When Skye Pendragon gets pulled into the land of Equestria, how does he go about fitting in? And what will he do when he cannot?
A Rewrite of The Light's Chosen. Takes Place Pre-Ascension.
Skye Pendragon, Warrior of Light and Warrior of Darkness. He's seen many things, he's fought calamity level monsters, participated in several wars, and even helped a little girl find her couerl kitten, so why now does he feel slightly off put by these ponies?
Chapters being written again as of September 13th, 2021 Contains spoilers for Final Fantasy XIV up to 5.3 Shadowbringers main scenario, be advised. Not for those that aren't trying to get spoiled. No prior knowledge of FFXIV is needed (but helps), and no prior knowledge of Archived story is required.
Cover Art is simply known as FFXIV Free Company Concept Art. Couldn't find one that I was pleased with so I chose this.
It was nice to be able to go back and forth between the Source and the First, even if he would be journeying alone. Skye looked out at the night over Lakeland, as he began to go back to The Crystarium, so that he could return to his world. He couldn't help admiring the night sky, one that he and his comrades had so fervently brought back to the world's inhabitants, surprise lighting their eyes as they saw the little lights stretch across the sunless sea. As he thought more about this, he recognized that going on even further after they had successfully stopped the torrent of light within him, he still had more questions than answers as he would have liked.
Firstly, the seat of the fourteenth. Who had they been? Who were they now? Skye had an idea of who it was, and had decided to keep the stone along with the others with him, but he couldn't shake the feeling off of him that the last stone, bared some connection to him. Each time he looked at it, he couldn't help but feel as if there was something he was forgetting, and it worried him to no lesser degree. He did not want to become like the last of the unsundered, and he didn't have any plans to.
Skye snapped out of his stupor, realizing that he had feigned to stop moving while thinking on this. He had saved the world, again! Why were these thoughts evadingly so? Nevertheless, Skye started back up his mount, one of his particular favorites, the SDS Fenrir; or so it was dubbed by Cid. It had randomly appeared within his various inventories one day, and while he had initially thought it might be some trick of the eye, after having the genius inventor check it out, it was perfectly fine. Though, it contained some parts that Cid hadn't recognized, because of this, Cid had painstakingly gone through the effort of detailing every schematic required to make the damn thing. Skye was confidant that that had taken some years off of his life, having to wait as it was "perfected".
Soon, Skye could see the oncoming lights of the Crystarium, deciding to stow the vehicle rather than ride it through the city, he continued his quest on foot, coming to the conclusion that it would be better to not cause any alarm to any citizens. He soon saw himself before the Crystal Tower, and as he gave one look over the city in the night, he realized maybe they added a little too much crystal. He smiled at the thought, but he had somewhere to be, and other things to do. No time for lazily watching the night. He walked towards the gates, going inside to where the portal lie, reflecting upon when he had last come through it making way to home. The scions' souls in tow through use of soulcraft means. Though not all thought of Skye this way save one, he wanted to learn more about it. He wanted to learn more about this world and it's history, before the Flood. He figured he should wait on it though, and would learn those questions alongside Y'shtola. He didn't need to be reminded of what she had advised threatened if he did learn knowledge such as that without her. Make no mistake, he may be the Warrior of Light and Darkness but he didn't need nor want to get on her other side. He didn't want to get burned alive by the Mi'qote, not like her last victim.
Taking one last breath to clear his mind, he stepped through the portal, feeling the familiar pull of the rift as he was carried on towards the source, or how it should be. Skye felt a swift pain, flaring at his neck, grabbing it in vein, he could feel nothing along it's side, and while doing so, he failed to notice that his path had been redirected, it went further and further out. Soon, the pain proved to be too much, and he fell into a slumber as his path continued onward, into the unknown.
