and my back straight. I don’t know what possessed me to do so, but at the last moment, I spun on my heels, dug into my pockets and extracted one Raspberry and one Blueberry, then chucked those motherfuckers as hard as I could. The girls apparently saw me do this and broke free, sprinting hard after me but came to a stop where the berries landed and watched through bleary eyes as I took my leave from the cave entirely.

~~~

The room was silent, not a sound was heard as Hybrid looked over the solemn faces of the girls he’d only just met. Gone were the smiling faces, the laughter, the joy. Celestia and Luna looked to be only a little better, clearly remembering the memories just as the storyteller was, only from their own perspectives.

“So…” Twilight’s voice was barely a whisper, but it still sounded like standing next to a jet engine. “That was how you met the Princesses? But, at what point did you become their father? Why were their names Alia and Aylin?”

“Alia and Aylin are both their Albionic names. I didn’t realise until much later that they vaguely meant Celestia and Luna.” Hybrid explained, just as low-toned but sounding just as loud. “They didn’t become my daughters until much, much later.”

“I do hope that the story picks up a bit after your… departure…” Rarity hopefully looked up from her teacup.

“Not for… Oh, I’d say about three years.” Hybrid sighed and leaned back, putting the depressing thoughts aside, no matter how often they’d come back to haunt him. “I wasn’t allowed to see Tia and Luna for three years, even though I’d set up my own camp at the base of the mountain, in the patch which earned them their nicknames.

Arc One: Day of Black Sun, Chapter One: Part Two

With the final nail driven into the timber, I sat up from the topmost rafter which would eventually hold the cross pieces for the clay tiles that had been in the kilns for the last nine hours. Using my old shirt as a rag, I wiped off the sweat from my brow and dipped a hand into one of my back pouches for a handful of berries which were quickly popped into my mouth and devoured.

Swinging a leg over the beam I had been straddling, I pulled myself up to standing and carefully made my way over to the temporary ladder which would lead me down to the attic floor below me. The climb was easy, having done it at least twelve times in the last two days, and soon I was back on solid ground once my feet hit the planks I’d hewn myself.

Crossing the attic to the hole in the floor which would drop down to the second floor, I climbed down through that and took the nearby stairs down to the first floor once I’d detoured into my room to leave my toolbelt behind; I did keep my hammer on me for defensive purposes. Passing by a custom wooden kitchen outfit of a table and a couple wooden chairs, some cabinets and basic home amenities only possible through modern creativity and Neolithic technologies. Sucking in a deep breath of cool air, I crossed over to the large slabs of stone plates standing near to the kitchen counters and pulled open the lower door to retrieve a ceramic jug of water.

Closing the door on the fridge, I pulled open the freezer door (though I had to physically set aside since it wasn’t on any kind of hinge) and pulled out a slab of frozen wolf meat from next to the amulet that kept the whole house cool in the never-ending summer heat. Setting the jug and the slab aside, I replaced the freezer door before moving the slab of meat outside to the side of the building in direct sunlight.

Spreading the slab out next to it’s thawing friends, I instead retrieved the slab that was already dripping juices so I could hang it off the fire spit a short walk away.

That done, I sat my ass down on a nearby stone I’d rolled in to relax on and watch my lunch cooking. Scratching at my impressive beard and sideburns, I let my mind wander to how I was becoming more and more like a true mountain man.

A rustling coming from the direction of the cave alerted me to a potential predator, or as I recently took to calling them, food, so I stood quickly and armed myself with my hammer and stood at the ready.

My ears trained, my eyes picking out every little detail in a search for something that didn’t look right, something out of place, I waited in silence while the steaks sizzled behind me.

“This should be place.” A female voice mumbled to whoever was following her. I narrowed my eyes and watched as bushes moved and tall grass parted letting through my newest visitors though something in my mind told me that something was familiar about that voice, only older. “Sure you saw smoke?”

“Yes sister, it should be here somewhere.” The sister replied, surprisingly her voice being the one that sparked the recognition in me.

There they were, tumbling out of the bushes going heads over forelegs and ending up either on their back or on their face. Same white fur and pink mane, same duelling tones of blue on the other. Biggest difference this time is that where before I could carry them like footballs, they were just big enough that I’d realistically only be able to carry one of them at a time.

“You two?” I asked, lowering my guard and holstering my weapon in it’s well-worn hole in my jeans. “What’re you two doing here?”

“Raspberries.” “Blueberries.” the two replied over each other as they collected themselves with grins on their faces. “Hello Bear-man!”

“Hello girls, it’s nice to see you again.” I smiled warmly and crouched down onto my knees to wrap my arms around their necks once they’d gotten close enough to do so. “Look at you both, you’ve gotten so big!”

“You too!” Alia giggled and poked at my chest, marvelling slightly at how much resistance it gave back to her hoof. “You look like stallion!”

“Male, or guy, or man.” I reminded, earning nods from Aylin and her sister. “But thank you. Three years of building my homestead will do that, I suppose.”

“Show us!” Aylin squeaked as she jumped onto my back, wrapping her forelegs over my shoulder and placing her head against my neck to nuzzle into me. “Missed you!”

“And I missed you both as well.” I beamed and stood with Aylin on my back, Alia followed along to my left to avoid the campfire and what she noticeably identified as meat cooking on it. “How’ve you been?”

“‘Good~” both fillies sang back with grins on their faces as I pushed open the door to my stone and wooden house to let them in. As soon as they entered, the cool interior of the house washed over them, making them suddenly shiver at the temperature change but all three of us acclimated soon enough.

“How cold?” Aylin asked as she backflipped off my back to land on her hooves and walk around the first floor with her family.

“This,” I replied, stepping across the floor to the freezer and pulled the door open to show off the medallion. “I’ve got neolithic ductwork running throughout the house to keep it cool with the Ice Aspect I picked up when I first arrived.”

~~~

“Ice. Aspect.” Twilight stared directly at me from over the pages she’d been writing on. “You found an Aspect of the Natural realm. And you used it as a freezer and air conditioning?!” she screeched, hooves up and on the table with her friends working to calm her down.

“That’s not even the worst I’ve used an Aspect for. Wait till I tell you about what I did with the Wind Aspect.” Hybrid grinned from where he sat before leaning back to continue.

~~~

Shutting the freezer door again, I took to the makeshift living room where I’d fashioned seating from weaving together vines and plant matter to create the seats while I used sturdy branches as the supports. Without using any nails or fasteners beyond lashings, I managed to create a couple of lounge-like chairs that could recline and even a longer couch for those afternoon naps.

“How build all this?” Aylin asked as she climbed up onto one of the loungers while I sprawled out on my couch. Alia took the other recliner and sat back on her backside with her hooves sticking up in the air. Her sister noticed this and went to imitate, soon snuggling herself into the backrest comfortably.

“Years of practice, research and improvements.” I replied with a sigh and placed a hand over my face lightly. “Took me… I’d say, three months to figure out weaving, then another two months to build working seating that wouldn’t collapse under me.”

“The…” Alia swept her hooves around her in awe and admiration. Clearly, she’d never seen anything like this before and I couldn’t blame her.

“House, building, dwelling, living space, home.” I listed off in suggestion so that the two had something to call the place.

“Those. How?” Alia nodded back while Aylin got up to look over the back of the chair and at the wood stairs nearby leading upwards to my bedroom and beyond.

“Well, the stone foundation took me about a year to research. After that, learning to frame without fasteners, cut logs into planks by hand, all that took me up till now. I only recently learned to craft pottery and make clay shingles.” I explained thoughtfully, looking back on my time here with a sigh of contentment. I truly had learned a lot in the last three years on my own, learning to survive only on what I could bake, take or create with my own two hands.

“Up?” Aylin requested, hopping down from her seat to approach the stairs and looked up at them curiously.

“Yeah okay.” I waved her off and soon joined her once I’d pulled myself off the couch to follow her and her sister.

The stairs sat against the back wall from the main door, near to a window I’d created and had draped woven curtains over to keep light out when I needed to. Perpendicular to the stairs sat a backdoor which lead to a small garden I'd used early on for research and now had decent crops growing; the berry bushes were also out in that direction, easily accessible.

The stairs had taken quite a bit of work to figure out and ensure stability, but soon I had the heavy cut logs set and in place, never to move unless I really wanted them to. Taking them up to the second floor lead first to an L-shaped hallway, with the shorter leg leading to a basic washroom of sorts and the longer leg leading to my bedroom, a storage room and the ladder up to the unfinished attic.

The washroom itself was… Well, it was a hole in the wall with stone plates held in place with baked clay running straight down the exterior of the building into a deep dark hole I had turned into a fertilizer/compost thing for my crops. Or burned on those rare days when it actually got a little colder… Weather was a blessing in this world, okay? I kept a full pot of water for when I had to use the facilities, simply because automatic flushing wasn’t a thing yet.

My room was what it sounded like, a bedroom. Four walls, a window to let the sun or any cool breeze in, and a thickly woven curtain to block out the sunlight when I wanted to sleep. The bed was a bit trickier to make, the frame was easy, but weaving over a kilometer of twine to create the “mattress” wasn’t fun in the slightest. Still, felt great to relax on after I’d completed the weaving spread between the frame. Even had a bearskin sleeping bag to use as a blanket.

The girls all took to exploration, Alia warning Aylin away from the bathroom when she stuck her nose into the room and quickly joined her sister at looking in my room. Both fillies took to my bed like flies to honey once Aylin had climbed up onto it and settled herself down on something comfortable as grass. I scooted them over and rolled onto the bed as well, ending up on my side with the bearskin acting as a rolled up pillow for the time being.

Aylin and Alia both looked to have calmed down so quickly that I briefly wondered if they’d suddenly died. A quick check of their sides showed that they’d apparently just flaked out unbelievably quickly, an option that seemed quite inviting to me if it wasn’t for the fact that I had lunch cooking outside.

Still, a nap couldn’t hurt.

Actually, it could. I don’t eat shoe leather steaks. Realistically, I should go and check on the food now, make sure it wasn’t burning to death.

But, they were so cute! All huddled up and nestled into each other on the bed, looking completely relaxed. Hell, I could actually see their bodies begin to unwind as they slept. What had they gone through in the last three years to make them so tense at what I assumed was such a tender age?

Carefully rolling off the bed so that I didn’t wake the two, I made my way downstairs and outside into the sunlight to check on my dinner’s progress, finding it to have gotten to rare at best. Using a stick I often used for cooking, I flipped the steak over to get the other side cooking a bit more and returned inside to get started on the rest of lunch. I also now had two guests to feed at the moment, which would mean that I’d have to harvest my vegetable garden a little sooner than I’d expected.

Pulling open the fridge, I extracted a number of vegetables for a dry salad and set them on the stone countertop then proceeded to pull out a jug of fruit juice and loaves of… well, they were supposed to be bread… I was still researching the baking…

Splashing a bit of water over the stone to keep it as clean as I could, I set to chopping the vegetables with a bit of sharp flint I’d knapped to perfection and set them in a handmade ceramic bowl for later.

Breaking the loaf into equal parts for three, or as equal as I could make them anyways, I set those aside on a large plate and as my final preparation, poured a cup of the Wildberry (and I do mean this literally, the fruits that went into this all came straight from the forest) juice into a couple of cups. Setting everything out on the table behind me on my left, I went back out to check on the steak and judged another five, maybe ten minutes of cooking to go.

Stepping back inside gave me a bit of a surprise to find both Alia and Aylin at the table, staring at the items placed on it with curiosity. Aylin poked at the bread with a hoof, as though afraid it’d bite her back or explode while Alia sniffed at the cups of juice and perked up at the flavours coming from within the cups and pitcher.

“I’m sorry, did I wake you two?” My entrance must’ve startled both girls and made them jump off the table and onto the floor with narrow eyes and ears folded back in fear. Having gathered behind one of the legs of the table for protection, the two stared at me like they’d just been found with their hooves in the cookie jar. “Easy, sorry I scared you both.” I held my hands up in a calming gesture and soon they calmed themselves and came out.

“Food?” Alia asked, nosing back up to the table for reference. I nodded. “Why look so strange?”

“It’s important to keep a healthy diet, and combining ingredients is a good way to get all the nutrition you may need all at once.” I explained and helped both fillies back up onto the table while I sat down in my solitary seat. “I have more food for myself outside cooking, since I don’t think either of you would be too interested in meat.”

“Meat?” Aylin looked up from her salad in confusion. “What is?”