Princess Luna did not get to enjoy her nights much like this, being free to roam about the castle grounds, free from the -problems- of the court. She made her way towards the balcony of her room, wanting to at least take comfort in the night before the day began. As she looked into her night sky, she saw every star, woven into the sky by her design. The etchings of constellations as they began their dance throughout the veil of black, it was here that she saw it. Her contentment soon changed to a look of shock, as she saw numerous stars falling through the night, the flaming balls of read and blue going across the land. It was here that she heard a voice call out to her.
"Hear... Feel... Think."
As quick as the voice came it went, and as she opened her eyes to look out into the night sky, it was as if nothing had happened. Perhaps she needed sleep. Being awake for this long time even after Discord tried to take over Equestria, may have worn her thin. She lingered, looking at the night sky, hoping to hear the voice again, but for naught did she recieve anything but silence. Perhaps it was but a trick of the night, one that could be resolved with sufficient sleep.
Later On, The following Morning
Celestia made her way to begin the day as the flaming ball rose to it's proper position through the pull of her magic. A good day indeed, especially since it was just only last week that she had consoled Twilight after the event begrudgingly dubbed: Lesson Zero. She made her way to the dining room, only to feel the pull of magic in the air, and something dense arrive in Equestria, immediately, she took off in alarm towards one of the windows, and saw a comet falling in the sky. It was small, but it had a very dense magic to it. She needed to move swiftly, and so she began to awake her sister, favoring to teleport directly to her.
"Luna. Luna you must wake up! An issue has shown itself!" Celestia nearly went into the Royal Canterlot Voice, only to hear the shuffling of sheets as a bleary eyed alicorn sat up in bed.
"What do thee mean sister? I do not hope this is one of your schemes again." The midnight alicorn said, reaching her hands out to find a light source, and failing to do so.
"No Luna, look!" She grabbed her sister and teleport her and herself towards the window she was looking at previously, the sight of a comet coming down with large quantities of magic seemed to wake her well enough.
"We. We must ready at once post-haste! I will ready the guards, It may be wise to get the elements involved despite their recent victory!"
There was a resounding pop, before the lunar princess disappeared. Celestia took one look at the comet coming down, a little annoyed that her day would now be spent looking into it. It was going to be a long day. Celestia reached out with her magic, bringing parchment and quill to her as she began to form the letter, giving the details inside, before teleporting it off. Hopefully, by the time they arrive should Twilight and her friends be ready.
Twilight paced around the library, along with her friends as they watched her go about her fit. She was very worried, they had just got done with fighting discord just two weeks ago, and now there was another threat? It seemed like Equestria had a knack for attracting trouble. Her pacing was soon stopped by a hand grabbing on to her.
"Twilight, I don't think putting a whole into the library floor is going to help at all."
This came from Spike, her faithful and loving assistant, that had woken up to make sure that a meal was prepped for her and her friends because of the emergency from Celestia.
"Yeah Twi! And besides, we kicked Discord's butt! That means we could just as easily take down the next enemy!"
Twilight didn't even need to look in the direction to know it's speaker. Her every loyal friend, Rainbow Dash. She was right of course, but it still didn't help steel her nerves.
"While Ah don't exactly agree with how Dash said it, she's right Twi, Ah'm sure it's nothin. Besides, the princesses will be here too!"
Applejack said, speaking up to reiterate what her prismatic friend had said earlier.
There soon came a knocking on the door, and as Twilight went to open it, she saw both Princess Celestia and Princess Luna with light smiles on their faces.
"It's good to see you Princess, well, even if it was just last week!" She beamed, smiling at her mentor with slightly strained effort. Something had been bugging her, but she didn't think it was a problem just yet. She had been having dreams of this giant crystal as of late, and while she couldn't hear it she assumed it could, because each time she simply stood in front of it. Every time, she had tried to reach out to touch it with her hand, but found that it was unusually far away every time. Except for last night. Last night, she was right next to it, so close that she was sure if she reached for it she would finally be able to hear it.
"It is good to see you all as well Twilight. Even if it is under unfortunate news. The comet has recently landed, and there are guards there already, if you all are ready, we can leave now."
It kind of surprised Twilight the efficiency that some of the guards showed, she guessed that's what it took to be apart of the royal guards.
Two alicorns and six ponies stood among the top of the crater as the guards fished a body from the crater. It wore armor that was nearly black, if not for the glint of various blues and purples, and alongside it was a long spear. It would be easy to say this pony was a warrior, but upon them finally removing the helmet, they saw cat-like ears accompanying with grayscale hair, some cascading down while most of it bundled up upon the back. Upon it's neck, a mark that was red before fading to purple, then black. Many questions started to take shape, who was this? What were they?
Upon closer inspection, Princess Celestia could see that the armor they wore bore a striking resemblance to dragon hide, perhaps there is more to this tale than meets the eye. Princess Luna was the first to speak after the discovery.
"Quickly, we must convene at the castle, while we wait for our... guest to awake."
Skye awoke with a headache. Needless to say, he wouldn't be going back through the Crystal Tower portal anytime soon. He slowly got up, only to find many things wrong, he was on his back first of all. Second, his dragoon armor was missing, and in the place of it was some very loose fitting clothing. His attention was briefly drawn to a dull ache coming from his neck, upon placing his hand there, he could feel an etching drawn upon his skin, and as he took his finger tracing the edges, he had an idea of what it was, but he would hold out the theory for now until he could see what he looked like after his bout with the mirror.
He instead decided to focus on his surroundings, looking around at a very neat and clean room that was obviously in a medical ward of some sort. He could see many different beds along with what looked like medical utensils. The look of the room reminded him of Limsa Lominsa, so perhaps he ended up their and someone saw him? Skye's brain came to the decision that this indeed felt right, but he begged to differ, considering no one in their right mind would even think about taking off The Warrior Of Light's armor without consulting him first. Perhaps he was in Ishgard? No, that couldn't be right.
If he was in Ishgard, he would've felt the cold of the weather by now, regardless of how warm the civilians try and make it, it was always cold. Skye had always wanted to figure out how to travel back in time when Ishgard was first created, and ask them why the fuck they decided building a city in freezing weather conditions sounded like a great idea. Perhaps the mirror just decided to send him somewhere in Norvrandt, and he had never left the first? Nay, that wasn't even a smart idea.
Which left the worst idea Skye's mind could come up with. He had been summoned into another world again. He hoped it wasn't this one. While it was fun exploring and rescuing another world from the fate of oblivion, this time becoming a Warrior Of Darkness, he still didn't want to be doing something like this anytime soon. If anything, he was glad to have had a break from all the craziness that was his life. He slowly got up out of the bed, only to be interrupted by the sound of a door opening and a voice speaking.
"And everypony said I was crazy for thinking you'd wake up soon! What with all those wounds you had they expected you to be out for more than just a day!"
Skye turned to the voice's owner, only to be slightly putt off by what he saw. Standing and looking at him, was what he believed to be a Hyur, about as tall as him came into view, but it wasn't that which put him off, it was in fact not a hyur, but more along the lines of beastman that had equine ancestors. The beastman had a white skin tone, somewhat akin to the sin eaters, and aquamarine hair suffused with crème highlights. Skye also took note of how his vision had seemingly been altered, for the world around him was filled with vivid colors that he was not used to. Perhaps he had somehow been put into a child's drawing?
The beastman came over to him, and began to look at some paper scrawled to the side.
"Hmm.. So, we really didn't know what to do for you, so we just simply used some healing spells on the cuts you had on you and that's about it." He said, turning to Skye.
Cuts? Great. Another scar to add to the growing collection. Skye took into consideration what he had just been told, before deciding to break the silence.
"So. Where am I and what exactly are you? I've never seen a manner of beastman like you before."
The assumed doctor gave him a look of shock, like he had just shot an arrow at his favorite chocobo.
Great. New place, AND I've already managed to show off my wonderful tact.