“Meat is a product of killing and butchering an animal.” I explained as simply as I could. The words seemed to take a moment to translate for the girls, and I watched as the words hit home as their pupils shrunk back down and their ears dropped again. “Nothing sapient, I assure you.” I added, trying to alleviate their concerns. “I will not ever eat ponies.”

The girls continued to look at me like a monster, sitting back away from me and their dishes of food. I sighed and sat to eating my appetizer and taking a swig of the drink. They watched me eat, and seemed to wonder if what I had served them was safe for them.

Aylin seemed the more curious one, or at least the hungriest, and scooted forwards to check the salad set before her to poke at it, rifling through it to see what all was actually in it.

“Nim,” Alia warned with a whisper, holding a hoof out to stop her sister from actually touching it. “Dist.”

“I assure you it’s safe.” I announced in between mouthfuls and as a show, pushed more into my mouth.

“He hasn’t tried to make us do anything we didn’t want to do before…” Aylin whispered back in their own language, looking up to her sister for approval while her stomach quietly grumbled under her. “Please, I’m hungry…”

“I am too, but we didn’t know he ate other living creatures.” Alia whispered back, glancing to me warily while I ate. I don’t know why they’d decided to include me in the conversation, considering how I could understand them perfectly despite them using their own language. “He could be dangerous.”

“You’re not dangerous, right?” Aylin directly addressed me and I put on the act as though this was the first thing I understood them saying, just for the sake of being nice, I suppose.

“Depends on who you ask. Am I dangerous to you two? Not at all.” I shook my head firmly and set my hands down from eating to pull at the chunk of bread I had. “Am I dangerous to those who try to attack me? Yes.” I nodded to this one next, ripping off another piece and popping that into my mouth while the girls watched on.

“Am I dangerous to other ponies? Depends on if they’re hostile to me. Will I go out, hunt and kill one for food?” The girls seemed to hinge on this question more than the others as they seemed to lean forward a little. “No, I will not.”

“See? He’s a good guy!” Aylin announced and almost threw herself into her lunch ravenously before trying out the juice. I watched with curiosity as she worked with just her mouth or her hooves, never using her horn for anything. Why was that, I wondered. “Come on, try it! Is good!” Aylin squealed with a mouthful, looking up to her sister as she chomped down on a mix of lettuce, mushrooms, tomatoes and cucumber. “I’ve never even tasted some of these things!”

“It safe?” Alia glared at me again, inching forwards over the table to her bowl as she spoke.

“It is.” I assured her and cleaned out my bowl. Turning to my drink, I downed that and finished off the bread as well, then sat back to rest and digest.

Alia turned back to her bowl, then to Aylin who was greedily munching down before turning back to hers to paw at the leaves a bit, see what was buried within. A little gasp came from her as she found the hidden surprise, a handful of fresh raspberries mixed into the salad as Aylin had blueberries.

A few minutes later and I got up to pull my main course off the racks while the girls all crowded onto the couch to nap off their own meals. Bringing another partial loaf of bread with me, I stepped out into the warmth of the daylight and took in a deep breath of that familiar pine scent hanging about.

Around to the side of the building and I sat myself down on the boulder near the fire for when I was cooking and poked at the meat on the spit with the stick. Yup, done like dinner.

Tearing the bread in half along the horizontal plane, I sandwiched the folded over meat between the halves and pulled it off the flame. Instantly, the remaining juices of the wolf meat soaked into the bread with the crust the only thing keeping my hands mostly clean. Sitting back down on my stump, I leaned back against the walls of the house behind me and settled in for the feast while I gazed out over the landscape I’d claimed as my own.

Off directly ahead of me, to the west, was the grain fields I tended to in order to make my bread and oils. They had taken a bit of work as I had to find the grains wild in the plains over three kilometers away past the thick forests around me. I had, in no particular order: wheat, canola, barley, oats, rye that I was trying to figure out how to turn into whisky, and was currently researching how to make a rice paddy at a nearby pond in the forest.

The crops were growing in fairly nicely, I hoped, as I didn’t really know what they were supposed to look like healthy and fully grown. That said, the first few seasons I had harvested them a bit early, and had difficulty taking the grain from the straw. I later learned to put off the harvest for another couple months, which seemed to do the trick.

To the left, I was growing the vegetables I often used. I had planted them all in various times of the year, usually a couple months apart so that I’d almost always have something to harvest and eat when I needed them. Again, in no particular order: Cucumbers, lettuce, tomatoes, potatoes which grew like there was no tomorrow, broccoli, carrots, and asparagus. The lettuce, cucumbers, and asparagus all came from outside the forest and had been collected when I got the grains. I had recently found wild pumpkins and ate the meat of that only a few days ago, though I was still waiting for a few more weeks till I planted the seeds.

To the left of the garden, past where I could see, were the berry bushes. I had uprooted and replanted the blueberry and raspberry bushes into rows so that I could plant new strawberry plants. They hadn’t come in yet, but they were looking healthy and promising. Opposite the Blueberries, across the raspberry bushes, were a few recently planted blackberry bushes which had been hidden away in the forest to the east.

Around the house, up against the walls, I’d found and planted a few herbs that tasted similar to what I was familiar too on earth. That being said, I had a little dill, a little oregano and peppercorns planted.

Yes, I did the dangerous thing of eating random plants off the ground to see what they were. I also kept a jug of the Waters of Life nearby in case I found anything poisonous. I must’ve gone through eight whole jugs of water trying to purge my system of lethal mushrooms and plants.

I also spent about… three days, high on hallucinogens and believing that I was the king of the badgers and that they feared that if I got mad, I’d go down to their village and raze the whole place. Those were… Some… Strange days for my mental state… Plus side, I got laid. Downside, I probably had some bastard half-breed child running around the forest being made fun of by the other kids of it’s kind.

No, I never found any bastard animal offspring brought on by my high-as-a-blimp whoring.

Regardless, I did end up finding a small cave in the ground growing more mushrooms. I was more eager to try these ones since they looked almost exactly the same as what I knew on Earth to be Portobellos. Sure shooting, that’s exactly what they were. That said, I set up an underground farm for the mushrooms, and by the time Alia and Aylin had first showed up, I had a fairly decent harvest of them every few months or so.

Once I’d finished lunch entirely and had roused myself from my mental wanderings, I stood with a groan and cracked my back, entirely comfortable now with taking a nap myself, however there was the threat of rain on the distant horizon and I did not want to have an incomplete roof any longer. Heading back inside as quietly as I could to avoid waking the girls up once I’d made a drive-by check on the kilns to see how they were doing, I crept upstairs and to my room where I’d left my toolbelt and got myself strapped in once more.

Once set-up, I set to climbing into the attic with the sun beating down on my face and climbed up to where I had been, then set to work.

~~~

Enough time had apparently passed while working that my body had decided that it was dinner time, or close to. The constant nagging from the girls who played outside was also a good reminder as they explored my meager estate with intrigue. They’d even found where I’d set up my research table under a small log shelter and had spent the better portion of an hour and a half trying to decipher my language.

Climbing down from the rafters that had yet to be shingled, the girls seemed to have noticed me heading inside and raced to meet me. Ending up in a pile on the floor of my bedroom, the pair looked up at me as I pulled my tool belt off and shoulder rolled onto the bed with a groan.

“We hungry.” Aylin announced, standing tall once she’d recovered from her sister and slowly walked into the room.

“You wait until I’m comfortable to tell me this?” I asked sarcastically and draped an arm over my eyes while my left rested on my stomach. The bed shifted a bit as a second and third weight presented themselves and no sooner had the weights moved towards me, had a pair of hooves plant themselves on my chest. A second, then third and fourth pairs soon appeared and the weight shifted onto my torso.

“Feed us?” Alia requested, sounding a little more hopeful than her sister, in that she didn’t sound like she was demanding food from me. Behind her, Aylin padded around on my stomach before curling up in a little bundle of adorableness.

“I would need to be able to get up to do that, and your sister is making that a little difficult.” I dropped my arm from my face and stared back at the face of Alia, finding myself wondering what the fur on her face felt like and whether she would like scratches behind the ears. I took the chance to examine her face, and apparently she took the same chance to examine mine. She got closer, bringing her face up to mine so that she could take my face in her hooves to move my head this way and that.

She sat back for only a moment before I did the same, cupping her muzzle in my hands to bring her closer so I could check her out. Her facial fur was soft to the touch, softer than the fur on her body and seemed to have been recently washed. Shifting one hand upwards to the back of her head, the other shifted downwards to drop her chin into my hand while I took the chance and scratched her head behind her ears, lightly tossing her mane about in the process.

She closed her eyes to the sudden sensations and leaned into my hands a bit more, giving me a bit more to scratch at while she nuzzled into my palm below. She reached a point, much like a cat, where I was able to just hold my hands and fingers still though she kept at it, nuzzling into my hand which inadvertently made her scratch her head against my waiting fingers.

“Alia.” Aylin grinned from where she rested on my stomach. Her call went unanswered, so she tried again, “Alia,” Still no answer as her sister began to push her back into my hand while my lower hand went to petting her chest fluff. “Alia,” it didn’t seem like Aylin was really putting any effort into the calls, so it was a little funny to see her aim her horn towards her sister’s backside as the white unicorn backed herself up slowly. “Alia!” she shouted this time, simultaneously thrusting her horn forward into her sister, making the elder let out a little shriek at the sudden invasion of personal space.

“Aylin, how many times have I told you, don’t stick your horn there!” Alia warned, whirling around on my chest to face off against her sister with a scowl on her face.

~~~

All of a sudden, all eyes were on the princesses who had to have been snacking on berries while Hybrid was talking, because they both had the largest blushes anyone had ever seen. The two could rival Blitz for the redness of their furs.

“Uhm…” Everyone, Hybrid’s group included, all hummed in unison while Hybrid scooted back to let a servant place down a large bowl of caesar salad for him to snack on. Neither princess seemed eager to further that particular discussion, the two of them shifting in their seats uncomfortably and avoiding eye contact with everyone who wasn’t their father.

~~~

“Oh, that’s going to be something to tell the grandkids.” I grinned as Alia turned back to stare at me in confusion. “Little Alia lost her first time to her sister of all ponies.” My grin widened further as both Alia’s and Aylin’s eyes went wide at the apparent realisation of what they had just subjected each other to.

“No! I’ve been ruined for marriage!” Alia screamed as she dashed from the bed, darting out of the room and from the sounds of it, downstairs and outside.

“I… I’ve been…” Aylin whispered to herself in surprise, her head laid on her crossed forelegs as she thought about what she’d done. Repeatedly, apparently…

“Okay, not that this hasn’t been funny, but you’re going to have to apologize to your sister.” I commanded, sitting up and in doing so, flipped Aylin onto her back in my arms before I set her down on the floor. “Go find her, apologize for everything you’ve done to her with your horn, and I’ll make some dinner, okay?”

“Okay…” Aylin whispered and slowly walked out the door to follow after her sister. From the sounds of it, Alia had taken off towards the pony camp.

Following behind Aylin, my trip ended when I reached the kitchen though the little blue filly continued off out the door before sprinting away. Who knows, maybe when they hit their camp in the caves, they’ll speak with an adult to get their own version of “The talk.” I may be an adult myself, but I am not giving that talk to two little girls for whom I have no parental relations too; never mind that their biology and sexual reproduction… stuff… may be different than human biology.

It’s not happening. I won’t do it.

…

I should come up with how to start that lesson…

~~~

As it turned out, my mental frustrations over what would go into that speech wasn’t even necessary. The girls hadn’t come back for dinner that evening, nor had they come around for a couple of days after that. I was beginning to wonder if they’d only come to visit, or that I’d scarred them both for life, and that I’d lost all my visitation privileges again when the older ponies had found out where Alia and Aylin had gone.

Even if it was remarkably quiet without them, I had managed to finally finish the roof and shingled it completely yesterday and even had a new batch of decent charcoal made in the nearby pit. So, I suppose it was a fairly productive few days without them around.

Still, I couldn’t help but wonder if they’d be coming back around anytime soon. They were fun to have around, and they were both adorable in their own rights. I’ll admit it, but not to anyone nearby, but I missed the little ones.

So, there I was, sitting at the desk I’d set up for trying to research mining technologies with a cup of water in my hand being twirled around like a tumbler of whisky, when there came a pair of knocks on the wooden front door. Now, I’m not entirely sure why my mind thought to wonder why a wolf or bear would knock before barging in this time at first, but eventually it came around and I realised that the only civilized creatures anywhere nearby were the ponies.

Pulling myself from my musings, I left the cup of water on the table as I passed it by and pulled open the main door to greet my visitors.

“You are hereby granted permission to spend visitation time with these two children.” the elderly Default mare announced, openly glaring at me with hatred in her eyes. Behind her, sitting and waiting patiently, were Alia and Aylin who wore gigantic smiles on their faces. “They will be required to report back to the camp in half a cycle. Please say your good-byes to them before then.”

“Hey, I won the visitation rights in court, you can’t keep me from seeing my children.” I joked with a smirk, the girls both giggling behind their hooves though the mare before me merely raised an eyebrow, telling me without a doubt what she thought of that attempt at humor. “Fine, how about this? I’ll light a torch and when it goes out, they go back to the cave?” I suggested, reaching down to next to the door for the spelunking supplies I had begun to accrue for my eventual mining experiments and held an unlit torch out towards the mare.

“Fine. When torch goes out, you say good-bye.” The mare agreed with a nod. I set the torch back down and held a hand out in offering of a deal-sealing handshake. She stared at my hand for a bit before she huffed and left without a word.

“Well screw you too lady,” I shot back after her, not really caring if she could actually hear or understand me. “Think you're too good to shake my hand in a deal. I’ll show you, my hand shall be the hand that shakes the heavens!” I shouted dramatically, raising my closed fist above my head and shaking it at the retreating mare.

~~~

“That sounds like a line from a comic book.” Rainbow Dash interjected with a smirk and a raised eyebrow. Hybrid coughed into his elbow once before addressing the soldier as-a-matter-of-factly.

“I will have you know that comic books didn’t start first publishments in pony civilization for another two thousand years after I’d said that little line.” he sneered in jest, then broke out in a smirk. “But yes, that line, while changed a little, did come from a couple human comics.”