Skye wasn't always great at speaking normally to people. You'd think the Warrior of the light and now the Warrior of Darkness would know how to speak with people, but he was always good at saying things that needed to be said at the current moment, never normally. It was kind of a wonder to him how he was able to speak with his fellow scions normally, and he surmised that it must have been the result of them all dying together nearly several times within the last few years.
"I'm.. kinda surprised you don't know what a pony looks like, nevertheless, your in Canterlot Castle, in the infirmary. While I'm sure you have more questions, I've been told not to answer many in the event that you do wake, Princess Celestia's orders. I'm Arctic Scalpel by the way, it's nice to meet you..."
Skye let an amused look take his features as the "pony" failed to think on a proper name. After a few seconds, he decided to give him a break.
"Skye. Skye Pendragon."
Arctic Scalpel got an appreciative look on his face, a smile coming onto his features.
"Well, nice to meet you Skye, if you'll give me a moment I'll get the guards so you can be escorted to where the princesses can meet you. You're armor unfortunately, was confiscated. Apparently it was made from dragon hide?" Arctic questioned.
Skye let out a silent curse in his mind. Two worlds and now a third and this one had a problem with the various armor he wore? He was fuming, but there was no need to show it, maybe there was a work around. He'd figure it out by the time he would meet this 'Princess Celestia'.
"Alright. I'm ready whenever you are." He said as he waited patiently as Arctic went to get the guards.
Celestia happily munched on some fruit, as she, her sister, and the elements sat through breakfast. Her thoughts, while usually on the future of Equestria had been pulled away towards the being, and his armor that had been confiscated. She doubted whoever they were, would be happy to find that there gear had practically been ransacked in their sleep, but that wasn't what was on her mind. It was the the fact that the armor had been identified as dragon scale, and while it only took a small spell, but they had learned that their guest was not native to this world, considering the armor could not be identified at all by the royal guard's smith. As it were, it would seem that this particular being was from beyond the stars.
Celestia's attention went towards the main doors as they opened, and in walked their guest. She immediately noticed the dynamic between his hair and eyes; the dark silver offset by pools of molten mercury that sat on his features. The eyes flowed over the group, acknowledging each and every one of them, before settling upon her. Normally, she would be able to figure out the emotions within someone's eyes because of being around her ponies for so long, yet she found herself looking into a gaunt white star, and found that she had no answers. He merely stared back, before taking a seat at the table where he was directed to by the palace maids. She decided that now would be a good time as ever to start the conversation, and so she began.
Skye entered a room to what he assumed was a dining room. It was simple, one that you would perhaps find in Mor Dhona, yet he could find some exquisite taste in it. He let his eyes slowly drift over the group at the table, seeing ore of these "ponies". Firstly, there was the large alabaster one. She reminded him of the sin eaters, but there was a gentle tide that seemed to flow from her, that and he soon spotted wings behind her, as well as a horn that rooted from her head and sat above a small tiara. This was most obvious to be the person that he would be meeting, yet he remembered that Arctic had said 'princesses' meaning there was another. He shifted his gaze to the right, eyeing a dark blue being, one that was somewhat smaller compared to the one he had just been eyeing. She looked right back at him, both of their eyes meeting in what would seem to be a battle of wills, before he idly looked towards the rest of her, spotting another tiara and a set of wings accompanied by a horn. As his gaze went back to meet here eyes, he let a small smile grace his face as he looked towards the other accompanied people.
To the left, sat a lavender colored pony, with midnight blue hair accompanied by two different colored strips of pink and purple. She wore a long sleeved white shirt, accompanied by a fuchsia skirt. She also had a horn like the previous two, but no wings. Perhaps both were a sign of royalty? It wouldn't surprise him at all. The look upon this lavender pony's face made it look like he was eye candy to her. He would need to be warry of that. Next, his gaze came across a white pony with a horn as well, with purple hair, an elegant sky blue dress along with it. The look in her eyes was akin to the many aestheticians he had met in his travels. Most of them were harmless, so he saw no concern to linger any longer.