“I knew it.” Rainbow whispered to herself and shifted while a coffee was placed before her.

~~~

“So,” I clapped my hands and addressed the two little fillies sitting before me with wide eyes at the noise I'd created. “Who wants to go exploring?” I grinned and as a show of what I meant, pulled my makeshift backpack of equally makeshift climbing gear onto my back and held the straps down with my hands.

“But, torch?” Aylin had scooted around me to look at the lumber I’d wrapped in fibrous plants and then dipped in some kind of naturally occurring oil. That sucker would burn for… well, I had lit a similar torch a few months back and I’m pretty sure it’s still going.

Was I cheating in suggesting I’d give the kids back to their mo- parental figure when the torch burned out? Yes. Yes I was. Did I feel guilty about it? Fuck no! These kids were orphaned and as far as I’m aware, ignored by all except for when it suited the adult’s needs. Sure, I’ve never raised kids before, let alone pony kids, but I’ve grown fond of these two little ones.

Am I potentially kidnapping children for my own needs?

Probably… But I am going to give them back… Just… In a few Harvests time and after I’ve taught them as much about surviving as I can.

“Don’t worry about the torch, I plan to keep my promises, and I’ll give you two back to the adult ponies when it goes out.” I replied, taking the torch from Aylin’s little hooves and stuck the unlit light source into a side strap I’d made specifically for torches.

Fun fact: It took me a year and a half to figure out how to make the backpack and add straps to it to hold things.

Another fun fact, I still haven’t made a backpack that’ll survive more than a few months at a time. Spelunking gear included.

“Where going?” Alia inquired as she followed me into the house so I could pack a few things. What happened to the language skills I’d taught them?

“I need to pack some things for the trip. Non-perishables or preserved items.” I explained and pulled open the fridge to extract a half-dozen loaves of bread that I’d specially researched and designed to be a bit more resistant to molding (took me too many tries and too much wasted bread to figure that one out.) I also pulled out some dried meat wrapped in animal leather -another technology I had to spend some time figuring out, and only after I learned out to create barrels and… just… it wasn’t an easy trip to make leather- and stuck those into my pack next to the bread.

While the provisions I’d stored would certainly last me a good… week of travelling, now with two others coming with me, I’d have to reflect on my foraging and hunting/fishing skills a bit more and prepare food on the fly.

Setting my pack down near to the door again, the girls watched me in earnest confusion and interest as I quickly jogged up the stairs to my bedroom to grab my hammer which was quickly fit through the loop in my jeans. Sure, the loop in particular had been specifically cut to fit the bill, but over the last few years I’ve gained a few more options for holding holes in my jeans, simply through hard work.

Making sure I didn’t forget anything else in the room, I returned to the stairs and retrieved my pack only to find the tails of Aylin and Alia trying to fit a ceramic pot containing mixed berries into it.

“Right, can’t forget the berries.” I chuckled as the girls quickly pulled themselves out of the pack, looking guilty. “Relax, it’s fine. We can eat the berries before the rest of the food and then use the pot later to carry and boil water.”

The suggestion must’ve had some agreeable effect on the girls as their frowns of guilt turned into smiles of gratitude. They took to prancing about the living room together, singing something to themselves in their own tongue while I continued to prepare. Mostly, that remaining preparation took the form of nesting the bowl of berries into a slightly larger bowl which would also be used for boiling water or making vegetable soups.

It only took me another ten minutes to make a quick runthrough of the house, ensuring I hadn’t forgotten anything I’d want or need to bring. It would’ve taken less time if it wasn’t for the girls trying to “help” by pulling all my stuff out of their places to ask me what they were, what they did or if I needed it. Regardless, we headed out from the house in a northern direction as per my usual hike suggested.

A half hour into the trip, and the girls walked alongside me as they explored the forest around us, sometimes appearing in the bushes having found something of interest or to merely throw a stick at the other sister. Those events would typically turn into a mock sword fight which would only break up when I broke it up, if a sister got whacked a little too hard, or their attentions were stolen by something else entirely.

This exploration by the girls lead us to an hour and a half later when we stopped for our first bio-break.

Alia had to relieve herself and so Aylin and I were set up at a remarkably large, oval-ish boulder that acted as my one-quarter distance marker to the edge of the forest.

“I shall rule them all! I shall be a just, and fair ruler over the ponies!” Aylin proclaimed from atop the boulder above me, her little left foreleg thrust outwards to greet her imaginary audience. “But they shall also fear my prowess for eating blueberries!”

“No bush shall be safe from your taxes,” I responded with a grin. It made her smile, and that made me smile. “You shall rule us all, my Princess!” I proclaimed and bowed low, one hand to my chest and the other out behind me.

~~~

“Wait! That’s how dignitaries bow to the Princesses!” Rarity exclaimed, even getting up to imitate the bow to the best of her four-legged ability. Hybrid nodded the affirmative and Rarity went wide-eyed. “That’s where that came from? I thought a foreign diplomat had come up with that a long time ago!”

“Well, you’re… mostly right. A foreign diplomat, in the sense that I was foreign and technically the only available diplomat of my people, did make that up a long time ago.” Hybrid chuckled to himself a moment where he sat, a hand resting high on his lap and the other playing with the repeatedly empty cup before him. “Only, it was much, much, much longer ago than you thought.”

“So it would seem.” Rarity agreed wholeheartedly and poured the man another drink of tea.

~~~

“What’s a Princess?” Alia asked as she appeared from the bushes looking freshened. Aylin stood proudly from atop the boulder and only gave me a half second before she jumped from the ledge.

My heart leaped at the same time that I did, my arms stretched out in front of me to catch her, however I overshot but just a little and came to a rest on the ground with my face secured in the dirt and with a pony butt on my head.

“Mister Monkey?” Aylin asked, looking around her surroundings with curiosity as to my whereabouts. “Where are you?”

My response came in an unintelligent mumbling, the dirt in my mouth providing an excellent gag given the circumstances.

“Sister, you’re sitting on him.” Alia smirked from where she approached our little camp, nodding towards me with her horn to show her sister specifically.

“Oh, silly Mister Monkey, why you on the ground?” Aylin poked at the back of my head while her body involuntarily slid off onto my back, producing a little oof from the blue one. I took the chance to lift my head and spit out as much dirt and grass as I could. Yep, definitely can’t eat grass. I’ll leave that to the ponies.

“Well, it doesn’t help that I had an adorable little ball of blue fur give me a mild heart attack, and then have that little ball of adorable land on me when I went to try to save her.” I explained, flipping over with Aylin moving with me to end up on my chest.

I sat up and moved her onto her back, taking the opportunity to tickle at her belly and under her forelegs. The little giggles and squeals she gave in reply were easily the most beautiful thing anyone could hear. It’s the kind of noises that could make a rainy day seem like a beautiful sunny afternoon.

“Stop!” Aylin protested as she batted at my attacking hands with her hooves. “Stah-hahahaha-p!” She requested, now with tears in her eyes as I advanced my tickle attacks.

“Come on, let her go.” Alia requested, bravely placing a hoof on my left arm. I glanced up to Alia and grinned, the fear working itself into the white filly’s face almost immediately. “Oh no,” she whispered, already trying to back away.

It was too late, she was easily outmaneuvered and taken captive. She ended up on her back, next to her sister in my lap and before she could roll out to safety, I had begun the strike and attacked her belly at the same time as Aylin’s.

I even went so far as to use both hands on one whenever I’d go to bend down and blow raspberries into their bellies, further distressing them until both had completely matted fur on their faces.

“Stop, please!” Alia and Aylin both requested through their adorable little giggles. “Sto~ ~op!”

“Your Princess,” Aylin couldn’t continue through the laughing and fighting. “Commands you!”

And just like that, my hands were still and I bolted upright. I did still have my hands poised over them, just waiting for an opening, but I remained still. Both sisters had to take another minute or two to work off the remaining laughter in their bodies and collect themselves.

A squeak of realisation from Aylin and she quickly rolled off my lap and beelined straight for the bushes while her sister whispered something to herself in her language. Evidently, and for whatever reason, it wasn’t anything I could understand.

Little Blue appeared from the bushes a short while later, avoiding eye contact and keeping just out of my reach as though she knew I’d try and tickle her again.

“Let’s get a move on, shall we? I want to make it to the location before dark.” I requested, picking myself up off the ground and retrieving my backpack from the boulder nearby. Aylin and Alia nodded agreement and worked at helping me clean up our makeshift camp before taking place on either side of me to continue our hike.

~~~

“I suppose it’s a really good thing that you both live in caves.” I stared into the blackness of the cave before me while the little voice in the back of my mind told me that there was danger in that cave. My logical brain decided to remind that little voice that this cave had already been repeatedly explored, and even had signs of habitation to keep the weaker predators away from my mushroom farms.

Aylin and Alia lead the way in while I focussed on retrieving my torch from my pack and set it between my feet while I dug out the flint and stone I used to light things on fire if I didn’t have my fire drill on hand. A couple failed attempts but soon I had a good blaze coming from the torch head and followed in after the girls.

The two ponies hadn’t gotten very far into the cave, it seemed, as they seemed more content to explore the makeshift camp I had put up for my extended stays out here in the cavern. A simple fire pit made from a circle of rocks with char and ash resulting from the last time I was here with a large fallen log I’d rolled into the place acting as my bench and oftentimes my resting spot. Other than that, I had some clay and woven pots and baskets nearby which I used for either moving my fertiliser or for moving my harvests around.

“You girls can hang out here while I go make the first mushroom harvest.” I suggest as I set my pack down near to my bench so that I can swap that out for my baskets. “Trust me, you don’t want to smell where I’m going.”

“Okay, will gather wood for fire.” Alia nodded back in agreement. I nodded and set my lit torch down near to the fire pit for easy lighting access once the girls went and retrieved fire fuel. Meanwhile, like I said, the torch I left burning in the cave a few months back was still alight and didn’t show any signs of quitting now.

“Use that torch to light your fire when you both get back.” I instructed before taking my baskets down into the depths of the frigid air underground.

The trip down was fairly simple, the fire I kept lighting my way quite thoroughly and since there weren’t any loose rocks or obstacles I really had to watch out for, I could take to examining the walls of stone for any kind of strange discolourations that may indicate some kind of ore I could try mining out for my research. Unfortunately, I couldn't really find anything recognizable by the time the smell of fertiliser began to overpower the musky smell of the underground.

Coming across my rows upon rows of mushrooms, I took to the left most rows to begin the harvest as the right side was still growing and wouldn’t be ready for another few months. Pulling the entire fungus out of it’s space, I pulled the largest pieces off and kept those so I could replant the smaller ones to let them fully mature and produce more of the crop.

It took me a good hour or so working to the rhythmic sound of calcite and/or water dripping, but the sound of hooves clopping on the ground told me I’d soon have visitors while I worked near to the end of my selection this time around.

“Sister, it smells horrid down here, are you sure he’s this way?” Aylin whined to her sister, her voice echoing down the hall quite well even though she wasn’t far enough that the light of their own torch was visible to me.

“We don’t have much other option but to go this way. The way down is a single passageway, and we haven’t encountered the male yet.” Alia replied back. At this point, the light coming from their torches began to reflect off the surfaces of the walls, the light glistening around like tiny stars as they grew nearer.

“I’m just ahead, girls!” I called out without looking up from what I was doing. “Careful you don’t step in anything on your way in!” I warned as a second thought while standing with my baskets not quite filled, but pretty close to it. “I’m just finishing up here, then we can go explore the rest of the cave.”

“I have a question,” Alia began as she held the torch in a hoof and walked into the part of the hallway I was in, looking around at the ground at the farms I’d set up. “You know our names, but we don’t know yours. What we call you?”

“That… Is an excellent question.” I replied nervously. “I… actually don’t remember anymore… I think it may have been my arrival here that did me in and lost me that memory, or it could’ve been my trips to the Waters of Life… I don’t know…” I remarked in thought, setting the baskets down at my feet to stand up and stretch myself out. “But, I suppose you both need something to call me, yes?”

“Would help.” Aylin agreed with a single nod as she examined the farms nearby in the light of the torches. She soon saw everything she’d wanted to look at and joined her sister and I back where I had been with my baskets, then when I moved to load up with said baskets, the girls both worked themselves underneath them and hoisted them up onto their backs for me.

“Oh, you girls don’t have to do that for me, I’m perfectly capable of carrying those.” I requested, stretching my arms out to take the baskets, however both girls easily outmaneuvered me without spilling anything.

“We help. Name?” Alia announced firmly, establishing just what she thought of me wanting to carry things myself.

I took a minute or two in silence, now carrying both torches as the fillies had to focus on keeping their baskets stable, as I considered both the thoughts of letting the girls help me as well as what I was going to call myself.

“I… don’t really know… What would you two like to call me?” I wondered, issuing the problem to those who were now following alongside me to my left with the large baskets swaying from side to side. While I didn’t try to lift the baskets off them, I did however rest my occupied hands on the rims just to steady them a bit more.

“What name mean, ‘light’?” Alia asked in thought, looking up at me for a suggestion.

“Uhm… Lucien, Lucius, Oran or Orna, Raiden means god of thunder, Sheridan, uhm… Zain…” I listed off as best I could. Honestly, I felt like I was reading options off a webpage or something back on earth.

“Lucius… Raiden… Sheridan…” Aylin and Alia muttered between themselves as they considered the options I’d given them. “No,” they decided, apparently not fond of those options. “Hybrid?”

“Why Hybrid?” I raised an eyebrow at the option with mild confusion. “That doesn't really have anything to do with Light whatsoever.”

“You look like many parts, you do many things, you are Hybrid.” Alia worked with her sister to explain their reasoning to me and I had to give it to them, it did sort of make sense.

“Okay, then I am Hybrid Theory.” I announced, now making the girls raise their eyebrows.