To her side, was a blue colored pony who seemed to hold the colors of the rainbow in her hair. Her look was one he would expect from a adventurer, but the face was misplaced. Her features held clear distrust, and Skye couldn't stop himself from letting his malice creep into his eyes, into a short, fleeting scowl. The girl soon looked away, back into her plate of food. Beside her, was a yellow and pink one, a look of cowardness upon her face. Skye naturally let his face do the work, letting sa smile take over so as to not terrify her. He surmised that should he ever come across her, being in the armor of the dragoon or Dark knight would probably kill her.
Lastly, there were the two at the end. Both of which held neither horns nor wings that he noticed from the previous beings, one was two shades of pink, her body position indicating that she wanted to take off like a rouge spell, the other was a orange and blonde haired being that gave him the same look as the rainbow haired one, only hers was clearly fleeting, but held a silent message screaming 'I will punch you into an aetheryte should you make the wrong move'. With his analysis of the group done, he took a seat to where he had been directed.
"It is good to see you awake and about, the last we saw of you, you were in a crater outside of Ponyville. I am Princess Celestia and this is my sister, Princess Luna." Did she say Ponyville? The seven hells? and Celestia and Luna? That seems very original, what are they, paragons of the sun and moon?
"It is good to be awake. I am Skye Pendragon, Scion of the Seventh Dawn, Warrior of Light and Darkness. It is nice to meet you all, however before we continue, I would ask to have my armor back. I was told it was confiscated and I would like to know precisely why?"
Many if the smaller ponies got a look of confusion upon their faces, before a sound of shimmering came forth and his armor lay bare in front of him.
"I knew you would ask soon, but not this soon. The reason it was taken was because it bore a striking resemblance to dragon scale, which would largely be unethical. We found it very hard to get off, and had to teleport you from the armor, which needless to say was very difficult to do. Could you perchance tell us how you acquired it?" This came not from Celestia, but from the younger looking pony, Luna.
Skye was surprised at the question. Surely they had dragoons?
"It is the armor of the original dragoons from my world. They would ride upon dragons' backs into battle. The armor was a gift from one of these greater dragons, and it was re-forged anew within the waters of Norvrandt. It was said that the scales were used only when they fell off a dragon, not taken from them in any cruel way."
Skye brought his hand up to his face, letting his thought run amok.
"Perhaps if it were dragoon armor of the current age then yes, but as it is not, it bear a resemblance to dragons of eld."
He snapped out of his stupor, realizing that these words were needlessly wasted until explained. Taking a look at the armor, he decided to put it on, rather than feel like a newly started adventurer. Taking off the attire he had been given, he heard a voice call out over the others. It was a male's voice, so he surmised it to be a guard.
"Stop! Changing clothes in the open is public indecen-"
Skye quickly called out over the voice:
"Turn your back if it embarrasses you."
Moments later, he had his armor on, but not properly calibrated. Simply donning the armor was inefficient. One would have to know the armor's design to properly click it into place. Pressing his hand up against the gauntlet on the right, a swift set of clicks were heard, before the armor locked into place. Lastly, he took his helmet in his hands, before fitting it over himself, the series of clicks echoing once again before the gleaming eyes of it came to life. With his armor finally restored, he decided to change jobs to something a little less terrifying, and so he focused inward on the one he wanted, taking the stone in to his aether before pushing it outwards toward the surface of his body.
A blinding light was dispelled from him, a gust accompanying the dying light, before the armor was replaced with a suit of mail and cloth. Dragonhide gauntlets became of metal, and a coat of white resilient cloth took hold over his body. Skye had decided to forgo with having the weapon adorn his back, there would be a need for it eventually, there always was. Looking back upon the group, he saw that their had been many different reactions, but they all converged on one singular question.
That was the words that repeated in Skye's head as he registered that they had not known about a class change. How far off had he been placed within Hydaelyn's light? After all, even the First knew of such transformations as they surely would have dealt with Thancred's inevitable change to Gunbreaker. Thinking more on the question, he began to formalize a response to the growing query of his company.