“Theory? Why second name?” Aylin asked as she shifted her weight under her burden to restabilize it.

“It’s common for humans to take on family names; in this case, Theory. I chose Theory because that’s more likely how you could describe me: I’m a theory on what’s possible, the result of millions of years of evolution and ingenuity.” I remarked as we came upon an earnest fire waiting for us in the fire pit. I set the torches down in little holes in the stone I’d made previously and helped the girls set their loads down.

“Still don't understand need for ‘Family Name’. What’s point?” One of the girls inquired next as they were given leave to take a seat on the log.

“In the event that two people, or ponies in your cases, share the same name, it’s easier to discern who you’re addressing by adding on the familial name. Say there were two of me, both named Hybrid. How would I know you were addressing me and not the other guy?” I went on, the dawning of understand gradually appearing on their faces.

“Plus, a familial name is shared among parents and children, showing that they belong in the same family.” This thought that I added on seemed to have done the trick as both girls looked to understand the concept.

“So,” Alia nervously glanced between me and the stone floor below her. “We could be Alia and Aylin Theory?” she and her sister looked up at me with nervousness while I felt my heart just stop. That’s it, I’m done, they killed me just like that. Death by adorableness.

~~~

“That’s so adorable!” Rarity squealed with hooves pressed against her face. Hybrid grinned and stood from the bench and rounded past to take the two eldest princesses into a hug grinning madly. “And that’s how you became their father?”

“No.” Hybrid’s grin turned into a smirk as his head fell with everypony else's. “But, that did certainly get the ball rolling.” he added on and after a bit of working ponies around the table, sat down between his daughters to continue.

~~~

“You…” I whispered through a lump in my throat. “You two want me to… To be your…” I couldn’t get the word out, I wasn’t strong enough, I wasn’t prepared enough. “Your father?”

Alia and Aylin both stared up at me with intense nerves on their features, worried about how I would break them the news that I may not actually want them for daughters. Slowly, however, they nodded their answer.

“I…” I coughed out through that ever present lump in my throat as I tried to figure out what I wanted out of this suggestion. “I don’t know if I can…” I whispered, visually breaking the hearts of the weapons-grade adorable. “Why?” I looked up to the tearing faces of the girls who’d I’d crushed so easily. “Why me? Why not another pony couple? What can I offer that they can’t?”

“House,” Aylin chirped up almost immediately, not even giving it a second thought.

“Food,” Alia added in just as adamantly.

“Care,” Aylin's next response reminded me of the Caretaker, and how indifferent I'd seen him acting three years prior.

“Attention,” Alia’s word only helped to reinforce that image as I remembered how the adult ponies only ever seemed to actually care about the Lone Ones when it was time to feed them, or they were doing something bad like visiting me and learning english.

“Protection,” Aylin and Alia both said this one in unison, not even looking at each other as they down right stared at me.

“Okay, that one the ponies had to come save the both of us.” I interjected with both index fingers pointed upwards. The ponies had to give me that point, but there remained undeterred in their efforts to convert me to their cause.

“You’re fun, you’re new, you’re smarter than anypony we know.” Alin explained further, only making her case stronger while mine continued to crumble under the weight of their adorably furry little bodies. “The adult ponies are boring, closed-minded and stupid. They don’t care about anypony else but themselves, or they care only so long as it suits their needs.”

“But, I’m not even a pony, I don’t even come from this world! I don’t know anything about your culture, your traditions, your way of life! I don’t know how to raise children!” I protested with hands in the air, finding that I’d gotten just a little heated from the suddenness of their request. Aylin and Alia both seemed not to care all that much, and stood to their hooves on the log to show as much.

“We don’t care about what you are or where you come from! We barely know anything about our culture, our traditions, or our ways of life! Nopony will teach us anything! You do, you teach us things from your kind, and we want to learn more! We don’t need that much help being raised! We’ve raised ourselves enough!” Aylin exploded on me, hopping up onto her sister’s back though she didn’t have enough purchase and ended up resting on her belly on Alia’s back.

What the hell was I supposed to say to that? They made the absolutely best arguments, and I was being… I was afraid…

“I just… I’m not… ready…” I admitted in a much quieter voice. “I’m not ready to try and raise a couple of kids, even if they are pretty cool.” this admission seemed to have done the trick as both girls calmed themselves down and Blueberry resigned to just lounging on her sister who didn’t seem to mind all too much.

After a few minutes in silence spent staring at the fire munching on the berries we brought, I coughed lightly to regain the girl’s attention. “I tell you both what. Give me some time, let me adjust to this world a bit more, spend some more time with the two of you, and we’ll see about becoming a family, okay?” I asked, looking to the pair of girls and watching how the firelight danced on their concerned faces.

“Okay, we wait and see what happen.” Alia and Aylin both agreed before diving their hooves back into their respective pots to continue snacking.

“Thanks.” I dropped my head back to what I was eating and let the cavern fall into moderate quiet.

After some time and occasionally poking at the fire with a large stick, “Hybrid,” Aylin began.

“Mmm?” I hummed as I looked up at the ponies who’d apparently separated and laid out on the log to themselves.

“We go explore cave now?”

“Yeah okay.” I sighed and set my own snacks down on the ground near to the fire, as did the girls. I retrieved my backpack containing the climbing gear and slung the straps over my shoulders while Aylin and Alia both armed themselves with the torches.

“Anything we should know before we head in?” Alia’s head bobbed towards me as she stared off into the abyssal darkness before us with trepidation, even if we three had already been down that ways not even half an hour ago.

My mind shot forwards ahead of me and decided to remind me of the treacherous pit that was down there almost a kilometer ahead of us. I hadn’t been able to explore any further since I didn’t have any climbing gear until now. “Don’t look down.” I warned and placed a foot forward to get the party moving.

Hesitantly, Alia and Aylin put hooves forwards and followed alongside me on my right with Alia passing off her torch to me while Aylin kept hers on the farthest right.

Downwards we delved, past the mushroom farms and fertiliser reserves, past the stalagmites and stalactites which glistened in the torchlights, and further down yet. With nothing else to look at, all three of us took to looking at the walls, the floor, the ceiling for anything interesting. I had to grin to myself as the sisters almost completely forgot about their fears about going so far underground as they began to play in and around the calcite columns lining the walls. I was more curious in trying to find out if there were any ores in the stone surfaces that I could identify and was quite surprised when I picked out a small deposit of some kind of black material.

“Hold on girls, I want to take a look at this.” I called out, only tilting my head towards where the girls were supposed to be while my eyes settled on the black stone.

Approaching the wall, I removed my backpack and set it down so I could go digging around in it for a stone pick I had fashioned earlier in the month for prospecting purposes.

“What is?” Aylin asked as she and her sister drew near once they realised that I wasn’t following along with them any more.