"Well, it's essentially just a class change, nothing special. Before you ask, a class change is when a being comprised of a great quantity of aether can simply rearrange their skills toward a certain path. In this case, I changed from Dragoon, a class fit for fighting draconic enemies, to Gunbreaker, a class that specializes in the use of a gunblade to not only protect oneself, but also others. The weapon that when in normal use, the aetherically-charged bullets enhance cutting and striking power. The powder coalescences into a defensive barrier that-"
He looked up to see an arrangement of two amused faces, from the slightly amused look from the princess now known to him as Luna, to the very well hidden smile of Celestia. Turning his head to look at the other 'ponies' around the table, he soon noticed that quite a few of them had a look of being lost, except for the lavender one. She seemed to have eaten up every word he had said, and committed it to memory. A scholar no doubt, and her aether alone was quite high, almost to his level. To be honest, all of these smaller beings had higher aether counts than the others in the room, almost equal in power to the princesses, but still smaller than his. What was that inner light coming from them? It was nearly similar in nature to his.
It felt like light was gazing back at him, not threatening but more along the line of wary. It reminded him of the crystals of light when he had first acquired them. Except this "light" whatever it was, had it's attention directly on him. It wasn't hard to tell, but since his aether-sense was quite weak considering he couldn't see as well as Y'shtola. 'I wonder how long it's been since I've been gone, considering this is a completely different world. Is it the same as the Source? Y'sh... wait for me ok?
Skye soon decided to focus on his current situation instead of what he could do, instead of something that would be far from his reach at the moment. Tapping his foot on the ground he slowly began to speak.
"Hmm. Anyway, it seems like I've gotten off track, sorry. On another subject, may I be introduced to your... entourage?" Focusing on the group of ponies, he simply put a arm up in a gesturing pose, trying to get the attention on them. As soon as he did so however, some of them seemed to get uncomfortable, well one in particular. The yellow and pink pony caught his eye because of her soft demeanor; perhaps she was just very shy. It would not surprise him however, if she were a beast of a white mage, and would be the one to bark orders and be the aggressive healer. His eyes soon flowed to the next in line, going up the order that he had spotted them originally. As silence dawned over the table, it would have seemed that the lavender pony would be the first to speak.
"Um, hi! I'm Twilight Sparkle, Element of Magic and Princess Celestia's student. I study all things magic and unknown and-". She suddenly stopped, taking in large amounts of air before she seemed to calm down and begin again. "Nice to meet you Skye, I'm Twilight Sparkle, but you already knew that already cause I said that earlier anyway, I work as a librarian in Ponyville and sometimes save the world from villains like Discord!"
As Twilight began to talk more and more about her positions and what she did, Skye happened to hang back on the part earlier, 'Element of Magic? Is that some kind of title for proficiency of an ability?'. He noticed only briefly, but when those words were spoken that 'light' he had detected earlier spiked, if only for a moment, had glowed a bit brighter and seemed stronger. Perhaps it was this world's method of those that had the Echo? He soon shoved the thoughts back down to listen the final pony that had decided to speak. Taking note of the names to the ponies in the order of introduction: Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie 'An unusual name', Apple Jack, and at the behest of Rainbow, Fluttershy.
All in total they had unusual names, but it wasn't unlike some he had heard from in Eorzea, recalling some of the party members he had been paired with during certain dungeons. While Skye had not been listening too closely into the lives that these ponies wished to share, he found that the other princess, Luna, had not talked much since his entrance. He wasn't one to judge but perhaps she was mute or more soft-spoken than Fluttershy, but just so happened to have a hard exterior to pair with it. Most likely however, it was her distrust for him. Hero or not she had not been their to see his deeds, nor had he the ability to share these experiences with her at all.
Very soon had the sun ended up setting down over the edge of the horizon, the day had been spent ruminating his thoughts while exchanging greetings and tidbits of his life with his acquaintances, all the meanwhile he had not noticed that they had indeed noticed his lack of speaking, giving them ample opportunity to steer the conversation.