“I don’t know, but I have a working theory.” I replied back and left my pack against the wall so I could work at trying to break a piece of the black stone off. Not a lot of work later, and a sharp snap echoed through the cavern as my efforts paid off.

Setting the prospecting pick down, I approached the girls and crouched down near to Aylin’s torch to hold the piece of black stone up to the light. Wet, and slick to the touch likely brought on by cave moisture, I took a moment to dry the piece off on my shirt and held it up to the light again.

“This…” I muttered to myself as I brought it closer to my eyes for a closer look. With nothing left for it, I took the stone in both hands as best I could and applied pressure.

Sure enough, it broke apart fairly easily and let me identify the piece of material in my hand as some form of coal. “I think it’s coal.”

“What’s koahl?” Aylin asked, getting closer to look at the pieces while bringing the fire closer and closer to my face. I had to push the torch back a bit to keep from barbecuing my face and sat back on my haunches to display the pieces in open hands.

“Coal,” I corrected, “Is a type of rock that burns really well and fairly hot if you let it. If I mine enough of this and maybe mix it with my charcoal back home, I might be able to try smelting ores.” I explained a bit more and set the pieces of coal down on the ground to retrieve my pick and work at trying to bring out a slightly larger piece to stuff into my backpack for later trials. I sure as hell wasn’t going to try and light this thing underground, next to the main coal vein itself.

“What’s smelting?”

“Ore processing into a usable metal which I can then turn into better tools,” I paused to pull out my hammer as an example. “Like this. I mean, I myself won't be able to smith this kind of hammer in my lifetime, but I should be able to smash something together.” Using the long worn claw of the hammer, I scratched a few markings into the ground in the center of the cave for the sake of finding again later on when I was more prepared for actual mining.

Dropping the smaller pieces of coal into my pack and holstering my hammer, I rejoined the girls in their descent into the darkness. Having never had more than one torch to illuminate the walls lead me to miss out on a number of locations for mining coal, but regretfully nothing more than that in this trip. Still, while the girls had their coats of fur, it was still ball-shriveling cold in the dark, damp caves, and so I clung to my torch like a life preserver in an ocean as we forayed into the depths.

After some time of nothing particularly interesting to see, my mind caught up to approximately where we were just as the three of us stepped out into a rather enormous cavern. Despite only having two torches, the light from the flames seemed to work deceptively well in bringing illumination into a world that until now had never experienced such majesties. That is to say, the pit of doom directly before us certainly didn’t seem to care all that much as it remained closed off to our vision no matter how much light we tried to let shine downwards.

“Be extremely careful, girls. I’ve never been able to explore any further than this before, so I don’t know what’s down there or even how stable this ledge is.” I warned, my fear of heights -and more importantly, fear of death- forced me to keep my back to the walls of the cavern.

Alia piped up first, the both of them on their bellies and crawling across the ground towards the edge, “Is it just me, or does this place seem awfully unnatural in its shape?”

Aylin, with torch grasped in fetlock, agreed with her sister. “This cavern does seem to be rather cylindrical, than a cavern ought to have any reason to be…”

Still with back against the wall, I carefully crept along until I found a large stone pillar cropped up from the ground while keeping an eye on the girls. “It’s entirely possible, with how deep we’ve gone, that we’re in the remains of an inactive volcano. There is the odd occasion where a volcano will form some unnatural rock formations from it’s activity. Whatever the case is,” I shrugged off my backpack and pulled the large length of rope from where it hung in peace. Tying one end around my waist a few times, I fastened the other end around the large pillar; to test it, I effectively pulled on the rope hard enough that I could sort of stand on the side of the pillar and have it support my weight.

With an adequate lifeline -keeping in mind that I just had to sate my fears and had absolutely no idea if my rope would actually help me in case I went over- I crept up to the edge alongside the girls who remained on their bellies and laid down flat to join them.

“That’s a long ways down, huh?” Aylin remarked as she peered into the depths.

“And no idea what’s at the bottom…” Alia nodded back, her voice lower as her nerves began to well up within her. This was reflected equally by her ears having splayed backwards against her skull.

I reached around my side and picked up a palm-sized rock, then held it over the edge. Dropping it, I began the count in my head even as the girls looked on in confusion.

One.

Two.

Three.

…

Twenty-eight.

Twenty-ni- the sound of a very distant splash halted my count and I was immediately filled with dread. Almost twenty-nine seconds of falling at terminal velocity to meet a watery grave. There was no way I had enough rope to form an adequate rescue if the girls fell. I had maybe just under three hundred feet of rope and if my estimates were correct, we were looking at almost four kilometers of drop.

“Okay, definitely stay back from the ledge. If you fall, you will die.” I warned, creeping backwards as did the girls. Once we were back against the wall, I sat back on my butt.

“So,” began the white unicorn, “What now?”

“Now? I don’t know. We can explore the rest of the ledge for as far as there is stable footing, see if there's any other branches that are worth exploring. Or we can head back.” I explained, keeping my torch nearby to warm me. The addition of Aylin’s torch helped as well, though realistically I’d need many, many more layers in order to feel truly warm down here.

“I wanna explore more.” the little blue one announced, standing up again to circle around us and face us directly. “I’m not afraid of the dark, and the cold doesn’t bother me too much!” She added, stamping her foot to add to the point.

In hindsight, she really shouldn’t have done that. Because with a single, reverberating crack, I leapt forward -discarding my torch in the process- to catch Aylin just as the ground gave way and she dropped like a screaming stone. She went over, just as my chest followed after and by the time I’d grabbed her hoof, my legs had already gone over the edge as well.

Author's Notes:

So this is as far as I've gotten written up until now, though I don't intend to leave it at a literal cliffhanger for long if I can help it... It may just take me longer to put out another part.

End Log

Oh man, this was going to be big. I had such grand designs for this. I was going to have our MC gather the other aspects and use them for mundane things. I was going to go over how the Equestrians get their fullest magical powers and the advent of Cutie Marks, how the MC slowly advanced through technological ages, and the end of the first arc was supposed to be where the sun and moon eclipse, leading Tia and Luna to earn their cutie marks by moving the sun and moon on their own. Arcs after that would go over how the MC met his compatriots, what he did in hell for a while, it was going to be nuts. Hundred chapters at least. Maybe multiple books.

Then the writers block hit. Then the interest in MLP waned, to the point where even now, the characters only really exist in my head as very disillusioned versions of themselves. Even then, they're typically just kinda, side thoughts now. The last vestiges of my dying creativity trying to hold onto something, anything in order to keep my creativity alive. But it's dying, and likely will continue to do so until I can find a new muse. A new source of inspiration to latch onto and obsess over. I genuinely would be surprised if I ever get a resurgence of interest in MLP again in the future. Maybe I'm just getting old... I am now 29, so... could be a factor... Either way, I appreciate the attention that you gave this while it lived, but now, I must only say: Thank you, and have a great life.

Sincerely,

Soren Mercer